Bills vs Giants: First injury report of the week

Well, it was nice while it lasted — those early weeks of the NFL season where the Buffalo Bills were putting up several nice, clean injury reports. But after two brutal weeks, this week’s first injury report isn’t as tidy — and it doesn’t even begin to tell the whole story.

Trying to keep up with what’s happening with the players listed at cornerback on Buffalo’s roster is enough to give a person whiplash. We all know by now that Tre’Davious White’s season is over after he suffered an Achilles injury in Week 4. Then Christian Benford was listed last week as questionable with a shoulder injury — a designation he wasn’t able to shake, so he didn’t suit up in London. Now he’s back to a full participant — a huge boost for Buffalo as he had earned the CB2 title during preseason, making him the obvious CB1 (at least temporarily).

But, with the return of Benford, we have the decline of Dane Jackson. Last year, Jackson played for the then-injured-with-an-ACL-tear White. Now after just a game and a half, one of which was played on the brutal surface at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, he’s among those not practicing. Not a good sign for Buffalo, who only has Kaiir Elam left on the roster at cornerback. They did, however, sign a familiar face in Josh Norman to their practice squad, and, provided he can get in playing-physical-condition rapidly, he could elevated on game day and add some experience.

Edge rusher Greg Rousseau was limited in today’s practice. A good sign for the Buffalo defensive line. Rousseau missed Week 5 with an unidentified foot injury. While the Bills got Von Miller back on Sunday — and thankfully he came through the game clean and is not listed on today’s injury report — they also lost defensive tackle DaQuan Jones. Jones, who has been among the league’s top pass rushers, accumulating double-teams and freeing up the likes of Rousseau, Ed Oliver, and Leonard Floyd who have amassed a total of 11.5 sacks among just the three of them, was moved to the team’s Injured Reserve (IR) today, along with linebacker Matt Milano.

Speaking of linebackers, along with moving A.J. Klein from the practice squad to the active roster, the Bills have designated Baylon Spector to return from IR. Spector, who was originally in a fight for the middle linebacker position with Terrel Bernard and Tyrel Dodson during the summer, started the year on IR after a hamstring injury suffered in training camp. As a full participant in today’s practice, it would seem that we will see him back on the active roster very soon — and Buffalo only filled one of the two roster spots opened up when they sent Milano and Jones to IR on Wednesday.

Tight end Dalton Kincaid has been in concussion protocol even though he was cleared after being pulled from Sunday’s game for a check by the league’s Unaffiliated Neurotrauma Consultant. The fact that he was limited today — even though it was only a walkthrough practice — means that Kincaid has cleared the first stages of the NFL’s concussion protocol. The hope would obviously be that he will be a full participant in the next two days, not experience any setbacks, and be ready by game time Sunday.

Complicating things for the Bills as Kincaid works through concussion protocol, is the fact that Dawson Knox is dealing with a wrist injury. While Knox never took time away from the game, he was seen wearing tape after one particular play Sunday when one of the Jacksonville Jaguars defenders crashed into him.

As bad as it seems for the Bills, and as much as we are going to miss those nice tidy reports we had in the first three weeks of the season, it could be worse. For instance, this week’s opponents: the New York Giants.

On today’s reports, the Giants had eight players who were unable to participate — and, no, none of them were simply Vet Rest days — and another six who were limited. Headlining that list was quarterback Daniel Jones who suffered a neck injury in Sunday’s loss to the Miami Dolphins. While Giants head coach Brian Daboll was optimistic about his starting quarterback being able to play this weekend, a missed day of practice may mean a change of plan — which would include former Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor lining up under center.

Other Giants starters who are on today’s injury list include running back Saquon Barkley, linebacker Micah McFadden, defensive end Azeez Ojulari, offensive tackle Andrew Thomas, tight end Darren Waller, cornerback Deonte Banks, and guard Marcus McKethan.

Tomorrow’s report will tell us a lot about the status of both the Bills’ and the Giants’ rosters for Sunday Night Football.