Buffalo Rumblings
Nobody in Buffalo was in a red jersey today, and Rasul Douglas says he’s playing.
There were no red, non-contact jerseys at One Bills Drive Thursday as the Buffalo Bills held their second practice of the week in preparation of hosting the New England Patriots on Sunday evening. Just because everyone was practicing, doesn’t mean there isn’t anything to be concerned about or keep our eyes on.
Here’s a look at how injured players are trending as we’ve hit the middle of the week.
Everyone above has practiced fully for two days now. All of these players played in the Week 15 win over the Detroit Lions with Spencer Brown the only one who wasn’t already while dealing with their listed injury. No one is in jeopardy of not being active on Sunday — at least not due to their current injuries.
Everyone here was still limited, although there’s video of Milano jumping, Douglas jogging, and everyone working on agility or pass catching. While we won’t know until Sunday for sure (although we can hope for only a few designations tomorrow), if I was going to guess on who would play, I would go with Douglas (who confidently told members of the media that he’s ready to play Sunday), Hamlin, and Williams. Rapp’s injury being a neck provides a little more uncertainty as is the case with Milano’s injury. Samuel is probably okay, but right now, Buffalo’s offense is as healthy as it’s been since early October — so, if the veteran is experiencing any pain, there’s plenty of room for rest.
Spector was just activated from the Injured Reserve list after spending more than a month rehabbing his calf injury. After Williams and Milano were both injured in Detroit on Sunday, Spector was called on maybe more than expected (23% of Buffalo’s defensive snap counts). Week 16 opened with no indication of any problems for the third-year linebacker who has had more than a couple of injuries in his three NFL seasons.
However, on Thursday, Spector’s calf apparently became a problem again and it resulted in the linebacker having a limited practice session. It will definitely be something to watch — Does he need more rest? Should he be sent back to IR? Was today just precautionary? Maybe more answers will come after the Friday practice. But hopefully Williams and Milano can be healthy enough to play — if not, Joe Andreessen is going to get a lot of snaps on Sunday.
As...
