metzelaars_lives

I haven't started a thread in forever but I'm at my breaking point here. Does anyone else listen to a fair amount of WGR online? If you don't, you won't know what I'm talking about. But if you do, surely you also want to strangle Flo, all of those Geico girls with their stupid Dear John letters and perhaps most of all, the f***ing Grainger guy. Seriously every time I listen to one 15 minute segment, I have to then endure 5 minutes straight of the exact same commercials every single time. Often times they will repeat the same commercial in one break. I am completely losing it. I have some of these commercials memorized and I hate them. I'm beginning to miss the William C. Rott & Son commercials, that's how bad it's become. I suppose I could just close out the window or mute my computer and then guess when they're back on the air but that seems like a pain in the ass. Is there a solution to this problem that I'm not thinking of? Please help.

Ahh you're back. Still waiting for you to cite an example of me ever using a stat, let alone "every" stat, to criticize Manuel. You cite obscure stats to defend him, while all I am saying is, "he kinda looks like he sucks." And excellent use of the 'Orton sucked too' Manuel defense. Well done.

On paper, if you look at it that way, it doesn't sound unreasonable to have let him keep playing. But were you in favor of letting him play in Detroit? I didn't think anyone was at the time. There are three factors which made it a no-brainer to put in Orton. 1. We had/have a playoff caliber defense. Hey maybe if he was on the Raiders, they let him ride it out. 2. He was so bad in the offseason/preseason that his poor play did not appear to be a fluke. 3. It wasn't like he had a little hiccup. He completely imploded and lost all confidence to the point that his receivers were visibly frustrated- something I'd never seen in an NFL game before, at least not to that extent. They do not win that game in Detroit the way he was playing. It was the right move at the time. Should they have put Manuel back in later in the season when Orton started to suck too? Yes, I would have.

I don't think I've ever cited a statistic for EJ Manuel ever. But alas, you will not respond so there you have it. EDIT: the Robert Woods one, that's the only stat I've ever used. Yeah if you recall he looked awful in OTA's and practices all 2014 offseason as well. Every day we would wait to hear that he had a decent practice and every day the reports were the same. It was really alarming to everyone. I'm surprised some of you seem to have forgotten this. Apparently he looked good in the one practice with the Steelers and then reverted back to sucking again ad then looked abysmal in the preseason. The EJ excuse then was the coaches were running a vanilla offense and not showing their hand.

I would call trying to make every absurd excuse known to man for a guy a "crusade" before I would call saying "not that optimistic but let's see what happens" a crusade.

Calmer than you are dude.

We are blaming Doug Marrone for Jeff Tuel and Kevin Kolb now?

If EJ Manuel PROGRESSED in the 2014 offseason, my guess is that they wouldn't have been so overly concerned with signing Orton. You are basically stating that Manuel's regression was not a concern but Thad Lewis's was.

Right because Marrone was so concerned with Thad Lewis's play.

Got it. So after EJ Manuel sucked in pretty much every single practice and certainly every single preseason game, the Bills brass was like, "Well obviously we're good to go at starting QB but man, Thad Lewis is a giant concern at backup QB. Let's dump him and coax this guy out of retirement by paying him $5 million a season just to hold a clipboard. I mean, I'm sure we'll never have to actually use him because EJ looks great but we really need a good backup QB just in case he gets injured." OK, just wanted to make sure. Look I agree that their hand was forced but to say that Manuel had nothing to do with their hand being forced is kind of insane. It's almost historically inaccurate.

So you are prepared to go on record as stating that EJ Manuel's 2014 dumpster fire of an offseason and preseason played no role in the signing of Orton? You are starting to tread dangerously close to Bills Fan 4 Life territory.

You really believe that, don't you.

OK I lied, I'm back. If Derek Carr has an offseason and preseason that is so incredibly alarmingly, shockingly, startlingly bad that the Raiders have to throw big money at a retired QB who has stated he doesn't want to play anymore on the eve of the season as an insurance policy, then and only then will they be in the same place going into their respective second seasons. You gotta admit, I won that one.

Yes I am. EJ Manuel had Watkins, Woods and Williams played in all four games Manuel played as well as a healthy Spiller and Jackson. The o-line sucked for him for the most part. But again, you only count the play calling and the o-line but don't look at the fact that he had above average weapons at his disposal. Did anyone have less competent RB and WR weapons at their disposal last year than Derek Carr? Something tells me that a good QB makes it work with the weapons the Bills had last year. Alright I'm done. You win. Talk to you guys next week once the pads come on.

Agreed.

Would Derek Carr have looked better last year if he had Sammy Watkins and Robert Woods to throw to? Again, I love how EJ Manuel is the only QB in the NFL at a disadvantage and every other QB is on the same level playing field. You guys are unbelievable.

OK well one is going to be their team's starting QB and is about to have a shiny new weapon in Amari Cooper to throw to this fall. His arrow is clearly pointing up. The other is going to have to beat out Matt Cassel to even get a chance to play and there is still a chance that if he has an offseason anything like last offseason, he could get cut outright. So regardless of what you think about the two guys, they are not in even remotely close to a similar place career-wise.

