The Bills have just wrapped up the second week of training camp following the first practice in the new Highmark Stadium with The Return of the Blue and Red Scrimmage Saturday night.
While injuries have been an issue in past seasons and around the league, the Bills have been fortunate to avoid most of the major issues early on. The biggest injury concerns we’ve seen have been CJ Gardner-Johnson with his low calf strain, Ray Davis with a brief ankle issue, and a shot to Dalton Kincaid’s nuts. During the Return of the Blue and Red, the biggest issues we saw were Connor McGovern and Ty Johnson with several other minor issues.
Other injury issues have come up, but the training staff has been managing these issues well. Below are the injuries coming out of Week 2 of Bills training camp.
New Injuries
DT Deone Walker (Left Elbow)
Walker began missing practice on Monday after he was spotted off to the side working out with trainers with a left elbow sleeve.
Cover 1’s Anthony Prohaska noted that Walker appeared to tweak his elbow while doing bag work on Thursday.
This likely led to him practicing and realizing that he was having issues that required the sleeve along with some rehab. He went on further to state that he hopes to practice Thursday after he gets fitted for a brace.
On Thursday, he was able to return to practice and practice in full.
It’s entirely possible that Walker suffered an elbow sprain, such as the UCL, when he did the bag work and hit the forearm/hand awkwardly, tweaking the ligament. This could also affect his ability to punch, grip, and anchor with blocks.
This is something that he can play through with the bracing, but I don’t anticipate him getting rid of the brace anytime soon. This will at least help protect the area, but we may see him intermittently deal with this during the season. We may see him have issues with holding his blocks or swim moves on his left arm at times or not have as strong of a grip on the left side. This will be one to watch as the season progresses.
RB Ray Davis (Right Lower Leg)
Davis put a brief scare into the fan base when he went down on a run play during 11v11. Trainers briefly checked him out and taped his right ankle back up before he quickly returned to the field.
This may have been at worst a low ankle sprain, but this is something that can be played through. He did not appear limited for the remainder of the week.
WR DJ Moore (Leg)
Moore briefly left practice to have his leg stretched out following a rep against air during Thursday’s practice. He had been wearing a sleeve on his right lower leg area, but it’s not clear whether this was the same side or area getting stretched out.
He was able to return to practice on Friday and participate fully with a sleeve on his right leg again.
DB DJ Miller (Undisclosed)
Miller limped to the medical tent on Thursday after individual drills, and no further updates were reported.
It wasn’t clear whether he was able to practice on Friday, but he did not practice Saturday.
DT Zane Durant (Right Lower Leg)
On Friday, Durant required medical attention to his lower right leg after a team drill that kept him out briefly but it’s unclear whether he was able to return. Considering he had his helmet with him, he was eligible. However, he did not suit up on Saturday either.
CB Dee Alford (Undisclosed)
Alford was shaken up on Friday after trying to defend a pass to Joshua Palmer and fell hard, taking a few moments to get up before he went to the medical tent.
He eventually returned to the sideline but without a helmet. It was not clear whether he finished practice Friday. Fortunately, he was able to return to practice on Saturday.
CB Maxwell Hairston (Leg)
Hairston sat out Friday’s practice for a minor issue which wasn’t identified, but the team isn’t concerned about his availability moving forward.
One clue we got was from Spectrum News’ Andy Young noting that Hairston was shaking out his legs on the sideline following 11-on-11’s.
He also sat out Saturday’s scrimmage as a continued precaution.
WR Mac Dalena (Undisclosed)
Dalena missed practice on Saturday during the stadium scrimmage, his third in a row according to Nick Sabato of the Niagara Gazette. I noticed that Dalena had a blue sleeve on his left back on August 4, but it wasn’t widely reported that he hadn’t practiced since then. This is officially an undisclosed injury, but it may be a left leg issue.
RB Ty Johnson (Right Hamstring)
One of the more significant injuries of the night was when Johnson was one-on-one with LB Joe Andressen when he suddenly went down, grabbing the back of his knee in the first video. He did require the assistance of training staff to walk off but could weight-bear through the leg partially.
The second video is a great angle showing from behind how Johnson goes to accelerate and then turn inside, pushing off the right leg. He looks to push off the leg the step before going down, and it appears as though the leg gives before he takes another step and falls.
The fact that he was sprinting like that and went down grabbing behind the knee suggests more of a hamstring strain than a knee or calf. Going with a hamstring as this appears more likely, I referenced the average time spent on the injury report product over at my Spartera Marketplace to give us a timeline for him to be out.
This isn’t exact since this is the preseason, but league-wide, running backs who suffer a hamstring strain are on the injury report for 2.42 weeks; for the Bills specifically, it’s 2.27. This at least tells us the timeframe that the injury requires treatment. Unless the Bills tell us something different, he looks week-to-week and missing roughly two to three weeks before he’s back on the field. Considering his positional demands, I’m leaning closer to three weeks.
C Connor McGovern (Right Hamstring)
One of the most concerning injuries of the night was starting center Connor McGovern when he went down with a right leg injury during 11-on-11s. Athletic trainers tended to him before he came up, grabbing his right hamstring as he limped off the field.
Video from Alex Brasky from Alex Brasky: Unfiltered caught the injury in real time when McGovern tried to chase down the Christian Benford interception. Being that he is a big man, he ran down the field before the hamstring tightened up on him and he went down watching the video below.
