The Buffalo Bills won an important Week 9 game. They had a very decisive victory over the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, but it came at a cost. As Week 10\u2019s practices opened on Wednesday, the Bills\u2019 injury report had an awful lot of DNPs on it. That\u2019s not good news as they need another division win over the Miami Dolphins this week.<\/p>\n
Among those not practicing on Wednesday were nickel cornerback Taron Johnson, defensive tackle DaQuan Jones, and linebacker Shaq Thompson. No one really expected any of them to practice as they\u2019re dealing with lingering injuries. And, of course, defensive end Michael Hoecht is now on Injured Reserve (IR) after he tore his Achilles in Sunday\u2019s win. That\u2019s a huge blow as Buffalo\u2019s pass rush has been better since he returned from his league-imposed six-game suspension.<\/p>\n
However, also not practicing were defensive ends Joey Bosa and A.J. Epenesa, and also James Cook III. All three missed Wednesday\u2019s practice session due to injuries sustained Sunday.<\/p>\n
James Cook\u2019s injury came early last Sunday, as he had his ankle rolled up on by a Kansas City Chiefs defender in the game\u2019s first drive. Cook was seen on the sideline having his foot taped while the Bills capped off their opening drive with a Josh Allen-to-Dalton-Kincaid touchdown pass. After Buffalo\u2019s second offensive drive of the game stalled, Cook was again seen getting a his right ankle\/foot re-wrapped.<\/p>\n
The Week 8 AFC Offensive Player of the Week was assumed to be okay as he finished the game, racking up yet another 100-yard effort \u2013 his fifth of the season. Cook is the only running back in the league averaging over 100 yards per game this year. Now, however, he\u2019s sidelined with something that (we can only hope) just needs some rest.<\/p>\n
Joey Bosa has a wrist injury. Honestly, looking back over game film, you can find Bosa shaking out and\/or grasping at his left wrist for the past two weeks. In Sunday\u2019s home win, he was seen landing on it, grabbing at it over and over, but quickly sending the Bills\u2019 sideline a thumbs up, indicating he had absolutely no intentions of exiting the game.<\/p>\n
The wrist injury, to whatever extent it is, hasn\u2019t slowed the 30-year-old defensive end down. Bosa had a pair of tackles and another sack on Sunday as he moved his season totals to 19 tackles, four sacks, and four forced fumbles. Bosa started Week 9 with a veteran rest day, and, hopefully, this is along those lines as well.<\/p>\n
A.J. Epenesa was one of Sunday\u2019s unsung heroes. While his stat lines don\u2019t show anything, the pressure he put on quarterback Patrick Mahomes \u2013 including a big hit as Mahomes stood near the sideline to release a cross-field pass \u2013 was monumental in keeping the Chiefs\u2019 offense off balance at the most crucial times. Epenesa, who is now in the league\u2019s concussion protocol, will be a name to watch over the next two days as the Bills prepare for their trip to South Beach on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Along with the non participants, the Bills had a few players limited in practice. Wide receiver Joshua Palmer is trying to work his way back from a knee\/ankle injury he suffered in Week 6. After two weeks of inactivity, he\u2019s starting his second week of limited work. Buffalo will hopefully get Palmer back on game days soon.<\/p>\n
Linebacker Terrel Bernard continues to work through the ankle injury that\u2019s had him limited for the past couple of weeks. After being available in an only-in-case-of-emergency situation in Week 8, the Bills defensive captain was a little more active during this past weekend\u2019s game. Bernard recorded six combined tackles against the Chiefs.<\/p>\n
Cornerback Christian Benford was also listed as limited. Benford, who now has a groin injury, is a name that head coach Sean McDermott didn\u2019t list in his pre-practice media session. Benford could very well have been injured in Wednesday\u2019s practice, which means we could see him digress through the week as we have seen with Taron Johnson, who was injured in a practice last week.<\/p>\n
However, Benford had a groin injury earlier this season, so this could just be an aggravation of something he\u2019s been dealing with rather than something new. If that\u2019s the case, this could just be precautionary \u2013 so, his is another name to keep a close eye on as the week progresses.<\/p>\n
Defensive tackle Jordan Phillips (added to the 53-man roster early last week) was listed with a wrist injury. This is old news for the defensive tackle who dislocated it during the 2023 season. It would seem that he\u2019s simply getting attention from the training staff for something that has plagued him for a couple of years, as he was listed as a full participant in Wednesday\u2019s practice.<\/p>\n
The Bills have three days to figure out what injuries are going to keep people off the field at Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday, and which are simply being managed with rest and medical treatment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Buffalo Bills won an important Week 9 game. They had a very decisive victory over the Kansas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[24732,24733,123,125,124],"class_list":["post-35544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-buffalo-bills-injuries","tag-buffalo-bills-news","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}