When the Bills traded for quarterback Tarvaris Jackson this offseason, the assumption was that they felt a needed an upgrade over Tyler Thigpen and Vince Young at backup quarterback.
That assumption might have been correct, but it doesn’t look like Jackson’s going to be providing that upgrade this season. Jackson has been ensconced as the third-stringer behind Ryan Fitzpatrick and Thigpen since arriving in Buffalo and coach Chan Gailey says that he expects Jackson will remain in that role for the rest of the year.
“It would be very tough for Tarvaris to challenge for that spot this year because of limited reps. Fitz takes almost every rep we have on offense during the course of the week. The backup gets very few reps through the course of practice. So it’s hard for him to get the reps necessary to make a viable charge at this point for that position,” Gailey said, via the team’s website. “We knew it would be a challenge. We knew that when we made the move, but we were hoping that we would be able to keep him around and keep him learning and eventually by osmosis pick up enough to help us if something were to happen later in the season.”
The later in the season part suggests that Gailey would prefer to turn to Jackson if injury or ineffectiveness force Fitzpatrick out of the lineup for an extended period of time. It also suggests that Jackson isn’t making much progress with the playbook, something that doesn’t come as a great shock after watching him in Minnesota and Seattle.