Buffalo Bills: 8 worst moves made by the franchise during the drought era

The Ryan Fitzpatrick Contract Extension

After years of failure and futility at the quarterback position, the Buffalo Bills got off to a hot start in 2011 and Ryan Fitzpatrick led them to a 4-2 record heading into the bye week. In 6 games before the bye, Fitz completed 134 of 202 pass attempts (66.34%) for 1,477 yards, 12 touchdowns, and 6 interceptions. Most notably Fitzpatrick led the team to a huge upset victory over the Patriots in Week 3, the team’s first win over New England since 2003.

During the bye, the Bills and Fitzpatrick used their time off to iron out a 6 year, 59 million dollar contract extension. In the first game after Fitz led the Bills to a 23-0 win over Washington to get them to 5-2. Then the bottom fell out.

The Bills would lose their next 7 games, and 8 out of their next 9 to finish the season 6-10 and miss the playoffs yet again. After the extension, Fitz threw just 12 touchdowns to 17 interceptions and completed less than 60% of his passes.

The next season wasn’t great either and Fitzpatrick was cut after leading the team to another 6-10 record. This is a prime example of the old Bills overreacting to the tiniest bit of success and deciding that after just 6 games they were ready to lock up Fitz for six years.