Who wants to be the the next starting quarterback for the Buffalo Bills? The starting role is apparently up for grabs as coach Rex Ryan has announced that the competition will be open.
Ryan claimed, via WGR-AM radio, that the team will have a starting quarterback by the time Week 1 comes around, sharing this:
It’s going to be open. It’s a competition and whoever earns the job will be the guy that’s out there. We have some talented guys and we’ll see what happens. You bring in a veteran like Matt Cassel. He’s done some pretty good things in this league. He’s got that veteran presence about him. With EJ [Manuel] back there just going into his third year I really believe EJ is going to improve with his fundamentals having (quarterbacks coach) David Lee here. I love the fact that he’s a gym rat and he’s smart. With our offense being multiple we’ll be able to get out of bad plays, so the mental part of it all of the quarterbacks we have should be able to handle that.
With [Tyrod] Taylor that’s going to be a young man, he’s probably the fastest quarterback in the league. He’s explosive running the zone reads, and we’ll see where he’s at. Then [Jeff] Tuel. We’ve got guys there to work with. That’ll be the important thing. There will be competition, but a person has to earn the job. It hasn’t been handed to somebody.
By Ryan’s comments, we would be led to believe the favorite to bet on for now would be Cassel, with the long shot being Tuel. One thing for certain is that the franchise does not trust Manuel as the starter. Taylor is a wildcard who was dismissed as the backup from the Baltimore Ravens recently and is a long shot as well.
If none of these guys works out, there’s always the chance that Kyle Orton might pick up his phone after enjoying a brief offseason of retirement to do whatever he had the urge to accomplish after his 10-year NFL stint.
Who among this crew we will actually see lining up under center in Week 1 remains anyone’s guess for the moment. It is definitely a good thing the team landed running back LeSean McCoy to lead the ground attack and take some pressure off of whomever wins the starting quarterback job in Buffalo.
Photo: USA Today