Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott made an interesting decision on Wednesday ahead of his team’s season finale against the New York Jets.
McDermott announced that his team’s starting players, or at least a “majority” of them, will play in Week 17.
The decision is an interesting one because the Bills (10-5) are heading to the playoffs and are also locked into their seeding. The Bills have nothing to gain in the game via standings as Buffalo will be the fifth-seed in the AFC playoffs, regardless of outcome.
Still, starters, including quarterback Josh Allen, will play.
“We talked to the team and we’re going to play a majority of the guys and they’re going to practice this week and they’re going to play,” said McDermott. “To go into detail will take some time, but the majority of guys will play, not all of them. Josh (Allen) will play.”
But McDermott added that it might not be as cut-and-dry as that. Amount of playing time for starters is still up in the air.
“They’re not all going to play the same amount in the game. We’re going to be smart with that, but it’s important that we get work in fundamentally and in terms of execution and we stay as sharp as can be,” McDermott said.
In this scenario, playing the Bills’ first-string players, particularly on offense, could be a good move in terms of the “rust” factor. It’s hard for teams to simulate actual game time and with how healthy the Bills have been this season, playing the starting offense a few series might be a safe play.
But playing them past the first quarter would be an outrageous move by McDermott & Co. at this point of the year. Don’t get overly cute.
Speaking of which, McDermott was asked if backup quarterback Matt Barkley could see playing time in the contest. Sounded reassuring.
“Yeah, he could,” said McDermott. “Yes.”
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