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Buffalo Bills: Matt Cassel or EJ Manuel – Who will survive?

By Paul Taylor

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With three cuts to go, will the Buffalo Bills get rid of Matt Cassel or EJ Manuel?

With 16 more players released on Friday, the Buffalo Bills now stand just three away from the 53-man roster limit. The questions is, will a quarterback be among the final three cuts, which must be made by 4 p.m. ET today?

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Matt Simms sealed his fate with an awful display against the Detroit Lions, in the Bills final preseason game. After failing to produce a single touchdown drive and losing two fumbles, the writing was on the wall for the 26-year old.

After Simms’ release, and with Tyrod Taylor being named starter, it seemed like the quarterback situation had finally been resolved. Just two weeks earlier, Rex Ryan had indicated Buffalo would keep the 53 best players, which likely included three quarterbacks.

However, now it turns out this is not necessarily the case. As reported by Vic Carucci of The Buffalo News, either Matt Cassel or EJ Manuel could be cut or traded.

Carucci and the rest of the media asked the Bills head coach about the difficulties in deciding which quarterback to cut: “To me, we have had a good body of evidence (for) what we want to look at.

Aug 20, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Browns defensive tackle Xavier Cooper (96) sacs Buffalo Bills quarterback EJ Manuel (3) during the second half at FirstEnergy Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

“There’s a reason right now that our roster is where it is and there’s a few moves that are still to be made, I get that. But to go and to talk about a specific player, I think it’s not helpful for us and I won’t talk about them.”

What’s interesting about this situation, is that entering training camp, it was widely perceived that Cassel was the de facto starter, while Manuel was on the cusp. However, a month can be a long time in the world of sports.

Cassel didn’t really do much wrong in his two preseason appearances, but he was outperformed by his teammate. The 25-year old Manuel made the most of his opportunities, completing 66.7 percent of his passes, for 358 yards and four touchdowns.

At this point, assuming Ryan and the Bills aren’t throwing another smokescreen, you’d have to say the 33-year old Cassel is favorite to be releasing. Also, keep in mind that cutting him would save $4.75 million in salary cap space, money which could be used towards negotiations with Marcell Dareus.

About the only thing remaining in the 2010 Pro Bowlers favor, is that Buffalo may want to keep an experienced veteran on the team. Indeed, this was the reason for bringing him on board in the first place.

However, I believe players should be rewarded for their performances. That is why Taylor was named starting quarterback, and that is why Manuel deserves to be his backup.

Of course, it is still entirely possible that Ryan will keep three quarterbacks. At this point, I’ve given up trying to work it out, but at least we will finally have an answer at some point today.

Next: Is Rex Ryan overreacting to kicking situation?

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