Buffalo Bills largely healthy heading into Week 4 showdown with Miami Dolphins

While Week 4 of the 2023 NFL season doesn’t technically start until tomorrow, both the Buffalo Bills and the Miami Dolphins coaches addressed the bumps, bruises, and actual injuries that their teams will be dealing with as they prepare for their showdown in Orchard Park, NY this coming Sunday.

For Bills head coach Sean McDermott, his list was small. Offensive lineman Ryan Bates injured an ankle when he came in during the fourth quarter of Buffalo’s 37-3 win over the Washington Commanders.

As his norm, McDermott said that Bates would be “day to day” with the injury and didn’t offer up any information as to the type or extent of the injury.

Buffalo didn’t have any other injuries occur during the game. While they entered Sunday’s game with a full roster, it might be worthy to note that edge rusher Leonard Floyd was on McDermott’s radar as an injury to manage. Floyd, who injured an ankle in Buffalo’s Week 2 38-10 win over the Las Vegas Raiders, had missed some practice time last week. McDermott referenced the injury as part of why he chose to have Kingsley Jonathan active on Sunday instead of defensive tackle Poona Ford.

“We want to put what we feel is the best for that weekend’s game out there,” he said about the decision to have an extra edge rusher rather than five defensive tackles ready to go in Washington. “It’s going to be different week to week, but with Flo’s injury and missed practice we wanted to be sure we took care of him.”

Floyd’s injury didn’t slow him down — he recorded three tackles and two sacks — but his participation in practice this week will be something to monitor.

As for the team that will be on the other side of the field on Sunday, they have quite a few more injuries to manage throughout the course of the week.

To start with, wide receiver Jaylen Waddle is still in concussion protocol, although Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel remains optimistic about the progress he’s making. Waddle took a hit to the back of the head late in the game during Week 2. Waddle, who, after being struck in the back of the head, had the front of his head hit the ground, was able to be a limited participant in Miami’s last practice before they took on the Denver Broncos. While he was catching passes, it wasn’t enough to get the third-year receiver out of the league’s concussion protocol.

The Dolphins will be without wide receiver River Cracraft, who was injured during the Dolphins’ 70-20 thrashing of the Denver Broncos. The 28-year-old receiver injured his shoulder early in the game, and today McDaniel said that he will “miss some time.”

Linebacker Jaelan Phillips injured an oblique before halftime and center Connor Phillips injured his groin in the third quarter. Both are now day-to-day.

While Eli Apple had to leave the game in the fourth quarter this past Sunday to be evaluated per the league’s concussion protocol, he has since been cleared and is free to practice.