Thoughts on the 53-man roster: Tre'Davious White PUP decision was inevitable

As expected, the Bills had to place cornerback Tre’Davious White on the physically unable to perform list when they trimmed their active roster to 53 players on Tuesday.

Given the fact that White has not practiced with the team since the week of the Thanksgiving night game at New Orleans, the game in which he suffered his torn ACL, this was about as inevitable as me screaming obscenities at the TV while watching the Yankees lately.

White now has to miss the first four games per PUP rules, but here’s the thing: He can’t practice during that time, either, so four games is very likely going to turn into five or six. The Bills won’t just throw White on the field for their Week 5 home game Oct. 9 against Pittsburgh when he would have had only three days of actual practice.

And chances are they won’t for the Week 6 game at Kansas City, and here’s why: The bye week comes after that, so that would give White additional time to make sure he’s 100 percent ready to go.

If the Bills choose to go this route, White might not make his season debut until Week 8 in the Sunday night game on Oct. 30 against Aaron Rodgers and the Packers.

“It’s still going to be a long season,” general manager Brandon Beane said Thursday. “I think he’ll play a considerable number of games. I don’t want to say he’s 100 percent playing Week 5 which is the first time he could be out there. But we’ll put a good plan in place.

“I know he’s got another doctor visit scheduled here upcoming. I think that will give us a good idea. I think we’re closing in on a timeline for him internally, not that we’re going to, for competitive reasons, announce that. At that point it’ll give us some really good direction. We’ll start trying to get him ready as soon as he’s able.”

Obviously, the Bills would love to have White back as soon as possible, especially for that Chiefs game against Patrick Mahomes and their dynamic passing attack. But they are going to need him for the long haul down the stretch and into the playoffs, so it might be wise to play it safe.

If he doesn’t play until the Green Bay game, it would have been 11 months between the injury and his 2022 debut, and this might explain something a source told me about White’s surgery. White did not have the team doctors do it, he went to a surgeon of his choice. And what I was told is that this doctor performed a little more than just the ACL repair, meaning he cleaned up a couple other things while he was in there.

The Bills were not pleased about this because their doctors didn’t think it was necessary and they knew White’s rehab would take longer. Beane did not address that when he spoke Thursday, but there was one point in the press conference where it seemed like he was marking his words just a bit.

“I think it happens a lot; I don’t know the numbers, but it’s probably half and half depending on the injury,” Beane said when he was asked if it was unusual for a player to not be operated on by the team physicians. “A lot of times out there you see, it’s a sports hernia, they go to this doctor; it’s a foot, they go to this doctor.

“There’s a lot of specialists out there. So like anything, if you’re the player or the player’s representative, they’re always trying to make sure, ‘Am I sending him to the best guy?’ Just like you would if it was your child; who can take care of my child? No one’s right or wrong. There’s a lot of very good doctors. We think our doctors are very good, too. We want whatever player it is to be comfortable with the whole process.”

Some thoughts on the 53-man roster

▶ First things first, there were very few surprises. Most of us who cover the team full-time came pretty close to nailing the final roster to a man in our projections. There were only a few places where things differed.

▶ I had tight end O.J. Howard making it, but only because I didn’t think the Bills would want to eat the dead cap space that was triggered if he was cut. In the end, they swallowed it because Howard just didn’t deserve a spot ahead of Quintin Morris or Tommy Sweeney. However, now the Bills are vastly inexperienced behind starter Dawson Knox.

▶ I thought Isaiah Hodgins had a real chance to beat out Jake Kumerow for the sixth receiver spot, but Kumerow had the clear advantage on special teams and that’s why he won out. The Bills got Hodgins back onto the practice squad, which says something about how he’s viewed around the NFL as no team signed him. He’s a good receiver who doesn’t really help on special teams, and No. 6 receivers have to do that.

▶ Rookie seventh-round pick Baylon Spector earned his spot as the sixth linebacker, and unlike Hodgins, he is certainly a player the Bills can rely on for special teams. Still, I see Spector being a weekly inactive unless injuries strike.

