Bills face concerning injury outlook: 2 WRs to miss multiple weeks

Orchard Park, N.Y. — The Buffalo Bills face extreme difficulty at multiple positions on their roster because of several key injuries.

Wide receivers Curtis Samuel (turf toe) and Marquez Valdes-Scantling (neck) are considered week-to-week. Samuel missed last Saturday’s preseason game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, and Valdes-Scantling left after a hit to the head/neck area.

Backup quarterback Mitchell Trubisky suffered a knee injury against the Steelers and tight end Quintin Morris injured his shoulder. Both are considered week-to-week.

“It’s a real concern,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said on Monday. “If I could change it, I would. But we can’t so we won’t. Right now we got to be solution-oriented as coaches.”

Samuel’s turf toe injury is one of the most concerning updates because those injuries last a long time. Some players can return sooner than others, but often, injuries affect players even when they do finally return. The Bills’ first regular season game is scheduled for Sunday, September 8—less than three weeks away.

Bills safety Damar Hamlin (hamstring) and linebacker Baylon Spector (calf) didn’t play against the Steelers and are also considered week-to-week injuries.

McDermott said the plan was to play the starters in the Bills’ final preseason game against the Carolina Panthers. However, because of the injury situation, he’s now pivoted and will start with the backups instead.

“The hard part is we’re starting to get some movement and progress from a couple (players) but we also lost a couple in the game the other night too,” McDermott said. “That’s football and so it’s a constant communication piece for us of who’s coming back. What can they do physically in practice so they can get whatever they can get.”

Linebacker Nicholas Morrow and safeties Mike Edwards and rookie Cole Bishop have been injured for multiple weeks but will return to practice this week. McDermott said they’ll all participate in some individual drills but won’t be ready to play by Saturday’s preseason finale.

Veteran defensive end Casey Toohill is expected to return from injury at some point this week and defensive end Javon Soloman (calf) and defensive tackle Austin Johnson (calf) will be limited in practice.

McDermott said the long list of injuries may impact what the Bills can do in practice this week to some extent.