Josh Allen will have his chance this week at the Senior Bowl to show teams why he should be the first quarterback selected in the 2018 NFL Draft.
The Browns own the top pick in the draft and also select fourth overall. While some players might not want to play for a team that went winless in 2017, Allen is embracing the possibility.
"If I’m fortunate enough to become a Cleveland Brown, you can expect everything from me," Allen said Monday during an interview with the Bull and Fox show on Cleveland's 92.3 The Fan. "I want to be the guy that turns around the Cleveland Browns. The guy that does that is going to be immortalized in Cleveland forever."
Allen looks like an NFL quarterback at 6-5, 233 pounds, and has the athleticism and arm strength needed to play at the next level. He battled injuries in 2017, missing two games and threw for 1,812 yards with 16 touchdowns and six interceptions. He completed just 56.3 percent of his passes and had a 56-percent completion percentage in 2016, when he threw for 3,203 yards with 28 touchdowns and 15 picks.
"Stats are for losers and the one thing I’d like to point out, while at Wyoming, we won games and I definitely think that’s how quarterbacks are judged in the NFL," Allen said during Monday's radio interview.
He backed those comments up during his Senior Bowl introductory press conference in Mobile, Ala.
"I am way more accurate than my completion percentage shows," he said, adding that he's in Mobile to show he belongs.
"If I’m not the right fit for the Browns that’s fine by me," Allen said in Mobile. "I want to go as high as possible to whatever is best fit."
SIGN UP to watch the NFL Pro Bowl and the Super Bowl on DAZN
He is one of four quarterbacks on a stacked North team roster at the Senior Bowl. Joining Allen in Mobile are Heisman Trophy winner Baker Mayfield from Oklahoma, Washington State's Luke Falk and Nebraska's Tanner Lee. Allen and Mayfield are among contenders to be the top overall pick, as well as UCLA junior Josh Rosen and USC sophomore Sam Darnold. Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson, the 2016 Heisman winner, is another possible first-round pick.
"It’s going to be really fun," Allen said of the Senior Bowl. "I’m super excited to go out there and compete and throw to some of the top guys in the nation and at the same time prove myself and who I am."
Allen, who said he has a "gunslinger" mentality like former Packers quarterback Brett Favre, understands the criticism and admits he's "not the perfect prospect." The Browns used a second-round pick last year on former Notre Dame quarterback DeShone Kizer, who threw for 2,894 yards with 11 touchdowns and 22 interceptions in 15 starts. While the Browns retained head coach Hue Jackson, despite just one win over the last two seasons, they are not expected to stick with Kizer. Many believe they will select a quarterback with one of those top-four picks after they passed on Carson Wentz and Deshaun Watson the last two years.
"To think about that and to put yourself in that situation and in those shoes, you gotta love that as a quarterback and you gotta love that as a football player and competitor," Allen told Bull and Fox. "This is something that can really be set in stone forever, if you’re the guy that can help turn this Cleveland Browns team around. I know they’ve got the youngest team in the NFL, they’ve got the most cap space, the most high draft picks, brand new GM who has done a lot of good things in his past.
"I’m not saying if I want to be drafted by a certain team or not but I definitely think this is a situation in Cleveland where this is the time where a quarterback can step in and do his job without worrying or having to worry about the notion that this is the place where quarterbacks go to die because I definitely think there are some good things going on with the Browns organization."