Joshua Patrick Allen (born May 21, 1996) is an American professional football quarterback for the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL). He is regarded as one of the greatest dual-threat quarterbacks of all time and is the NFL leader in quarterback rushing touchdowns. A lightly recruited high school prospect, Allen began his college football career with the Reedley Tigers before transferring to the Wyoming Cowboys. He was selected seventh overall by the Bills in the 2018 NFL draft.
Allen had a breakout season in 2020 when he led the Bills to their first division title and playoff victory since 1995 en route to an AFC Championship Game appearance. As the team's starting quarterback, he has led Buffalo to a total of seven playoff appearances, five consecutive division titles, and two conference championship game berths. He was named NFL Most Valuable Player in 2024 and has also received four Pro Bowl and two second-team All-Pro selections.
Early life Allen grew up on a cotton farm near Firebaugh, California, a small town about west of Fresno. His family has lived in the Firebaugh area since his great-grandfather Arvid Allen, a Swedish immigrant, settled there during the Great Depression. 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.
Growing up as a Fresno State fan who regularly attended both games and football camps, Allen tried to draw the interest of the program's coaching staff; his father tried to sell the Bulldogs' head coach at the time, Tim DeRuyter, on him, but DeRuyter chose not to offer a scholarship. DeRuyter was not alone in this assessment; Allen received no scholarship offers from any NCAA Division I program—whether in the top-level FBS or second-tier FCS. San Diego State made him an offer to walk on, but Allen turned it down because Aztecs coach Rocky Long could not guarantee any playing time. In a 2017 story on Allen, ESPN journalist Mark Schlabach speculated on why Allen got so little interest out of high school:
Yahoo Sports writer Jeff Eisenberg added in another 2017 story:
Through high school, Allen regularly worked on the family farm and at the restaurant his mother operated in Firebaugh. Allen was a member of the National FFA Organization through his local chapter at Firebaugh High School. He received 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.
College career Reedley College Allen attended Reedley College, a junior college where one of the football assistant coaches at the time was married to Allen's cousin.
In his only season with Reedley College, Allen led an offense that averaged 452.2 yards of total offense per game to rank No. 9 among all California junior-college teams in total offense. Reedley averaged 285.3 passing yards per game to rank No. 7 among all California junior colleges, scored 39.4 points per game to rank No. 10 in the state, and averaged 166.9 yards rushing to rank 26th. Individually, Allen's 26 touchdown passes tied him for No. 7 among all California junior-college quarterbacks in 2014. He also ranked 20th among California JUCO quarterbacks in passing yards as a freshman, and ranked 42nd in the state in rushing, averaging 66.0 yards per game.
Allen did not play in the team's first three games in 2014, but in the next game he ran for four touchdowns after coming off the bench, and soon became the team's starter, 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 (1.96 m, 95 kg), and his coaches at Reedley thought that he would soon receive many FBS scholarship offers. This proved incorrect; near the end of the season, Allen sent a mass email to every head coach, offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, and quarterback coach in the FBS, but received interest from only a small number of schools. Only Eastern Michigan and Wyoming offered him a scholarship, and Eastern Michigan withdrew its offer when Allen visited Wyoming late in the 2014–15 junior-college signing period.
Wyoming's coaches initially visited Reedley to scout another potential transfer, but former Fresno State assistant Dave Brown, who had since become part of the inaugural staff of new Wyoming Cowboys head coach Craig Bohl, was familiar with Allen, and urged offensive coordinator Brent Vigen to recruit him. While researching Allen, Vigen noticed a large number of parallels between Allen and a quarterback whom he had recruited in 2010 while serving in the same role at North Dakota State—Carson Wentz, who went on to become a starting quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles. Wentz was similar in size to Allen, and also shared Allen's small-town, multi-sport, and late-blooming background.
Bohl soon warmed to Allen as a prospect, especially after their initial quarterback prospect committed to Syracuse. Bohl was the only FBS head coach to visit the family farm, and while there, he told Allen's father, "We went all around the country and there's only one quarterback we want and that's your son. He's going to be the face of our program." Despite receiving an offer from Wyoming, Allen made one final pitch to Fresno State's staff, sending a pointed email to an assistant referencing the fact that the team had received a commitment from a quarterback prospect who was both shorter and lighter than Allen when Fresno State turned him down in high school. After being rebuffed, he committed to Wyoming, enrolling there prior to the 2015 season.
Wyoming
In his first year at Wyoming, he played in two games and made one start. In his first career start he attempted only four passes before suffering a broken collarbone which ended his season; because the injury occurred early in the season, he qualified for a medical redshirt. Allen returned from the injury in 2016 and was Wyoming's starter.