It’s important to note that McGovern has had a right hamstring injury before, which helps provide context. He suffered a hamstring injury against the Chicago Bears during their joint practice last season. He missed the preseason game and sat out for about a week before he returned to the field. He did say at the time that this was a minor injury and that he would have played if it was a regular season game.
Using the Time Spent on the Injury Report Spartera Marketplace product, we have to look at the league averages for linemen with hamstring injuries. The Buffalo Bills simply don’t have a large sample size during the regular season, with the only one being Dion Dawkins last year missing one game.
Centers spent 1.81 weeks on the injury report while Guards spent 2.53 weeks, and Tackles spent 2.52 weeks on the report with a hamstring injury. So right off the bat, McGovern is looking at dealing with this injury for at least the next two weeks. Considering it’s preseason, it wouldn’t surprise me to tack on an extra week to be safe. If this were the regular season, I would expect McGovern to miss minimal time as he’s been known to play through many things, but this is the time of year to get right. Let’s see how he looks in at least two weeks.
S Cole Bishop (Lower Body)
According to WGR’s Nate Geary, he noted that Cole Bishop appeared to suffer a lower body injury during the two-minute drill. It didn’t look serious, and his night appeared to be over considering it was the end of practice. We need more information on this one, but this establishes when he could have suffered an injury.
OT Dion Dawkins (Vet Rest Day)
Dawkins was out at practice on Friday with a full sleeve on his left leg and missed portions of 11 on 11, standing off to the side.
After practice, Brandon Beane confirmed that this was a veteran rest day for Dawkins, which is common for older players.
P Mitch Wishnowsky (Undisclosed)
Wishnowsky has not participated in the last two practices, according to Joe Buscaglia of The Athletic.
I’m unaware of anything in particular about whether he has an injury or not. This one will be one to watch.
Injury Updates
S CJ Gardner-Johnson (Right Lower Calf Strain)
Gardner-Johnson was already out at practice on Tuesday as he began his rehab program as he works back from his lower calf strain from Saturday.
He was moving surprisingly well for someone who was initially feared to have more damage. He can also be seen moving around well on Instagram without a boot or tape on the ankle, along with his ability to bop around during the game he was playing with Dion Dawkins.
On Thursday, he showed up in full pads and was able to practice the entire practice with a sleeve on his right lower leg.
I had originally said that he’d be back within 2-3 weeks but probably taking the full time, but this quick of a return, missing just two practices, is remarkable. This appears to have been a bigger scare than actual injury damage, but CJGJ stated that he had been working with the training staff to get back on the field quickly. They have baseline measurements to determine how close a player is to returning with speed, jumping, and power with certain movements. They also have the imaging to determine the specific damage.
There is a 20 percent chance for him to suffer another calf injury this year, but those are pretty good odds overall. He also doesn’t have much of a soft tissue injury history, which helps his return to play. This will be one to watch to see if he suffers an aggravation, but from such a scare to return to the field so quickly is impressive and a testament to the medical staff.
DL Michael Hoecht (Right Achilles)
Hoecht continues to defy expectations as he works back from his right Achilles tear last season. He has done incredibly well so far and is moving like a man returning to performance rather than a man trying to return to play.
He has been on One Bills Live discussing his rehab, which is a must-listen in the first four minutes. Additionally, Tim Graham of The Athletic wrote a great piece on Hoecht’s recovery that is an enjoyable read. I had originally said that Hoecht would just be a guy coming off his injury and his overall stats may show that, but we may get more flashes than I had initially thought.
Final Thoughts
If you’ve been an avid follower over the years, you’ve realized that I try to cover just about everything that’s Bills injury-related and league-wide as well. One of the metrics I’ve looked over the last two years is preseason injuries. We saw an alarming spike over the last two seasons with 67 injuries that required medical attention during practice or in games.
Through 8 practices, the Bills have only dealt with 15 injuries, though that number may be off by one or two based on reporting information. Compared to 2025, the Bills had 33 different injuries to players by the same point last year. This is a 55 percent drop from last year.
Now, some of this is luck, but more of this is due to proper planning. Whether this was making sure players stuck to workout routines throughout the offseason to ensure that they were staying in shape or early practices with more breaks or better recovery, all of this I’m sure contributes to it.
We also got an interesting nugget of information from Sal Maiorana of the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. The clip from his story is below, but the whole article can be found here.
I had heard very similar things about how McDermott pushed, how injuries began piling up, and they just fell behind. But with a 55 percent decline in injury volume this year compared to the same point last year, it seems like Joe Brady is more open to changes than Sean McDermott was.
There’s a notable change in how things are being run this year, and it’s welcomed. The team is healthier, and I’m less busy. But injuries have derailed the Bills in the playoffs every year, losing key pieces or guys aren’t fully healthy or effective by the time they’re needed in a key playoff game. No one is healthy by then, but they can play.
I still expect the team to deal with injuries; that’s going to happen, we can’t stop that. But to see a drop-off in the volume of injuries so far, that’s positive for the long-term health of the team.
Finally, we’re seeing that Joe Brady has been rather tight-lipped about the injuries thus far. What I do isn’t exact as I don’t have all the information, but looking at the injury, how they move after, and what other context clues are provided will be key in identifying injuries that we otherwise won’t get full information on.
It was a fun night in the new stadium and hopefully there are many new and exciting moments inside.
Top Photo Credit: NBC Sports
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