T.J. Sanders has not gotten much luck at the beginning of his second season with the Buffalo Bills.
The former second-round pick injured his knee in practice ahead of Week 1’s game against the Texans and ultimately was inactive. That knee injury lingered into Week 2, and on the short week against the Lions, he did not play again. He was also dealing with an illness.
Remember, Sanders spent time on IR last season with a knee injury.
And now he’s dealing with a non-football related ailment.
Brady did not give a specific timetable for Sanders’ recovery from appendectomy, yet the Bills made a related move on Wednesday, signing a familiar veteran to their practice squad:
The now 32-year-old defensive tackle spent the 2024 campaign in Buffalo, logging 353 snaps, including 21 in the AFC Championship Game against the Chiefs.
Mostly a run-lane clogger, Johnson only managed eight pressures on 187 pass-rush snaps but did have 10 stops against the run.
He spent 2022 and 2023 with the Chargers after two seasons with the Giants and his first four professional campaigns with the Titans.
The Sanders’ news is another bump in the road for the talented defensive lineman who’s certainly underachieved to date. I called him the biggest X-factor on Buffalo’s defense before the season, and I haven’t lost all hope for him this early of course. Yet it’d be nice for him to get fully healthy and incorporated into Jim Leonhard’s system sooner than later.
