On Friday afternoon, Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott announced that quarterback Josh Allen and the rest of the Bills' starters would play around a quarter of Saturday night's preseason game at the Pittsburgh Steelers. However, after a rainy day in Pittsburgh dampened the field inside of Acrisure Stadium, McDermott decided against putting his franchise quarterback in harm's way in a meaningless exhibition game only days after Matt Milano, the quarterback of the Bills defense, was sent to the IR with a torn bicep.
After the game, McDermott acknowledged that while the initial plan was to play Allen, a gut feeling about the conditions of the field led to a last-minute decision to instead give the start to former Steelers quarterback Mitchell Trubisky.
“Bills coach Sean McDermott said that deciding not to play Josh Allen came after a good joint practice and a gut feeling with the conditions and the condensed warmup,” says Alaina Getzenberg of ESPN.com. Allen played only eight snaps in Buffalo's preseason opener at home against Chicago, completing just 2-of-3 pass attempts. McDermott has yet to give any indication as to whether Josh Allen or the rest of Buffalo's starters would see the field at all in next Saturday's preseason finale against the Carolina Panthers.
Bills would be wise to sit Josh Allen until regular season
Josh Allen has been entrenched as the Bills starter since midway through his rookie season in 2018, and frankly, by now, he may be more popular in Western New York than buffalo wings. Even though Allen's supporting cast has changed considerably since last year — the offseason departures of Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis have created some semblance of uncertainty in Buffalo — there's no reason for the Bills to leave their franchise QB vulnerable to the risks of the preseason just to gain a little more continuity with his new and younger weapons. Safe, live practice reps are the way to go until September 8th.
On September 8th, all bets are off. The Bills will host the Arizona Cardinals on the opening Sunday of the season, kicking off a season in which Buffalo looks for their fifth consecutive AFC East title, which would be the longest in division history by a team other than Tom Brady's New England Patriots. To hold off the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins, the Bills will need their MVP candidate quarterback healthy through January, because there might not be a player who shoulders more of an offensive burden this year than Josh Allen does.
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