Five Buffalo Bills to watch at the New York Jets

The Buffalo Bills will travel away from the friendly confines of Highmark Stadium this week, embarking on a short flight to East Rutherford, NJ to take on the New York Jets. The Bills are coming off a wild 41-40 victory over the Baltimore Ravens, while the Jets are coming off a heartbreaking 34-32 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Both teams clearly had their offenses ready to roll early on, and each team’s defense will look to improve tremendously in their second game.

For the Bills, injuries are once again a story this week, and those injuries have some influence over our five players to watch. There’s uncertainty about which players assigned questionable tags on Friday’s injury report will be able suit up. Even if some of those players listed on the report play in the game, it’s fair to wonder just how much they’ll be able to do.

With that in mind, here are our five Bills to watch this weekend at the Jets.

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RB Ty Johnson

Yes, I think James Cook will play this week, as he was limited by a hamstring injury on Wednesday before practicing in full on Friday. However, after one game, I’m intrigued by Johnson out-snapping presumed RB2 Ray Davis by almost a 3:1 margin. Perhaps that was due to the game script, as Buffalo trailed by multiple scores for much of the night and Johnson is a better pass-catching back than Davis. Or, it’s possible that the seventh-year man has leapfrogged Davis on the depth chart. In a game against his former team, I’m interested to see how offensive coordinator Joe Brady deploys Johnson, and if a one-game anomaly becomes a two-game trend.

WR Keon Coleman

What will he do for an encore? Coleman was outstanding in Week 1, and he was the wideout that quarterback Josh Allen fed the most in the fourth quarter. Whereas that would have been Khalil Shakir last year, it was clear that Coleman had No. 17’s trust, and it was also clear that he had Brady’s trust, as well.

Not only did Coleman make an acrobatic catch on a fourth-down touchdown grab to bring the Bills within one score, but he also was the man for whom Brady designed the attempted game-tying two-point try. Coleman nearly scored a second fourth-quarter touchdown, but Jaire Alexander stumbled into his shoelaces and took him down, which was a blessing in disguise for the Bills that allowed them to run the clock down to zero while Matt Prater booted a walk-off field goal.

Sauce Gardner is on the Jets’ injury report thanks to a groin injury, so I do wonder if the Bills will be able to exploit that this week.

DT T.J. Sanders

After learning that Buffalo’s top defender from Week 1, Ed Oliver, was in a walking boot on Thursday and will now miss at least Sunday’s game, my immediate thoughts turned to his backup. Sanders will have to step up in his second career game,likely as a starer, as well.

Sanders has shown the ability to be a dynamic playmaker in spurts this summer, but he had a quiet debut against the Ravens, registering zero statistics in 16 defensive snaps. Replacing Oliver’s production (six tackles, one sack, three tackles for loss, two quarterback hits, and one game-changing forced fumble) won’t be easy. Sanders will have some pressure to perform this Sunday.

LB Matt Milano

I very easily could have talked about Terrel Bernard here, but given that it was Milano’s direct backup, Dorian Williams, who totaled five tackles last week to Milano’s four, I’m going with the veteran as the player who really needs to step up this week. Milano was flat-out bad in the regular season last year before he turned it on in the playoffs. Perhaps he’s a little rusty after sitting out most of the preseason, but he looked slow to react against a physical Baltimore front.

The Jets are a run-heavy squad with fantastic athletes at quarterback in Justin Fields and at running back with Breece Hall and Braelon Allen. The Bills cannot let the Jets run wild like Baltimore did, and the linebackers need to be much, much better this week. I’ll be watching Milano closely all afternoon.

S Taylor Rapp

Speaking of players who need to be better, Rapp didn’t quite catch as much heat as second-year man Cole Bishop, but he was just as bad last weekend. Whereas Bishop was rag-dolled on a long touchdown run by Derrick Henry, Rapp was so out of position and late to react that he couldn’t come anywhere near the future Hall of Famer on his second long touchdown run. The Bills’ entire defense looked flummoxed last week, and there are a lot of players who need to show improvement quickly. Rapp is one of those players.

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