Bills loaded with talent except at quarterback
Team banking on defense, skill players to compensate
New running back? Check. New tight end? Check. New wide receiver, new fullback, new guard, new offensive coordinator and a completely overhauled offensive coaching staff? Check, check, check, check and check.
On paper, the Buffalo Bills have impressive new weapons in their arsenal, and if Aaron Rodgers, Andrew Luck or Tom Brady were the quarterback, Buffalo — with its ferocious defense and strong special teams — might very well be the favorite to win the Super Bowl.
With Matt Cassel, EJ Manuel, Tyrod Taylor, Matt Simms or perhaps someone who’s not even on the roster at this stage standing under center, the Bills likely will have a titanic fight to make the playoffs in the balanced AFC.
Having watched LeBron James single-handedly win a game for the Cleveland Cavaliers during the NBA Finals in June, Bills coach Rex Ryan joked the next day, “This just in: LeBron’s pretty good.”
And when someone playfully asked him if the Bills had a James at the quarterback position, Ryan didn’t bat an eye: “Safe to say we won’t have LeBron at quarterback. We may have a LeBron at defensive tackle or defensive end, but we don’t have him at quarterback.”
It’s funny, but the Bills might only need the equivalent of Matthew Dellavedova — LeBron’s undersized, overachieving teammate — at quarterback to end a 15-year playoff drought. Sadly, they might not even have that guy.
With so much talent at the skill positions with LeSean McCoy, Percy Harvin, Charles Clay and Jerome Felton joining Sammy Watkins, Robert Woods, Chris Hogan and Fred Jackson, the Bills could make serious noise this season if their quarterback can simply not screw things up and distribute the ball to everyone with a semblance of consistency. Of course, with a depth chart of — in no particular order — Cassel, Manuel, Taylor and Simms, that might be asking too much.
The Sports Illustrated MMQB website recently published a quarterback ranking written by Andy Benoit. Guess which team was ranked last at 32nd? Projecting Cassel would ultimately win the quarterback job, it was the Bills, with the comment: “Put EJ Manuel or Tyrod Taylor here if you want. Whatever, you get the idea.”
The rest of the bottom five: No. 31 Robert Griffin III of the Washington Redskins; No. 30 Marcus Mariota, a rookie who has never taken an NFL snap for the Tennessee Titans; No. 29 Josh McCown of the Cleveland Browns, at one point in the offseason a possible Bills free agent signee; and No. 28 Brian Hoyer of the Houston Texans.
The bottom line is that over the next month Ryan has to figure out which of his quarterbacks will give the Bills their best chance to succeed on offense.
Ryan is used to this. While coaching the New York Jets, his quarterback depth chart was never impressive with the likes of Mark Sanchez, Geno Smith and Michael Vick, among others. He has changed addresses but again is confronted with an abyss at the game’s most important position.
“The No. 1 thing is to pick the right guy,” Ryan said at the end of minicamp in June. “Is time on our side a little bit? Yes, it is. In an ideal world would you already have your quarterback named by now? Yeah, that’s an ideal situation, but you know what, we’re not there; we’re in an ideal situation to have competition at that spot, and I welcome it.”
One would have to assume Bills fans craving an escape from seemingly never-ending irrelevance do not share the same opinion.
Manuel, Buffalo’s first-round draft choice in 2013, has that going for him. Suffice it to say that general manager Doug Whaley is hoping Manuel shows marked improvement and wins the job, if for no other reason than to justify what many draft experts thought was a reach of a pick.
“It doesn’t fire me up,” Manuel said of the legions of doubters he has. “If I continue to focus on what I need to do to get better, I think that’s what matters for me. I really don’t buy into the extra stuff being said. I just focus on what I need to focus on.”
Cassel, acquired in a trade from the Minnesota Vikings, has 10 years of NFL experience, some of them as Brady’s backup, with several mediocre seasons as a starter sprinkled in as his career 33-38 record would attest.
“There’s always going to be critics out there, but for me, I think my best football is ahead of me, and I’m excited about the opportunity,” said Cassel, 33. “Everybody is going to have an opinion; I have to go out there and earn it and prove to the coaches and everybody else that I deserve the opportunity to play.”
Taylor, acquired via free agency from the Baltimore Ravens, has the element of untapped potential and mystery on his side.
Ryan is in love with his supreme athleticism, oddly overlooking the fact that Taylor has thrown all of 35 NFL passes in mop-up duty during four years as Joe Flacco’s backup.
“I know what I’m capable of; it’s my job to prove it to the coaches,” Taylor said. “I think they’re aware, but as long as I continue to keep working and impress them every day, at the end of the day the coaches will decide.”
If Simms were to somehow win the starting job, well, let’s not even explore that possibility.
Through it all, Ryan keeps smiling, keeps spinning and keeps selling hope that the Bills are going to be OK at quarterback.
“I think they all have some- thing to prove,” he said. “How they’re going to be in this system, we’re going to find out. Some quarterbacks flourish in certain systems, and I believe all three guys will have a chance to be successful. I hope that’s the case.”
This week, the competition begins, and the Bills can only hope a best man truly emerges.