The Buffalo Bills can help wrap up Week 5 in the NFL when they roll into SoFi Stadium for a heavyweight “Monday Night Football” matchup with the Los Angeles Rams. This could be a Super Bowl preview between two of the league’s elite clubs, but Buffalo won’t be firing on all cylinders offensively as top wideout DJ Moore is officially inactive for the contest as he continues to deal with a nagging shoulder injury.
After missing practice Thursday or Friday due to illness, Moore returned to the practice field Saturday in a limited capacity, which gave hope and led to his questionable designation.
On Monday afternoon, the Bills picked up wide receiver Trent Sherfield Sr. from the practice squad, indicating that Moore is indeed a game-time decision.
Moore, who the Bills acquired this offseason in a trade with the Chicago Bears, first suffered the injury in Week 2 against the Detroit Lions. He has yet to miss a game with the injury, but it lingered, and he aggravated it again in the second quarter of last week’s loss to the New England Patriots.
When Moore was on the field, he was the kind of top target the Bills were hoping to give Josh Allen when they reached the Chicago deal. Through four games, Moore has caught 12 balls for 178 yards and a touchdown. While those are modest numbers, the damage has helped keep production down. That said, in the two games he hasn’t left with an injury, Moore has been a go-to resource for Allen in the passing game.
In Week 1, Moore caught five of his eight targets for 100 yards and a touchdown in a win over Houston. Then, in Week 3, he caught six of a season-high 10 targets for 67 yards. In those two games, Moore commanded a 28.6% and 38.5% target share, respectively. Moore is second on the team in red zone targets (3), and nine of his 12 receptions have gone for first downs.
Keon Coleman will need to step up
Former second-round pick Keon Coleman will have to carry more of the receiving workload. Coleman had arguably the best game of his career, catching six passes for 116 yards and a touchdown in last week’s loss at New England. Those six catches are tied for the second most in a game in his career, while his receiving yards are also second in his career.
In Week 4, five of Coleman’s six catches went for first downs, and he averaged 12.8 air yards per target. That’s how much of an explosive weapon he was in that contest, and he finished the game with four of his catches for 16-plus yards.