Bills vs Jets: Midweek injury trends and observations following Thursday practice

Well, here we are at mid-week as the Buffalo Bills prepare, once again, to attempt to right their rapidly sinking ship. This time they’ll play hosts to their division rivals, the New York Jets.

While the football world is focused on the state of the Bills’ offense and their newly appointed leader, Joe Brady, let’s take a minute to check out the injury front. With everyone on the report listed as limited today, predicting who will be ready by Sunday won’t be easy.

Bills players trending up

• CB Christian Benford (hamstring)
• LB Dorian Williams (knee)

I’m going to guess that these two have the greatest probability of playing Sunday afternoon.

Williams has gone from a non-participant yesterday to practicing today. Most likely he was dealing with some soreness and not anything structurally wrong with his knee. We never saw him exit Monday’s game due to an injury, so hopefully he’ll be part of the rotating crew of linebackers that have filled in for Matt Milano, who continues to work his way back from leg surgery.

Benford sat out a game and a half — stemming back to Week 9 when he exited the game in Cincinnati at halftime. Upgraded to limited both days this week, I would say there’s a chance he’s in uniform Sunday. Although that could also be dependent on Cam Lewis, who I have one category down from here.

Bills players holding steady

• DB Cam Lewis (shoulder)
• S Micah Hyde (neck/stinger)
• DT Jordan Phillips (knee)
• WR Trent Sherfield (ankle)

Cam Lewis left Monday’s game with a shin contusion but was able to return. However, he started this week with a shoulder injury. Honestly, if he hadn’t been in a no-contact jersey today I would have had him trending up with Benford.

Hyde is improving. He’s practicing. All of this is very positive for the 32-year-old safety who suffered another neck injury two weeks ago. He’s still in a no-contact jersey though, indicating that he either still has some weakness and/or pain, or the Bills are dealing very carefully with his recovery.

Phillips and Sherfield both were listed as limited after not practicing yesterday. However, they weren’t participating during the portion of practice open to the media and we still really don’t have a lot of information on either of their injuries. We do know Sherfield left Monday night’s game early and then was ruled out while Phillips played through whatever he’s dealing with.

We’ll have to wait until later today to have a better idea who, if any, among these four will be ready by game day.

Bills players on Injured Reserve

• TE Zach Davidson
• OT Tommy Doyle
• CB Kaiir Elam
• RB Damien Harris
• DT DaQuan Jones
• TE Dawson Knox
• LB Matt Milano
• WR Justin Shorter
• CB Tre’Davious White

As for the Jets, their injury report looks a lot like what we’ve been used to seeing in Buffalo recently.

Jets players trending down

• LB Sam Eguavoen (hip)
• LB Chazz Surratt (ankle)
• OT Billy Turner (finger)

Jets players holding steady

• OT Mekhi Becton (knee)
• DE Will McDonald IV (ankle)
• WR Garrett Wilson (elbow)

Jets players trending up

• OT Duane Brown (hip)
• DE John Franklin-Myers (knee)
• LB Quincy Williams (knee)
• TE Kenny Yeboah (hamstring)

Jets players on Injured Reserve

• DL Bradlee Anae
• T Duane Brown
• S Chuck Clark
• CB Javelin Guidry
• CB Justin Hardee
• C Connor McGovern
• DL Ifeadi Odenigbo
• QB Aaron Rodgers
• OL Wes Schweitzer
• G Alijah Vera-Tucker
• DL Al Woods
• TE Kenny Yeboah