Nathan Peterman‘s tenure in Western New York is at an end.
The Buffalo Bills released the embattled quarterback on Monday, one day after Matt Barkley impressed in a 41-10 win over the New York Jets. With rookie Josh Allen and veteran Derek Anderson also on the roster, it made Peterman expendable.
We have released QB Nathan Peterman. pic.twitter.com/1DtMKfvZ0M
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) November 13, 2018
Nathan Peterman Released by Buffalo Bills
Peterman’s struggles made him a punchline for even the most casual NFL fans. To say that his two starts during the 2018 season were abject disasters might not be doing them justice. In those games, he managed just 212 yards on 36/67 passes, throwing zero touchdowns and five interceptions.
Overall, Peterman has just one touchdown pass to seven interceptions in 2018. It gave him an interception percentage (interceptions/pass attempts) of 8.6 percent. Among quarterbacks with a minimum of 80 attempts, the last one to finish with a mark above 8.5 percent was Steve Grogan of the New England Patriots back in 1988.
Peterman initially made headlines in his first-ever start last year against the Los Angeles Chargers. He infamously threw five interceptions in the first half of what turned out to be a 54-24 defeat. It dropped the Bills to 5-5 on the year and it appeared to deal a critical blow to their playoff hopes even though history proved otherwise.
From a salary cap standpoint, the Bills aren’t incurring much in the form of dead cap. Even though Peterman’s rookie contract is fully guaranteed, the Bills are swallowing just $59,877 of dead money this year as well as the next two years. Overall, they save a total of $1,380,000 in cap space over the next two years with this roster move.
The Bills took Peterman in the fifth round (171st overall) of last year’s draft. He spent the final two seasons of his college career at Pittsburgh where he threw for 47 touchdowns and 15 interceptions combined as a junior and senior. Peterman’s first stop in college was at Tennessee before transferring to Pitt.
The Bills are on bye in Week 11 but return to action on November 25th when they welcome the Jacksonville Jaguars to New Era Field (1 p.m., CBS).
