Buffalo Bills: Nathan Peterman chosen as surprise offseason standout

The Buffalo Bills have an open competition at quarterback and one player appears to be an early surprise candidate to win the job.

The Buffalo Bills began the offseason by trading Tyrod Taylor. In came AJ McCarron as the reliable veteran option. Then came the selection of Josh Allen, seemingly as the quarterback of the future.

Through all of this, Nathan Peterman has kept working.

Peterman was selected as a surprise camp standout in an ESPN.com article looking at surprise standouts on every team. From the article:

"The 2017 fifth-round pick was an afterthought at best and a laughingstock at worst after his five-interception performance against the Chargers last season, but Peterman should be considered a serious contender for the starting job in Buffalo. He has rotated daily with AJ McCarron to lead the first-team offense, with rookie Josh Allen starting in minicamp to see periodic time with that group."

Peterman will always be remembered for his disastrous debut that will go down in infamy. However, that one game doesn’t define him and he arguably wasn’t even ready to play when he was thrown out onto the field.

The second-year player is benefitting from the open competition at camp. There are two ways to look at it if Peterman ends up winning the starting job.

One way is to deem it a major negative reflection upon McCarron and Allen, and also upon Brandon Beane. He wasn’t the one to draft Peterman, and fans may be wondering what value McCarron and Allen have if they can’t win the job.

The other way to view the situation would be to see Peterman as the man who won the job after being pushed by the other two players. The most talented player should be starting in Week 1, and that’s fine if it’s Peterman.

Next: 10 best seasons in franchise history

It is obviously still only June and the competition won’t progress any further until training camp begins at the end of July. But for now, it is interesting to see Peterman set himself apart as a legitimate part of the competition.