Peterman is a Bill
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Nate Peterman has found a home in Buffalo.
The Pitt quarterback was selected by the Bills in the fifth round of the 2017 NFL Draft Saturday. Buffalo used pick No. 171 to take the former Panther. He’ll join another former Panther in running back LeSean McCoy, who also plays for the Bills.
Peterman was the eighth quarterback taken in this year’s draft and the third from the ACC, following North Carolina’s Mitch Trubisky , who went second overall to the Chicago Bears, and Clemson’s Deshaun Watson, who went 12th overall to the Houston Texans.
Peterman is just the fourth Pitt quarterback to be drafted since Dan Marino was a first-round pick of the Miami Dolphins in 1981. Overall, only three Pitt quarterbacks all-time have been taken in the first seven rounds of the Draft: Matt Cavanaugh (New England, 2nd round 1978), Marino (Miami, 1st round 1981) and Tom Savage (Houston, 4th round 2014). Peterman makes it four.
A native of Florida who spent his first three years of college at Tennessee, Peterman came to Pitt in the spring of 2015 as a graduate transfer. He had a connection with then-offensive coordinator Jim Chaney, who had recruited Peterman to Tennessee, and Chaney and Pat Narduzzi felt like they needed another quarterback on the roster.
By the third game of the 2015 season, Peterman had won the starting job - a position he held for the next 24 games. He had a solid year in 2015, throwing for 2,287 yards, 20 touchdowns and eight interceptions. But in 2016, Peterman blossomed. Under the direction of Matt Canada, Peterman was the most efficient quarterback in the ACC as he led the highest-scoring offense in Pitt history. Peterman threw for 2,855 yards - just 145 yards short of being the fifth Panther to throw for 3,000 yards.
His shining moment was the upset win over Clemson, when Peterman went to Death Valley and played arguably the greatest game of his college career, throwing for career highs in passing yards (308) and passing touchdowns (five).