All eyes are on the status of Josh Allen for Sunday's matchup against the Minnesota Vikings. The Bills quarterback suffered an elbow injury in the club's Week 9 loss to the New York Jets, and now his availability for Week 10 is up in the air.
On Thursday, Allen was not seen on the field during the open-to-the-media portion of practice. Instead, backup Case Keenum was throwing routes on air to wideouts Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis. This came a day after head coach Sean McDermott said that Allen would not be on the field with the team to begin the week of practice, and as expected, Allen was listed as a DNP for Wednesday's session.
"He's day-to-day," McDermott said to open his press conference. As to whether or not he'll be available to play on Sunday, McDermott said, "We'll see."
Specifically, Allen was reportedly being evaluated for an injury to his ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) and related nerves after telling reporters after Sunday's loss that he was feeling "slight pain" in that right throwing elbow. When asked if Allen had attempted to throw a football since Sunday, McDermott smirked and deflected, continuing to say he is day-to-day.
"We will see how he does," McDermott added. "We'll use common sense and obviously we factor a lot of things into it -- medical report being one of them and our doctors' wisdom and knowledge."
According to a report from NFL Media, Allen has expressed confidence to teammates that he'll be able to play Sunday. That said, missing a Thursday practice after also sitting out Wednesday is not an encouraging sign. It will therefore be interesting to see if the Buffalo brass opts to progress more cautiously with their franchise quarterback.
If they choose to hold him out of this game, veteran backup Keenum would get the start. Keenum started 14 games for the Vikings back in 2017, helped the club to an NFC North title, and led them to an NFC Championship game appearance following the "Minneapolis Miracle" in the Divisional Round.
More recently, Keenum was acquired by Buffalo in a trade with the Cleveland Browns this past March and has been serving as the primary backup.
"This is not Case's first day with us, nor is this process new to Case in terms of his role or potential role," said McDermott. "He's been through this before. We have full confidence in Case and Matt Barkley. We shape a game plan accordingly to what we know right now."
Naturally, this will be a storyline to monitor throughout the rest of the week and Allen's participation in Friday's practice and/or Saturday's walkthrough will
