Josh Allen discusses the season-ending loss, his elbow injury, and what he’ll remember about the Buffalo Bills in 2022-23.
Injury of Josh Allen
Josh Allen: Less than 24 hours after losing to the Bengals in the AFC Divisional Round, Bills QB Josh Allen spoke to the media at One Bills Drive during the team’s locker room cleanout day.
Allen reflected on the highs and lows of his fifth NFL season, which was filled with emotional moments for the Bills but ultimately fell short of the team’s most important goal.
“I don’t want to just discredit everything that we did this year. There was a lot of positives that we saw throughout the year, a lot of adversity this team had been dealt,” Allen shared. “I’m still proud of our team for how we handled some of those really adverse situations.”
Other players on the team spoke as well on Monday, describing the feeling of Sunday’s Divisional loss as “numb“. While not blaming it on the loss, WR Isaiah McKenzie, TE Dawson Knox, and OL Rodger Saffold said the emotional toll of the season caught up with them.
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When asked to comment on his teammates’ points of view, Allen agreed with them.
“I can agree with that statement. I don’t know for me personally. But, again, you gotta play your best against really good teams, and we didn’t yesterday,” Allen said.
For the first time since his elbow injury in Week 9, Allen discussed how it affected him in the second half of the season in greater detail.
“There was a period obviously right after for a few weeks where it was pretty bothersome,” he said of the injury. “But again it didn’t affect me all that much. I just kind of felt like maybe I was trying to throw it a little differently mechanically, had to change a few things and got away a little bit from how I’m used to throwing the ball.”
The quarterback never missed a game, but he threw fewer than two touchdowns in four of the Bills’ subsequent six games. Allen’s play improved in the final four games of the regular season and into the Wild Card round, as he threw for 12 touchdowns, ran for another, and averaged 270.5 passing yards in the four games before the AFC Divisional Round.
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“I think it was about two weeks ago that I felt like I was back to doing what I enjoy mechanically. Again, as a rotational thrower, elbow is very prevalent, and perhaps it became a little more of a linear type deal because I couldn’t really use all that much force, and kind of flicking it out there. But, once again, this is just adaptation “Allen stated.
Allen stated that he will not require surgery during the offseason, but that rest and recovery will eventually help him get his elbow back to 100%.
“We do not believe an operation is required at this time. Obviously, rest and recovery will be extremely beneficial “He revealed.
