Getty Buffalo Bills linebacker Matt Milano celebrates with teammate Tarron Johnson during their matchup with the New York Jets.
The Buffalo Bills just suffered one of the most heartbreaking losses of the season, but heading into the bye week, Bills Mafia has some positive news to look forward to.
Buffalo has been battered and bruised over the first 10 weeks of the season. Their starting offensive line hasn’t played a single down of football at full health. Cornerbacks Tre’Davious White, Josh Norman and Levi Wallace have yet to play together. Then, to cap it off, while starting middle linebacker Tremaine Edmunds has been playing through injury, outside linebacker Matt Milano has missed time twice with injuries.
On Monday, McDermott delivered good news on both starting guard Cody Ford and Milano, who missed Sunday’s game due to injury.
“We’ll see on both of those guys, they are moving in the right direction,” McDermott said. “We don’t know for sure exactly when they’ll return on either of the two but I think both, from what I’ve been told this morning are moving in the right direction.”
Ford, who is a key piece of the Bills offensive line, has been in and out this season with both a knee injury and an ankle injury. After returning from a knee injury he suffered against the Chiefs, Ford went down against the Seahawks with an ankle injury and was questionable heading into Sunday’s game against the Cardinals.
Milano has been in and out of the starting lineup this season with a pectoral injury. He played in three of Buffalo’s first four games and then also played in Week 7 and Week 8 against the New York Jets and New England Patriots, but he’s been out of the starting lineup ever since.
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Bye Week Coming at a Good Time
Earlier this year, the Bills were looking forward to somewhat of a mini-bye when they were scheduled to take on the Kansas City Chiefs on a Thursday night. But with the chaos that surrounded the Tennessee Titans a week earlier, they lost that opportunity to rest up and heal.
Now, the Bills are looking forward to taking full advantage of their bye week.
“We’ve really gone 10 straight weeks, in addition to training camp, without a break,” McDermott said. “So, I think the guys need some rest. I feel like the rest is needed with how we’ve been balancing covid and trying to play the season and a few west coast trips to boot. I’m quite proud of how the guys have handled it honestly.”
When the Bills return next week to take on the Los Angeles Chargers, before going west again to take on the San Francisco 49ers, they are hoping to be fully healthy and could use the likes of Josh Norman, Cody Ford, John Brown, who McDermott said injured his ankle on Sunday, and others.
Strictly a Football Decision
When the Bills took the field on Sunday, some may have been looking forward to the return of veteran center Mitch Morse, who had returned to the practice field after suffering a concussion against the New England Patriots. But, Morse didn’t play on Sunday and McDermott referred to it as “strictly a football decision.”
“He was healthy it was just a coaches’ decision right there,” McDermott said. “Mitch is a good player but we felt like for last week we had some momentum with the group that we had in when Mitch went down and we wanted to take another look at it for one more week there.”
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