Buffalo Bills injuries pile up during training camp: The latest

Sean McDermott began his pre-practice meeting with reporters reading off an extensive list of players who were not going to be participating in Sunday’s no-pads workout at St. John Fisher University.

We are a week and a half into training camp, and it’s inevitable that injuries start to pile up, especially after a week in which the Buffalo Bills were in full pads several times.

Most pressing is the situation at safety as Mike Edwards (hamstring) and Cole Bishop (shoulder) are not going to be back for at least a couple weeks, maybe more. That has meant players like Taylor Rapp and Damar Hamlin have had to take on additional reps, especially with the first-string defense.

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And that’s because the two veteran safeties the Bills signed late last week, Kareem Jackson and Terrell Burgess, are only now getting worked into practice after they had to spend their first few days familiarizing themselves with the defense.

“It’s been hard so far, we haven’t been able to rep them much because we’ve been trying to ramp them up the right way,” McDermott said. “They’ll kind of be able to open up more today. That’s some of why we didn’t go live when they were in the (practice) the other night … just to continue to ramp them up the right way. So I’ll know more today, it will be the first day to be able to evaluate them.”

Missing so much time is problematic for Edwards and Bishops. Edwards, signed in free agency away from the Chiefs, missed most of the spring with an injury and now he’s done almost nothing on the field in Pittsford. Bishop is a rookie who couldn’t afford to lose training camp reps so his development is now delayed.

“You’ve got to do as much as you can mentally,” McDermott said. “I mean, when you look at Mike’s situation, Mike missed most of the spring, now missing a lot of the valuable reps in training camp, and now Cole. It’s really hard, right, especially when you don’t have background in the system.

“We were talking about it as a staff last night, and (Terrell Bernard) missed a lot of, or a significant portion of camp last year, but TB had been in the system for at least one year prior. So it’s a challenge in order to develop those guys, and it’s going to take some time.”

Other Bills injuries include Chase Claypool, Ty Johnson

Also sitting out Sunday were wide receiver Chase Claypool who continues to miss time with a toe injury; running back Ty Johnson with a hamstring; offensive lineman Lael Collins with a knee; offensive lineman Travis Clayton with a shoulder; linebacker Nick Morrow with a core muscle/groin ailment; linebacker Edefuan Ulofoshio with a rib which he hurt Friday at the stadium; and tight end Dawson Knox with a sore groin/veteran rest day.

The team also announced the re-signing of linebacker Shayne Simon who had been waived last week. He took the roster spot of defensive lineman David Ugwoegbu who was waived with an injury settlement Sunday. He was injured in the practice Friday.

“Yeah, it’s hard to develop when you’re not on the field,” McDermott said. “But we’ll find a way through it, we’ve done it before. You know, full confidence in the medical staff to get those guys back as soon as we can and we develop the guys that are out on the field. That’s what we do.”

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Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for four decades including 35 years as the full-time beat writer for the D&C, and he has written numerous books about the history of the team. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana. https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Buffalo Bills injuries pile up during training camp: The latest