90 players in 90 days: Quarterback Davis Webb III

The Buffalo Bills are completely set at quarterback. That’s a nice thing to type after 20-plus years in the wilderness, that limbo between quarterbacks who might be the guy versus guys who fans merely hoped were the guy. Of course, injuries happen every year, so a team has to ensure that it has plenty of depth at every position so as to avoid a wasted year thanks to one injury.

In today’s edition of “90 players in 90 days,” we profile a player who serves another purpose—the valued professional in the meeting room who also runs the scout team offense to prepare the defense for the upcoming week.

Name: Davis Webb III

Number: 7

Position: QB

Height/Weight: 6’5” 225 lbs

Age: 26 (27 on 1/22/2022)

Experience/Draft: 3; selected in the third round (No. 87 overall) of the 2017 NFL Draft by the New York Giants

College: California

Acquired: Signed to Bills’ practice squad on 9/2/2019

Financial situation (per Spotrac): Webb signed a reserve/futures contract with Buffalo on 1/26/2021. The contract is worth a total of $990,000. If he makes the final roster, Webb will carry a cap hit of $850,000 and there is no guaranteed money on the contract.

2020 Recap: Webb did not make Buffalo’s roster out of camp, as the team elected to keep rookie fifth-round draft pick Jake Fromm as the team’s inactive third quarterback on game days. Webb was elevated to the active roster for Buffalo’s December 28 game against the Denver Broncos, but he did not play. He reverted back to the practice squad immediately following the contest.

Positional outlook: Webb finds himself battling Fromm once again for the right to be Buffalo’s third quarterback, as Josh Allen and Mitchell Trubisky are all but locked in as the starter and backup, respectively.

2021 Offseason: Webb is healthy and attending OTAs.

2021 Season outlook: Buffalo clearly loves what Davis Webb brings to the table as a player and as a teammate, as they elevated him to the active roster as a reward for all of the good things he does in game preparation last season. Just because they value him, though, doesn’t mean that he’ll be on the active roster when the regular season begins. It will be interesting to see how Fromm performs in the preseason, as the Bills were able to use what was effectively a redshirt on the rookie last season. A strong preseason from Webb coupled with a weak one from Fromm could allow the veteran to leapfrog the second-year man on the depth chart but, until that happens, Webb appears to be the fourth quarterback in the pecking order.