Josh Allen ‘good to go’ for Bills on Sunday, keeping NFL’s longest active QB start streak alive

It’s unclear how much Josh Allen the Buffalo Bills are going to get on Sunday, but it should be enough to keep a notable streak going.

Bills head coach Sean McDermott told WGR 550 on Friday that Allen will play in this weekend’s regular season finale against the New York Jets, after missing practice on Wednesday and Thursday with a foot injury. He was a limited participant on Friday and carries no injury designation for the game.

Allen has been dealing with the foot injury for a couple weeks, with X-rays coming back negative last weekend after briefly leaving a game. McDermott painted the time off from practice as more of a rest for the 2024 MVP:

“We wanted to make sure his health was No. 1 the last two days. He had two good days of recovery and today he’ll be out there. He’ll be limited. He'll be good to go for the game, and we'll take it one day at a time.”

However problematic the foot injury really is, the Bills have little reason to push Allen against the Jets. They’ve already clinched the playoffs and will know their seeding scenarios once the game begins at 4:25 ET.

If the Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars and Los Angeles Chargers all win, they’re locked into the No. 7 seed in the AFC. If the Texans and Chargers both lose, they can move up to the No. 5 seed with a win over the 3-13 Jets, which is highly possible even if Allen only plays one snap. There are scenarios in which they earn the No. 6 seed as well, such as only one of the Texans or Chargers losing.

The reason why the Bills would play a limited Allen at all is his 127-game consecutive start streak, which recently became the longest such active streak among NFL QBs again with Philip Rivers sitting. The run goes back to rookie year, in which he missed a month with an elbow injury.

Timothy T Ludwig via Getty Images

Rivers had retired at 240 straight starts, but that streak was revived when he returned to an NFL roster as the starter for the Indianapolis Colts. The run will end on Sunday, as he will sit out Sunday’s game against the Texans.

That will leave the quarterback leaderboard for consecutive regular starts looking like this:

1. Brett Favre (297 games, 1992-2010)
2. Philip Rivers (243 games, 2006-2025)
3. Eli Manning (210 games, 2004-2017)
4. Peyton Manning (208 games, 1998-2011)
5. Matt Ryan (154 games, 2009-2019)
6. Russell Wilson (149 games, 2012-2021)
7. Matthew Stafford (136 games, 2011-2019)
8. Josh Allen (127 games for Bills, 2018-present)

In case you’re curious, a 170-game gap between Favre and Allen means the Bills star would need 10 straight seasons of 17 starts to break a record many consider unbreakable.

To be clear, that leaderboard is quarterbacks only. Among active NFL players overall, Allen’s streak is second behind Atlanta Falcons offensive tackle Jake Matthews at 193.