1billsfan

The 2016 class of free agent QBs is kind of loaded. No doubt that Philip Rivers, Eli Manning or Sam Bradford would all go there much cheaper than Mr. Russell "I want to be the highest paid player in the league" Wilson. Not only that, but those are the type of QBs that don't need one of the greatest ground games in NFL history as support. Other QBs who might be available are Peyton Manning, Jay Cutler, Nick Foles or RGIII. Seattle's best move might be to force Russell to lower his salary expectations or make him play at 1.5 million, knowing they could get someone just as good or better next off season.

At some point, NFL teams are going to start balking at these crazy QB contracts for non elite QBs. I think Wilson is a great QB if he's put in the perfect situation like he was with Seattle. However, IMO he is not on the same elite level of Brady or Rodgers. QBs who don't need a lot of great players around them to win in the NFL. It will be very interesting to watch Wilson's career post Marshawn Lynch. I think he might start looking like an average QB if his team starts lacking both a great running game and great defense.

I doubt either would look at beating a washed up Matt Cassel as a confidence booster at this point. The real confidence booster will hopefully come from Manuel or Taylor winning the job by looking consistently good against the Bills #1 defense in training camp.

There was no reason whatsoever for Cassel to fall flat on his face in that last OTA. That's kind of a red flag for a guy with his veteran experience, right? I'm actually starting to question Cassel's total commitment to the game. What I mean by that is that I wonder if he's putting in the same time, work and effort that Manuel's putting in. Was Cassel "mailing it in" thinking he's a cinch to win the starting job? Is he purposely not giving full effort because he doesn't actually want the starting job, maybe because he's fearing a serious injury that would effect his quality of life after the game? Does he have one foot out of the NFL and he just hasn't told anybody yet? Sometimes when you have life by the you-know-what's, you start questioning is the health risk worth it anymore. Even much younger guys are retiring from the game now. There's something about Cassel that just isn't ringing true to me. I could be totally wrong about having my doubts, but I honestly do. I think there's very little chance he wins the starting job and I also think he may be cut before it's all said and done.

I think that Manuel's last OTA practice nailed his spot as the Bills number one QB going into training camp. IMO Cassel was always the back up "Plan B" for the Bills and it appears that there might be a question if he can fulfill that roll. People in the media need to realize that practice performance greatly matters in this QB race. EJ is 25 years old now, if he's outplaying a 33 year old journeyman in practice then it's shocking to me that there are guys like Sal who still have this great faith in Cassel beating Manuel for the starting job.

Sal must be an idiot. I laugh at the guys on WGR when I occasionally listen through their live streaming radio. You can tell they know very little about NFL football and they're just trying to "wing it". He probably wrongly predicted that Cassel was their guy (like a lot of people) and he's too embarrassed to admit he blew it. LOL

EJ blew the media away with his play in the last OTA. Maybe they drafted him because they had a good feeling he would pay off down the road, like this year.

I think that you'd have to be a dimwitted person to think that (hence, the reason I don't listen to him). Rex knows that there's no point in publicly showing how genuinely happy he was with what Manuel did. If there are fans here that don't think that Rex is extremely pumped by what Manuel did then they can't see their noise despite their face. Rex and Roman are no doubt doing a happy dance because EJ looked awesome yesterday. It really is that simple. Rex downplayed it because he knows he'd look silly showing emotion from an OTA. He also knows that this is still the "hoping he's turned a corner" stage and yesterday's performance doesn't change that fact.

Actually EJ Manuel had 19 TDs over 14 games (16 pass, 3 rush) and Kyle Orton had 19 TDs (18 pass, 1 rush) over 12 games.

If the Bills had very good offensive coaches in place then the proper call IMO would have been to keep EJ in there despite the roughness in his play and ride it out. That's the thing, very good offensive coaches put their full trust in their young players and young QBs specifically because that's how you eventually gain the edge over an NFL defense. EJ was never trusted by Marrone. That's poison to a young QB. Both coaching and putting trust in players is a huge key to success IMO.

