Bills head coach Doug Marrone is going to push making a call on EJ Manuel's status for Sunday's game until Thursday at the earliest. His rookie quarterback practiced Tuesday before the team's off day on Christmas, but Marrone was brief in his description of Manuel's workload.
"He went out there today and he practiced," said Marrone. "And again I'm going to take a look again (Thursday). We have a day's rest. He went out there and he threw well so we're just going to rest him a little bit and come back Thursday and see how his mobility is going."
A lack of mobility coming off his sprained knee suffered in Week 15 is what kept Manuel out of the lineup for last Sunday's game against Miami.
Marrone kept a watchful eye on Manuel during the individual position drill portion of practice Tuesday. He also moved practice Tuesday indoors. The stadium field was slick with snow falling throughout the morning so the team practiced in the Bills Healthy Zone fieldhouse to ensure secure footing for his players including Manuel.
Still, Marrone intends to review Tuesday's practice a second time to make sure he has an accurate evaluation of his starting quarterback's mobility.
"We've got a lot of stuff on tape," he said. "I'm going to go back and talk to EJ and I'm going to talk to Nate (Hackett) and look at the tape and look at it and see if I'm missing anything with what I saw on the field with just my eyes."
If Manuel is deemed unfit to play in Sunday's season finale at New England backup Thad Lewis would make his fifth start this season. Lewis led Buffalo to a 19-0 victory last week over Miami.
