How Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen averted draft day disaster

ARLINGTON, Texas – The tale of these two quarterbacks became a cringing Hail Mary drill. Josh Allen fought to overcome his freshly released high school racist tweets from six years ago. Lamar Jackson sat in the draft aspirants’ room here and waited, waited, waited …

For these two quarterbacks, their first-round draft dreams were becoming draft debacles. Allen digging out of a hole. Jackson combating doubt.

“You don’t know what to do but admit your mistake, stand up for yourself and let people know the man you are today,” Allen said in quiet moment while shuffling to media stations here Thursday night.

Jackson thought he was first-round toast.

“When there is only one pick left and that team (the Philadelphia Eagles) just had a Super Bowl winning season with a franchise quarterback and a Super Bowl MVP quarterback, honestly, I thought it was over and on to the next day,” Jackson told me. “I thought I was going to have to go buy a new suit for Friday.”

Parachutes, however, arrived for both.

The sturdiest kind.

Both the Buffalo Bills and the Baltimore Ravens dove into their draft capital. Both teams invested grand assets for these quarterbacks.

Allen marches to Buffalo relieved that at least one NFL team believed in his character. Jackson strides to Baltimore exhaling after at least one NFL team believed in his talent.

For awhile, it was a wicked look for both here at the NFL Draft at AT&T Stadium.

Racist tweets from when Allen was just 15 years old surfaced hours before the draft. He said a couple of NFL teams called to inquire. Both spoke to his agent.

He spoke directly to only one team – Buffalo.

That discussion happened at noon on Thursday.

”My agent handled the other teams, but I wanted to talk directly to the Bills,” Allen said. “I had a good feeling about them. They indicated that they were interested in drafting me, that they might have to move up to do it, but had to talk directly to me first. So, I just tried to assure them.

”It happened so long ago. It is not the man I am today. I am not the same person from six years ago at age 15. But I’ve got to take it on the chin. I have to own up to my mistake. It was very stressful. I’m going to earn respect (in Buffalo) every day.”

He used the N-word in some of those tweets.

The African-American players in Buffalo, especially, will want to know about that.

Allen started with his first new teammate right here on draft night, with a chat with linebacker Tremaine Edwards, who was also drafted by the Bills.

”A lot of guys don’t say the right things at 15 years old,” said Edmunds, who is African-American. “I think he has to walk through the door in Buffalo, into the locker room and just be straight up about it. If he does that, I think it will take care of itself.”

Bills ownership, management and coaches must agree.

They moved from No. 12 in the first round to No. 7 to select Allen. They gave their No. 12 pick and their two second-round picks (53 and 56 overall) to Tampa Bay to get to No. 7. Buffalo also received Tamp Bay’s seventh-round pick (225). Allen was the third of five quarterbacks selected in the first round.

His size and his powerful arm fit Buffalo cold-weather games.

But he has relationships to build in Buffalo.

”I’ll do it by being myself,” Allen said. “I know who I am. I’ve got support.”

It could all go left and it could all go right, but Lamar Jackson said he’d bet on Allen.

”It’s in the past,” Jackson said. “Guys grow.”

Jackson was confident he had grown enough on NFL teams that he would be a first-round pick. The doubters worried about whether his passing accuracy would be sufficient in the NFL. They worried if he would run first and absorb too many hits.

Some even suggested he should move to receiver or running back.

But others applauded his dynamic skills and said there was a place for him at quarterback in the NFL. The problem with first-round picks is there are only 32.

And after 31 selections, Jackson was still waiting.

It was striking to watch him applaud each of the 31 selections before him. It was remarkable to see him laughing and making the most of the moments with his family during his excruciating wait.

”I was happy for them,” he said of his peers.

He kept smiling.

And then the Ravens flew in and jumped up 20 spots to select Jackson at No. 32 in the first round, the final pick. The Ravens gave Philadelphia a bounty: Its second-round pick (52 overall), its fourth-round pick (125) and its 2019 second-round pick. (Baltimore also received Philadelphia’s fourth-round selection (132) in this current draft)

Deliverance.

“It was one of the coolest visits I had,” Jackson said of his pre-draft time with the Ravens. “Mr. Ozzie (Newsome, the Ravens general manager) said there was something about me that he liked. I told him if he got me he would like me a lot more.”

Jackson said his message to the Ravens on his first day of work would be: “You’ve got something to work with. You’ve got what you were looking for.”

Of the five first-round quarterbacks drafted, Baker Mayfield arrives in Cleveland with spunk required to gut the remnants of an 0-16 season. Sam Darnold lands with the Jets providing bright hope for a quarterback-hungry franchise. Josh Rosen hops to Arizona livid he was only the fourth quarterback selected and promising to make teams pay.

It was a different draft-day deal for Allen and Jackson.

Both needed an NFL draft Hail Mary before throwing their first NFL pass.

They got it. They sounded a little more appreciative than most about their fortune. They displayed ringing clarity and purpose on what to do with it.

Let's block ads! (Why?)