Matt Cassel hasn’t been a stranger to being a backup quarterback before. At USC,, he backed up then both Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart. In New England Cassel was the number two quarterback behind Tom Brady before he had his number called when Brady went down with a season-ending injury. So no matter if he’s the Buffalo Bills starting quarterback or the backup, Matt Cassel will be ready to compete.
On Wednesday, Cassel was introduced to the Buffalo media for the first time. Cassel didn’t wait to let the media know he was ready to compete for the Bills starting job.
“You have to earn every opportunity that you get,” said Cassel. “I know that there is going to be competition and I know that EJ (Manuel) is here. He is a young, talented player and I expect that there is going to be a competition. Again, you have to go out and earn your opportunity in this league.”
Cassel will compete last year’s starter EJ Manuel for the Bills starting quarterback position. Buffalo has the pieces in place to make a playoff run and Cassel knows it.
“Obviously we have a lot of talent with Sammy Watkins, we’ve got (Robert) Woods, and we’ve got LeSean (McCoy),” said Cassel. “Part of that is now all of us getting here in the offseason and building the camaraderie because I think it’s very important that you build that rapport with those guys and the receivers and work hard because we’re going to have to learn a new playbook.”
Last season while playing for the Minnesota Vikings, Cassel suffered a broken foot in Week 3. After that, the team decided to start 2014 first round pick Teddy Bridgewater and the team never looked back. That was a difficult time for Cassel.
“Any time you go through the offseason and you work tremendously hard and you earn a position to go out and play and then that is all taken away from you in the third game of the year, that is difficult to handle,” said Cassel. “Then you have to go through the surgery and everything else. Thankfully I stuck around and I was able to stay involved and I think that really helped me. I was able to help the coaches and do reports and those kinds of things. I think if I would have gone home and not had football there it would have been a lot longer and a lot more difficult for me to go through that time.’
In 2008 when Brady went down to a season-ending knee injury, Cassel threw for 3,693 yards, 21 touchdowns against 11 interceptions. After that season, Cassel signed a six-year, $62 million contract with the Kansas City Chiefs.
From there, Cassel had the best season of his career in 2010. The quarterback threw for 3,116 yards, 31 touchdowns and only seven interceptions. Despite not having that type of success since, Cassel is confident he can play at that same level once again.
“I think that we definitely can achieve that level of success and I think I can achieve that level of success, said Cassel. “It’s about consistency and I think everything at the quarterback position comes with consistency. At the same time it’s a lot of hard work that goes in with the coaches and understanding what they want you to achieve in playing to your strengths and doing those things. I think I have a lot of football left in me and I’ve been around long enough to understand and have great knowledge of the game.”
Cassel is far more experienced than Manuel and will enter the Bills training camp as the favorite to win the starting job. Cassel has 71 starts in his career and has thrown for 15,727 yards and 96 touchdowns during his 10-year career. He is 32-years-old, but Cassel believes his best years are ahead of him