▶ Cornerback Nick McCloud was the last man cut, and you could tell Beane wished that wasn’t the case. Cam Lewis beat him out fair and square, but McCloud was definitely a player the Bills wanted back on the practice and they were denied because their old pals Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll signed him in New York.

▶ I’m guessing that Kaiir Elam will be the starter in Los Angeles opposite Dane Jackson at boundary cornerback, but it wouldn’t surprise me if fellow rookie Christian Benford shares that role. They were that close in camp and the preseason.

▶ The running back room is pretty good, at least for now. Not only do the Bills have Devin Singletary, Zack Moss and James Cook for game day, they managed to bring back Duke Johnson and Raheem Blackshear to the practice squad. That’s pretty nice depth.

▶ Sam Martin, signed on Wednesday, will be just fine at punter. He’s a 10th-year veteran and while he won’t boom it as far as Matt Araiza would have, he’ll probably be more consistent on the finesse punts. Oh, and he’s held for about a million placekicks in his career, so no worries there.

What they’re saying in the locker room

▶ C Mitch Morse on how Sean McDermott handled the Matt Araiza situation: “He wants what’s best for the team, but he also wants to make decisions that I think he’d want for his kids, and he puts himself as a father at first and kind of goes from there. It’s not something I envy because it’s such a decision, not only, do you not have all the facts, because you’re not the one doing the investigation, right. Both parties have tremendous stakes, their lives are in (their) hands. So you have to make a decision that’s best for the team, which is what his job is. And I think also for the city of Buffalo, the organization, all that stuff. So, like I said a thousand times, I don’t envy that decision, but I think he made a decision promptly, both (McDermott and Brandon Beane) in a way that we can kind of take the next step forward as a team to get ready for the season.”

▶ S Jordan Poyer on the importance of locker room leadership in the wake of the Araiza situation: “I know we’ve got the right group of guys in this locker room to do so. Since 2017, the type of guys that Beane and Sean have brought into this locker room, just being able to handle adversity, being able to handle the ups and downs of a game, of a season, whether that’s on or off the field. There’s been things that happened in the past we’ve been able to fight through. And this isn’t gonna be the last thing.”

▶ LB Baylon Spector on making the roster as a seventh-round rookie draft pick: “I just felt like I put my best foot forward during training camp and preseason. At the end of the day, I felt like doing that, that’s all I could do. I wasn’t too anxious. I was more excited just to figure out what would happen, just knowing that I put my best foot forward. As a rookie, you see other guys leave, other guys get cut, and you’re like, ‘It is a business. It’s part of it.’ That’s where you learn. You see that part, and it kind of keeps you humble and keeps you working.”

Getting to know … DT Tim Settle

Every time defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier walks into the defensive line meeting room, he probably should pop in ear plugs because with guys like Settle, Shaq Lawson and Ed Oliver, it’s going to be boisterous. But make no mistake who the loudest guy is.

“Tim is a gregarious guy, outgoing, you’re never going to sit in a room and not know he’s in the room,” Frazier said a few weeks ago when the team was still at St. John Fisher University. Thursday, Beane said, “You’ll hear him before you see him.”

Settle’s energy level is off the charts. It’s like he sleeps every night with an IV pumping Red Bull into his bloodstream. It’s how he’s always been, dating back to college at Virginia Tech, and no one knows this better than his old Hokies teammate, Tremaine Edmunds.

“Tim’s personality is one of a kind,” Edmunds said. “What you see is what you’re always going to get from him. You need a guy like that who is going to bring a spark to the team, high energy every day. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him have a bad day.”

Settle, who has been battling an injury which may put his availability for the season opener in jeopardy, just smiles when you ask him about his relentless pursuit of fun.

“I want everybody to wake up when I come around,” he said. “I don’t care, you could be getting treatment or you could be getting your ankle taped. I don’t care. You could be in a meeting on your phone. I don’t care. I’m gonna scream when I come in the meeting room. You’re gonna know I’m around. This is just how I am, that’s just how it is and I’m not going to change at all.”

