San Jose Bills Fan

Unfortunately Chris Brown didn't report on who got how many snaps with the first team offense. I haven't checked out any other media reports yet.

In our recent linebacker discussion I forgot to mention White who's a very average athlete but is always in the right place. He's your classic "coach on the field" type player and that was his rep going back to Miss. State.

Curses! Foiled again! Speaking of curses, I agree this topic is a wee bit early. No sooner did I start lobbying for EJ's HOF induction than he got injured.

Wow. So Skip thinks that the Seahawks are still an AFC team. Unreal.

Also, Paul Szymanski.

A joint aspiration? With who? Da'Rick? Hey, hey, hey! Rocks are people, oh. Never mind. Can't you see we're having a pointless circular conversation here?!?!?!? Seriously. Let's see how the distribution of first team reps breaks down between Kolb and Tuel. That will tell us whether there's a real competition going on.

He does get lost in space. But I think he's a good run defender. Anyways, we seem to agree that he's got to get a lot better or be replaced.

Any reports from TO or Chad? Bisonbrigade floated that theory. While EJ's injury is obviously legit, I think there is definitely a component of smoke and mirrors going on here. Ah, you got us. It's interesting that he's kept steadfast to his name instead of going the "Randall Moss" route.

Also, Brad Smith is a pretty good special teams player and Easley has shown well there also. Hogan made a nice play in punt coverage against Minnesota.

Thanks, Coach.

Good job, OP. I'm not too concerned with the O-line either. They seem to be getting better. Jared Allen had about 5 pass rush snaps against Cordy Glenn and Cordy stonewalled him. Brown looked fine. Barring injury I think our O-line will be just fine. Moats is a good football player but clearly doesn't have the length and athleticism of Kiko. I don't think you'll see him defending TEs in the end zone like Kiko did with Fleener. That said, if he's a solid backup that's all we need for now. I liked our LB play but think we need more depth there. With regards to Searcy, I wonder if this is the week that Duke Williams makes a push for more playing time. I sure hope so. Brooks is a bit of an enigma but young players are often inconsistent. I love that they're playing him in the slot more because that's what he played mostly at LSU where he was a very good slot blitzer. I have high hopes for Brooks still. Freddy has definitely lost a step. My biggest concern with him is that I hope he stays low and protects his legs. On the play last year where he was hit by LaRon Landry and injured his knee, I couldn't believe that he didn't get lower sooner on that play. When a running back loses that little bit of quick-twitchability he needs to run differently. IMO Freddy has to try not doing too much and just concentrate on getting the yards that are there. Really? Where did you see that? That's concerning to me too.

Did you read his whole quote? Because he also said when asked if Manuel could start in week one: "The problem I have in that is again a lot of it is how he comes back and again there goes the variable thing, when he comes back, did he miss time? No one ever really starts where they left off. We saw that with Kevin (Kolb) and we saw that with EJ. The meaning of what I see so you can get a better insight from myself is, so the first game EJ goes in there and you see early on a little of the footwork, a little of the jitters or whatever we want to explain to it. Then all of a sudden he gets in to a rhythm and goes ahead and starts throwing very well and becomes very accurate. Kevin goes in to the next game and I think we kind of forget and take for granted that someone has been there for seven years or played X amount of years, started some games, but there was still a long window from when he played the last time, which was against Buffalo, until he gets on the field. I think you saw the same type of play early on, those jitters doing that and then all of the sudden he settles down. You look at the last 12 passes, I believe it’s 10 for 12, but it’s a very high percentage, but then he settles down. I think you see the play of whoever it is, EJ coming in, the relief pitcher comes in and he’s ready to go. He’s seen the game he’s more relaxed, I think that happens quite a bit. In the same sense both of those guys, you see the same two things. Those are the variables I was looking at when I was looking at those two."

It seems to boil down to the question, "do we err on the side of caution or do we err on the side of aggression?" That seems to be a big dividing line for opinions.

So according to the transcript of the presser, Marrone's comments on Tuel was the final quote so there was no opportunity for the media to ask a follow up. Thanks Wayne. I like how Marrone is handling these situations.

I understand the point you're making. It basically comes down to "do you trust Marrone and Hackett to make the right decision?"

I guess to what degree he'll be allowed to compete for the job will be shown by how many snaps he takes with the first teamers, both in practice and in games. One of his grandmothers. That was the logical follow up.

He's probably feeling down in the dumps.

These two news items are each significant enough to have their own topic. I admire everyone's discipline in not starting new topics but these are both pretty huge news items in the Bills Nation. Mods merge if you deem necessary. According to Buffalo Bills.com, EJ Manuel has not been ruled out for the season opener against New England: http://www.buffalobills.com/news/article-2/EJ-surgery-complete-chance-to-be-ready-Week-1/fa0af8f5-883c-46b1-9113-c72e395dd821?campaign=tw_buf_article According to Buffalo News writer Jay Skurski, Bills Head Coach Doug Marrone says that Jeff Tuel will be given the opportunity to compete for the starting QB position:

This conspiracy scenario is completely plausible IMO. I knew I should have gotten one with a HEPA filter. Actually it wasn't really 2 weeks. Didn't you see how many people were saying that the pass EJ missed to Hogan against Indy proved that he wasn't any good? Thanks Rubes. This was a much-needed post. Yep. Again we're having a black or white discussion when we're in a grey area. There's no question that a rookie QB will be set back a bit by missing practice reps. It doesn't doom his season but to think it won't have a bit of a negative effect on his short-term development is stupid. As just posted upthread, according to the Buffalo Bills, EJ has not been ruled out for week one.

You have QBs and then you have players who approach the impact that a QB would have like Calvin Johnson or Adrian Peterson. As good as he is much farther down the list you have players like Jairus Byrd. Except for a few QBs and a few other superstar players, no individual is more important than the team. Byrd is not more important than the team. He and Parker wanted to play hardball with the team and the team has obliged them. The willingness of the Bills to play hardball will serve them well now and in the future as it has for many other successful but fiscally-minded organizations. JMO.

They cut him or they cut his hair?

Thanks Astro. The reports are greatly appreciated.

This actually is very significant and deserves it's own thread.

The original Gator Bowl Stadium was demo'd in 1994 and the new stadium in Jax was built in 1995 from the ground up. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gator_Bowl#Venues The original Mile High Stadium was demolished in 2001 after the Broncos moved into the new stadium the same year. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mile_High_Stadium

I disagree and I'd bet your basing your opinion on one missed tackle on the Brooks forced fumble play. Firstly I think it's 50/50 that Searcy starts even without Byrd reporting. As for Landry you said: 1) Buddy was napping 2) The Bills don't like to spend money.3) Petine (sic) didn't lobby hard to sign him. Which one is it?