The Buffalo Bills continue to chip away at their needs in free agency as they cross off backup quarterback from that list. According to Adam Schefter and Jeremy Fowler, the Buffalo Bills have signed Mitchell Trubisky to a one year deal worth $2.5M.
Although jokes might be flying that Josh Allen has to defend his starting job in 2021, that isn’t even close to the truth. Trubisky gives the Bills a considerable upgrade from Matt Barkley at the backup quarterback position. Given the reckless nature of Allen’s game, he is more prone to injury than other quarterbacks in the league.
If Allen were to go down with an injury, the Buffalo Bills Super Bowl hopes are almost certainly an afterthought. However, with Trubisky as the backup the Bills could realistically compete in some games without Allen. It will be interesting to see how much the Bills had to pay Trubisky to make him a backup because there are still some small holes to fill on this roster heading into the draft. It will definitely hurt from a cap space standpoint if we find out that Barkley was willing to sign for less than Trubisky, but that would exemplify why Trubisky is a slight upgrade.
By bringing in Trubisky to be the backup quarterback, it makes me wonder what the Bills were thinking when they drafted Jake Fromm last year and what they currently think of him. After the Bills drafted him, people believed he would compete for the backup gig, but Barkley ran away with the job. Fromm was then an afterthought that never even sniffed the quarterback room because of covid precautions.
This move makes me think that Fromm could be a trade candidate heading into next season. As a highly productive collegiate quarterback in the SEC there could be some teams that are interested in him as a backup with developmental upside as a starter. It’s obvious the Buffalo Bills don’t think of him that highly, hence why he didn’t even practice with the team in 2020 and why the Bills signed Trubisky. With all that being said, Trubisky did only sign to a one year deal which means the Bills may stash Fromm on the practice squad this year to refine his game in hopes that he can be a cheap backup to Josh Allen in 2022 and beyond.