Bills' Gailey skeptical of QBs from ‘non-traditional' offenses

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By Tom E. Curran
CSNNE.com

INDIANAPOLIS - Will the Patriots have to deal with Cam Newton twice a season? If the Buffalo Bills take him with the third overall pick, they'll have to. But on Thursday morning, Bills head coach Chan Gailey indicated this morning at the NFL Combine the transition from the foolishness Auburn ran to feature Newton's talents may make it hard for him to transition to the pro style. Asked if he was concerned at all that Newton was just a one-year starter at Auburn, Gailey said, "I don't think developing the 'one-year guy' is as big as developing the guy that's not been in a typical type of offense, a pro-style of offense. When you're trying to change a guy's thought process into a certain mode, that's a little harder to me than it is to take a one-year guy. A one-year guy who's been in a 'pro' type of offense, to me he's going to understand and be further along than the guy who spent one year in a non-traditional offense."The recent track record of first-round quarterbacks like Matt Ryan, Mark Sanchez, Joe Flacco, Sam Bradfordand Josh Freeman has been very good. The reason?"Probably the combination of doing a better job of finding out all the information in scouting and maybe the situations they have been in have really helped them," said Gailey. "Flacco and Sanchez both had great defenses that made them not have to go and win the game . . . The recent success makes everybody say, 'Lets not be so hard on that statistic from the last 15 years of quarterbacks fizzling out, let's look a little at the last four or five."Gailey said the Bills will happily entertain trade offers ("We don't turn our phone off at night") and that Ryan Fitzpatrickplayed well enough to quelldesperation about the quarterback position."I've said all along I am extremely confident in Ryan Fitzpatrick," Gailey stated. "He played well enough to prove to a lot of people - me and our staff included - that he can play well. We can win a bunch of football games with a guy like that. I've been to the playoffs a couple times with guys who havent performed as well as Ryan has."Did he regret not making him the starter out of camp?"Yeah! Shoot yeah. IfI knew then whatI know now, I wouldn't have done that. But you do what you have to do with the information you have."

Tom E. Curran can be reached at tcurran@comcastsportsnet.com. Follow Tom on Twitter at http:twitter.comtomecurran

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