The Bills are on a two game winning streak and getting healthy! As they travel down to balmy Miami for Sunday’s matchup, they do so with nearly their entire roster available and an offense starting to find its groove. Today’s post will review the injuries going into Sunday’s game.
Already ruled out is G John Miller (oblique). The veteran guard suffered an oblique injury late in the 1st half of the win over the Jaguars and did not return. Since Sunday, he has been unable to participate in practice which due to the location of the injury, is not surprising. As obliques are vital to the duties of his position in relation to bending forward, twisting, and pushing, it is already known that he he will not suit up Sunday. Even if the Bills were in the thick of a playoff race, this injury would sideline the big man for at least a week. Expect Miller to miss 1-2 games due to this injury. Starting in his place may be G Jeremiah Sirles who has shown effective play in limited time this year.
QB Derek Anderson (concussion) has also been ruled out due to continued symptoms of a concussion sustained during the Monday Night Football game against the Patriots. The more we know about concussions, the greater understanding we have of its effects. This is why Anderson’s symptoms are not concerning overall because we know that the brain heals at different rates and each concussion is unique. However, I do believe that if Anderson wasn’t mentoring QB Josh Allen, he would have been placed on IR long ago. As he is limited, there is hope that he will be able to practice in full next week and at least be available game day in Week 14.
TE Charles Clay (hamstring) has been ruled questionable, which in the case of Bills players ruled questionable, whether they play is ~50% based on this season statistics. I believe Clay will play as he’s missed several games, he has given his injury ample time to heal, and if this video is any indication of his abilities, then I am fairly confident that he will play against his old team. Add in the fact that he will be playing in 85 degree weather will help the muscles warm up easier and stay warm, reducing the incidence of re-injury during the game. I also believe that he will want to hang some stats on his old team to let them know what they lost.
Others dealing with injury coming off the report this week are CB Lafayette Pitts (concussion) & CB Taron Johnson (shoulder). Pitts suffered a hard hit to his head on a punt return early in last weeks win and was unable to finish playing. He has since been cleared to play in full and will continue to be a key piece in secondary depth and on special teams.
Johnson continues to deal with his injured right shoulder which he will eventually require surgery on the torn labrum. He has been quite effective despite being limited but has a much higher risk to be re-injured during hard hits. Hopefully he can get through these remaining 5 games and then work hard on recovering fully for training camp.
Fortunately, the Bills are in much better shape health wise than the Miami Dolphins who have been hit hard by injuries which may limit their ability to effectively play both sides of the ball despite having home field advantage. The relative lack of injuries for the Bills has been a key reason why the Bills have been able to stay in more games and build for the future effectively as they are not relying on 2nd and 3rd string players starting for significant chunks of the season. I hope this trend continues in a positive direction with next year allowing the Bills to bring in some top end talent they are sorely missing this year.
As an eternal optimist, I believe the Bills will win this one against the Dolphins. However, coming off two straight wins may set the Bills up for a trap game and they could lose a very winnable game. Even though each win represents a worsening draft position, these young Bills must know how to win now to win bigger games later.
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