New Bills coach Chan Gailey says the starting quarterback in Buffalo will be determined via an “open competition.”
Trent Edwards, who opened 2009 as the starter but was benched midway through the season, expects to win that competition.
“I’ve always been a confident player, regardless if someone doesn’t want me to play or not,” Edwards said Tuesday, per the Buffalo News. “If the media doesn’t like me, if a coach doesn’t like me, I’m still a confident player. That’s not going to change anything about me. People can criticize me. There’s obviously doubters out there. It’s my opportunity, my chance right now, to change those into believers.”
In reality, it doesn’t matter if Edwards changes all the doubters into believers. It just matters if he convinces new Bills coach Chan Gailey to believe in him. And Edwards says he likes the fact that Gailey is a one-man show running the offense himself.
“I don’t want to talk negatively about last year’s staff,” Edwards said, “but the hard part for me as a quarterback, you want to have one person to listen to and one voice, and I feel like the last couple years you would say one thing to one guy and he would say it to another guy and what you’re looking for would kind of get lost in the process. I feel like here with the situation we’re in, if you like something offensively you’re telling it to the head coach.”
For now, Edwards’ competition is Ryan Fitzpatrick and Brian Brohm. It’s also possible that the Bills could draft or trade for a quarterback who would be brought in with the expectation to start, but Edwards believes the current staff is open to awarding the job to one of the three guys on the team right now.
“I wouldn’t expect them to name anyone right now,” Edwards said. “There’s no reason. They have no allegiance to anyone here. I wasn’t drafted by this staff. So I have a clean slate just like anyone they would bring in here.”