Buffalo Bills: History of drafting quarterbacks in the first round

2004 Draft – Overall Pick # 22

33 games started, 10-23 record, 6,211 passing yards, 33 TDs, and 34 INTs

The 2004 draft class, much like this years and the 1983 class, had multiple first-round caliber quarterbacks. These are names you have heard and still hear in the NFL today, such as Eli Manning, Philip Rivers and Ben Roethlisberger. Possibly all three will end up in the Hall of Fame.

The Buffalo Bills were in the market for a QB that year too, but it wasn’t an urgent need. They didn’t have the draft capital to move up from No. 3 to pick No. 1 or No. 2 to get either Manning or Rivers. Instead, they liked Ben Roethlisberger and decided to wait at No. 13 to see if he fell to them.

He ended up being selected at No. 11 to the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Bills took Lee Evans instead, and it was a great backup pick considering Evans’ career. However, the Bills wanted a QB that year and they traded back into the first round to select J.P Losman. He wasn’t their first choice, but he played the position of need.

Losman never became a franchise QB. The trade into the first round cost the Bills several picks in the future, and Lee Evans would cycle multiple QBs throughout his Bills career. Losman showed the flashes in Buffalo that he did while in college. Yet those flashes were fleeting, and in the end, he didn’t get enough wins to stay.

Losman was going to transition the Bills from Drew Bledsoe into their future franchise. Instead he would be inconsistent and beat out on the depth chart by “Captain Checkdown” Trent Edwards.

The moral of this story was, the Bills had made a pre-draft plan to find their next franchise QB. The Bills liked Ben Roethlisberger, and rather than make their trade to move up to make sure they got him, they waited. They still traded away two first-round picks for a QB they weren’t as high on.

Going into the 2013 NFL Draft there was once again a different coaching staff, and a desire to find the franchise QB.