DETROIT -- For the first time in his brief NFL career, Buffalo Bills quarterback Jake Fromm took a snap with an opposing team on the other side of the line of scrimmage.
The 2020 fifth-round pick saw his first NFL action Friday in Buffalo's 16-15 win over the Detroit Lions, leading a 74-yard scoring drive that ended in a game-winning field goal by Tyler Bass.
Fromm completed 8-of-13 passes for 65 yards, including a 42-yard completion to rookie Marquez Stevenson on 4th-and-10 during that final drive. After spending his rookie season as the Bills' emergency quarterback, the Georgia product didn't shrink with the game on the line.
"He's been in these moments before," Bills coach Sean McDermott said, referencing Fromm's Georgia career. "And he just doesn't seem to be fazed in these moments."
Buffalo drafted Fromm 167th overall in 2020, and he spent training camp performing normal quarterback duties before ultimately making the final 53-man roster behind Josh Allen and Matt Barkley.
From there, his daily routine was anything but normal; the Bills made Fromm their emergency quarterback -- meaning he practiced separately from the team and remained socially distanced from his teammates inside their Orchard Park facility.
"It was definitely just a very interesting five to six months for me. I've never gone through anything like that," Fromm said. "It was definitely very, very tough, and very, very lonely at times, but I kept going back to my faith and my family. And knowing I was gonna see them soon and knowing that hopefully, all this will pay off one day.
"I wanted to be ready and honestly I showed up to work every day and said, 'Hey let's go, be ready. This is where I'm at, this is where my feet are at, let's go give it 100% and give it my all.'"
Fromm said he had Friday's game marked on his calendar "for a while" and credited the Bills' practices at Highmark Stadium for helping him adjust to the speed of play in the NFL.
His performance in limited action also made an impression on his teammates, particularly quarterback Davis Webb -- who complimented Fromm's ability to shake off a pair of sacks earlier in the game to bounce back when it mattered most.
"It was cool to see Jake get in there and throw that deep one to Speedy, for both of them in their first game in the NFL," Webb said. "Sometimes a couple of plays aren't going to go your way. I wouldn't put that on Jake the first couple drives, there's a lot of things that go into that. But I will put on Jake, he came in clutch."
The Bills travel to Chicago next week to play the Bears in their second preseason game.