Bills Week 6 Injury Report: Ed Oliver out, James Cook hopeful to be active
By Brandon Ray
Throughout this week, the Buffalo Bills had a great amount of players on the injury report. Even though a majority of them look like they will atleast dress against the New York Jets, the Bills are going into Monday Night Football with some injury concerns to some of their best players.
According to Chris Brown, the Bills have ruled out star defensive tackle Ed Oliver again and he will miss his second game of the season. This is a massive loss for the Bills’ defensive line who will have their hands full with Breece Hall and Braelon Allen.
On the plus side, Brown also did report that cornerback Taron Johnson, wideout Khalil Shakir, and defensive tackle Austin Johnson will be limited in practice today but will still remain questionable heading into this primetime matchup.
Oliver has been quiet this season when healthy, only racking up one sack and no more than three tackles per game. Buffalo’s run defense has been exposed in almost every game this year and now not having Oliver against the Jets will make it difficult yet again for this group.
While the defense takes a hit, the Buffalo offense may avoid any setback with one of their star players. According to Adam Schefter, running back James Cook is planning on playing on Monday night, per his agency LAA.
Not having Cook in an offense that is already lacking true playmakers would have been decimating to the Bills. However, Buffalo will need to be cautious of Cook’s toe injury.
There is a good amount of pressure on the Bills to win this game. They have lost their last two on the road and if they go 0-3 away from Orchard Park, there will be some major concerns as to what this team can or can’t do down the stretch leading up to the playoffs. Injuries are part of the game and they are unavoidable. It just seems like the Bills always face some sort of injury and can never catch a break.
The good news is that Sean McDermott and his staff typically get the best efforts out of the next man up. If Oliver is the only major loss the Bills have for this Monday night, they will still have a great chance at ruining Jeff Ulbrich’s debut as a head coach.