ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The Buffalo Bills are 2-0 as they get ready to host Monday Night Football against the Jacksonville Jaguars.  

A big part of the reason they’re unbeaten so far: players who’ve stepped up when injuries hit their stars.

The Bills are now without their top two linebackers: Matt Milano and Terrel Bernard, with nickel cornerback Taron Johnson (a de facto linebacker in the Bills scheme) out too.

How can they withstand it? Well, it’s now up to Baylor Spector, Dorian Williams and Cam Lewis to hold down those spots.

Spector has started one game in his career — last year in the playoffs against Kansas City — but he’s been preparing for this moment for years. 

“I think you just keep learning day by day in this system,” he said. “You keep learning. You learn from other guys. You learn from your mistakes when you’re in there. You learn from other guys when they’re out there. And you just keep building off that I think. And then it continues to grow, like building blocks, domino effect throughout the year.”

“Baylon is somebody that does everything the right way. He does it the Bills way,” Williams said. “That’s somebody you look up to, how they take care of their body, how they study film, their preparation and everything. So he's definitely a vet for sure.”

With all of the injuries at linebacker, it could mean Western New York native Joe Andreessen will play in his first regular season NFL game. The rookie from Lancaster High School and the University at Buffalo has been inactive the first two weeks of the season after unexpectedly making the roster out of training camp.

“I think [defensive coordinator Bobby Babich] said that this week after the game. He said, ‘next man up.’ Like, our backups here aren’t considered backups,” Andreessen said. “Everyone is here to play football and I think it shows that week in, week out, when someone goes down, the next guy steps in.”

There is some good news on the injury front for the Bills as defensive ends Dawuane Smoot and Javon Solomon both practiced Wednesday after missing the first two games of the season.