Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

‘The Eagles waived Douglas at the end of 2020 training camp and it took him a while to find a niche. He hooked on with the Panthers and wound up starting 11 of 14 games with 62 tackles and nine pass breakups, and then in 2021 he was signed and eventually cut by both the Raiders and Texans, then was signed by the Cardinals to their practice squad.’

‘The Bills have a young running back in James Cook who is having a nice season with 486 yards rushing and 192 yards receiving, so if he does sign and gets called up to the 53-man roster, it will be interesting to see what role Fournette would have. Clearly, he would replace 33-year-old Latavius Murray as the backup as Murray hasn’t been all that impactful for Buffalo.’

‘The Bengals are actually on the outside looking in thanks to a slow start when they lost three of their first four games with quarterback Joe Burrow trying to overcome a calf injury that he suffered in training camp. But now, Cincinnati is rolling with three straight victories over the Cardinals, Seahawks and 49ers.’

‘Fournette was the fourth overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft by the Jaguars where he played three seasons and topped 1,000 yards twice, in 2017 and 2019. He then moved on to Tampa Bay after Jacksonville waived him following training camp in 2020 and he teamed up with Tom Brady to lead the Buccaneers to a victory in Super Bowl 55 over the Chiefs.’

‘And then, 90 minutes before kickoff when the game day inactives were announced, sure enough, Norman was up and Elam was out. If you didn’t already believe that the Bills were shopping Elam, this looked like the slap the heel of your hand against the side of your head moment.’

‘“I could feel the team and I’m hoping you guys could, too,” McDermott said after the Bills hung on for a 24-18 victory. “They came out with an attitude and it started in the locker room, really. Stefon Diggs, there’s a little motivational couple of words he said to the team before we went out there. That’s what a leader does. He did a phenomenal job of basically setting the tone with his message before the game.”’

‘It was nice to see Josh Allen looking for and finding Gabe Davis early in the game and the inconsistent WR had the best game of his career in terms of catches with nine (for 87 yards). One of the problems with Davis is that in several games this year he hasn’t been able to get into the flow, but he caught five passes for 50 yards in the first half alone and throughout the night he took some of the burden off Stefon Diggs, though Diggs still made nine catches for 70 yards.’

‘Sal’s prediction: Bills 24, Buccaneers 14.’

‘As it stands right now, the Bills are clinging to the seventh and final playoff berth in the stacked AFC. Simply put, the Bills can’t afford to stub their toe as they did against the Patriots because if they find a way to lose this game and fall to 4-4, their playoff chances are going to take a precipitous dip.’

‘So yeah, Knox’s season-long contribution is pretty lame by that incredible measure, but what about compared to his own teammate, rookie first-round pick Dalton Kincaid? Once again, it doesn’t look great.’

‘Mayfield has played well in the Bucs’ first six games, but after a 3-1 start, they’ve lost back-to-back home games to the Lions and Falcons and Mayfield produced only one touchdown and 19 combined points.’

‘“We’ve got to continue to find answers to some of the reasons why we’re stubbing our toe,” coach Sean McDermott said. “We’re beating ourselves at times and we’re not linking up all three phases to control a game.”’

‘Coaching: F.’

‘Play-by-play: Ian Eagle. Analyst: Charles Davis. Sideline reporter: Evan Washburn.

‘Sal’s prediction: Bills 24, Patriots 13.’