Ravens Were High On Josh Allen In 2018
The Ravens and Bills will meet in the Divisional round of the playoffs this weekend. Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson will square off in what hopes to be an action packed game.
The Bills had the 21st and 22nd overall picks in the 2018 NFL Draft. Baltimore had the 16th pick. After a flurry of trades, Buffalo ended up with Allen while Baltimore snagged Jackson at the back end of the first round.
Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said Baltimore was high on Josh Allen:
“I watched him a lot, actually,” Harbaugh said, via PennLive.com. “He’s a guy that most of us here really, really liked. Just the arm talent and the ability to — the athleticism and the strength. He’s just a big strong guy.”
There are two ways to look at this.
1: Harbaugh is telling the truth and the Ravens actually liked the former Wyoming quarterback.
2: Baltimore always wanted Lamar and just won’t say anything bad about Allen to give the Bills bulletin board material.
I’ll go with option number two. Baltimore picked ahead of Buffalo in that draft. If they wanted Allen, they would have moved up in the draft just like they did with Joe Flacco. In fact, Baltimore’s pick was handed to Buffalo and allowed them to take Tremaine Edmunds in that same draft.
Buffalo got the upper hand in the 2018 NFL Draft over Baltimore. Allen not only is the better quarterback, but the Ravens picked Hayden Hurst in the first round as well while handing a stud linebacker in Edmunds over to the Bills.
It’s going to be interesting to monitor the careers of Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson over the next few years. I’m not sure there’s a rational human that would take Lamar over Allen but that’s another 1,000 words and a story for another day. The only thing the Ravens deserve credit for is not putting their foot in their mouth like another AFC North team (*cough… Steelers).
