A column by CHUCK POLLOCK, Sun Senior Sports Columnist
For the second straight Tuesday the Bills found themselves desperately signing a quarterback due to an injury at that position.
A week ago, it was Ben DiNucci, most recently with the Cowboys, after Buffalo’s No. 3 QB, Shane Buchele, went on injured reserve with a neck injury after an ugly preseason loss to the Bears in Orchard Park.
DiNucci waited less than a half until backup Mitch Trubisky — starter Josh Allen will have played exactly one quarter in the three “exhibition games” — injured his knee and was lost for several weeks.
DiNucci played the rest of the way in the 9-3 snooze-fest victory at Pittsburgh as, no way, was coach Sean McDermott going to put Allen in against the scrubs.
This week, general manager Brandon Beane was in the quarterback market again, yesterday signing Anthony Brown, an undrafted free agent, late of the Ravens and earlier this year the Raiders.
And he’d best be ready because he’ll play Saturday afternoon at Highmark Stadium against Carolina — maybe a lot — behind the grizzled DiNucci who will by then have spent 11 days with Buffalo.
HISTORICALLY, NFL teams find that in a given year, injuries are focused on some random position.
This season, the Bills’ injury issues at quarterback are obvious, but not particularly punitive as McDermott has kept Allen protected, including last Saturday when he was supposed to play a good portion of the first half. But a pregame thunderstorm left the field conditions iffy and forced the eighth-year coach to choose caution, bench his starter and play Trubisky. His reward, beside the injury, was a chorus of boos from Pittsburgh fans where he’d played the last two years.
When McDermott had his Zoom meeting with the media on Tuesday, his backup QB was one of 12 injured players — six of them potential starters — with the season opener against Arizona only 15 days after Saturday’s preseason final
“ONE OF the challenges we have both at safety and linebacker is where (injured players) have not been able to completely rep whether from the spring or training camp,” McDermott said. “… (but) we’ll find our way through it. The biggest challenge is, having a player is one thing, but having a new player hurt who doesn’t know what we’re doing, systematically, is another.”
Buffalo is down three safeties with Mike Edwards (hamstring), second-round draft choice Cole Bishop (shoulder) and Damar Hamlin (hamstring) sidelined.
Two linebackers — Baylon Spector (calf) and Nick Morrow (groin) — are both recovering.
And McDermott didn’t spend much time on the receiving corps where likely starters Curtis Samuel (turf toe) and Marquez Valdes-Scantling (neck) are both out and veteran Chase Claypool was waived injured.
“WE’RE TRYING to capture what we can, just using them in walk-throughs this week because we’re getting closer and closer to the season,” McDermott said. “The original plan was to play the ones (starters) this week but because of the injuries and lack of availability (of some of them) we’re going to take the ones out and play the other guys and take a good look at them. It’s a good opportunity to put their best foot forward and for us to have a strong evaluation of that part of the roster.”
He added without hyperbole, “It’s a real concern and if I could change it I would, but we can’t. Right now we have to be solution-oriented. As coaches we’re going to get those guys (who) can do the walk-through and get some of those reps. It’s better than nothing. There’s some progress in some areas, but the hard part is we also lost a couple (five) in the game the other night.”
McDERMOTT concluded, “There are things you have to juggle with injuries at all these positions … you’ve got the safety position where you’re hoping they’re back and be well enough to go out there and execute. Then there’s Mitch where you typically only carry one (backup QB) on the active (roster) in addition to your starter, so is it going to marry up to Mitch being ready to go in time? I don’t know that for sure. Mitch is tough as they come and he’s going to work his butt off to get back for the team.”
He added, “We’ve got to take one day at a time and communicate, get continual updates from the training staff. It affects a lot of things, it affects practice … the game this weekend and potentially the start of the season for a lot of those positions. And that’s not only did they get back in time but did they get the necessary practice time to get up to speed on what we’re doing. Having them back in uniform is one thing but are they able to get the practice reps they need leading up to the game … that’s critical.”
(Chuck Pollock, a Wellsville Sun senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@wnynet.net.)
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