Sports are a funny thing. While keyboard warriors and NFL front office employees alike try to peg who will be top-notch prospects, the system of transitioning college football to the professional game is so hard to predict.
There’s several examples of this right under our nose in Buffalo.
How about the best-ever player from the University at Buffalo in Khalil Mack? Who saw that coming? Closer to home for Bills fans, there’s Josh Allen… the highly-touted Ohio State or Alabama QB, right?
Wrong… mid-major Wyoming and former JUCO quarterback.
There’s no exact science and there’s actually another quarterback on Buffalo’s roster that perfectly shows this.
In Sunday’s AFC Championship game, Allen will lead the Bills to Kansas City. There, the Chiefs and quarterback Patrick Mahomes awaits.
You know, Davis Webb‘s backup?
That’s it. That’s the story.
Webb is Buffalo’s practice squad quarterback. He’s bounced around the NFL since 2017 when the Giants made him a third-round pick. He’s more-so mentioned as another quarterbacks coach for Allen than anything else.
Webb, a former prospect from Texas Tech, took the Lubbock, Texas, route to the NFL. While there, the now NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP QB in Mahomes was his backup during his freshman season in 2014.
A year prior in 2013, Webb and another guy by the name of Baker Mayfield were in and out of the lineup under center. Mayfield won the job, was injured, and then didn’t go back in the lineup when he was healthy as the preferred choice became Webb. Mayfield ended up transferring to Oklahoma.
Looking again to 2014, Webb and Mayfield essentially switched places when Mahomes came to town. Webb started the first eight games of the year and then suffered an injury. Mahomes replaced him and never gave up the job and then Webb transferred to California.
But hey, originally at first, Webb was picked to start over Mahomes for Texas Tech’s 2014 season.
And of course, there’s always a Buffalo connection, The coach overseeing all of this was Kliff Kingsbury, a former Bills backup quarterback during 2006’s training camp.
Checking back in one last time on Mahomes vs. Webb: Mahomes has thrown for 14,152 yards and 114 yards as a pro. Webb? He is still looking for his first NFL stat.
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