Buffalo Bills, Josh Allen
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Josh Allen #17 of the Buffalo Bills looks on from the sidelines during the fourth quarter against the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium on January 05, 2025 in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
On Saturday, the Buffalo Bills will open their preseason schedule against the New York Giants at Highmark Stadium. It will be the first game the Bills have held at their stadium since beating the Baltimore Ravens in the Divisional Round of the playoffs in January.
The Bills Held A Practice At Highmark Stadium
The Bills opened up their stadium last week to fans so they could get a first look at the 2025 team. Buffalo held a Blue and Red practice, and over 39,000 people attended. Mostly every player who wasn’t injured participated in the practice, but the most popular player on the team didn’t.
Quarterback Josh Allen took the field at Highmark Stadium for the first time since winning his first league MVP award. He came wearing the Bills’ red helmet, which they will wear again against the New York Jets in Week 18. However, the 29-year-old quarterback didn’t practice.
It was probably for the best that Allen didn’t see any live practice with all the injuries going on with the team. The last thing Buffalo needs is for their star quarterback to get injured in a practice that he didn’t have to participate in.
Things will not be different this week either because Allen will not be suiting up in the first preseason game, according to head coach Sean McDermott.
Josh Allen Won’t Play On Saturday
TheBills’ website released at statmet on McDermott comments Thursday morning. “Bills head coach Sean McDermott gave an update on the final day of training camp about the team’s plans for week one of the preseason, Alec White from Bills.com wrote. “McDermott said that QB Josh Allen will not play in Saturday’s home preseason game against the Giants and QB Mitch Trubisky will get the start. Other starters on both the defense and offense will play ‘give or take’ one quarter, according to McDermott.”
It was expected that Allen would not be playing in the first preseason game. Every team handles how it wants to use its starting quarterback differently. Some teams won’t even think about playing their starter, while some throw them out in all three games.
The Cincinnati Bengals are starting quarterback Joe Burrow in their first preseason game against the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday night. The Bengals have had a ton of slow starts in the past, so getting their starting quarterback out there early might help them begin better this season.
Usually, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes plays in a handful of the preseason games. It will be nice to see if Allen can at least suit up in one preseason game this month so he can get some live game reps under him.
Buffalo doesn’t get to start their regular season with an easy game. They welcome the Ravens on Sunday Night Football, who could have the best team in the AFC this year.