This seemed to be the way it was trending. Despite practicing this week, Buffalo Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor was always going to be a question mark heading into Sunday's game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
The surprising first-year starter suffered a sprained MCL last week against the Tennessee Titans — an injury that would normally keep a player out two-to-three weeks. And after reports that Taylor would indeed miss a couple weeks, he showed in full during Bills' early-week practices.
Though, Bills head coach Rex Ryan has maintained throughout the week that Taylor wasn't guaranteed to go.
Now comes this bit of information from ESPN's Bob Holtzman:
This would be a rather large blow to the Bills chances of actually knocking off an undefeated Bengals team. Manuel did perform well during the preseason, but Taylor's performance in the first five games is one of the primary reasons Buffalo stands at 3-2 on the campaign.
From a fantasy perspective, Manuel isn't even relevant at this stage. Some might want to go cheap in DFS by picking him up, but it's not realistic to expect him to do much against a stout Bengals defense.