Bills vs. Chiefs, Week 11: How injuries could impact massive AFC matchup

The Buffalo Bills have one final game before their late-season bye in Week 12. Buffalo hosts the Kansas City Chiefs later this afternoon at Highmark Stadium, and while the goal is to win, there has to be a portion of One Bills Drive that's saying "just stay healthy."

As has seemed to be the case the past several years, the injury bug has been a hard one to get out of Buffalo's locker room. On the potential bright side is the thought that this year's earlier-than-usual arrival may mean a stronger postseason appearance by the Bills.

But that's still seven weeks away, so here in Week 11, Buffalo will play without two of their starting pass catchers with another listed as questionable. The offense is also in jeopardy of playing without its starting right tackle, and his backup is on Injured Reserve (IR). Also on IR are key pieces of their defense including a defensive tackle, a defensive end, and their starting outside linebacker.

The Chiefs have a slew of players on their own IR list, including a defensive end, wide receivers, a running back, and now their kicker. However, with the exception of Harrison Butker, the Chiefs have been operating without their full roster for much of the season and anyone on their inactive list this afternoon will be a healthy scratch.

Just the same, here's a look at how injuries could impact the outcome of Week 11.

Buffalo Bills' offense vs. Kansas City Chiefs' defense Injured Bills: T Spencer Brown (questionable), WR Keon Coleman (OUT), WR Amari Cooper (questionable), TE Dalton Kincaid (OUT), OT Tylan Grable (IR)

Injured Chiefs: DE Charles Omenihu (IR), CB Jaylen Watson (IR)

The Bills started the 2024 season with no clear-cut WR1, perhaps not even a WR2. However, offensive coordinator Joe Brady said that in Buffalo "everybody eats" and that he had confidence in the starting wide receivers in the room. That lasted until mid-October when Buffalo squeaked by the New York Jets with a 23-20 victory. The next day, general manager Brandon Beane made a trade with the Cleveland Browns to bring Amari Cooper to Buffalo. While Cooper didn't instantly become WR1 — at least not if you ask Brady — his presence made things much easier on the younger pass catchers in Buffalo.

However, after just a game and a half in a Bills uniform Cooper found himself sidelined with a wrist injury. He may make his return today, but it's going to be a game-time decision. The fact that Buffalo did not elevate a wide receiver from the practice squad this week is a good sign that Cooper will at least attempt to catch passes from Josh Allen on Sunday. That's promising even if he's doing it with a cast on his left wrist.

Even if Cooper plays, the Bills will be without rookie wide receiver Keon Coleman. After finally getting in rhythm with Allen, and showing his contested-catch abilities to really earn the trust of QB17, Cooper suffered a wrist injury during a collision with safety Jordan Poyer. While the hope is that Coleman will be ready to play after Buffalo's bye week (the Bills didn't place him on IR, indicating they think he can be back sooner rather than later), but Sunday will be the third game the rookie has missed.

Also unavailable to Allen will be tight end Dalton Kincaid, who injured his knee in last week's game. On Saturday, Buffalo elevated tight end Zach Davidson from the practice squad, instead of a wide receiver, in what looks like maybe just an "in case someone gets sick before Sunday" move. Davidson has never played a down in a regular-season game despite being on the Bills' practice squad for multiple seasons now. However, Buffalo usually activates all three of their tight ends on game day (Dawson Knox and Quintin Morris are on the Bills' active roster and have over 400 offensive snaps between them this season), so who knows what to expect from Davidson this week.

While Kansas City is without cornerback Jaylen Watson who fractured his ankle in October and is expected to miss the remainder of the season, they do still have defensive back Trent McDuffie out there locking up opponents' wide receivers. McDuffie has 34 combined tackles and five passes defensed this year, and, even before Watson's injury, was considered the Chiefs' CB1. In place of Watson, is another third-year cornerback, Joshua Williams, who has 66 combined tackles (eight of them this year) in three years with Kansas City. Helping the Chiefs' corners out will be the veteran safety tandem of Justin Reid and Bryan Cook — both of whom have combined for 62 tackles and two interceptions in KC's first nine games.

