NFL Week 9 Injury Report: Buffalo Bills vs Kansas City Chiefs
It’s Week 9 in the NFL, and the stage is set for another instant classic: Buffalo Bills (5-2) vs Kansas City Chiefs (5-3), the tenth showdown between Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes. Halloween weekend brings all the drama you’d expect from two AFC powerhouses with something to prove. The Chiefs are vying to take control of the AFC West, while the Bills are quietly fighting to keep their AFC East hopes alive, a subplot that’s been oddly overshadowed by the weekly Mahomes-Allen narrative.
For Buffalo, this game isn’t just another chapter in the rivalry, it’s a gut check. Josh Allen’s play has come under heavy scrutiny after a string of uneven performances, and the Bills’ once-dominant roster continues to shuffle through injuries at a staggering rate. Linebacker Shaq Thompson, DT DaQuan Jones, and WR Joshua Palmer have all been ruled OUT, forcing the Bills’ depth to take center stage again. Friday brought more bad news when CB Taron Johnson landed on the injury report as QUESTIONABLE with a groin issue.
The Bills’ Injured Reserve continues to tell the story of a team fighting attrition as much as opponents. Star defensive tackle Ed Oliver headlines this week’s additions to IR, a crushing blow to the heart of Buffalo’s defensive front. Safety Damar Hamlin, DTs T.J. Sanders and DeWayne Carter, CB Dorian Strong, OT Tylan Grable, K Tyler Bass, and P Cameron Johnston all remain sidelined, and also S Taylor Rapp, whose expected to miss the rest of the season. In a small twist of hope that quickly faded, WR Gabe Davis was briefly activated from the Practice Squad IR and logged two days of practice before being shut down again due to knee inflammation, an ominous setback for both player and team as they continue to chase stability heading into midseason.
Kansas City isn’t walking in at full strength either. The Chiefs will be without RB Isaiah Pacheco and OT Josh Simmons, both ruled OUT, while OG Trey Smith (back) and OT Jaylon Moore (illness) are QUESTIONABLE heading into Sunday. It’s a war of attrition between two elite teams built to play deep into January, and Week 9 might tell us which one is actually trending in that direction.
Added to Injured Reserve
DT Ed Oliver
Ed Oliver, the massive defensive tackle for the Buffalo Bills, suffered a serious setback last week versus the Carolina Panthers when he tore his left distal biceps tendon while attempting to make a tackle.
ThighDoctor He has already underwent surgery and is currently listed as “out indefinitely,” though team sources are cautiously optimistic that a return late in the playoffs remains in the realm of possibility. The procedure to repair a distal biceps tendon typically carries a recovery timeline of around six months for athletes returning to full strength. Oliver’s absence removes a cornerstone of the Bills’ interior defensive front, and even if he returns in the postseason, the team will have to rely on depth and resilience to hold the line for the rest of the season and majority of playoffs.
QUESTIONABLE
CB Taron Johnson
Just when it seemed the Bills’ injury report couldn’t get any heavier, Taron Johnson became a surprise late-week addition, he was added to the list on Friday with a groin injury. Details remain scarce, but the timing strongly suggests the issue occurred during practice rather than last week’s game action, never an encouraging sign this late in the week.
If the injury did happen in practice, the team will almost certainly err on the side of caution, which makes it likely he’ll sit out this weekend to avoid aggravating it further. His availability, or lack thereof, could significantly shape how the Bills deploy their coverage schemes against Kansas City’s motion-heavy offense.
OUT
WR Joshua Palmer
Wide receiver Joshua Palmer will miss his second straight game, despite a flicker of optimism earlier in the week. After opening as a DNP on Wednesday, Palmer managed to log limited participation on both Thursday and Friday, giving Bills Mafia brief hope that he might suit up. Unfortunately, the combination of ankle and knee injuries continues to be too much to overcome, and he’s officially out for Week 10.
Palmer originally went down in the Week 6 matchup against Atlanta, suffering what was likely a high ankle sprain alongside a mild MCL sprain on the same play. The median return-to-play window for NFL players after a high ankle sprain hovers around 4 weeks (see Clanton et al., 2000). With Week 10 marking that four-week point, next week appears to be a realistic target if he can stack consecutive practices without setbacks.
The Bills have clearly missed Palmer’s reliable intermediate presence and downfield chemistry with Josh Allen. His eventual return could open up spacing for the offense, particularly as Buffalo continues to juggle injuries at wide receiver and tight end.
