The Buffalo Bills have been working out veteran quarterbacks amid rookie Josh Allen’s up-and-down first season, and it appears the team will be signing a longtime veteran in Derek Anderson. That’s per a report by ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, who says that Anderson “expects to sign” with the Bills sometime in the next 24 hours.
The Bills worked out Paxton Lynch, who technically counts as a veteran despite barely more playing time than Allen in his three year career, earlier this season, and reports surfaced on Sunday morning that the Bills had worked out Landry Jones (formerly of the Steelers).
Anderson, who is now in the thirteenth year of his career, spent the past seven years with the Panthers as a backup and mentor during Cam Newton’s entire career. The Buffalo front office is intimately familiar with the Panthers, as we all know, and when Anderson became a free agent in the spring it was commonly speculated that he would end up with the Bills.
Also noteworthy in Mortensen’s report is that Anderson’s role could include playing time. Seeing Allen scuffle against the Green Bay Packers, several fans and analysts expressed concern that the current trajectory by the Bills would ingrain bad habits that showed up in college. Anderson taking Allen off the field could ease some of the strain from a quarterback whose mind is moving a million miles per hour. On the other hand, it’s never good to see a team’s first round pick benched in favor of a street free agent.