The Bills have already ruled LB Terrel Bernard out for Sunday's game at New England. He's officially dealing with quad injury, and HC Sean McDermott has deemed him "probably somewhere between day to day and week to week." The coach had already indicated that his team will rest at least some starters for its meaningless finale.
McDermott on Bernard: "Right now he will not play this week. I really don't know if he was healthy enough, would he be able to go? Possibly."
We'll see whether Bernard's ready for the first round of the playoffs. It seems pretty clear from McDermott's words that the Week 18 scenario factored into the LB getting ruled out so early.
Rookie Joe Andreessen will start in Bernard's place and likely see full playing time. McDermott praised him ahead of the week's first practice:
"He's done a phenomenal job. I think some people thought early on it was a nice PR thing, right? ... But Joe's earned every last piece of it. He'll play quite a bit this week, and I'm excited to watch him. I really am. He's a good football player."
Andreessen tallied 8 tackles -- including 5 solos and 1 tackle for loss -- among just 26 snaps (41%) last week. The Bills pulled most starters early in that lopsided win over the Jets.
I'd bet on LB Matt Milano also playing little-to-none of Week 18 and giving way to Dorian Williams.
Andreessen will make for the safer IDP play unless the Bills officially rule Milano out as well.
Bernard and Milano remain under contract for 2025, as does Dorian Williams. So there doesn't appear to be room for Andreessen grow his role for his second season.
We'll watch for other indications of defensive starters being ruled out for this game.
Safeties Taylor Rapp and Damar Hamlin remained limited in practice to start the week despite playing against the Jets. Bet on them seeing limited playing time in Week 18 -- if they play at all.
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