Buffalo Rumblings
The Buffalo Bills won a big game Sunday and, in the process, did not pick up too many new injuries. In fact, they’re just dealing with two new injuries as Week 16 game prep gets under way. The problem, however, is that those are some big injuries.
Defensive tackle Jordan Phillips left Sunday’s win in Foxborough, MA early with an ankle injury. While he was initially seen on the sidelines with his ankle heavily taped, post-game the 33-year-old Phillips was seen in a walking boot. His nonparticipation on Wednesday comes as no surprise as Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott had announced on Monday that Phillips would not play this coming Sunday when the team heads to Cleveland.
Kicker Matt Prater was also not practicing. His injury was not apparent in-game, but on Monday, like Phillips, McDermott announced that Prater would be sidelined for Week 16 with a quad injury.
Despite the two big injuries, there was plenty of good news on Buffalo’s first injury report of the week.
To start, the Bills opened wide receiver Mecole Hardman, Jr.’ s practice window. After playing less than one full game as a Bill, the 27-year-old specialist has been on Injured Reserve with a calf injury. While according to the league’s timeline, Buffalo has three weeks to get the seven-year veteran back on the active roster, it’s possible that it could happen sooner than that.
The issue for Hardman is that, in his absence, the Bills signed wide receiver Brandin Cooks, added wide receiver Gabe Davis to the active roster, and have found that running back Ray Davis is a more-than-capable return man. Still, wide receiver Joshua Palmer has struggled to stay healthy and wide receiver Keon Coleman continues to underwhelm, so the possibility that Buffalo makes a roster change is very plausible.
Other good news included both cornerback Christian Benford and linebacker Terrell Bernard working with teammates today. Neither of the two played in Sunday’s win over the New England Patriots. Bernard has missed three-and-a-half games with a dislocated elbow. He was officially listed as questionable before Week 15 but didn’t make the final cut.
Benford, after having a two-week span that included two interceptions, a fumble recovery, two touchdowns, and a Defensive Player of the Week award, injured a toe in practice last week. Like Bernard, Benford entered last weekend questionable and wasn’t able to run well enough on his toe in pregame warmups to warrant wearing a uniform on Sunday.
There was one more piece of not-so-great news on the first injury report of the week. Tight end Dalton Kincaid’s nagging knee injury kept him out of work on Wednesday. Kincaid has been battling a knee injury for a year. It seemed to have quieted down over the offseason, but after working his way through a hamstring injury that occurred in Week 10, the knee injury resurfaced.
Last week, the third-year tight end was a full participant in every practice despite having the knee injury still listed. Now, as Week...
