When the Buffalo Bills play the Indianapolis Colts in their first preseason game on Saturday, Aug. 12, at 6 p.m. ET, two of their star players will not be participating. Bills head coach Sean McDermott shared on Thursday morning that star quarterback Josh Allen and standout wide receiver Stefon Diggs will not be playing in Buffalo’s first preseason game.
Josh Allen and Stefon Diggs Will Not Be Active in Bills’ Preseason Opener
The Bills are currently at training camp at St. John Fisher University, which finishes Thursday afternoon before they return to Buffalo, where both Allen and Diggs have been exhibiting their connection.
Josh Allen x Stefon Diggs
Ball placement 🤝 Late hands
Also, this isn’t bad coverage. The throw + late hands nullifies the coverage & reduces the opportunity to make a play on the ball#Bills #BillsMafia #BillsCamp
— Anthony Cover 1 (@Pro__Ant) August 10, 2023
Who Will Play for the Bills Against the Colts?
McDermott said that “Most of the starters will play. Josh will not. Stef will not.”
Continuing, “They’ll play give or take a quarter just again, depending on who it is and in the situation in the game. Overall, we want to get them where they need to go but also then take a good look at some of the young players.”
With Josh Allen not participating, we will see Kyle Allen and Matt Barkley step in at quarterback. Both will fight it out for the right to backup Josh during the regular season. Rumors are that Kyle has the advantage before Buffalo’s preseason games kick off.
It will also be a chance for the receiver room to show improvement. The Bills relied heavily on Diggs in the passing attack during the 2022 season, so players like Khalil Shakir, Deonte Harty, and Andy Isabella will have opportunities this preseason to show out.
Safety Damar Hamlin has been cleared to play following his on-field cardiac arrest and is reported to be “scheduled to play” in week 1 of preseason.
When May Allen and Diggs Play in the Preseason?
Both Allen and Diggs are team captains, but fans will have to wait to see them take the field. McDermott did comment, though, that both are likely to see playing time during the preseason.
The Bills have three preseason games in total, hosting the Colts at home this Saturday before visiting the Steelers on Aug. 19, then heading to Soldier Field to take on the Bears on Aug. 26.
In recent preseasons, Allen has only played the home games, making an appearance against the Broncos in 2022 and the Packers in 2021.
Allen has been in the spotlight all offseason. First, it was announced he would be the cover star of Madden ‘24 before getting into a relationship with actress Hailee Steinfeld which has been well documented.
Allen has also spoken out about the potential of featuring in the next series of the hit Netflix show “Quarterback.” Allen told the media that “I think it’s a really cool concept” but cooled when pressed, saying, “I don’t want any outside distraction.”
This all comes after a difficult start to camp when it seemed Diggs was having a mini-holdout, skipping team practice, where McDermott commented that he was “very concerned.”
That was dealt with in-house and led to Diggs showing up later in the week. McDermott went on to say that we got to a point where we just felt like we all needed a break and some space. Our NFL Insider Adam Caplan had sources tell him that the story only really took off because “the NFL news cycle is slow in June.”