Josh Allen took his first snaps of the offseason with the starters on Tuesday. After minicamp practice, one of those starters offered a glowing review of the first-round pick.
"I have to be honest, he's pretty good," LeSean McCoy said, per the team transcript. "I'm not a big fan of rookies. The best rookie I've probably liked in my career has been Tre [White]. Tre's really good. A lot of guys as rookies, they're not like him. The quarterback is on that level: he's good, he's smart, [but] he has to learn of course. He's thrown some passes that probably shouldn't have been thrown, but other than that he has a strong arm, [he is] very intelligent. He's too smart. Sometimes, we have conversations, and I'm like, 'Easy, this is not like an exam. Just talk to me. You can say 'yo, what's up'".
"As a talent level, he's going to be good for a lot of years and I want to be a part of that when he takes over eventually. [We] took him early in the draft, so that's common sense. He's special, that's for sure."
McCoy also supplied positive comments about quarterbacksNathan Peterman and AJ McCarron, but his assessment of the big-armed Allen stood out and reiterated what we've heard from coaches and scouts throughout the spring.
McCoy noted that Allen still has a lot of growing to do, but he can see the foundation for the Bills' franchise quarterback.
"Well, it's still early. I don't want to make him a Jim Kelly already, but he's got to learn different things," the running back said. "He's a rookie. Quarterback is such an important role. He's like a coach on the field as far as making the right reads, being confident. He has so much he has to learn from his position to the wide receivers to the lineman, protections. He has a lot on his plate.
"Other than that, just talent wise and intelligence, he has it to be a starting quarterback and also a franchise quarterback. He's impressive, you've seen him. He's confident. One of the practices, he threw a pick, he came back, it was a two-minute drill, came down and scored. He does things like puts the ball in the right places, jump balls, back shoulders, all the things that you have to remind [and] emphasize to a player. He [already] kind of has it.
"I'm not sure anything about Wyoming, what they taught him there or the players he was around, but give him players at the NFL level, give him a player in the backfield like me, good matchups, it makes it a lot easier for him. You'll see, he's pretty good. You'll see in a couple of years or this year, next year. He'll have a good career."
Allen getting first-team reps this week sets the stage for the No. 7 overall pick to try to swipe the starting gig early this season. With more reviews like the one from McCoy, it could be difficult for Bills coaches to keep their rookie off the field.