NFL rules stipulate 53 players can be on the active roster but only 46 can suit up to play in the games. That means seven players from the Buffalo Bills’ roster won’t be able to see the field Thursday night.
Let’s speculate on who those seven players are going to be:
OL Tommy Doyle
Doyle has been dealing with an injury that I thought may end up with him being placed on injured reserve earlier this week. Apparently the Bills don’t think it’s a four-week injury and he’s on the roster, but he didn’t practice Monday or Tuesday and was limited in Wednesday’s walkthrough.
TE Quintin Morris
Like Doyle, Morris didn’t practice on Monday or Tuesday with an injury and was limited at Wednesday’s walkthrough. The Bills are going to dress two tight ends at most, so if Morris isn’t 100%, I’ll give that nod to Tommy Sweeney. Buffalo only had one tight end active for their last game of 2021, so Sweeney could still appear later on this list.
DE Shaq Lawson
Lawson has been running fifth all summer at the defensive end spot and the team is only going to dress four. This one is pretty obvious to me.
CB Cam Lewis
The Bills have frequently dressed only four or five cornerbacks in the past, and Lewis is the last one on the roster right now. They won’t keep six active, so he sits.
WR Jamison Crowder
The Bills have their starting three wide receivers, then Khalil Shakir is the primary punt returner and Jake Kumerow is a special teams stalwart. With what Shakir showed during camp and the preseason, he’s more than capable of finishing a game if one of the starters goes down. Crowder doesn’t play special teams and is likely inactive on game days unless there is an injury.
RB Zack Moss
The Bills want to have a role for Moss, so maybe he dresses in place of Tommy Sweeney. At least in this first game with the stout defensive line of the Rams, I’m going to go with the extra pass-catcher instead of the extra running back.
LB Baylon Spector
The final decision was hard. Buffalo loves keeping six linebackers active to play special teams and this leaves them with only five. In the end, I went with eight offensive linemen and the extra tight end over the sixth linebacker.
If it’s not these seven, I’d expect TE Tommy Sweeney to be the next name on the list. Like I said earlier, the Bills rolled with just one tight end several times in 2021 and feel comfortable with Reggie Gilliam as a backup there.
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