The Bills elevated top WR Sammy Watkins from the injured reserve to the 53-man roster Saturday prior to the 4 pm deadline.
Buffalo Bills Insider Chris Brown provides the details. Here is his report:
Bills head coach Rex Ryan was very optimistic about Sammy Watkins playing on Sunday against Jacksonville. That optimism now has legs as the Bills elevated Watkins from injured reserve to the 53-man roster Saturday prior to the 4 pm deadline.
Watkins practiced all week on a limited basis and was listed as questionable for the game on Friday, but Ryan gave strong indication that the team’s top receiver will be in the lineup on Sunday.
“I think he’s good to go,” said Ryan. “He won’t have a full workload, but we’re definitely going to get him in there.”
Watkins has been away from most on field football related activities for two months, so the week of practice was an adjustment. Sunday’s game will be another adjustment as well for Watkins as he hasn’t played since Week 2. Even though he got a good number of reps in practice this week, Watkins was on a pitch count. So the opportunity to repeat plays were limited.
“Just doing it over and over and getting your body to line up and run a play without thinking about the depth or the yards (is important),” Watkins said. “Once I keep running those routes it’ll be normal and natural again.”
Offensive coordinator Anthony Lynn was cautiously optimistic heading into the weekend, but he admits just having Watkins on the field it can alter the approach of an opposing defense.
“It’s always exciting to have your number one receiver back on the field absolutely,” Lynn said. “If he’s on the field, sometimes people play different coverages to him. It helps in the run game and it helps get everybody else open.”
“He is another dynamic playmaker for us,” said Richie Incognito of Watkins. “He is a guy that can really put a lot of stress on the defense. He is a big, long, strong, tough, physical receiver and it is exciting to have him back. Yeah it is huge. He is a big part of this team, and he is a big part of what we want to get done. So anytime you can add a dynamic playmaker like that everyone gets excited.”
With Robert Woods out of the lineup for Sunday and Percy Harvin questionable, the onus will be on Tyrod Taylor to take advantage of having Watkins back in the lineup.
“Having him back on the field will I hope make our offense more explosive. He’s a tremendous receiver as far as route running, so it’s definitely my job to get him the football and I have to be conscious of the matchups on the field,” said Taylor. “Am I going to force feed it? No. Of course I’ve got to let the game come to him, but you’ve just got to understand that some of those plays number 14 is definitely going to make. It’s just my job to get the ball to him.”
Blanton to I-R
To make room for Watkins on the 53-man roster, the Bills placed Robert Blanton on injured reserve. Blanton suffered a foot injury last week at Cincinnati and had been declared out for Sunday’s game against Jacksonville after failing to practice all week. He’s the third safety to be put on injured reserve this season.
Bills re-sign K Gay
Additionally the Bills signed kickoff specialist Jordan Gay back to the roster. Gay served as the team’s kickoff specialist earlier this season.
To make room on the roster Buffalo released TE Gerald Christian.