ORCHARD PARK – One of the more interesting roster moves on the NFL’s transaction wire Wednesday was the Buffalo Bills signing quarterback Anthony Brown to their practice squad.
No, the Bills do not have an injury situation with Josh Allen, his backup Mitch Trubisky, or practice squad QB Mike White heading into Sunday’s AFC divisional round playoff game against the Ravens. What they have is a Lamar Jackson problem, as in needing someone who can sort of replicate in practice the way Jackson plays quarterback for Baltimore.
“There’s only one Lamar Jackson at the end of the day,” coach Sean McDermott said. “So you do the best you can to try and simulate it. Good luck.”
The Bills had no one on their roster who could come close to imitating Jackson and giving the Buffalo defense a good look at the speed and types of plays Jackson excels on.
Anthony Brown has been with the Buffalo Bills before
Brown was with the Bills for the final week of the preseason and he saw action in the final exhibition game against Carolina when he completed 11 of 12 passes for 102 yards and ran once for 13 yards, then was cut after the game and eventually landed on the practice squad in Arizona. So remembering how Brown looked in the brief time he was in Buffalo, they called him back and he’ll be Jackson in practice this week.
“Anthony Brown helps with that,” McDermott said. “The full answer is if you just put a mobile person back there when you’re planning and working on the scrambles or the quarterback run game, the defensive players know this is one of those plays if you just have to sub out one of our normal quarterbacks for a mobile player like that.
“In order to hide that, what Anthony brings to the table is both. He can throw it, he can run it, and so there’s a little bit more of a true, honest look down in and down out, whether he’s handing it off, dropping back, or doing some of the things, conceptually at least, that Lamar does.”
In the past, speedy wide receivers Ray Ray McCloud and Isaiah McKenzie were used as scout team Jacksons, and there are a couple players on the current roster who could have been used, but McDermott wanted an actual mobile QB this time, and Brown was available.
Anthony Brown is familiar with Lamar Jackson
Also, it doesn’t hurt that Brown was a teammate of Jackson’s for a short time in Baltimore during the 2022 season and then through training camp in 2023 before he was cut. He has been with Jackson, has probably studied some of the things that have made Jackson a two-time MVP, and that knowledge will be helpful.
One of the most difficult issues for any defense against Jackson is combating his ability to extend plays, much the same way Allen does for the Bills. That’s another area where Brown can help.
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“That’s some of the uniqueness of Lamar, Josh included, in slightly different ways, perhaps,” McDermott said. “You’ve got to be ready to play, I don’t know, seven, eight seconds per play at least, and maybe then some. So it’s going to take a heck of an effort from our football team to go up against this football team.”
During Ravens coach John Harbaugh’s press conference Monday, a reporter termed those extended plays by Jackson and Allen as “long-winded plays” and Harbaugh enjoyed that phrase.
“Long-winded plays, I like that. A long-winded play, that’s a good way to say it,” he said.
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for four decades including 35 years as the full-time beat writer for the D&C, and he has written numerous books about the history of the team. He can be reached at [email protected], and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social. Sign up for his Bills Blast newsletter here:
