“Like I said from Day 1, this is a real competition”, Ryan said.
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“I love Rex to death”, said the 35-year-old Vick. Regardless, those two players have played nearly the identical amount of snaps through the first three preseason games. With Manziel and Connor Shaw out, and Pat Devlin having been on the team for only one practice, Josh McCown and Thad Lewis will take the quarterback reps for the Browns. Not when virtually every indication through training camp has been that Matt Cassel and Tyrod Taylor are the primary candidates. Manuel has been the most inconsistent of the three by quite a bit, but to his credit, when the lights have gone on and he had late-game opportunities in the first two weeks, he stepped up and had a pair of very nice outings. Pittsburgh’s front seven should try to put pressure on EJ Manuel and force him into making mistakes. “We have to continue to take a look at a number of coverage guys and guys who have an opportunity to state a case for themselves”. The former number one pick added, “I feel good, like I said I’m just excited to get a chance to go out there with the one’s and start off the game”.
Cassel is a 10-year journeyman and acquired in an offseason trade with Minnesota. Fogg already has two special teams tackles and I’d really like to see him equal that number against the Bills.
Taylor signed with Buffalo in March after spending the past four seasons as Joe Flacco’s backup in Baltimore. The Bills may have already made up their mind as to who they choose to be the starter in 2015, but the players don’t know that.
Otherwise, the Bills figure to use their first-team and second-team running backs, tight ends and wide receivers interchangeably – much as they did last week in Cleveland. Manuel’s rookie year was plagued with injuries, as the young quarterback missed six games. He has not set the world on fire with his first two performances in the preseason, but Manuel has not lost the starting job either. “How his work goes will be a factor in deciding whether he plays or not”.
“Yeah, I’m excited about it”, Manuel said. “I had to calm myself down because we still had some time left, but I was excited”. His time as a starter was short as he was benched in favor of Orton after his fourth start. And he might wait until the week leading up to the season-opener against Indianapolis on September 13 so as not to tip his hand to the Colts. Jackson was initially out with a hamstring injury however he returned to practice last Saturday.
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Josh Harris – Harris might be back in action Saturday night as he looks to return to the field after suffering a sprained foot in the team’s second preseason game. TE Charles Clay practiced and is expected to play after he hurt his knee on Tuesday.
