Bills’ practice schedule could be disrupted by another Buffalo snowstorm

National Football League

Published Jan. 17, 2024 11:00 a.m. ET

Mother Nature might not be through complicating the Buffalo Bills‘ playoff schedule, leaving coach Sean McDermott assessing his options on Tuesday.

McDermott said the team, for now, is still scheduled to practice on Wednesday and Thursday, while monitoring a forecast that projects a lake-effect storm dumping nearly two feet of snow on the Buffalo region.

The Bills are coming off a playoff-opening 31-17 win over the Steelers on Monday, and host the Kansas City Chiefs in an AFC divisional round game scheduled for Sunday night.

“We’ve got a plan in place to make sure we’re getting the players in at the right time, as well as the staff, and trying to be on top of that from a scheduling standpoint,” McDermott said. “So we’ll handle it. Confident in that. And the best thing we can do right now is just have great communication around it for right now.”

A travel advisory is currently in place for Erie County and county executive Mark Poloncarz is encouraging employers to allow individuals to work from home through the rest of the week. It’s too early to determine whether officials would impose a travel ban, which would potentially prevent Bills players from driving to their facility.

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It would mark the second time in less than a week the region has been hit, after a lake-effect storm dumped between 1 and 3 feet of snow over the weekend, with much of it concentrated on the Bills home in Orchard Park, New York.

The two-day storm last weekend led to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and the NFL citing public safety reasons to delay the Bills wild-card playoff game against Pittsburgh from Sunday at 1 p.m. ET to Monday at 4:30 p.m.

As a result, the Bills are already facing a short week of practice, while the Chiefs are rested after a 26-7 win over Miami on Saturday night.

The Bills are also dealing with a rash of injuries, with at least nine players’ status uncertain.

“There’s nothing we can do about it other than getting ourselves ready to go,” McDermott said.

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“Our team has fought all season long. We’re not going to stop fighting now. Our team’s been resilient, and our players have done a phenomenal job of stepping up when someone has gone down,” he added.

“We’ve got to make sure that we are putting all the time that we need to put it into, whether it be treatment opportunities right now, maximizing those opportunities to get ourselves as healthy as we possibly can for game time on Sunday.”

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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