Quarterbacks to ponder

Andrew Schrum

I hate to say it, because when the Bills took Edwards in the 3^rd round of the draft a few years back, I was a big Trent fan. Bill Walsh recommended him and I hated Losman. What a terrible move up the board that was. We gave up a future first for that undersized bum. I won’t go any farther because I’ll get sick.

Anyways, here we are again; a crappy team with a terrible coach and a timid QB. I’d like to give Trent the benefit of the doubt due to our awful coaching staff, but it wouldn’t hurt to look into the crystal ball and see what is going to be available through the draft and free agency for the Bills next year.

2010 NFL Draft: (List taken from ESPN.com and Scouts Inc Top 32 Draft Prospects List)

Sam Bradford, Oklahoma- BOOOOMMMERRRR! Would have been the #1 pick with the Lions last year. I think he will still go high to a team in the top 3.

Jake Locker, Washington- Under the radar because of the West Coast, but he is playing well and did beat USC, even though USC always has a let down Pac-10 loss. This is a guy to keep your eye on.

Jevan Snead, Mississippi- He beat Florida last year, but hasn’t lived up to the Heisman Hype this year. His numbers aren’t great, but has a cannon and is a good-sized man. Thanks, but no thanks.

Colt McCoy, Texas- Straight up gunslinger. He can air it out better than anyone in NCAA D1 right now. He is a tad undersized, and no Texas QB has made an NFL impact this decade, so I’m shying from him, for now.

Jimmy Clausen, Notre Dame- Too small, nice arm, but that’s it. Does win games, but just not what the Bills are looking for.

Two guys that are not on the current list, but I feel will be come draft time are Tony Pike from Cincy and Dan LeFevour from Central Michigan. The thing I like about these two guys are their size 6’6 and 6’3 repeatedly but more importantly is they are cold weather QB’s. Losman and Trent were warm weather guys and look where that got us. Now I’m not saying that’s the underlying reason, but it’s my reason. Pike is putting up big numbers in a weak Big East, but numbers don’t lie and “it’s division one fooootbaaalll.” LeFevour’s numbers are unmatched by anyone in football right now. He can scramble and stand in the pocket and throw, and it is the MAC, but again, “it’s division one fooootbaaalll.”

2010 Free Agent QB’s:

Jason Campbell- Washington Redskins, his career is what it is. Soft, terrible and it is now clear he was just a product of the double head monster running game of Cadillac and Ronnie at Auburn.

Kyle Orton- Denver Broncos, his career has peaked. The Broncs gave up Cutler for him too, which doesn’t say much, but I feel Orton is worse than Trent.

Chad Pennington- Miami Dolphins, No No No NO NO. He’s old, and is the original Captain Check Down. Last thing we need.

Other Free Agents not worth looking at:

Charlie Batch, Pittsburgh Steelers (34)


Kyle Boller, St. Louis Rams (28)


David Carr, New York Giants (30)


Kellen Clemens, New York Jets (26)


Daunte Culpepper, Detroit Lions (32)


Jeff Garcia, Oakland Raiders (39)


Rex Grossman, Houston Texans (29)


Joey Harrington, New Orleans Saints (30)


Tarvaris Jackson, Minnesota Vikings (26)


Jon Kitna, Dallas Cowboys (36)


Matt Moore, Carolina Panthers (25) – Restricted FA


Patrick Ramsey, Tennessee Titans (30)

Brett Ratliff, Cleveland Browns (24) – Exclusive Rights

Troy Smith, Baltimore Ravens (25) – Restricted FA

No to all of these guys too.

The only other option that I could come up with is trading for a back up behind an actual good QB. My reasoning for this is the Aaron Rogers Experiment. He sat behind #4 for a few years and actually is a good QB. The guy I’m referring to would be Jim Sorgi (Peyton Manning). He is really the only backup that I like. We did grab Fitzy who sat behind Palmer for a bit, but I don’t think he’s the answer in OBD. Billy Volek was an option a few years ago, but he signed a nice deal to soak up some sun and surf in SD.

In my opinion, which doesn’t hold much value, I think we wait for the draft and then select a QB. Pike, LeFevour McCoy would be my choices. But who knows what our “GM” is going to do before the season comes to an end.

JP Losman's Second Chance

-Coast

Everyone who reads this blog knows that I think JP Losman is a star in the waiting if he doesn't have to play under Mike Mularkey or Dick Jauron. Tonight at 9 PM, Losman will get a chance to resurrect his career in the United Football League as his team, the Las Vegas Locomotives hosts the California Redwoods at 9 PM on Versus.

