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Who is winning the Bills' backup quarterback battle?
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- Who is winning the Bills' backup quarterback battle?
For most of August, it was unclear who the next man up would be behind Bills QB1 Josh Allen this season.
Saturday afternoon in Cleveland , Buffalo got its first real answer.
Kyle Allen and Shane Buechele combined to throw for 239 yards and two touchdowns in a 31-7 win over the Browns , with Josh Allen in street clothes on the sideline after Joe Brady held his veterans out. Neither backup blinked, and both left Huntington Bank Field with a case.
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Kyle Allen — 30 years old, two months older than the franchise quarterback he backs up — took the first-team snaps. He also put together the cleanest half of his Buffalo tenure in the process, turning in a 138.9 passer rating, completing 10 of 12 throws for 128 yards and a touchdown while averaging 10.7 yards per attempt.
The opening drive was interrupted by a lightning delay and Allen still went 2-for-2 for 35 yards on it. His only two incompletions, both aimed at tight end Jackson Hawes , were wiped out by defensive pass interference flags. Those are the kind of misses that show up in a box score as failures but on tape as wins.
He closed the half the same way he opened it. Working the two-minute offense, Buffalo covered 62 yards on four straight completions in 47 seconds, finishing with a nine-yard strike to Mecole Hardman .
"We got a lot of guys doing great things, receivers getting open for me, just playing within the system. Be prepared and just spread the ball around. It's been a good couple first games for offense all around," Allen said .
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He also offered the most honest description of the job and self-assessment of his play.
"I think I've slowly gotten better year over year for the past four or five years. It's tough to bounce around a bunch of places, but that's the job of a backup quarterback," he added.
Buechele has spent his Buffalo career on the practice squad. Though for the second preseason in a row he made some plays that suggest he could be ready for the QB2 role soon.
In Saturday's second half, he finished 5-of-10 for 111 yards and a touchdown, averaged 11.1 yards an attempt, posted a 123.3 rating, and added a five-yard rushing score on a first-and-goal snap where he simply decided the end zone belonged to him. His signature throw was an intermediate ball hit in stride to Ja'Mori Maclin, who turned it into a 71-yard touchdown — the second straight week Maclin has done something that complicates cut day.
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"Getting the ball in the guys hands and let them do what they do. Guys were playing hard around us, so it's easy for us," Buechele said .
The weather was ugly. Brady did not adjust for it, but instead called passes in the rain with purpose.
"Quarterbacks went out there, didn't blink," Brady said . "It's raining during the National Anthem. I still called passes early. Hey, we gotta be able to throw the ball in the rain. How are we gonna be able to operate. It's like we've been doing in practice, so it was cool to see our quarterbacks at efficient football."
The first-year head coach used the weather in an August game as a controlled experiment. Buffalo plays January football in a climate that punishes offenses that rely on more ideal environmental conditions. Brady found out on a Saturday in Cleveland what his passing game looks like when the weather is wet and the ball is in the hands of his backup signal callers.
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As for where the competition actually stands two preseason games in:
Kyle Allen went 14-of-16 for 108 yards and a 94.8 rating against Carolina; 10-of-12 for 128 yards, a touchdown and a 138.9 rating at Cleveland.
And Shane Buechele went 6-of-9 for 50 yards and an 80.8 rating against Carolina; 5-of-10 for 111 yards, a passing touchdown, a rushing touchdown and a 123.3 rating at Cleveland.
Allen is the accuracy and operation guy, while Buechele is the explosive-play guy. Allen has completed 24 of his 28 preseason attempts and is a former NFL starter, which is the profile of a quarterback who can walk into a huddle without the offense shrinking. Buechele's yards-per-attempt numbers suggest a passer who will take the shot Brady calls.
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Every franchise says the backup quarterback job matters. For the Bills , their QB1 Josh Allen is a generational quarterback and rarely misses any time to injury or otherwise.
Even still, the team needs some depth behind him from reliable players they can count on, and he knows that as well.
"If I don't [play], I get to cheer on my guys, Kyle and Shane, going out there. Trying to be the best teammate I can be and give them anything that I can to help them out," Allen said .
After Cleveland, it looks like the depth chart may be settled at the quarterbacks position — and for Joe Brady, having to choose between two capable backups is a good problem to have.
This article originally appeared on Bills Wire: Who is winning the Bills' backup quarterback battle?
