Five quarterbacks from 2018 NFL draft 1st-round: The rise of Josh Allen

 

Five quarterbacks were taken in the first-round of the 2018 NFL draft. This is the continuing series following their careers, now through four games of their third season.

The ascension of Josh Allen into the top tier of NFL quarterbacks continues. 
In 2020, he is putting up the numbers and the wins to prove it.
Allen and the Buffalo Bills are off to the races, putting up a perfect 4-0 record. They are winning behind an array of weapons and the arm of Allen, with a little bit of close-game magic to boot.
Allen has thrown for 1,326 yards through the season's first four games, with an impressive 12 touchdown passes and only one interception. More importantly, Allen has taken his accuracy to a whole new level, something that has haunted Allen in the first two seasons of his career. 
Only once has Allen dropped below the 70 percent mark en route to a 70.9 percent completion percentage, good for ninth in the league.
His passing yards rank him second, behind Dak Prescott (1,690), and his QBR rating of 87.1 places him third, behind Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes. 
Allen started things off smoothly, passing for 300 or more yards for the first time in his career. How did he follow up his 312-yard performance in week 1 against the Jets? Simply by throwing for a career-high 415 the next week in a victory over the Miami Dolphins. He added a third 300-yard+ game against the Los Angeles Rams in week 3. 
After carrying the ball 14 times in week 1, Allen has totaled only 11 carries since. In the first two seasons, Allen's legs did much of the talking for the young quarterback. In season three, he's still using his legs, except so far it's been to extend plays within the pocket. In doing so, he's saving some wear-and-tear on his body and for the most part, making something positive happen.
Sometimes, however, he does find himself doing a little too much as was the case against the Rams. His only interception of the season occurred in this game. This, and a fumble, helped the Rams claw back from a 28-3 deficit to take a 32-28 lead. Of course, Allen also led the Bills on the comeback trail, throwing the winning touchdown with 15 seconds remaining.
Allen has also been sacked nine times and has lost three fumbles.
Still, things have gone swimmingly through four weeks for Allen and the Bills. If he continues down this path, he will hold the spot in 2020 among the five quarterbacks taken in the first-round of the 2018 NFL draft.
Allen's next five games should give a true barometer of where he and the Bills stand in 2020.
Next 5 weeks: @TEN (10/11), vs KC (10/15), @NYJ (10/25), vs NE (11/1), vs SEA (11/8)Lamar JacksonThe reining MVP isn't putting up quite the same numbers as he was in 2019, but Lamar Jackson still has the Baltimore Ravens sitting pretty at 3-1.
If only he could figure out how to defeat those pesky Kansas City Chiefs. 
Jackson has only six losses, including the playoffs, in his young career as a starting quarterback. And three of those have come at the hands of the Chiefs, who defeated the Ravens 34-20 in week three.
The Ravens are still putting up 30.5 points per game, but Jackson's numbers have fallen back to earth here in the early going of 2020. He's thrown for a little more than half the yards Allen has thrown for, with 769. He threw for only 97 against against the Chiefs and followed that up with 193 in a victory over the Washington football team. 
Jackson has seven touchdown passes against only one interception while completing 68.4 percent of his passes. He missed on only 11 of his passes in the season's first two weeks but had 20 in the next two games. 
The passing yards are down but Jackson is certainly still getting production out of his running game. He leads the Raven with 236 yards on the ground and is averaging six yards per carry. Jackson also got his first rushing touchdown last week, a 50-yard scamper.

J.K. waved goodbye to Lamar.