After throwing for over 3,200 yards and 28 touchdowns in 2016, he contemplated declaring for the 2017 NFL draft, initially telling his family, girlfriend, and a few friends that he would turn pro. Shortly before the deadline to declare for the draft, Vigen called Allen's father to explain why he should stay at Wyoming an extra year; according to Eisenberg, "When Joel Allen got off the phone and entered his son's room, he found his son riddled with anxiety about his decision." Before the draft declaration deadline, Bohl told Allen that staying in school one more year would improve his long-term NFL prospects, and Allen also sought advice from Wentz, who told him that in the NFL he would have many league veterans depending on him to "win games and help secure their jobs". Allen ultimately remained at Wyoming. He threw for 1,812 yards, 16 touchdowns, and six interceptions in 2017. He graduated with a degree in social science in 2017.
Allen would later be announced as a 2025 inductee into the University of Wyoming Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame for his play as Wyoming's quarterback. In September 2025, it was announced that Wyoming would retire Allen's number 17 jersey, becoming the first player to have their jersey number retired in the program's history. The ceremony occurred on November 22, 2025.
Professional career Pre-draft Shortly after the completion of the 2017 NFL Draft, ESPN reporter Adam Schefter said about Allen's NFL prospects, "There was one personnel director who told me this week that you can put in the books, Josh Allen will be the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft next year." In December 2017, after leading the 8–5 Cowboys to a 37–14 win over Central Michigan in the 2017 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, Allen announced he would be entering the 2018 NFL draft. In his first mock draft in January 2018, ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. predicted that the Cleveland Browns would select Allen over other top quarterbacks in the 2018 draft, such as Josh Rosen, Sam Darnold, Baker Mayfield, and Lamar Jackson. Allen was considered a raw prospect with great physical attributes. Dan Graziano of ESPN.com stated Allen was the "ultimate boom-or-bust NFL draft prospect".
On the day of the draft, old Twitter posts of his in which Allen used racial and homophobic slurs when he was in high school were brought up. He apologized, stating that he was "young and dumb" for making them.
2018 season
The Buffalo Bills drafted Allen as the seventh overall pick in the 2018 NFL draft, trading up from 12th overall with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to make the selection. On July 25, he signed a four-year, fully guaranteed $21 million contract with the Bills. Allen competed for the starting quarterback position with A. J. McCarron and Nathan Peterman through the offseason and training camp. Despite a quality preseason, Allen started the season as the backup to Peterman after McCarron was traded to the Oakland Raiders.
On September 9, 2018, Allen made his first regular season appearance against the Baltimore Ravens after Peterman was benched after posting a 0.0 passer rating. Allen finished with 74 passing yards and 26 rushing yards as the Bills lost 47–3. On September 12, the Bills announced that Allen would start the following week against the Los Angeles Chargers. Allen finished with 245 passing yards, his first NFL passing touchdown, which went to Kelvin Benjamin, and two interceptions as the Bills lost 20–31. He also rushed for 32 yards. Allen's 57-yard completion to Zay Jones, which traveled 64 yards, tied for the second longest air distance ever recorded by NFL Next Gen Stats for a completed pass.
In Week 3, against the Minnesota Vikings, Allen led the Bills to their first victory of the season with a dominant first-half performance. Allen passed for 196 yards and a touchdown, adding 39 yards on the ground with two rushing touchdowns in a 27–6 victory. In particular, he hurdled over Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr on one of his scrambles to pick up a first down, a play that went viral on social media. In Week 5, against the Tennessee Titans, Allen completed 10 of 19 passes for 82 passing yards and an interception in the 13–12 win, adding another rushing touchdown. In Week 6, in a 20–13 loss to the Houston Texans, Allen suffered an elbow injury and did not return. He finished the game completing 10 of 17 passes for 84 passing yards and 20 rushing yards. He was expected to miss at least two games with the injury.
Allen returned after missing four games, getting the start against the Jacksonville Jaguars, which was noteworthy as Jaguars cornerback Jalen Ramsey had called Allen "trash" prior to the season. In a back-and-forth game that saw the Bills win 24–21 over the Jaguars, Allen completed 8 of 19 passes for 160 yards and a touchdown, adding 99 yards on the ground and a rushing touchdown on 13 rushes. The 99 rushing yards broke the Bills franchise record for rushing yards in a game by a quarterback, previously held by Tyrod Taylor. Despite a 21–17 loss to the Miami Dolphins the following week, Allen threw for 235 yards and two touchdowns and added 135 yards on the ground (averaging 15.0 yards per pass attempt).