I semi-jokingly made the comment today that I am more excited about this game than I am about the Buffalo Bills in general and the more time goes on, the more this statement might actually be reality. One thing is for sure, this game will be more exciting than last Sunday's, and a majority of the games we watch under Jauron.

JP Losman's head coach is former New York Giant head coach and NFC Champion Jim Fassel. I don't think anyone can make any case that Mularkey or Jauron have more credibility than Fassel, who has actually had some success in the NFL. Here are some comments made by Fassel about his starting quarterback.

"If I had doubt that he should not be a starting winning quarterback, I wouldn't take it on," Fassel said. "But I had the same feeling with Kerry Collins ... J.P.'s got tremendous athletic skills. This guy should be a starter in the NFL. I mean, come on ... But I still understand you can help a guy. Even Tiger Woods needs a swing coach.

"Listen, if he'd have went back to the NFL and sat on the bench this year, then he'd have been no better off next year. Whatever anybody thought about him, they'd still say the same thing. Nothing would've changed. ... Instead, you go in this league and you play. The risk you take is you don't play well. But if you're an aggressive person, you say 'I'm going to play well, people are going to see me, and maybe I can erase some of those negatives that were in the past, and a lot of people will say, wow, look at him play now. He's a new guy.'"

"Quarterbacks, all they need to do is fit in the right circumstance," Fassel said. "I can name a lot of Hall of Fame quarterbacks that at the end of four years, you'd be shocked at their numbers and where they were. You take Steve Young, who was at Tampa. You look at his numbers after four years. You look at Terry Bradshaw's numbers after four years, you look at John Elway's numbers after four years, and you look at Brett Favre's numbers after four years. And if I didn't have a name on those, you might've cut them.

"Now that's after four years ... and my study is based upon having patience and the right circumstances with quarterbacks. And they didn't have great circumstances. Listen, Brett Favre got traded, Steve Young got traded or cut, I'm not sure. Dan Reeves tried to trade John Elway. And Terry Bradshaw was just playing on a frigging great team, OK? Three out of four of those quarterbacks were either traded or tried to get traded. And you know what? They're Hall of Fame guys."

Fassel said his point is that Losman's career isn't a bust yet. "You've got to be blind not to see this guy can play quarterback," the coach said. "And if he does his job this year and everything works out, I'll be the happiest guy in the world if next year, there's 12, 14, 16 teams saying, 'This guy's a quarterback; we all miscalculated this thing. He can play. Let's go get this guy now.' And then he's back where he wants to be. That's fine with me. I have no problem with that.

"In fact, I've thought about it a lot at night. I want that for him, and I feel the accountability. It's my job now to get him going. Because I think he'll make the commitment and I'll make the commitment, too."

And most recently, Fassel has said:

“Holy smokes, Losman’s an outstanding player,” Fassel said. “He was offered a backup contract to play in the NFL, but he’s doing the right thing to play here and re-establish himself. With some of these [NFL] teams struggling with the quarterback position, I can’t imagine that he couldn’t start for them. No question in my mind.”

Take his opinions for what they're worth, but he knows a lot more about quarterbacking and football than anyone on our current staff. What kind of coach takes an athletic strong armed quarterback and tries turning him into a straigh pocket passes a la Drew Bledsoe? Ridiculcous.

The Redwoods are coached by former NFL Coach Dennis Green. Rounding out the coaches of the rest of the teams in the league are Jim Haslett and Ted Cottrell. Green and Haslett have had more success head coaching in the NFL than Jauron without a doubt and former Bills Defensive Coordinator Ted Cottrell...well I would take him in a heart beat over Jauron. Jauron is worse than all coaches in the United Football League...ouch.

Go Loco's.

Bills giving Browns six points Sunday

by Steve

In what universe are the Buffalo Bills giving six points to any team regards of location or opponent or conditions. The Buffalo Bills are a terrible franchise. They QB has accomplished zilch, never throwing 300 yards, a quarterback who is a career loser and an organization that is so inept it embarrasses it self without even doing anything.

And yet the Bills are (-6) against the Browns on Sunday? Holy shit how bad is that team/organization? I for one would never bet on the Bills giving six points to any team even if it is the Browns. True they have a bad QB horrible head coach and just traded their allegedly best player but six? The line hasn't even moved (maybe a half point depending on your source).

