Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Nix defends quarterback class, says not a reach at 8

Buffalo Bills' General Manager Nix speaks to the media about the hiring of Marrone as head coach in Orchard Park, New York

Buffalo Bills’ General Manager Buddy Nix speaks to the media about the hiring of Doug Marrone as head coach at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, New York January 7, 2013. Marrone, the former coach at Syracuse University, is the sixteenth coach in the NFL franchise’s history. REUTERS/Doug Benz (UNITED STATES - Tags: SPORT FOOTBALL)

REUTERS

Bills general manager Buddy Nix is a respected evaluator, and by all accounts a good and decent human being.

He just might not be much of a poker player.

Nix, who has been advocating the need for the Bills to draft a franchise quarterback for months, said this was a good year to do so. While most others are disparaging this year’s class, Nix defended it Tuesday.

This quarterback class is better than everybody thinks it is,” Nix said, via Tim Graham of the Buffalo News. “It’s better than the publicity they get.

“Five or six of those guys — maybe seven — do a lot of things good and do them good enough to win. This is not a standard answer. I’ve said this from the start, that two or three of these guys will be franchise quarterbacks. I believe that.”

It is certainly in Nix’s best interest that he’s right. Many have thought from the moment they hired Syracuse coach Doug Marrone, that Syracuse quarterback Ryan Nassib was the guy who’d end up there.

So if Nix wants folks to buy into the Bills’ drafting of a passer such as Nassib with the eighth overall pick, it helps if he sets the stage for that picked to be accepted as something other than a reach.