The 2004 NFL draft will always be remembered for the trio of quarterbacks chosen early in the first round. After a trade, the Giants got first overall pick Eli Manning and the Chargers got fourth overall pick Philip Rivers, and with the 11th pick the Pittsburgh Steelers chose Ben Roethlisberger. The merits of those three quarterbacks have been fodder for barroom and sports radio debate ever since.

A fourth quarterback, Tulane’s J.P. Losman, was also selected in the first round that year, and he isn’t often lumped in with the other three. The Buffalo Bills chose Losman with the 22nd pick, and he has never been considered in the same class as Manning, Rivers, or Roethlisberger. Tom Donahoe and Mike Mularkey, then the Bills’ general manager and coach, said Losman was a better athlete than the other three quarterbacks and had the strongest arm of the bunch, but most analysts said he wasn’t nearly accurate enough, and that his skills at reading defenses lagged far behind those of Manning, Rivers, and Roethlisberger. Those analysts looked vindicated last year, when Losman had one of the worst seasons of any quarterback in the league. Donahoe and Mularkey were fired after the season.

This season, Losman looks much improved. He has dramatically increased his completion percentage, going to 63.2% this season from 49.6% last season, and his passer rating has jumped to 84.8 from 64.9. New head coach Dick Jauron hired assistants who have groomed Losman by telling him to cut back on the long bombs and instead throw short, easy passes. They have also told him to curtail his running and learn to beat defenses with his arm rather than his feet. Jauron has a defensive background and generally delegates to offensive coordinator Steve Fairchild, quarterbacks coach Turk Schonert, and quality-control coach Alex Van Pelt, a longtime Bills backup quarterback. Those coaches are helping Losman by playing against his strengths.

Although Losman is clearly a better player now than he was a year ago, his progress will be something of a mirage unless he can run more than the scaled-down offense that Fairchild, Schonert, and Van Pelt have given him. That is a stark contrast to Losman’s first mentor in Buffalo, Sam Wyche, who served as the Bills’ quarterbacks coach in 2004 and 2005. Wyche, who was known for his complex offensive playbook during his stints as the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, might have thrown too much at Losman too soon.

Losman is showing some progress now, but it’s hard to get excited about the progress of a strong-armed quarterback when his completed passes have dropped from an average of 11.9 yards to 10.9, as Losman’s have. He also fumbles far too often (12 times this year, second only to Houston Texans quarterback David Carr), and he has been sacked 38 times, the fifth most in the league. The sacks are not just the fault of the offensive line — one of the reasons Losman’s completion percentage is so high is that he too often takes a sack instead of throwing the ball away when the pass rush closes in on him.

Despite those mistakes, Jets fans learned the hard way on Sunday that Losman can still throw the deep ball. In the second quarter of the Bills’ 31–13 victory over the Jets, Losman threw a beautiful strike to wide receiver Lee Evans deep down the left side of the field for a 77-yard touchdown. When he hits those deep passes, Losman shows why the previous administration in Buffalo thought him worthy of a first-round pick. But too often, he fails to hit those deep routes and shows why the new staff has reined him in.

Losman wasn’t as highly regarded as Manning, Rivers, or Roethlisberger before the 2004 draft, and nothing has happened in the three years since to change that. But he has shown this season that with a game plan devoted to minimizing his mistakes he won’t throw games away, like he did last year. But if he wants to be the Bills’ quarterback for the long haul, he’ll need to prove that he can win with game plans revolving around his strengths.