The Buffalo Bills were not thrilled after their loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars and now the team is trying to pick up the pieces during their bye week. The time off comes at a critical point in the season as injuries are running high for the team. The Bills have been without their top two wide receivers, backup running back and starting quarterback for two weeks now and head coach Rex Ryan is confident Week 9 will see a lot of familiar faces return to the lineup.
The Bills are trying to get healthy during the bye week. Tyrod Taylor is dealing with a knee injury. Sammy Watkins has an ankle injury. Karlos Williams is healing from a concussion. Percy Harvin is out with hip problems. The Bills are banged up and showing it on the field. Ryan is hopeful everyone can come back after the bye week.
"Quite honestly, I don't know if I've ever been on a team that needed a bye week worse than we do," Ryan said, via ESPN.com. "We got to get some guys back. Not just average football players, but pretty darn good ones. We got to get them back, we got to get healthy and have a heck of a go at it, nine games."
Ryan told the media that he is very confident Taylor is healthy in Week 9. That is good news considering EJ Manuel struggled heavily against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Taylor is expected to remain the starting quarterback despite the few signs of potential Manuel showed. Ryan stressed that the Bills still stand behind Manuel and if for some reason Taylor was still not healthy, the team had confident in the backup quarterback.
"We all stand right by him," Ryan said, via ESPN.com. "You know what, it wasn't the best time for him certainly. We just kept encouraging him, believing in him, believing in the guys. We knew we could come back."
The biggest question marks after the bye week are the health of Watkins and Harvin. Watkins is still dealing with ankle injury that had him in a boot and on crutches in London. Ryan told ESPN there was a chance that Watkins could be healthy for Week 9, but he was not sure. After complaining about his lack of targets from the team, Watkins needs to get on the field in order to save his reputation after people were not thrilled with the way the receiver was talking.
According to Buffalo News, the chances that Harvin is seen soon are slim. The wide receiver is reportedly seeing a specialist over his re-occurring hip injuries. The Bills are prepared for him to miss a lengthy amount of time, but Ryan and general manager Doug Whaley were quick to say that does not mean retirement is around the corner.