NFL Draft 2018: Josh Allen compared to Patrick Mahomes for “elite arm talent”
By Matt Conner
Kansas City Chiefs fans are going to love the fact that their new starting quarterback is the go-to example for top-tier arm strength in the NFL.
Patrick Mahomes is now the new example, and it’s likely going to be a comparison we begin to hear year after year (after year) going forward.
Chris Simms, former NFL quarterback turned reporter/analyst for Bleacher Report, recently broke down his take on this year’s quarterback class for Peter King of Monday Morning Quarterback. Specifically he placed Wyoming’s Josh Allen at the very top, above Sam Darnold, Josh Rosen and others, and believes he deserves to be taken atop the draft. His argument began with the following:
"He’s got elite arm talent, a [Brett] Favre or [Pat] Mahomes arm. Elite athlete for his size, like Carson Wentz. People talk about his accuracy, but his pass-protection was poor, and he had the worst talent around him of any of these guys."
Mahomes has yet to get on the field for anything more than a single, meaningless regular season game (Week 17 against the Denver Broncos) and he’s already generating enough awareness for NFL personnel to know he’s got perhaps the single best live arm in the league.
This has to make Kansas City Chiefs fans quite happy knowing that the new face of the franchise is already starting to be referenced as the benchmark for arm strength and that he sits on the same shelf as Brett Favre.
It seems impossible to add to the excitement of Chiefs Kingdom to see what the team has in Mahomes, but it continues to pile on more and more as the offseason goes on. Whether it’s because someone new is singing his praises or because the Chiefs have signed yet another weapon to make life easier on Mahomes as he transitions into the starting role, the enthusiasm is quite real. Chris Simms believes it’s for a good reason because he is the model for “elite arm strength” in today’s NFL.