Insider: Bills possibly growing 'frustrated' with QB Josh Allen
Josh Allen’s reckless abandon has been well-documented.
And while the 26-year-old quarterback is better suited than most to take the kind of beating he does (he’s 6-foot-5 and 238 pounds), Buffalo Bills insider Jay Skurski of the Buffalo News questions if the team is growing frustrated with the unnecessary beating Allen subjects himself to.
“The amount of punishment Allen absorbs is not a new topic,” Skurski said. “It’s something the team has addressed with him before. It struck me, though, that it almost sounded as if there were a bit of frustration underneath the surface when (GM Brandon) Beane spoke (at the end of the season). Again, that was just my read. If accurate, that would be understandable. You can only tell a player so many times to slide or get out of bounds before frustration sets in if he’s taking too many unnecessary hits.”
Skurski, of course, is referring to Beane’s end-of-season news conference in which he said, “The only thing I'd get on to [Allen] is he's got too many bruises on him. We've got to work on taking less hits. That's the only reason I'm going to ever criticize Josh is just take less hits.”
Allen was sacked a career-high 33 times this year, and he was hit an additional 29 times according to Pro Football Focus. He also added a career-high 124 carries for 762 yards.
Beane isn’t the first person in the Bills organization to express their concern when it comes to Allen and his disregard for his body.
At the beginning of the season, backup quarterback Case Keenum tried to incentivize Allen to slide more and take fewer hits by wearing only a jockstrap during walkthroughs for every time Allen didn’t slide on a QB scramble.
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