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NFL Draft: Mel Kiper Says ‘Stats Are For Losers’
Why Mel Kiper is wrong
Contact/Follow @JeremyMauss & @MWCwire
Josh Allen is good but is he worthy of the No. 1 overall pick?
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Before the meat of the article begins this is more of ESPN’s Mel Kiper making a case on why Josh Allen is the top pick in his recent mock draft and not as much on Allen’s ability.
Kiper talked about his first mock draft and there were some doozy out there regarding the former Wyoming quarterback.
https://twitter.com/MatthewFairburn/status/954098187161174016
The funniest thing about this quote is that it is usually the former athlete who says stats are meaningless. Yes, stats do not tell the whole story for Allen and other athletes but to ignore them is not a good idea either.
I have mentioned Allen’s stats for a while and his career 56 percent completion percentage and some point to his surrounding cast, as does Kiper. Countering that is that Allen had wide receiver Tanner Gentry (with the Bears), the best running back ever in Laramie in Brian Hill (5th round draft pick and currently on the Bengals) and center Chase Roullier who was in the rotation with the Washington Redskins this year.
There was plenty of talent in 2016 and Allen completed just 56 percent of his passes and with less talent in 2017 — yes, there were a lot of drops — was 56.3 percent.
As for being a winner he went 15-9 in games he started (he left the Air Force game at half which was a win) in two years and completed 59.3 percent of his passes, 33 touchdowns and four picks in wins. In losing efforts that dipped to 51.8 completion rate, 11 touchdowns and 17 interceptions. That is almost two picks per games in losses. As for games against Power Five opponents he had just one touchdown and eight picks in three tries against Oregon, Nebraska and Iowa.
There are plenty of good arguments to say Allen will be a very good pro and a first-round pick because when he makes his throws and is not going off script he looks the part of a very, very good quarterback.
However, for Kiper to say stats don’t matter and he just wins is not really all that accurate and is a way for him to shoehorn his ideas to justify putting him at No. 1 in his latest mock draft. Stats play a part and should not be diminished or thrown to away to the side like they mean zip.
ESPN’s Bomani Jones sums up Allen perfectly, in my opinion.
https://twitter.com/bomani_jones/status/954103227418599427