Milano will be on the field with his teammates to begin mandatory minicamp
Buffalo Bills mandatory minicamp gets underway today at One Bills Drive, and with it came and important bit of news from head coach Sean McDermott. In his latest media session on Tuesday, June 11, McDermott revealed that linebacker Matt Milano would be back on the field practicing in a limited capacity during minicamp.
That’s fantastic news for Milano, who suffered a catastrophic lower leg injury during the team’s Week 5 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars in London, UK.
Entering his eighth season with the Bills, the soon-to-be-30-year-old veteran has put in dutiful and focused work to return to the field following what McDermott has previously called a “complicated... medically” injury. Milano would later speak directly about the injury, stating that it was a fractured right tibia that fortunately didn’t involve any damage to the knee ligaments.
After running down a list of players who either would not practice or are doing so in limited fashion, the first question asked of McDermott dealt with the nature of the lengthy role call. McDermott mentioned that “we’ve kind of got hit with the injury bug here, and you know that affects availability, which affects some of the development, building trust — especially if you’re a new player. Right? So we’re just dealing with it. We’ve had to cut back on some of the third group reps over the last week or so, and we may have to do the same today. We’ll see. We’ll how it goes.”
McDermott was asked about the significance of Matt Milano being back on the field practicing in a limited capacity, which comes just over nine months since the injuries first occurred.
“Yeah it’s big. Credit to Matt and what he’s been able to do with our training staff and the work he’s put in — he’s so focused. He was focused before this... I feel like he’s even more focused if that’s even possible now, and wanting to get back out there for himself but also for his teammates.”
As for an updated timetable with regards to Milano, McDermott was hesitant to put a date or event behind things.
“So right now, at least the vision from Nate (Breske, Bills head athletic trainer) is just that — he’s do some individual today, see how it goes one day at a time, and then hopefully tomorrow if things... if overnight things stay managed and then we’ll continue to build, he’ll continue to build through the break that we’re gonna go on. And then hopefully in training camp he’s at a spot where when we open up he’s available. It’s just a matter of putting it one day at a time and trying to put practices back to back — don’t know yet on that, John, and we’ll just have to see.”
Regarding the list of players not practicing or doing so in limited fashion, Sean McDermott provided the following names:
Not practicing
- LB Dorian Williams
- LB Edefuan “Ede” Ulofoshio
- LB Nick Marrow
- LB Baylon Spector
- RB Ray Davis
- RB Ty Johnson
- FB Reggie Gilliam
Limited participants
- S Mike Edwards
- RT Spencer Brown
- and the aforementioned Matt Milano
Additionally, Christian Benford will miss time with an excused absence.