And all that is fine, but the most important thing for Settle is to be that disruptive on the field because that’s what the Bills are paying for after signing him as a free agent from Washington.

Settle is being counted on to join forces with fellow tackles Oliver, DaQuan Jones and Jordan Phillips to be stout against the run, but to also push the pocket up the middle and flush quarterbacks into the waiting arms of edge rushers like Von Miller and Greg Rousseau, or blitzing linebackers and defensive backs.

“He’s tough, he’s hard nosed, he’s a guy that’s gonna win his one on ones and we’re looking forward to seeing the quality addition he’s gonna be to our defense,” Frazier said.

Here are a few things to know about Settle:

• Close connections: Settle played high school football at Stonewall Jackson in Manassas, Virginia. One of his teammates was defensive back Greg Stroman, and the two went to Virginia Tech together. And then, they both got drafted by the Commanders in 2018. They were teammates until 2021 when Stroman was cut.

• Stealing the show: When he was introduced to the Buffalo media after signing, Settle brought to the podium his young son, Tim III, who seemed to really enjoy the attention his dad was getting.

• Favorite TV show: Family Matters.

• Favorite movie: Holes.

• Favorite musical artist: No Cap.

• Favorite actor: Denzel Washington.

• Favorite foot: Alfredo.

• Favorite ice cream flavor: Vanilla bean.

• Dream vacation spot: St. Lucia.

• Skill he wants to learn: Play golf.

• Favorite player growing up: Jerome Bettis.

• Pre-game ritual: Run two laps around the field.

Buffalo Bills birthday bio: Leonard Smith

Perhaps one of the most under the radar trades former Bills general manager Bill Polian made when he was building the team that ultimately went to four straight Super Bowls in the 1990s occurred in September 1988 when he acquired hard-hitting strong safety Leonard Smith from the Cardinals in exchange for cornerback Roland Mitchell.

The Bills’ defense had everything it needed to be championship level as Polian set cornerstones like Bruce Smith, Cornelius Bennett, Shane Conlan, and Nate Odomes in place, joining pre-Polian era players such as Darryl Talley and Fred Smerlas. But one piece it lacked was a hammer at safety because Mark Kelso was a cerebral, light-hitting coverage specialist.

Smith - who turns 62 on Friday - was the perfect addition, a 1983 first-round draft pick of the Cardinals who was never afraid to deliver crushing blows to anyone who dared venture into his area.

Back in 1991, I talked to Odomes and Talley about what Smith meant to the defense, and both said not only was his physical presence so important on the field, but his emotional presence in the locker room was, too.

“He walks around the locker room giving everybody a high five and he’s hittin’ things and beatin’ on things,” Odomes said. “You can tell that he’s mentally prepared. If you didn’t see Leonard doing the things that he does in the locker room, you wouldn’t feel right.”

Talley just smiled when that Odomes comment was relayed to him. “Leonard is a highly-strung individual who comes to play every Sunday,” Talley said. “If he decided he wanted to run through that wall, he’d run right through it, or at least he’d give it a helluva try. He’s an emotional player and he’ll yell and scream and do whatever he thinks he needs to do to get everybody motivated and get them to realize that this is a football game and it’s going to be a war. When he starts screaming, you know Leonard is ready to play.”

Smith became the starter the day he was acquired and he remained in that spot until he retired in 1991. He started 59 of the 60 games he played for Buffalo and made eight interceptions, four fumble recoveries and three sacks.

He also started seven playoff games and had two picks, and it would have been eight games but he had to miss Super Bowl 26 against the Redskins because of a severe infection in his knee which left Dwight Drane as the starter in a game the Bills lost 37-24.

Smith ultimately had to have surgery on the infected knee and when he showed up for 1992 training camp he was unable to play and the Bills waived him. Smith said a specialist told him the infection was likely caused by a cortisone injection he received from team physician Dr. Richard Weiss.

He threatened to sue the Bills for releasing him when he wasn’t healthy enough to try out for other teams, but even if they had, he wouldn’t have been able to practice and nothing became of the legal action.

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This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Thoughts on the 53-man roster: Tre'Davious White PUP decision was inevitable