The Bills have ruled slot CB Taron Johnson out for Thursday night's game against the Dolphins. And it sounds like his forearm injury from the opener will remain an issue beyond that. HC Sean McDermott this week did not rule out the possibility of Johnson landing on IR.
McDermott: "I don’t know his timeline on when he’ll be back. So we’re still doing some further research on that. But as far as other questions go related to injuries, I’m not going to go any further than I’ve already gone."
Johnson left seven plays into Sunday's win over the Cardinals, with Cam Lewis -- typically the third safety -- taking over his spot. Slot WR Greg Dortch led Arizona with 6 receptions and 47 receiving yards for the game, on 8 targets.
Miami had eight different players run pass routes from the slot in Week 1, with Tyreek Hill running the most (17). TE Jonnu Smith and WR Braxton Berrios led in slot share, at 63.2% and 50% of their pass snaps, respectively. RB De'Von Achane ran the fourth-most snaps from the slot (10) for that game.
Hill's rate (43.2%) topped his 2023 season rate by about 6 percentage points and came out a little ahead of how much slot time he saw in each meeting with the Bills last year.
Don't be surprised if he runs inside a bit more this week as well.
Jonnu Smith ranked third among Dolphins TEs in Week 1 snaps, but his 12 slot snaps were more than TEs Durham Smythe (6) and Julian Hill (4) combined.
Smith could see the field more in Week 2, given Buffalo's secondary vulnerabilities and Miami's RB injuries (Raheem Mostert out; Achane a game-time decision).
That possibility is enough to make him worth a low-level look in deeper leagues if you're hard-up at TE.
The Bills are likely trying to gather as much info as they can on Johnson's outlook ahead of Thursday night's game. If he is an IR candidate, then the team would surely prefer to begin his stint (four games minimum) as soon as possible.
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