Opinion: It is Peterman, not Allen, who isn’t ready to start in this league

Well, nobody wanted it to happen this way.  But let’s be honest, there was no “clean way” for the changing of the guard to happen.  The only way Nathan Peterman was going to surrender the starting job to Josh Allen this year was due to poor play or due to injury.

Of course, when Sean McDermott and Brandon Beane announced last Monday that Peterman earned the starting job they certainly didn’t envision this nightmare scenario playing out.  And let me be clear, this is a nightmare for the Bills.  I admire Sean McDermott and his thorough decision making process, but this is not a fun decision for him to make…I do not envy him.  He has to choose between rolling out Peterson after 2 of the worst NFL starts in history or making the change to Allen sooner than he wanted, behind an abysmal offensive line.  Is anyone missing AJ McCarron right now?  Yeah, me too.

Here is why, despite not being an enjoyable decision to make, Sean McDermott must choose Josh Allen as his starter against the LA Chargers.

The last two games where Sean McDermott chose Nathan Peterman to be the starting quarterback these are his stats (Peterman started last years’ Colts game by default and not by choice, due to injury):

6/14, 66 yds, 0 TD, 5 INT  

*Peterman pulled with the Bills trailing 37-7 at halftime

5/18, 24 yds, 0 TD, 2 INT

*Peterman pulled with the Bills trailing 40-0 in Q3

Simply put, it is hard to fathom these numbers coming from an NFL quarterback.  Especially one that we have seen play very well in the preseason.  Sean McDermott has bet on Nathan Peterman twice now and both times it has resulted in catastrophic failures for the Buffalo Bills.  Against the Ravens, the Bills didn’t get a first down until the 3rd quarter and that was thanks to a LeSean McCoy run.  Nathan Peterman never contributed to a first down today in over a half of football.  In both of his starts, he has created a insurmountable deficit that even a Tom Brady led-offense could not overcome.

Everyone told us that Josh Allen was the project, but maybe Nathan Peterman is the project.  I’ve never seen a quarterback blow up like he did the Chargers game and then again against the Ravens.  It is Nathan Peterman that needs to sit and learn; to throw him out as the leader of this football team would be doing a disservice not only to the rest of the roster, but possibly to himself at this point.