ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- It won't exactly be a homecoming, but the Buffalo Bills will face an old friend Sunday when they square off with Ryan Fitzpatrick and the Houston Texans.

While Fitzpatrick admitted Wednesday it "would have been cool" for his first game against his former team to come at Ralph Wilson Stadium, he joked that support is still strong for him in Buffalo.

"I think it's amazing that there now more [number] 14 jerseys than there were when I was there," Fitzpatrick quipped. "I think the support for me has really grown, especially in the last year -- for some reason -- since the draft. I think that's really cool.

"Is there a new 14 on the team?"

Yes, times have indeed changed. The ever-personable Fitzpatrick once wore No. 14 for the Bills, but that jersey number now belongs to rookie receiver Sammy Watkins.

In all seriousness, Fitzpatrick acknowledged that Sunday's tilt against his former team will have a different feeling.

"This is a special game for me. I think partly just because I have so many great friends, still, that are over on the other side of the ball. Guys that I'm going to be excited to watch," he said. "I'm sure they're going to be excited to hit me and watch me play."

After the Bills hired Doug Marrone as head coach in the 2013 offseason, Fitzpatrick met with the new coaching staff and tried to work out a contract restructuring to stay with the team.

"It just did happen, didn't work out. So I moved on. I would have loved to stay in Buffalo and all that. Things happen. Things happen for a reason," Fitzpatrick said. "There's definitely no hard feelings with the way that it went down. I think the little added extra whatever it is is more so because of the guys I'm playing against, and just having so many good buddies."

The Harvard product served as the Bills' starting quarterback from midway through the 2009 season through the end of the 2012 season. Fitzpatrick had high praise Wednesday for his time in Buffalo.

"The four years we spent there and how much we enjoyed the city of Buffalo and our neighbors and all the fans; what a great experience it was for us," Fitzpatrick said. "I was welcomed there with open arms right away and fell in love with the people. We did. We really loved our four years there and outside of football made a lot of lifelong friends that we'll keep in touch with forever."

Fitzpatrick has four children but said their loyalties may not lie with his current team.

"I'm still trying to convince my 7-year old -- in this game at least -- to be a Texans fan and not a Bills fan," he said. "And then my youngest daughter was born in Buffalo, so we're kind of a torn household right now but I'm trying to convince them that we got to root for the Texans now."

He and his wife, Liza, have a fifth child on the way.

"We're continuing to add. I don't when we're going to stop," he said. "I'm just trying to have more than Freddy [Jackson]."