Bills' Jordan Poyer travels to Chiefs game by van due to rib injury

KANSAS CITY — It takes over 15 hours across five states to get from Arrowhead Stadium to Orchard Park, New York, by car, with the two cities separated by about 971 miles.

Bills safety Jordan Poyer made that trip back-and-forth to play in Buffalo's 24-20 win over the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday after he was not medically cleared to fly due to «resolving pneumothorax,» or a collapsed lung, a source told ESPN. He was permitted to play, but doctors were not comfortable with the air pressure that comes with flying as he recovers from the injury, a source told ESPN's Chris Mortensen.

The Bills arranged for Poyer and his family to travel to and from Kansas City in a Mercedes sprinter van. The All-Pro safety had four tackles in the game and played 100% of the defensive snaps.

«This is the next one, so it's good that we got [the win] going into the bye week,» Poyer said. «Gotta get everybody healthy again and come back home against… the Packers.»

Poyer suffered the injury, which the team has designated on its injury report as being to his ribs, in Week 4 against the Baltimore Ravens while making the second of his two fourth-quarter interceptions. Poyer described the injury as getting the «wind knocked out» of him. He missed Baltimore's Week 5 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers and was limited in practice on Wednesday and Thursday, but practiced fully on Friday.

«You want to go into a season, you want to go throughout the year without any bumps and bruises, but that's going to happen,» Poyer said last week. «Just fighting through 'em and luckily, we've got a great team of trainers here that allow me to get back on the field and perform at my best.»

Poyer expects to be cleared for flying soon, Mortensen reported. He'll be helped by