Toolbox

Glad he's gone, and he deserved to go, but I think the biggest culprit is Nix for allowing Gailey's QB delusions to persist unchecked. As a head coach, I don't want somebody making excuses and saying they can't win with what they have. It is (was) Nix's job to provide Gailey with NFL quality talent at the most important position, maybe the only position that REALLY matters. Of course Gailey wasn't going to whine and complain and throw his hands in the air and give up. He needed to instill belief in Fitz and the team that they were ready to win. NIx needed to realize the futility of that noble effort as readily as thousands of fans. That said, Gailey deserved to be fired for allowing Wanny to, almost unbelievably, get back in the NFL as a coordinator, and for atrocious game-management decisions. Not sure how a GM who has bumbled the QB position so completely is allowed to continue...

We don't need the QB who led the league in INTs in 2010. We have the guy who led the league in INTs in 2011, who also has never won Super Bowls or exceeded mediocrity in any year statistically over 5 seasons.

So, if the Bills can do the practically impossible (play an entire season without signficant injuries to valued starters), then they are a good team. I absolutely agree. Further, if they can play the whole season without turning it over, i think they could be SB contenders. If they can string together 16 penalty-free games, I think we are talking homefield. Go Bills!!!!!

Were his ribs hurt for the 34 games he played prior to this season? He has never, over an extended sample of games, been anything but completely ordinary or sub average statistically. You really don't need to invent injuries to his ribs, offseason (or lack of it) excuses, injuries to others excuses, etc. He has always been average to sub-average. That is probably why, after being ranked 31st in the league after starting 15 games for Cincinnati, they let him go. Thats probably why he was avergage last year. That's probably why, after a hot start, he came back to his "true" proven form of....average. You cannot wish him to be a good QB. It's simply not true.

Impossible. Tebow is staunchly against all variations and usages of this world. He will, now, simply will his team to victory and then repeat his relgious mantra robotically after the game. Thanks a lot

How many years of below average statistics will it take for you provincial fanboys to accept reality? He is a nice guy with a cute beard that can't play QB at a high level in the NFL. He has never done it and he has played 50 games in the league. His statistics in terms of QB rating have never been in the top half of the league in any year. Do you really believe that circumstances have conspired against him to justify belief despite logic and facts year after year. He needs a full off-season, the injuries are not his fault, picks are the receivers fault......

So, "not good" QBs can win in Buffalo because we have poor OL which allows bad QB to succeed due to hair-trigger release. Cool! We have found a loophole while the rest of the league is searching for quality QB play.

Your reasoning against taking a tackle is spot on, therefore, we are taking a tackle. Build a premier offensive line to protect a bottom-third QB and a RB that wants to bounce it all outside anyway. Perfect!

He is currently 20th in QB rating. I suppose that means progress coming from 22nd last year (earlier i said 26th or 28th but was in error as he was 26th in 2009). I don't think creeping our way up the bottom third of QBs is acceptable progress in the league as he would be nearing 50 by the time he matured into being good. Nobody else had an offseason, so not sure how that excludes only him from being evaluated against his peers who also did not have an offseason. And only being his second year in the system (third on the team) does not hold much water as a legitimate justification for subpar play as Hasselbeck, Dalton, Kolb, Newton, Matt Moore, Tebow, and Cutler have all fared better. That is NOT to say, i believe that is a list of good QBs. Merely, it emphasizes the point of the group that Fitz finds himself at the bottom of.

There is no "arguing stats". They are incontrovertible facts and, therefore, do not fit nicely with what we wish would be true. Before he got to buffalo he was the 31st ranked passer in cincinnati. Last year, with presumably less injuries and (maybe) not a scout team to work with he was the 26th or 28th ranked passer. He was 26th and 28th the previous two seasons in buffalo, just can't recall the exact order. Granted, he would certainly be a higher ranked passer if he had calvin johnson, but excusing even partially, his lackluster performance over his entire career based on the parts around him is naive and typifies the losing mentality of this franchise. Simply put, good quarterbacks win. They find a way to do so or they're out of the league. He has played 50 games in the league and never even approached average (16th in QB rating). Did he have a scout team last year with fred, stevie, and lee?

In order to come to the conclusion that "he is that good(first 6 games 2011)", we have to ignore all other games in his four-year career? Interesting, and convenient way to assess. I don't think he has psychological problems. He has the problem, like most people on the planet, of not being a good NFL quarterback.

50 games in the NFL is a large enough sample size to determine if someone is good, average, or bad. Fitz has proven, over the long haul, that is a less than average quarterback. His QB ratings over the year do not lie. His rib was not hurt for 50 straight games, and his "weapons" were not injured throughout either. Of course he has had glimpses of brilliance. So did JP, Trent, Rob Johnson etc. I get increasingly baffled by people who insist his less than average play for the entirety of his career is not attributable to him. If only we all could get the same luxury of no accountability at our jobs.

Fitz is 12th in yards this season. So, if we extend the OP's logic, there are 11 other QB's that are worthy of comparison to Jim Kelly, including Joe Flacco and Cam Newton. And i'm reasonably certain that "good journeyman qb" is an oxymoronic phrase. I realize true statistics and comparison to contemporary peers makes it impossible for us to morph our wishes into delusional reality, but it still may prove a useful exercise: Fitz has played double-digit games the past 4 seasons (including this one): 2011 Season: 20th QB Rating and 1st with 19 interceptions (14 games) 2010 Season: 22nd QB Rating (13 games) 2009 Season: 26th QB Rating (10 games) 2008 Season: 31st QB Rating (13 games) I can hazard a guess that his 2008 performance is why Cincinnati let him go. Most teams in the NFL seem to base personnel decisions on empirical/video evidence. Lucky for Fitz, our beloved bills are not logic slaves. I don't think it's justifiable to attribute his usual less than mediocre play this season on a lack of weapons (and, incidentally, nobody without the last name of Chandler calls Scott Chandler a weapon). Last year Fitz was given the opportunity to be inaccurate with Lee and Stevie and Fred was along for the ride. Quarterbacks make weapons out of receivers; not the other way around.