Bills' Jake Fromm Celebrates Return to 'Real Football'

Jake Fromm did everything without complaint as a Buffalo Bills rookie last season, relying on his faith at times to pull him through the most extreme of circumstances.

Fromm technically was a member of the team. But that was just a technicality. He couldn't practice with a full complement of teammates, couldn't eat meals with them, couldn't lift weights with them, couldn't even get any 11-on-11 scrimmage work because he was charged with being their emergency COVID-19 quarterback.

That meant he had to stay far enough away from the team at all times so that if there was an outbreak, there would be a reasonable chance he wouldn't be infected and therefore eligible to play in case all the other quarterbacks would be declared out

The man who has taken the Twitter handle JakefromStateFromm could have been wearing khakis every day and his teammates would never have known.

It was a lonely existence, to be sure.

Turns out, the Bills didn't need him in 2020. Josh Allen started every game and Matt Barkley was available every week to serve as his backup.

Now that there has been a semi-return to normalcy, Fromm is locked in a competition with Davis Webb for the No. 3 job following the departure of Barkley in free agency and the addition of Mitchell Trubisky to be the backup for 2021.

Bills Mafia will get generous doses of all three in Friday night's preseason opener at Detroit because coach Sean McDermott will not use Allen and some other key starters.

Fromm will be in action, and definitely not in khakis.

"Having OTAs this spring was awesome," Fromm said. "It gave me time to really learn, and training camp's been good for me. When the reps come, just go in and do the best you can and try to execute the play.

"... It's been real fun. I feel like a football player again. It's always fun, it's always a blessing to go out and throw."

Because last year's training camps had to be conducted in private, it means that this summer has been the first time since Fromm was at Georgia that he gets to play in front of crowds.

"We were in the stadium [for an open practice] the other day," Fromm said. "It just felt like real football. It felt like you can go out, have fun, play loose. ... It's been awesome to get back out there with the guys and have fun and just play football, man."

Like Webb, who was drafted by the New York Giants in 2017, Fromm has never thrown a pass in a regular-season NFL game. So the job is as open as one can be on a team that is loaded at almost every position.

Will Fromm be able to stick with the team again?

His performance Friday night could go a long way toward determining that.