The Carousel

By Chris

Trent Edwards will miss the final two games of the season after suffering an ankle injury on Sunday.

The Bills re-signed Gibran Hamdan, the 2006 NFL Europe Offensive MVP, yesterday after announcing that Terrence McGee is done for the season, putting the Bills in their worst situation at quarterback since the playoff drought began.

It’s not even a quarterback controversy. This time around, it’s just pathetic.

It’s no secret that the Bills haven’t been able to find a quarterback since Jim Kelly retired. If you need a refresher, Twoeightnine has the perfect T-shirt for you.

Keep in mind neither Hamdan nor Brian Brohm have ever taken a snap in a regular season game with the Bills (Hamdan’s career stats: 1-of-2 for 7 yards with a sack…and that happened back in 2003 with the Redskins). Either one could potentially be the starting quarterback against the Falcons.

I’ll take J.P. Losman vs. Kelly Holcomb over that scenario.

Expect Edwards to be the 19th Bill placed on the IR. And that move would not only end his season, but it might also signal the end of his career in Buffalo.

Remember when Edwards first started? There was a lot of excitement, if not just because he wasn’t Losman.

He looked poised and in control. The checkdowns were actually kind of refreshing at first — and he actually used the tight end. There was even a point in time when he could lead the team to a fourth-quarter comeback.

Maybe you can blame Dick Jauron, the umpteen offensive coordinators in the last four years or the horrific play of the offensive line, but it doesn’t change the fact that Edwards has been hot-and-cold (mostly cold) in his career.

He’s been shaky and indecisive and has been even more inconsistent since that hit in Arizona.

There is talent there, but Edwards has too much going against him right now to make any use of it. The Bills are going to kick him to the curb at the end of the season and it’s tough to blame them.

He’s never been healthy (even going back to college) and he can’t — or won’t — throw the ball deep. It’s a frustrating situation for all parties involved.

We’ve gone almost 15 years without a solid answer at quarterback. There have been flashes of hope, but it doesn’t look like an answer is going to come anytime soon.

I’m not sure I’d risk a high draft pick on any of the quarterbacks coming out of the draft this year and the free agent market is usually the place to find a backup. If a starting quarterback is worth anything, he’s already locked up on a roster somewhere.

And I doubt Hamdan or Brohm will do much of anything if Ryan Fitzpatrick can’t play. Brohm is the bigger unknown given he had a pretty successful college career at Louisville, but he’s been relegated to practice squad work in the NFL. The Packers had to have had a reason for keeping a seventh-round pick over him.

If he comes into a game and looks terrible (which I think is what most of us would expect), is it because he didn’t get enough reps or is it because he really does suck?

We came into this season with a lot of questions and many of them have been answered.

Near the top of the list was “Is Trent Edwards ‘The Guy?’”

Obviously he’s not. At least not here and now (or maybe ever).

If Edwards does end up getting cut before next season, it marks the end of another era of futility and the beginning of even more uncertainty.

But I guess that’s just life as a Buffalo football fan these days.