There weren't many more details Monday on Terrence McGee's left knee, which was injured early in Sunday's game and forced him to watch the rest of Buffalo's comeback win over St. Louis. But the sprain was serious enough to have the Bills medical staff take a closer look.
"We're calling it a sprained knee and we'll know more after today," said head coach Dick Jauron. "I know that (head athletic trainer) Bud (Carpenter) is sending him for more tests. We'll certainly know more by Wednesday."
Jauron, who saw McGee Monday morning at the team's training facility at One Bills Drive, indicated that his starting left cornerback was hobbling a bit.
"He's uncomfortable and not getting around very well," said Jauron. "So we'll just have to see where this one goes."
Though he didn't know for sure, in reviewing the game film Jauron believes McGee's left knee got rolled up in a pile as he was trying to make a tackle.
In Sunday's game McGee was replaced initially by Ashton Youboty on the outside. In some nickel packages Youboty then moved inside to the slot and rookie Leodis McKelvin came on the field to play left cornerback.
McKelvin did well in his time on the field defensively with a pair of tackles including a forced fumble and fumble recovery midway through the fourth quarter that allowed the Bills to kill more clock up 17 points late in the game.
"He made a tremendous play on the seam ball that unfortunately the receiver was hurt on, but he knocked the ball out and that was a big hit and a big play," said Jauron. "He made another really good tackle on a return. So we saw more of the things, and it's because he's getting more of an opportunity to play. It's kind of how he played in college. He's an aggressive guy. He likes to get involved in all the aspects of it. He'll cover you and try to shut you down. He wants to make the tackles and he'll come hard at the ball and he'll hit you. We really like him."
Youboty also performed admirably posting four tackles.
Buffalo also made use of strong safety Donte Whitner as he got about a half dozen snaps at corner and in the slot after McGee went down with an injury. When Whitner did that the Bills brought backup strong safety Bryan Scott onto the field.
So the Bills have options should McGee be unable to play Sunday at Arizona, but Jauron is withholding any lineup decisions until after the game plan is formulated.
"We'll make our personnel decisions later in the week, but we like both of those guys," said Jauron of McKelvin and Youboty. "We've talked about them a lot, but we'll just wait and see what happens."
By the way McKelvin addressed the situation Monday, it seems as though he expects to see more action this Sunday.
"He's [Terrence McGee] down and hurt right now," McKelvin said. "It's just my name being called so I'm going to have to go out there and check in. That's basically what I'm going to do. I'm going to work real hard in practice, get all of the plays, study real hard and go out there and perform."
