The Dolphins signed pass rusher Andre Jones Jr. off the Bills’ practice squad, the team announced Tuesday.
Jones has not played in a game this season.
He has appeared in 19 career games with two starts with Washington (2023-24) and Buffalo (2025), recording eight tackles, three passes defensed and two special teams tackles.
He appeared in one postseason game with Buffalo.
Jones entered the NFL as a seventh-round selection of the Commanders in the 2023 draft.
He played collegiately at Louisiana, where he appeared in 65 career games with 45 starts and recorded 209 tackles, 17.5 sacks, 30 tackles for loss, one interception, eight passes defensed, four forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries.
The Dolphins also announced they signed long snapper Luke Basso to the practice squad.
Basso entered the NFL as an undrafted college free agent with Denver this spring and spent the offseason program and training camp with the team.
He played collegiately at Oregon (2022-25), appearing in 53 career games and earning first-team All-Big Ten honors in 2024.
Bills Clips
The NFL has adopted a new procedure when it comes to five key safety rules. And the first wave of fines under those rules are working their way through the internal process.
For Week 1, three players were fined for violating the five rules that will result, after three fines, in a one-game suspension. Per the NFL Players Association, each of them has appealed their fine.
The fines were imposed on Bills defensive back Sam Franklin ($9,425 for a blindside block), Packers defensive back Evan Williams ($7,087 for a hit on a defenseless player), and Dolphins cornerback Chris Johnson ($17,911 for a hip-drop tackle).
The appeals have two practical impacts. First, if unsuccessful, it counts as the first strike toward a suspension, if two more violations of the same rule occur. Second, each player is eligible for a 50-percent rebate if they go through the season without another violation of that same rule.
The five rules that utilize the three-strike process are blindside block, hit on a defenseless player, hip-drop tackle, horse-collar tackle, and launching.
The appeal process should be expedited, frankly. The players should know before each game where they stand in relation to a potential suspension. From the league’s perspective, the uncertainty is helpful; it will prompt players to be more careful given the unresolved appeal.
The NFL publishes information on the various fines every Saturday afternoon. The league does not release the results of the appeals. Ideally, the NFL or the NFLPA (or both) will provide that information, so that the media (and, in turn, the fans) will know which players are facing a potential suspension.
In an age of sports media that features plenty of reporters and analysts who are on the payroll, directly or indirectly, of the teams and/or leagues they cover, some teams and leagues feel emboldened to take action against those who dare to cover them with scrutiny or criticism.
Long-time Bills radio voice John Murphy lost his press-box credential after writing a column regarding new coach Joe Brady for WIVB-TV, which is the official TV station of the team.
Via Alan Pergament of the Buffalo News, Murphy received a text from WIVB sports director Josh Reed two days after the column was posted that Murphy wouldn’t have a seat in the press box at the team’s new stadium.
Said Murphy regarding whether he believed the denial was a result of his column, “I think so, but I don’t know.”
The denial was attributed to a policy against part-time workers getting credentials.
The Bills declined a request for comment from Pergament.
Murphy claims that Bills V.P. of marketing Chris Jenkins told Murphy he’d receive a credential for the season, and that Murphy was shown the seat he’d be using.
Murphy also said that his subsequent column predicting a 10-win season for the Bills wasn’t posted by WIVB, after the station said it couldn’t be published due to pressure from the Bills.
Murphy spent 34 years as an analyst and a radio voice for the Bills. He retired in 2023 after suffering a stroke.
“I feel pretty bad,” Murphy told Pergament. “[WIVB] didn’t fight for me. [The column] wasn’t that bad.”
It’s not currently clear, and never may be known with certainty, whether the Bills retaliated against Murphy. Typically, such motivation isn’t worn on the sleeve of the entity doing the retaliation.
If that’s what’s happening, it would be sad. And it possibly would be a manifestation of the extreme pressure the organization is feeling to justify the decision to fire coach Sean McDermott while promoting Brady and G.M. Brandon Beane.
Jim Harbaugh’s not in Ann Arbor anymore.
Harbaugh’s third year with the Chargers has started as badly as it possibly could have, with two home losses against a pair of the worst teams in the league last season.
In both games, against the Cardinals and the Raiders, the Chargers ended up on the wrong side of a 26-14 score.
Let’s put it in perspective. Per NBC Sports research, only two teams (the 1987 Colts and the 2003 Eagles) rebounded from 0-2 starts with both losses at home to make the playoffs. (In all, teams have begun the year with two straight home games 209 times.)
Via OptaStats, the Chargers are the second team in NFL history to lose back-to-back games at home against teams that had a winning percentage below .200 the prior year. It last happened exactly 100 years ago, to the 1926 Racine Tornadoes. The Tornadoes played only one more game before folding.
The Chargers’ fans may be folding the tents on making it to the playoffs in 2026. A gauntlet is coming for Harbaugh and company: at Bills, at Seahawks, Broncos, at Chiefs. Then comes a bye week.
If they lose the next four and go into the two-week break at 0-6, who knows what will happen next?
That said, the NFL remains an “any given Sunday” league. The Chargers have found that out the hard way, through the first two Sundays of the season. Still, it won’t be easy to get a win in any of the next four games.
It won’t be easy beyond that, either. They still face the Rams, Texans, Ravens, 49ers, Chiefs (again), and Broncos (again). Barring a significant turnaround, another “mutual parting” could be looming for Harbaugh and his current NFL employer.
