Josh Allen is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, and his backup Case Keenum is willing to go to great lengths to protect him. Earlier this season, Keenum made a deal with Allen in hopes of getting the star quarterback to slide more often when running the ball.
At 6-foot-5 and 237 pounds, Allen is not afraid to lower his shoulder in hopes of picking up a few more yards at the end of his runs. However, that also exposes Allen to more hits, which is something the Bills want to avoid.
In Week 1's win over the Indianapolis Colts, Keenum watched Allen take an unnecessary risk in the running game and chose to offer him a deal. Recounting this story to The Athletic, Keenum said his offer to Allen was not a financial one.
"I might have incentivized him a little bit if he would slide during a game," Keenum said. "It was not a monetarily incentivized thing. It was more something that I would do."
Just a couple weeks later, in Week 3's game against the Miami Dolphins, Allen slid at the end of a scramble to protect himself. The next week, Keenum allegedly wore nothing but a jockstrap to the team's walkthrough.
"Allegedly," Keenum said, "I may or may not have told him I would wear only a jockstrap to one of our walkthroughs if he slid in a game feet first with nobody around him."
Asked about the deal, Allen wasn't willing to confirm that Keenum went scantily clad to the walkthrough, but he didn't deny the tale either.
"Ahhh, phew, trying to jog my memory here," Allen said. "I can neither confirm nor deny those allegations. I'm sure some of the receivers and the running backs might have something different to say about that, but I don't really remember that."
Even though Allen's memory of the event was a little fuzzy, that wasn't the case for his teammates. Fullback Reggie Gilliam has one vivid memory from that walkthrough.
"Bare butt cheeks," said fullback Reggie Gilliam.
Quarterbacks coach Joe Brady said Keenum looked exactly how you would think someone wearing only a thin piece of fabric around their waste would look.
"Exactly how you could picture it," Brady told The Athletic. "I don't know if you want to picture that."
No one outside of the quarterback room was aware of the deal between Keenum and Allen, but wide receiver Isaiah McKenzie said he wasn't exactly shocked that one of the team's signal callers would do something like that.
"We all know that quarterback room is a little odd, so they do a lot of odd things."
