90 Buffalo Bills players in 90 days: QB Kyle Allen

Quarterback is a funny position, and for a while, the Buffalo Bills trotted out a line of jesters when all they needed to find was a king. It’s a funny position in the sense that, when you have one, you don’t want anyone else to play it. And if you have more than one, well, to use an old saying, “you really have none.”

Profiling the quarterbacks for this series has become a pretty simple exercise over the last few years. There’s no speculation as to who the starter is, nor is there any real question who the backups will be. It might make for boring reading, but it does make for some pretty easy writing in the midst of a long series.

In today’s installment of “90 players in 90 days,” we profile one of Buffalo’s backup quarterbacks — the other Allen.

Name: Kyle Allen

Number: 9

Position: QB

Height/Weight: 6’3”, 210 pounds

Age: 27 (28 on 3/8/2024)

Experience/Draft: 5; signed with the Carolina Panthers following the 2018 NFL Draft

College: Houston

Acquired: Signed with Buffalo on 3/16/2023

Financial situation (per Spotrac): Allen signed a one-year contract with Buffalo in March. That deal is worth a total of $1,232,500. His cap hit for the season if he makes the roster is $1,092,500, and Buffalo would be responsible for a dead-cap charge of $350,000 if he’s released. As a vested veteran, Allen’s entire base salary becomes guaranteed if he’s on the roster for Week 1. That total is $1.08 million.

2022 Recap: Allen spent the 2022 season with the Houston Texans, serving as backup to Davis Mills for most of the year. As the next man up, he didn’t play at all until the 11th game of the season. For that one, he was named the starter, and his numbers were about what you’d expect for a guy who isn’t a starter in the league. He completed 26-of-39 passes for 215 yards, hurling one touchdown and two interceptions while taking five sacks in a 30-15 loss to the Miami Dolphins. He started the next week, as well, completing 20-of-39 passes for 201 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions in a 27-14 loss to the Cleveland Browns. He was relegated to clipboard duty once again following that second game, serving as a healthy scratch for the rest of the season.

Positional outlook: Allen is one of three quarterbacks on the roster. He joins starter Josh Allen and fellow backup Matt Barkley.

2023 Offseason: Allen is healthy and participating in team activities thus far.

2023 Season outlook: Kyle Allen will, in all likelihood, be Josh Allen’s backup this season. Hopefully, he only comes in when the team is up big. I don’t see a scenario where Barkley beats him out for the backup spot, but I suppose anything’s possible. Allen is an adequate backup, and over his longest consecutive stretch of play, he did perform fairly well. In his second season, all the way back in 2019, he started 12 straight games for the Carolina Panthers. In those games, he completed 62% of his passes for 3,027 yards, 17 touchdowns, and 15 interceptions. Sure, it’s not great, but if the Bills need him for a few games, they could do worse than a guy completing 62% of his passes who averages 250 yards passing and just over one turnover per game. Kyle Allen should be the second of two Allens to make the roster come September.