Josh Allen is not practice Wednesday with the Bills, and the elbow injury he sustained against the Jets has his Week 10 availability in doubt. This matter has certainly overshadowed everything else Bills-related over the past few days, but the MVP candidate may not need to miss any time.
Allen is believed to be dealing with a UCL injury, according to ESPN.com’s Chris Mortensen, who adds potential nerve damage is also an issue here (Twitter link). UCL injuries are commonly associated with Tommy John surgery, a procedure known to shelve pitchers for more than a year, but that is not believed to be in play here.
This is a UCL sprain, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com notes (video link), and not believed to be a major setback. Allen has dealt with this before, and NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo tweets the fifth-year passer is confident he will be available to face the Vikings in Week 10. That said, Rapoport adds this current issue could affect Allen’s ability to grip the football. That certainly throws a wrench into plans on an immediate return, and the Bills are proceeding cautiously to start their practice week.
Allen has not missed a game since his 2018 rookie season, but those four absences were due to a UCL injury. The Bills have Case Keenum in place as their backup, having traded a Day 3 pick to the Browns for the veteran signal-caller. Considering Allen’s history, it would not surprise if the Bills were forced to start Keenum for perhaps multiple games.
When Allen last dealt with this issue, it hovered as a much lower-profile NFL storyline. The former No. 7 overall pick has since vaulted into one of the league’s top players, doing the most to elevate the Bills from a rebuilding team into a Super Bowl front-runner. A wide talent gap exists between Allen and Keenum, but the 34-year-old backup has played the replacement role to notable acclaim. Keenum led the NFL in quarterback DVOA in 2017, replacing Sam Bradford and piloting a strong Vikings roster to a No. 2 seed and the NFC Championship Game. The recent Browns backup, who went 2-0 as a Cleveland starter in his two Ohio seasons, likely still represents quality insurance should the Bills shut down Allen for a bit.
This could still obviously impact Buffalo’s pursuit of its first No. 1 seed since 1993. The Chiefs moved into a tie with the Bills in Week 9, though Buffalo holds the tiebreaker here. The Bills face the Browns and Lions in Weeks 11 and 12, with the Detroit game coming on Thanksgiving.
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