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**THIS IS A RE-POST OF A STORY ADDED TO THIS BLOG ON OCTOBER 28, 2010, AFTER RYAN FITZPATRICK TOOK OVER AS STARTING QUARTERBACK FOR THE BUFFALO BILLS AND BEGAN TO SHOW SIGNS THAT HE COULD BE THE “ANSWER” FOR THE TEAM’S FUTURE. WITH THE BILLS’ 2-0 START THIS SEASON AND FITZ LEADING THE WAY, I THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD TIME TO REVISIT THIS ARTICLE.**

After putting on quite a performance in Baltimore last week, Ryan Fitzpatrick, in the eyes of at least some fans, has emerged as possibly being “the guy” to lead the Buffalo Bills out of the losing wilderness they’ve been in for a decade. The Bills’ front office, and coach Chan Gailey, have to be pleased with the way the entire offense has improved since Fitzpatrick took the reins from Trent Edwards. Whether or not the team gets the top pick in the draft, and whether they decide to use that pick to draft a “franchise” quarterback or not, will depend on how the rest of this season plays out. In fact, the remainder of the season will pretty much make the decision for them. If they wind up with the top pick, it will mean that Fitz’s play leveled out as the season went on, and he looks like the “career backup” that is the description that he’s had up to this point. If he continues to improve and the offense thrives and the team starts to win, it’ll mean that the draft pick the team winds up with won’t be a top 5 pick anyway, so the front office can concentrate on finding some impact defensive players. There’s also the possibility that the offense thrives, Fitzpatrick puts a stranglehold on the starting job, and the defense continues to be awful, resulting in a lot of 38-35 losses, and the Bills still wind up with the NFL’s worst record. In that case, the scouts will need to find the next Bruce Smith instead of the next Jim Kelly, or they could trade the pick to accumulate extra picks to shore up the roster. Fitzpatrick, a Harvard graduate who certainly is intelligent enough to run an NFL offense, has had ups and downs since regaining the starting job he actually won last year, but one thing is certain. His play has raised the level of play of the rest of his offensive teammates. Since he has been put in the lineup, the play of the offensive line has been better – or has he made them look better by making better decisions, getting rid of the ball quicker and avoiding sacks? The receiving corps, which looked weak at the start of the season, is suddenly making all kinds of plays. Lee Evans had one of his most productive games in years at Baltimore, Roscoe Parrish’s speed and talents are being utilized again and Stevie Johnson, who looked lost at the start of the year, is an emerging star. David Nelson has made big plays in limited playing time, and even the tight ends have been used in the offense – something the Bills never seem to do. The running game, expected to be the featured part of the offense, has been effective when used, and should be even better when opponents have to respect the pass. Even with an 0-6 record, the rest of the season will be interesting in Buffalo as the Ryan Fitzpatrick story plays out.

Fitzpatrick’s situation got me to thinking about players throughout the NFL’s history who’ve risen from obscurity to stardom at the QB position over the years. For every top draft pick superstar like Terry Bradshaw, Troy Aikman and Phil Simms, there’s a rags to riches story like Jim Plunkett, Rich Gannon, John Unitas or Mark Rypien, players who came off the scrap heap, or were considered “career backups”, who made the most of an opportunity to lead a team to a championship. There are 2 examples from the 1960s that mirror Fitzpatrick’s NFL career so far.

In the mid-1950s the NFL draft was 20+ rounds long, and Bart Starr was an afterthought 17th round draft pick out of Alabama in 1956 by Green Bay. When Vince Lombardi took over the Packers in 1959, he played Babe Parilli and Lamar McHan at QB with mixed results, and threw Starr in occasionally but was unimpressed with his play. Starr wasn’t a physically gifted athlete and was on the shy side. His best asset was intelligence, and when Lombardi tired of the mental mistakes being made by the other QBs, he gave Starr his opportunity, then committed to him as the permanent starter. Five championships, and 6 title appearances in 8 years, were Lombardi’s reward for trusting in Starr.

Dr. Frank Ryan, a PHD in mathematics, kicked around the NFL for 4 years as the Rams’ backup QB before being traded to Cleveland in 1962. Ryan, like Starr known for his smarts rather than his athletic ability and considered a reserve QB at best, was acquired by the Browns to back up starter Jim Ninowski. But when Ninowski broke his collarbone Ryan was forced into the lineup. He slowly gained the confidence of his teammates and the coaching staff and wound up keeping the starting job for 6 years before being forced to retire because of injuries. He threw for 25 touchdowns with 13 interceptions in 1963, and in ’64, led the NFL in TD passes and guided the Browns to a surprise 27-0 win over Don Shula’s heavily-favored Baltimore Colts in the league title game.

Bart Starr (left) and Frank Ryan.

The Buffalo Bills and Oakland Raiders, two teams that have been mired in mediocrity for almost a decade, played what was probably the most entertaining game of the weekend in the NFL, with the Bills wiping out a 21-3 halftime deficit to win 38-35. The lead changed hands numerous times in the fourth quarter and it became obvious this was going to be one of those games that was won by the team that had the ball last. That didn’t exactly happen, but then again the Raiders almost pulled it out with a Hail Mary throw on the game’s last play. The game turned out to be a surprising shootout between 2 quarterbacks trying to establish themselves as legitimate starting signal-callers in the NFL, Ryan Fitzpatrick of the Bills and Oakland’s Jason Campbell. They both played terrific games and surely left the defensive coordinators of both teams scratching their heads after the game. Campbell was missing a couple of his regular receivers, Louis Murphy and Jacoby Ford, but managed to utilize his top weapon, running back Darren McFadden, in both the running and passing games, and connected on big throws to his unknown replacement wideouts, especially rookie Denarius Moore, who turned Leodis McKelvin inside out all day long.

