Who Should I Start? Josh Allen or J.J. McCarthy

Sunday, January 4, 4:41 PM

Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen played the first snap of Sunday's Week 18 contest against the New York Jets before being replaced by Mitch Trubisky. The Bills are locked into the fifth, sixth, or seventh seed in the AFC, and they didn't feel compelled to risk Allen's health with a Wild Card spot already secured. By playing the first snap of the game (which was a hand-off), Allen has now started 122 consecutive regular-season games. He reclaimed the honor of holding the longest active starting streak among quarterbacks after Philip Rivers, who had started 243 consecutive regular-season games, was benched in favor of Riley Leonard this week. Now, Trubisky will play the rest of the game while Allen rests on the sideline and gets ready for next weekend's playoff game. With that being said, the Bills have no other active quarterbacks, so if Trubisky gets injured, Allen would need to re-enter the game.

Sunday, January 4, 3:08 PM

Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy (right hand) exited during the third quarter of Sunday's Week 18 contest against the Green Bay Packers. He is officially listed as questionable to return. Given that Minnesota is eliminated from playoff contention and Green Bay is penciled into the No. 7 seed, it seems somewhat unlikely that the Vikings will put McCarthy back into the game if he's not fully healthy. For the time being, Max Brosmer has taken over at quarterback. At the time of his departure, McCarthy had completed 14 of his 23 pass attempts for 182 yards, zero touchdowns, and zero turnovers. He also had seven rushing yards. Injuries continue to be a common theme for the former first-round pick. McCarthy missed the entire 2024 season, and he played 100% of the snaps in fewer than half of the Vikings' games this year.