Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane has fielded a ton of questions about his selection of Georgia quarterback Jake Fromm in the fifth round of the 2020 NFL Draft.
Beane made it clear that he never planned on taking Fromm, but when the Bills were on the clock and Fromm was still available, it was “too good to pass up.”
The pick came as a surprise. Buffalo already has its definite starter under center in third year pro Josh Allen, who played collegiately at Wyoming.
Behind Allen on the depth chart is Southern Cal’s Matt Barkley.
Some thought that the reason he took Fromm was to motivate Allen with a little competition. Though that will end up being the case, Beane said that drafting Fromm was not meant to send a message to his starting quarterback.
“There’s no message at all,” Beane said. “We believe in Josh.
Recently, Beane joined Pro Football Talk to again explain the thought-process behind drafting Fromm:
“He wasn’t in our plans, he really wasn’t,” Beane said. “But you set your board and if a player is sticking out especially at the quarterback, that is the premium position in all sports, and is definitely in our game. So we had a pretty good grade on Jake and he was clearly sticking out on our board, the highest player, and unless you got three guys that you are going, ‘Man, we are set for years to come,’ why would you ignore the premium position? And that is why we selected Jake, and he is a winner.”
Beane then went on to discuss what Fromm did at Georgia in terms of beating out two five-star quarterbacks in Jacob Eason and Justin Fields.
“If you look at what he did, he held off [Jacob] Eason who ended up transferring, and then he held off Justin Fields who is at Ohio State, so he has got to have something to him,” Beane explained. “He is very smart and scored very high on the Wonderlic. If he had all the measurables, if he was 6’5” with a cannon arm, this was a guy that would have been talked about a lot higher.”