A couple of key Chargers players were back to full practice participation on Thursday.
Safety Derwin James (rest, finger) did not practice on Wednesday and left tackle Rashawn Slater (groin) was a limited participant, so both are moving in the right direction ahead of Sunday’s game in Buffalo. James plans to play with a cast protecting his injury.
Linebacker Khalil Mack was also full after resting on Wednesday.
Guard Kayode Awosika (fibula), tight end Charlie Kolar (forearm), defensive back Elijah Molden (hamstring), offensive lineman Trey Pipkins (knee), cornerback Rodney Shelley (hamstring), wide receiver Brenen Thompson (quad), and defensive lineman Dalvin Tomlinson (hamstring) were all out of practice for the second day in a row.
Defensive back Deane Leonard (abdomen), wide receiver Ladd McConkey (rib), and guard Cole Strange (pectoral) were all full participants while linebacker Tuli Tuipulotu (hamstring) was a limited participant.
Bills Clips
The Bills have a couple of injury concerns with two of their key receivers.
According to multiple reporters on the scene, neither DJ Moore nor Keon Coleman are practicing for Buffalo on Thursday.
Moore (shoulder) was officially a limited participant in Wednesday’s session. Coleman did not participate.
One of Buffalo’s key offseason acquisitions, Moore has five receptions for 100 yards with a touchdown so far this season.
Defensive tackle Ed Oliver (hip) is on the field going through individual drills after he did not participate on Wednesday.
Buffalo’s full Thursday injury report will be out later in the day.
Something has kept Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert from fulfilling a skillset that has had coach Jim Harbaugh proclaim that Herbert will be regarded as the best to ever play the game. The disconnect between talent and production has become more pronounced in the early days of the 2026 season, given that the Chargers have lost a pair of home games to two of the worst teams in the league in 2025.
On Wednesday, Herbert’s midweek press conference included questions about a potential increase in vocal leadership.
In response to the first — regarding the possible need for vocal leadership in advance of the Week 3 game at Buffalo — Herbert bristled.
“I think that would imply that there’s no need for vocal leadership before this week,” Herbert said, via Kris Rhim of ESPN. “I think every week is a super important week for us and it’s a great opportunity for us to go play football again and correct the things that we made mistakes on last week and keep pushing forward.”
Herbert interrupted the second question on the subject.
“I don’t think there’s a lack of vocal leadership at all,” Herbert said. “So, I’m going to stop you right there and say that it’s very present. I don’t think anyone is panicked or worried because that’s not going to be the sentiment. It’s moving on to the next play and understand that we’re close, we’ve made mistakes, how do we fix it?”
Herbert reiterated his expectation that there will be no panic, as the team stares at the possibility that 0-2 will become 0-3 and, based on the upcoming schedule (at Seahawks, Broncos, at Chiefs), possibly 0-6 at the bye.
Regardless, something is missing. And it it’s not an issue of Herbert’s talent, it’s something else. Perhaps the players around him aren’t good enough. Perhaps he’s not doing enough to get more out of them. Perhaps the odd-couple pairing of Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel is a work in progress that has yet to make enough progress.
A win will change everything. But the team looked flat and overmatched in two straight games the Chargers should have won. Now comes the gauntlet, and there’s a chance the hole will get deeper and deeper with each passing week.
Last Thursday night, Bills receiver DJ Moore left the home opener against the Lions with a shoulder injury. On the first full day of practice in advance of the Week 3 home game against the Chargers, Moore made a move toward returning.
Moore was listed as practicing on a limited basis. Given the very broad nature of the “limited” category, it’s hard to know whether that means he’ll be good to go in four days.
Also injured from the Buffalo receiving corps is Keon Coleman. He did not practice on Wednesday, with an ankle injury.
The Bills also were missing a pair of starting defensive tackles. Ed Oliver didn’t practice due to the hip injury that made him a late scratch on Thursday night. Defensive tackle T.J. Sanders underwent an appendectomy on Tuesday night.
In Week 1, Moore had five catches for 100 yards and a touchdown in the win over the Texans. He had no catches in his 23 snaps from Week 2. Coleman had one catch for one yard in Week 1, and six catches for 63 yards on six targets in Week 2.
Bills defensive tackle T.J. Sanders has had bad luck to start this season.
He’s had a knee injury and an illness that kept him out the first two weeks. Coach Joe Brady announced Wednesday that Sanders is now out with an appendectomy he had Tuesday night.
It is unclear when Sanders might return.
The 2025 second-round pick played 12 games last season, totaling 16 tackles, a sack and a pass defensed.
The Bills signed defensive lineman Austin Johnson to the practice squad on Wednesday. Johnson played for the Bills in 2024.
The first regular season game at the new Highmark Stadium found Bills quarterback Josh Allen in vintage form.
Allen connected on 20 of his 31 passes for 248 yards and three touchdowns in Buffalo’s 41-31 win over the Lions. Allen also ran 14 times for 69 yards and two touchdowns, which made it his NFL-record fourth game with at least three touchdown passes and two touchdown runs.
The NFL recognized Allen’s effort by naming him the AFC offensive player of the week on Wednesday.
It was the 19th time that Allen has won that prize and his play so far this season — he had two touchdown passes and two touchdown runs in Week 1 — suggests that number could grow before the year is out.
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.
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.
