Buffalo Bills fans haven’t had much to cheer about since their hot 2-0 start, but you wouldn’t know it from the explosion of joy unleashed this afternoon when the team announced that Kyle Orton would replace E.J. Manuel at quarterback. A great light shone from the heaven and the angels began to sing. Ding dong, the witch is dead – our long national nightmare is over.

Oh, if only it was that easy - admit Manuel wasn’t on a path to becoming the guy to take them to the next level, bring in a veteran quarterback and continue on with a march toward the playoffs. If you believe that you’ve had way too much Kool Aid.

Last week I defended Manuel after the loss to San Diego. Yeah, the kid had a bad game, but the Chargers are a good team and young quarterbacks are going to have bad games. I wasn’t happy with Manuel’s play, but in my opinion you had to expect games like that.

A second straight horrible performance on Sunday against Houston and I my thoughts, like those of many Bills fans, was that we were watching something we’d seen a million times before – a Bills team losing a winnable game due to an inept offense being led by a substandard quarterback who should be holding a clip board rather than starting in the NFL. Indeed, it was going to be a very long season.

Manuel really showed nothing on Sunday – well, nothing positive at least. Granted, the offensive line once again couldn’t seem to handle stunts and he was continually harassed in the pocket, but Manuel looked rattled, confused and indecisive. His throws were once again off target – enough so that his receivers we continually in the zone where they maybe could have caught the ball but didn’t. He was once again tentative when he used his feet, refusing to use his athleticism to make a play.

To look at the scoreboard on Sunday you would think the game was never really out of hand, but reality betrayed that illusion. With 10 minutes left to go in the game the Bills were down by a touchdown, but the score might as well have been 50-10. A minute later when Houston tacked on a field goal to make it a two-score game you knew it was a lost cause – multiple scores, even with 9 minutes to play, was completely out of reach for a team that just couldn’t move the ball.

Time and time again, Manuel had an opportunity to make a play or continue a drive, and time and time again he came up small – bring in the punter. For all of his flaws, this could have been Manuel’s most severe – the inability to make something out of a situation. You only get so many chances to show greatness, and Manuel almost never showed anything. Last season’s game winning drive to beat Carolina seems so long ago – by now Manuel should have had something – anything – to add to a collection of positive impact plays.

It became obvious that E.J. Manuel is just not what some refer to as a “gamer”. If you’re not familiar with the “gamer”, just think about a player who refuses to be beat – someone who finds a way to make plays and do something positive. Doug Flutie was a gamer. Fred Jackson is a gamer. Kyle Williams is a gamer. Russell Wilson is a gamer. Ryan Fitzpatrick was a gamer on Sunday – time and again he refused to be stopped. Buffalo needs a gamer at quarterback, and Manuel isn’t it.

To think that the Bills are suddenly a much better team now that Manuel is on the bench is probably wishful thinking – the grass is always greener, especially when you know your current grass is pretty brown. Orton is a journeyman who has already seen his career interrupted by lack of interest in his services. He lost his job, twice, to Tim Tebow. He was available to the Bills in late August because nobody was clamoring for his skills. Heck, if Jeff Tuel had shown anything at all in the preseason, Orton would have been 3 weeks into his second retirement from football. Sure, he’s played well at times and brings experience and maturity, but he’s not exactly Peyton Manning.

I’m not quite sure how everyone can be so happy about today’s move at quarterback. Yes, Manuel will no longer be leading the offense, but it is a stinging indictment of the current regime that a first round pick like Manuel seems headed for the same boneyard as Trent Edwards and J.P Losman – how is that possibly a good thing? If this move shows us anything it is that the Bills are completely and utterly incompetent and finding a serviceable quarterback. For a decade and a half the Bills have had a rotating cast of losers who look like they are going to be decent but who end up washing out of football. And yet the Bills were not only content to go with Manuel, they didn’t even have a decent plan at backup.

In addition to having absolutely no plan for the future of the quarterback position in the very likely event Manuel stumbled, the Bills invested heavily on a talent that requires a decent quarterback – wide receiver Sammy Watkins. Taking a prize like Watkins without a known commodity at quarterback is akin to buying flashy rims for your Pinto – nice rims are nice, but not really worth it when you don’t have a decent ride to put them on.

So I’m at a loss to explain why there is so much joy in Bills Nation today. Manuel may not be under center on Sunday but his failure, and the failure of the organization, should be a point of great hand-wringing. In the end I think Buffalo may salvage a 6 or 7 win season, but the cost for such mediocrity will be exorbitant - a first round pick in Manuel, 2 first round picks in Watkins, $5 million a year for 2 years of Orton. I’m not cheering this move, I’m crying – after so many years of football hardship it’s hard to believe there are any tears left. Is it too early to start worrying about backup quarterback?