Stephon Gilmore injury update: Bills corner to miss 6-8 weeks

The hits just keep on coming for the Buffalo Bills: Mike Garafolo of Fox Sports 1 reports that cornerback Stephon Gilmore is expected to miss roughly eight weeks with an injury to his hand; NFL.com's Ian Rapoport says it's a fracture, and head coach Doug Marrone confirms that it's a wrist injury that will require surgery and has a 6-8 week recovery period.

Bills CB Stephon Gilmore to miss about eight weeks with a hand/wrist issue. Tough one there but hope is he only misses 5-6 games or so.

— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) August 26, 2013

Gilmore left Sunday's loss to Washington in the second quarter, and was taken immediately to the locker room for observation. He apparently underwent scans on Sunday, and soon, he'll be just the latest Bills player to have surgery.

That means that for the first 4-6 weeks of the regular season, the Bills will be without their top defensive back (which otherwise might be Jairus Byrd, were he not just returning to the team). Gilmore is far and away the team's top cornerback, and the Bills will be scrambling to replace him in the lineup. Leodis McKelvin now becomes the top cornerback for the foreseeable future, and players like Ron Brooks, Nickell Robey, Justin Rogers and Crezdon Butler will compete for playing time on the other side of the field.