DC Grid

Admittedly I don't know if EJ will play well. I imagine that anyone the Bills start under center this week will look awful vs the Bengals in the Bills current offense. But surely if Cassel looks like, well Cassel, down in Dallas this week the constant refrain of "Whaley screwed up ditching him" should die down. Cassel is awful as a starting QB, the past 5 years provide concrete proof of that. That doesn't mean there weren't reasons they wanted him around or were mistaken to bring him back at a reduced salary (veteran leadership in the meeting rooms was often mentioned). If Manuel doesn't play well, Whaley is accountable, but my point, which I think Cassel will make for me Sunday, is that Cassel would be an even worse option come Sunday. I think a ton of people are underestimating Manuel. From what I've seen the past two years and this preseason I'd take him over half the backup QBs in the league. Guess we'll find out more Sunday, but for now I just can't condemn a GM who kept an above average backup QB as his backup QB. EJ is 6-8 as a starter....is only in his third year in the league. Has a career rating of 78.5 which over the past two years is better than Cassel's and is 10 years younger. We are comparing a young guy who could get better to an old guy who will only get worse. Sunday Cassel will show everyone that he not only has no future, he is worthless in the present.

In time for the playoff push! AW being out till December won't doom the Bills....it's the offensive players not seeing the field that could.

Cassel is AWFUL. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills when I see articles like these. Cassel has been basically awful his whole career. He's a mediocre clipboard holder who looked good twice in his career. Once, almost a decade ago replacing Brady for a season, in a system that Belicheck can make ANYONE look good in....as proved by the failure of ALL former Pats QBs: Hoyer, Gradkowski, Mallett. Then he has one solid year for KC using the Alex Smith / Trent Edwards check down playbook. For the last 5 years Matt Cassel has been hot garbage and the Bills straight up robbed Dallas by getting ANYTHING for him. When he starts and fails in Dallas hopefully this will end these stupid, Whaley "jumped the gun" articles once and for all. Cassel has been in the league a decade and had two good years, but hasn't had a good one since 2010. He vomited a team into the playoffs once and was promptly blown out, never to return again. Over the last five years he has a rating that would place him in the bottom 5 of the league. Getting rid of this turd and getting something for him, may be Whaley best move of the year (if Tyrod doesn't pan out).

All I can say is THANK GOD the Bills already dumped Cassel so EJ gets the start if necessary. I like Tyrod over EJ, but I like slow death over Cassel, ok maybe I like them the same as those are the same things. Cassel is a check-down gutless joke. I can't wait for him to start AND FAIL in Dallas so all the carping by national media about the "risk" of trading him away vanishes once and for all. EJ has good an bad moments, while Cassel's last good moment is from before EJ entered the NFL.

Let me preface this by saying I WANT to like Dixon, he seems like a great locker room guy / teammate, he plays well on special teams, but he just can't seem to do anything on offense. He isn't given the ball a ton but every time he is it's the same result - he is immediately put down. It's getting to the point where it's not even a surprise. I remember in the Miami game where they gave him short yardage and everyone in the room watching said: here comes a punt. He's carried 8 times this year and has a 0 (ZERO) yard average. His one shinning moment was slamming into the pile in Indy and having the OL basically work him into the end zone...barely. With Shady out this week it's worrisome that the next guy up after Karlos is unlikely to gain a single yard. Is Dixon's special teams ability really enough to keep him on the roster or should the Bills be looking to make a change soon?

Both are tough to replace. Yes they've both been subpar so far due to injuries but defenses still have to account for them in ways you don't with their replacements. I actually think McCoy is the bigger loss if only because they have to completely alter coverage schemes to account for the damage he can do underneath, while Sammy's work largely downfield this year is easier to account for.

Wrong, few if any outside of Rodak thought the Bills losing out on McCown doomed them. Many thought their QB situation was a mess but few were dumb enough to think McCown would be an improvement.

