10’s Takes: Josh Allen passes Jim Kelly in total touchdowns
It’s all about the generational divide for this week’s edition of 10’s Takes.
In Sunday’s win, Bills quarterback Josh Allen was credited with two passing touchdowns, a rushing touchdown and a receiving touchdown. Putting his total touchdown count up to 27 on the year. Allen also surpassed Hall of Fame quarterback and Bills legend Jim Kelly for the most total touchdowns in franchise history, Kelly finished his career with 244 total scores, Allen now has 248.
Of Kelly’s 244 touchdowns, 237 were through the air. Allen has thrown 187 passing touchdowns in comparison. Kelly played in 160 career games, and Allen just wrapped up his 106th. We can talk about really any quarterbacking stat, yards(Kelly: 35,467, Allen: 25,394)–interceptions(Kelly: 173, Allen: 83)–even completion percentage (Kelly: 60.1, Allen: 63.4). Jim Kelly began his NFL career at age 26 and Allen, in year seven is just 28 and a different era is just that–a new era…Allen will probably wrap up his career with better stats for a myriad of reasons.
However, Jim Kelly leads in the most impressive and obvious stat, four-straight Super Bowl appearances, compared to Allen’s goose egg.
But this year, Allen might have his best shot at doing what Kelly never could do-win a Super Bowl.
With a 10-2 record, Buffalo sits in the race for the top seed in the AFC with the Kansas City Chiefs, a team he already beat earlier this season, holding half a game lead and a much more difficult strength of schedule remaining (Chiefs: .583, Bills: .419).
Regardless of what happens this year, Allen and Kelly will almost certainly always be head and shoulders above any other quarterback in Bill’s history, but winning the big one would put Allen in a stratosphere that no athlete in western New York has ever seen.
For decades, Jim Kelly was the standard when it came to throwing the football in western New York, but now, at least from a stats perspective, Josh Allen is right there with the Hall of Fame.