Parrish Out: Deep Look Into Effects of Roscoe's Injury

As many reports are now surfacing, Roscoe Parrish, Buffalo's return specialist and emerging slot receiver, is out with a thumb injury for 4 to 6 weeks. He is slated for return sometime between the game in Miami against the Dolphins on October 26th and the game in Foxboro on November 2nd against the Patriots. Many believe this is a crippling loss for a Bills offense that finally has been starting to show explosiveness and consistency.

I think overwise. I realized that in order to prognosticate the effects of this injury, I needed to throw all my Bills' bias to the wayside. After doing so, I have come to the conclusion that this injury is not as bad as one may orginially think, here are my reasons why.

This is the NFL. In the NFL injuries happen. No other team (well maybe besides the Seahawks at WR) have come to terms with the word injury better than the Buffalo Bills. Their 17 injured reserved players last season was a league high, which had players such as George Wilson, John DiGiorgio, and Anthony Hargrove in the starting lineup. Down the stretch, 3rd stringers and all, Buffalo was competitive in their games and were even seen in the playoff hunt as late as Week 15. Yea, yea, you already knew all that. I bring up that point because I see this one injury to be very similar to last season's scenario. Then, Digiorgio, Wilson, and Hargrove gained experience, and now, I see McKelvin, Hardy, and Jenkins seeing much more playing time.

Timing is everything. It's much better now to have Parrish go down with the likes of St. Louis, Arizona, and a Bye week ahead. As mentioned above, these games can be used for backups and rooks' to get much-needed experience so they can display their full array of skills. The Bills will need those players later on when divisional games begin and the schedule gets a little bit more difficult. 

Return specialist? Yes, Leodis McKelvin is one of those. No, he's not Roscoe Parrish. McKelvin is very raw as an NFL player right now, but he was a return extraordinaire in college. His 8 career returns for touchdowns included 7 punt returns, and he is anticipated to fill the void for Parrish. I'm not predicting the electricity of Roscoe, but I don't see a huge drop off here. May need him in December.

Wide out drop off? If your a Bills fan you love Roscoe, and you love all that he brings to the table. If you ask me, his ability to return kicks much outweighs his ability as a receiver. Though he was becoming more of a slippery route runner and consistent wide receiver, the Bills have the depth to replace his minimal numbers. Justin Jenkins, normally a gunner on punts, is actually listed as a wide-receiver and played admirably during the pre-season. He displays good hands is a decent route runner, and is much bigger than Roscoe.

Moving on, the highly-touted James Hardy needs to slide into Josh Reed's outside spot allowing Reed to play where he is the most dangerous, in the slot. Hardy needs to do just enough to distract a little attention off Evans, in order for Lee and Josh to get open, even if its underneath. Neither Hardy or Jenkins can do it by themselves, but the combination of the two should keep the Bills passing game exactly where it was, pre-Parrish injury.

The combination of those players, playing those positions really should help the Bills in the long run. No, its never good to have someone with Roscoe Parrish's ability out, but if there were to be a time for it to happen, that time is now. McKelvin, Hardy, Jenkins, and maybe even Stevie Johnson have been given a golden opportunity, and their opportunity should lead to much needed experience for those late wintry games in December, when the Bills' season will be on the line. Not to worry Bills' fans.