It sounds like he's inferring that Marrone had an eye on what he hoped was a better job than head coach of the Bills. Most notably was the Jets HC job where everyone knew Rex was gone at the end of the year. In the end, Marrone was clueless on what to do on offense at the professional level. The professional level defense destroys teams on offense that are very predictable and play close to the vest football. The question should really no longer be about Marrone's reasons for benching Manuel, it should start being more about his overall competency.

What’s so dishonest about pointing out that Marrone was wrong on just about everything else, so why wouldn’t it be an honest question to wonder if he was wrong on Manuel? Today’s news was a little tough for fans like you who have this false narrative cemented in your heads that Manuel is garbage. That Marrone was a fairly competent coach who did all he could do for EJ and he had to save the team. In all honestly, Marrone did not know what he was doing on offense and it effected everyone on offense…the line, the RBs, the WRs, the TEs, the QBs. Ironically, Marrone’s benching of Manuel probably saved EJ. Because Marrone’s horrible offensive schemes and game plans were never going to put a QB in a consistent position to have success. IMO, if Manuel takes off this year Marrone will be forced to go back to the college game or stay at a low level positional coaching spot in the NFL.

That sounds like Dwight from "The Office" bragging about a title. I have always maintained that if Marrone truly feels that EJ Manuel sucks then he will eventually become a great QB for the Bills. Marrone is that kind of clueless.

The QB position is the "third rail" to Rex. He ain't touching it till he's forced to and I'm sure along the way he's just letting Roman do almost all of the talking to the QBs. I'm sure Rex has had the typical "go get 'em, attaboy" talks with all of the QBs. Talk is just talk though, especially when you consider his history with QBs.

I took Sal Pal's comment that they had Rex "on set" meaning that it was while the camera's weren't rolling. If the talk was on camera usually the person would say something like they were "on our show". Maybe there is video evidence of Rex going overboard in praise of Manuel. Though I think that it would have been discovered and posted by now. EJ supporters aren't willing to entrust the team to him either. I'm fine with them bringing in Cassel and Taylor because it's very reasonable to see the possibility of failure with Manuel. One thing that I'm feeling good about is that next year there will be much better QB options for the team if Manuel does indeed fail. There is going to be at least one big name that's cut or not resigned due to a team not willing to pay up 20 million a year for a top QB.

Not much. They probably gave EJ his playbook and both are hoping Roman turns him into Kaepernick from a couple of season's ago. If that doesn't happen, then the actual QB named Kaepernick probably signs with the Bills next year after SF releases him due to his incredibly high salary not meshing with the massive rebuild ahead.

That’s the thing. Do you believe what coaches say when they’re in front of a camera or when the cameras aren’t rolling? (:50)… “We had Rex Ryan on our set yesterday, and he startled me in his effusive praise of EJ Manuel and I almost stopped him in mid-sentece and said Rex, if there were Buffalo Bills fans watching this…and they saw you talking so much about EJ Manuel they’d either A. turn off the TV or start throwing stuff at the television…” http://www.buffalobills.com/video/videos/Combine-Coverage-Sal-Paolantonio-1-on-1-Interview/4b2dcf6c-a32f-47b2-9fda-cb1623718761 I think that the subdued EJ “tone” might have been the organization as a whole putting a full court press on Manuel in the hopes of seeing him at his optimum level when they “rolled the balls out”. I don’t think they were ever truly thinking of moving on from him as was leaked. I think that was all bs meant to both quell the fans who didn't like EJ and to motivate the player.

I'm of the opinion that Rex and Roman both want EJ as their starter and they're hoping he doesn't blow it. Taylor is a "catch lightning in a bottle" QB pick up where they see if he can stun everyone and win it. It's only human nature to have your favorites going in as coaches with big dreams of what could be if everything started to click. I guess I just don't believe the coaches when they say everyone's on equal footing. If Cassel or Taylor blow them away then there will no doubt be a change of plans, but I do think that Manuel has the inside track. If Taylor stuns and wins the job then I'd be thrilled. The only way I'm not going to be thrilled if Cassel wins it because he's so one dimensional.

