Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

‘Sunday night, the teams will meet once again in Cincinnati and barring any medical emergencies, America should be in store for quite a matchup of two teams that are certainly Super Bowl contenders but who have struggled through some inconsistencies through the first half of the 2023 season.’

‘The loss of Tre’Davious White (again) is huge and that propelled Dane Jackson into a starting role. Jackson is a decent player, but he’s not White, and he’s not Douglas, who I would assume will become the starter once he’s comfortable with the scheme. Christian Benford has been a pleasant surprise, while primary backup, Kaiir Elam, remains a disappointment and has been a healthy scratch in five games.’

‘The temperature was 34 degrees at kickoff on Jan. 22 in the AFC wild-card round and it fell below freezing with a persistent snowfall for most of the game. The field crew used leaf blowers to blow snow off the turf during timeouts.’

‘Through the marvels of modern medicine, physical therapy, and recuperative powers, Burrow’s calf looks to be good as new and not surprisingly, the Cincinnati offense is humming as it goes into Sunday night’s showdown at Paycor Stadium against the Buffalo Bills riding a three-game winning streak.’

‘The contract is reportedly one year worth up to $3.7 million which is certainly costly for half a season. The cap space was essentially available when the Bills restructured offensive tackle Dion Dawkins’ contract last week.’

‘It is not known whether the Bills tried to include him in the trade that brought Green Bay cornerback Rasul Douglas to Buffalo, or if he was being used as an asset to get another deal accomplished. Beane won’t reveal that information, but if Elam was discussed and none of the teams Beane was talking to were interested, that’s quite an indictment.’

‘And contractually, the Bills are only on the hook for a little more than $800,000 in base salary for 2023. That figure rises dramatically in 2024 as he has $9 million owed to him in the last season of a three-year, $21 million contract he signed with Green Bay in 2022. But if the Bills are interested in keeping Douglas, they can certainly re-work the terms via a contract extension.’

‘The Eagles waived Douglas at the end of 2020 training camp and it took him a while to find a niche. He hooked on with the Panthers and wound up starting 11 of 14 games with 62 tackles and nine pass breakups, and then in 2021 he was signed and eventually cut by both the Raiders and Texans, then was signed by the Cardinals to their practice squad.’

‘The Bills have a young running back in James Cook who is having a nice season with 486 yards rushing and 192 yards receiving, so if he does sign and gets called up to the 53-man roster, it will be interesting to see what role Fournette would have. Clearly, he would replace 33-year-old Latavius Murray as the backup as Murray hasn’t been all that impactful for Buffalo.’

‘The Bengals are actually on the outside looking in thanks to a slow start when they lost three of their first four games with quarterback Joe Burrow trying to overcome a calf injury that he suffered in training camp. But now, Cincinnati is rolling with three straight victories over the Cardinals, Seahawks and 49ers.’

‘Fournette was the fourth overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft by the Jaguars where he played three seasons and topped 1,000 yards twice, in 2017 and 2019. He then moved on to Tampa Bay after Jacksonville waived him following training camp in 2020 and he teamed up with Tom Brady to lead the Buccaneers to a victory in Super Bowl 55 over the Chiefs.’

‘And then, 90 minutes before kickoff when the game day inactives were announced, sure enough, Norman was up and Elam was out. If you didn’t already believe that the Bills were shopping Elam, this looked like the slap the heel of your hand against the side of your head moment.’

‘“I could feel the team and I’m hoping you guys could, too,” McDermott said after the Bills hung on for a 24-18 victory. “They came out with an attitude and it started in the locker room, really. Stefon Diggs, there’s a little motivational couple of words he said to the team before we went out there. That’s what a leader does. He did a phenomenal job of basically setting the tone with his message before the game.”’

‘It was nice to see Josh Allen looking for and finding Gabe Davis early in the game and the inconsistent WR had the best game of his career in terms of catches with nine (for 87 yards). One of the problems with Davis is that in several games this year he hasn’t been able to get into the flow, but he caught five passes for 50 yards in the first half alone and throughout the night he took some of the burden off Stefon Diggs, though Diggs still made nine catches for 70 yards.’

‘Sal’s prediction: Bills 24, Buccaneers 14.’