Buffalo Bills smart to protect Justin Zimmer on practice squad

It was smart for the Buffalo Bills to protect Justin Zimmer for Week 2.

The Buffalo Bills announced the four players they were protecting on their practice squad for Week 2 and it should be no surprise that defensive tackle Justin Zimmer was one of the four. After the way he played against the New York Jets, the Bills should make sure this defensive tackle stays in Western New York.

In addition to Zimmer, the Bills also protected cornerback Dane Jackson, center Jordan Devey, and linebacker Andre Smith. The four players were all logical choices considering the positions they play and any of these four could be added to the active roster for Week 2.

However, Zimmer is the one that stands out the most especially because of how much, and how well, he played in Week 1. Prior to this past week’s game, Zimmer has played in three career games and had five total tackles and one tackle for loss in 39 career snaps.

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In the game against the Jets, Zimmer played 16 snaps, which was 29% of the defensive snaps, and had four total tackles including one tackle for a loss. He was explosive from the interior of this defensive line and was constantly disrupting plays.

The absence of Vernon Butler really gave Zimmer a chance to show what he is able to do and that he could be a key piece to this rotation if the need arose. In this clip from Daniel Jeremiah, Zimmer is in the middle breaking through the line and stopping Le’Veon Bell in the backfield.

It will be interesting to see if Vernon Butler is able to return from injury for this week’s game against the Miami Dolphins. However, if he is unable to the Buffalo Bills may elect to just add Justin Zimmer to the active roster considering they do still have an open roster spot after placing Josh Norman on the injured reserve.

Regardless of what the Buffalo Bills elect to do, there is no question that Justin Zimmer made a great impression in Week 1 and could play a role on this defense this year.