The Bills have been trying to unload wide receiver/punt returner Roscoe Parrish for some time without finding a trading partner. Last Sunday in the Meadowlands, they decided to just start treating Parrish like he’d been traded and deactivated him for their 16-13 win against the Jets.
As you might guess, Parrish wasn’t thrilled about the decision to replace him with Fred Jackson in the return game. He claims that no one from the Bills told him whether the benching was a result of his fumble on a punt return against Cleveland. He stopped short of directly criticizing coach Dick Jauron’s decision, but told Buffalo radio station WGR 550 that his record of achievement should speak for itself.
“I’m not going to sit up here and be negative with the whole situation toward Dick Jauron but its kind of like a situation where you look at it and be like this guy here - he led the league two years in a row and the year before he didn’t lead - he finished third but he had a good average and then this year it’s 4 or 5 games into the season and I’m off the field and not dressing and that’s the only frustrating part if that there’s not enough explanation.”
“That’'s the only crazy part about it -- not to bad mouth anybody -- not to bad mouth Jauron - my resume speaks for itself. when you see my resume and you see me not returning punts it’s like, wow, what’s going on?”
Jackson is expected to retain his duties returning punts against the Panthers this weekend.
Parrish is due to make $1.025 in each of the next two seasons with $500,000 roster bonuses as part of his deal. Benching him would seem to make it more difficult to trade him after this season, although trying to predict exactly what will happen during the presumed uncapped offseason is probably folly.
Still, it’s safe to say that Parrish’s days in Buffalo are numbered no matter how he finds his way off the roster.