As we go into the final pre-season game against the Detroit Lions tomorrow night it is not out of line to be concerned with our quarterback situation. At the top of the depth chart is undrafted rookie Jeff Tuel who will be starting and the 2 players backing him up (Matt Leinart and Thad Lewis) have been with the team for roughly half a week. Fortunately for the Bills that undrafted rookie is quite an impressive player that makes intelligent decisions with the ball and has a very strong arm. If anything happens to him though the Bills could be in some serious trouble with nobody being behind him that has a strong grasp on this offense.
Even before the Buffalo Bills lost their top 2 quarterbacks on the depth chart in the span of a week and a half, they were not exactly set up to be OK if the injury bug hit that position. Lets face it, If things didn’t go as anticipated with the progress of first round draft pick EJ Manuel the Bills were not looking to be a better team with Kevin Kolb at the helm. Then when you look at the fact that Kolb has suffered a concussion in each of his last 2 season’s, it would not of been out of line to question the possibility of him making it to week 1 healthy and ready to go.
The Bills are all set up to have a tremendous amount of depth at that position in case of emergency’s as both WR Brad Smith and RB Fred Jackson are capable of playing quarterback, but head coach Doug Marrone opted not to take a serious look at either player as an option. Which is an intriguing move for a coaching staff that has preached versatility and wanting their best players out on the field in case of injury. Throughout training camp they have prepared players to substitute in for other positions than what they play naturally in case of injury, but for some reason they decided not to take that same approach at quarterback.
I have had nothing but positive things to say about Doug Marrone and the way he has handled the team thus far, but there is nobody else to blame for this team being so unprepared for losing our quarterbacks. Especially when Kevin Kolb is considered to be a serious candidate to start, that to me is a serious sign that the Bills are not taking the quarterback position as seriously as they should be.
The Bills and mostly all of their fans are hoping to have EJ Manuel back in time to start the season, but even if that happens there is no guarantee that he will remain healthy the entire season. Chances are somebody else’s number will be called to hike that ball at some point down the road, and the Bills would be wise to better prepare for that. What to you think, could the Bills have done more to be in a better position at quarterback?