Fitzpatrick had a second consecutive great game, but unlike Tom Brady and Cam Newton, who have passed the 400 yard mark twice, he has only thrown for a bit over 200 yards in racking up an impressive 7 touchdown passes in 2 weeks. The reason for Fitz’s success so far has been that the Bills have managed to have great balance between their running and passing games. Fred Jackson had another terrific game, rushing for over 100 yards again and scoring 2 TDs. C.J. Spiller also contributed some big plays in what may have been his best game as a Bill. For the second week in a row, Fitzpatrick spread the ball around among his receivers, throwing TD passes to 3 different players – Stevie Johnson, tight end Scott Chandler, and the game-winner to a guy who is fast becoming one of the NFL’s most reliable third down slot receivers, David Nelson. Nelson made the roster last season as an undrafted free agent out of Florida, where he caught throws from college legend Tim Tebow, and so far has been more successful than Tebow in establishing himself as a solid NFL player.

Defensively the Bills had a rough day, and will have to clean up a lot of things before next Sunday to avoid being carved up by Tom Brady & Co. when the New England Patriots visit Ralph Wilson Stadium. The fact is though, the Raiders have one of the biggest and most physical offensive lines in the NFL  and are going to make some noise in their division this year. The Bills and Pats will enter next week’s game as 2 of 3 undefeated teams in the AFC East, and it’s without a doubt the biggest game the Buffalo franchise will be playing in years. By the way, the other undefeated AFC East team, the New York Jets, travel to Oakland next week to play the Raiders in their home opener. That should also be a very interesting contest.

Fresh off a pretty good week of picking winners in the toughest set of games of the season, week one, I’m primed and ready for the NFL’s second week of action. My opening week record was 10 winners and 6 wrong. Here are my week 2 picks:

Oakland at Buffalo – both of these teams started off the season with big wins, and this should be a good game. I’m going with the Bills to win at home, although the game will be extremely close and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Raiders pull off an upset.

Green Bay at Carolina – kudos to Cam Newton for a terrific debut last week, but it’ll be much tougher this Sunday against the visiting Packers, the reigning Super Bowl champs. Green Bay will win the game handily.

Kansas City at Detroit – the Lions are riding high after opening with a big win in Tampa, while the Chiefs looked awful at home against the Bills. Detroit continues to build momentum by winning this game, although the Chiefs will keep it close by regrouping and showing a much better effort this week.

Cleveland at Indianapolis –  a match of 2 teams that were embarrassed on opening day, the Browns by losing at home to lowly Cincinnati and the Colts by getting pounded by division rival Houston. I believe Indy will play much better this week, especially Kerry Collins, who came out of retirement to try and somehow replace Peyton Manning, and win at home.

Tampa Bay at Minnesota – I really like the young Bucs but they will start out the 2011 season with 2 losses as the Vikings win at home behind a big effort from Adrian Peterson.

Chicago at New Orleans – the Bears have a terrific defense, but aren’t the same team on the road as they are at Soldier Field. The Saints will be motivated after getting beaten by Green Bay, and have too much firepower for Chicago to handle, and will win this game.

Jacksonville at New York Jets – this game will be no contest, as the Jags are no match for Rex Ryan’s Jets. New York wins big at home.

Seattle at Pittsburgh – another game that should be one-sided, as the Steelers will be foaming at the mouth after getting plastered by the Ravens. Combine that with Seattle’s penchant for laying eggs when they have to travel east for road games, and the result will be a big Steeler victory.

Baltimore at Tennessee – the Ravens will rack up their second win of the year against the Titans, who are in for a long, losing season.

Arizona at Washington – I still am not buying the Redskins as a viable contender in the NFC, and I’ll pick the Cardinals to pick up a big road win here.

Dallas at San Francisco – the Cowboys should have beaten the Jets on opening night, but Tony Romo pretty much handed Rex Ryan’s crew the game. That won’t happen this week. Dallas wins big on the road.

Cincinnati at Denver – a matchup of AFC pretenders who both lost last week. The Broncos will win at home helped by a big defensive effort.

Houston at Miami – the Texans may be realizing it’s now or never for them to overtake the Colts as AFC South champs. They were impressive at home on opening day, and will continue to build on that win with a close, hard-fought win over the Fish.

San Diego at New England – it’s unbelievable that the Chargers had both the top ranked offense and defense in the league last year, yet missed the playoffs. This is the type of game they need to win if they’re ever going to be considered serious title contenders, which on paper they are. The Pats don’t care about paper, however, and will win this one.

Philadelphia at Atlanta – Michael Vick’s long-awaited homecoming, and he’ll surely get pretty rough treatment. I like the Falcons to win for 2 reasons, because they need to win badly after getting clocked in Chicago in week one, and because they don’t want to be upstaged by Vick.

St. Louis at New York Giants – the young Rams still need time to develop, and this stage of Monday Night Football is a little too big for them. The veteran Giants will squeeze out a much-needed win.