Bills QB Josh Allen Says He Won't Be 'Captain Checkdown' This Season

While Josh Allen will try to limit mistakes in his third NFL season, the Buffalo Bills quarterback said he does not plan on stopping being aggressive in 2020. 

"I'm not going to be Captain Checkdown. I'm going to continue to play the game the way I love it," Allen said Thursday, per ESPN's Marcel Louis-Jacques.

According to Sam Monson of Pro Football Focus, Allen has the lowest checkdown rate of any quarterback over the last two seasons, having done so only 20 times in 880 pass attempts.

Last season, Allen's passes averaged 9.4 intended air yards, tied for the fourth-most among qualifying quarterbacks. He was also one of the league's most inaccurate signal-callers, completing 3.7 percentage points fewer of his passes than expected.

The Bills succeeded last season largely in spite of their offense. Allen struggled in the Bills' Wild Card Round loss to the Houston Texans and made one of the most bewildering laterals in NFL history late in the fourth quarter.

Allen's development in his third NFL season will be paramount to whether the Bills decide to move forward with him as their long-term starter. They paid a massive draft haul to acquire wideout Stefon Diggs from the Minnesota Vikings in an attempt to give Allen a top-flight receiver.

If he continues struggling as a passer, the Bills will have a difficult decision to make regarding his fifth-year option for 2022.