Buffalo Rumblings
The Bills’ injuries on defense continue piling up
On Friday evening, the Buffalo Bills announced that defensive tackle DeWayne Carter was being placed on the Injured Reserve list with a wrist injury. The move came after head coach Sean McDermott had said that the rookie will need surgery to correct an injury he sustained, presumably, in Buffalo’s Week 7 win over the Tennessee Titans.
Earlier in the day, McDermott had said that the surgery would require Carter, who has become a strong part of the Bills’ defensive game, to miss “multiple weeks.” When asked about the possibility of the defensive tackle landing on IR, McDermott had said that he didn’t know at that time but that there was a “good chance.” It looks like that chance came just a few hours later.
Carter, who was the 2024 NFL Draft’s 95th overall pick, has had nine combined tackles — seven of them solo — over the past four weeks, and, in the Bills’ Week 6 win over the New York Jets, he was credited with a pass defensed when he tipped a throw by quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
The 23-year-old rookie out of Duke got his chance to become an integral part of the Bills’ defensive rotation when defensive tackle Ed Oliver had to miss time due to a hamstring injury, but now he’ll miss at least the next four games. That means Buffalo will be down a tackle for games against the Seattle Seahawks, Miami Dolphins, Indianapolis Colts, and Kansas City Chiefs.
Carter will get the benefit of the Bills having a bye week at the end of his required four-game hiatus, and hopefully that will be enough time to get him back on the field by Buffalo’s Week 13 game with the San Fransisco 49ers.
Now the Bills need to decide if they elevate someone from the practice squad, add a player before next week’s trade deadline, or leave the spot vacant for two days as they need to make room to add edge rusher Von Miller back to the roster when his suspension ends on Monday. Should they choose to elevate someone — even if just for Sunday’s game in Seattle, the Bills have Eli Ankou and Branson Deen available.
Despite Ankou having been with the Bills in 2021, where he played in five games making nine tackles and recording a sack, and on their practice squad in 2022, it was the rookie Branson Deen who the team chose to elevate for their Week 5 game. Deen was on the field for nine snaps as the Bills fell to the Houston Texans, but he didn’t record any tackles or assists.
Carter had begun showing what the Bills saw in him when they chose him with their third pick in the NFL draft — one they obtained via a trade with the Kansas City Chiefs — and now he will have to try and rebuild that momentum when he returns in (hopefully) five weeks.