No I meant David. He's making a comeback. Derek Carr on the other hand, was ranked 20th yesterday among NFL QB's by ESPN Insiders. They had Matt Cassel ranked 31st. EJ Manuel was ranked N/A because ESPN Insiders were assuming that he would lose out on the job to Matt Cassel. Is Derek Carr ranked a little high? OK fine. But guys, again, only on this thread would someone saying, "I don't know, I think I'd take EJ Manuel over Derek Carr" be considered a rational thought. Do you really think if you were a Raiders fan and you just saw Derek Carr throw for 21 TD's as a rookie to freaking James Jones and God knows who (we love the Marrone excuse on TBD but would never consider who Derek Carr and Teddy Bridgewater were actually throwing the ball to) that you would be like, "I don't know guys, I really like this Manuel kid in Buffalo... I mean, I know he was so God awful all of last year that he was strongly rumored to get cut and he wasn't even that good in college, but I'm tellin ya, he was misused by his coach and he's got this magical upside..." You guys are living in fantasy land.

I am trying to bow out of this thread as discreetly as possible. But I encourage everyone to go back to the main page and read the article from the Syracuse newspaper about the QB situation. The guy pretty much says, "at this point the prospects of EJ developing into a franchise QB appear extremely slim." OK so of course he's a hack and hater but guys, this is what most of the country outside of this little Bills bubble believes. And when I say "Bills bubble," I'm not even talking about Bills fans, I'm literally talking about you- the dozen or so people in this very thread that think my opinion that EJ "probably won't" develop into a franchise QB (I wouldn't even say slim!) is some crazy, out of leftfield, overly cynical point of view. I have even been called a troll just for having this opinion, which again, ALL OF AMERICA SHARES EXCEPT YOU. And also, dude, David Carr, no. Look up his numbers from last year, they will surprise you. He looked very promising for most of the year. He is way ahead of EJ Manuel. Can EJ make up ground on him this year? Sure. Could he surpass him this year? Yes, it's possible. If he wins the job first. But you guys are so ridiculous in how you give Manuel this incredibly lenient benefit of the doubt and then nitpick QB's on other teams that are well ahead of him.

Good call.

You really think Nathaniel Hackett was in line for a raise? Come on man, try and think about that for a second. What scenario seems more likely? You can take it for what it's worth but I can assure you of how it went down.

Ha. I don't really think they should have held onto Lewis. I thought that was pretty clear. He imploded in the 2014 offseason just like Manuel. To cite coaching there is not incredibly far-fetched. I was just pointing out that they were about the same in 2013 and neither of them had NFL experience. And for the record, neither of them were even that bad. Does EJ Manuel have more upside than Thad Lewis? Sure, of course. My issue with Manuel was his startling regression throughout the entire calendar year of 2014- not just the one play where JJ Watt intercepted him.

Yes, of course. If you were to poll non-Bills fans across the country who they would rather have as their QB, Bridgewater or Manuel, literally more than 99% of them would say Bridgewater. Guys, are some of you really trapped in this much of a Bills bubble?? Not that it matters because they're all hacks and haters but ESPN Insider ranks Bridgewater 23rd, Matt Cassel 31st and EJ Manuel N/A because they apparently have him losing the job to Matt Cassel. So yes, really. The source who told me that Marrone left because he refused to fire most of his staff is the same source who gave me Mario Williams visiting the Bills, which I broke on this website before anyone else, let alone the national media. It is a direct source from the team. Haven't had to invoke that one in a while. And if Lewis was in fact a pseudo rookie in 2013, we should have held onto him longer because he looked every bit as good (his statistics are better pretty much across the board) as Manuel did that season. In all sincerity, I am perfectly fine with them moving on from Thad Lewis and I am happy that Manuel is still competing for the job but that is true.

Few things. Don't disagree with most of what you wrote. But Thad Lewis was not a rookie in 2013. And also, as I have stated before, Doug Marrone quit because he refused to fire the bulk of his coaching staff. So one way or another we would not have gotten Marrone along with his full complement of coaches again in 2015. And as far as you know who, I don't mind giving him a little bit more of a leash. But there have been QB's who have shown more development in less time than he has been given. Teddy Bridgewater and David Carr being the two most recent examples. But anyway.

And guy, you gotta stop calling every writer a hack and everyone who is not as glowingly optimistic about EJ Manuel (or the Bills in general for that matter) as you are, a hater. No one is out to get the Bills. They have sucked for the better part of 15 years. The Bills are definitely an 'I'll believe it when I see it' proposition to every sane, unbiased football fan, writer and analyst in the United States. And so too, of course, is EJ Manuel. Bills fans sound like such a bunch of losers as it is with the constant "Cheatriots" and "Pats*" nonsense. Can we please stop with the "Why don't they respect us?" narrative? I promise you that if the Bills are good and win a lot of games that these hacks and haters you speak of will stop trashing our beloved Bills. Also, I don't have ESPN Insider. Can someone tell me where they had Manuel ranked?