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As Profootballtalk.com reminded readers, Watkins missed last Sunday’s loss to the Giants with a calf injury and remained out of practice on Wednesday as the team started preparing for the Titans. Head coach Rex Ryan said during his press conference that his absence “doesn’t mean that he won’t be available Sunday.”
Watkins said, via Mike Rodak of ESPN.com, that the plan is for him to test his calf on Thursday to see how much he’s able to do and then move on to making a determination about his status for Sunday.
The Bills also practiced without running backs LeSean McCoy and Karlos Williams on Wednesday and Ryan didn’t rule either of them out either. McCoy said last week that he won’t return to action until his hamstring feels 100 percent while Williams is in the concussion protocol. Anthony Dixon would start if neither of them make it into the lineup.
Percy Harvin (hip) was also held out Wednesday, in what's becoming a customary day of rest for the speedy wideout. Receivers Marquise Goodwin (ribs) and Chris Hogan (hamstring) were limited.
Meanwhile, Rodak reports the Bills informed kicker Dan Carpenter that his role won't change after the team signed veteran kicker Billy Cundiff on Wednesday.
"All I've been told is everything is the same," Carpenter said Wednesday. "Obviously Billy is here instead of Jordan [Gay]."
Ryan said Wednesday that the Bills' decision to waive Gay, their kickoff specialist since the beginning of last season, wasn't a statement about Gay's performance on kickoffs.
That suggests that the move was made with improving the Bills' field goals in mind, and Ryan left open the possibility of either Cundiff or Carpenter being off the roster by the time the Bills travel this weekend to play the Titans.
"Whether someone's here or not, it makes no difference," Carpenter said. "It just means that maybe if they wanted to change something, maybe it's more simple because he's here already instead of being on a flight.
"But it doesn't change anything. I have to make kicks to stay on the team, and it's been that way for me for eight years. Nothing has changed on my preparation or what I'm going to do. There's nothing I can do except go out, do my best and hope they all go in."
Carpenter missed a 30-yard field goal in the Bills' 24-10 loss to the New York Giants last Sunday and missed an extra point in the Bills' Week 2 loss to the New England Patriots.
Asked earlier Wednesday about which kicker would handle field goals if both were on the roster for Sunday's game, Ryan responded, "We'll see how the week goes." Carpenter declined to reveal which kicker practiced field goals in practice Wednesday.
Cundiff will handle kickoff duties until further notice.
"I’m here to kick off," he said. "Everything else is on a need-to-know basis. So right now I’m just preparing to do the best I possibly can kicking off, then we’ll kind of see what else happens."