Despite widespread reports that Bills starting QB Tyrod Taylor has a knee injury that will keep him out of Sunday's lineup for Buffalo in their Week 6 matchup against the undefeated Cincinnati Bengals, head coach Rex Ryan isn't counting his QB out yet.
"I know it's been widely reported that Tyrod (Taylor) is not playing, that's news to me," said Ryan. "That may or may not be the case, but it's certainly not official. We'll see how it goes."
Ryan said Taylor will practice Wednesday, but will be limited.
"He's not going to be full go today," said Ryan. "He'll probably be able to do a few things. He's beat up and he's still got a little pep in his step, but it's not like he normally is. He's got a little bit of a knee that happened on that one run. But we'll see how he is."
Ryan is referring to Taylor's 3rd-and-23 scramble in the fourth quarter last Sunday that went for 24 yards and kept a late touchdown drive alive.
With Taylor limited, backup EJ Manuel will get most of the snaps during the team portions of practice.
"We're going to give EJ the majority of the reps today on the practice field," said Ryan. "We know Tyrod is not 100 percent. We recognize that, but he is getting better. These young guys they heal pretty quick."
When asked if Taylor could play with his sprained MCL, Ryan pointed to how Taylor finished Sunday's game despite sustaining the injury with eight minutes still left in regulation.
"That's the thing, he finished the game and made some plays at the end of the game for us after he was pulled from the game," said Ryan of Taylor. "So ould he play with it? He's already proven that. There are guys who have played with MCLs at that position. He'd probably be braced up and things like that."
Manuel is coming off a preseason in which his game took some big steps forward. He finished the preseason with a 146 passer rating, one of the highest in the NFL this summer with four touchdown passes and no interceptions.
"I think EJ did a tremendous job for us in the preseason," Ryan said. "I know there's a lot of criticism out there that we moved Cassel. But we moved Cassel as we mentioned before because of EJ and his development. So we'll see. If he has to play we're very comfortable and confident that he'll do a great job for us."
And although things are up in the air as to just who will start at quarterback for Buffalo Sunday, Ryan did assert that they would not play Taylor this weekend if it meant he could do further damage to his ailing knee.
"We've got to make sure that he's ready to roll and we feel good about it," said Ryan. "And he's not going to do anything that could damage him and make it long term issue."
