Bills' GM Brandon Beane says Josh Allen explained controversial tweets on draft-day call
The Bills traded up to get the seventh-overall pick and take Allen
There were a lot of questions about Josh Allen's accuracy coming into this year's draft, but on the week of the draft some other issues came to light. Stop me if you've heard this one before. Racially insensitive and inappropriate tweets posted years ago by Allen started to surface, and so concerns cropped up about his character. Come draft day, however, the Bills traded two second-round picks to get the Buccaneers' No. 7 pick and draft Allen, but it didn't come without doing some homework.
According to Bills GM Brandon Beane, the Bills called Allen to talk about the tweets on draft day. According to Syracuse.com's Matthew Fairburn, Allen took ownership of the tweets, despite embarrassment about sending them.
Brandon Beane said he and the Bills printed out all of Josh Allen's questionable tweets and asked him to explain each one when they called him on draft day. Allen was very embarrassed but took ownership and explained each one.
— Matthew Fairburn (@MatthewFairburn) April 30, 2018
The Bills must have liked what they saw out of Allen at Wyoming. Allen was taken ahead of Josh Rosen and, of course, Lamar Jackson, who fell to 32nd overall, where he was selected by the Ravens. Rosen was taken 10th by the Cardinals. Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold were both taken ahead of Allen at first and third, by the Browns and Jets.
Scouring a player's Twitter for questionable tweets may seem like a lot, but this is what scouting departments are for: Making sure a player won't be a liability to his team. Presumably, Allen taking ownership of those tweets went a long way, but let's be honest, his explanation for a lot of those tweets was probably, "I was young, stupid, and Twitter wasn't so big in 2012."
Allen narrowly missed becoming a cautionary tale for incoming prospects, and his tale is one as old as time: "Never tweet." If you do have to tweet, make sure you go the Carson Wentz route and tape yourself being a paper toss champion. Because if you do tweet something inappropriate, it's all but guaranteed it will be found.
















