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After Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen threw two interceptions in the Bills' surprising 24-22 Monday Night Football loss to the Denver Broncos, many blamed Allen and his turnovers for causing the loss. Amid the tarnishing of the Bills quarterback, ESPN's Dan Orlovsky came to his defense.
“I propose a rule,” Orlovsky said. “If people are going to say that Josh Allen leads the NFL in interceptions, we also have to put it into the context that he leads the NFL in touchdowns as well … he's top 5 in QBR,” via ESPN First Take.
"If people are going to say that Josh Allen leads the NFL in interceptions, we also have to put it into the context that he leads the NFL in touchdowns as well."
Dan Orlovsky on Josh Allen's struggles this season.
(via @FirstTake)pic.twitter.com/DelPeOD6wQ
— NFL on ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsNFL) November 16, 2023
“Since Week 1, I count three interceptions where I go ‘dumb decision.' … This isn't a bad decision, it's an aggressive throw he missed by two inches … the two 3rd-and-20 bombs down the field, those aren't bad decisions, those are essentially punts and those are risk versus reward things.”
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Orlovsky went on to say that only three of Allen's interceptions this season after Week 1 were bad decisions, including his interceptions before the half versus the Broncos and Cincinnati Bengals and his interception against the Patriots. Allen has thrown 19 touchdowns to 11 interceptions this season, though three came in Week 1 versus the New York Jets.
While Allen of course bears some culpability, Orlovsky does make a point that context matters when looking at quarterback interceptions. For example, Allen's first interception versus the Broncos bounced off Gabriel Davis's hands.
In addition, this week many critics have pulled out the stat that Josh Allen leads the NFL in interceptions since 2018, since 2019, and every year since. However, that stat also lacks some context. For one, many veteran quarterbacks like Drew Brees, Ben Roethlisberger and Tom Brady retired in this time and there is an increase in quarterbacks younger than Allen starting. A quarterback drafted in 2021 obviously won't lead the NFL in interceptions since 2018.
Allen has also been incredibly durable during his career, and has the longest active quarterback starting streak. Since he's rarely injured, he's on the field more and thus has more opportunities to throw picks. This is once again not to excuse Allen of throwing all these interceptions, but point out that there are other factors that go into these statistics.
