Is Ryan Fitzpatrick a fantasy football stud in the making?

Could the Buffalo Bills' Ryan Fitzpatrick be the breakout quarterback of 2011? He was on his way in 2010 but needs to tone down his mistakes and improve his accuracy to make the leap to the next level.

The Bills' receiving corps because a hodgepodge of nobodies, and even with the emergence of Stevie Johnson, Fitz's targets were not consistently effective. Donald Jones, David Nelson, Roscoe Parrish, Lee Evans, Naaman Roosevelt, Marcus Easley, David Martin and Shawn Nelson ... yup, I know.

Injuries, inexperience, a lack of talent, suspensions, more injuries ... it is amazing Fitzpatrick performed as well as he did. The Harvard product is a savvy, heady competitor and plays with enough heart to overcome his physical limitations.

If anything, his situation is a nice feel-good story, but I think fantasy owners need to target him as their backup, when permitting, because of Fitzpatrick's upside. It isn't the classic sense of upside based on a strong arm, a lot of weapons around him, a pass-happy system, etc., rather a sense of fortitude that you cannot measure.

Had Fitzpatrick played all 16 games last year at his per-game averages, he would have finished with the following stat line.

• 314-for-543 (57.8 percent), 3,692 yards, 28 touchdowns, 18 interceptions, 29 sacks

The INT total isn't pretty, but fantasy owners would gladly take the 28 scores, and the yardage is acceptable. If the touchdowns-per-game average remained the same while the picks came down and the percentage increased, a scenario that is very likely entering his second year in this system, fantasy owners would have a No. 1 quarterback at the cost of a late-round backup. That's a risk-reward scenario I love to take a chance on.