Head coach Doug Marrone’s opening statement in his press conference today reflected the tone of the day’s news, and how it could affect the Bills’ season.
“I know we have a lot of questions,” Marrone said. “I’m here to answer them.”
Stephon Gilmore Injury Update
Marrone first addressed the report that originated from Cornerback Stephon Gilmore would miss about eight weeks with a hand/wrist injury he suffered against the Redskins:
Bills CB Stephon Gilmore to miss about eight weeks with a hand/wrist issue. Tough one there but hope is he only misses 5-6 games or so.
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) August 26, 2013
Marrone clarified that it was a fracture in the wrist, and said he expected Gilmore to be sidelined for six-to-eight weeks. He acknowledged that the loss is huge, and that others at the cornerback position need to perform.
“Whenever you lose a player like that, we consider a very good player, someone has to step up and play that position,” said Marrone. Right now we’re looking at the (a few) players right now. We’re looking at (Justin) Rogers and (Crezdon) Butler and (T.J.) Heath, all really have played at that corner position.
If this timeline is correct, Buffalo will have to face receivers like Danny Amendola, Steve Smith, Santonio Holmes, Torrey Smith, Josh Gordon and A.J. Green without their No. 1 cornerback. That will be a scary proposition, and one that will require the rest of the defense to play at a high level in order to compensate.
Bills Cornerback Stephon Gilmore
Pro Football Talk’s Josh Alper wrote in June that Gilmore had improved in the eyes of General Manager Doug Whaley, and Mike Pettine’s aggressive defense with the Jets that was built around Darrelle Revis’ ability to take away a team’s top receiver on his own could be made in that image with Gilmore.
Though the Kevin Kolb injury situation has been tough, this may be the Bills’ biggest loss yet. Without Gilmore, the Bills’ current cornerback lineup is now Leodis McKelvin, Ron Brooks, Rogers, and Butler, with second-year player T.J. Heath, and undrafted free agents Kip Edwards, Nickell Robey and Jordan Dangerfield rounding out possible additions to that group.
It will be interesting to see if Gilmore’s injury opens up a roster spot for another defensive back like Robey, Edwards, Heath, or Dangerfield. Regardless, it looks like doubling a team’s top receiver will be a consideration for Buffalo early this season.
“Right now we’re going to evaluate to see where we are with that,” said Marrone. “To see what the abilities are with those players that we have out there are over these next couple of days. Then I think you really have to look hard at match-ups really. Do we feel good about these match-ups and how do we want to match-up defensively on team’s receiving ability. So if you don’t feel comfortable in a match-up, then obviously you can cloud them, put someone behind them.”
Jeff Tuel could be the man (at least for Week 1)
Mike Rodak, the Buffalo Bills reporter for ESPN.com, writes that coach Doug Marrone says the team plans on starting undrafted rookie quarterback Jeff Tuel in the regular season opener if E.J. Manuel cannot play.
Rodak’s piece includes perspective on how unique Tuel’s potential opportunity is:
If Tuel does indeed start for the Bills in Week 1, he will become the first undrafted rookie quarterback in the common draft era (since 1967) to start a season opener, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Manuel remains sidelined after undergoing a minor procedure on his left knee last week. Marrone said that while he hopes the 16th overall pick will be ready to play in Week 1, the team will make preparations for Tuel to start.
- Jim Kelly, Jeff Tuel and Kevin Kolb at Bills Camp
Tuel has definitely gone above and beyond the expectations Buffalo had when they signed him. That being said, it would still be a worst-case scenario of who the Bills would want to have played at the position Sept. 8 when they host the New England Patriots, as Marrone even said he is “still hoping for” Manuel to be able to play New England.
However, when asked if it was unsettling to potentially play an undrafted quarterback against the Patriots in the opening week of the regular season, Marrone said he was “excited about it.”
“You’ve got a guy out there that’s played a lot and has a lot of snaps,” said Marrone. “It’s exciting to get out there and play. It’s a great opportunity for him if that’s what presents itself. I’m not trying to play games with anyone. Right now we have to prepare, he’s the quarterback that’s out there and we have to prepare for him to be that guy and to hold the situation until it changes and we get EJ back.”
Tuel said he didn’t know that he would be the first undrafted quarterback to start a season opener, and he thought it was “pretty cool”. It isn’t the first time Tuel has been thrust into that position, though, as he had his redshirt burned in 2009 to play USC in the Coliseum as a true freshman.
