EJ Manuel injury: sprained LCL; Bills QB to miss a "few weeks"

Buffalo Bills head coach Doug Marrone provided an injury update on quarterback EJ Manuel on Friday afternoon: the rookie sprained his LCL in Thursday night's 37-24 loss to Cleveland, and the injury is expected to keep Manuel out of the lineup for a few weeks - but WGR 550's Joe Buscaglia reports it might be much longer than that before Manuel returns.

According to a league source, #Bills QB EJ Manuel will be back in as early as 4 weeks, but there is a possibility he'll be out 6 to 8 weeks.

— Joe Buscaglia (@JoeBuscaglia) October 4, 2013

On #Bills QB EJ Manuel: My understanding is 6 weeks is a solid estimation of his absence. Could be 4 if he heals quick. Could be more tho.

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 4, 2013

The silver lining to the news: the injury will not require surgery, which is a departure from the knee injury he suffered during the preseason.

Marrone also told reporters that the Bills are in the process of bringing in a quarterback for the active roster. He also did not rule out that quarterback getting the starting nod in nine days when the Bills play Cincinnati. He called Jeff Tuel a "possibility" to start in that Week 6 contest, depending on which quarterback the Bills are able to bring in.

Finally, Marrone confirmed that the new quarterback would come from outside the organization, meaning that they are not currently leaning toward promoting Thaddeus Lewis to the 53-man roster from the practice squad.

Buffalo's next four opponents, by the way: the 2-2 Bengals at home, the 3-1 Dolphins on the road, the 4-0 Saints on the road, and the 4-0 Chiefs at home. So... yeah.