The calendar says it’s the second week of January, and that means the start of the NFL playoffs for the Buffalo Bills.

But looking at Buffalo’s injury report heading into Sunday’s AFC wild-card game against the Denver Broncos at Highmark Stadium, you would think it’s the second week of September.

It is incredibly rare for a team to be as healthy as the Bills are as they have only one player – return man Brandon Codrington – who could miss the game with a hamstring injury, and even Codrington has a chance because he’ll be listed as questionable.

The rookie talked to reporters Thursday, a day when he participated on a limited basis in practice, and he said, “I feel good, you know, just working it day by day. Just catching punts honestly. I didn’t do anything defensively. So just catching punts. That’s kind of the norm for me.”

Obviously, if Codrington can’t play, that would hurt the Bills because he has done an excellent job in the return game. Among kickoff returners with at least 10 attempts, he finished tied for sixth in the NFL with an average of 27.7 yards, and among all punt returners, his 11.6 average ranked fifth.

Still, it’s not like the Bills would be missing a key starter on offense or defense, and Sean McDermott said, “He’s been our primary return guy all year so we’ll deal with it. We’ll figure it out one way or the other. If he can go, great. If he can’t, then we’ll figure something out.”

Who will replace Brandon Codrington if he doesn’t play

While McDermott didn’t share a replacement plan if Codrington can’t play, both Ray Davis and Ty Johnson have been deep on kickoffs so they would likely get the call. Punt return is trickier because Codrington has been the lone man on that unit.

It’s possible Davis or Johnson could handle those duties, and wide receiver Khalil Shakir has eight career punt returns from his first two years with the team, though none this season. It’s possible the Bills could call up wide receiver KJ Hamler or Daequan Jones from the practice squad as both were involved in a training camp competition to be the punt returner.

Of course, neither fared all that well which is what prompted general manager Brandon Beane to pull off a trade with the Jets to acquire Codrington right before the start of the regular season.

This injury report is in stark contrast to last January when the Bills opened the playoffs against the Steelers without injured starters Taylor Rapp, Tyrel Dodson, Rasul Douglas and Gabe Davis, then lost linebackers Terrel Bernard and Baylon Spector and Christian Benford during the game.

The following week against Kansas City, they got Dodson and Douglas back, but were still down Bernard, Benford, Rapp, Spector and Davis and they could not overcome those absences and saw their season end, once again, at the hands of the Chiefs.

Now, while the Bills are healthy, so too are the Broncos. The only starter on their injured reserve list is linebacker Alex Singleton, and he’s been there since September. And on their injury report, they have only two players who could potentially be listed as questionable – backup cornerback DeMarri Mathis and backup offensive tackle Frank Crum – neither of whom play very much.