Josh Allen Fantasy Upside Could Be Huge Thanks to Rushing Ability

Josh Allen did not throw the ball well as a rookie. His 6.5 yards per attempt were the second fewest among qualifying quarterbacks, he threw more interceptions (12) than touchdowns (10), and he completed only 52.8 percent of his passes.

Despite that, Allen averaged a respectable 17.3 fantasy points per game, an average that was held back by his only playing a partial game in his debut. Across his 11 starts he averaged 18.4 per game, which would have ranked 13th at the position.

The driving force behind this fantasy output was the big upside that mobile quarterbacks offer. Allen showed every bit of this upside by ripping off long runs the way we usually only see from top running backs.

His inefficient passing is always going to leave him with a low floor on a weekly basis, and we did see that manifest with single-digit fantasy scores in three of his 11 starts.

The Bills had a clear intention with how they used Allen though. They wanted to emphasize his arm strength and big-play ability, and they had him push the ball deep at a very high rate.

This doesn't help at all with his low floor, but it does suggest that his upside is no fluke. Deep passing like this is always going to lend itself to a lower completion percentage and higher variance, but the upside when it works can be incredibly high.

With the rushing ability to make up for a bad day throwing the football and a high-upside passing style, Allen's ceiling suggests that his average draft position (ADP) of only QB22 could be leaving him criminally underrated in 2019 fantasy football drafts.

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Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.