When looking at a player like Buffalo Bills star quarterback Josh Allen, he seems to be widely regarded as a top five player in the position as his dual-threat ability is one to marvel at. However, he still believes there is a lot of room to grow and improve upon to keep getting better heading in to his seventh season in the NFL.
While the first few years for Allen and Buffalo were bumpy, he would become the star player that has led him to four straight seasons throwing for over 4,000 yards. He also excelled in other categories like touchdown passes and completion percentage, but the 28-year old believes there are “inefficiencies” in every signal-caller as he could critique a throw that could be considered “perfect” according to Sal Maiorana of The Democrat and Chronicle.
“I think that there’s inefficiencies that every quarterback can find,” Allen said. “You show me the perfect throw, I’ll tell you something wrong with it probably.”
Allen using sports science to clean up mechanics with Bills
Also, Allen may have a point in wanting to clean up some aspects of his game as he has been prone to turnovers like how he threw 18 interceptions last season. What will lead him to further improvement, he will go back to the world of sports science and work with a company called Biometerek where their “mission statement” cites themselves using technology to “objectively measure the unique way your body moves.”
“We harness state-of-the-art bio-mechanical movement technology to objectively measure the unique way your body moves,” the company's mission statement reads via The Democrat and Chronicle. “We bring our mobile studio to you, to help optimize movement, avoid injury and track progress.”
How does this help Allen? Well, it uses 3D technology using a motion capture system where Allen or other quarterbacks that use it can see how they throw the ball and look to see where they can improve. The Bills star describes the system as a way to see what a player can “tighten up on” which seems to have been useful as he has been using it since 2020 which was the season he threw for over 4,500 yards, 37 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions, still statistically his best season.
“[It is] digitally mapping our throwing motions and just seeing what we can tighten up on and improve on and just having that in the back of our mind,” Allen said. “If you can deliver the ball as consistently as possible, it takes less to think about and then you can focus more on what the defense is presenting. So yeah, just trying to be as efficient as possible with my throwing motion.”
Allen talks discomfort from last season with the Bills
The process is different for each quarterback as the goal of the system is “for each quarterback, the key is finding the most efficient throwing motion for how their body moves and is constructed” as said by Chris Hess, owner of Biometerek. Hess is a former football player himself where he was a long snapper at Kansas State as he uses “high-speed cameras” that monitors the throwing motion and the delivery of the football.
This season more than ever, Allen will be utilizing the company's system to clean up his mechanics as he suffered from injuries that drastically set him back like in his shoulder. He would say that besides “trusting the data” given by the sports science company, he is also “trying to feel it above all else.”
“Going back to last year, obviously a couple little tweaks whether it was in the shoulder, the elbow, whatever it was, it changes how you throw it just a little bit because your body is shielding itself from pain,” Allen said. “So making sure that I’m just kind of getting back to how I’m supposed to throw and what my body is capable of doing. Just trusting what the data is saying right now and just trying to feel it above all else.”
“It just kind of changed how I was releasing and delivering the ball,” Allen continued about his injuries. “That’s what the video showed, that’s what I was feeling. You could kind of see I was getting pretty low and wide with the ball.”
Bills head into offseason activities where the work continues for Allen
However, the work continues as the Bills are in the midst of offseason activities as mandatory minicamp for the team went underway this week. Allen would say that the process will ramp up when the team has off next month then into training camp.
“Getting back to some drills and some work that we do before we get into practice stuff, just subtle reminders of where to hold the ball, how to turn and where to release it,” Allen said. “It’s something that we’ll be working on this next month that we have off and just trying to go into training camp, ramping up the right way.”
Allen touches on how his mechanics have changed overtime
As he has developed more into a top player in the NFL, so has his mechanics in throwing the ball compared to his time in high school or college with the University of Wyoming. Allen would say himself via The Democrat and Chronicle that it is “night and day in terms of the type of thrower I am,” though he admitted it is not a “complete overhaul.”
“Yeah, it’s completely … I mean it’s night and day in terms of the type of thrower I am and where I held the ball, where I released the ball,” Allen said. “Looks like a different guy. Sometimes it’ll pop up like when I click on YouTube, I’ll see a video and I’m like, ‘Who’s that throwing the ball?’ And it’s me. It’s kind of gross to look at it sometimes, but I don’t think it’s as gross anymore.”
“I wouldn’t call it a complete overhaul of my throwing motion, but definitely some things to work on and clean up,” Allen continued. “Anytime you go through something like that, sometimes it’s gonna feel really good, sometimes it’s not gonna feel really good. It’s just like changing your swing in golf, as long as you’re trusting it and you keep working on it, each and every day results will come.”
In any sense, Allen and the Bills are trying to forget the inconsistent season last go-around as besides starting slow, they would win the AFC East at 11-6, but lost to the Kansas City Chiefs once again in the playoffs. They will look to be much hungrier this upcoming fall as they start at home against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, Sept. 8.
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