Not too long ago the Buffalo Bills were preparing to build their team around quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick. Roughly a year later he is out of work.
Fitzpatrick spoke with WGR-AM on Tuesday, hours after he learned of his release during a flight to Arizona.
“This isn’t something that all of a sudden was thrown at me, I was blindsided by it, this is something that we talked about for a week or two,” Fitzpatrick said. “It was a lot of just private conversations. It was nice for it to be kind of left between me and (general manager Buddy Nix) and not played out through the media.
“It stinks. I really did enjoy being a Buffalo Bill, and unfortunately we couldn’t get anything worked out.”
The Bills finished 6-10 last season and Fitzpatrick finished with 24 touchdowns and 22 turnovers. In the end his six-year contract signed in 2011, worth $62 million, proved too much. Fitzpatrick went on to say that he had spoken to the Bills about restructuring his contract but the two sides never found common-ground on the numbers.
Buffalo has already signed Tavaris Jackson and will hold an open competition for the starters job in camp. General manager Buddy Nix has also expressed interest in drafting a quarterback in this years draft.
