Quarterback E.J. Manuel’s knee surgery means that the Bills may have to roll with Kevin Kolb as their starting quarterback come the first week of the regular season, but whoever they wind up starting will surely benefit from having wide receiver Stevie Johnson in the lineup.
Johnson has been sidelined by a hamstring injury for much of camp and he’s missed the first two preseason games, but his condition has improved enough that he said Monday that he will be in the lineup for Saturday’s game against the Redskins.
“I’ll be out there,” Johnson said, via Chris Brown of the Bills website. “I’ll be out there we’ll see how I feel game speed when everything changes a little bit. The twitches are a little bit faster. I’ll be out there to see how it is and then we’ll be rolling after that.”
Johnson isn’t totally healed. He said that he still feels the hamstring on “almost every play,” but that it isn’t standing in the way of ramping things up this week in order to get back on the field. Assuming things don’t get any worse in the process, it seems like it is all systems go for the start of the regular season for Buffalo’s top receiver.