Bills running back C.J. Spiller said he thought his ailing ankle would be back to 100 percent before the bye week. After being held out of last week's game Spiller could be in top form sooner rather than later.
Listed as probable this week for the first time since sustaining the injury in Week 4, Spiller is starting to cut and juke defenders like he normally does when fully healthy.
"I feel good," Spiller told Buffalobills.com. "I'm getting back to my old self. Everything is coming back just like we planned, so that's why coach listed me as probably. We've had great discussions this whole week about seeing how it's feeling and how it's reacting. Everything has been on schedule so it's definitely starting to come back to what I'm accustomed to."
While a high ankle sprain injury can sometimes take four to six weeks to recover from, for Spiller skipping last week's game at New Orleans did an awful lot of good for the feature back's recovery.
"It's natural when people hear high ankle sprain they think four to six weeks. He really had a mild, as mild as it can be, high ankle sprain, but it was just this one annoying spot that was giving him a problem when cutting," Marrone told Buffalobills.com. "So the one week was enough time and the reason why I say that is the way he has been practicing. He's gone out there and done a good job as far as how he's able to cut.
"Now if someone hits it the right way it could get hurt again or he could re-injure it. There's always that possibility with any player coming back, but he's looked good this week and him coming back helps us because he's one of those players who could make a big play."
Marrone admitted that Spiller was a bit rusty after not practicing or play the week prior, but the offensive staff will put in extra time with him to ensure he’s ready to execute all his excitements.
"He's really made good strides this week," Marrone said. "I still think there are a couple of things that we've got to get over the top. What we're doing with him is putting him through an extra training session. We'll have another extended training session with him (Saturday), maybe two. Then we'll have one Sunday prior to the game, we'll have him out there working out, so this way we keep his progress going. We have the ability now to really amp it up and catch him up."
In the three games Spiller appeared after suffering the injury he played more a complementary role to Fred Jackson, who was a bit healthier than Spiller. Whether Spiller is healthy enough now to shoulder more of the workload remains to be seen on Sunday.
"That'll be up to the coaches," said Spiller. "It's hard for me to sit here and say what the snap counts are going to be. The good thing is we've got enough guys who can go out there and get the job done. We'll see how it goes Sunday. We're both trying to fight our way back to that 100 percent so we can really make a push for this thing in the second half of the season."
