It's been a rough week for the Bills when it's come to injuries. Buffalo had to place two players on injured reserve and a handful of others have been sidelined with other ailments. Here's a look at where things stand at some of Buffalo's most affected positions.
Running backClearly the hardest hit position Buffalo came into training camp with five running backs. All five have sustained injuries through less than three weeks of camp at St. John Fisher. LeSean McCoy is the most recent with a hamstring problem suffered in Tuesday's practice against the Browns.
"Hopefully it's not a pull, hopefully it's just a strain," said head coach Rex Ryan.
Boobie Dixon (calf) and Fred Jackson (hamstring) have both been sidelined since the first week of camp, but hope to be before the team's next preseason game against Pittsburgh on Aug. 29th.
"That's accurate," said Dixon. "Pittsburgh is a maybe depending on how next week goes, and if not Pittsburgh than probably Detroit."
Ryan has his fingers crossed that Fred Jackson is able to return from his hamstring injury by the team's third preseason game.
"Hopefully he'll come back for Pittsburgh," Ryan said.
Bryce Brown also has a hamstring strain. How long he'll be out has not yet been determined. All the hamstring injuries are troubling to Buffalo's sideline boss.
"Yeah unusually high on the hamstrings, and our guys are in shape," Ryan said. "Like sometimes you get those if you're not in very good shape, but we're in shape. It's just … I don't know. I think sometimes when you start taking plays off of somebody else, you put more onto other people… and we watch that all the time. But it's something that obviously we've been bit with."
Rookie Karlos Williams was checked into a local Rochester hospital on Monday to undergo an undisclosed medical procedure that the team says was not injury related. However, he might not be back on the field until the preseason is over.
"He had a procedure, but he's fine," said Ryan. "He'll probably be out two weeks at least. He'll be fine when we play the opener for sure and that's good news."
Wide receiverThe Bills have also been down in numbers at receiver. There are 11 on the roster, but there have been as many as six or seven not practicing during portions of this week. That has in turn overtaxed the receivers still at practice running routes.
Percy Harvin missed the team's first preseason game with what Ryan described as a hip problem. On Tuesday he shed some more light on the receiver's condition.
"Percy's thing was a little worse than we thought," said Ryan. "It never really responded the way we wanted. I'm not going to go into detail about the PRP shot that he had, but he'll be fine. He's so itching to get back that we sped it up. We were going to wait four days to give him this shot, we gave it to him early and hopefully he responds on it and we're shooting for Pittsburgh."
A PRP shot is a platelet rich plasma injection in which a portion of the patient's own blood with a higher concentration of platelets is administered to an injured area to promote faster healing of injured tendons, ligaments, muscles and joints.
"We're hoping we get at least Detroit, the last preseason game for him," said Ryan of Harvin's potential return. "He doesn't want to go in with no game work, so he's trying to get back on the field."
Harvin is joined by Sammy Watkins, who in his return from offseason hip surgery has experienced residual soreness and stiffness. Sometimes the area surrounding the hip experiences problems as well for a variety of reasons.
"Sammy was more precautionary," said Ryan of Watkins being held out of practice. "It's the glute area and hamstring tightness, so we're going to obviously be a little leery of that."
Watkins is not expected to play Thursday night. Marcus Easley is also not expected to play after suffering a grade one MCL sprain in last week's preseason opener. He has not practiced all week.
Robert Woods following a heavy workload on Monday was held out of practice Tuesday due to hamstring tightness. Whether he'll be able to go Thursday is likely to be decided in the next 24 hours.
Tobais Palmer and Marquise Goodwin, who both succumbed to the heat Monday returned to practice Tuesday and should be available Thursday. Provided Woods is cleared the Bills will have at least seven receivers for Thursday's game, eight if Marcus Thigpen doesn't have to pull double duty as a spare tailback.
CornerbackRoss Cockrell is still sidelined by a knee injury, but is closer to returning to action as he's been training on the side with the strength and conditioning staff.
Leodis McKelvin is finally out of the cast on his lower right leg and is in just a walking boot now. He still has a respectable amount of rehabilitation in front of him.
The Bills signed CB Ellis Lankster this week.
Defensive lineDT Kyle Williams was back at practice from his thigh contusion Tuesday night. He's expected to be fine moving forward. DT Corbin Bryant returned from a minor knee injury suffered in the team's first preseason game. DT Stefan Charles is also practicing again after being held out of the preseason opener as a precaution.
DE Alex Carrington is still not 100 percent recovered from his rotator cuff injury.
