Buffalo Bills injuries: Tre'Davious White on schedule, but won't play against Packers
ORCHARD PARK — This really shouldn’t come as a surprise, but Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott said Wednesday that Tre’Davious White won’t play in Sunday night’s game against the Green Bay Packers.
White is still battling his way back from knee surgery last December and the process has clearly been laborious for him, though McDermott made sure to point out that he believes the star cornerback is right on schedule.
“He’ll play when he’s ready; he’s progressing,” McDermott said. “There’s a lot of variables that factor into it, but I just think it’s one day at a time. He will play when he’s ready. We have a lot of trust in Tre and a lot of trust in our medical team.”
First and foremost, the decision to delay White’s return is based on the fact that torn ACLs are serious, and the Bills are making sure that White will be as close to 100% as possible when he finally gets on the field.
“There is no hesitation in our mind at all about what he’s going to be able to do when he gets back” McDermott said. "It’s just more of taking this one step at a time.”
Secondly, the Bills activated White off the physically unable to perform list prior to the Kansas City game. Once that happened, it started the clock on they 21-day window they have to eventually elevate him to the 53-man roster.
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But it came at a time when they had their bye week right in the middle. After practicing in the week prior to the Kansas City game, there was no practice last week so White has had only three full workouts with the team. He will practice this week, but the Bills likely don’t think that’s enough work to get him onto the field.
Lastly, the Bills are facing a superstar quarterback in Aaron Rodgers, but the Packers’ passing game has not been effective this season, part of the reason why they are 3-4 and riding a three-game losing streak.
Without superstar receiver Davante Adams who was traded to the Raiders, Rodgers simply doesn’t have many viable weapons and the Bills probably believe they can get by without White just as they’ve done all season using a combination of Dane Jackson, Kaiir Elam and Christian Benford at the outside cornerback positions.
“I think we’re in a good spot,” McDermott said. “We know what he means to our football team. We’re also confident in the players that have stepped in when he’s been out and they continue to grow which is good for our football team. At the right time Tre will be back and that’ll be a process as well.”
If the Bills do not activate White to the 53-man roster by the end of the 21-day window next week, he would have to be placed on season-ending injured reserve. That seems highly unlikely, though, because if they didn’t think he was close to ready, they wouldn’t have started his 21-day window.
When they do activate him next week, they will have to create a spot on the 53-man roster by either cutting a player, or putting one on injured reserve.
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This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills injury report: Tre'Davious White still not ready vs Packers
