Miami Dolphins, Buffalo Bills will both be missing starters in Sunday’s game
The Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills will be without a combined three starting linebackers when the teams meet Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium.
On Friday, Dolphins coach Brian Flores said Elandon Roberts won’t play Sunday; he remains in concussion protocol.
Meanwhile, Buffalo announced that starting linebackers Matt Milano (hamstring) and Tremaine Edmunds (shoulder) will not play.
Milano had an interception against the Jets last week and had 101 tackles as a 15-game starter for the Bills last season. Edmunds has started all 32 games of his career and had 115 tackles last season.
Roberts, who was at practice wearing a red noncontact jersey Friday, started in the opener against New England — his former team — and had four tackles. Pro Football Focus rated his performance as the fourth-worst among 61 linebackers who appeared in an NFL game in Week 1.
With Roberts sidelined, the Dolphins could opt to give more snaps to edge player Andrew Van Ginkel (who had only eight on defense last week) or Kamu Grugier-Hill (18 snaps on defense last week) or give time to Sam Eguavoen and Calvin Munson, neither of whom played a defensive snap in the opener.
▪ Flores said wide receiver DeVante Parker, who has been nursing a hamstring injury, will be a game-time decision. Parker wants to play. He is listed as questionable on the injury report.
Parker wore a compression sleeve around his upper left leg during Friday’s practice. He didn’t play in the second half of the opener because of the hamstring injury.
Besides Roberts (out) and Parker (questionable), the only other Dolphin whose status was acknowledged on the injury report is safety Clayton Fejedelem, who’s doubtful with a pectoral injury.
TICKET UPDATE
Even with capacity limited to 13,000, there are still apparently a fair number of tickets remaining for Sunday’s Dolphins game, with prices on Ticketmaster dropping to as low to $60.
“It definitely will make a difference having those fans there, whether it’s 13,000 or 10,000 or 8,000,” safety Bobby McCain said. “No matter who it is, just having those fans there and having the Miami faithful there will be lovely.”
▪ Playing in a game in New England last week without fans in attendance “was weird at the beginning of the game, starting the game off when you come out and there’s nobody there and you just hear each other,” McCain said. “But as the game goes on, you’ve got a job to do, and it doesn’t really matter if the fans are there or not.”
THIS AND THAT
Dolphins rookie cornerback Noah Igbinoghene, who played 37 defensive snaps in the opener, said he’s working only on the boundary at this point. That would leave Jamal Perry (who played 31 snaps in the opener) and Nik Needham as the slot cornerbacks.
Igbinoghene’s impressions of his first NFL game? “A little faster than college was [but] not as big a transition as I thought it was going to be.”
Igbinoghene, 20, was the youngest player to play in the league in Week 1 and youngest player to appear in a game in Dolphins history. That, he said, is “humbling. It’s crazy to see how far I’ve come. I’m blessed to be here at this young of an age.”
He says he’s a “quiet dude. I let my game speak for myself.”
He said he was surprised that no Patriots receiver spoke to him during the game.
Safety Eric Rowe said Igbinoghene and rookie safety Brandon Jones “proved they can play in the league.”
▪ Dolphins rookies played 224 snaps in Week 1. Only Jaguars rookies played more (232), per PFF.
▪ Because of COVID-19, the NFL is allowing teams to use six of their 16 practice squad slots on players with unlimited years of experience, but the Dolphins haven’t taken the league up on that offer.
All of the Dolphins’ practice squad players — Miami has 17 because of an exception for guard Durval Queiroz-Neto — would qualify under normal circumstances.
So do the Dolphins want to use their practice squad only on young players?
Not necessarily, Flores said, while noting “we want to develop all players [and] you can develop veteran players also.”
And why have the Dolphins added long snapper Matt Orzech to their practice squad — and protected him from being poached — after using a sixth-round pick on Blake Ferguson?
Flores said the Dolphins need to protect themselves at that unique position during a pandemic.
Ferguson, incidentally, is a Type 1 diabetic and said he consulted with doctors before deciding to play this season amid the pandemic.
His brother, Reid, has been a long snapper for the Bills for the past five years; their parents will be at the game on Sunday. Their parents had attended one of their son’s games for 100 consecutive opportunities before the streak was broken last weekend.
Both Fergusons played at LSU.
▪ Rowe said the objective Sunday is “hope to contain” Bills quarterback Josh Allen “and make him throw the ball.”
McCain said of Allen: “We know he can throw the ball down the field, probably 100 yards if he tried. And he’s a good athlete with his feet. He can run. He’s faster than people think he is.”
This story was originally published September 18, 2020 at 1:14 PM.