The Chiefs' defense should have no problems covering Buffalo's receiving corps — making things easier for their defensive line, which has played without defensive end Charles Omenihou all season. Omenihou tore his ACL in last season's playoffs, and while he's been working to get back in the lineup, that hasn't happened yet. Without Omenihou, the Chiefs' defensive ends have still combined for six sacks this season, and they'll be testing either an injured Spencer Brown or second-year offensive tackle Ryan Van Demark, who has a whole 27 offensive snaps this season (to go with 43 last year).

Injury advantage: Kansas City Chiefs

Buffalo Bills' defense vs. Kansas City Chiefs' offense Injured Bills: DT DeWayne Carter (IR), LB Matt Milano (IR), DE Duwuane Smoot (IR), LB Baylon Spector (IR)

Injured Chiefs: WR Hollywood Brown (IR), WR Skyy Moore (IR), RB Isiah Pacheco (IR), WR Rahsee Rice (IR)

The battle between these two squads will be all about which group has the most depth and how well they can play as a full unit.

For the Bills, they've been without Matt Milano for over a year, but this could be the last game they play without him this season. Milano, like Pacheco for Kansas City, has practiced this week but neither the Bills' All-Pro linebacker nor the Chiefs' starting running back will be active on Sunday.

Like Buffalo, Kansas City is missing a lot of pass catchers. But a week after the Bills brought Amari Cooper in, KC made a trade with the Tennessee Titans to bring DeAndre Hopkins to Arrowhead. Hopkins has dealt with a knee injury — something that occurred back in July and now seems to have flared back up. Despite being on the Chiefs' injury report for the first time this season, Hopkins did get a full week of practice in. Joining Hopkins will be JuJu Smith-Schuster, who has been inactive for three weeks as he recovers from a hamstring injury. Smith-Schuster was limited in Wednesday's practice but doesn't appear to have been held back since.

While the Bills have their starting cornerbacks and safeties all ready to play, it's the guys tasked with keeping Patrick Mahomes uncomfortable where injuries are gong to show. For Buffalo, they're not only without Milano, but before last week's game, linebacker Baylon Spector was sent to the IR with a calf injury. Now the Bills have rookies Joe Andreessen and Edefuan Ulofoshio, along with Nicholas Morrow, as their help if either Terrel Bernard or Dorian Williams exit the game. Of the three, only the undrafted Andreessen has recorded any tackles this season.

With defensive tackle DeWayne Carter and defensive end Duwuane Smoot both on IR nursing wrist injuries, the Bills will look to Austin Johnson and a recently re-signed Jordan Phillips and Quinton Jefferson to take up some space on the line to give Ed Oliver and DaQuan Jones some time to rest their legs.

Buffalo is going to look for defensive ends Greg Rousseau, A.J. Epenesa, and edge rusher Von Miller to get in Mahomes' line of sight and pressure him into making some less-than-ideal decisions. But this is Mahomes, and pressuring him only brings out the best in his game (don't shoot the messenger). In the last four weeks, Mahomes has led the league in being under pressure just over 90% of the time. Despite that, Mahomes has a 69.5% completion rate this season — and the Chiefs remain undefeated.

Bills defensive coordinator Bobby Babich will need to get creative if he wants to get KC's offense off the field today.

Injury advantage: Kansas City Chiefs

Special Teams Injured Bills:

Injured Chiefs: K Harrison Butker (IR)

This week, the Chiefs placed their veteran kicker on IR so he can have surgery to repair a meniscus tear in his non-kicking leg. To replace Butker, who has made 90% of his kicks this season, Kansas City signed Spencer Shrader off of the New York Jets' practice squad. The rookie, who has just two kicks in the NFL, will now be introduced to both the swirling winds of Highmark Stadium and Bills Mafia. That's something to keep an eye on when considering that of the Chiefs' nine wins, only two have been by more than one score.

Injury Advantage: Buffalo Bills

Teams have until 90 minutes before game time — so, 2:55 p.m. EST for the Bills and Chiefs — to announce their active game-day rosters. That's when we'll know the status of Cooper and Brown for the Bills, along with who are healthy scratches for both teams.