The Bills didn’t just lose the opener in embarrassing fashion, 48-28; they also lost two players for an extended period of time. Wide receiver David Nelson tore his ACL and was placed on season ending IR. Nelson is a largely underwhelming talent, who caught 61 passes for 658 yards and 5 touchdowns last year, but the slot receiver was Ryan Fitzpatrick’s #2 target and plays at a position of little depth.
In his absence, starter Donald Jones, another underwhelming talent, will move from the outside to the slot on passing downs. Jones had 41 catches for 444 yards and 2 touchdowns coming into the season and didn’t do much in the opener, catching 5 passes for 41 yards and a touchdown. Meanwhile, 3rd round rookie TJ Graham will come into the game in 3-wide receiver sets. Graham has talent, but he’s incredibly raw, having started just one year as a wide receiver at NC State. After those 3 on the depth chart, they have career journeyman Ruvell Martin and his 20 catches over the last 3 seasons, and wildcat quarterback Brad Smith.
The other injury was to Fred Jackson. Jackson sprained his knee and was given a murky timetable of 3-8 weeks, though for what it’s worth, he says it will be 4 weeks or less. He’ll be re-evaluated in 7-10 days. He’s a more talented player, but the injury isn’t quite as severe as Nelson’s and the Bills have depth at the position. In his absence, CJ Spiller rushed for 169 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries against a normally good Jets’ run defense and added 2 catches for 25 yards. I know the Jets were without Sione Pouha, but it was still a very impressive game for him. In 6 starts last year, he rushed for 449 yards and 3 scores on 90 carries, adding in another 26 catches for 205 yards and 2 scores through the air. Remember, he was the 9th overall pick in 2010, so he should be more than capable of carrying the load in Jackson’s absence.
The one issue there is with depth behind Spiller. Spiller isn’t the prototypical lead back because of his size at 5-11 196. He’s not the short yardage back Fred Jackson was and if he proves to not be durable enough to carry the load, their next option on the depth chart is the mediocre Tashard Choice. Choice isn’t much of a short yardage back either, because he’s just generally not a great back, so he should only see a few carries per game behind Spiller, at most. It’s all on Spiller now.
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