LB Shaq Thompson
Linebacker Shaq Thompson will be sidelined this week with a hamstring injury, continuing what has quietly been an on-and-off issue since training camp. Head coach Sean McDermott initially noted that Thompson was due for a veteran rest day on Wednesday, but the Wednesday injury report told a different story, listing him as limited with a hamstring concern.
That was followed by back-to-back DNPs on Thursday and Friday, confirming a setback significant enough to hold him out of the Week 9 matchup. Interestingly, the issue doesn’t appear to have surfaced during last week’s game, as Thompson logged 89% of defensive snaps and showed no visible limitations on film. Still, soft-tissue recurrences like this are common when players try to push through the back half of the season, especially at high-movement positions like linebacker.
Thompson’s leadership and range have been steadying forces in a defense that’s endured constant lineup shuffling, but his lack of availability now makes the decision straightforward for Buffalo’s coaching staff. With both Matt Milano and Terrel Bernard trending toward active status this week, the Bills will likely lean on their primary duo once again as they try to regain defensive rhythm against Kansas City’s diverse offense.
DT DaQuan Jones
Defensive tackle DaQuan Jones will miss his second consecutive game as he continues to recover from the calf injury suffered during warmups ahead of the Week 6 matchup against the Falcons. His calf reportedly “popped” during warmups, which was a rough bit of déjà vu. Jones has dealt with calf issues before, including the one that kept him out during the lead-up to the Bills’ 2022 season playoff loss to Cincinnati. Calf strains are notorious for zapping explosiveness from big interior linemen, especially when they anchor the trenches like Jones does. Typical return timelines hover around 2–3 weeks (see Werner BC et al., 2017). Now three weeks post-injury, Jones has yet to resume practice, signaling that the team is taking an especially cautious approach with his recovery.
Despite the lack of practice activity this week, Sean McDermott described Jones as “day-to-day” earlier in the week, an encouraging sign that his recovery is at least progressing behind the scenes and a return is in the near future. The next logical step will be getting Jones back into individual and on-field work sometime next week. If he responds well, a Week 10 return remains within reach.
ALSO LISTED (ACTIVE)
LB Matt Milano
Matt Milano continues to battle the lingering pectoral injury that first cropped up in Week 2. He aggravated the same area two weeks ago against the Patriots and was held out of Buffalo’s Week 6 game entirely. That means he enters this matchup with four full weeks of recovery time. Earlier in the season, a three-week window was enough to get him cleared to return in Week 5, but Milano lasted just one half before the pec flared again.
Mentionable, according to a 2021 NFL study, about 45% of pec strains don’t require surgery, and the average return-to-play timeline hovers around 47 days. But not all pec injuries are created equal: recovery can swing dramatically depending on whether it’s a Grade 1 or Grade 2 strain. Regardless, he was able to practice in full all week and will play this Sunday.
LB Terrel Bernard
Linebacker Terrel Bernard tweaked his right ankle in the Bills’ Week 6 outing against the Falcons, which appeared to be a low ankle sprain. Unfortunately this has been a repeat storyline for Bernard over the past couple seasons, with recurring ankle issues popping up multiple times throughout his career. The fortunate side of a low sprain is that the recovery timeline is usually pretty forgiving, typically 1–2 weeks (What to Expect: Ankle Sprains, FantasyPoints.com).
Bernard logged limited participation in every practice the past two weeks, which is exactly what you want to see for a player pushing toward availability. He was active against the Panthers in Week 8, but in a surprise twist, he logged no snaps as he was apparently only an option for emergency purposes. Look for him to return in full this week.
K Matt Prater
Kicker Matt Prater appeared on the injury report this week with a right calf strain, a notable detail since it affects his kicking leg, not the plant leg. That distinction matters, as any strain to the drive leg can impact both distance and consistency on contact. Prater was limited in practice all week, suggesting the team was managing his workload carefully to avoid aggravation.
Despite the concern, the veteran kicker has officially been given the green light for Sunday. Expect Buffalo’s medical staff to monitor him closely through pregame warmups to ensure there’s no setback, especially given how much force kickers generate through that calf during follow-through. Prater’s experience and smooth mechanics give confidence he can handle field goals and kickoffs effectively, though it wouldn’t be surprising if the Bills play it safe with longer-distance attempts early on.
