Art Wander
DON’T GET ME STARTED saw the list of players released by the Bills Saturday and there weren’t many surprises. There were two players – Tuel and Grahame who saw some action in the past two years but Marrone decided to go without them.
The one surprise is that Marrone and/or Whaley released Jeff Tuel, the backup quarterback who many say outplayed starter EJ Manuel in some instances in the last two years. That might not be saying much since inconsistency and turnovers by both of them occurred too often to suit the fans.
What is surprising about the Tuel departure is that – at the present time – the Bills have only two quarterbacks. EJ Manuel is the starter and his backup is journeyman Kyle Orton who was just signed after spending time with 5 teams.
In 75 games Orton’s played during his career, he completed 58.5 % of his passes which would put him in the adequate category. What does stand out is that in those 75 games, he has been intercepted 59 times. That’s not good. He’s also thrown 83 touchdown passes. Therefore, with Tuel gone, Orton is now the backup quarterback and he will need a crash course in the playbook in case anything happens to Manuel.
Speaking of “injury” – what happens if Manuel does get hurt and Orton has to take over. Then what happens if Orton also gets hurt. There’s no Tuel – no Chad Lewis. At this writing, Buffalo has 2 quarterbacks.
Here’s my suggestion. The New York Jets released their draft choice, quarterback Tajh Boyd. Why Boyd? First he’s about 6’1”, 260 pounds and played very well at Clemson. So what’s so special about that? He was the quarterback getting the ball to Bills #1 pick Sammy Watkins. Here’s his on-field story.
Boyd had outstanding seasons in 2011, 2012 and in 2013, he really had a fine season. Last season in his senior year, Boyd played 13 games; completed 283 of 413 passes for a 68.5 passing percentage which is outstanding. He also threw 34 touchdown passes while being intercepted only 11 times in his 413 throws.
In the last 2 seasons at Clemson, he rushed for 20 touchdowns, 10 in each of those years.
Those are good numbers. The Bills would certainly need a 3rd quarterback. Look at the running backs they kept. Fullback Frank Summers; RBs Spiller, Jackson, Dixon, Brown. That’s 4 running backs and only 2 quarterbacks.
I would suspect that the Jets might want to put Boyd on the practice squad, but it might seem that the Bills could do a little number and add him to the roster since NFL suspensions will likely impact Buffalo at the start.
By the way, the Bills also parted company with speedster wide receiver T.J. Graham It’s likely he will be signed by another team. Offensive lineman Legursky also was released while all the others haven’t made any impact at all during their short stay in Buffalo.
So the 53 man roster is set and the first game is a week away – with 2 quarters. One who knows the “system” and the other needing to quickly figure out what it is on Don’t Get Me Started.
Filed under: Don't Get Me Started
Tagged with: Art Wander, Buffalo Bills, Doug Marrone, Doug Whaley, Jeff Tuel, Tajh Boyd
Sorry, comments are closed on this post.