Bills' Alexander: Josh Allen will need to address racial tweets with teammates

Buffalo Bills team captain Lorenzo Alexander says newly-drafted quarterback Josh Allen will need to address his racially insensitive tweets to his teammates at some point.

"What I'm gonna do is extend some grace and wait to get to know the kid and see how he develops," Alexander said of Allen on Friday, according to Mike Rodak of ESPN. "And that's how you got to approach it. Now everyone might not have that same approach. I would encourage every teammate in our locker room to do that, but he's gonna have to at some point, whether he does it in front of the whole team or one-off, somebody's gonna ask him, 'Why did you say that?' Or 'Why were you quoting those words?'"

Allen, drafted by the Bills seventh overall, landed in hot water Wednesday night when tweets of his from the past containing the "N-word" resurfaced on social media.

"He's gonna have to have a good answer," Alexander added. "I've listened to a couple of interviews and I think it's gonna come from the heart and he'll be fine. But he's gonna maybe have to work a little bit harder from certain people in the locker room, but I don't think it's an issue because that's who he was and not who he is."

Allen apologized for the tweets after they went viral and the posts have since been deleted. Allen said Thursday his account was supposed to be checked for offensive material months ago, and any questionable posts should've been removed. The racially insensitive tweets were made in 2012 and 2013 when Allen was in high school.

"Obviously the Bills organization vetted him," Alexander said. "So when something like this comes out, (you have to talk to) other teammates or coaches. He's played with some African Americans on his teams, so I know they would say something at some point - or especially when something like this comes up, they're gonna tweet, 'Yeah, this is him.'

"You haven't heard anything like that. He's grown, matured, owned it. He's very contrite and apologetic for what he said and did, because he's learned the magnitude of that word."