“Just explains that you can never expect, you can never know what’s going to happen in this league, you’ve always got to be ready,” said Tuel. “That’s why I’ve said since the day I walked in this building that I’m going to prepare myself because you never know what could happen. I came here and started just preparing like I was a starter since day one. It can happen.”
When asked if anything that he did since becoming a Bill has really payed off, Tuel credited offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett.
“I think everything that Coach Hackett has had me do was a great idea. He’s really treated every quarterback equally. He doesn’t play any favorites or anything like that. He really gives his all in each rep every quarterback takes. That’s huge and speaks volumes for his coaching. It’s helped me tremendously because when I was with the threes, I was taking those limited reps, he was still coaching me like I was the number one guy and still telling me those things.”
Tuel is 31 of 43 for 299 yards, 2 touchdowns, no interceptions, and a lost fumble. Yet, 212 of those yards were against second and third-teamers for the Colts in the first preseason game, and he was unable to get the offense moving when he was thrown into the fire early against the Redskins on Saturday.
This situation will likely not be resolved until the middle of next week, but another intriguing storyline for the Bills’ preseason has surfaced. Doug Marrone certainly has his work ahead of him to get this young team ready for the games that count.
Kevin Kolb
Though talk of Kevin Kolb’s concussion being a career-ending injury was very prevalent yesterday, Marrone seemed shock by it after being able to talk to the quarterback.
“I think the alarming thing to me was obviously when the report was made about him not ever playing,” said Marrone. “I had a conversation with Kevin this morning and he’s not even close to the process of that type of decision or making it. Now, I do think that with the concussion he’ll be out for some time. He’s told me that he has not even discussed or thought about stopping playing or anything like that. He’s not even in that thought process right now. Right now he’s in the thought process of really clearing up and going through the process of clearing up the concussion.”
Marrone did say that placing Kolb on the injured reserve list was a consideration, especially with the 53 man roster deadline at 4pm next Tuesday approaching.
Roster cuts:
The Bills will have to cut their roster down to 75 players by 4pm tomorrow, and got an early start on doing so this morning. Buffalo made five cuts to its roster this morning, with WR Da’Rick Rogers, WR DeMarco Sampson, S Dominique Ellis, CB Jumal Rolle, and C Ryan Turnley.
The biggest name on this list is Rogers, who has viewed as a possible second or third-round pick in the 2013 draft. However, off-the-field issues at the University of Tennessee that included three failed drug tests (via CBSSports.com).
Marrone explained the decision to let go of Rogers and Sampson.
“He definitely has skill, along with DeMarco Sampson who played well for us in the preseason,” said Marrone. “I think when you look at production of that group and who has produced for a long period of time, I think it’s a matter of it’s just as simple as we feel we have better players on the roster right now than the players we released. That’s what I’ve communicated to them. We have to be, I’m a big believer on the production part of it right now, rather than what are we going to get down the road. So I think all of those players that were released have the ability to play, but we feel as an organization that we just have better players right now.”
I had the opportunity to meet and talk to Rogers during the training camp, and he was very nice and cordial. I wish him the best of luck, as he has the talent to do some good things in this league, but maybe wasn’t ready to contribute this year.
Chris Hairston’s season over before it began
Third-year offensive lineman Chris Hairston is just the latest player for the Bills to hear awful news on the injury front.
Hairston has been placed on the Reserve/Non-Football Illness list, which will end his season. The Bills’ team’s website chronicled Hairston’s physical issues that prevented him from getting on the field:
Hairston missed a good portion of OTAs and all of training camp with a lower body injury that had him moved to the Active/PUP list earlier this year. Hairston had been working with athletic trainers on the side at practice daily but did not make enough progress to be elevated.
With the loss of Hairston, Buffalo is now down to fourth-year player Sam Young, second-year man Zebrie Sanders, and third-year player Thomas Welch as backups at the tackle position to starters Cordy Glenn and Erik Pears at left and right tackle, respectively.
Hairston was a fourth-round pick (122nd overall) by the Bills in the 2011 NFL Draft who started seven games at left tackle as a rookie, and played in 12 games while starting eight last year at right tackle. However, he missed the final four games of last season with a bone injury in his right foot, meaning he will have missed 20 games in a row with injury.
Hairston has definitely shown a lot of promise early in his career, but these injury issues are no doubt something that will be very difficult to overcome. For Buffalo, since they have practiced and played with Pears manning the right tackle spot, chemistry will not be an issue for the starting offense, but depth will if any injuries occur on the offensive line.
