Marshawn Lynch (high ankle sprain) still has not fully returned to practice after participating in running drills over the weekend.
Although the Bills were encouraged when RB Marshawn Lynch participated in running drills over the weekend, the 3-year man out of Cal has still yet to fully return to practice after spraining his ankle in Buffalo’s first preseason game.
According to the Buffalo News, Lynch missed practice again on Thursday. RB Fred Jackson (broken hand), TE Derek Schouman (knee injury) and S Jairus Byrd (groin surgery) were all no-shows as well. All four look unlikely to play on Saturday’s game vs. Cincinnati.
This indicates that rookie RB C.J. Spiller will again see the majority of carries in the team’s third preseason game. Spiller hopes to build on the progress he made in last week’s 31-24 victory over the Colts, in which he broke off a spell-binding 31-yard TD run in the first quarter.
“I’m just going to continue to do what I’ve been doing, just go out there and try to execute,” Spiller, who finished last game with 10 carries for 54 yards, said on Thursday. “I’m pretty sure there’s going to be a lot of high expectations, just from last game. Everybody is going to want to see if I could do the same thing again, but the main thing I try to do is, I never go out there and try to press anything. I just let the game come to me, play within our offensive scheme and hopefully let the results take care of itself.”
He added that, despite the injury setbacks, the offense is beginning to “gel real good” in time for the regular season. “I think if we continue [to gel] we’ll go in to the season in the right direction,” Spiller said. “But the main thing you want to do, you don’t want to overplay guys, or get anybody hurt, just because the season is right around the corner. So, we’ll play smart but at the same time we’ll be competitive and we’re going to go out there and try to win.”