The Buffalo Bills and New England Patriots put out their final injury reports on Thursday ahead of Saturday night’s Wild Card playoff matchup at Highmark Stadium.
There’s no doubt that the Bills are the healthier team headed into the game.
The Patriots listed 13 players as questionable for the game, including defensive tackle Christian Barmore, who was carted off the field last Sunday with a knee injury in the regular season finale. Barmore has been limited in practice all week but his status for the game remains in question. Several Patriots reporters have mentioned throughout the week that Barmore has been at practice but haven’t seen him do much in the open portions to the media.
Other notable players who are questionable are Patriots safety Kyle Dugger (hand), left tackle Isaiah Wynn (hip/ankle), linebacker Dont’a Hightower (knee), safety Adrian Phillips (knee) and linebacker Jamie Collins (ankle). Of that group, only Wynn didn’t practice on Thursday. He left last week’s game with the injury. Everyone else was limited in practice today for New England.
If Wynn can’t play there’s been rumblings in New England that Trent Brown could move from the right tackle spot over to left tackle. Even if Wynn does suit up he’ll likely be at less than 100%. Barmore playing six days after his injury would likely mean he’s not fully healthy either.
Dugger missed last week’s game with a hand injury and he didn’t play against the Bills in late December because he got Covid-19. He has been limited in practice all week and could go be set to return.
The Bills are the healthiest they’ve been all season at the most important time. Obviously All Pro cornerback Tre’Davious White is out for the season, but they have no players with injury designations for the game on Sunday. Buffalo is healthy as possible with the player that are available to play.
Defensive end Efe Obada missed last week’s game with an ankle injury and Emmanuel Sanders didn’t play with a knee injury. Bills coach Sean McDermott revealed on Thursday before practice that the team considered Sanders’ injury and wanting him healthy for the playoffs when holding him out last week.
“Could we have used Emmanuel last week? Potentially. But you go into a game risking the fact that you don’t have your best lineup so you can have it this week,” McDermott said. “So there’s some risk involved in that. But I think all together we’ve done a good job and the players have done a good job of trying to stay as healthy as possible.”
McDermott’s comments may shed some light on how much Sanders could play against the Patriots. Gabriel Davis has started three of the last four games with Sanders out of the lineup. But McDermott has been vocal about how much he values Sanders’ experience this season.
McDermott will have some tough calls when it comes to the inactive list. With a fully healthy 53-man roster, some players that have been active in recent weeks may not get the nod this week.
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