Who are the Buffalo Bills to watch closely on Sunday night against the Green Bay Packers?
The Buffalo Bills entered their bye week in first place in the AFC with a 5-1 record. However, there are a number of teams that are close behind like the Kansas City Chiefs and surprisingly the New York Jets.
On Sunday, the Bills are set to play a Packers team who is desperate to turn their season around after losing three straight. While they are only 3-4 on the season, this is a talented roster and the Buffalo Bills can’t take them lightly.
When looking ahead to this game, these are seven players that are paying extra attention to in Week 8.
7 Buffalo Bills to watch in Week 8 against Green Bay Packers
Stefon Diggs
While Josh Allen is the most important player on the Buffalo Bills, wide receiver Stefon Diggs is quickly becoming the second most important with his performance this season. The former All-Pro wide receiver is off to a tremendous start to the season with 49 receptions, 656 receiving yards and six touchdowns.
On the season, he is averaging 109.3 yards per game which is the highest career average. His current average is 13.4 more yards per game than the second-highest career average, which he accomplished in 2020 in his first season with Buffalo.
This week, Diggs is likely to draw a matchup with Jaire Alexander, who is one of the better cornerbacks in the NFL. It should be a great matchup between these two players and if Diggs is able to remain productive the offense should have a good day.
Devin Singletary
The Green Bay Packers are one of the worst teams in the NFL in defending the run this year and are allowing nearly 140 rushing yards per game. While this is not a strength of the Bills’ offense this could be a good opportunity to lean a little more on the running backs.
That responsibility should fall primarily on Devin Singletary, who had a slow start to the season but looked great against the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 6. He had a season-high 17 rush attempts and picked up 85 rushing yards, which was also the most in a game this season.
The fourth-year running back has been improving over the past three weeks and is averaging 5.17 yards per carry, which is up from 3.47 yards per carry in the first three games of the season. It would not be surprising to see Singletary get over 15 carries in this game and find himself with close to 100 rushing yards by the end of the game.
Ed Oliver
This was expected to be a big season for defensive tackle Ed Oliver. The former first round pick looked great during training camp and the hope was that this would be the season he would take that next step toward being a dominant force on the defensive line.
Unfortunately, an ankle injury in Week 1 against the Los Angeles Rams has cost him a number of games but he was able to return in Week 6 against the Kansas City Chiefs. Now another week removed from the injury, hopefully he can really turn that corner and have a strong finish to the season.
This week against the Green Bay Packers is a great opportunity for that as the Packers have struggled with blocking on the interior of their line. In Week 6 against the New York Jets, Aaron Rodgers was sacked four times and two of those sacks came from defensive tackle Quinnen Williams.
The duo of Von Miller and Greg Rousseau have done an excellent job bringing pressure off the edge but if Oliver is able to collapse the pocket up the middle and right into the quarterback, it is going to be almost impossible for quarterbacks to be effective against this defense.
Matt Milano
The Green Bay Packers are going to be very inexperienced at wide receiver for this game as Allen Lazard has indicated that he is unlikely to play. The Packers do have Sammy Watkins back but are expected to lean heavily on rookies Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs.
However, Aaron Rodgers’ best weapon in the passing game might end up being running back Aaron Jones. He is one of the better pass-catching running backs in the league and on the season has had four or more targets in five of six games.
The Buffalo Bills’ defense is going to have to account for Jones coming out of the backfield and I would suspect that the responsibility likely will fall on linebacker Matt Milano. He is a versatile linebacker that has been making an impact in a number of different ways from dropping back into coverage, pressuring the quarterback, and getting through the line to make tackles behind the line of scrimmage.
It should be another busy week for Milano and if he has a big game, expect the Bills defense to have success.
Buffalo Bills cornerbacks (Dane Jackson, Kaiir Elam, Christian Benford)
The hope was that Tre’Davious White would be able to return for this game however Sean McDermott confirmed earlier in the week that wouldn’t be the case. This means he almost certainly will be back next week against the New York Jets as the Bills have to activate him next week or move him to injured reserve for the remainder of the season.
If White returns, this creates a challenge for the coaching staff to determine how to handle the cornerback position moving forward. At the beginning of the season, there was some concern about the inexperienced group of Dane Jackson, Kaiir Elam, and Christian Benford.
However, all three have shown they are more than capable of being starters on this defense. This game on Sunday against the Packers is now an opportunity for each to make a case for being the starter alongside Tre’Davious White for the rest of the season.
4 Buffalo Bills that could be traded away at the trade deadline
The Buffalo Bills will be looking to add talent over the next few weeks but may look to trade these players away to create room on the roster.