ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. \u2013 Josh Allen is not who he used to be.<\/p>\n
In one way, he\u2019s less of a man.<\/p>\n
There are 206 bones in the human body, but the Buffalo Bills quarterback now has just 205 and a half after a dislodged, wandering chunk was removed from his right foot.<\/p>\n
Yet in a more significant way, Allen has never felt more complete as he enters his ninth pursuit of Buffalo\u2019s first Lombardi Trophy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe \u2018want to win\u2019 will never change. The \u2018why I want to do it\u2019 has,\u201d Allen said Monday, his first words to reporters since his daughter was born. \u201cWhy I want to do it: to show my family, to show my daughter how hard you need to work in order to accomplish something so great. And as long as I play this game, that\u2019s going to be my mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allen has a new head coach, new offensive coordinator, new quarterbacks coach and will get several new teammates through the NFL Draft later this week.<\/p>\n
But the newness at home has been most compelling. Allen praised his actress wife, Hailee Steinfeld, for how she\u2019s handled being a first-time mom.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do think this is going to be the best version of myself in all aspects in my professional career and my personal life,\u201d Allen said. \u201cIt\u2019s such a blessing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got an absolute rock star of a wife that\u2019s doing so many things right now and allowing me to be here right now and be with my teammates. So it\u2019s special times.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bills are entering a new era after firing longtime coach Sean McDermott. They promoted offensive coordinator Joe Brady, a move aligned with Allen\u2019s influence. As such, Allen\u2019s already-resonant leadership will become even more crucial to the transition.<\/p>\n
Buffalo\u2019s three workout sessions this week are voluntary. Allen also attended an April 7 gathering that wasn\u2019t mandatory.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got a lot going on in his life,\u201d Brady said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard for me to tell other people, \u2018Hey, man, I\u2019d love for you to be here,\u2019 but the guy I\u2019ve been spending so much time with so many years, he wasn\u2019t here, right? That was important to me.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a great tone-setter because everybody understands how important the organization, the Bills, everything we do is for him and to him. That was a life change, and for him to be, like, \u2018OK, but I also got a job to do. I\u2019m going to come be with my guys and do what I have to do.\u2019 Speaks to kind of who he is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Next month, Allen will turn 30. The 2024 MVP might be the NFL\u2019s eighth-oldest starting quarterback this year, depending on what Aaron Rodgers decides and what other clubs do with their veterans.<\/p>\n
Asked about the milestone birthday, Allen sounded like he was leaning into how life unfolded for legendary quarterbacks such as Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Steve Young and Matthew Stafford \u2014 all of whom won their first Super Bowls as thirtysomethings.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not too sure on the science of the athletic peak of a male, but I think it\u2019s slightly beyond 30,\u201d Allen replied, \u201cand then hopefully the dad strength kicks in, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
Allen declared his broken right foot fully recovered, albeit not fully intact.<\/p>\n
He reinjured a previously unknown fracture in last season\u2019s Week 16 victory over the Cleveland Browns. The damaged bone healed at some point, but while trying to escape sack demon Myles Garrett, Allen made a sudden step that \u201cjolted it loose.\u201d Allen returned to the game and didn\u2019t miss any time because of the injury, but required surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cA little piece of bone just kind of broke off and was floating there,\u201d Allen said. \u201cSo they went in, took it out \u2014 like a small rock. They just cut her out, leave it on the table, sew it back up, and scar tissue will form around it, and it feels really good right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allen on Monday wore a blue Buffalo Sabres ballcap and a blue Sabres hoodie in support of Bills owner Terry Pegula\u2019s other team making the playoffs for the first time in 15 years. The Sabres opened their series against the Boston Bruins with a thrilling 4-3 victory Sunday night.<\/p>\n
Allen is expected to lead the KeyBank Center crowd Tuesday night by pounding the \u201cLet\u2019s Go Buffalo\u201d drum before Game 2.<\/p>\n
As for what he would like the Bills to do in the NFL Draft, Allen should have banged the drum for a sleeper.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be quite honest, I\u2019ve been in this baby bubble \u2014 the baby loop, as I like to call it,\u201d Allen said. \u201cSo I couldn\u2019t tell you what\u2019s going on with the draft and who\u2019s going where and how many picks each team has.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. \u2013 Josh Allen is not who he used to be. In one way, he\u2019s less…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[619,9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-205115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-buffalo-bills","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-news","12":"tag-new-york-state","13":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-state-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}