On Monday of this week, Buffalo Bills head coach Doug Marrone Benched his young quarterback EJ Manuel & named Kyle Orton the new starter.
This ladies & gentleman is how you get fired one in a half years down the road!
To better understand the aforementioned statement, we need to look at the whole picture & not just “Coach benches QB for the Backup.”
Doug Marrone is a first time Head Coach in the NFL who’s had many years of experience coaching before he taking the head position with the Bills. Marrone knows just as much as anybody else in the league that the National Football League also stands for “Not for Long.” It’s his second season with the team, and after yet another sub-par year, and there have been many of these within the past 10 years, the Bills started the season 2-0 with one win already in their division. And after losing their second consecutive game against the Texans (by a score of 17-23) the coach responds to this little bit of adversity by benching the young QB who was drafted in the First round. It seems to me that Doug Marrone should have listened to French Montana on the flight back to Buffalo New York after losing in Houston.
Benching your starting QB after four games is not conducive to success in the short term or the long term or things. Especially when the new QB that your’re starting has been a career backup QB his whole tenure. Moreover, whose total career win-loss record is 35-34. It was obvious that EJ Manuel was not playing well, but what second year player is consistently great anyway? If Marrone never had trust in his young QB why make him a starter in the first place? Why not just go the Lovie Smith route & just start Orton the whole season? Have EJ Manuel sit on the sidelines and watch the whole year instead of benching him and risk the possibility of losing his trust & confidence in you as a coach? It’s a no win situation for Coach Marrone, because now that he has given up on his young quarterback and started the veteran for what he believes is his team’s “Best Chance to Win” now the only way he can come out a winner in this decision is if his team in fact WINS with Kyle freaking Orton as his starting Quarterback? Did Marrone not notice the train wreck that involved Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ first three games with a career Backup QB in Josh MCcown?
Even if Kyle Orton plays well (To his standards at least) is that even enough to win the AFC east & make the playoffs? What happens if Kyle Orton goes 2-2 in the next 4 games just like his predecessor, is Marrone going to go back to EJ Manuel?
The bottom line is this people, Doug Marrone just made a terrible, rash decision and he’s more than likely going to get fired, either this season or next year when Kyle Orton retires again; or they realize that…you know…..he’s not meant to be your starting QB. And when it happens, at least you’ll be able to say you saw it coming.
-JRC
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