Bills interim head coach Perry Fewell wasn't ready to tab Brian Brohm his official starter for Sunday's game, but with Trent Edwards and Ryan Fitzpatrick hobbled by ankle injuries, it was Brohm under center with the starting unit on Wednesday.
"We'll see," said Fewell. "(It's) day to day. He took most of the snaps in practice. I'm not ruling out Fitzpatrick. He felt better (Wednesday) than he did (Tuesday) and it's day to day."
Fewell's reservations are rooted in the fact that Wednesday was Brohm's first day throwing to the starting receivers in Lee Evans, Terrell Owens and Josh Reed. It was also the first day he was calling plays in the huddle and then executing them instead of just studying plays in the film room.
"Obviously it's not the ideal situation, but at the same time this would be a great opportunity for me," said Brohm. "You can't make any excuses you've got to get ready to play. I just need to take advantage of it."
Practice was a little rough around the edges Wednesday, but Owens thought for a first day you can't expect things to be locked down tight with a new signal caller.
"That's to be expected," Owens said. "We've just got to make him comfortable. They'll create a game plan and implement it to where he's comfortable and see what works best for him and we'll go with that."
Lee Evans ran extra routes with Brohm following practice in an effort to develop better timing with the routes for Sunday's game.
"You don't know what to expect from him," said Evans. "It'll be his first time in game time action. So we're looking for him to step in and play well. Seeing the type of player he is and running around out here catching balls from him, he's trying to get it."
Fewell admitted that Brohm will not be given a typical game plan and things will be scaled back since this is just the fifth week that the former Green Bay draft choice has been with the Bills.
"It's a tough challenge," said Fewell of getting Brohm ready. "We're going to try to do the things if he is the guy, and he took most of the reps. We're going to try to do the things that he can do and do well. It's a tough challenge."
Add in the fact that it would also be the first NFL start of Brohm's career and it makes the situation even more significant. That's why Evans and Owens are trying to quickly develop some on-field chemistry with the second-year signal caller.
"At this point we're just having him try to know as much of the offense as he can and make him as comfortable as he can be," said Owens. "It's going to be different for him. I'm sure he's going to want to go out and play and will probably have to calm himself down and not try to do too much. That's part of what I'm here for as a veteran guy and speak to him and tell him to relax and let us make the plays for him."
"It's going to fall on everybody," said Evans. "Everybody is going to have to pull a little more weight. Coaches are going to have to put in a game plan that he can manage. You can't throw the whole kitchen sink at him and expect him to learn everything. We'll have to keep things to a manageable position for him and just execute it when we get out there."
At this point Brohm feels he's got a pretty good handle on the terminology, and believes with respect to the plan in place that he'll be able to execute it.
"I think we got everything ironed out. I feel good about it," he said. "Right now my focus is on learning this offense and trying to go out there and be successful in it and get a 'W'. That's the main goal, to go out there and do whatever needs to be done, whether it's scramble around a little bit, we need to run the ball quite a bit, do whatever that needs to be done to win the game."
Fewell stated that his decision as to who will start could go all the way up to game time on Sunday as he mentioned that Fitzpatrick does not need to practice to still be a consideration.
"Ryan is our quarterback," Fewell said. "I'm not ruling him out. He took mental reps (Wednesday) and he did not take the physical reps. If he can take the physical reps on Friday then that's even better."
For now though Brohm is the guy and the Bills are preparing as such. The results are anybody's guess, but Brohm is hopeful that his second chance to make a first impression will be a good one.
"There's no doubt that this is a big deal and will be a big game for me and a great opportunity," he said. "You never know how many opportunities you're going to get and you never know what circumstances they're going to be under, but you've got to be ready to take advantage of them. An opportunity is here and I need to seize it."
