Bills quarterback E.J. Manuel missed the final two games of the regular season after injuring the LCL in his left knee and his offseason will start with a decision about the best way to handle the healing process.
Doctors have told Manuel that he can have surgery to repair the injury, but that it isn’t required. If he does have the surgery, Manuel is expected to be ready in plenty of time for the team’s offseason program and he said that he’ll also be doing work this offseason in hopes of avoiding future LCL injuries after dealing with them in both knees this year.
“Just physical therapy, just strengthening things up and the things I was doing the past two weeks when I wasn’t playing, the same things and just sticking with it,” Manuel said, via the team’s website. “When I had the right LCL it was the same thing, now that one feels fine. Now I have it on the left again and I have to go through the same process as far as getting the strength back up.”
Coach Doug Marrone and General Manager Doug Whaley both said that Manuel is the starter heading into next season, but they’ll need to see him for more than the half a season they got this year to make a real judgment about whether or not he’ll be the right man to lead the offense for the long term.