The Buffalo Bills are no stranger to distractions due to COVID-19. Some places in the NFL are getting their first taste of it in the past few weeks due to cases rises.
However, the latest one the Bills (8-6) have comes in a familiar form: Cole Beasley.
On Tuesday, Beasley, the most outspoken player in the league regarding vaccine mandates for players, tested positive for COVID-19. He is well known to be unvaccinated so he’s out 10 days by rule.
That means he will not play against the New England Patriots and Beasley already fired off a statement challenging the NFL’s rules toward unvaccinated players.
Beasley’s comments aren’t anything he’ll have to answer for right away. Rather, it’ll be his team… such as Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott and quarterback Josh Allen.
Via video conference on Wednesday, the coach assured fans that he’s not worrying about the Beasley situation right now. It’s all about the Pats (9-5).
“I’m not going to get into that,” McDermott said. “I’m focused on the Patriots, and the guys in the building. And certainly with all the guys we have out on COVID, I think seven, Cole being one of those… we want them back as healthy as possible and as quickly as possible. That’s where we’re at.”
Allen went on to somewhat defend Beasley in an interesting manner. He said even if Beasley was vaccinated, Allen would still have assumed he would not be able to play on Sunday.
Perhaps Allen was providing some thought based on some past experiences.
The Bills have had multiple players land on the COVID list so far this season, and there’s likely a chance that multiple of them were players who were vaccinated and tested positive on a Monday or Tuesday but still did not play the ensuing Sunday… exactly like Beasley, essentially.
But the QB also echoed what McDermott said. Whether or not Beasley’s situation came up, no distractions can be allowed to take their eye of the prize: First place in the AFC East, which is what is on the line in New England.
“With all the distractions that could be distractions, we’ve just got to make sure we’re talking to each other and leaning on each other and not letting little things become big things,” Allen said via video conference. “Go out and try to execute and win a game Sunday against a really good opponent. It’s gonna take all of us.”