Buffalo Bills have three defensive players miss practice Thursday
While the Buffalo Bills practiced on Wednesday, the first injury report of the week was on Thursday due to the team playing on Monday night. The extended break was hopefully going to help give players extra time to recover but the Bills had three notable players miss practice on Thursday.
The defensive tackle is one position worth watching as Ed Oliver and Tim Settle both missed Thursday’s practice. Oliver suffered an ankle injury in Week 1 against the Los Angeles Rams while Settle’s injury didn’t force him to miss much of the game but he is listed on the injury report with a calf injury.
On Wednesday, the Bills signed Prince Emili to the practice squad which now makes sense with the injuries that Oliver and Settle are dealing with. It would not be surprising to see the Bills call up a defensive tackle from their practice squad with the most logical choice being Brandin Bryant, who had a good preseason and was with the team last year.
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The other notable absence for this practice was cornerback Dane Jackson, who was listed on the injury report with a knee injury. He played 97% of the snaps in Week 1 and had a big interception in the first half.
If the Buffalo Bills don’t have Jackson available for Week 2 this would be a big loss for a position that already was lacking in experience. The team likely would have to start Christian Benford and Kaiir Elam against the Titans.
The Titans don’t have a great passing game like the Rams but these two would certainly be tested by Derrick Henry and the run game. This was a concern for Elam coming out of college, in terms of tackling. The scouting report on NFL.com described a player that “doesn’t play to his size” and is “inconsistent coming to balance as open-field tackler”.
It would not be surprising to see the Titans call plenty of run plays to Elam’s side to really test him in this part of his game.
