Buffalo Bills

Thigh Doc Breakdown: Josh Allen’s Shoulder Injury

Published

7 months ago

October 17, 2023

Josh Allen has an injury to his right (throwing) shoulder. He sustained the injury with about five minutes left in the second quarter of their Week 6 matchup against the New York Giants on Sunday Night Football. The events surrounding his injury were a little confusing for an observer because of his head injury on the next play.

Giants DL Dexter Lawrence took down Josh Allen, which caused Allen to fall fiercely onto his throwing shoulder. Allen grabbed for his arm while he was down. On the next play, he took a shot from LB Bobby Okereke (which resulted in a roughing the passer penalty). This led to Allen being checked for a concussion. He missed two snaps. On his first play back, Damien Harris needed to be carted off the field after a neck injury. It was quite a chaotic chain of events.

Here’s the two blows #BILLS #JOSHALLEN took back to back late in 2nd quarter. The second required a medical check for head injury. Note the grabbing of throwing shoulder on first hit (like AC joint) #billsmafia @BfloFanatics pic.twitter.com/cIr9x6b352
— Thigh Doctor (@ThighDoctor) October 16, 2023

What is Josh’s diagnosis?

As for the injury, Allen suffered a mechanism of injury that is common for an AC joint sprain.

Although this is not an ideal injury to a throwing shoulder, there are several reasons you should not worry about Allen missing time. For one, Allen was able to stay in the game and looked sharp in the second half. Also, his X-rays were clean after the game, ruling out any fracture.

On Monday, Ian Rapoport did allude that Allen will have “more scans”. While unlikely, based on Allen’s return to play, an MRI could rule out any damage to soft tissue such as his rotator cuff and labrum. Also, the team will get a closer look at the level of sprain to his AC joint.

From @GMFB: Updates on some key QB injuries, such as #Bills QB Josh Allen, #Bears QB Justin Fields, #Raiders QB Jimmy Garoppolo, and #Titans QB Ryan Tannehill. pic.twitter.com/BXGWTNt23Q
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 16, 2023

Until officially reported, Allen’s diagnosis is unknown at this time. Nevertheless, based on his return to play during the Giants game and Coach McDermott’s optimistic outlook for him as day-to-day, a low-grade AC joint sprain is most probable.

Right AC joint. Will impact him, but should be playing next week #BillsMafia @BfloFanatics https://t.co/Z6vTwDkGMn
— Thigh Doctor (@ThighDoctor) October 16, 2023

I would expect to see Allen limited in practice this week but not miss any game time. This is just another example of Josh Allen being injury resilient. AC joint sprains generally lead most NFL players to miss 10 days; 17 days for QBs (1). Due to risk of aggravating his injury, how the team handles Allen’s injury will be under a microscope over the next few games.

Citations

Lynch TS, Saltzman MD, Ghodasra JH, Bilimoria KY, Bowen MK, Nuber GW. Acromioclavicular joint injuries in the National Football League: epidemiology and management. Am J Sports Med. 2013 Dec; 41(12): 2904-8. doi: 10.1177/0363546513504284. Epub 2013 Sep 20. PMID: 24057030.

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