With Robert Woods and Stevie Johnson out for Sunday’s game against the Jets, the Bills are awfully short at wide receiver.
During an appearance on WGR 550, coach Doug Marrone was asked if he might try to fill that spot by moving a player from a different position to wideout. Specifically, he was asked about moving running back C.J. Spiller to a spot he played in 2011 when the team was similarly ravaged by injuries at receiver. Marrone doesn’t sound like it’s an idea he’ll be putting into action.
“Well I think in the backfield it’s much easier to hand him the football than it is to throw him the football, especially vertically down the field,” Marrone said, via the team’s website. “Intermediate throws I have no problem, screens, intermediate routes, but it’s really difficult to push that ball downfield to running backs at any position. The only route that backs run that push vertically down the field that you see in offenses in this league, and you see this with Darren Sproles and Reggie Bush, are wheel routes.”
Marrone talked about using multiple tight ends as a way to deal with the shortage at receiver, but it probably wouldn’t hurt if the Bills found a way to get Spiller the ball a bit more often than they did last week regardless of where he lines up.