Bills coach Doug Marrone discussed quarterback E.J. Manuel’s outlook heading into his second NFL season and stressed that the quarterback needs to be healthy after missing a lot of practice and game time as a rookie because of knee issues.
According to a report from Tim Graham of the Buffalo News, Marrone would like to see changes in the training staff in order to keep Manuel and the rest of his players on the field in 2014. Graham reports that key members of the staff have said that they’d like to see head trainer Bud Carpenter replaced because they have tired of Carpenter’s “old-school methodology.”
Marrone and General Manager Doug Whaley would reportedly like to change the “this-is-the-way-we’ve-always-done-it culture” that exists around the Bills, but they have yet to succeed when it comes to Carpenter, who has been with the Bills for 30 years. Per Graham, the Bills are reluctant to make a change with Carpenter.
Manuel hurt his knee in the preseason, again early in the year and then just before the final week of the season. He wound up needing two surgeries, the second of which came after the year-ending injury and after Marrone said the trainers told him that Manuel would not require an operation.