The Buffalo Bills have crawled into their bye week in Week 7 after suffering a pair of primetime losses to the New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons in consecutive weeks. While the Bills are still a top-tier Super Bowl contender this season, they have some issues that they need to fix on both sides of the ball.
Getting some key players back who have been forced to miss time would surely help, which is why the bye week has come at such a good time for Buffalo. Two guys who are set to return to action in the near future are defensive linemen Michael Hoecht and Larry Ogunjobi, which is something head coach Sean McDermott addressed on Wednesday.
Sean McDermott Looking Forward to Getting Michael Hoecht, Larry Ogunjobi Back
The injuries have begun to pile up for the Bills on both sides of the ball. While Josh Allen was running out of guys to throw the ball to on offense in the team’s Week 6 loss to the Falcons, the front seven on defense has been shorthanded from the get-go. That’s because over the summer, both Hoecht and Ogunjobi picked up six-game suspensions for violating the NFL’s performance-enhancing drugs policy.
They haven’t been the only guys to miss time in this group, either. T.J. Sanders and DeWayne Carter are both on injured reserve, Ed Oliver and Matt Milano have both missed several games, and now, Terrel Bernard and DaQuan Jones are banged up, too. That’s a big reason why getting some reinforcements is going to be so key on defense.
Buffalo could explore the trade market for some help on defense, but they are essentially adding two players for free in Hoecht and Ogunjobi now that their suspensions are over. McDermott admitted that getting these guys back will be a huge win for the Bills, and he’s looking forward to getting them in the mix on defense when the team returns from its time off.
“It’ll be good to get these two guys back in the mix,” McDermott said recently when speaking to reporters. “With the injuries that we have in particular, we’ll see how it all unfolds, who’s available, who’s not. We won’t really know again until we get back going a little bit next week here with the guys, but it certainly will help in terms of numbers and guys who have played.”
Bills Enjoying Downtime Before Turning Attention to Week 8
GettyBills head coach Sean McDermott at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on October 13, 2025.
Losing two straight games isn’t exactly an encouraging sign for the Bills, but you aren’t going to be able to win every game throughout the course of an NFL season. There are going to be slip-ups and mistakes made, and while these losses have been tough for Buffalo to swallow, the good news is that there’s still a lot of time for them to get back on track.
The Bills will enjoy their time off and focus on getting healthy before returning to the field next week. When they do return, they will have a favorable matchup against the Carolina Panthers on their hands in Week 8. Buffalo will likely be heavily favored to win this game, and if it can get several of its key players back on the field, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the team quickly reestablish itself as one of the top championship contenders in the league.
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