The Buffalo Bills are looking for answers after losing 30-13 to the Miami Dolphins on Sunday.
Buffalo needs to figure out its offense because scoring 13 points against the Dolphins, who traded one of their best defensive players, Jaelan Phillips, the week of the game, is unacceptable.
The Bills need to improve the output from their receiving corps, and according to Kristopher Knox from Bleacher Report, receiver Joshua Palmer could emerge as a standout
player in the second half of the season.
“Buffalo Bills wideout Joshua Palmer, who joined the team this offseason after four seasons with the Los Angeles Chargers, has been out since suffering an ankle injury in Week 6. However, he returned to practice on a limited basis last week,” Knox wrote on Wednesday.
“The 26-year-old has the potential to be the field-stretching receiver the Bills have missed for most of the season. He leads the team with a 16.7 yards-per-catch average and should become a focal point once healthy, as Joe Brady looks to diversify the passing attack.”
In six games this season, Palmer has recorded 14 receptions for 234 yards. Palmer signed a three-year, $36 million deal with the Bills this season, but he hasn’t lived up to his contract yet.
Palmer suffered a knee/ankle injury in the Week 6 loss to the Atlanta Falcons and missed games against the Carolina Panthers, Kansas City Chiefs and the Dolphins.
However, Palmer could return to the field soon, and ESPN’s Alaina Getzenberg
reported that Palmer is in line to practice fully on Wednesday.
“Palmer last saw game action in Week 6, but his looming return to full participation puts him on the right track ahead of Sunday’s game against the Buccaneers,” via RotoWire Staff. “If he is indeed able to return this weekend, Palmer would bolster a Buffalo passing attack that may be without TE Dalton Kincaid (hamstring), who won’t practice Wednesday. Meanwhile, fellow WR Khalil Shakir is managing a rib issue that will limit him to begin the week.”
Bills head coach Sean McDermott also provided a positive update on Palmer, saying from what he’s hearing, Palmer is “on schedule” to play on Sunday against Tampa Bay, via 13 WHAM’s Dan Fetes.
The Bills are going to need Palmer back since Kincaid, who suffered a hamstring injury against the Dolphins, could be out this week.
“(Losing Kincaid,) It’s concerning,” McDermott said on Monday,
via Syracuse.com’s Matt Parrino. “He’s a good player, and you saw the production he’s had of late, in particular, and the season that he’s had. So it’s an opportunity for somebody to step up. And then within that, how creative can we be from a play design standpoint to get somebody else going.”
The Bills need to have a strong second half of the season if they want to surpass the New England Patriots, who currently lead the AFC East, and also attempt to reach their first Super Bowl since the 1990s.
While the Chicago Bears got their revenge on Matt Eberflus in their 31-14 victory over the Dallas Cowboys, things were considerably worse for that team up north. The Green Bay Packers have been cruising through the season’s first two weeks. Riding a great defense, they thumped the Detroit Lions and Washington Commanders. Everybody was booking their Super Bowl plans. Jordan Love was playing really good football, too, extending a streak of regular season games without an interception to nine. All expected him and the team to crush a struggling Cleveland Browns team in week three.
‘It feels good,’ Jordan Love on 2-0 start after Packers beat Commanders 27-18
What followed was one of the ugliest collapses in recent memory. Green Bay struggled all game against Cleveland’s tough defense. Still, they built a 10-0 lead in the 3rd quarter and were on track to get out with an ugly win. Then, with 3:45 left in the game, the Browns kicked a field goal to make it a one-score deficit. All Love had to do was get a couple of first downs to burn the clock. What came next will live in the nightmares of Packer fans for weeks.
The meltdown from Packer fans was predictably epic, and their ire was mostly directed at Love.
That is what terrifies Green Bay more than anything. They’re starting to realize that while he isn’t a bad quarterback, Jordan Love is not elite. He’s not in the same tier as Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers. He is a competent player capable of really strong performances, but is also capable of absolute clunkers. Worst of all, he delivers some awful turnovers at the worst possible times. For all the celebrating of that streak of games without an interception, people conveniently forgot that he threw three in the playoff loss to Philadelphia in January. He’s thrown five in his last two playoff games.
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The Packers will likely get back to winning in the coming weeks. That is what they do. However, this loss to Cleveland was a major red flag. It is an uncomfortable reminder that their weakest link might be the quarterback, which is unfamiliar territory.