The Buffalo Bills currently sit at 13-3 with the AFC East clinched and the No. 2 seed locked up. Will the Bills play their starters in an essentially meaningless game that will not affect their seeding? Let’s examine whether we’ll see Josh Allen and Co. in Week 18.
Bills Plan To Rest Certain Players, But Josh Allen Will Start
Allen has been listed on the Bills’ practice report all week with a right elbow issue and right shoulder issue, but he has been a full participant every day. He doesn’t have an injury designation on the Bills’ injury report and he is expected to start in Week 18 against the New England Patriots.
However, Allen won’t play much at all.
Bills head coach Sean McDermott revealed that Allen will start the contest to keep his streak of consecutive starts alive, but he will come out of the game shortly after.
Allen has started 104 consecutive games for the Bills dating back to Nov. 25, 2018.
While McDermott said they want to win the game, he stressed the importance of “making sure we’re as fresh as possible coming out of this week and [as] healthy as possible.” He also said this would be an opportunity to evaluate a number of practice squad players.
Will Sitting Out Most of Week 18 Affect Allen’s MVP Chances?
Allen has been the frontrunner for the NFL’s Most Valuable Player award for most of the season, with his ability to score touchdowns both through the air and on the ground.
Allen has thrown for 3,731 yards, 28 touchdowns, and six interceptions, while also rushing for 531 yards and 12 touchdowns.
Allen is currently the No. 3 quarterback in PFN’s QB+ metric, with a 92.2 grade (A-). He trails only Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson and Detroit Lions QB Jared Goff.
PFN’s QB+ metric assigns a letter grade to every quarterback performance and factors in a number of stats such as success rate when pressured, third-down conversion rate, pocket production, and clutch performance.
Allen has no doubt been great, but he gets a knock for not being as good on third downs, a crucial area for a quarterback to succeed. If Allen plays minimal snaps on Sunday while Jackson has a huge performance (since he needs a win or tie to clinch the AFC North), perhaps that helps his MVP argument and his strong play will be in the minds of voters.
What’s the Bills’ Plan at QB With Allen Playing Limited Snaps?
The Bills’ backup quarterback is Mitch Trubisky, so it’s likely that Trubisky will get the lion’s share of the snaps in Sunday’s regular-season finale against the Patriots.
Initially, there were reports that Trubisky would play the entire game after Allen exited the contest. However, shortly after, the Bills added another quarterback to the mix.
Buffalo recently signed quarterback Mike White off of the practice squad and added him to the active roster. They also gave him a one-year contract extension, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
McDermott has since explained that they hope to get White in the game as well, so it remains to be seen exactly how many snaps Allen, Trubisky, and White will each receive.
McDermott also said that White will be the Bills’ emergency quarterback for the playoffs.