CSU’s Bobo touts ‘really high ceiling’ for physically gifted Josh Allen

It’s hard to miss Josh Allen. Physically, the Wyoming quarterback and NFL hopeful towered above his Senior Bowl peers at the position at 6-foot-4, 237 pounds

And his arm — like a howitzer attached to a torso.

From North practice, courtesy @ZebraTechnology – tracking players this week:
Fastest Throw = Josh Allen – 66.14 MPH
Longest Throw = Tanner Lee – 54.7 yards
Highest Rotations Per Minute = Luke Falk 721.6 RPM
Most Throws = Luke Falk 112 throws pic.twitter.com/Lo0ZjEBZYT

— Reese’s Senior Bowl (@seniorbowl) January 24, 2018

“Yeah, he’s got a cannon. Yeah, 100 percent,” fellow quarterback prospect Sam Darnold told Big Al and DMac on radio row at Super Bowl 52.

Darnold, who’s training with Allen leading up to the NFL draft, said he doesn’t know exactly how hard he throws, but the former Wyoming Cowboy “throws a little bit harder.”

Certainly, there’s little to poke holes through when arguing about Allen’s physical skill set, which Colorado State football coach Mike Bobo said was the top thing that stood out to him.

Bobo, who had the misfortune of losing to Allen and the Rams’s twice in consecutive years (including a come-from-behind effort last season), said the Cowboys quarterback ranks tops in college football in terms of his physical skills.

“I don’t think anybody in the college game has the physical skill set that he has — the arm strength, the size, he does have athletic ability, his ability to escape in the pocket,” Bobo told “Schlereth and Evans” on Thursday.

But, it’s Allen’s accuracy — or inaccuracy — that has caused concern about his prospects in the NFL.

During his two years as the Cowboys starting quarterback, Allen completed 56.2 percent of his 649 passes. His slightly better 56.3 completion percentage in 2017 was good enough for 77th in the college football.

By comparison, Darnold ranked 27th, Josh Rosen 29th, and Baker Mayfield No. 1.

Bobo theorized that Allen dipped statistically in 2017 because he lost four All-Conference offensive pieces from his redshirt sophomore season to the NFL and Wyoming’s conservative play-calling tendencies.

“They were going to be conservative on offense and not turn the ball over, and then they were going to take shots with him down the field,” Bobo said. “When you throw a lot of shots and a lot of vertical balls, your percentage is usually a little bit lower than if you were in a spread just throwing a bunch of bubbles and screens all the time.

“The inaccuracy issue has a lot to do with the style of play that they decided to play.”

In 2017, Allen threw a pass 20-yards for farther 43 times in 11 games, or 15.9 percent of the time — 47th in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

And on passes of 10-yards or more, Allen was 31st in the FBS in terms of completion percentage (51.3 percent).

In the end, the inaccuracy issue is something Bobo said he thinks Allen can overcome in his NFL career.

“No matter the circumstance, no matter the situation, no matter how productive or not productive you are, you want a guy who’s always out there playing and competing,” Bobo said. “I think he’s a competitor, and I think he has a really, really high ceiling. I think he’s very, very talented.”

Follow digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @johnnyhart7.