It’s expected that plenty of players are going to either not see the field at all, or see it in a limited role on Sunday for the Buffalo Bills. After all, they’ve already locked up the No. 2 seed in the AFC, and the outcome of their game against the Patriots won’t change that.

But it looks like a critical pair of starters on defense is going to see the field, and head coach Sean McDermott explained why.

“No, he’s going to play,” McDermott said when asked about safety Damar Hamlin. “How much he plays remains to be seen, but I do think, since he’s been out a significant amount of time, that he gets out there and he plays, and he may play the whole game. We’ll see. We’ll see how it goes, but it is important that he’s back out there and continues to work on some of his communication with [Taylor Rapp]. [Rapp] will be out there as well, at least for part of the game.

“We’ve had it before where guys are injured and then they try and play their first game, and it’s in the playoffs, and wanting to play in the playoffs, everyone does, but being able to do it at a level that you need to do it is another issue or another challenge. So I think in this case, for Damar, us seeing him going out there in his first game back, I think it’s been, what, two or three weeks now, so that’ll be important. Important for him, important for us.”

McDermott made it clear that he feels it’s important for Hamlin and Rapp, the two starting safeties, to get some more live reps together before the team takes on their opponent on Wild Card Weekend, which makes sense.

Although Hamlin and Rapp might not be the most outstanding safeties in the league, the two have played good and positionally-sound football this year in their first seasons as the starters for Buffalo. Making sure they are communicating and on the same page will be an important element to the defense playing in tandem come playoffs.