If there was a shred of positivity to take out of coach Sean McDermott’s Zoom call with reporters Monday, it’s that there is still three weeks to go before the Buffalo Bills will open the regular season.

Perhaps that will be enough time to get the majority of players from a crazy long list of injuries back in time for the Week 1 game against the Arizona Cardinals, but in some cases it may not, and that’s a troubling development indeed.

Mitchell Trubisky injury update

The biggest news is that as expected, backup quarterback Mitchell Trubisky’s knee injury is going to sideline him for several weeks, and McDermott acknowledged that general manager Brandon Beane is in the process of bringing in yet another quarterback.

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“They’ve begun,” McDermott said of discussions with potential candidates. “They haven’t concluded, though. We’re working on it. I know Brandon’s working on it with his staff so it is something we need to keep our eye on for sure, and we’ll continue to do that.”

Less than two hours later, Beane signed Anthony Brown who was just cut by the La Vegas Raiders over the weekend. His lone NFL game experience came with the Baltimore Ravens in 2022.

McDermott read off a list of walking wounded that was so extensive, you would think it was December rather than mid-August, and he admitted the injuries are becoming a major concern because not only are so many players unavailable, it is impacting how the Bills practice, and how they will use personnel in the preseason finale against Carolina Saturday.

Other Buffalo Bills player injury updates

In addition to Trubisky, three other players were hurt last week in Pittsburgh and are going to be out multiple weeks. Safety Damar Hamlin pulled his hamstring in the joint practice, and in the 9-3 victory, wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling suffered a neck injury, and Quintin Morris hurt his shoulder.

Wide receiver Curtis Samuel is dealing with turf toe so he’s week-to-week, as is linebacker Baylon Spector with a calf.

And rookie edge rusher Javon Solomon and defensive tackle Austin Johnson both incurred calf injuries and will be limited this week. As for players who have been dealing with ailments, safeties Mike Edwards and Cole Bishop and linebacker Nicholas Morrow are starting to ramp up but they won’t practice or play in the game.

What Sean McDermott says about the injury updates

“That’s a real concern,” he said of the length of the injury report. “Right now we’ve got to be solution oriented. And as coaches, we’re going to try and get those guys that can do the walkthrough (Monday afternoon) and get some of those reps. That’s all we can do right now with some of those guys and so it’s better than nothing, which is where some of them were.”

The three biggest areas of worry are quarterback, safety and linebacker.

The Bills were already hindered last week when third-string QB Shane Buechele suffered a neck injury in the game against the Bears which has knocked him out for a significant period of time.

That forced the team to sign Ben DiNucci fresh off a golf course, but in no way is DiNucci competent enough to step into Trubisky’s spot as No. 2 on the depth chart. He’s got practice squad written all over him, so the Bills have to find an answer, and it has to happen fast so that the player can get up to speed, play Saturday, and then be ready for the opener because Trubisky may not be ready to return.

Buffalo Bills injury issues have added up

At safety, fire alarms are going off inside the walls at One Bills Drive. Bishop and Edwards have been out since the early part of training camp and Hamlin was starting next to Taylor Rapp. The Bills are down to the likes of Kareem Jackson, Terrell Burgess, Cam Lewis, Kendall Richardson and Dee Delaney.

And then at linebacker, the loss of Matt Milano was huge, Morrow has missed almost all summer with a groin injury, and Spector is hurt yet again. Last week, McDermott purposely sat out Terrel Bernard to protect him, so the Bills are down to Dorian Williams, Deion Jones and rookies Joe Andreessen and Edufuan Ulofoshio.

“That’s one of the challenges we have, both at safety and at linebacker where there’s pivotal pieces that have not been able to rep whether it be completely from the spring and training camp included or for sure in some cases the majority of training camp,” McDermott said.

“The biggest challenge is, having a player hurt is one thing but having a new player hurt who doesn’t know what we’re doing systematically is another challenge. So we’re trying to capture every rep we can, just using them in walk through this week because we’re getting closer and closer to the season here.”

Buffalo Bills starters will not play in final preseason game

The situation is so dire that McDermott has already made the decision to not play any starters against the Panthers because he can’t afford to risk injury to any of those players.

“Initially the plan was to play the ones this week, but because of the injuries and the lack of availability, we’re going to take the ones out, play the other guys, take a good look at them,” he said. “It should be a good opportunity for them to put their best foot forward and for us to have a strong evaluation of that part of the roster.”

Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for four decades including 35 years as the full-time beat writer for the D&C, and he has written numerous books about the history of the team. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana. https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Buffalo Bills injury report is 'a real concern,' Sean McDermott says