Josh Allen spills beans on Bills’ viral “JR Smith” audible from Week 8
Josh Allen made news when he called a "JR Smith" audible that many thought was Taylor Swift instead. His call against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers made the Buffalo Bills quarterback go viral on social media.
Appearing on ESPN, Kevin Clark posed the question that was everyone's minds. He asked Josh Allen,
"So your audibles made waves on Thursday night and everybody thought you were saying Taylor Swift, you were actually saying J.R. Smith. Is that correct?"
Josh Allen confirmed that it was indeed JR Smith that he said. He added that it was in reference to a play that could be considered Cavalier. Of course, the basketball champion won an NBA title in Cleveland, so it made sense. The Bills quarterback said,
"I was saying JR Smith, yes. It's called a cavalier concept. It's a little like a high, low whatever. And I don't want to give away all the secrets, but every name has to do with the concept."
Josh Allen confirms it is not just JR Smith audibles that they use
Later in the game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Josh Allen also called out LeBron James' name as an audible.
As the Bills quarterback qualified, they use multiple basketball team names in three-level concepts. So, they associate a player who has featured on a particular team. As the Buffalo player continued,
"And like in our three-level concepts, it's basketball teams and we try to find players that have played on that basketball team to make it easy. So there's a lot of that going on and that's basically it."
Josh Allen further confirmed that it is not just basketball teams whose names they use. He could not recollect where some have come from but because they have become familiar with the verbiage, they have put that in. He clarified further,
"There's been some off-the-wall terms that we've used and I don't know where they've come from, but it's been put in. It's just like, all right, we gotta stick with it, roll with it. But everything typically has some sort of key word or something to help trigger the brain of, like, this is the play."
This is really not the different from what many teams do and great players like Peyton Manning had an extensive vocabulary when it came to play calls. At least it will calm down the insinuations that the Buffalo Bills quarterback was taking a shot at Travis Kelce's reported romantic partner in that play.