PITTSFORD -- Trent Edwards was not taking anything for granted as he walked off the practice field after the Buffalo Bills' first training camp workout of 2010.

     Edwards was back in the position he held each of the past two training camps: No.‚1 on the Bills' quarterback depth chart.

     But the one constant in Edwards' career thus far has been change. After all, he has had four offensive coordinators and seven starting left tackles in his Bills tenure, which began in 2007. The 26-year-old Edwards knows he's going to have to play well over the next 44 days to hold that No.‚1 job when the Bills open their season at Ralph Wilson Stadium against the Miami Dolphins on Sept. 12.

     Asked what it means to get the nod from new coach Chan Gailey to start camp, Edwards said: "Honestly, it just means I'm working with the ones right now. I feel like I still have a lot to learn, a long way to go, but I must be doing something right. .‚.‚. So it's nice that you're appreciated for what you've done in the past. But that's in the past now, we need to grow off that and get ready for the Dolphins in Week One."

     Gailey told the quarterbacks about their pecking order at a morning meeting on Thursday. Ryan Fitzpatrick and Brian Brohm will rotate as the No.‚2 man behind Edwards. Rookie seventh-round draft pick Levi Brown is No.‚4.

     "After evaluating all the OTA and minicamp things, we just felt like Trent deserved to start the training camp with the first group," Gailey said. "We'll have the other guys, Fitz and Brian, alternating with the twos during the course of the first few weeks here. And then we'll get Levi as many reps as we can get him. But that was how we evaluated it coming out of the OTAs."

     What did Gailey like about Edwards in the spring?

     "Well, he just made a lot more plays that we thought were positive plays during the course of the minicamps and OTAs," Gailey said. "He did a good job of handling the team. He did a good job when he had the threes, as well as when he had the ones. And that was impressive to me, to be able to go out there and work with whoever he was throwing with."

     The 6-foot-4, 231-pound Edwards is slightly bigger than his fellow QBs. He arguably has the best arm, and has the most wins in his career (he's 14-16 as a starter). At his best, he has been wonderfully accurate and efficient. At his worst, he has been tentative and looked like an utterly average talent. He has yet to prove he can be enough of a playmaker to be a high-quality NFL starter.

     Edwards also has endured less than ideal circumstances in Buffalo.

     The Bills' offensive dysfunction last season was epic, starting with the firing of the offensive coordinator and starting left tackle within 10 days of the opener. The offensive line was the youngest to open a season in seven years in the NFL. The no-huddle offense the team had practiced exclusively was ditched after Week Six. The head coach was fired after nine games.

     Edwards admits he could have handled last year's chaos better.

     "I think I probably got overwhelmed or stressed over too many little things, too much attention to too many things I shouldn't be paying attention to," Edwards said.

     "I feel like that was almost good for me now. I'm a year older, a year stronger, hopefully a year better. And I'm going to use that to my advantage, just like I'm using this competition out here to my advantage. I need to be able to not get too stressed out, not sweat the small stuff, and just take it one step at time."

     Edwards also knows he does not have a vice grip on the job, with Fitzpatrick and Brohm in close competition.

  "I was pretty confident that I would be the guy, and I'm hoping to be the guy at the end of this camp," he said. "I know it's a competitive situation. I'm going to take that as a competitive situation, and I need to use that to my benefit. I feel like I feed off of that, that there's guys right behind you that want to be in the position you're in."

  In Thursday's opening practice, Fitzpatrick got the second chance and Brohm the third behind Edwards.

  Both Fitzpatrick and Brohm took the pecking order in stride.

  "There's a lot of snaps in training camp, so it's [about] taking advantage of it, getting to work with everybody, not just the starters but the guys you'll be playing with in preseason games, and developing some chemistry," said Fitzpatrick, who enters his sixth NFL season.

  "It wasn't a disappointment," said Brohm, entering his third year. "We still have a long way to go. And I'm still trying to get better. I'm still upbeat, still positive, and I'm going to come out here with the attitude I'm going to get better every day."

  With a new coaching staff in place, the Bills' players know there's a long way to go before everyone earns their rank on the roster.

  "Trent is a perfectionist," said receiver Steve Johnson. "He's on point with everything. He takes command. But I can't say only Trent takes command. Fitz does it. Brohm actually doesn't talk too much, but you can see it in his eyes in the huddle. You can't really throw any salt on any of the quarterbacks."

mgaughan@buffnews.comnull