Bills safety Aaron Williams suffered a neck injury against the Patriots in the second week of the regular season that caused him to lose feeling in the left side of his body.
Williams was able to return a couple of weeks later, but was placed on injured reserve with the designation to return after experiencing more pain during the game. Williams practiced late in the year and General Manager Doug Whaley said recently that he would have been cleared to play in the postseason had the Bills advanced to the playoffs, leaving Williams hopeful about returning to the field in 2016.
He knows nothing will be certain until he takes a hit during training camp, however.
“No doubt in my mind [about trying to play],” Williams said, via the team’s website. “There’s never been a question. The thing was do I feel comfortable enough to come back? I told myself we’ll figure it out after next year’s training camp. After that first hit, if you feel like you can sustain those hits week in and week out, then continue to keep playing. But if it’s one of those where I hit it and it’s just like, ‘Man, this doesn’t look good,’ then I’ll have to reconsider.”
Getting Williams back in the secondary would help the Bills’ efforts to turn things around on defense in 2016, although his name is going to be written on the depth chart in pencil until that first hit tells him what he needs to know about his condition.