NFL News & Analysis

'Purgatory' a kind term for Bills' QB mess

Bills general manager Doug Whaley made headlines Wednesday by describing his team's quarterback situation as “almost as quarterback purgatory”, because they don't have a franchise QB nor are they bad enough overall to land a top pick in the draft to select a franchise QB.

Looking solely at this year's depth chart at the position, “purgatory” might be too optimistic of an assessment. The Bills are choosing among only bad options:

Do they go with the veteran Matt Cassel, who by all accounts has struggled during camp and was awful during his limited playing time at the start of the 2014 season, falling apart under pressure where he scored a 24.0 QB rating?

What about Whaley's 2013 first-round pick EJ Manuel? After a bumpy rookie year he lost his starting spot to Kyle Orton last season after a horrible start to the season. In our new PFF Rating system he scored a 53.3 — when you consider that anything between 60-69 is backup level, that tells you how bad Manuel has been the past two seasons.

The third, and arguably the best option, is to opt for a new face in Tyrod Taylor. He has just 129 regular-season snaps under his belt and never wowed during the preseason while with Baltimore, but at least he hasn't proven to be a bad NFL starter the way Cassel and Manuel — and his running ability could present a different problem for opposing defenses.

It’s an unenviable position that Rex Ryan finds himself in, but he can at least take solace in the fact that he’s gone deep in the postseason before with a below-average QB (Mark Sanchez) and a really good defense. If nothing else, with a defense boasting Kyle Williams, Marcell Dareus and Mario Williams, he’s got some great tools to work with on that side of the ball.

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