Ike Boettger to miss beginning of regular season for Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills entered the day with 81 players on their active roster but had to make one more move before this afternoon to get down to 80 players. General manager Brandon Beane announced that final move at the beginning of his press conference which was to move guard Ike Boettger to the reserve/PUP list.
The backup guard hasn’t practiced this summer as he continued to try and work his way back after having surgery on his Achilles. He suffered the injury in Week 16 last season against the New England Patriots.
The injury to Boettger opened the door for Ryan Bates to start, and he emerged as a key part of the offensive line down the stretch.
Even with the injury, the Buffalo Bills brought back Ike Boettger this offseason on a one-year deal. He was placed on the active/PUP list at the beginning of training camp but it wasn’t until today that the team could move him to reserve/PUP list. He no longer will count against the active roster.
Ike Boettger will miss at least the first four games of the regular season for the Buffalo Bills
Since the Buffalo Bills moved Boettger to this list, he is now required to miss at least the first four games of the season. This is a change from previous years as any player who was placed on this list would miss six games.
Once those four games have passed, the Bills can have him return to practice and will have 21 days to activate him from that point.
It remains to be seen how long Boettger might need to recover but if he is able to return for the second half of the season, he would be a valuable part of the depth at guard for the Buffalo Bills.
Ike Boettger originally joined the Buffalo Bills in 2018 as an undrafted free agent and after a brief stop with the Kansas City Chiefs, he returned to the practice squad. He has been with the team since and over the past two years has started 17 games.
