Orchard Park, N.Y. — Doug Marrone isn't in the mood for a quarterback controversy.

Nine weeks ago, Marrone made the decision to bench second-year quarterback E.J. Manuel for Kyle Orton, and he's not looking back. Even as the team stares down the barrel of elimination in the final weeks of the season with Orton struggling, Marrone says the Bills will stick with Orton because he gives the team the best chance to win. Even if the team is eliminated from playoff contention, Marrone says that stance won't change.

"No, not for me, unless it changes for somebody else," Marrone said Wednesday.

Marrone has final say in lineup decisions, but influence could start coming from elsewhere if the Bills lose to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday and see their playoff hopes fade away. After all, Manuel has started just 14 games since the Bills drafted him in the first round of the 2013 NFL Draft. There's a case to be made that the Bills need to see more before definitively deciding whether he's capable of being a franchise quarterback.

But that is not part of Marrone's thought process. He is strictly worried about which quarterback gives him the best chance to win.

"Every week I'm going to make that decision, and if I get to 7-8, I'll make that decision," Marrone said. "But right now, absolutely, I will play Kyle Orton because he gives us the best chance to win."

All Marrone would say about Manuel is that "he's progressing" and "we keep bringing him along."

Back when Marrone benched Manuel for Orton, he made it clear that he was not looking for agreement from general manager Doug Whaley or the front office on the decision.

"I didn't ask for an agreement," Marrone said at the time. "I just went in there and said, 'This is the direction that I'm going.'"

Now he's taking a similar stance as the season draws to a close. Whether there's pressure from the front office or the fans to take another look at Manuel, that's not how Marrone is going to make his decision.

"If you're asking me, personally, my decision is (Orton)'s going to play," Marrone said. "If you ask somebody else, they might tell you something different. I don't know."

Given a second chance during his press conference on Wednesday, Marrone didn't elaborate much on how Manuel's development has come along.



"He's progressing," Marrone said. "That's how I would put it."

But the fact that Orton, who has the fifth-worst grade of any quarterback in the NFL on Pro Football Focus, still gives the team the best chance to win in Marrone's eyes says more about Manuel's development than any answer the Bills coach is going to give.