EJ Manuel Deserves Another Chance to Lead the Buffalo Bills

Benching EJ Manuel was the right thing to do at the time, but at some point, he deserves at least one more chance to prove he's capable of leading the Bills to the postseason.

Kyle Orton has outplayed Manuel this season.

Orton has a 64 percent completion rate in his three starts compared to Manuel's 58 percent. Orton is also averaging 58.8 more passing yards per game than Manuel. He has a more impressive touchdown-to-interception ratio and a higher passer rating as well.

Player	Comp. Percentage	TD-INT Ratio	QB Rating	Pass Yards per Game
EJ Manuel	58	5-3	80.3	209.5
Kyle Orton	64	10-3	93.5	263.3

Based on that, it would seem Orton gives Buffalo its best chance of winning right now.

However, if we're being honest, Orton never has been and never will be good enough to lead a team deep into the postseason. He turned 32 on Friday, so there's no upside for the Bills to look forward to.

We must remember, this is the same player who was benched in favor of Tim Tebow in 2010 and in 2011 while with the Denver Broncos. He's a great backup, but not a long-term starter.

Because of this limitation, the Bills are delusional if they believe he can lead this team into postseason. After Thursday night's 22-9 loss to the Miami Dolphins, Buffalo is 5-5. The Bills are 2.5 games behind the red-hot New England Patriots in the AFC East, a full game behind Miami and there are six AFC teams ahead of them in the wild-card race based on winning percentage.

Barring a miraculous turnaround and a few collapses from other teams in the conference, the Bills will run their record playoff drought to 15 seasons.

Even with this sobering outlook on the rest of the season, head coach Doug Marrone claims he isn't considering turning back to Manuel as the starter.

"No, right now, that hasn't crossed my mind," he told reporters after Thursday night's loss.

According to NFL.com's Chris Trapasso, Marrone may have to think about making a switch some time soon:

The team used the 16th overall pick in the 2013 draft to select Manuel and started him in Week 1 as a rookie. He was predictably inconsistent in his first year. He threw 11 touchdown passes and nine interceptions in 10 games, all starts. His passer rating was 77.7 and his completion percentage was 58.8.

While Manuel certainly hasn't arrived as an elite player this season, his numbers were on pace to go up from his rookie season in almost every category.

Year	Comp. Percentage	Yards per Game	TD-INT per game	Passer Rating	Wins-Losses
2013	58.8	197.2	1.1-0.9	77.7	4-6
2014	58	209.5	1.25-0.75	80.3	2-2

Because of this, it's hard to argue that Manuel wasn't making progress. Let's not forget, he is still only 24 years old.

Perhaps he wasn't moving fast enough to reach the expectations the coaching staff had for this year's team. Marrone and his staff are working hard to impress a new ownership group. That pressure could have led to a quick hook for Manuel.

Nevertheless, Marrone and his staff must accept the season for what it is and ultimately turn the keys back over to Manuel. It's clear he and the team need more reps to reach their postseason goals.

Neither will reach their potential with Manuel on the sidelines.