Kyle Orton Replaces EJ Manuel: Latest Details, Comments, Reaction

Updates from Thursday, Oct. 2

EJ Manuel spoke to reporters about his benching and his future, via Matthew Fairburn of Syracuse.com:

Updates from Wednesday, Oct. 1

Rookie wide receiver Sammy Watkins was quick to praise Kyle Orton after Wednesday's practice according to ESPN's Mike Rodak:

Original Text

In an effort to turn things around after a recent two-game slide, Buffalo Bills head coach Doug Marrone has decided to make a change at the quarterback position.     

According to the team's official Twitter account, Kyle Orton will replace EJ Manuel as the team's starting quarterback in Week 5:

The Bills also provided some thoughts from the coach:

Mike Rodak of ESPN.com added a bit more from Marrone:

According to Jay Skurski of The Buffalo News, Marrone didn't mince words when describing Manuel's outlook:

Marrone also commented on the front office of the franchise following the decision, via NFL.com's Around the League:

The Bills surprised many with consecutive wins to start the season over the Chicago Bears and Miami Dolphins. However, the wheels fell off from there, as Buffalo lost consecutive games to the San Diego Chargers and Houston Texans.

Manuel has clearly struggled in the past two games, finishing with a total QBR of less than 10 in each contest. For the season, the second-year player has thrown for 838 yards with five touchdowns and three interceptions, completing 58 percent of his passes.

He will be replaced by Orton, a 31-year-old veteran with a career quarterback rating of 79.9 and a 35-35 record spending time with four teams.

Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports provided his thoughts on the decision:

It is rare to see a young quarterback, especially a former first-round pick, be benched this early in the season. At the very least, it is often difficult to recover psychologically from this type of move.

Manuel had an up-and-down rookie season where he showed plenty of promise but often struggled with his accuracy. He also missed six games due to injury, which caused him to miss valuable reps as a raw first-year player.

In most situations around the NFL, head coaches will give a highly regarded player more time to work through mistakes before looking to see other options.

On the other hand, Gregg Rosenthal of NFL.com notes the quarterback was not showing much lately:

Meanwhile, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reminded everyone that Manuel was not supposed to even start last season:

Orton is clearly not the team’s future, but at least he could help spread the ball around to talented players like Sammy Watkins and Robert Woods. Along the way, Manuel could potentially learn from the veteran.

The Bills, who likely feel they can compete right now and challenge for the division, will simply hope that this move can pay off for both the short and long term. With new ownership looming over the front office, there's no doubt this is a huge decision from the team.

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