Posted by Sabrina B. @gametimegirl
Buffalo Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick has agreed to terms of a new contract that secures the Harvard graduate as the team’s long-term starter, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press.
The extension is valued at $59 million over six years, including $24 million in guaranteed money, team and league sources told ESPN senior NFL analyst Chris Mortensen.
Fitzpatrick’s contract will average $9.987 million during the six years, but $11 million in each of the first three seasons, which often are considered the critical earning years in NFL player contracts.
Fitzpatrick, who had led the Bills to a surprising 4-2 record entering Sunday’s game with the Washington Redskins in Toronto, had been scheduled to be a free agent after this season. His base salary this year is $3.195 million, but this deal is expected to include a $10 million signing bonus as part of his new money.
In leading the Bills to their unexpected start, Fitzpatrick has completed 66.3 percent of his passes for 1,477 yards, 12 touchdowns and six interceptions. His QBR rating of 70.9 places him fifth in the NFL, trailing only Aaron Rodgers (85.5), Tom Brady (78.8), Matt Hasselbeck (77.7) and Drew Brees (74.8). His NFL passer rating of 95.2 is also among the league leaders.
Fitzpatrick directs an offense that averages 31.3 points per game, surpassed only by the Packers (32.8) in the NFL. The Bills have scored 30 or more points in their victories over the Chiefs, Raiders, Patriots and Eagles.
With a 13-15 record in Buffalo, Fitzpatrick has been the quarterback for all but one of the Bills’ victories in the past two-plus seasons.
Fitzpatrick, who will be 29 on Nov. 24, was a 2005 seventh-round draft pick out of Harvard by the St. Louis Rams. He also spent two seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals (2007 and 2008) before signing with the Bills as a backup to Trent Edwards.
He replaced an injured Edwards on Oct. 18, 2009, and eventually was named the starter by then-coach Dick Jauron. Edwards regained the starting job under new coach Chan Gailey at the start of the 2010 season, but Fitzpatrick took the job back and made 13 starts before Gailey settled on him as a permanent starter.
Gailey, in his second year as the Bills’ coach, declared prior to the NFL draft in April that he believed the team could win with Fitzpatrick if it did not draft a quarterback. When Cam Newton went first overall to the Carolina Panthers, the Bills passed on all other projected premium quarterbacks in the draft.
Fitzpatrick becomes Buffalo’s first starting quarterback to renew a contract with the team since Doug Flutie in 1999. That’s a reflection of the difficulty the franchise has had at that position, which has remained in flux since Hall of Famer Jim Kelly retired following the 1996. Previous starters in that stretch included Drew Bledsoe, J.P. Losman and Edwards.
WRITTEN BY Information from ESPN senior NFL analyst Chris Mortensen and The Associated Press was used in this report & FULL STORY HERE
