There has been a whole lot of discussion the past few days about the Bills, and their lack of a late qb pick. So, rather then endlessly debate the point, I've decided to do a little research on today's NFL quarterbacks. Listing is done by grouping more so than actual rank(no point to nitpick them), also not including last years' QB's who haven't done anything worthwhile.

Tom Brady - 2000 - 6th Round: Overall - 199

Aaron Rodgers - 2005 -1st Round: Overall - 24

Peyton Manning - 1998 -1st Round: Overall- 1

Drew Brees - 2001 - 2nd Round: Overall - 32

Eli Manning - 2004- 1st Round: Overall - 1

Ben Roethlisberger - 2004 - 1st Round: Overall - 11

Philip Rivers - 2004 - 1st Round: Overall - 4

Matt Ryan - 2008 - 1st Round: Overall - 3

Matthew Stafford - 2009 - 1st Round: Overall - 1

Michael Vick - 2001 - 1st Round: Overall - 1

Tony Romo - 2003 - UDFA

Joe Flacco - 2008 - 1st Round: Overall - 18

Matt Schaub - 2004 - 3rd Round: Overall - 90

Cam Newton - 2011 - 1st Round: Overall - 1

Jay Cutler - 2006 - 1st Round: Overall - 11

Alex Smith - 2005 - 1st Round: Overall - 1

Josh Freeman - 2009 - 1st Round: Overall - 17

Sam Bradford - 2010 - 1st Round: Overall - 1

Andy Dalton - 2011 - 2nd Round: Overall - 35

Ryan Fitzpatrick - 2005 - 7th Round: Overall - 250

Matt Hasselbeck - 1998 - 6th Round: Overall - 184

Mark Sanchez - 2009 - 1st Round: Overall - 5

Matt Cassel - 2005 - 7th Round: Overall - 230

Kyle Orton - 2005 - 4th Round: Overall - 106

Matt Moore - 2007 - UDFA

Carson Palmer - 2003 - 1st Round: Overall - 1

Kevin Kolb - 2007 - 2nd Round - 36

Matt Flynn - 2008 - 7th Round: Overall - 209

Jason Campbell - 2005 - 1st Round: Overall - 25

Tim Tebow - 2010 - 1st Round: Overall - 25

Rex Grossman - 2003 - 1st Round: Overall - 22

David Garrard - 2002 - 4th Round: Overall 108

John Beck - 2007 - 2nd Round: Overall - 40

Tarvaris Jackson - 2006 - 2nd Round: Overall - 64

Chad Henne - 2008 - 2nd Round: Overall - 57

I ended up putting Fitzy at 20th on this list at an imaginary "average" line, of the 19 players ahead of him, 16 were drafted in the top 35 of their draft. The only exception are Tom Brady(the ultimate anomaly), Tony Romo(an FCS school), and Matt Schaub(3rd round). In most cases the players taken later than the second round in the draft are at-best average NFL QB's and no better than Fitzpatrick themselves. Even the 3rd and 4th round prospects do not often turn into anything special. Obviously other people will "rank" players differently than I would here, but that's not the point. Point is all this talk about how since the Bills haven't drafted a 6th and 7th round quarterback in the past 2 years means they aren't trying to better the team is hogwash! (yes, i said hogwash!) Using draft picks to take flyer's on late round QB's with such a small success rate is a LUXURY. A luxury that this team is not at yet. OK, so we took a kicker, but if this kicker does make the team(assuming he does kick touchbacks more than 75% of the time), he may well help our depth overall by not creating more injuries, and being a benefit to the team.