But honestly are the Browns really that bad? We lost to them last year at home in prime time with nearly the same cast of bums. If you take the Bills Sunday you're an idiot.

Miami 38 Bills 10: Jauron and Edwards=Failure

-Coast

I have had a day to digest this loss and reflect on the past 52 games of the Dick Jauron era. I don't think there is any argument that he is one of the worst, if not the worst coach in the NFL or all of sports. The real sickening thing is how bad the quarterback is. He may have a .500 record, but that is not acceptable to anyone outside of the Buffalo Bills organization.

What are the most important attributes for a quarterback, other than wins and losses? There are three obvious ones. Touchdowns, interceptions and yards. Does the player make big plays? Does he take care of the football? That was one of the biggest reasons why the Bills coaches loved Trent. He took care of the football and was smart. Trent Edwards is now in his 3rd years as Buffalo Bills quarterback. Here are some numbers.

Record: 13-13
Yards Per Completion: 10.98
Pass attempts per passing touchdown: 33.04
Pass attempts per interception: 33.04

I have decided to look back at every single quarterback the Bills have since the 1998 season that started games for any significant period of time, just to compare to the quality of player we have under center right now. I did not look at QB rating because I know many people think it is a bogus statistic.

Doug Flutie

Record: 21-9
Yards Per Completion: 12.68
Pass attempts per passing touchdown: 22.62
Pass attempts per interception: 35.43

Rob Johnson

Record: 9-17
Yards: 4,798
Yards Per Completion: 11.97
Pass attempts per passing touchdown: 24.56
Pass attempts per interception: 39.00

Alex Van Pelt

Record: 3-8
Yards Per Completion: 11.39
Pass attempts per passing touchdown: 29.81
Pass attempts per interception: 19.88

Drew Bledsoe

Record: 23-25
Yards Per Completion: 11.22
Pass attempts per passing touchdown: 27.84
Pass attempts per interception: 35.60

JP Losman

Record: 10-23
Yards Per Completion: 11.13
Pass attempts per passing touchdown: 28.51
Pass attempts per interception: 27.68

Kelly Holcombe

Record: 4-4
Yards Per Completion: 9.74
Pass attempts per passing touchdown: 23.00
Pass attempts per interception: 28.75

Yes, other than Flutie, Edwards has the best win loss record. All you Edwards supporters can hang your hats on that. However, out of the 7 quarterbacks named above, Edwards ranks 7th in yards per completion, 7th in pass attempts per passing touchdown, and 4th in pass attempts per interception. Yes, he took care of the football better than Losman, Holcombe and Van Pelt but he was also more careful than all of these guys. All I am saying is that the argument can be made that he is the worst player we have had at quarterback since Kelly retired and the only player I would give you without much argument is Alex Van Pelt, his coach...I know I left Todd Collins off this list, but we all saw him play a few years back with Washington and he is obviously better. He is without a doubt the most scared player we have had back there that I have ever seen.

What about the head coach? It was brought to my attention today that Dick Jauron has had 6 300 yard passers at quarterback in his entire career in the NFL as a head coach. In Buffalo, he has coached 52 games. The Bills have had 2 300 yard passers in that span, and have had zero since JP Losman did it in Houston in 2006 (Losman has both 300 yard passing games during this span). That is unbelievable. We know the record is bad. He is 58-79. In 8 full seasons, a Jauron coach team has finished above 3rd in their division only twice, and one of these seasons, the team finished 2nd with a losing record. He only once has a winning season, has only once made the playoffs. I think it is obvious that one season was an outlier. The most glaring evidence of how bad the Bills coach and entire staff is by taking a look at the numbers of first ballot hall of fame receiver Terrell Owens. Yeah, he is 35 years old. Yeah, he isn't as good as he was 5 years ago. But is he bad enough that he would start with 8 catches, 158 yards and only 1 touchdown? He played 2 games against Tampa and Miami (combined 1-7 record). His 185 consecutive game streak with a catch came to an end. I know a lot of the media hates TO, but come on. It was reported that the first 4 games this season resulted in the worst 4 game stretch of his career.

In his career, Jauron's offenses have ranked above 20th only once (9th in 1999). They have ranked above 20th in points only once (2001). Jauron's defenses have an average ranking of 20th in yards allowed (never higher than 14th). They have an average ranking of 18th in points allowed, and that includes a single number 1 ranking in 2001. Other than that, a Jauron defense has never finished in the top 10 in points allowed. The funniest thing about this stat is that Dick Jauron is a "defensive minded coach."

