Josh Allen was injured in the Buffalo Bills' 24-21 Week 16 win over the New England Patriots, but there's no reason for the Bills to be concerned about any long-term ramifications from that injury.
It's December, almost January, and playoff football is right around the corner. You never want to see your quarterback messing around with his throwing arm, but this is also the reality of December football — especially in a cold-weather city like Buffalo. Stingers are going to happen, and there's no reason to believe that what Allen suffered against the Patriots was anything but a stinger.
So what happened, exactly?
It was second-and-11 at the start of the fourth quarter with the Bills locked in a 17-14 game, barely holding onto the lead. Allen took off for a seven-yard gainer and was tackled to the ground, picking up positive momentum in the process. That's a play we've seen a million times from Allen in his career.
What makes Allen runs so fun is that, par for course, it took two defenders to take him down. One of those defenders ran into the quarterback's elbow in the process of trying to complete the tackle, though.
On the very next, play —an important third-and-nine — Allen sky mailed a pass to Dalton Kincaid. The defense bailed him out on the next possession by returning a Drake Maye fumble for a touchdown, but Allen was clearly shaken up a bit, even when he came out for the next drive.
Again, that's not what you want to see from your starting quarterback and MVP candidate if you're the Bills, but it's more than worth noting that Allen didn't miss any game time. And yes, it's scary to hear your quarterback explaining after the game that he wasn't able to feel his hand, but it's a phenomenon that clearly went away after Allen was able to shake it out. The cold didn't help either, of course, but this had all the makings of the good ole curse of the “funny bone”, and Allen said as much after the game, via the Associated Press.
“Lost some feeling in my hand,” Allen said. “Just hit the funny bone nerve.”
As anyone who has ever dealt with the funny bone knows, it's actually not all that funny. That's apparently the ironic part of it. That's especially true when you're an MVP-caliber professional quarterback and a Super Bowl is on the line, though.
It must have been a long few minutes on the Bills sideline while Allen tried to get feeling back into his hand. He even admitted that he wouldn't have been able to go back in right away had the defense not forced a touchdown and put the Patriots right back on the field, but the good news is that the numbness did eventually go away.
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“It took a good five to ten minutes, so just making sure, trying to get some blood flow back in there,” Allen said, explaining why he was shaking his arm out on the sideline. “So it was a weird feeling. Just glad it’s gone now.”
It's gone now, and that's the main takeaway for the Bills.
Josh Allen's recent injury shouldn't concern Bills
We're ultimately talking about a funny bone here. There are certainly medical reasons for the numbness. There's a nerve on your elbow called the ulnar nerve that runs all the way up your arm to your hand. When it is pinched or obstructed — which is what happens when it gets hit — that can lead to numbness or grip problems in the hand.
The good news is that's a short-term thing, and we could all see the exact genesis of the pain, which was the collision with the helmet. If this was more of a long-term numbness that Allen was dealing with or something that he was facing without a clear reason, that would certainly be concerning for the Bills. Quarterback's elbows aren't often talked about like starting pitcher's are, but they absolutely deal with some of the same tensions and movements. Long-term pain stemming from the elbow, or a nerve/hand issue with an unknown origin, would be a massive concern.
That's not the case here, though, and Allen's full involvement in practice on Wednesday would suggest that the Bills have absolutely no long term concerns. Heck, this is the same injury a sports writer can get from accidently knocking their elbow down on the table. It hurts and it's a tad bit concerning as you're shaking out your arm and trying to the blood to rush back to your hand.
If those of us at ClutchPoints can survive and advance from the dreaded curse of the funny bone, though, the 6-foot-5, 237-pound super athlete up and Buffalo should be just fine as the Bills look to wrap their 2024 regular season up against the New York Jets in Week 17.
