It was a surprise both to those connected to the NFL umbilical cord and amateur draftniks with a deep-seated love of all things football when the previous Buffalo Bills regime, led by head coach Doug Marrone, made the decision to draft quarterback EJ Manuel with the 16th-overall selection in the 2013 NFL Draft.
Manuel, a standout signal-caller at Florida State who possessed significant athletic potential also entered the pre-draft process to questions of his NFL-readiness and ability to read defenses - most prognostications felt he'd likely wind up an early second-round pick at best or fall to the late second or early third at worst.
Instead, Marrone and the former Bills brass took Manuel in the mid-first and the rest, as they say, is history. Marrone is gone, replaced by the boisterous, rambunctious Rex Ryan and the Bills have again added an aging veteran in Matt Cassel to hedge their bets against Manuel faltering.
Only this time, instead of Manuel simply being relegated to a back-up role should he fail to seize a starting opportunity, he could find himself out on the street with the rest of the NFL's failed experiments.
"If former first-round pick and quarterback EJ Manuel doesn't show some serious progress this spring and summer at OTAs, minicamp and training camp, he very well may be enjoying his final few months in Buffalo as a member of the organization," Joe Buscaglia of WKBW.com writes.
Per Buscaglia, Manuel, much like Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III, seems limited by his own fear of making mistakes and has become a quarterback whose game is marked by timidity and meekness when brash bravado is what's needed to succeed.
Questionable coaching decisions are partly to blame of course, but it's also Manuel's own mental makeup which seems to be hindering his development.
"The simple truth is this: as he is currently constructed, Manuel is not an accurate enough quarterback to thrive as a starting quarterback in the National Football League," writes Buscaglia. "He misses throws that players starting at his position make without hesitation. There are times where he gets completions from inaccurate passes, but it takes the receiver so off course that it crushes any hope of legitimate yards after the catch."
Unfortunately for Manuel, Bills GM Doug Whaley feels accuracy is one of the most important traits for a successful NFL quarterback.
"I'd have to say accuracy, decision-making, being able to play the game with his eyes," Whaley said when asked what he looks for in a signal-caller.
With Cassel reprising the recently retired Kyle Orton's role as cagey veteran and Tyrod Taylor the developmental athlete - and a player Ryan has said he tried before to trade for - along with the mounting number of specialists and skill position players the Bills are amassing, there may simply not be enough room for Manuel on the roster unless he really shows something in training camp that makes the Buffalo brass keep him around.
