ORCHARD PARK – The hits just keep coming for the injury-ravaged Buffalo Bills as they had to place defensive tackle Jordan Phillips on the injured reserve list Wednesday morning.
Phillips missed the Cleveland and Philadelphia games with an ankle injury, then played against New York last Sunday but apparently aggravated the injury to the point where he won’t be able to play in Sunday’s AFC wildcard game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
As for the rest of the injury report before the Bills took the field for their walk-through practice, coach Sean McDermott listed linebackers Matt Milano and Terrell Bernard, cornerback Maxwell Harrison, running back Ty Johnson and kicker Matt Prater as non-participants.
In the limited category, and remembering that in a walk-through everyone is essentially limited, McDermott listed tight end Dalton Kincaid, defensive tackle DaQuan Jones, safety Jordan Poyer, and linebacker Shaq Thompson. McDermott also said the team is opening safety Damar Hamlin’s 21-day practice window on Thursday.
Dane Jackson signed from practice squad
To fill Phillips’ spot on the 53-man roster, the Bills signed cornerback Dane Jackson off their practice squad, and that was necessary because rookie Hairston suffered an ankle injury against the Jets and McDermott has already said he won’t be able to play Sunday.
Jackson will be the primary backup for Christian Benford and Tre’Davious White, with White – who has been sharing his spot with Hairston – likely to play the full game.
“Dane’s always been a guy that’s done a great job for us,” McDermott said. “When he was first here, first came around, right away you notice the intangibles that Dane Jackson brings to the table – his toughness, his football instincts, his blue-collar approach, and he’s a great teammate. So it’s great to have someone like Dane that we can rely on in a situation like this.”
Without Phillips at defensive tackle, the Bills will have to roll with Jones, rookies TJ Sanders and Deone Walker, and probably Larry Ogunjobi, though they could also dress Phidarian Mathis.
Bills sign two others to practice squad
The never-ending practice squad shuffle, which has been quite a thing this season, also continued as the Bills signed cornerback Daryl Porter and quarterback Shane Buechele.
Porter, a rookie, was most recently on the Steelers practice squad before being released last week. He fills Jackson’s spot on the practice squad. Buechele spent most of the season with the Bills before the Chiefs signed him to their active roster late in the season and he played last Sunday in Kansas City’s finale against the Raiders, completing 7 of 14 passes for 88 yards, the first regular-season playing time of his career.
He will be the scout team quarterback this week, which frees up Mitchell Trubisky to take the backup reps behind Josh Allen.
While Hairston and Bernard are almost certainly out, Prater’s status is fluid. The 41-year-old kicker reinjured his quad muscle against the Jets and could not finish the game. Tuesday, the Bills put in place a contingency plan in case Prater can’t recover as they signed kicker Matthew Wright to their practice squad.
But while Prater took Wednesday off, McDermott said he will test his leg Thursday.
“We won’t kick Matt today, but we will try and kick him tomorrow so we can kind of get a feel for where he’s at and hopefully he’s good to go as of tomorrow,” McDermott said. “This is just on a day-by-day; right now that’s the plan and we can take a look tomorrow and just see where he’s at and then hopefully all is well and he gets a chance to then kind of get back to some rest after that as we head into game time.”
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for more than four decades including 36 years as the full-time beat writer/columnist for the D&C. He has written numerous books about the history of the team, and he is also co-host of the BLEAV in Bills podcast/YouTube show. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills suffer another defensive setback as roster shuffle rolls on: The latest
Reporting by Sal Maiorana, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
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