Quarterback
Starter: Matt Cassel
Depth: EJ Manuel, Tyrod Taylor, Jeff Tuel
The quarterback position is the biggest Achilles Heel the Bills have to deal with. Ryan brought in Matt Cassel to challenge third year quarterback EJ Manuel for the starting job. Right now Cassel has the edge as he is slightly more competent than Manuel. Cassel has shown that he can get an offense through a game with minimal mistakes, but he’s not a great quarterback and it’s hard to imagine the Bills going deep into the playoffs with him at the helm.
The problem with Cassel is he’s the type of quarterback who does just enough to fool you into thinking he’s good. His time with the Minnesota Vikings is a perfect example of this, as he consistently did just enough to keep the team in games, but often he would refuse to test cornerbacks on deep balls and was wildly inconsistent when he did.
The problem is, Manuel has not looked any better in the first two years of his career. Taken with the Bills’ first pick in the 2013 NFL Draft, Manuel has been staggeringly mediocre when he hasn’t been hurt. Manuel has wheels and is very mobile but his accuracy can barely be called that and he doesn’t seem to have really mastered the playbook. This is pretty much a make or break year for him, but you have to assume the team is ready to move on from one of the biggest blunders of the previous regime.
Tyrod Taylor is super-athletic quarterback who reportedly turned down more than the three-year, $3.5 million deal from the Denver Broncos because he thought he had a shot to start in Buffalo. Considering how unimpressive he’s been in minor action with the Baltimore Ravens, that tells you a lot about the quarterback position here. Though in many ways we just don’t know what to expect from a guy we haven’t seen much of in four years.
Jeff Tuel had his shot in two games in 2013 and didn’t look all that promising. He’ll be the backup if he makes the team.
Overall this is a position of weakness, one which Ryan and his staff will try to paper over with a heavy run game. That didn’t work in New York with the Jets, but the backfield here in Buffalo is far more talented.
The biggest concern though, is that to win games in the NFL, at some point you need to throw the ball. Can this team do that?
Next: Running Back