There’s no question it’s been a breakout season for Ryan Fitzpatrick ’05. From 2005-2009, the former Ivy League Player of the Year passed for 4,104 yards and tallied 21 touchdown passes in 28 NFL games. This year, in just 11 contests, he’s already thrown for 2,526 yards and matched his previous career total for TD’s against just 11 interceptions. The former Crimson star’s passer rating (85.0) is by far the highest of his career, and, like he did in college, Fitzpatrick is making a difference on the ground, averaging 21.5 rushing yards a game.

Fitzpatrick, rated by the Sporting News as the fifth smartest player in sports (Matt Birk ’98 finished sixth), has also helped a pretty awful Bills team to three wins.

And people are noticing. Yahoo! sports called him “the best NFL QB for the buck,” given his modest pro salary of three million dollars, and The New York Times intimated that he could be a franchise player.

But things aren’t as cheery for Fitzpatrick as they might seem. Since Buffalo holds the fourth-worst record in the NFL, it should be in good position to pick a top quarterback from a 2011 draft class that could include Heisman winner Cam Newton and Heisman finalist Andrew Luck. If the Bills invest in such a high-profile signal caller—one who will command top-five money that makes Fitzpatrick's deal look like chump change—it will leave the Crimson alum where he found himself at the beginning of this year: on the bench.