There’s good news and bad news coming out of One Bills Drive again today. To start with the good, three names on the daily injury report were upgraded to full participants on the second day of practice
ahead of the Week 6 Monday Night Football in Atlanta. The bad, however, is that two players were downgraded to not participating at all.
The biggest news of the day may have been about linebacker Dorian Williams, who’s been dealing with a knee injury for two weeks now. Williams sat out last Sunday’s game against the New England Patriots and that spelled trouble for the Bills who lost Matt Milano halfway through the game. Williams didn’t practice at all last week, he was limited on Thursday, but is now back to a full day of work.
Safety Taylor Rapp and left tackle Dion Dawkins were also back to being full participants. Not really surprises, but still good to note that there is nothing seriously ailing either of them. Dawkins was listed as limited on Wednesday with a thumb injury while Rapp was limited with a nose injury.
While the Bills had three guys return to full practice, they had two move from limited to not being able to practice at all. Safety Damar Hamlin is now sidelined with a pectoral injury, making it a good thing Rapp’s nose injury wasn’t something that required surgery or a stint in the league’s concussion protocol.
Curtis Samuel was the other Bill who was downgraded on Friday. The wide receiver caught two passes on Sunday, one for a touchdown, but now he’s injured – again. This has become a habit for Samuel who has spent much of his time in Buffalo battling injuries – from turf toe to ribs to now a neck injury. Since the Bills have six receivers on their active roster, they have been keeping one inactive each game day – Samuel has only been in uniform twice but it’s looking like he’s going to be the one sitting again this week.
Still not practicing are Matt Milano and T.J. Sanders. Milano is no surprise. Head coach Sean McDermott told us on Monday that he was going to be considered week-to-week after reaggravated a pectoral injury that had been causing him trouble since Week 2. It’s doubtful that we actually see him back in a uniform this month if I was guessing, and maybe not even then. However, with the Bills not placing him on Injured Reserve yet, it would seem that they are hopeful he will be back by Week 9 or 10.
Sanders is concerning. McDermott said last week that the defensive tackle has been dealing with knee soreness for a while and that it had flared up during practice in Week 5. He spent the remainder of the week limited and then was listed as questionable heading into the weekend. He didn’t play Sunday night, and now he hasn’t been practicing either. I don’t expect him to see him until after the Bye Week.
However, Ed Oliver, who has been sidelined with an ankle injury since the middle of Week 2 when he was stepped on in practice, has been limited the past two days. If we are to believe Oliver himself, he will play Monday night – and he could be right, that extra day of rest might be what gets him on the field.
Dalton Kincaid is the other name on the daily injury list, and the tight end remains limited with an oblique injury. There hasn’t been much information about his injury, but the fact that he’s still getting work in is a good sign that he could play (even if on a snap count) on Monday night. Tomorrow will tell us more about both him and Oliver.
