Buffalo Bills Players to Watch Week 8

After a week without Bills football, the Bills are back and will play the Miami Dolphins Sunday at Highmark Stadium. The Buffalo Bills are 4-0 during coach McDermott’s tenure coming off the by. Additionally, Josh Allen is 6-1 against the Dolphins and has had some of his best games against them. All logic points toward another win, but the game still needs to be played and there are some people who will need to step up and make an impact in this game.

Whose stepping in for Dawson Knox?

Let’s start on the offensive side of the ball. Last week, Dawson Knox injured his hand. He will miss the next couple of weeks. This has been his most productive year in his young career. Among tight ends, Knox is currently top-ten in receiving yards and tied for first in touchdowns. Someone will need to step up and fill his role. That player will likely be 2019 seventh-round pick Tommy Sweeney.

Sweeney is a good blocker and hasn’t really had a chance to show off what he can do in the receiving game so far. This year, he has caught four passes, including one for a touchdown. He can be a reliable tight end and will get more snaps in the coming weeks. Expect to see him running more routes and his targets to increase gradually. As for this week, I don’t see him having a huge role in the receiving game. But the Bills may try and get him involved. I expect him to get four to six targets; maybe a couple more depending on how we use him in the red zone.

Big week for Secondary play

On the defensive side of the ball, the Dolphins aren’t really a threat to run the ball. They rank 30^th in the NFL in rushing yards per game. With this being the case, expect to see a lot of passes. This will be a big game for secondary players and linebackers playing in coverage.

Dolphins tight end Mike Gesicki is also ranked among the top ten in tight end receiving yards and is a huge part of the Dolphins offense. I expect the Bills to either put a safety on him in man coverage or have the safeties play over the top and play help defense on him.

Jaylen Waddle has come on in recent weeks and proven himself as the number one wide receiver in Miami. This will be Tre White’s assignment for the most part this week. Waddle is a smaller (5’10”, 183 lbs), speedy wide receiver – he ran a 4.37 in high school. White needs to play physical with him, making sure he doesn’t get a clean release off the line of scrimmage. Expect to see a lot of press coverage on Waddle this week in order to knock the timing of the routes off. This, in turn, will cause Tua Tagovailoa to throw off-time throws; exactly what the Bills defense wants.

This is a huge week for the Buffalo Bills as they look to bounce back after that loss to the Titans two weeks ago. This will be a good game and will end with a win for the Bills.