Third-year offensive lineman Chris Hairston is just the latest player for the Bills to hear awful news on the injury front.
Hairston has been placed on the Reserve/Non-Football Illness list, which will end his season (via BuffaloBills.com). The team’s website chronicled Hairston’s physical issues that prevented him from getting on the field:
Hairston missed a good portion of OTAs and all of training camp with a lower body injury that had him moved to the Active/PUP list earlier this year. Hairston had been working with athletic trainers on the side at practice daily but did not make enough progress to be elevated.
With the loss of Hairston, Buffalo is now down to fourth-year player Sam Young, second-year man Zebrie Sanders, and third-year player Thomas Welch as backups at the tackle position to starters Cordy Glenn and Erik Pears at left and right tackle, respectively.
Hairston was a fourth-round pick (122nd overall) by the Bills in the 2011 NFL Draft who started seven games at left tackle as a rookie, and played in 12 games while starting eight last year at right tackle. However, he missed the final four games of last season with a bone injury in his right foot, meaning he will have missed 20 games in a row with injury.
Hairston has definitely shown a lot of promise early in his career, but these injury issues are no doubt something that will be very difficult to overcome. For Buffalo, since they have practiced and played with Pears manning the right tackle spot, chemistry will not be an issue for the starting offense, but depth will if any injuries occur on the offensive line.
