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Buffalo Bills lose starting safety Micah Hyde to season-ending neck injury

The Buffalo Bills will be without a team leader and one of their best defenders for the rest of the 2022 NFL season.

Bills starting safety Micah Hyde will be placed on season-ending injured reserve due to a neck injury he suffered last week.

“Unfortunately client Micah Hyde will be put on IR today due to his recent neck injury,” Hyde’s agent Jack Bechta posted on Twitter Saturday.

The Bills are off to a 2-0 start behind the quarterback Josh Allen, star receiver Stefon Diggs and their cohesive defense, which will be tested Sunday in a road game against the Miami Dolphins.

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Hyde’s injury is just the latest blow to the Bills’ secondary, which has been one of Buffalo’s defensive strengths in recent years.

Hyde suffered the injury in the fourth quarter of Buffalo’s win over the Tennessee Titans last week after making a tackle on receiver Robert Woods.

Bills cornerback Dane Jackson also sustained a scary neck injury during the game, and has been ruled out for the Dolphins game.

Starting safety Jordan Poyer (foot) is questionable to play against Miami, while the Bills’ star cornerback Tre’Davious White remains out while rehabbing his knee after an ACL tear last season.

Micah Hyde was carted off the field.
Micah Hyde was carted off the field.

Without Hyde, the Bills will likely turn to backup Jaquan Johnson, a sixth-round pick out of Miami in 2019, to join Poyer on the back end of coordinator Leslie Frazier’s defense. Johnson has played in 46 career games with 29 tackles and an interception.

Rookie Christian Bedford, a sixth-round pick out of Villanova, is expected to start his third straight game in White’s place, while rookie Kaiir Elam, a first-round pick out of Florida, will get his first career start in place of Jackson this week.

Together, the Bills secondary hopes to stop Dolphins receivers Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, who became the first duo in NFL history to record 11 catches for at least 150 yards and two touchdowns in the same game. Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa threw for 469 yards and six touchdowns against the Baltimore Ravens last week.

“At the end of the day, you have to trust the guys that could potentially step into roles, if someone is not able to play, that they’ll be able to handle the game plan,” Frazier said this week.

“And part of it is, when we start back in April, we're installing the same things that we're going to run in the fall, and I always tell our players that. Unlike some teams that may be installing just to take a look at some things in the offseason, we're working on things we got to do during the season, which I think is one of the reasons we've been able to usually get off to a good start on defense.”

Both Hyde and Poyer have been constant fixtures in the Buffalo secondary since they joined the Bills in 2017.

Hyde, a former fifth-round pick by the Green Bay Packers in 2013 who has spent the last six years with the Bills, had missed only two games in his previous nine seasons.

He led the Bills with five interceptions and 10 pass defections with two fumble recoveries last season.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Micah Hyde injury: Bills safety will miss rest of season with neck