ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. \u2014 The tears have long dried, though the pangs of regret remain for Josh Allen, who’s still coming to grips over what\u2019s transpired in the 12 days since the Buffalo Bills were eliminated from the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Add in having surgery for a broken bone in his right foot, and a sudden coaching change that had offensive coordinator Joe Brady promoted to take over after Sean McDermott was fired, and Allen has had little time to catch his breath.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still trying to take it all in,\u201d Allen said Thursday after attending Brady\u2019s inaugural news conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s just so many elements that come into play. Just trying to take it one day at a time,\u201d he added. \u201cBut I\u2019d be lying to you if I didn\u2019t say I\u2019m still sick to my stomach about how the season ended.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allen\u2019s comments were his first since breaking down in tears following a 33-30 overtime loss to Denver in a divisional-round playoff on Jan. 17. It was an outing in which his three touchdown passes were undone by committing four of Buffalo\u2019s five turnovers.<\/p>\n
As much as Allen is fully on board with Brady\u2019s hiring in a search process he played a role in, the quarterback shouldered the blame for McDermott\u2019s firing after nine seasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got nothing but love and respect for coach McDermott,\u201d Allen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I make one more play that game in Denver, we\u2019re probably not having this press conference right now. We\u2019re probably not making a change,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd that\u2019s the hard part to take in from my perspective, but that\u2019s reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
The loss proved to be the last straw for owner Terry Pegula, who called Allen to inform him of McDermott\u2019s firing. Pegula felt the Bills had hit what he called \u201cthe proverbial playoff wall\u201d under the coach, and feared the team was wasting Allen\u2019s prime years, with the quarterback set to turn 30 in May.<\/p>\n
Allen showed up Thursday with crutches and with a protective boot on his right foot. He expects to be fully healthy for the start of spring practices, adding he would have been able to play if Buffalo had a game this week.<\/p>\n
Allen said he played through the injury after breaking the fifth metatarsal in his foot late in the second quarter of a 23-20 win at Cleveland on Dec. 21.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a little painful right now, but it wasn\u2019t a crazy surgery,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Allen also rallied to the defense of receiver Keon Coleman, who was drawn into McDermott\u2019s dismissal following an underperforming season in which the second-year player was disciplined for showing up late to meetings.<\/p>\n
Pegula interjected last week when questions were asked about Coleman and general manager Brandon Beane\u2019s failure to improve the team\u2019s group of receivers last offseason. Pegula said members of the coaching staff were to blame for pushing Beane to draft the player with the first pick of the second round in 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe will come back from that. I\u2019m not going to give up on zero,\u201d Allen said, referring to Coleman\u2019s number. \u201cHe\u2019s got too much ability and we\u2019re gonna work tirelessly, him and me, and so will everybody else in this building.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beane referred to Allen\u2019s role in the interview process as a sounding board and as a representative for the players.<\/p>\n
Allen said he felt awkward at times sitting in on the interviews. But he said the experience was ultimately beneficial in learning more about the Pegulas, Beane and even Brady, who was initially the Bills’ quarterback coach in 2022 before being promoted to coordinator midway through 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cI looked at (Brady) the other day and he promised me and I promised him to hold each other to a standard and hold each other accountable and not get complacent of where we\u2019re at,\u201d Allen said. \u201cI truly believe in the direction of this organization, starting from the top.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aside from resting, Allen’s immediate offseason plans involve him preparing for the birth of his first child with his wife, actor Hailee Steinfeld, who announced her pregnancy in mid-December.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very much looking forward to that. It\u2019s something that I will take with great pride,\u201d Allen said. \u201cThis is the most important thing I\u2019ll ever be in my life is being a dad. And I know I love being a football player, and I love being a quarterback for the Buffalo Bills. But I\u2019m looking forward to this one.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. \u2014 The tears have long dried, though the pangs of regret remain for Josh Allen,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":["post-442116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}