"The Buffalo Bills' release of Trent Edwards on Monday made numerous statements.

It was an endorsement of Ryan Fitzpatrick, coming one day after his encouraging 38-30 performance in the loss at New England.

It was an indictment of Edwards, who saw his once-promising NFL career go on life support.

It was a boost for Brian Brohm, who moves up from No. 3 to No. 2 quarterback for the first time in his three-year NFL career.

It showed that Bills General Manager Buddy Nix and coach Chan Gailey are not ones to dither over personnel decisions. When they decide, they act.

It also raised the question of why Gailey did not come to the conclusion Fitzpatrick was more of a playmaker than Edwards through five months of spring and summer workouts.

"Those kind of decisions are never easy," Gailey said. "He [Edwards] gave us everything he had. We just felt like were not going to go back that direction at the next juncture. We want to work with Brian Brohm."

What changed his view from a week ago, when he made Edwards the No. 2 QB?

"When you went into last week, I felt like we wanted to see exactly how things went," Gailey said. "After the way Fitz played yesterday, I feel very confident about the direction we're going. I think we want to look at Brian as our next option. That was the change."

Fitzpatrick passed for 274 yards against the Patriots and directed five scoring drives. It was the Bills' best passing output against the Pats since 2005. It also was a big improvement over the Edwards' passing totals of 139 yards and 105 yards, respectively, the first two weeks. (It should be noted, New England's defense does not look as good as that of the Bills' first two foes, Miami and Green Bay.)

Asked about the quickness of the decision, given the fact Edwards had been the starter just two weeks ago, Gailey said: "I understand that. And I can see where people would look at that and wonder what's going on. But as I said, I feel like it was close going in. I felt like as we looked and evaluated everything we'd seen up to this point, that was the direction for the future for our football team."

For the record, the Bills don't have to pay Edwards his full salary because he has less than four years' experience. The Bills paid him for three games, for $291,176. He would have made $1.65 million for a full season."