All-Pro DB, starting MLB ruled out for Bills’ Week 3 clash with Jaguars

The Buffalo Bills have ruled cornerback Taron Johnson and linebacker Terrel Bernard out for their Week 3 clash with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Kyle Silagyi | Sep 18, 2024

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The Buffalo Bills will, expectedly, be without their All-Pro nickel cornerback and starting middle linebacker when they host the Jacksonville Jaguars in a Week 3 Monday Night Football clash. Sean McDermott ruled both Taron Johnson and Terrel Bernard out for the upcoming matchup while speaking to reporters on Wednesday.

“Taron and TB will both be out for the game this week,” McDermott said. “Everyone else will practice, which would include Dawuane Smoot, Javon Solomon, and Casey Toohill. They’ll all practice and be out there.”

McDermott went on to state that there was “no new information right now” regarding Bernard’s ailment when asked if the team had ruled out the possibility of placing him on injured reserve.

Both Johnson and Bernard are pivotal players on the second level of Buffalo’s defense, and their absences will undoubtedly be noticed. Johnson picked up a forearm injury early in the team’s Week 1 win over the Arizona Cardinals, leaving after just seven snaps; the Bills initially hadn’t ruled out the possibility of placing him on IR but decided against doing so before their Week 2 Thursday Night Football clash, suggesting that they thought he’d be ready sooner rather than later. McDermott confirmed this notion last week by stating that they thought the veteran would be ready “prior to that four weeks that would normally garner the IR designation;” regardless, he won’t be available in time for Week 3.

Bernard’s timeline is a bit cloudier. He suffered a strained pectoral early in the first quarter of Buffalo’s Week 2 contest with the Miami Dolphins, with ESPN’s Adam Schefter reporting the day after the win that the third-year defender was set to miss “about a month.” McDermott stated last week that the team was still deciding whether or not to place him on IR, and it’s seemingly still yet to come to a definitive verdict on the matter.

The Bills have been using a platoon of former University at Buffalo defenders Cam Lewis and Ja’Marcus Ingram to fill in for Johnson, with Lewis taking the bulk of the snaps. Third-year defender Baylon Spector replaced Bernard after he went down in Week 2, and he looks set to do so until the starter ultimately returns.

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