The see-saw career of EJ Manuel took another swing Tuesday when the Buffalo Bills traded backup quarterback Matt Cassel to the Dallas Cowboys in a deal that included a swap of the team's 2017 draft choices.
Manuel was inactive for the first two games of the season but now becomes the primary backup to Tyrod Taylor.
If that sounds familiar, that's because it's exactly the spot where Manuel found himself two weeks ago when the Bills released Cassel during final cuts. For three days, indications were that Manuel would serve as Taylor's backup this season, but the Bills re-signed Cassel on Sept. 7 after he took a 50 percent pay cut.
Manuel has now gone from being the heir apparent to Kevin Kolb as a rookie in 2013, to being the Bills' starter when Kolb suffered a career-ending concussion that preseason, to being sidelined after multiple knee injuries as a rookie, back to being the Bills' starter for the first four games of 2014, to being benched in favor of Kyle Orton last October, to being part of a three-way competition with Taylor and Cassel this summer, to being a healthy scratch for the first two games this season ... and now back to being the Bills' No. 2 quarterback.
Manuel is now one injury away from being thrust back into the spotlight as the Bills' starter, another chapter in the long and winding story of the Bills' 2013 first-round pick.
