Sal Maiorana

@salmaiorana

The Bills had two fifth-round picks and they took QB Nathan Peterman and LB Matt Milano.

Peterman started two seasons at Pitt and threw 47 touchdown passes.

Peterman is just the sixth QB the Bills have drafted during the 17-year playoff drought.

ORCHARD PARK – When you’ve gone as long as the Buffalo Bills have without top-notch play from the quarterback position, the quest to find that franchise-changing player should be ongoing year after year after year until you find one.

Inexplicably, in Buffalo, it wasn’t.

But perhaps it’s finally dawning on this often-dumbstruck and bungling organization that you can’t win in the NFL without a viable quarterback because after choosing Nathan Peterman in the fifth round of the NFL Draft Saturday, this makes two years in a row the Bills have at least taken a swing at fixing the problem.

Since 2000, the year the 17-year playoff drought began, the Bills had drafted only four quarterbacks - J.P. Losman (2004), Trent Edwards (2007), Levi Brown (2010), and E.J. Manuel (2013) – before they picked Cardale Jones in the fourth round last year, and Peterman this year.

“I know the importance of the quarterback position and how important that is to winning football games,” Sean McDermott said at the conclusion of his first draft as an NFL head coach.

Now the question is, do they have their franchise quarterback on the roster?

The jury is still way out on Jones, who saw one quarter of action at the end of his rookie season, and seems like a player a long way from becoming an NFL starter. With the second of their two fifth-round picks Saturday (No. 171 overall), the Bills have added Peterman to the mix to compete with Jones and free agent veteran T.J. Yates to be Tyrod Taylor’s backup.

It’s far too early to determine whether Jones or Peterman will ever become productive NFL starters, but at least the Bills are giving themselves some options. And if no one currently on the team shows anything this year, with an extra 2018 first-round pick in the bank, Buffalo may be positioned to go after another quarterback.

“I feel good about our quarterbacks,” said McDermott. “I’ve enjoyed watching them work, and that goes back to where we started with Tyrod. We’re getting that position right, just like all the positions. They’re going to come in and compete.”

That’s all the 6-foot-2, 225-pound Peterman wants to do, especially after a somewhat unexpected slide down the draft board into the late fifth round.

“Honestly, yeah, it was a little surprising,” he said. “But really it’s just about getting in the league for me and all I’m looking for is an opportunity. I’m ready to get up there and get to work.”

There were mixed feelings about Peterman in the pre-draft process, the negatives centered on the fact that he’s only 6-2, and his arm strength isn’t elite, but NFL Network draft analyst Lance Zierlein liked what he saw.

“Peterman's experience in a pro-style passing attack gives him a head start headed into the league,” said Zierlein. “His physical attributes are just average, but his accuracy, composure and anticipation are what sets him apart from some of the more physically gifted quarterbacks in this year's draft. Peterman's tape is sure to catch the eye of at least a few teams in need of a quarterback and he should come off the board by day two with a chance to become a solid starting quarterback in the future.”

NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah went so far as to say that Peterman could potentially become a Dak Prescott-like success story.

“You’d be hard-pressed to find somebody who could do what Dak Prescott did, but I’m going to go with Nathan Peterman as someone who, like Dak Prescott, played a lot of football, was a senior, a four-year guy, and he went to the Senior Bowl and did a nice job, Dak did the same thing there. You’re talking about somebody who has that maturity beyond their years when you talk about how they lead and how they are around their guys. I’m hearing the same things about Peterman, so whoever gets him will be hoping they can strike gold like the Cowboys did with Dak Prescott.”

Last season, Peterman dealt national champion Clemson its only loss of the season when he threw for 308 yards and five touchdowns in a 43-42 victory in Death Valley. “Go down to Clemson, not at home, went to Clemson, and he led his team to a win against the eventual national champions,” said an obviously impressed McDermott.

Peterman began his career at Tennessee, but he suffered a hand injury his first year, then lost the starting job to Joshua Dobbs – who was picked in the fourth round by the Steelers, No. 135 overall – in his second season and never regained the starting job. He earned an undergraduate degree in three years, then transferred to Pitt and used his last two years of eligibility to rehabilitate his career.

Playing at Heinz Field for the Panthers, he completed 61.1 percent of his passes for 5,142 yards and 47 touchdowns. He has been called perhaps the most pro-ready quarterback in this draft because Pitt runs a pro-style offense and Peterman called audibles, set protections, and took snaps from center.

“I think it’s been really helpful to have that opportunity to be exposed to some of the things that I saw at the Senior Bowl and on my visits with teams,” he said. “To have some familiarity with that is going to help me a lot in Buffalo, so I’m excited to get started on the playbook.”

MAIORANA@Gannett.com