Did Sunday’s play earn Duke Williams, T.J. Yeldon another chance in postseason? - AL.com

Buffalo wide receiver Duke Williams and running back T.J. Yeldon didn’t play in November and hadn’t played in December until Sunday for the Bills.

Given the opportunity to play on Sunday against the New York Jets, they performed well enough to draw praise from Buffalo coach Sean McDermott. But did they do enough to get another chance to play when the postseason starts on Saturday?

That was Williams' objective.

“Today was my playoff game,” Williams told reporters in the locker room after the game. “I tried to show these coaches that I’m available for them if they need me come playoff time, so I went to sleep with it on my mind last night, like if you grind hard enough to show these coaches that you want to be playing next weekend, it’s supposed to happen today. And it did. I played good. Like I said, I left a few plays on the field that’s still in the back of my head right now, but, hopefully, I showed these coaches enough that they’ll have me up for Houston.”

A former Auburn standout and an all-star in the Canadian Football League last year, Williams’ NFL career consisted of three games in October before Sunday. A Mr. Football winner at Daphne High School before playing at Alabama, Yeldon joined the Bills as a free agent in March after four seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars -- the first two as a starter. But he hadn’t played since Oct. 6.

Before Sunday, Yeldon had 10 carries for 45 yards and 10 receptions for 100 yards in five games with Buffalo. In the Bills' 13-6 loss to the Jets on Sunday, Yeldon had 18 yards on seven rushing attempts and 24 yards on three carries. With runs of 10 and 12 yards, Yeldon had 27 yards on five carries before his final two rushing attempts lost 9 yards.

“I thought he did some good things,” McDermott said. “He ran hard. He protected the football. Protected well in the pocket in the passing game. I thought he showed well.”

Williams had six receptions for 58 yards and one touchdown before Sunday, when he caught six passes for 108 yards.

“He’s a tough football player,” McDermott said. “He’s obviously popular with the fans. They love the juice, they love the energy, the toughness, so he’s a young player, though. I know there’re some plays he wants back, some fundamentals in there we want to improve on, but I thought he brought us some energy.”

Williams played 57 and Yeldon played 41 of Buffalo's 64 offensive snaps on Sunday. They got back on the playing field because, with the Bills locked into the fifth seed in the AFC playoffs, Buffalo rested many of its key players.

The Bills and Texans kick off the NFL playoff schedule at 3:35 p.m. CST Saturday at NRG Stadium in Houston. ABC and ESPN will televise the game.

McDermott said there “absolutely” was a possibility that the seldom-used players who did well on Sunday could be line to play again on Saturday.

“We had a good week of practice,” McDermott said after Sunday’s game, “and we got some good work in there with some guys working against each other and it gave us again the opportunity to evaluate and watch how guys handled the week and how they handled today. Again, it’s all about us growing as a football team, who can help us the most.”

Each NFL team has an active roster of 53 players. But only 46 of the players can participate in a game, so 90 minutes before kickoff each team must designate seven players as inactive for that day.

Williams and Yeldon have been among those seven inactive players for most of Buffalo's season.

The Bills’ top three wide receivers -- John Brown, Cole Beasley and Isaiah McKenzie -- have been joined by Andre Roberts, Buffalo’s punt and kickoff returner, and former Alabama pass-catcher Robert Foster as Buffalo’s game-day wide receivers for most of the season. Foster has only three receptions to show for the 18 times he’s been thrown the football in 13 games in 2019, but he’s also logged 156 plays on special teams.

All Yeldon's 2019 stats before Sunday came in the three games missed by rookie Devin Singletary. The rest of the season, Singletary and Frank Gore, the No. 3 rusher in NFL history, have divided the running-back duties, working with fullback Patrick DiMarco.

Timothy T Ludwig/Getty Images

Buffalo Bills wide receiver Duke Williams runs after making a reception during an NFL game against the New York Jets on Sunday, Dec. 29, 2019, at New Era Field in Orchard Park, N.Y.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.

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Did Sunday’s play earn Duke Williams, T.J. Yeldon another chance in postseason? - AL.com
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