This is a massive injury despite Bills fans insisting their team is still stacked in every position. With safety Micah Hyde being placed on season-ending IR for a neck injury, the Bills secondary just got a whole lot weaker and more vulnerable to Miami’s pass attack.
This injury news couldn’t have come at a worse time for the Bills. Well, any injury news really is coming at the worst time as no one wants to see a player go down with any injury, and especially the season-ending ones (and neck injuries at that).
Yet, with the pass-happy Miami Dolphins preparing to host Buffalo this Sunday, losing one pair of the “Dynamic Duo” (which is the pairing of Hyde and Jordan Pryor) at the safety position is a huge blow for the Bills. Stopping Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle, Mike Gesicki, and Cedrik Wilson was going to be a tall order WITH Hyde in the lineup.
Without him? Well, the Bills might as well just give the Dolphins 20 points off the kickoff. There’s no way that Buffalo will be able to stop all of these explosive targets without a healthy, strong, and capable defensive backfield. Backups just simply can’t compete with All-Pro WR level talent, which Hill and Waddle most definitely possess.
Sure, Buffalo’s offense will still probably be able to outscore Miami at their own game and beat them this weekend, but what about when they go up against the Chiefs in a few weeks’ time? Will a backup safety really be able to stop Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs offense?
Or what about when they face Joe Burrow and the Cincinatti Bengals? Or even when they play Miami again later in the season, who will have learned new lessons from this weekend’s outing?
Now, Buffalo should be able to outlast these opponents and continue their charge to the top of the AFC, but these types of season-ending injuries were the exact reason I listed that could stop them from their goals and Super Bowl ambitions.
Buffalo’s starting roster is amazing and can contented with anyone in the NFL. But can its backups? Or the third stringers? That’s yet to be proven.
As for Micah Hyde, this is just an awful injury. Any time I see a player go down with a neck injury, I just cringe. It is the worst injury in all sports to have happen to a player as it not only can end their career prematurely, but also cause real-life health problems down the line.
I hope he and Dane Jackson, who also went down with a sickening neck injury last weekend, recover as quickly as possible and suit up for the Bills again.
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