Case Keenum had unusual way to incentivize Josh Allen to be less reckless
Buffalo Bills backup quarterbacks Case Keenum and Matt Barkley are not fans of how reckless starting QB Josh Allen can be when he’s flushed from the pocket.
The duo were bothered by Allen’s seeming lack of self-protection on scrambles so much so that Keenum took it upon himself to offer the 6-foot-5, 237-pound Allen a little innovative motivation to start avoiding unnecessary hits from defenders.
“I might have incentivized him a little bit if he would slide during a game,” Keenum told The Athletic’s Kalyn Kahler. “It was not a monetarily incentivized thing. It was more something that I would do. …Allegedly, I may or may not have told him I would wear only a jockstrap to one of our walkthroughs if he slid in a game feet first with nobody around him.”
The bet was paid following a Week 3 game against the Dolphins, during which Allen managed to scramble and slide before taking a hit from a defender.
Though the 26-year-old QB plead the fifth while recanting the incident to The Athletic, several of Allen’s teammates were more forthcoming with the details.
“We was all staring at his cheeks,” receiver Isaiah McKenzie said.
“Bare butt cheeks,” fullback Reggie Gilliam recalled.
Keenum’s unorthodox methods appear to have worked. Despite scrambling more this season (54) than last (48), and totaling 746 rush yards through 15 games, Allen’s hits per game have dropped from 3.76 last year to 2.6 this year.
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