The Dogs will enter the match without Jarrod Harbrow, who went to Gold Coast at the end of last season and Ryan Hargrave, who has just been added to the long-term injury list owing to his troublesome foot complaint.
They are also a chance to be missing full back Brian Lake, who played his first game for the year on Friday in an intra-club at Whitten Oval but is yet to be confirmed as a certain starter after a limited pre-season.
Despite the back line shake up, Boyd believes there is enough firepower in reserve to cover the absentees.
"We've got some good guys who can play a role through there and I think that's really important," he said.
"We've got Easton Wood, who can really step up and play a significant role.
"Brennan Stack has been playing reasonably well in the NAB Challenge games, and we've got Rob Murphy who can go back there as well.
"Tom Williams is there and Dale Morris can hold down key position as well so the depth is pretty good."
Former Hawthorn rookie Lukas Markovic remains in line to debut against the Bombers if Lake fails to come up from his Friday run.
"Marko missed last week with a bit of a back injury but he's been pretty impressive over the NAB Challenge and has done some really good things and stepped up a bit," Boyd said.
"That full back post, he could really slot into."
The Bulldogs' pre-season where they bowed out of the NAB Cup in round one was a far cry from last year's when they won the competition.
However Boyd, who enters this season as the Dogs' new skipper, says their preparation has been as good as it could have been.
"We think we've improved in the off-season and that's really what we're all about; we're about getting that constant improvement and building that platform for sustained success, and that's what we're doing at the moment," he said.
"I think we've just really stuck to our plan. Going deep into the NAB Cup series last year, at times we may have just got away from our plans because of the intensity of games and having to modify the guys' training loads throughout that period."
Boyd travelled to Ireland in October last year to take part in his second International Rules Series after making his debut for Australia in 2008.
He said he was tempted to aim for a third appearance this year after learning of Rodney Eade's appointment as Australia's coach.
"I thought my time might have been up in the Australian colours but I'll get Rocket a few coffees during the year and try and butter him up a bit and get some more games into me," he said.
"Tactically, he's really quite clever and he reads games and picks things up really quickly, so as far as adjusting to a new game, he'll do it really well and will give the guys some different things to think about."