I know that numbers aren't all that there is. These guys don't a good track record on paper, and they don't pass the eye test either. How many times have you fired Jauron in your mind the past three plus years? I know I have at least 20 times. Edwards has had some moments, but the bad moments are piling up and right now I think clearly outweigh the good. The rest of 2009 is going to be a long year. Here's to hoping for a 100% complete overhaul in 2010.

Dolpins destroy Bills 38-10

by Steve

Even thinking about writing this post makes me physically ill. This was one of the worst games I have ever watched the Bills play. Unfortunately that doesn't mean much because I could say that 3 or 4 times a year now a days.

The real issue is just how utterly hopeless things are. There is no silver lining, nothing to look forward to. These are the bleakest days in the team's history. The only other comparable time was after superbowl 25 or 26 or 27 or 28. The owner gives ZERO hope things will ever change. The quarterback appears to be a complete dud. The coach has 2 more years left on a contract and is clearly the worst head coach in the NFL. It is only week fucking four!?!?

The offensive line couldn't have played worse. The linebacking corps is more than pathetic. There are no play makers on defense. Trent Edwards has no guts no guile and little discernible talent. Lynch couldn't run the ball worth a damn (although looked pretty good catching the ball). The defensive ends seemed to get little pressure despite 6 sacks some how. The middle of the field is a wasteland on offense. Nelson was no where to be found, did Maybin dress?

How is it possible that 99% of the fan base can see the writing on the wall for Jauron but Brandon or Wilson or Dicko himself can't see it? What is a better word to describe the situation sad or pathetic? What's worse the thought of Jauron staying beyond this game (or this season) and drafting another quarterback and hoping he pans out?

Utterly hopeless

Bills @ Dolphins 11/4/09

by Steve

What a shock, the Sabres lost in OT at home. Uhhh, Henne v Trent, and I don't love Trent Edwards? That is sad and a testament to the state of the Buffalo Bills. Lynch returns after a 3 game stint on the suspension list because he forgot to register his loaded gun and he smokes a lot of weed.

If Peezy is out I like the Bills chances. Injuries abound and the offense has yet to truly click. Lynch/Jackson need to step their game up and exceed the production of the wild cat and RWs/Ronnie Brown. Drop 10 in the box, let our DEs make plays and the Bills should win.

Late money has been riding the Dolphins with obvious reason. The Bills aren't good and shouldn't be favored on the road. Jauron v Sporano is sadely a mismatch in coaching.

If the Bills can force the Dolphins into passing downs and Owens and or Evans show up the Bills will win. If the running game tears up a weak d-line of Kelsay Schobel a banged up Williams and Stroud it could be another ugly 17-10 game.

Take the under and hope the Bills can snap a bad division losing streak

Buffalo Sabres 09/10 season preview

by Steve

The Sabres open up the season tonight in Buffalo vs the Habs as everyone knows. Also, everyone knows the season doesn't really start until after Bills season. Luckily for Sabres fans that could be as early as 7:30pm tomorrow if the Bills lose to a back up QB and a bad 0-3 Dolphins team.

The Sabres did next to nothing this offseason. Grier is past his prime, Montador is maybe a #7 defenseman on a good team, Peters sucked and won't be missed, Myers will play 9 games and be shipped back and yocal Kennedy is only on the roster because Mair is hurt. Those are the only 4 players that are new from last season.

So what does that mean? Evidently Darc/Quinny/Linda think Pominville and Hecht are going to magically get exponentially better after proving they weren't worth the money last year. Roy is too small, Vanek's contract is crippling and Miller needs to majorly step his game up because of that contract. Vanek will have a big year along with Connolly. The Sabres are going to need more than them two however.

The Sabres are an anomaly. They could be a top 4 or 5 team or they could end up in 10th place again. The defense is average at best and the rookies are going to have to contribute for this team to battle with Boston for the division. More likely the Sabres will finish 7th or 8th depending on the play of Lalime.

I'd like to think Regier and Ruff are on the hot seat but the odds of one or both getting fired/let go after another disappointing season is remote. The owner and managing partner are lost and love continuity. I'm just hoping for no injuries because I am sure as fuck I don't wanna hear that excuse in mid April next year.