Matt Cassel Re-Signs with Bills: Latest Contract Details, Comments and Reaction

Matt Cassel has re-signed with the Buffalo Bills just a few days after being released, the team announced Tuesday. 

On Sept. 9, Field Yates of ESPN reported Cassel would get a base salary of $2 million, with incentives to make the deal worth up to $4.15 million, which was the base salary of the signal caller's original deal in Buffalo.

Cassel, 33, was released by the Bills after losing a three-way battle with Tyrod Taylor and EJ Manuel. Taylor earned the team's starting gig after the third preseason game, and while Manuel was named the team's backup at the time, the Bills announced Tuesday Cassel would become the team's second-string signal caller.

In other words, it's clear the Bills saw something they liked to keep the veteran around. 

Vic Carucci of the Buffalo News noted the Houston Texans were also interested, but the Bills offered a better deal. 

As for Manuel, he is not looking to leave the Bills through a trade or release in the wake of his demotion to third string, via Carucci.

Cassel is on his fourth NFL team, having also spent time in New England, Kansas City and Minnesota. He has now lost starting gigs in each of his last three stops, dropping in status each step of the way. The Chiefs acquired Cassel in 2009 to be their franchise quarterback; the Vikings added him in 2013 as a stopgap; the Bills acquired him this offseason merely to compete.

Cassel is firmly entrenched as a backup, which is likely best, given his recent production. He has finished with a quarterback rating under 80 in three of the last four years and four of the last six. An ascent to Pro Bowl status in 2010 aside, he has been a below-average quarterback since leaving the protective cocoon of New England.

“There’s always going to be critics out there,” Cassel told John Wawrow of the Associated Press in August. “And for me as a player, I think my best football’s ahead of me.”

Odds are, Cassel is being a tad optimistic. Nothing we've seen the last half-decade gives any indication he'll ever match his 2010 peak, when he threw 27 touchdowns against seven interceptions and looked at the very least like he could be a competent NFL starter.

Now, he's lucky Buffalo opted to bring him back to bolster its quarterback depth; if it hadn't, it's possible we'd seen the last of Cassel in the NFL. 

Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter.