Buffalo Bills Buddy Nix heavily influenced Tarvaris Jackson

Earlier this offseason, the Buffalo Bills re-signed backup Tarvaris Jackson and head coach Doug Marrone stated that Jackson and Ryan Fitzpatrick would compete for the starting job in training camp. That was obviously a smokescreen, because everybody knew that GM Buddy Nix and the Bills organization had no intention of trotting out those two as the top QBs. After all, Nix was the one who slammed Fitzpatrick during the 2012 season, and he reiterated that the Bills would be getting a new guy.

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That new guy might be Kevin Kolb, or it might be a quarterback in this draft class. I’m almost certain the Bills are going to select a QB with their second-round draft choice, and they have worked out just about every quarterback in the 2013 NFL Draft class that has a sniff at becoming a franchise QB. The connection between Marrone and former Syracuse Orange star QB Ryan Nassib is strong, but that doesn’t mean the Bills are guaranteed to draft Nassib in the second- it’s just very likely. If Matt Barkley ends up within their grasp there, then I think the Bills will take him and move towards a West Coast offense with two WCO QBs in Kolb and Barkley.

Now Jackson’s position in all of this is interesting. Most people on the Bills beat believe that he will most likely end up as the third-string QB all the way behind Kolb and a rookie QB. Jackson is another WCO QB, so it seems like the Bills are going to move towards that direction.

So what does Buddy Nix think? Tarvaris Jackson told the Buffalo News today that Nix was high on Jackson and actually sold staying with the Bills to Jackson. This shows how much Nix doesn’t like Ryan Fitzpatrick, how much he wants to move towards a new offense, and how much he respects Jackson as a backup QB. Heck, he might end up being their most stabilizing presence at the position as far as experience goes (Jackson is 29).

Here is what Tarvaris Jackson told the Buffalo News, “Before I left I had been talking to Buddy Nix and that was really one of the main reasons why I came back. Just talking to him it seemed they really wanted me to come back. That was No. 1 on my list. It was a no-brainer. … It was just talking about how things played out and it’ll be a little different this year. I’ll get a chance to compete, so that’s all you can ask for.”

Another reason why Jackson chose to stay? Continuity. The man has been signed and released so often in his career that being able to stick around with the Bills for a couple more seasons is something that Jackson likely welcomes. We’ll see just how long he sticks around in Buffalo.

You can follow Joe Soriano on Twitter for more NFL updates and analysis @SorianoJoe.