Kevin Kolb appears to be the short-term answer as the Bills’ starting quarterback. But they’ll continue to look for a long-term answer.
The two-year deal worth a maximum of $13 million that Kolb has agreed to with the Bills makes Kolb the favorite to open the 2013 season as the Bills’ starting quarterback, but Buffalo has spent a lot of time this offseason looking at quarterbacks in the draft, and bringing Kolb on board for a two-year deal may just mean that the Bills want someone who can hold down the job until a quarterback they draft is ready to take over as the long-term starter.
In fact, Peter King of SI.com reports that the Bills are still likely to take a quarterback in the first or second round. King mentions West Virginia’s Geno Smith as a player the Bills could take with the No. 8 overall pick.
Bills officials are workout out USC’s Matt Barkley in Los Angeles today, and the Bills have also worked out Smith, Florida State’s E.J. Manuel, Oklahoma’s Landry Jones and Tennessee’s Tyler Bray. The quarterback whom the Bills know best is Syracuse’s Ryan Nassib, who played for new Bills coach Doug Marrone the last four years.
There’s a good chance that one of those young quarterbacks will compete with Kolb in training camp for the starting job. And there’s a good chance that even if Kolb wins that competition, he’ll just be a place holder for a rookie who will eventually emerge as the Bills’ franchise quarterback.