Bills avoid major disaster as Sean McDermott provides encouraging injury update ahead of first preseason matchup
So you’re saying there’s a chance. Sean McDermott let Bills Mafia breathe a sigh of relief.
The Buffalo Bills are making their final preparations for the upcoming preseason matchup against the New York Giants. Everything you need to know about the contest can be found here.
With that, injuries have been piling up and as the team begins their final practice. Head coach Sean McDermott opened up to the media on a slew of injuries, while also letting the world know his plans for Josh Allen in the upcoming matchup. While we received some positive updates, there was a bit of bad news sprinkled in. Let’s get to the bad, first.
Perhaps the biggest blow is that of the safety position. As Matt Parrino, Bills beat reporter for Syracuse.com, reported, “Taylor Rapp, dealing with a knee injury, won’t practice today and Sean McDermott said he’ll be out for about a week. Cole Bishop is still out and ramping up, but both projected safeties hurt at the moment.”
While it’s only the preseason, this is the second training camp for Bishop that he’s missed a majority of the reps due to injury. Being in his second year, this is the most important time for his growth as a player. Building chemistry and working on communication in the offseason is imperative for success, and it’s another year where Bishop will be thrown in with limited reps.
On the unofficial depth chart, Bishop was already named a starter, despite his limited reps and injuries throughout camp. Both Rapp and Bishop, starting safeties on a defensive unit that has a lot to prove this season, is not great heading into their first preseason matchup.
Having both starting safeties out now isn’t a problem, but if these injuries persist over the next few weeks, Buffalo would be looking at an uphill battle with a matchup against the Ravens and no starting safeties.
That’s not all, though. McDermott provided an update on WR Khalil Shakir while also letting the world know his plan for Josh Allen, not only for the first preseason game, but the entire preseason.
Positive outcome
Shakir was injured during the Red and Blue scrimmage and hasn’t been in action since. Now, we finally got the update we’ve been waiting for. It looks like the team is hoping to have him back Win eek 1 against the Baltimore Ravens. It’ll all depend on how Shakir’s body is able to heal over these next few weeks, but the team will definitely need him for the start of the regular season.
To think of a Buffalo Bills offense without Shakir heading into Week 1 against the Ravens is unpleasant to say the least. After Buffalo defeated Baltimore in the playoffs last season, the team is surely going to be ready for action.
However, from what McDermott is being told, the Bills will have Shakir back on the field and ready for the start of the regular season. This is a huge win for the Bills Mafia and the organization as it looks like Josh Allen will get one of his top receivers back in time for Week 1. From McDermott’s presser today, the Bills avoided disaster.
For those in Bills Mafia hoping to see Allen playing, even just a little, are going to be disappointed. McDermott said that Allen wouldn’t see any playing time in the upcoming matchup against the Giants. The head coach doubled down and added that he doesn’t know if Allen will see any preseason action.
Get the bubble wrap out, do whatever is needed to get this team healthy. It’s not just as easy as Madden to turn injuries off, but wouldn’t that be neat?
Buffalo is hoping to build on what they were able to accomplish last year. In order to do that, Buffalo is going to need these key guys back at it and healthy.
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