Bills upgrade backup quarterback with signing of Mitchell Trubisky
Mitchell Trubisky was a Pro Bowl quarterback in 2018. He'll be backing up Bills starter Josh Allen in 2021, following another significant offseason move by general manager Brandon Beane.
In Trubisky, the No. 2 overall pick of the 2017 NFL Draft, the Bills get a player with both regular-season and playoff experience following the departure of former backup Matt Barkley.
They also get a considerable upgrade at an incredibly low price of $2.5 million for one season, according to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport.
Trubisky obviously has his eye on a bigger payday in 2022, when more money will be available for every team to spend following this aberration of a season in which the salary cap fell for the first time instead of rising because of all the revenue lost during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
"We were a game away from the Super Bowl and injuries happen," Beane said. "This guy's won 29 games from 50 starts. He's got a good resume, even though he's a younger player. We know how Josh plays. Josh is not scared to try and lower his pads or take a hit.
"If Josh was out for a few weeks or something like that, we would want to make sure we have the best player that we can. You have your starters and then you have your depth players, and we just think Mitchell will come in here and he's going to be excited to join in the mix.
"Assuming he's the backup, if Josh goes down, with his experience, he would be able to keep the ship afloat until Josh got back in the lineup."
In the meantime, the Bills continue to romp through a brilliant offseason in which everything seems to be coming together.
They went 13-3 in the regular season, 2-1 in the postseason and could be on their way to going 32-0 in the offseason.
So many key players have taken less to stay in Buffalo when they could have had more -- because they know the grass isn't always greener on the other side and aren't even tempted to find out anyway.
"We have such great pros and had very honest conversations with those guys," Beane said. "They wanted to be here, they want to win, they want to be a part of it. It was never an ultimatum for any of them, `Take this or you won't be here.' It was, `Can you help us here?' We want to try and keep as many guys as we can, which I think we showed these guys the next week once we got those restructures done to re-sign some of our own.
"I think the guys appreciate that, but again always tough when you're talking about the business part. I think all those guys handled it very well, and we're really appreciative."
"The word that comes to mind is unselfish," coach Sean McDermott added. "I think that's a key characteristic of good teams. I'm very appreciative, as Brandon mentioned, but big-time move with the guys that were able to do it. We appreciate it, very unselfish."
The Bills aren't done with free agency by any stretch, either.
Even after spending heavily on the defensive line last offseason, they're still looking for upgrades and won't hesitate if the fit is right.
"There's a lot of guys out there," Beane said. "We're still looking. I know it was mentioned, J.J. Watt earlier. It still has to be the right fit. We have a lot of guys coming back. We'll have Year 2 with Eric Washington, Mario [Addison], Vernon [Butler]. Star [Lotulelei] will be back. I think we're going to have more continuity, and early in the year, I didn't feel like these guys were in sync with rush games and all that.
"I thought after the first four or five games, they really got into their groove and started getting better. We anticipate these guys to pick up where they left off."
Thanks to an immense offseason that gets better by the day, they will have that opportunity.
Nick Fierro is the publisher of Bills Central. Check out the latest Bills news at www.si.com/nfl/bills and follow Fierro on Twitter at @NickFierro.
