The Bills Josh Allen has been winning over his teammates and fans with his play on the field in his first several seasons.
Allen’s position play has been garnering the respect and attention of those outside the Bills organization and fan base as well.
Count ESPN analyst Sam Acho among them. The former NFL linebacker and now ESPN analyst shared who his top-five quarterbacks in the NFL right now are while appearing on “First Take” this past week.
.@HDouglas83 cannot believe @TheSamAcho‘s top 5 NFL QBs list
pic.twitter.com/Nh85gSGk4N
— First Take (@FirstTake) February 17, 2022
He had Josh Allen at the top of his list, with Justin Herbert, Matthew Stafford, Aaron Rodgers, and Joe Burrow following him.
“So, when I go to my top five quarterbacks right now, I’m going based on who do I want to lead my team based off of what we’ve seen from them,” Acho said. “And so, for me, number one, I’m going with Josh Allen. You saw what he did in the playoffs. Nine touchdowns, zero interceptions, and oh, by the way, he ran for 134 yards. That’s why he’s my number one. I’m talking about based off the last even few years, he’s gotten better every single year.”
I recently met the football-pro-turned-analyst and published author at the Super Bowl Breakfast in Los Angeles. And it’s important to point out that, while the omission of Patrick Mahomes from his top five QB list caused some knee-jerk Twitter backlash, Acho carries notable IQ distinctions in his background that should raise some interest and lend further credence to his analysis.
The former LB was featured in a 2016 AOL article that highlighted “Six NFL Players with Genius IQs” and was featured alongside another former Bill Ryan Fitzpatrick (Acho spent a month with Buffalo in August of 2019.)
He also was named the 2012 Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar by Diverse: Issues In Higher Education and was named as one of the 10 smartest players in the NFL by Bleacher Report.
So he may be on to something with his list!