The injury situation at One Bills Drive did not get any better overnight, but at least it didn’t get worse.
Head coach Sean McDermott met with members of the media the day after the Buffalo Bills lost to the New England Patriots, their first of the season. There was a lot that went wrong on Sunday night, and piling a couple more injuries onto the infirmary-looking list the Bills have had was one of those things.
As Buffalo ended a drive short of the end zone but managed to put three points on the board to pull even with the New England Patriots five minutes into the second quarter, center Connor McGovern was seen running into the tunnel towards the locker room accompanied by trainers.
Moments later, McGovern returned to the sideline and the Bills announced that he was questionable to return with a hand injury. When the defense forced a New England punt three minutes later, he was back out with the offense. There were reports – and videos – of McGovern bleeding from the knuckles on his hand. It was stated that he had x-rays, and while it wasn’t said that they were negative, the team at least didn’t feel that the ailment would inhibit his play at center. Now McDermott said that the team is “hopeful” that he will be able to play Week 6’s Monday Night Football game against the Atlanta Falcons.
The other injury stemming from Sunday night was Matt Milano. Admittedly this is not a new injury, but the oft-injured linebacker had returned to play after sitting out the past two and a half weeks. On Sunday night, he re-aggravated the pectoral injury he had been dealing with. McDermott said that he considers Milano week-to-week with the injury, and in McDermott speak that means we aren’t likely to see the former All-Pro linebacker until after the Bills’ Week 7 bye.
McDermott updated the statuses of defensive tackles Ed Oliver and T.J. Sanders, both of whom were inactive for Sunday night’s loss. With Oliver, McDermott said that they are “hopeful” he will return this week. Oliver was listed with an ankle injury that happened during practice midway through the preparations for Week 2. While he hasn’t played since, he wasn’t placed on Injured Reserve (IR) either.
Despite still missing four games, that decision is what could see Oliver back on the field this week. Oliver was able to get some practice in last week, although limited, so if he can ramp up to a full participant by the end of this week, that “hopeful” might turn into a game day active roster spot.
The Bills were also without Oliver’s backup, T.J. Sanders, on Sunday night. Sanders was out with a knee injury that McDermott told us was something he had been dealing with but had “flared up” midweek. Now McDermott lists Sanders as “day to day” and hasn’t ruled out the possibility of him being ready for Monday night – in McDermott speak, that means he has no idea.
The other player listed as day-to-day in Monday afternoon’s media session was linebacker Dorian Williams. Williams did not practice at all last week as he suffered a knee injury in Buffalo’s Week 4 win over the New Orleans Saints. With Milano out, that fact that Williams isn’t joining him on the “week-to-week” status list is a hopeful sign that he will be able to practice this week.
McDermott also updated the media on the status of the three players eligible to return from IR, Tylan Grable, Max Hairston, and Tyler Bass. The update: none. McDermott said that there was nothing new and there were no changes to report. If their practice windows aren’t opened this week, that means they won’t begin practicing until at least the start of Week 8. That’s a lot of missed time for the rookie cornerback the Bills drafted in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft.
One other player discussed in the injury update portion of Monday’s media session was cornerback Dorian Strong. The rookie had been splitting time with Tre’Davious White for the first four weeks, then, on Thursday last week, he was listed with a neck injury. On Friday, McDermott announced that he wouldn’t be playing on Sunday, and on Saturday, the Bills placed Strong on IR. Now, McDermott said that the cornerback will be seeing a specialist about the injury. He also noted that nothing has been “ruled out” in regards to whether or not the injury is season ending.
On a positive note, there was one player who was markedly absent from the day’s injury list: quarterback Josh Allen. Allen looked to have twisted an ankle, fallen awkwardly on a knee, or acquired some other lower body injury causing him to limp and move around gingerly during the second half of Sunday night’s game. He could still end up on the official daily reports when the team starts practicing later this week, but McDermott not mentioning it would indicate he escaped anything serious and will be practicing as usual.
It’s going to be an interesting week watching the daily injury reports to see who is progressing and who stalls out. Let’s just hope that there are no more mid-week additions to the reports.
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