Has Josh Allen hurdled his last defender?

As Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen enters his sixth year in the NFL, the lingering worry of him getting injured due to his play style remains at a fever pitch. General manager Brandon Beane has already uttered his concerns about QB1 a few weeks ago, but most fans have embraced Allen’s style and encouraged it more often than not. That’s primarily because those plays usually help the Bills come out with a win.

But as our beloved bulldozing quarterback turns 27 years old in a month, is it time to accept that the stiff arms and hurdles may be coming to an end? Despite showing he can be quite durable through the hard hits and rough-nosed play style, Allen realizes he’s entering his sixth season and admitted in a press conference that it’s time to start taking care of his body and change sooner or later.

“There were a lot of times last year, just looking back at film, that I was careless with the football, careless with my body and at the end of the day, availability is the best ability,” he said.

“There were some times last year where I’m in the open field, I don’t need an extra two yards,” Allen continued. “Get down, slide and live to fight another down. Again, it’s worked up to this point, but I understand that there’s going to be a point in time where it’s not going to work so well.”

Although his scramble plays that end up with him doing more than expected won’t be as exciting as they used to be, this would be huge for his longevity and continued focus on taking care of the football. As many times as Allen has turned into a superhero to keep the momentum going or to make a huge play, his bump-and-run approach has certainly cost Buffalo in some key moments.

All in all, this is still Josh Allen we’re talking about. He’s going to pull out some heroics at times to keep the Bills in the game, whether we like it or not. Allen’s dual-threat abilities have made him one of the toughest quarterbacks to properly defend — and it should be terrifying for opposing NFL defenses to hear that QB1 has “never been more locked in on football” than he is right now.

I don’t know about you, Bills Mafia, but something tells me we’ll see a new version of Allen next season — one that’s still cool and BFFs with wide receiver Stefon Diggs, by the way. Diggs’ most recent cryptic tweets seem to have affected more Bills fans than expected but JA17 squashed it all, confirming they’re all good and that Diggs is just a competitor who wants to make plays.