Buffalo lists both Dawson Knox and Kaiir Elam as questionable for Sunday
As we head into the weekend, the Buffalo Bills have just two players with injury designations while the Kansas City Chiefs have a total of four.
Friday injury report pic.twitter.com/iyqz6E5eB9
— Buffalo Bills PR (@BuffaloBillsPR) December 8, 2023
Both tight end Dawson Knox (wrist) and Kaiir Elam (ankle) are listed as questionable for game day. It’s important to recognize that neither of these players are currently on Buffalo’s active roster. Both Knox and Elam are technically still on Injured Reserve (IR) and the Bills have until Christmas Day to add them back to their 53-man roster before losing them for the duration of the season. If I had to guess, late today or early tomorrow Buffalo will announce that they have released someone (Germain Ifedi? Alec Anderson? Poona Ford?) and added Knox back. I think it could be another week before we see Elam, as he was a game day inactive most of the time he was on the active roster through the first half of this season anyway.
This is as close to healthy as the Bills will be before next September. Everyone on their active roster is ready to go.
As for the Chiefs, they’re feeling the pain of last week’s loss at the hands of the Green Bay Packers linger.
Earlier today they ruled out four starters for Sunday’s game, and while the Bills are fighting to play past January 7, Kansas City doesn’t have their usual, and highly coveted, one-seed even close to wrapped up — in fact they’re currently sitting at third on the AFC.
So, as they try to climb back up to the top of the league, they’ll have to do so without a handful of starters in running back Isiah Pacheco (shoulder), free safety Bryan Cook (ankle), offensive tackle Donovan Smith (neck), and linebacker Drue Tranquill (concussion).
The #Chiefs are ruling out RB Isiah Pacheco, LB Drue Tranquill, DB Bryan Cook, and OT Donovan Smith for their game against the #Bills.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 8, 2023
In addition, like the Bills, they haven’t yet announced if they are activating anyone from their IR list. LB Nick Bolton (wrist) has practiced all week and enters the weekend without a game-day designation (unlike Knox and Elam). But the Chiefs have yet to add him back to their active roster. It’s quite possible that they are simply waiting to get some final documentation from team doctors about how long Bryan Cook is going to be out after his gruesome ankle injury last week. If they were to move Cook to IR they could activate Bolton without having to waive anyone.
While I am not cheering for injuries here, the way starting #Chiefs S Bryan Cook’s ankle looks in the picture below, it would be a miracle if he plays on Sunday against the #Bills
There is not a fracture, but I imagine a fairly significant sprain #BillsMafia https://t.co/uJPFr3wEak
— Banged Up Bills (@BangedUpBills) December 5, 2023
But for now, we’ll just have to wait and see what transactions take place over the next 48 hours.
Both teams have until 2:55 p.m. EST to announce their game-day inactives.