starrymessenger

Unfortunately you can bet that Bill B won't be taking the Bills for granted and that he will be making that crystal clear to his team all week. This is pretty much a must win game for the Pats if they want to have a decent playoff run. Having to play an extra game and losing home field advantage is a luxury this Pats team cannot afford. Brady already echoed those sentiments in his press conference immediately following the Ravens debacle. He referenced the Bills D and how they had just beaten the Fins so he's ahead of the curve. Pats will come to play and that's a good thing. If the Bills win or are at least very competitive it will be a good sign - so an important game for both teams.

Greg Robinson if he declares. Perfect bookend to CG.

Even allowing for him being a rookie HC, I would grade his effort this year as a C or maybe even C-. You sort of get the impression that the OBD politicos that were hiring for the job took a guy who would be easier to control and less threatening to the way they have chosen to manage the team and the business than a highly respected veteran coach like Lovie. The hype at the time was that we bagged the guy everybody was after etc...but maybe we just took the local boy because it was the easiest and most expedient thing to do. A new HC normally surrounds himself with guys that he knows, but you wonder whether his OC and ST coaches were chosen because they would be more manageable and less threatening to him. I also get the impression that maybe his insecurity translates into a hard line "my way or the highway" attitude. Maybe that works in college but with grown men who are making many times what you are earning it doesn't work. Good NFL coaches cater to their best players to get the buy in they want and to get the most out of them - all without sacrificing the player to coach respect that they need to have and maintain at all times. Like EJ we will know a lot more about DM a year from now. I hope they both succeed.

I'm 35% confident that EJ will develop into a bona fide quality starter at this level. To me he is likely never going to make the tight throws in narrow windows that good NFL QBs make. He has never done that and the probability therefore is that he never will. If the problems affecting his accuracy, or lack thereof, were such as to be corrected they would have been coached out of him a long time ago. If to the contrary his accuracy can go from bad to good, my 35% estimate goes immediately to 70%, with staying healthy the only significant concern. EJ is a fantastic athlete. All the physical tools that anyone could want are there in spades. But the so called QB specific "power cords" that permit access to those impressive physical attributes while playing the position, sensing pressure in the pocket almost intuitively, going through progressions, field vision and anticipation, throwing receivers open, naturally having good throwing mechanics and footwork so that passing is second nature, etc... and all of that happening with split second timing, are palpably absent IMO. And I tend to doubt that those things can be learned. A clearly superior athlete can be very successful playing future doctors and lawyers in college. All of that changes in the pros. If you are going to be a good QB in the NFL you pretty much have to be born to play the position, you have to be a natural. Regrettably I don't see those qualities in EJ. Not at all. Of course I'm not qualified to evaluate football talent so could be very wrong. And I certainly hope I am.

It's quite possible that they are sceptical about EJ's chances of developing into a reliable starter. They probably knew full well what his problems were and had to acknowledge that they might not be correctable- in other words that they knew they would again soon be in the market. So why did they draft EJ high? They maybe thought that they should cater to a fanbase that was justifiably outraged at how the team had neglected the most important position for a decade. Drafting a first round QB is always a good marketing decision, at least in the short run. With the rookie wage scale as it is now, not only can more QBs get drafted earlier and see the field sooner, but maybe a team can also move towards another option more than in the past when the financial commitment was much greater. The Bills are probably not going to draft a QB early if at all in 2014 even if they doubt EJ is the guy. They have other holes to fill and they probably think they can ride the wave of enthusiasm that inevitably accompanies a highly drafted QB, at least for another year (or part thereof). But if EJ does not show significant improvement during the first half of next season they will IMO start reviewing their options for the 2015 draft, when they can ride the wave of goodwill again with what may very well be a better prospect. So the Bills investment in EJ is not that great and despite the hype might never have been. If they were so sure of EJ why would they have looked to add another big, young and athletic QB with something of an NFL track record the very year they drafted EJ? If Josh Freeman had been signed and if he had played well, which presumably they would want, wouldn't that have generated a QB controversy and what would that have done for EJs chances? Maybe the right thing, because EJ was probably best served by holding a clipboard for a couple of years.

You may be right about that, but I really do want him to succeed. Generally I like to see people succeed, and whether they play for the Bills or another team. What do I know about evaluating players. Probably precious little. So I certainly could be wrong. And I do certainly hope I am wrong. He looks to be a great kid and I would like for nothing more than to see him succeed.

That's because he usually only does it when they are five yards away. He is inherently inaccurate. He can make routine throws at times. Occasionally he makes even routine throws look more difficult than they are. He cannot make difficult throws at all, let alone consistently. He is a sloppy QB. Execution at that position in the NFL needs to be demonstrably, reliably and consistently crisp. An NFL QB needs to look like he was born to throw a football. EJ has never looked like that to me and odds are he never will because you cannot "learn" to throw a football. You either have that or you don't. It's a lot like Tebow actually, though probably not as bad. Still, not good enuf I'm afraid. And I actually really do hope I'm 100% wrong.

