Merriman still being paced

We saw it in the preseason. The Bills were being very cautious with the amount of playing time Shawne Merriman received after a lengthy layoff from football. That measured approach has been carried into the regular season.

Bills head coach Chan Gailey confirmed that Merriman’s time on the field is still being curtailed each game. Knowing the intensity of play goes up another notch in the regular season from the preseason, the coaching staff is increasing his workload incrementally each week.

“I think it’s probably unrealistic to think he could go out and play 70 snaps day one for entire games,” said Gailey. ”I think we have to be smart in how we use him. The guy hasn’t played in two years. He showed flashes of what we all think he will be down the line, but we’ve got to make sure that we keep him in a rotation while he’s getting back into it these first few weeks, until he can work himself into an entire ball game. I think that’s sort of the plan right now to make sure we don’t overextend him. We talked about wanting him for the first game. We also want him for game 16 and beyond.”

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Merriman still being paced