The Buffalo Bills struck gold in the 2018 NFL draft when they traded up the board for quarterback Josh Allen, who has since grown into a league MVP while turning the team into perennial Super Bowl contenders.
Landing Allen has had some positive secondary benefits to the Bills, including the ability to gloss over the quarterback position in the NFL draft. The Bills have used just one draft pick on a quarterback since landing Allen, turning their attention to more pressing needs and instead finding veteran backups in free agency.
That could change this year, with the Bills landing the opportunity to grab a once-heralded prospect in need of some career rehab.
Bills Could Make Big Quarterback Move
The last time the Bills drafted a quarterback was in 2020, when they took Georgia signal-caller Jake Fromm with a fifth-round pick. Fromm had a short tenure in Buffalo, serving as the third quarterback his first season and being poached from the practice squad by the New York Giants the following year.
The Athletic’s Joe Buscaglia believes this could be the year the Bills buck the trend, using their slate of 10 draft picks to land a rookie quarterback. While Buscaglia suggested the Bills could take Indiana quarterback Kurtis Rourke with the No. 205 pick, there could be another big option available for a Day 3 pick.
Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers, once considered the top signal-caller in his class, has dropped down the mock draft boards due to concerns over his accuracy and decision-making. Some draft experts believe Ewers could fall all the way to the fourth round, which could give the Bills the chance to land him with one of their two fourth-round picks.
Why Bills Might Take Another Quarterback
Buscaglia pointed out that the two quarterbacks on the roster behind Allen — Mitch Trubisky and Mike White — are headed to free agency at the conclusion of this season and the Bills could look to a low-cost rookie as a longer-term replacement.
Dave Richard of CBS Sports compared Ewers to another Texas quarterback, Colt McCoy, predicting that Ewers could forge a similar path as a long-term NFL backup. He also noted that Ewers has some shortcomings to work on as he transitions to the NFL.
“Ewers’ pocket awareness and sensitivity to the pass rush were inconsistent,” Richard wrote. “Sometimes he would be ignorant of the pass rush and complete a pass within a nanosecond of getting shellacked, and sometimes he’d be so ignorant of the pass rush that he’d get hammered from the blind side. When Ewers was aware of the pass rush, he’d sometimes adjust accordingly and make a play, and sometimes he’d panic. It’s something he has to improve on at the next level.”
The Bills have seen themselves as a development ground for quarterbacks in the past, which could lead to a good fit for Ewers. When general manager Brandon Beane recruited Trubisky in 2021, he sold the former No. 2 pick on the idea that he could develop the same coaching staff that helped Allen turn into a breakout star.
Trubisky ended up signing with the Bills that offseason, passing up opportunities to compete for a starting job, and left the next season to become the starter for the Pittsburgh Steelers. While the arrangement didn’t last long as Trubisky ultimately lost the job to rookie Kenny Pickett, the team could see a similar path for Ewers.
