All along Shawne Merriman had been dealing with a nagging shoulder ailment that forced him to miss a practice here or there the past few weeks, but his injury situation changed and not in a good way Thursday. Now he's unlikely to be available for the Bills when they face the Giants Sunday at MetLife Stadium.
Merriman missed practice Wednesday due to his nagging shoulder ailment, but practiced Thursday. Unfortunately his old Achilles injury cropped up on him.
"(It) just flared up," said Merriman. "It's one of those things we kinda knew before the season that it was going to happen at some point in time. Just have to to kind of take control of it and find out where to go from here. I'm not 100 percent (sure) what's going to happen just yet. We haven't talked about it. Nothing serious fortunately, just something I have to maintain and take care of."
"All along it had been his shoulder and all of a sudden that thing started acting up yesterday," said Merriman. "He's doubtful. I don't know if he's going to make it or not."
The veteran pass rusher was brought along very methodically through the training camp setting and his snaps were closely monitored in the preseason as he appeared only in the preseason opener and preseason finale heading into the regular season. Having such a long layoff from the week to week grind of regular season football the Bills chose to err on the side of caution to reduce the risk of re-injury as Merriman had dealt with calf and Achilles problems each of the past two years.
With the Achilles resurfacing as an issue it's certainly not viewed as a positive development. At this point Gailey isn't ready to label it a long term problem.
"I don't know yet," Gailey said. "We've got the bye week after this and we'll see what happens."
Williams, Barnett questionableOn Thursday Gailey said that DT Kyle Williams would be a game time decision after he failed to practice Wednesday or Thursday with a foot injury that's been bothering him since training camp. Williams practiced sparingly Friday, but it hasn't improved his chances for Sunday's game.
"He's questionable," said Gailey. "He came out and tried to do a few things today. We're going to take him out Sunday (pre-game) and see what he can do and make a decision, but he was very limited."
The good news is Torell Troup got through a full week of practice without any flare ups with respect to his lower back and should be available Sunday.
"I think we'll have him," said Gailey. "We're still listing him as probable, but I think he's going to be able to play."
Meanwhile starting inside linebacker Nick Barnett is questionable for Sunday's game with an ankle injury that he re-aggravated in practice Thursday. Barnett was able to practice Friday and though he's listed as questionable is expected to play.
"He's questionable, but I think he'll make it," said Gailey. "He didn't take all his normal reps, but he was out there for the whole practice."
