Heading into their second preseason game, the Bills appeared to be rounding the corner on some of their longer-term injuries from earlier in the summer. But the game against the Steelers brought on a host of new problems the Bills must navigate before the start of the regular season.
There are so many injuries that it’s forced the team’s hand. Even though the Bills wanted to play mostly everyone, coach Sean McDermott made the uncharacteristically early call to sit all their starters in the team’s preseason finale Saturday afternoon against the Panthers.
The Bills usually wait until a day or two before the exhibition matchup to make their plans for the starters known. Instead, they’ll treat their three practices this week as those preseason reps in a more controlled way.
But their current injury situation extends well beyond just a preseason game on Saturday. Many of the injuries carry multi-week distinctions and with roster cuts due at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 27, the Bills may need to get creative.
Including the two players they put on injured reserve last week, the Bills have 16 percent of their 91-man roster needing to miss time due to injury.
Bills Injury Report, August 19
| Position | Name | Injury |
|---|---|---|
| QB |  Mitchell Trubisky | Knee |
| QB |  Shane Buechele | Neck (Placed on IR) |
| WR |  Curtis Samuel | Turf toe |
| WR |  Marquez Valdes-Scantling | Neck |
| WR |  Lawrence Keys III | Foot |
| WR |  Bryan Thompson | Hamstring (Placed on IR) |
| TE |  Quintin Morris | Shoulder |
| OL | Travis Clayton | Shoulder |
| DE |  Casey Toohill | Groin |
| LB |  Matt Milano | Torn bicep (out indefinitely) |
| LB |  Baylon Spector | Calf |
| LB |  Nicholas Morrow | Core/groin |
| S | Cole Bishop | Shoulder |
| S |  Mike Edwards | Hamstring |
| S |  Damar Hamlin | Hamstring |
Quarterback
After investing a free agent contract in Mitchell Trubisky and almost a full year in Shane Buechele’s development, the Bills may walk into Week 1 with an unnerving plan to backup franchise quarterback Josh Allen. Trubisky suffered a knee injury against the Steelers, and McDermott said that their top backup quarterback would be out “multiple weeks.” Buechele was already placed on season-ending injured reserve with a neck injury. That leaves only Allen, Ben DiNucci and their newest addition Anthony Brown, whom they signed Monday, according to NFL Network. DiNucci has been with the team for the NFL quarterback equivalent of five seconds, and Brown even less. They were likely hoping DiNucci could get them through the preseason games and then head to the regular season with just Allen and Trubisky on the roster. That may no longer be an option.Much of it will depend on Trubisky’s diagnosis, but if they feel a possible return would be too close to the regular season opener, the Bills could try to make some kind of move at quarterback. They have a few different options to do so. The first option would be to comb the waiver wire after final cuts and claim their favorite of the bunch, though the drawback would be that a 53-man roster spot automatically goes to that player. The second, less invasive option to their initial roster would be to sign someone to the practice squad, with DiNucci and Brown options for that, and then call one up to the 53-man roster as needed if Trubisky is out one to three weeks of regular season time.
The last option is only if they feel Trubisky is a candidate to begin the year on injured reserve, putting him out for the first four weeks. That would be to trade for a quarterback, with the ideal scenario being someone familiar with the offensive scheme. Kyle Allen, the current third quarterback for the Steelers and last year’s Bills backup, seems like an obvious fit if the Steelers are open to the idea. The good news is that with cutdown day on Aug. 27, rather than just before Week 1, they can give Trubisky at least a bit more time to see if he can be ready to begin the year.
Wide receiver
With all of Monday’s updates, the wide receiver spot took a pretty significant hit. Curtis Samuel’s turf toe has him labeled week-to-week, and he’s a prominent member of their top four. Meanwhile, the neck injury to Marquez Valdes-Scantling will keep him out “multiple weeks,” according to McDermott. Valdes-Scantling was their clear fifth receiver and a near roster lock. That leaves the Bills with three healthy receivers — Khalil Shakir, Keon Coleman and Mack Hollins — who were ticketed for a role on offense to begin the year.McDermott admitted that they are more concerned about some of their multi-week injured players not being ready for Week 1 than others but declined to say who. However, looking at the rhetoric McDermott used to describe wide receiver specifically, it would not be a surprise if Samuel was one of the ones he was more optimistic about. In McDermott-speak, there is a decent difference in severity between week-to-week and “out multiple weeks.” For reference, safeties Cole Bishop and Mike Edwards were labeled week-to-week in late July, and they are beginning to ramp up at practice this week.
If that holds, the Bills shouldn’t need to do anything with Samuel’s injury for roster cuts. They might need to place Valdes-Scantling on injured reserve to begin the year to open up a spot for another receiver. Unlike the backup quarterback decision, they’ll need to make that call by next week because the player they would keep instead of Valdes-Scantling would likely need to go through waivers. His injury might secure a roster spot for clear sixth receiver Tyrell Shavers.
Safeties Cole Bishop, pictured, and Mike Edwards could be back to full practice soon after being injured. (Bryan M. Bennett / Getty Images)
Safety
Although the Bills had hit after hit to their roster, their most injured position for much of the summer had some good news. Bishop and Edwards, two of their potential starting options at free safety, will begin to ramp up toward a full return beginning this week. McDermott said the plan for both was to participate in walkthroughs and individual drills during practices. This is a very important development for the defense, as both players could be back to full practice leading up to the regular season. Knowing this provides the team with more roster flexibility on cutdown day.More importantly, they’ll see if one of Bishop or Edwards is where they need to be to operate as the opening day starter. The only other option is Hamlin, who was labeled week-to-week with his hamstring injury. Hamlin’s injury could potentially end his bid to be the starter this year, though McDermott did note that there’s a difference between a player missing time, and a player new to the scheme missing time. If they hold to that, Hamlin being the starter is still in play.