As the Buffalo Bills have prepared for their Monday Night Football showdown with Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals, one star players health has been in question.
Starting safety Jordan Poyer suffered a knee injury on December 17 against the Miami Dolphins and “banged it up” a bit against the Chicago Bears last weekend. After taking a few days off practice each of the last two weeks, Poyer’s status wasn’t set in stone for this matchup.
The former All Pro and Pro Bowl safety did say this week, though, that he planned to play in maybe the biggest game of the season.
Just a couple of days after stating that he’ll play, Poyer told ESPN’s Lisa Salters that he had actually been playing this season with a torn meniscus.
Bills’ All-Pro safety Jordan Poyer told @saltersl that he has been playing this season with a torn lateral meniscus, but he will be out there again tonight vs Cincinnati.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 2, 2023
Bills have not lost any of the past 14 regular season games that Poyer has played.
Jordan Poyer’s toughness and on-field leadership could be the Buffalo Bills’ X-factor this season.
First of all, this can be common, yes. Professional athletes endure torn meniscuses often, and it’s something that players have played through in the past. However, many occasions see players not only undergo surgery, but multiple procedures to fix an injury like this.
Not only that, but some players are never fully the same after a meniscus tear. Others do come back stronger, but every player is different.
Poyer, specifically, has shown the ultimate toughness this season by playing through the pain, though. No matter how serious, it’s impressive that he’s been able to make it this far and has only missed a couple of games this year.
It’s also notable that the Bills have won every single game that Poyer has played in this season — that’s not just a fascinating stat, but could also be telling.
Only three of Poyer’s 11 games played this year have seen the Bills defense give up more than 20 points. Is that a coincidence? It could be, but with that large of a majority, it seems to be more of a trend.
Poyer’s presence in the secondary cannot be understated. There’s a reason he’s currently graded as the 12th-best safety in all of football when it comes to coverage, per Pro Football Focus.
Poyer is allowing an opposing quarterback rating of just 55.1, has only given up one passing touchdown all season and has a missed tackle rate of 5.3 percent — which would go down as the lowest missed tackle percentage of his career.
Now, re-read the above couple of sentences again, remembering Poyer has played this year with a torn meniscus. That’s unfathomable. But, it’s reality. This guy is an absolute baller.