A first round pick only two years ago, EJ Manuel hasn’t done much for the Buffalo Bills, and won’t be getting too much opportunities to prove he deserves a place on an NFL team as a starting quarterback or even as a backup.
In two season with the team, Manuel has played in just 15 games (starting 14), completing 58.6% of his passes, throwing 16 touchdowns and 12 interceptions while posting a passer rating of 78.5. There have been injuries, but there have also been some awful games. His numbers aren’t awful, but not exactly promising or suggesting he’s advancing.
Almost every reporter in Buffalo is letting it be known that Manuel is on thin ice with the Bills. He does have a deal that runs through 2016, but if he doesnt show any signs of improvement in this offseason, Rex Ryan will cut him. It’s not that the Bills are overflowing with talent at quarterback. They have Matt Cassel, Jeff Tuel and Tyrod Taylor. Arguably, there is no worse group of quarterbacks in the league.
And yet Manuel doesn’t seem to have any advantage over anyone in this group. He was benched in favor of Kyle Orton last year, which says a lot about how much credit and faith there was in his ability, despite his serviceable record as a starter considering it’s Buffalo (6-8). Orton led the team to a 9-7 season, which is almost a cause for Champagne bottles in Buffalo.
There’s a very good chance that these leaks of Manuel being shipped or released are about motivating the former Florida State star to realise how close he is to losing his job. But it says a lot about Manuel if he hasn’t been able to distinguish himself among a very unimpressive group of quarterbacks since joining the team in 2013, the only QB picked in the first round of that draft, which was incredibly weak as far as signal callers went.
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