Pat Kirwan Has Faith In Ryan Fitzpatrick

Any time a list ranking all NFL starting quarterbacks is put forth by a reputable writer, it makes for interesting discussion. Pat Kirwan of NFL.com has done exactly that, ranking the NFL's best 35 signal callers in seven groups of five players. Buffalo Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick ranked in the middle of the pack, falling into Kirwan's fourth tier.

Kirwan breaks down his list five players at a time, then within that group doesn't rank players, but simply lists them alphabetically. Choosing five names per group seems very arbitrary; we'd have gotten more value out of this list if Kirwan had created tiers based on perceived skill set, rather than simply cutting off the tier at every fifth name. For example, Philip Rivers is in the top tier, while Ben Roethlisberger is in the second tier. I'm not sure that would be the case if the list were split up by talent, rather than numbers.

In any case, Fitzpatrick falls into a group including Matt Cassel, Jay Cutler, Kyle Orton and Mark Sanchez - fairly impressive company for a guy who is entering his first season as a full-time starter. Where would you rank Fitzpatrick?