$68 Million DT Set to Have Surgery, Will Miss Significant Time
The Buffalo Bills’ 40-9 Week 8 win over the Carolina Panthers on Sunday didn’t come without a price.
Star defensive tackle Ed Oliver left the game late in the second quarter after suffering an apparent injury while trying to tackle running back Chubba Hubbard, resulting in a torn bicep.
The 27-year-old defensive lineman was seen after the game with his arm in a sling, and the team confirmed Oliver would have surgery to repair the injury, sidelining him indefinitely.
“Tough loss; Ed's a really good player,” head coach Sean McDermott told reporters. “It's an opportunity for someone else to step up here.”
Oliver’s loss will be felt along a defensive line already down fellow defensive tackle T.J. Sanders, who was recently placed on injured reserve and is out a minimum of four weeks, and DaQuan Jones missing the last two games with a calf injury.
“It's unfortunate,” defensive coordinator Bobby Babich said Monday, vis ESPN. “He's playing well when he was playing, he was impacting games at a high level. ... But like always we'll adjust, we'll move on. I feel terrible for him, but he'll be back, he'll be ready to roll whenever that time is.”
While losing the heart of their defensive line is a gut-punch for the Bills, Oliver himself took to social media to send a heartfelt message to the team’s fans.
“I’ll be back just in time to play for it all 💍✍🏽,” Oliver wrote on Instagram.
Losing Oliver for a significant amount of time will likely force some reshuffling along Buffalo’s defensive front.
With both Jones and Sanders also shelved, Deone Walker will likely take over Oliver’s spot on the right side, and Jordan Phillips and Larry Ogunjobi will presumably rotate in on the left DT spot.
Walker played 36 defensive snaps in Sunday’s win over the Panthers to Oliver’s 18 (most came in the second half), while Ogunjobi (29) and Phillips (23) had a more even split of snaps.
It’s also possible Zion Logue could also work into the DT rotation as well. The second-year defensive lineman has played 59 snaps across three games, logging two tackles, a pass defensed, one pressure, and 0.5 sacks, according to Pro Football Focus.