Buffalo Bills: Who will win the quarterback race?

bleacherreport.com

With OTAs underway, free agency essentially over and all drafted rookies becoming accustomed to their new teams, many teams look set for the season and for the most part know who will start as their quarterback.

However, one team that is stuck in quarterback purgatory, for the moment, is the Buffalo Bills. After ending the season with Kyle Orton, who has since retired, they still are unsure of who will start come week one.

With that being said, let’s take a look at the top three candidates for the Bills starting gig.

1. E.J. Manuel

Last year, Manuel failed to give the Buffalo Bills reason to believe that he can ever live up to his lofty expectations coming out of Florida State in the first round.

In Manuel’s defense, he was not seen as a very NFL-ready quarterback. He is very similar to the Green Bay Packers’ incoming rookie Brett Hundley, except Hundley will get time to develop his skills and talents under the reigning NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers.

Manuel still has a chance to improve this year and throw to a better completion percentage (58 percent last year) and a better touchdown to interception ratio (5:3).

As long as he stays healthy, he will be the Bills starter and start to show some flashes of the promise the Bills saw in him while he was at Florida State.

2. Matt Cassel

Matt Cassel’s days of being a Pro Bowler may be over, but that doesn’t mean that he can’t be a solid starting quarterback.

In three games last year, Cassel was not great, throwing for a completion percentage of 57.7 percent and a touchdown to interception ratio of 3:4.

However, Cassel did not have as many weapons on offense as the Bills have. When given weapons on offense, Cassel has done well. Back in 2008, when on a New England Patriots team with Randy Moss and Wes Welker, Cassel threw 21 touchdowns and had a completion percentage of 63.4 percent.

While this was seven years ago, I would be shocked if Cassel can’t return to being a trusty veteran starter, like what the Bills had in Kyle Orton last year.

3. Tyrod Taylor

The dark horse candidate for the Bills starting gig, Taylor is the only quarterback who has never started a game in his career.

However, he does come from backing up Super Bowl winner Joe Flacco on the Ravens and could show off some of his acquired traits in the preseason that could force Rex Ryan’s hand.

Tyrod brings a mobile threat that is bigger than the other competing quarterbacks and could create an extremely speedy backfield with LeSean McCoy.

The one question with Taylor is, can he show enough in the preseason to be named as a starter over both Manuel and Cassel?

The Starter: I believe that if E.J. Manuel stays healthy through preseason and does enough to show that he has improved since last year, he will be named starter, with Matt Cassel backing him up and Tyrod Taylor coming in third.