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Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills saw their last chance at a sixth straight AFC East title slip away last Sunday as they fell 13-12 to the Philadelphia Eagles just a few hours after the division-leading New England Patriots crushed the hapless New York Jets 42-10.
But the game and the division may not have been the biggest losses suffered by the Bills. Reigning MVP quarterback Josh Allen played the Eagles game on an injured foot, an ailment he first suffered in the previous week’s victory over the Cleveland Browns.
Allen failed to throw a touchdown pass for only the fourth time all season and compiled a mediocre rating of 88.0 against Philadelphia. But asked later how much effect the injured foot had on his performance, Allen instead said the answer was “zero.”
It was clearly more than that, and though the Bills have not yet announced the specific nature of the injury to Allen’s foot, the 29-year-old was held out of his second straight practice on Thursday as the Bills prepared for their Week 18 season finale, hosting the same Jets who were steamrolled by New England last week.
Insider Delivers News After Practice
Allen has not missed a start since Week 10 of his rookie season in 2018. But with the playoffs coming up, that streak could come to an end on Sunday, according to longtime ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter.
“For a second straight day, Bills QB Josh Allen did not practice today due to his foot injury and it is now setting up for him to rest during Buffalo’s regular-season finale against the Jets,” Schefter reported on Thursday.
If Allen rests, backup Mitch Trubisky would presumably get the start against the Jets, who have already named undrafted free agent rookie Brady Cook, who started the season on the Jets practice squad, their starter for the fifth week in a row.
Sadly, Cook has not exactly been a Cinderella story, throwing seven interceptions against just one touchdown in his first four starts, all Jets defeats.
Allen Could Make Cameo Appearance
Of course, Schefter did not say for sure that Allen will not start the game, only that he will “rest” on Sunday. The Bills faced a similar situation in the 2024 season finale against the Patriots, who at that time had won only three of their 16 games.
Simply to keep his streak of starts alive, Allen took the first snap of the game before giving way to Trubisky and eventually third-string signal caller Mike White.
A similar situation could transpire on Sunday, which will also be the final game at the old Highmark Stadium before the Bills move into a new stadium, also to be named Highmark, constructed adjacent to the current version in Orchard Park, New York.
Bills Prioritizing Allen’s Health
Speaking after Thursday’s practice, Bills head coach Sean McDermott appeared to say that the occasion of the old Highmark’s final game would not affect his decision on whether to play Allen against the Jets.
“It all starts with, number one, is his health,” McDermott said, as quoted by SI.com. “I could tell you that he’s in a better spot … early this week than he was last week. So that’s all I can tell you right now, and we’ll just take a ‘we’ll see’ approach as we go through the week here.”
A loss to the Jets would lock the Bills into the No. 7 seed in the AFC. Either a Patriots loss to the Miami Dolphins or a Denver Broncos win over the Los Angeles Chargers makes New England most likely to hold the No. 2 seed.
That would set up a Bills-Patriots Wild Card playoff game, a rematch of the Patriots last playoff game in 2021.
Jonathan Vankin JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist and writer who now covers baseball and other sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Press Association awards for sports feature writing. He was a sports editor and writer at The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo, Japan, covering Japan Pro Baseball, boxing, sumo and other sports. More about Jonathan Vankin
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