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We're now nine days away from the start of the 2013 NFL Draft, and Buffalo Bills GM Buddy Nix will be a very public figure over the next day or two. He appeared on The John Murphy Show last night to talk about the state of the team, and he'll also be speaking at today's annual pre-draft luncheon at One Bills Drive.
In his conversation with Murph on Monday evening, Nix re-iterated a few things that he's already said about this year's crop of quarterback prospects: that there will be at least two names that emerge as stars.
"I've said this before, when everybody's beating this class up - and they still are, somewhat - I think there's two or three guys in this class that'll be big-time quarterbacks in this league, and very successful guys," Nix stated. "Now, all of 'em got deficiencies... but all of these guys can do something good. There's about six or seven of them that can do enough good things to win for you."
Note the delineation Nix makes: there are two or three that will be "big-time"; these are the starting-caliber players (or perhaps even better), and then Nix goes on to list six or seven that can win games for you, which puts that number on a backup-caliber level. (That's our read on it, anyway.) Nix also made sure to note that in a class like this, it's important to play to the quarterback's strengths.
"If you don't go and make them try to fit a system that they can't do, then they've got a chance to be successful," Nix said.
These words will be parsed down and used to bolster arguments every which way on the quarterback issue, but keep that last bit in mind. Doug Marrone and Nathaniel Hackett run an offense based in West Coast terminology, but which also incorporates a no-huddle package and some read-option looks. Ryan Nassib obviously has an intimate knowledge of the system, but several other prospects could be considered fits for some or all elements of what we believe the team wants to do offensively. That should be where the quarterback debate begins over the next week-plus.