Josh Allen (quarterback)

Joshua Patrick Allen is an American football quarterback for the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League. Allen grew up on a 3,000-acre cotton farm near Firebaugh, California. He played one year of junior college football at Reedley College before transferring to the University of Wyoming. He was drafted by the Bills seventh overall in the 2018 NFL Draft, becoming the highest drafted NFL player from Wyoming.

About Josh Allen (quarterback) in brief

Summary Josh Allen (quarterback)Joshua Patrick Allen is an American football quarterback for the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League. Allen grew up on a 3,000-acre cotton farm near Firebaugh, California, a small town about 40 miles west of Fresno, California. He played one year of junior college football at Reedley College before transferring to the University of Wyoming, where he led the Cowboys to a Mountain West Conference division title and two bowl games. He was drafted by the Bills seventh overall in the 2018 NFL Draft, becoming the highest drafted NFL player from Wyoming. Allen started his professional career as Buffalo’s backup quarterback, but was quickly thrust into the starting position after a poor performance by Nathan Peterman. In his second year as a starter, Allen led the Bills to a 10-win season and their second playoff appearance since 1999. The farm where he was raised was established in 1975 by his paternal grandfather, who was also a longtime member of the local school board and namesake of the gymnasium of Firebaugh High School, from which Allen graduated in 2014. The farm was also the site of numerous awards for his agricultural work and knowledge including a rank in the top four in the nation in diversified crop production of cantaloupe, cotton, and wheat in 2014, according to the National FFA Organization. He also regularly worked on the family farm and at the restaurant his mother operated in Firebaugh. He is married to the wife of one of the football assistant coaches at the time was married to Allen’s cousin.

The couple have a son, Josh Jr., who is a junior college quarterback who played for Reedley in 2013 and 2014. He has a daughter, Katelyn, who is the head cheerleader at Wyoming and is a senior at Wyoming. The Allens spurned overtures from more prominent Central Valley programs after Allen’s breakout junior season and kept him at firebaugh, living by the family mantra that “you bloom where you’re planted.’’ Allen was the leading scorer on his basketball team and also pitched on the baseball team, reaching 90 mph with his fastball. In a 2017 story on Allen, ESPN journalist Mark Schlabach speculated on why Allen got so little interest out of high school: At the time, Josh was about 6-foot-3 and 180 pounds. He hadn’t attended the elite quarterback camps and wasn’t a widely known prospect. San Diego State made him an offer to walk on, but Allen turned it down because Aztecs coach Rocky Long couldn’t guarantee any playing time. Allen did not play in the team’s first three games in the 2014, but in the next game he ran for four touchdowns after coming off the bench, throwing for 25 touchdowns with only 4 interceptions for the rest of the season. By then he had grown to 6’5 and 210 pounds, and by the end of the 2014 season he was 6’6 and 210lbs. Only Eastern Michigan and Eastern Michigan withdrew its scholarship offer to Allen in late 2014.