Football Team's Kyle Allen: Might have Week 18 role

Washington head coach Ron Rivera didn't close the door on the possibility of Allen having a role in the game plan behind starter Taylor Heinicke in Sunday's contest against the Giants, Ethan Cadeaux of NBC Sports Washington reports. "We'll start off with Taylor, then we'll go from there," Rivera said.

Prior to Week 17, Rivera suggested that Allen would "probably" play behind Heinicke in both of the final two games of the regular season. That didn't come to fruition in the 20-16 loss to the Eagles last week, as Heinicke played all 61 of Washington's snaps on offense. Rivera could be more open to getting Allen some work in the season finale, but it may first take a poor showing from Heinicke early in the contest for the coach to turn the offense over to the backup quarterback. Allen's only two appearances this season have both come against the Cowboys in Week 14 and 16. On the first occasion, Heinicke missed a few plays with an injury, and on the second, Washington was resting him after the game turned into a blowout.