The christening of the new Bills’ stadium had plenty of witnesses. Both in the building and elsewhere.
Prime Video has announced that 18.6 million watched the Week 2 Thursday night game between the Lions and the Bills. Buffalo raced to a 21-0 lead, and emerged with a 41-31 win.
It’s a five-percent bump over the 2025 Thursday night opener between the Commanders and Packers, and a 21-percent increase over last year’s full-season average of 15.33 million.
It’s the fifth season of Thursday Night Football on Prime Video. And the numbers gradually have been increasing, as more people pivot to the paid streaming platform.
This week, there could be a dip. The Falcons, who lost in ugly fashion to the Panthers on Sunday, will face the Packers at Lambeau Field. It’s Green Bay’s home opener — and it’s the first of three straight Falcons games in prime time.
After Week 1, Bills quarterback Josh Allen had his MVP odds move from +600 to +500. Bears quarterback Caleb Williams made an even bigger climb, from +1200 to +600.
As of Sunday night, Allen’s odds have improved even more. And Williams, for now, is off the board.
Allen is currently the +275 favorite. Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson is at +800. Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy, and Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes are tied at +850.
Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott is next, at +1400.
Once more is known about Williams’s hamstring injury, he’ll likely return. Missing significant time would likely take him out of the mix for the top individual award in the game. In a 16-game season, the most games missed by the eventual MVP was three (Joe Montana, in 1989). In a 14-game season, the most games missed by the MVP was two (Larry Brown in 1972, and Paul Hornung in 1961).
The first week of the 2026 season featured three fouls that will count toward possible suspensions.
Bills defensive back Sam Franklin was fined $9,425 for a blindside block, Packers defensive back Evan Williams was fined $7,087 for a hit on a defenseless player, and Dolphins cornerback Chris Johnson was fined $17,911 for a hip-drop tackle.
Under a new rule adopted for this year, players who pick up three fouls for five specific player safety rules will be suspended. The three fouls above all qualify under the rule as well as fouls for horse-collar tackles and launching. The suspension would come into effect for three violations of the same rule.
Players can appeal the fines and any player that ends the season with one violation of a rule will get 50 percent of the fine paid back to them.
After defeating the Lions on Thursday night, the Bills will have a long weekend to rest up and heal before hosting the Chargers in Week 3.
That’s good news for a club that has a pair of key players banged up.
Head coach Joe Brady did not have much of an update on receiver DJ Moore — who exited the game with a shoulder injury — or Ed Oliver, who was inactive after injuring his hip during pregame warm-ups.
“We’re still obviously going through [it],” Brady said. “One of the perks of the Thursday night game, not a lot of perks, but one of the perks of it is you do get that long weekend, and guys will recover. So we don’t practice again until next Wednesday. No different than any other — we’ll see how these guys are going to recover and how their body will take it. As you guys who have been around DJ or know DJ’s past, he’s as tough as they come. So, if he can be out there, he’ll be out there.
"[Oliver is] another guy, we’ll just see how he’s progressing,” Brady added. “The guys that are getting tests and MRIs and all that, they’re getting that now.”
Additionally, Brady noted that running back Ty Johnson and defensive lineman T.J. Sanders were close to playing against the Lions. With the extended break before Week 3, both may be able to be back for Buffalo’s next game.
The Bills will host the Chargers on Sunday, Sept. 27.
The Bills have started the season with two wins over two teams that entered the season as favorites to win their divisions. They have to be pleased with their 36-31 win over the Texans and their 41-31 win over the Lions.
At least, they have to be pleased with scoring 36 and 41 points in their first two games. Giving up 31 points in each game is not so pleasing.
In fact, the Bills are just the third team ever to start the season 2-0 despite giving up more than 30 points in both games. Previously, the 2000 Rams won their first two games by scores of 41-36 and 37-34, and the 1991 Bills won their first two games 35-31 and 52-34.
Via Josh Dubow of the Associated Press, only four teams in NFL history have given up 62 or more points while starting 2-0: This year’s Bills, those 2000 Rams and 1991 Bills, and the 2018 Chiefs.
The good news for the Bills is, the three previous teams to give up 62 or more points while starting 2-0 made the playoffs. The bad news is, all three of them lost in the postseason — and all three of them gave up more than 30 points in those losses.
The Bills’ offense looks great through two weeks of the season. It remains to be seen whether they can win a championship with this defense.
The Bills christened their new stadium with both the American and Canadian national anthems, with the quartet known as Barenaked Ladies singing O Canada before kickoff. It was not a political statement, at a time of plenty of friction between the respective governments.
“For us, it’s all about the business,” Bills chief operating officer Pete Guelli said, via Tim Graham of The Athletic. “This is part of a broader marketing effort into Southern Ontario and Toronto. It’s been a critical part of our business model, and it’s going to continue to be. This has been in the works prior to anything that’s come up on the [geopolitical] front.”
At one point, the Bills played a small handful of regular-season games in Toronto, with the goal of expanding the team’s footprint.
“Buffalo’s a small market, but when you combine it with the Greater Toronto Area, it’s a top-five NFL market,” Guelli said. “Somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 percent of our PSL holders are Canadian. Our waiting list is closer to 20 percent.
“We’ve built a multibillion-dollar stadium and firmed up this team in our market for the next 30-plus years; Canada was an important part of that and always will be.”
The Bills will play the Canadian anthem before every home game, to the likely chagrin of those who inexplicably have beef with our neighbors to the north.
