Buffalo Bills second-round pick Reggie Ragland has torn ACL

The Buffalo Bills had a pretty good draft. First-round pick Shaq Lawson was going to provide a pass rush and second-round pick Reggie Ragland was going to step right in at inside linebacker.

The Bills haven’t even played a preseason game and those plans have been foiled.

Ragland, the team announced, has a torn ACL and is expected to miss the season. Earlier this offseason Lawson had to undergo shoulder surgery. Nobody seems to know for sure how much of his rookie season he’ll miss, but he could miss at least a significant part of it.

Ragland’s injury is a tough blow. He was NFL-ready coming from Alabama and the Bills made it clear they drafted him with the expectation he’d start from Week 1 on. That’s not going to happen.

The Bills finished 8-8 last year and were hoping this was the season they’d make it back to the playoffs. They haven’t reached the postseason since 1999, the longest drought in the NFL. Losing two key contributors a month before the regular season starts is a bad omen, to say the least.

The worst news is they still have four weeks, and four preseason games, to avoid any other terrible injuries before the games count.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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