The Buffalo Bills quarterback situation underwent its latest bizarre saga during and after the team’s loss to the Houston Texans in Week Six.
After rookie Josh Allen departed the game due to an elbow injury, Nathan Peterman came in and initially looked impressive. He dropped a dime to Zay Jones in the right corner of the end zone to give Buffalo a 13-10 lead in the fourth quarter.
But after Deshaun Watson led Houston on a game-tying drive, the real Peterman showed up. His pick-six to Johnathan Joseph with 1:23 left in the game put the Bills in an uphill battle just to force overtime. On the fifth play of the ensuing drive, he threw another interception that all but ended any hope Buffalo could move to .500 on the season.
The extent of Allen’s injury painted a depressing picture. If you follow baseball at all, whenever you hear about the body part of the ulnar collateral ligament, alarm bells probably begin to ring. Because that’s the ligament that gets repaired as part of an operation known as Tommy John surgery. Should MRIs indicate Allen needs that procedure, not only is his season over. He may not be ready for the start of Buffalo’s 2019 campaign.
For the Bills, who’ve endured a generation of struggles at quarterback, the potential future of the position needing an operation usually reserved for pitchers takes the cake. But all indications are that his elbow injury isn’t serious enough to warrant surgery. For the time being, head coach Sean McDermott has emphasized that the rookie signal caller is week-to-week.
Derek Anderson: The 2018 Buffalo Bills Version of Kyle Orton?
In Allen’s absence, McDermott is turning to Derek Anderson. Buffalo signed the 35-year-old veteran on October 9 to provide, at the very least, a mentoring presence to the rookie out of Wyoming. It’s something he’s familiar with given he assumed the same role with Cam Newton as a member of the Carolina Panthers. But given Peterman’s latest horror show, Anderson will now be thrust into the spotlight as the go-to guy at quarterback for the Bills.
Breaking Down the Similarities
In certain respects, the situation is not unlike what the team experienced during the 2014 season. Back then, in what turned out to be Doug Marrone‘s second and final season as head coach, the veteran quarterback on the Bills roster was Kyle Orton. There are some ironic similarities surrounding the circumstances by which Orton and now Anderson assumed the starting job.
Back in 2014, Orton’s first start of the season came on the road in October. With the Bills facing the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium this Sunday, Anderson will be doing the same. Orton replaced then second-year quarterback E.J. Manuel one week after he threw a pick-six against the Texans. Peterman is entering year two of his NFL career and is coming off a game where he threw a pass that really helped your fantasy team if you started the Texans defense.
Did Orton light the world on fire with his play that year? Certainly not. In his 12 starts, he averaged 1.5 touchdowns and 0.83 interceptions per game. His 87.8 passer rating ranked him 19th among NFL quarterbacks. But there were bright spots. His 84-yard completion to Sammy Watkins on October 26 in a 43-23 win over the New York Jets was the fourth-longest pass play during the entire 2014 regular season. Even more importantly, Orton went 7-5 as a starter and led the Bills to what at the time was just its second winning record since their last playoff trip back in 1999.
Anderson’s Track Record
Anderson boasts similar experience in helping a team punch above its weight, even though it occurred over a decade ago. During his second season with the Cleveland Browns in 2007, Anderson won 10 of his 15 starts and finished in the top 10 among NFL quarterbacks in yardage and touchdowns. That season is the only one since the Browns returned to the NFL in which they finished with double-digit wins. But much like the Bills in 2014, tiebreakers prevented them from making the postseason.
Both Orton and Anderson came to their respective teams having not seen much action over previous seasons. Orton made just eight starts in the three years before he joined the Bills. In Anderson’s case, he started in place of an injured Newton on four occasions between 2014 and 2016. It included going 2-0 as a starter during the 2014 campaign, throwing three touchdowns and zero interceptions in those games.
A Bills Debut That Won’t Be Easy
To the surprise of many, Orton actually won his Bills debut against the Detroit Lions. Can Anderson do the same? He’s certainly in store for an uphill battle in that regard. The Colts excel both at generating pressure on opposing quarterbacks while also forcing mistakes downfield. Their 19 sacks are tied with the Bills for fifth-most in the NFL while they also rank in the top 10 with six interceptions.
Add in Buffalo’s well-known struggles at the receiver position and the term “uphill battle” carries with it even more weight. The Bills’ wide receivers have registered a paltry three touchdowns on the season which ranks dead last in the league. Not only will Anderson need to have done his homework in understanding the nuances and tendencies of the Colts’ defensive scheme. His massively underperforming receiving corps needs to step up.
If it all comes together, the Bills can win this game. That’s especially true if the team continues to make plays on the other side of the ball. They come into Sunday’s game leading the league with 13 forced fumbles and seven recoveries in addition to the aforementioned sack numbers. Three players, Lorenzo Alexander, Jerry Hughes, and Matt Milano boast top 10 grades at their respective positions from Pro Football Focus. The 35-year-old Alexander comes into Week Seven as PFF’s highest-rated edge defender.
Having said all that, Anderson and the Bills will face a formidable challenge in Indy. The Colts are the NFL equivalent of a cornered beast, sitting at 1-5. Three of those losses were by single-digit points so there’s certainly a what-if element to many of those games. So if Anderson wants to register his first win as a starting quarterback in four years, he’ll have to overcome a highly motivated opponent.
