Buffalo Bills TE Dawson Knox needs surgery for wrist injury — out indefinitely

Our first look at this week’s injury report reveals some new concerns — the injuries just keep piling up for the Buffalo Bills

This past Sunday, the Buffalo Bills lost their second game in three weeks, and now have just three days to prepare to host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the Week 8 Thursday Night Football clash. On Monday, the team hosted a walkthrough practice, but were missing even more key pieces to their lineup.

Before the practice, head coach Sean McDermott met with members of the media and told them that tight end Dawson Knox would be having surgery on his injured wrist. Knox first injured his wrist when the Bills played the Jacksonville Jaguars two weeks ago in London. Despite the injury, the tight end, who signed a contract extension in September 2022 that will keep him in Buffalo through the 2026 season, stayed in that game and was a part of the active roster in both the Bills’ ugly win over the New York Giants last week and their even uglier loss to the New England Patriots yesterday. The wrist injury has no doubt hampered Knox who only caught one pass out of three targets (he also caught a pass on a two-point conversion late in the fourth quarter).

“That’s a better question for Dawson,” McDermott said when asked if the wrist injury being worse than originally indicated was a factor in some dropped passes for Knox, “but we expect him to make those plays.”

In addition to Knox not practicing, tight end Quintin Morris was still a non-participant in today’s practice as he deals with an ankle injury he suffered last week. Morris didn’t practice last week and, as a result, wasn’t active Sunday. With both Knox and Morris down, that leaves Buffalo with only rookie Dalton Kincaid at tight end. Kincaid, who suffered a concussion in London and sat out the Bills’ Week 6 win over the Giants, has still amassed 25 receptions for 193 yards this season but has failed to find the end zone yet. When drafted, it was widely thought that the 6’4” tight end out of Utah would serve a role more along the lines of slot receiver and provide quarterback Josh Allen an over-the-middle target. Now, it looks like we’ll have to see how well Kincaid can operate in a traditional tight end role.

Other significant names on today’s injury report come from the defensive side of the ball. Linebacker Baylon Spector seems to be hampered by a hamstring injury again and didn’t participate in today’s walkthrough practice. Spector started the season on Injured Reserve (IR) after suffering a hamstring injury during training camp. Defensive tackle Jordan Phillips was limited with a back injury — a new development for the Bills’ defense, which is already missing three key players with linebacker Matt Milano, cornerback Tre’Davious White, and defensive tackle DaQuan Jones all on IR. The good news is that defensive tackle Ed Oliver was also limited as he tries to work his way back from a toe injury that kept him out of both practice and the game in Week 7.

It’s interesting to see that edge rusher Von Miller is listed as dealing with a knee injury in addition to getting a vet rest day but was still limited rather than the classic DNP for Vet Rest. Miller started the season on the Physically Unable to Perform list and was brought back to practice immediately after the league-required four-week hiatus. Uncharacteristically, the Bills activated Miller after just three days of practice and put him on the field during their Week 5 game in London. While he has been on a snap count, Miller was on the field for just 10% of Buffalo’s 60 defensive snaps. All six of Miller’s snaps came before halftime in the Bills’ 29-25 loss to the Giants. McDermott didn’t mention any new injury for Miller today, so it would be easy to assume that he’s still dealing with some issues with his surgically repaired ACL.

Other new names on the injury report include linebacker Terrell Bernard and offensive tackle Spencer Brown who were both listed as full participants despite dealing with some type of knee injuries. Whatever happened, both players recorded 100% of the snaps against the Patriots.

It will be interesting to see how all of these injuries, along with quarterback Josh Allen’s shoulder injury, progress with just two more days of practice before the Bills try one more time to get back on the right track and have a strong game.