Bills roll dice with rookie quarterbacks E.J. Manuel, Jeff Tuel

The Bills are keeping only two quarterbacks on the active roster, none of whom have any regular season experience. Here goes nothing.

by Jon Benne

Sep 1, 2013, 6:44 PM UTC

Rick Stewart

The Buffalo Bills will enter the 2013 season with the least experienced quarterback group in the NFL. Rookies E.J. Manuel and Jeff Tuel are the only two quarterbacks on the active roster. The team also signed Thaddeus Lewis to the practice squad.

Buffalo Bills sticking with just EJ Manuel and Jeff Tuel, per report

"The implication here, of course, is that the team believes rookie EJ Manuel - who had meniscus surgery two weeks ago today - will be healthy very soon, perhaps even in time to, at minimum, serve as the backup to Jeff Tuel on opening day. Alternatively, the Bills may still be waiting on Manuel, with the option of adding their new practice squad quarterback to the active roster late in the week if Manuel can't go." --Brian Galliford, Buffalo Rumblings

It's safe to say that this probably wasn't what the Bills had in mind when training camp started. They drafted Manuel with the No. 16 overall pick in the NFL Draft and signed Kevin Kolb, hoping that Kolb will provide a steady veteran hand while Manuel learns the game. Then Manuel outplayed Kolb in training camp and preseason, leading many to believe the team will start him in his rookie year. That plan got derailed when Manuel underwent a knee scope and missed the rest of the preseason, but Kolb was still around to steer the ship until Manuel returned.

Things took a turn for the worse when Kolb suffered a concussion and was put on injured reserve. The Bills had to turn to Tuel, an undrafted rookie out of Washington State. Tuel looked just fine in preseason, but the Bills may be forced to start him in the regular season if Manuel isn’t healthy. That’s not exactly an ideal situation.

The Bills tried to get veteran help by bringing in Matt Leinart, but he flopped in his preseason audition and was cut days later. They traded for Lewis and will be stashing him on the practice squad, but for now will be rolling with Manuel and Tuel, two rookies with zero game day experience.

This is a unique situation in the NFL, and the Bills will be taking on a ton of questions and risks heading into the season. Will Manuel and Tuel step up to the challenge, or wither under the pressure? And if one or both of them faceplant, what will the Bills do then? I guess we’re about to find out.

In other news, fantasy owners should be much happier with C.J. Spiller’s workload than they were last season.