National Football League

Austin Allen Getting NFL Looks

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

foxsports

Who would have ever guessed that Razorback quarterback, Austin Allen, would be the best quarterback in the SEC according to NFL analysts?

What if I told you before the 2016 season, the quarterback with the highest NFL grade in the SEC heading into week 5, would be at Arkansas? Now, what if I said it was the first year for that quarterback to start? Would you have believed me? Me either.

According to Pro Football Focus, who rates NFL and College players, Austin Allen ranks as the 6th best quarterback in college and 1st in the SEC. The next and only other SEC quarterback on the list, Chad Kelly, comes in at number nine.

So what are the draft analysts seeing that Arkansas fans aren’t? Firstly, I’m sure if you asked Hog fans what his breakout performance was, they’d say TCU. Nope. It was the first loss of the season against A&M that NFL scouts say was his breakout performance. They aren’t going by his completions or touchdowns. They’re looking at his character and what they see is a tough kid that handles adversity very well.

In the A&M game, Allen went 28 of 40 on aimed passes for a total of 372 yards. He did very well on pass attempts of ten or more yards and on pressured dropbacks. We may all be complaining about how bad the offensive line is, which they are very un-good, however, Allen is thriving under the pressure.

Austin has been under pressure 40 percent of his dropbacks which is the second-highest rating in the country. So how do we know he is handling the pressure better than some delusional fans are yelling about? 63.3 percent of his passing yards have come in the air, which is the 5th highest rate in the country. This means over half of his passing yard stats are not after the catch runs. Conclusion. Austin Allen is a playmaker.