| 4 reasons releasing Matt Cassel makes sense for the Buffalo Bills | |
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Paul Banach |
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Through the first three games of the 2015 preseason veteran quarterback Matt Cassel has only taken a total of 37 snaps. That’s a surprisingly low number for a guy who GM Doug Whaley traded two late-round picks to obtain and that most of the media had already anointed as Buffalo’s future starter.
Now that Tyrod Taylor has won the starting job and the fact that Cassel is entering his 11th season in the NFL, his lack of opportunities thus far is easier to understand. Giving unproven players like Taylor and E.J. Manuel extended repetitions seems to be the strategy Buffalo used during the competition since they already know what Cassel can and can’t do. Still, with that theory in place it leaves his role going forward way up in the air.
Among the myriad of recent news coming from One Bills Drive was Sal Capaccio this morning talking about the organization internally debating over whether or not to cut the veteran quarterback. After watching the competition play out over the last month, moving on from Cassel may be the right move.
Here are four reasons releasing Matt Cassel makes sense for the Buffalo Bills:
Development of E.J. Manuel
Obviously, T-Mobile rising to the top of the depth chart puts Cassel in a backseat position but it’s the late emergence of E.J. Manuel that may seal his fate.
After an inconsistent start to training camp the third-year quarterback has shown big improvements over the last few weeks. Everything from going through his progressions to looking off defenders to consistently making accurate throws put E.J. in a position to win the starting job.
Manuel also graded out as the third-best quarterback in the NFL through three preseason games according to Pro Football Focus and Bills center Eric Wood even mentioned that #3 did enough to be the starter, but wasn’t quite as consistent as Tyrod.
Either way it sounds like Manuel has the support of the locker room which a strong preseason will get you. That could lock up the backup job for E.J. and spell the end of Cassel’s tenure with the Bills.
Cash Money
Flat out the Bills would save a little over $4 million on the salary cap if they part ways with Matt Cassel. The front office has already shown the willingness to free up even a smaller amount of space with the release of FJax and four mill for a potential 3rd-string quarterback is too much.
That extra money could immediately help Buffalo retain important pieces like Cordy Glenn, Nigel Bradham, Stephon Gilmore, Marcel Dareus etc.
The Kyle Orton example
Throwing for over three thousand yards with 18 touchdowns, only 10 interceptions and an 87.8 QB rating, on paper it looks like Kyle Orton had a very solid 2014 season. Despite those numbers if you watched the Bills offense you know how terribly frustrating it was and rightfully so, Orton actually finished ranked towards the bottom of the league’s PFF rankings.
Matt Cassel has trouble escaping the rush much like Orton did and doesn’t have as strong of an arm or deep ball. Even if Greg Roman’s new scheme automatically improves this offense and Cassel did get his opportunity, how much better could he be than last year’s performance? With a young, unproven right side of the offensive line and improving defenses within the division, that mixture could lead to some major deficiencies which likely make his roster spot futile.
Limits the Playbook
In all fairness we’ve only seen Matt Cassel pass the ball fifteen times this preseason, but his average of 5.5 yards per attempt says it all. During possessions with Cassel at the helm the Bills rarely passed it deep and seemed to run a lot of crossing patterns and short outs. These plays are great to utilize the team’s speed but there really wasn’t even an attempt to stretch the field like the other two quarterbacks did.
We’ve all seen what Roman did with Colin Kaepernick in San Francisco as the 49ers completely opened up the playbook with the QB read-option and more. Tyrod Taylor and even E.J. Manuel’s skill set allows the offensive coordinator to run whatever he wants while #11 certainly does not. Nobody wants an offense that’s limited with the arsenal of weapons on this team.
Outlook
Matt Cassel absolutely provides veteran leadership in the locker room and in a pinch is a safe option to trot out there on Sunday. Fortunately enough for the Buffalo Bills they may be able to do away with that luxury given the recent play of E.J. Manuel, the money the team will save and more.