'We're Still Struggling Here With Our Quarterback'

If you were worried that new coach Doug Marrone is stuck with Ryan Fitzpatrick as his quarterback going into his first season in Buffalo, well, listen to this.

Deadspin.com published a piece this morning detailing how Bills GM-For-Now Buddy Nix got snagged by a couple of prank-calling 20-year-olds last week and, thinking he was having a private conversation with his counterpart with Tampa Bay, Mark Dominik, inadvertently told the world that his Starting Quarterback-For-Now probably won't have that title for long. And that Fitzpatrick will probably have to take a pay cut if he wants a clipboard-carrying gig in 2013.

"We're still struggling here with our quarterback ... We're not really struggling -- he's going to have to do something, or we'll have to." 

More Nix on Fitzpatrick: "We just can't afford to pay that kind of money for a guy who's probably fighting for a backup job."

This should not come as a tremendous shock to anyone who has watched Fitzpatrick play quarterback for the past four years, especially with a new, offensive-minded coach taking over. But it is interesting to hear that Nix shares the same opinion as most fans regarding Fitzpatrick's value. Especially since Nix himself signed Fitzpatrick to a six-year, $62 million extension less than two years ago.

With the NFL's free agency period scheduled to start this afternoon at 4 p.m., and Fitzpatrick scheduled to receive a $3 million roster bonus if he's on the team tomorrow, there's a decent chance he will be an ex-Bill by the time you read this.

And if he reads Deadspin, he probably knows what's coming.

(In case you missed the link above, the full story, replete with audio clips of the conversation between Nix and Dominik, is here. Give a listen, if only to hear a man use the term "Dadgum." And, like Dwight Adams before him, I could listen to Nix read the phone book.)