Ryan Fitzpatrick Claims His Position with the Buffalo Bills, Finally

The Buffalo Bills are about to strike a deal with Ryan Fitzpatrick for somewhere between $9 to $12 million a year for six years. 

I was one of the many non-supporters of Ryan last year as being the full-time starter for the Bills. I am now a believer. Now, he really had a stellar first year, and he's following it up this year with more solid play to prove that he's not a one-year wonder. 

The Bills are finally taking a leap of faith on the best quarterback they've had since Jim Kelly. I'll get comments about that, asking if I stopped watching during the Flutie years. The Bills have actually been looking longer for a franchise quarterback than the Dolphins have. I honestly didn't see Ryan doing this well and saw him as a gap filler for either a player that would've been drafted this past year or for one to be drafted after this season. 

Last season, after five years of either playing backup or starter on awful teams, he broke through with 23 touchdowns to only 15 interceptions. All this was done on a team that not only started 0-8, but also played on a team that was lacking in talent and breaking in a new coaching staff with a very elaborate offensive system. 

This year he has a 12-touchdown to 6-interception ratio. That currently puts him on pace for about 32 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. Jim Kelly had his best season of 33 touchdowns. Not too bad to be projecting out favorably next to a Hall of Famer.

He also seems to still be improving even though he's in his seventh year now. He is a Harvard grad and did score a 48 on his Wonderlic. Thankfully, Chan Gailey saw what he needed to. By the way, Gailey was another hire I didn't support. I was really off on these guys. 

His contract is apparently within the same parameters as Matt Cassel's. So here's the question, who would you rather have, Ryan Fitzpatrick or Matt Cassel? Cassel was stellar last year with a running game that opposing defenses had to stack the box against.

Fitzpatrick has shown time after time that he can overcome anything that's thrown at him. He's apparently at least worth as much as what the current talk is alluding to. Let's put our faith in the smartest quarterback in the NFL.