I bet he wants this headline back more: http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/162642/bills-must-turn-to-backup-plan-after-losing-josh-mccown-race The conclusion is his real journalistic gem: "Bills aren't going to find a quality starter at quarterback before next offseason, at the earliest."

Proof of how much Rodak hates Buffalo pours from the very prose / structure of his writing. When negatively commenting on the team he heavily editorializes, use facts to set up pointed conclusions that often don't 100% track. When he has to write anything positive (like after the Miami game), he is 100% factual, quotes coaches etc, but rarely if ever offers any endorsement of their positive statements. It's subtle but apparent.

So after two weeks Tyrod has a QB rating of 109, is the 8th ranked QB in the NFL and put up 32 points against the Pats. PANIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously, before the year started would anyone have said they'd be calling Tyrod out for looking this solid to good overall?

I for one think it's hilarious if Dixon did this. If only because it seems to have sent so many people into panic mode. Two games into the year the Bills are 1-1 having even shown some flashes of brilliance against the best team in the NFL. Tyrod looks more than just serviceable overall and the defense while AWFUL last game has earned the benefit of the doubt with their play the last couple of years. The team came out over jazzed but hitting panic or condemning the entire team culture after 2 games seems like a monumental overreaction.

People may lose it over this, but it shows that Fred wasn't let go to keep Bryce, he was let go to keep McCoy, Karlos Williams and Dixon. To me that's an easier pill to swallow as the first two should be obvious keepers ahead of Fred and Dixon provides good special teams value (which is what many of the cooler heads - not me- speculated all along.) Bryce it would seem, was merely kept for week one when the team was thin at RB and was the first on the chopping block to accommodate Dareus.

Wow....that sucks. Sincerely hope the guy finds the peace he was looking for in the next world after failing to find it in this one.

While he certainly has some drawbacks (dumb penalties, breaking contain at times, etc) it is tough to spot a more explosive player on almost any team in the NFL. Everyone points to the Cleveland game where he basically set the tone for the entire defense on a single amazing play, but game in and game out he is such a big play magnet. I agree he is a product of the group he plays with, but he plays flat out in a way that few can match and takes FULL advantage of the amazing people around him. A lot of other players merely exist and collect junk sacks etc. Hughes is a playmaker, in a way that reminds me of Bryce Paup. Might not be a world beater on his own, but an absolute terror in the right circumstance. Let's just hope Hughes stays healthier.

Pats over Pittsburgh. Pats are a virtual lock to win an opener as defending SB champs and Pitt's D is AWFUL. You can NEVER trust the Pack in Chicago....they should kill them, but it's a rivalry. If you didn't want to take the Pats, because money might not be a good enough reason to ever cheer for them, I'd go with Fins over Skins cause the Fins are just an awful matchup for the Skins for all the reasons you outlined.

If so this is an awful disguise. Kyle should have at least put on a fake mustache.

So FredEx makes sense for a team that's stacked with a lot of young talent and has been to the SB the last two years, but he's not good enough for the Bills? Yeah that doesn't inspire a lot of confidence when it comes to the Bills decision making process.

Because the Bills already planned to make most fans happy by naming Tyrod the starter, they needed to so something to balance it out.

CUT Cassel and take that savings, plus the savings from cutting FredEx and add it to the pile of money they need to give Dareus.

Likely not as I think Store 716 got a cease and desist for using it....unless they immediately stopped selling the popular shirt and removed all reference for some other reason.

Alright Bills, way to sucker me back in. The FredEx cut hurt, but this makes it all ok. T-Mobile has the highest ceiling by far and may be the only Bills QB who could win in the playoffs.

PATS.

PRAY the Bills aren't banking on Cassel to fill this void. If he starts the season is OVER.

I get it, but this stinks. If they couple this move with starting Cassel it will prove there remains no hope for making the Playoffs this year. Watch New England pick up Freddy.

Everyone knows when the cop wrote down that Dareus was "speeding," he meant that he was fat. That was what he was referring to, he was going to write "deflator" for fat but instead chose to write "speeding."