Wild Card weekend is here, and the Buffalo Bills will be right in the middle of it Sunday at 1 p.m. when they line up against the Jacksonville Jaguars. But head coach Sean McDermott’s already suffering from his first headache of the postseason as the Bills are shorthanded at a key position.

Veteran kicker Matt Prater aggravated a quadriceps injury in the Bills’ Week 18 win over the New York Jets. McDermott described Prater as day-to-day, which in playoff terms can mean just about anything.

“I’m sure they’ll get some films of it and we’ll know a little bit more, but, yeah, unfortunate,” Sean McDermott said about Prater.

This isn’t a new problem. When Prater first hurt the quad in a Week 15 win over the New England Patriots, the Bills went shopping. They brought in Michael Badgley and Matthew Wright for tryouts on Dec. 16 and ultimately signed Badgley, who had just been released by the Indianapolis Colts.

While Badgley’s 10-of-11 field goal record with Indianapolis looked promising, his well-documented struggles with extra points, a problem that cost the Colts a game in Week 13, followed him to Buffalo. He made his only field-goal attempt but missed two of four extra points across two games.

That led to more scrambling. Two weeks ago, Buffalo brought in three kickers for workouts: Younghoe Koo, Gavin Stewart, and Maddux Trujillo. None impressed enough to earn a contract. The Bills stuck with Badgley for Week 17 against the Philadelphia Eagles, and that didn’t go smoothly either; an extra point was blocked in a 13–12 loss.

It’s obvious that Badgley won’t be returning. And Sean McDermott is ready to try out new options.

Bills to try out new kickers

Prater has made 18 of his 20 field-goal attempts and 46 of 49 extra points, accounting for 100 points over 15 games. His 90 percent field-goal rate is tied for 10th among qualifying kickers this year. Those aren’t numbers you replace easily. Badgley isn’t the answer.

Younghoe Koo is available after stints with the Atlanta Falcons and New York Giants this season. He was once one of the more dependable kickers in the league, but the last two years have been a struggle. The fact that Sean McDermott didn’t view Koo as an upgrade over Badgley during recent tryouts says a lot. The same logic applies to Gavin Stewart and Maddux Trujillo.

But Justin Tucker is eligible again after serving an NFL-mandated suspension while in free agency. The Baltimore Ravens released Tucker in May amid an investigation into allegations of a off-field misconduct, which eventually led to that suspension. Purely from a football standpoint, he’s the most accomplished kicker available.

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But no matter which direction Buffalo looks, the truth is the same. None of the available options represents an upgrade over Prater. If he can’t go, the Bills will be choosing a compromise. At this point, the only real question is which one they’re willing to live with when the season is on the line.