How Josh Allen’s injury will impact Bills-Dolphins: ‘The hands are a special thing’

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Josh Allen laughed off questions about his left hand injury. Wearing a glove for added protection Tuesday, he wasn’t limited in practice and then dismissed any concerns when asked about it.

Allen will play Thursday night against the Miami Dolphins, four days after he got hurt while throwing for two touchdowns and rushing for a couple more in the Buffalo Bills’ season-opening victory.

So there’s nothing to worry about, right?

Probably not, say veteran NFL quarterbacks who’ve played through off-hand injuries.

But Allen and the Bills have much to consider.

“The hands are a special thing,” Jake Plummer said. “Very finite details we don’t think about. It’s muscle memory for us, but when you get granular for an article it’s, like, ‘Whoa! I never thought of it like that!’ The intricacies are always fun for the fan to learn about.”

Plummer was among four injury-conversant quarterbacks The Athletic interviewed about Allen’s situation. All are right-handed, and suffered some injuries to their throwing hands, too, but we focused on the left side.

Hall of Famer Warren Moon had dislocated ring and pinky fingers. New Orleans Saints legend Archie Manning played through a broken left forearm his senior season at Ole Miss, a plate and four screws holding it together. Super Bowl MVP Phil Simms played with a broken hand, although he refused to reveal when because he still doesn’t want to upset the New York Giants organization or his former coach. Plummer played through a torn ulnar collateral ligament with the Arizona Cardinals.

They, along with Bills center Connor McGovern, explained the nuances involved.

What potential issues have the Bills been addressing this week in practice?

Plummer: “Your off-hand is still important because you’ve got to have it to stop the ball on the snap, securing the ball when you’re dropping back, handing the ball off.”

Moon: “Ball security is everything to coaches. You’ve got to be extra careful with the ball. You have to find comfort in what you’re doing and make sure there was no pain so you can even play.”

How much might a fresh off-hand injury weigh on a quarterback’s mind during a game?

Manning: “That first game, I was thinking a little more than normal about the quarterback function because I wanted to take care of the ball. But I got used to it the last two games.”

Moon: “He also doesn’t want to suffer any further injury. You admire the fact that he’s trying to get in the end zone, but you don’t like the end result sometimes, jeopardizing next week’s game.”

Plummer: “Josh Allen is a very instinctual player. He’s not going to be thinking about it. Everybody else will be talking about it. He’s going to play ball.”

Manning: “The biggest problems were making sure I could get the snap and handing off.”

Simms: “Will it affect him throwing the football? Probably not. But it will make him think when he runs.”

What must Allen be mindful of on designed runs or when scrambling?

Plummer: “Hopefully, he doesn’t land on it or get in a position to make it worse, but he’s going to. You put your hand down to brace yourself. People will hit it.”

Manning: “I absolutely had to run with the ball under my right arm.”

Moon: “You have to tuck it with your right hand. You never tuck it with your injured hand. As long as you can secure it with your forefinger over the point of the ball, you’ll be pretty good — unless you’ve got a bad thumb.”

Plummer: “He’ll just need to be smart. Be careful, going down. Don’t slide on your left cheek; slide on your right.”

Moon: “He needs to be much more careful when he runs the ball like he does and being more aware of hitting the ground or going out of bounds instead of hurdling somebody. I don’t think he can play with that reckless abandon the way he’s used to playing.”

Shotgun snaps are easier, but under offensive coordinator Joe Brady last year, Allen took a direct snap on 29.6 percent of their plays. Sunday against the Cardinals, 41.4 percent of the Bills’ snaps were direct. What needs to happen there?

Plummer: “He’ll need to manage functionality. The snap is the most important play in the game.”

McGovern: “I have to really make sure I hit that top hand and not be off-target at all. I need to make sure that left hand’s protected.”

Simms: “The left hand is just there to cup it on a direct snap.”

Plummer: “Just keep your left hand out of the way so it doesn’t get jammed. The center is snapping it to that right hand. The snaps got to stay the same, injury or not.”

Simms: “The other thing is, they can run their whole offense out of shotgun, just about. They can make a few formation adjustments if his hand’s that bad.”

What can the center do to make it easier for Allen’s injured left hand?

McGovern: “If I take something off the direct snap, then maybe in my process I’m a little slower. We’re playing away, so we might be in a silent count. Any delay might make the tackles jump offsides. There’s so many little things.”

Plummer: “There’s no change there at all there. That’s got to stay exactly the way it is. (McGovern) has to think, ‘Nah, I’m snapping this thing. It’s your job to figure out how to get the ball.’”

McGovern: “Shotgun snaps are still straightforward. But I can’t slow down my delivery; that’s the thing. I’ll try not to rocket the ball back there, but I can’t float it or have him reaching for it. You can’t change the velocity because it can screw up the timing of the motion or the handoff or the running back’s timing. It might take two-tenths of a second longer to lob it, but in football, that’s an eternity.”

What are the concerns when handing off?

Simms: “The hardest thing was the running back, on handoffs to the right, might grab your left hand and pull it. Oh, my God, that hurt.”

Moon: “When I handed off to my right, I would have two hands on the ball until just before I gave the ball to the running back instead of just one hand. That’s something we had to practice and practice throughout the week so he’d also get comfortable with that.”

Manning: “I couldn’t hand off with my left hand. I was kind of handing off right-handed, which was hard. I had to make sure I had a good grip on the ball because I was putting the back of my hand instead of my palm into the running back’s stomach.”

Plummer: “You’d lose some reach, dropping your elbow low. You’d lose some consistency. It’s something new when you’re handing off with a hand injury, but they’ll get creative. You improvise.”

How much does playing on four days’ rest matter?

Simms: “I’m sure it’s going to be sore as hell.”

Plummer: “This is football. It’s injury time. You play the game, then you’re going to deal with injuries.”

Moon: “The short week hurts in terms of healing time to take any pain or swelling away and in terms of getting adjusted to whatever tape job you want to use, how many reps your backs get with a new handoff style.”

Plummer: “With fantasy and betting and all the gambling, every injury you could even consider is well-known, but I played through some injuries nobody knew about. Josh Allen’s not going to bow down to a banged-up thumb or wrist. It might make him even better.”

Thunderstorms are possible Thursday night in Miami Gardens. How important is your non-throwing hand in such weather?

Moon: “I did have some fumbled snaps during those times, especially when the weather was wet or snowy. It’s harder to handle the football. A wet ball is harder to deal with when you have two healthy hands and 10 healthy fingers.”

Simms: “Rain is not the factor it used to be because the footballs are so good that you can still handle them pretty well. Anybody can throw these balls they use now.”

Moon: “But I think you’re always going to be conscious of it, especially in a bad weather game. You have to mechanically handle the football, and there might be times that feel a little flimsy.”

Simms: “When you’re on grass, you can take the most severe beating you’ve ever had in your life as a quarterback and think, ‘Hell, I feel pretty good!’ The morning after you play on turf, even with what they have now, you feel like you’ve been in a car wreck. There’s nothing like playing on grass.”

What impact do you think Allen’s hand injury will have Thursday night?

Plummer: “He’s a hell of a football player. He’s amazing, running fools over, ripping throws 30 yards on a dime.”

Simms: “Josh Allen, if he loses a little skill, and the injury affects him a little here or there, my answer would be ‘Big deal.’ He can afford to lose a little and get away with it. Unless it’s a severe break, I can’t imagine it’s going to be a problem for him.”

Manning: “Josh will handle it. He’s a warrior.”

(Top photo of Josh Allen: Gregory Fisher / Imagn Images)