There’s a big difference between “underperformed” and “horrible”. How would you even know what being reasonably objective is? Who are you to accuse anyone of abandoning their objectivity? I think that Cassel was brought here to fill Orton’s role as emergency back up QB to Manuel. Some people think he was brought here to be the starter. Let’s not pretend that we are completely objective when almost everyone has preconceived notions of what’s really going on beyond the coach speak and behind the curtain. Yes there's a competition, but they do have a guy in mind that they envision as their prime candidate for the offense they want to run with the hope of great success.

There are about 5 articles stating that Matt Cassel played horrible on the final media OTA day. It's kind of an easy assumption that Manuel is "penciled in" as the starter given the eight year age difference and EJ's still on his NFL QB learning curve. Matt Cassel has to actually look better than Manuel to beat him.

I’m sure if you had buddies who were Chiefs fans they would tell you the true story about Cassel being fooled so much and so often that he was permanently benched for Brady Quinn. Also, why would you even want Cassel if he can’t beat out the guy who your buddies thinks sucks? EJ Manuel was considered a raw QB coming out of college. He was the very definition of a project QB. By all recent accounts (reports of Cassel looking horrible, ESPN's depth chart), it seems like this "project QB" has progressed to the point where he has seemed to have passed Matt Cassel and is currently considered the “penciled in” starting QB for the Bills. It's just logical to go with the guy who's much younger, a little bit better and who's still on the learning curve.

This is ridiculous. The way you describe Manuel it's as if he's this feeble QB who has no business even being in the NFL. It seems obvious that you are nothing but a true hater because your comment is over the top. Manuel has had some good quality wins and even a quality loss when he had the Falcons on the ropes were it not for Chandler and Johnson's fumbles that lost the game with the season on the line. A feeble QB could not perform like he did in those wins and that loss. No one here is saying they think he will become this great superstar QB, the simple fact is that you don't need a superstar in a league where Joe Flacco and Russell Wilson won two out of the last three Superbowls. Are they superstar QBs? No. I think you're being unrealistic and searching for this ideal Bills QB who throws for 3 TDs and 300 yards on a consistent basis. I hate to tell you but you won't ever find him unless you are somehow extremely lucky. Eventually your frustration for Manuel would just move over to your frustration for the 2016 1st round QB pick who in all likelihood won't live up to those standards. This should be an interesting year because IMO Manuel has the ability and drive to embarrass you and many of the people who have totally written him off this year.

I think you’re looking at this all wrong. IMO, Greg Roman wants either Manuel or Taylor’s starting because they both have the ability to scare defenses with their wheels. If you add a mobile QB in the mix on offense with guys like Watkins, Harvin, Clay and McCoy…you have the ability to actually scare a defense till the final tick of the clock. If Cassel were a much better passer than either Manuel or Taylor then there'd be something to what you're suggesting, but that's not the case. IMO Cassel was always the emergency parachute QB who would take over if Manuel and Taylor just play horribly bad. IMO he is a guy who’s time has come and gone and he’s on NFL backup QB career cruise control now. I have nothing but his stats and career path after he was benched for Brady Quinn to go by, but that’s how I’ve always felt about Cassel after he was signed here.

Installing new (especially NFL level) offenses take time. There's simply no way of getting around it and it will probably in all honesty take until about a few weeks into the season for them to feel comfortable with it. It took the Giants a while to learn their new offense last year.

It's a fact that Fitzpatrick is a much better running QB than Cassel. If you were to mentioned to anyone that you were inserting the read option offense with Fitzpatrick you'd be laughed out of the room. The reason why guys like Fitzpatrick and Cassel from time to time gain rushing yards is because #1 they aren't afraid to do it now and again and #2 it's something that the defense isn't keying on. They're ok with the occasional 10 yard run by those type of QBs. However, those type of QBs aren't going to last long if the defense starts to key on read options because they can't get out of the way and they're going to get whacked very hard, where athletic QBs have the speed and agility to avoid those kind of "bell ringing" hits. With the read option, you must have an athletic QB who the defense is forced to respect due to the athleticism and threat to gain huge chunks of yards consistently.