Patriots coach Bill Belichick has nothing but respect for Josh Allen, the Bills quarterback Belichick’s defense will face on Monday Night Football.
“His improvement has just been tremendous from where it was three years ago,” Belichick said, via Boston.com. “Completion percentage, passer rating, decision making, production, it’s just gone…it’s risen at a really remarkable rate.”
Allen struggled in his first two NFL seasons but became an MVP candidate in his third year, and Belichick believes Allen is still playing at a high level in Year 4.
“It’s just remarkable how good he has become,” Belichick said. “Last year, this year’s built on that. What it was when he came into the league. But he’s just made tremendous improvement. Has a lot of command of the offense. They audible a lot. They change things. They obviously have a lot of confidence in him. He handles it well at the line. Rarely run a bad play or where they run into a bad look or a blitz or something like that. He doesn’t get fooled much by anything. It’s really impressive to watch how he’s developed there.”
Allen’s stats improved significantly in 2020 from where he was in the first two seasons of his career. This year Allen’s numbers aren’t quite as good (his completion percentage, yards per pass, yards per game and touchdown rate are all down, while his interception rate is up), but Belichick still views him as one of the toughest quarterbacks to coach against.