News

Bills head coach Dick Jauron said he wasn’t optimistic following Sunday’s game in which linebacker John DiGiorgio was carted off the field with a knee injury. On Wednesday his 2008 season officially came to a close.

DiGiorgio suffered a torn ACL on a Bills punt return with just over four minutes left in the second quarter of Buffalo’s win over San Diego last weekend when while getting turned around on the play his foot stuck in the turf.

Playing on both punt and kickoff coverage and on punt and kick return, DiGiorgio’s role is a big one to fill on special teams.

“Losing him hurts us a bit,” said Bills special teams coordinator Bobby April. “He was on everything. He’s a critical guy.”

The Bills chose to promote practice squad linebacker Marcus Buggs to fill the void. Buggs is certainly capable of filling the role on special teams. Though just 5’10” and 223 pounds Buggs is known as a hard hitter and can run.

The rookie was originally signed by the Bills as an undrafted free agent signee out of Vanderbilt.

“I’m excited about it,” said Buggs of his promotion. “I’ve been here since May going through everything with the team, minicamps, training camp. Been here through the whole preseason, I’m getting my shot. I’m going to make the best of it.”

During training camp Buggs mainly played on the strong side behind Angelo Crowell and Keith Ellison, and will fill a similar role if it came to that for Buffalo. Jauron confirmed for Buffalobills.com that Ellison would be the backup middle linebacker if something were to happen to starter Paul Posluszny.

With Buggs creating a vacancy on the practice squad, the Bills signed defensive end Marcus Smith to the eight-man unit.

Smith spent the 2007 season on the Dallas Cowboys’ practice squad, where he was signed as an undrafted free agent out of the University of Arizona.