Stopgap, noun: Someone or something that is intended to be used for a short time and then replaced by someone or something better; a temporary substitute.
Matt Cassel, whom the Buffalo Bills reportedly traded for on Wednesday, is the NFL quarterbacking embodiment of a stopgap.
The trade can’t become official until the 2015 league year begins on Mar. 10 at 4:00 p.m. ET but the Bills will send two draft picks to the Vikings for Cassel and an undisclosed pick.
If all goes as well as the Bills could possibly hope, the former Chief, Patriot, and most recently Viking quarterback will never start a game; will never even see the field. In a perfect world, the Bills will draft a quarterback who shows promise and EJ Manuel will take enough of a step forward to hold down the starting gig while QB-of-the-future learns the NFL game.
That’s the best case scenario. A reasonable scenario is to hope that Manuel can become effective enough to be relied upon, and can make up for with his athleticism what he costs the Bills with his rash decision; to hope, essentially, that his risks and rewards come into a positive balance. Either of those scenarios would work just fine.
The worst case scenario is that the Buffalo Bills enter the 2015 NFL season starting Matt Cassel, a quarterback whose last somewhat effective season came in Kansas City in 2010, as their starter; the same Matt Cassel who was neck-and-neck with Christian Ponder for the starting job in Minnesota, before both were thrown on the scrap heap in favour of rookie Teddy Bridgewater–who easily outclassed them both in his first two NFL games.
Granted, Manuel was terrible last year and the Bills are desperate to find options at the position until they can develop some talent…so you can see what Rex Ryan is thinking here. But there is desperation, and then there is hoping that Matt Cassel, at age 33, can be better than he’s been the last few years. That doesn’t usually happen.
I went to the Minnesota Vikings training camp in August of 2013. That was almost two years ago. Cassel looked washed up then. His passes weren’t accurate beyond ten yards; he regularly mistimed his throws; I practically watched the life go out of Greg Jennings’ eyes as he adjusted to life after Aaron Rodgers.
Matt Cassel started six games that season. His completion percentage was 60 percent. He threw 11 touchdowns and nine interceptions. That was his high-water mark. He averaged 200 passing yards per game. In 2014, before losing the job to Bridgewater, he was worse. His completion percentage dropped to 57 and he couldn’t seem to read the field. After a four-pick game against the Patriots, he barely saw the field again.
All that is to say, that Matt Cassel’s ceiling is low. But still, it’s tough to rip the Bills to shreds for this move–though it may seem like that’s the purpose of this column. It’s not–it’s merely important that fans keep their expectations in check. Last season, Bills faithful groaned every time Manuel missed stud rookie Sammy Watkins by several feet while the hotshot receiver was streaking downfield. Those results not going to change under Cassel. He might be more careful with the football than Manuel was, but that’s only because he’s less athletic. For a desperate Bills team, it’s a necessary move–but it’s a move they hope never factors into their 2015 plans.
The best case scenario is that Cassel spends the fall holding a clipboard and telling Manuel and New Quarterback X all of the things he learned from Tom Brady so many years ago.
If he’s asked to do more than that, nobody’s going to like what happens next.