No Ed Oliver, Taylor Rapp, Austin Johnson, or Khalil Shakir for the Bills this weekend
It’s been a rough week in terms of injuries for both the Buffalo Bills and their Week 5 opponent, the Houston Texans. With a total of seven players ruled out between the two teams and eight more with questionable game-day designations, this may not end being the matchup everyone wanted.
Although with Josh Allen and C.J. Stroud quarterbacking their respective teams, there are still guaranteed to be plenty of fireworks. Let’s get caught up on injuries following the teams’ latest reports.
Friday injury report pic.twitter.com/NEXMU0tupq
— Buffalo Bills PR (@BuffaloBillsPR) October 4, 2024
Head coach Sean McDermott ruled out four players before the Bills even began practice. It came as no surprise that defensive end Austin Johnson and safety Taylor Rapp were both not playing. Rapp was actually back at practice for the first time this week on Friday – in a red non-contact jersey, obviously. That at least shows that he’s improving and that he may be able to play next week when the Bills take on the New York Jets in a divisional matchup.
For Week 5, McDermott says it will be rookie Cole Bishop getting his first NFL start, lining up alongside Damar Hamlin as the Bills’ starting safeties. It seems obvious that safety Mike Edwards will have to be active this week as well. Edwards has been a healthy scratch for the past two weeks after playing just six defensive snaps in Week 2 and only special teams snaps in Week 1.
Buffalo also has Lewis Cine sitting on their practice squad, and this is a scenario in which we could see him called up.
Sean McDermott says rookie S Cole Bishop will make his first NFL start in place of injured S Taylor Rapp #Bills
— Maddy Glab (@MadGlab) October 4, 2024
While several of the Bills’ faithful held out hope that wide receiver Khalil Shakir would somehow be able to play after being a non-participant at practice all week with an ankle injury, Friday’s update proved disappointing.
Defensive tackle Ed Oliver injured a hamstring in practice on Thursday, and today McDermott said he was taken immediately into the medical facility and there was really no question that he would be among the inactives on Saturday. With Johnson also out, that leaves Buffalo down two defensive tackles, meaning that DeWayne Carter and DaQuan Jones will have to handle the bulk of the interior trench work.
The Bills signed rookie defensive tackle Zion Logue off of Atlanta’s practice squad earlier this week, but since the signing, we haven’t heard anything about him. Hopefully Logue is a quick learner and will be ready to add some defensive line depth on Sunday. Buffalo also has Eli Ankou and Branson Deen on their own practice squad. Of the two, Ankou would seem the more likely to get a game-day elevation as this isn’t his first run with the Bills.
The Bills have listed linebacker Terrel Bernard and linebacker Taron Johnson as questionable for Sunday. Neither of them have had a full practice, and Johnson never made it out of the red non-contact jersey. After the practice, Bernard spoke to the media and said that he felt no change throughout the practices but that he would undergo some more tests to see if his injured pectoral muscle was healed enough to play on Sunday.
Bills LB Terrel Bernard said his pec has felt pretty much the same all week and that he has more tests to go through "pretty much some more strengthening stuff ... we're gonna talk to the doctors again just to make sure everything's looking all right" and then will go from there.
— Alaina Getzenberg (@agetzenberg) October 4, 2024
There’s been no word on what Johnson would have to do to be elevated from questionable to active, but the return of at least one of Buffalo’s missing middle men would be helpful trying to contain former teammate Stefon Diggs.
Houston #Texans Friday Injury Report & Game Status Report for Week 5 vs. the Buffalo Bills: pic.twitter.com/1p4sHvohfF
— Houston Texans PR (@TexansPR) October 4, 2024
There’s at least one former Buffalo Bill who won’t be wearing the Texans’ uniform on Sunday. Defensive end Jerry Hughes has been ruled out with a hip injury while former Bills receiver Robert Woods is listed as questionable with a foot injury that popped up mid-week.
On defense, the Texans will also be without Derek Barnett and Dylan Horton is listed as questionable — Horton is now in remission following treatment for Stage 4 Hodgkins Lymphoma. That leaves them without a lot of depth (three active/non-injured players) at defensive end.
Another player who won’t suit up is running back Joe Mixon. He hasn’t been able to get game-ready since injuring his ankle when he was the subject of an illegal hip-drop tackle. Houston’s other top rusher, Dameon Pierce, has been upgraded to questionable after finally getting a day of limited practice following weeks of inactivity with a hamstring injury.
Also questionable for Houston are linebacker Jake Hansen, whose back injury took him from limited practice to not practicing as the week progressed, defensive tackle Kurt Hinish, who was able to practice all week despite receiving treatment for a foot injury, and offensive tackle Tytus Howard who injured a hamstring in practice and went from full to limited to not practicing over the past three days.
As with last Sunday, we’ll be watching for the game-day inactive lists, both of which should be made public at 11:30 a.m. EDT on Sunday morning. Until then, there will be plenty of speculation, guessing, second guessing, and wishful thinking.