{"id":252595,"date":"2025-10-28T14:21:46","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T18:21:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=252595"},"modified":"2025-10-28T14:21:46","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T18:21:46","slug":"billieve-it-buffalo-faces-test-after-ed-olivers-indefinite-absence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/10\/28\/billieve-it-buffalo-faces-test-after-ed-olivers-indefinite-absence\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill-ieve It? Buffalo Faces Test After Ed Oliver&#8217;s Indefinite Absence"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>The Buffalo Bills snapped a two-game skid in emphatic fashion with a 40-9 rout of the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/panthers\/\" target=\"_self\">Carolina Panthers<\/a>. This victory extended their record to 9-0 after a bye under <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/tag\/sean-mcdermott\/\" target=\"_self\">Sean McDermott<\/a>. However, the win came at a cost: defensive tackle <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/09\/13\/buffalo-bills-dt-ed-oliver-out-for-week-2\/\" target=\"_self\">Ed Oliver<\/a> tore his bicep and exited after suffering the injury. An MRI later confirmed the severity of Oliver&#8217;s injury.<\/div>\n<h2>Bill-ieve It? Buffalo Faces Test After Ed Oliver&#8217;s Indefinite Absence<\/h2>\n<div>NFL insider <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AdamSchefter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Adam Schefter<\/a> reported today that Oliver will need surgery and will likely miss the rest of the Bills&#8217; regular-season games.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Tests today confirmed that DT Ed Oliver has a torn biceps that will require surgery and sideline him indefinitely.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AdamSchefter\/status\/1982903440780198051?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 27, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>While Oliver will likely miss the rest of the regular season, he could return for the playoffs. However, the Bills&#8217; defensive line has been hit hard by injuries, leaving them extremely thin at defensive tackle. In addition to depth issues, the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/10\/24\/will-the-bills-defense-step-up-three-areas-buffalo-must-fix-now\/\" target=\"_self\">Bills&#8217; defense<\/a> has struggled to stop the run all season. With that in mind, it is important for the Bills to find an immediate replacement for Oliver and develop a plan to rebuild depth at defensive tackle.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Bills DT Larry Ogunjobi<\/h3>\n<div>The easy answer to fill the gap left open by Oliver&#8217;s injury is for veteran defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi to step in for Oliver. \u00a0Buffalo signed Ogunjobi during free agency, and similar to Oliver, Ogunjobi is a proven playmaker as a defensive tackle in the NFL. \u00a0Ogunjobi made his first appearance on the field for the Bills against Carolina after he was able to return to action after serving a six-game suspension for PED use. \u00a0In addition to his experience, Ogunjobi provides the upside of being healthy and already being on the Bills&#8217; active roster.<\/div>\n<h3>Bills DT Deone Walker<\/h3>\n<div>The biggest problem for the Bills at defensive tackle is a lack of depth behind Ogunjobi. \u00a0One player that is expected to step up into a more active role is 2025 draft pick Deone Walker. \u00a0Walker has played in a limited role this season as Buffalo has looked for answers amid injuries along its defensive line. \u00a0The downside of Walker is that he is a rookie and is unlikely to match Oliver&#8217;s performance for the Bills&#8217; defensive line.<\/div>\n<h3>Bills Injured DT T.J. Sanders<\/h3>\n<div>Another potential long-term solution to the Bills&#8217; depth issues along their defensive line is 2025 second-round draft pick T.J. Sanders. However, Sanders is unavailable for the active roster until Week 11 because Buffalo put him on injured reserve earlier this season. The Bills still need a short-term fix for their depth issues if they expect Sanders to contribute after his return.<\/div>\n<h3>Titans DT Jeffery Simmons<\/h3>\n<div>\n<div>Another direction the Bills could go is to make a trade before the trade deadline to acquire <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/titans\/\" target=\"_self\">Tennessee Titans<\/a> defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons. \u00a0Simmons is a three-time Pro Bowler for Tennessee, but there has been speculation that the Titans are <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/10\/28\/4-trade-scenarios-for-titans-tony-pollard\/\" target=\"_self\">looking to move Simmons<\/a> in an effort to pick up more draft capital. \u00a0The downside for Buffalo is that acquiring Simmons in a trade will result in a long-term situation about whether or not the Bills will move some of their current defensive lineman to make room for Simmons. \u00a0In addition, Simmons could affect the Bills&#8217; salary-cap management in 2026.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Free Agent DT Christian Wilkins<\/h3>\n<div>\n<div>To address the Bills&#8217; depth issues at defensive tackle, signing free agent Christian Wilkins could be a bold solution. Wilkins made headlines in 2024 after the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/raiders\/\" target=\"_self\">Las Vegas Raiders<\/a> released him despite his 4-year, $110-million contract, following a dispute over rehabilitation for a broken foot. Offering Wilkins a one-year contract would help minimize long-term risk. The Bills should strongly consider this move to strengthen their defensive tackle rotation.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Follow me on X:\u00a0 <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AaronSauter7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@AaronSauter7<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Main Image: Bob Donnan-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NFL insider Adam Schefter reported today that Oliver will need surgery and will likely miss the rest of the Bills regular season games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5626,"featured_media":252689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6431,3],"tags":[7357,4865,4444,4963,2086,33183],"class_list":["post-252595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-teams","category-bills","tag-buffalo-bills-roster","tag-christian-wilkins","tag-ed-oliver","tag-jeffery-simmons","tag-larry-ogunjobi","tag-t-j-sanders"],"modified_by":"Drew Crabtree","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5626"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252595"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":252690,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252595\/revisions\/252690"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}