The Buffalo Bills quarterback situation continues to get messier.
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Nearly every team in the NFL has a good idea of who will be its starting quarterback come Week 1. Meanwhile, the Buffalo Bills are struggling to name a starter for their third preseason game.
As a result, the Bills will rotate all three quarterbacks series-to-series on Saturday against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Matt Cassel, Tyrod Taylor and E.J. Manuel will all get a chance to play with the first team offense, according to Joe Buscaglia of WKBW.
The Bills have been running a similar alignment in practice over the past two days. As the third preseason game is when the first team typically gets the most playing time and Buffalo has not yet named a starting quarterback, head coach Rex Ryan decided the rotation was the best solution to an ugly situation.
Series-to-series quarterback rotations are much more common in the college game, and are rarely successful there. It seems even less likely to be beneficial in the NFL, and could hurt the chemistry of the first-string offense at a time in the preseason when it would normally be gelling.
Ryan is a good coach in many areas, but this could be another mark against him in regards to his ability to handle quarterbacks. To give Ryan some credit, the Bills have so many injuries at running back and wide receiver that the current offense will look completely different from their normal first string, so perhaps the decision won’t matter much anyway.
Buffalo has aspirations to end the league’s longest playoff drought this season. Anchored by an excellent defensive line, the Bills have enough talent to improve on a 9-7 season and challenge for at least an AFC Wild Card spot.
Even middling quarterback play could be good enough for Buffalo. The Bills had a decent season last year with Kyle Orton under center, and should be better with LeSean McCoy and an improving receiver corps.
The quarterback of the trio most likely to provide a steady hand is Cassel. Cassel has put up a few solid, if unspectacular, seasons in his career, including in 2013 with the Minnesota Vikings, and is probably the safest pick of the three.
With Cassel sitting out last Thursday against the Cleveland Browns, Taylor got some extensive playing time. Taylor can do some things well and works fine as a backup, but is probably not who the Bills have in mind to start during a competitive season.
That leaves Manuel as the main challenger to Cassel for the starting job. Manuel, a 2013 first-round pick, has the highest ceiling of any quarterback on the roster and looked very good at times against the Browns. However, he has been prone to inconsistency and poor decision-making, which has left his status as even a backup in question.
Ryan inherited an ugly quarterback situation, but the decision to rotate all three quarterbacks with the first team still seems a little strange this close to the start of the season. The sooner the rotation ends and a starter is named, the better off Buffalo will be. At the moment, it seems like Cassel should be considered the favorite to win the job.
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