akm0404

Fitzpatrick was a bottom-third of the NFL guy in his statistical aberration year. Having an elite-level quarterback would have made the team a contender, instead of a bottom-third irrelevant team. Look at the benchmark franchises with elite quarterbacks - the talent around them comes and goes, but the winning stays the same.

I think we learned that without elite-level quarterback play, your team is an also-ran.

Yes. The elite quarterbacks would. But still, it'll never happen.

Man I hope Newton tears up the championship game. That'd turn some heads around here.

I don't think anyone is debating who to pick in a scenario where both are available. Pretty certain that not one person has Cam ahead of Luck on their draft board.

Because entertaining various differing ideas and strategies for solving a problem is such a terrible idea.

Just like when they drafted Reggie Corner, and the commentators had no clue who he was because he wasn't in their packet of the top 300 draft-eligible players, so they just spent a minute riffing on how crazy it is that his name is Corner, and he is a CORNER!

People want a good quarterback because we don't have one, and people notice that the teams that have elite quarterbacks tend to win the Super Bowl every single year, and compete for championships year in and year out. People think that competing for championships year in and year out is better than rebuilding to 7-9 with a journeyman bottom-third-of-the-league guy manning the absolute most important position in all organized sports.

It makes me sad that we can't have Andrew Luck It would really be nice to have a Pro Bowl-caliber quarterback. Not that he's a lock to be one, but we're a lock not to have one.

And yet still nobody recognizes that our defense was actually superior to our offense, relative to the other teams in the NFL. #24 in total defense. #25 in total offense. Everyone just got a chubby for Fitzpatrick because he came on strong and strung together a few good games before tanking the rest of the season on his way to a bottom-third-of-the-league performance. The offense was JUST AS BAD AS THE DEFENSE. The offense just did it by playing an entertaining turnover laden game, while the defense did us in by getting dominated against the run, which felt way worse. The offense was terrible. They didn't score enough. They turned the ball over a bazillion times. The quarterback is an inaccurate bottom-third journeyman who statistically corrected himself at the end of the year. We need offensive help just as badly as defensive help. Both sides of the ball are bad. The whole team is bad. Who helps your team the most, assuming you can pick an elite quarterback or an elite defensive or offensive lineman. I'd postulate that the QB has the highest upside, and really, we need someone with impossibly huge upside to drag us out of this slop.

You realize that he can choose where he goes right? You can't draft UFAs.

Bottom third isn't average. Also, bottom third doesn't win championships. We do want to win a championship right? Or are we just going to be happy again rebuilding back to 7-9? I forget.

LOL yeah, the Bills are stocked with NFL-quality players.

It would be worth it to trade away absolutely everything. Give Carolina any 5 of our players, and all of our draft picks this year. Having an elite-level QB is worth any price. Ask the Colts and Patriots how easy it is to make the playoff with theirs, despite having marginal supporting casts year in and year out.

Who was surprised by Fitzpatrick's well below-average play? I mean, I wasn't surprised to see him have an 80 quarterback rating, with a nearly 1:1 TD to INT ratio, and sub-58% completion percentage...

I've watched every minute of every game this year. The ones where Fitzpatrick played well, and the ones that he played terribly. It all added up to a season that was slightly ahead of his career average, but that ultimately came pretty darn close. Just because he isn't as painful to watch as Trent Edwards was doesn't make him as good as the real NFL quarterbacks.

25th in the NFL in total offense. 28th in the NFL in points scored. I'll give you that the offense is somewhat better than last year, and was CERTAINLY more watchable (touchdowns+turnovers look MUCH better than 3 and out futility, even if they accomplish the same thing). But the Bills offense was bad. Very very very bad in 2010. There were only a handful of teams that were worse offensively. That isn't good enough. The defense was statistically almost identical to the offense in terms of futility. They did it by getting blown up by the run and playing decently against the pass. But either way, 24th in the NFL in total defense and woeful in forcing turnovers. Very comparable, but they were more the Edwards style of getting ground to a pulp methodically game in and game out. Both are not nearly good enough, and both need to be RADICALLY improved in order for the Bills to contend for the playoffs. I agree with you here. If Luck is there, you take him because you'd be on drugs not to. If you don't think Newton can be a superstar, you pass on him.

It's cool - people just like Fitzpatrick as a person and can relate to him and just have that urge inside themselves to want him to succeed. I know I feel that way about him - I just wish he was better at being a quarterback so we didn't need to give him clipboard duty.

If Carolina doesn't want Luck (?!?! no way Jose), they can name their price and get it for their draft slot. Hopefully we'd be the team to swap with them, but I kind of doubt it.

Take a good look at Cameron Newton in the national championship game and watch how he throws the ball. Try not to compare him with other "scrambling" quarterbacks, and just watch. I'm going to. I'm not saying that I'm on crusade to draft him, but I'm keeping an open mind because I truly feel that having an elite-level quarterback is almost exclusively what makes the perennial championship contenders true contenders. And sadly, I think Luck is off limits.

If you keep getting rid of your average players, you end up in a situation where, when a few of your starting players go down to injury, you end up playing with a lineup filled with undrafted free agents and practice squad refugees. Sound familiar? Edit: Also, the Bills are in absolutely no salary jeopardy and have the resources to sign their free agents AND draft picks AND a smattering of street free agents. They would have been WAY below the salary cap this year, had there been one.

It also goes without mentioning that this was stated BEFORE Fitz started playing really badly for the later part of the season, finishing in the bottom third of the league in nearly every passing category and correcting his season statistics near his (poor) career averages.

It's always pretty hard to trade down from this head-of-the-draft slots. Plus, from limited history, it seems like Buddy might not be a big wheel and deal kind of guy. I'm guessing we'll make our pick at #3, and my fingers are crossed for Luck (huge longshot) or possibly Newton. Edit: There is also a reason why so many teams would give up a king's ransom to acquire Andrew Luck - most teams aren't thrilled with bottom third of the league QBs and recognize the vital importance of elite-level quarterback play. So yeah, you have to take him if you can - but he'll go #1 almost certainly if he declares.

Seems like lamenting an utterly catastrophic season is the thing to do when it's only been over for less than a day. 24th in the NFL in total defense. 25th in the NFL in total offense. Third worst team in the NFL. Sorry for postponing the parade for a couple days

Dude, PTR - Fitzpatrick had a bad year. In his very best statistical categories, he was merely average. In his worst, near the very bottom of the league. You're really splitting hairs with a guy over your quarterback being in the bottom third of the league vs. the bottom quarter. Both are very bad, and are not good enough to contend for championships year in and year out. But yeah, he had a cool beard and gave good press conferences.