The Buffalo Bills and New England Patriots are set to kick off in around 90 minutes, which means that each team has officially listed their inactive players for the contest. The Bills did not rule out any players ahead of this one, though they did list a player as doubtful. New England, meanwhile, listed four players as out this week.
Starting corner Christian Benford was listed as questionable despite missing all three of Buffalo’s practice sessions this week. While that provided some hope that he
would be able to play, a practice-squad elevation of Kani Walker on Saturday hinted at Benford missing the game. Now, his status is official.
Here are all of the inactive players for today’s pivotal AFC East showdown.
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WR Skyler Bell
The rookie wideout is a healthy scratch once again this week, as the Bills have settled into a fairly well-defined pecking order at receiver. Greg Dortch is the WR5 and returner man, while DJ Moore, Keon Coleman, Khalil Shakir, and Joshua Palmer will continue to take the lion’s share of the snaps on offense.
T/G Jude Bowry
The first of Buffalo’s three fourth-round picks in the 2026 NFL Draft—Bell and linebacker Kaleb Elarms-Orr are the others—is also a healthy scratch once again. Tylan Grable remains the active swing tackle.
G Ar’Maj Reed-Adams
The rookie seventh-round pick dealt with an elbow injury over the last two weeks, but he wasn’t going to be active even if he were 100% healthy. Buffalo is content to roll with Austin Corbett and Lloyd Cushenberry as their backup interior linemen.
DL T.J. Sanders
After having an appendectomy ahead of last week’s game, Sanders was listed as doubtful this week. The good news is that he was able to practice. The bad news is that he’s once again inactive.
OLB Mike Danna
The veteran edge rusher is once again a healthy scratch, as Greg Rousseau, Bradley Chubb, Michael Hoecht, and T.J. Parker remain the active players at outside linebacker. Danna is likely only going to earn a game jersey if one of those four is injured. He’s a solid veteran insurance policy.
CB Christian Benford
We expected this, but now it’s official. Rookie Davison Igbinosun is in line to start, and he’ll be joined by another rookie in the cornerback rotation. Undrafted rookie Kani Walker, who had a phenomenal preseason, is set to make his NFL debut.
S Jalen Kilgore
Another heathy scratch for the South Carolina product. He’s likely waiting for an injury to make his debut, and while veteran safety Damar Hamlin appeared on the injury report this week with a rib injury, he does not have an injury designation and he is active for the game.
Here are the inactive players for the Patriots. Christian Barmore, Christian Gonzalez, and Channing Canada had all been ruled out prior to today. Safety Brenden Schooler is on the NFI list with a back injury, and the team had ruled him out, as well. He doesn’t count towards their gameday inactives, however.
