The Buffalo Bills will play their first game of the season without D.J. Moore on Monday night. The veteran receiver was ruled inactive against the Los Angeles Rams with a shoulder injury, ending a stretch in which he had played through the problem for almost a month.
That puts the next question on the Bills’ Week 6 trip to Las Vegas. Will Moore be back in the lineup against the Raiders? There’s no answer yet. Buffalo hasn’t put a timeline on the injury, and the first real clue won’t come until the team’s practice report later this week.
How the Bills got here
Thomas Shea-Imagn Images
Moore first hurt his shoulder in Week 2 against Detroit and didn’t miss a game, playing through it against the Chargers the following week. He aggravated it in the second quarter of the Week 4 loss to New England and couldn’t return. He missed practice Thursday and Friday before a limited session Saturday, and the Bills listed him as questionable.
They also elevated receiver Trent Sherfield Sr. from the practice squad on Monday, a sign they were preparing to play without him. Moore landed in Buffalo in a March trade with the Bears and has 12 catches for 178 yards and one touchdown through four games, with nine of those catches moving the chains.
Keon Coleman and Khalil Shakir are the top two receivers with Moore out, and rookie Skyler Bell is active for his NFL debut. Coleman has a team-high 153 receiving yards over the last two games, so the Bills have someone who can carry more of the load for a week. Josh Palmer is also out with a shoulder injury, which leaves the room thin.
What could happen next
The best-case scenario is a return at Las Vegas. Moore played through this injury once already, and an extra week of rest could be enough to get him back on the field Sunday. If he practices fully by Thursday, that’s the clearest sign he’s trending toward playing.
The cautious route might make the most sense. The Bills have their bye the week after the Raiders game, so holding Moore out in Las Vegas would give him nearly three weeks to heal before Baltimore visits on Nov. 1. For a 3-1 team, protecting a shoulder that has already flared up twice is a reasonable trade.
The worst case is a longer absence. Nothing reported so far points to injured reserve, but a third setback would change the conversation. Until the practice reports start, Moore’s Week 6 status is a genuine coin flip.
