Bills, Packers injury reports for SNF matchup

From the looks of the final Buffalo Bills and Green Bay Packers Week 8 injury reports, the Bills may be fielding a (mostly) complete team when they host Green Bay on Sunday night—but the Packers won’t be quite so fortunate.

Only two Bills players—right tackle Spencer Brown and running back Taiwan Jones—carry injury designations going into the contest. Brown was ruled out on Friday morning, while Jones is questionable.

The Brown news wasn’t much of a surprise since the second-year lineman was in a walking boot two weeks ago, and the trend for ankle injuries in Buffalo has been three to four weeks out of play—with the exception of receiver Gabe Davis, who only missed one game, but played limited for a couple of weeks.

The big news out of the Bills practice was that wide receiver Jake Kumerow was a full participant in Friday’s practice and heads towards game time with no designation—a sign that the former Packer will be dressed in Buffalo blue on Sunday. Kumerow injured his ankle during Week 3 and hasn’t been on the field since. The wide receiver has struggled to put a full week of practice together, being either a non-participant or limited in every practice. In each of those weeks, Kumerow was ruled out by the end of Friday’s practice.

The only other injury of note on the Bills’ report all week was Jones, who has been nursing a sore knee since before the Week 6 showdown with the Kansas City Chiefs. Jones has managed to move from not practicing Wednesday, to being limited on Thursday, to being a full participant on Friday. However, with being listed as questionable for Sunday, it is likely that Jones will be a game-time decision.

The Packers, on the other hand, still had three players not practicing on Friday due to injury. Wide receiver Allen Lazard (shoulder) and defensive back Shemar Jean-Charles (ankle) have both been non-participants all week, and were ruled out on Friday. Meanwhile, left tackle David Bakhtiari (knee), pass rusher Rashan Gary (concussion), guard Elgton Jenkins (knee), and wide receiver Christian Watson (hamstring) are all listed as questionable on the Packers’ final injury report for the week.

Bakhtiari started the week as limited and then downgraded to not practicing at all on Thursday, but was limited again on Friday. Gary started the week in concussion protocol and has been working his way through it, and may be close to clearing it considering that he was a full participant on Friday.

Watson and fellow wideout Sammy Watkins were limited for the third straight practice, but I would expect to see at least the former Buffalo Bill on the field Sunday, if not both of them. Watkins does not carry an injury designation entering the contest.

Aaron Rodgers was limited the final two practices this week, but since he injured the thumb on his throwing hand against the New York Giants on October 9 the pattern has been for Rodgers to take Wednesday’s off and then be limited in practice for the next two days, so this really means nothing. Rodgers will be the starting quarterback on Sunday.