So who needs a veteran backup anyway? Oh wait...

It was a great catch, but as soon as I got over my Jeffries man rush I realized that I had just seen a throw (almost) as perfect as Big Ben to Holmes. McCown's ball placement and timing with his receivers has been unbelievable. I really had no idea he could play this well.

Some coaches work with "problem" players if they see the talent - Pete Carroll, Marvin Lewis. The Bills could use an OLB to complement Kiko. Vontaze Burfict would look pretty good in a Bills uni. But of course there was never any chance of us signing him, because we are not interested in working with and attempting to develop those types of players. The problem with that is that we turn our backs on a major talent pool because, let's face it, good football players are often immature (especially the younger ones needless to say). I hope Doug Marrone did not simply take the easy way out. I'd much rather chalk this up to inexperience as a professional head coach, and it does look a lot like a college type personnel decision and reaction. But if it's just more of the same old Bills lunch bucket mentality it does not bode well for the future.

Entirely agree. WRs do not all have Jerry Rice personalities. Many good ones are flakes and take a real toll on their coaches nerves and patience. Good coaches, like Mervin Lewis, work with players like this if they are talented. Marrone took the easy way out. It's either a rookie mistake on his part,or,as you imply, suggests something more concerning.

He is likely the MVP front runner. He is the real deal. I think he's as good as Luck even if he's not 6'4" and 235lbs. I never thought I would say that.

Agree. If healthy he is probably all you need at the position. He is a complete tight end and, assuming his injury history is not a continuing trend, or that injuries have not already compromised his ability to play at a high level, you could pretty much take TE off the shopping list as a priority item. If we mean to go down the two tight end set road then Chandler and maybe Gragg can step up.

Would like to disagree. But can't. That hermaphroditic douche waffle is the man. Sad but true.

League says the low blows are ok. Clueless ref just pats him on the back as 3 tries to pull them out of his stomach.

If you compare what he said with what Tom Brady said about the game ending play in Carolina you might be hard pressed to see much of a difference. The fact that his words are interpreted by his teammates differently and negatively is an indication that the lockerroom is reacting to a perception of his personality more than to what he actually said. Fletcher, the senior guy, Pierre Garçon, and now Moss, also a solid vet. There is obviously more there than a pretty non controversial post game comment. It's a reaction reflecting a sense that people who live with him for part of the year have from him. Stuff that the public at large likely never see. True he's just a kid and maybe the maturity will come. But if it's a personality flaw maybe that won't change.

IMO RG3 is an unbridled narcissist and a famewhore. I would not be surprised if some of his teammates despise him. He may have the best physical skillset for playing the position of any of the good young QBs that have come into the league the last number of years but he does not have the best intangibles. There is a good chance that his career will not reflect his talent because of his immaturity and lack of leadership skills. RG3 is intelligent but it is hard to change ones personality, even if one tries. It usually is what it is. If I had to chose I would take Russel Wilson before him. All day. I would probably take Luck ahead of any QB in the league right now all things considered (specifically the probability that he will play at a high, likely elite level, for ten or twelve years).

Maybe so but if he does well I won't be thanking Marrone.

Or maybe Marrone is just towing the party line. Or, heaven forbid, he had a big say in drafting him and now is unable politically to be more objective in his assessment. I don't want to relive the painful Chan/Fitz death agony for another three years.

Its not rocket science. It's a bottom line results driven business, and it's mostly about talent. If DaRick does well cutting him was a major Marrone blunder IMO. And if DaRick craps out, then coach made a good decision. Time will tell.

From what I remember seeing from his college days in Regina: big and strong even for his size, never saw him get manhandled, extremely quick off the snap with nimble feet for a guy his size. On the downside has a tendency to keep his pad level too high and therefore can get stood up. The quickness is god given. The pad level can be coached out of him. I have no idea how this will translate to the NFL level but he certainly deserves a hard look. I think Whaley will have this team where we all want it to be in a year or two.

That's right. They don't like him and don't consider him a teammate. I suspect that it's very difficult for a "different" personality type to separate himself psychologically and emotionally from his teammates and still make his way in the NFL. I suspect parking yourself on an island like that is not impossible tho. If you are a great player and on top of that one nasty mofo who doesn't take crap from anybody you can probably do it. But Martin is not that kind of guy or player.

What's wrong with the whole story coming out? It will in due course anyway.

Ritchie may be done playing in the NFL but Martin's career may well have a slower, more painful death.