The Buffalo Bills announced their inactives ahead of their Week 1 matchup with the New York Jets.
The Buffalo Bills entered this week’s game against the New York Jets fairly healthy and ruled out only one player ahead of today’s game. On Friday, the Bills designated wide receiver/punt returner Andre Roberts as out as he has been dealing with a quad injury this week.
The team will likely go with some combination of Isaiah McKenzie, Devin Singletary and Micah Hyde to be returners on punts and kickoffs against the New York Jets.
This meant the team was left to designate six other players as inactives and those are: Tyler Kroft, Dean Marlowe, Jaquan Johnson, Ike Boettger, Connor McDermott, and Ryan Bates .
Today’s inactives. #BUFvsNYJ pic.twitter.com/O3YMuqKdro
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) September 8, 2019
The absence of Kroft is not a huge surprise as he was doubtful for this game. The tight end has been trying to work his way back from a broken foot suffered during OTAs. He was a limited participant this week but the Bills will likely want to remain cautious with him since this is the same foot he broke last year.
Since the Bills are going to be without Kroft, this means they will only have three active tight ends against the Jets. While Lee Smith will be used primarily as a blocking tight end, this presences a big opportunity for rookies Dawson Knox and Tommy Sweeney.
The team was without Knox for most of training camp due to a hamstring and Sweeney played mostly with the starters. It will be worth watching who lines up with the starters to open the game against the New York Jets.
It is also worth noting that the Bills will only have four active safeties with Kurt Coleman and Sirian Neal as backups to Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer. However, Neal has spent more time at nickel this summer than safety. The good news is that Coleman is capable at stepping into either safety position if the need arises.
The game time for today’s game for the Buffalo Bills is 1 PM EST.