jad1
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Posts posted by jad1
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Enough footage since last year, numbnuts. I've seen a good bit from camp, this year and last, that makes me seriously question his ability.
But hey, feel free to dismiss my opinion because it's based on what I've seen from him. I'm sure your completely uninformed judgement is far superior.
I've watched the footage of Losman on BB.com, and Losman's technique, in my opinion, looks solid. Maybe your looking at different footage, but there's really nothing alarming from what I saw.
And he looked extremely solid throwing the ball in preseason last season, before the injury.
Coming out of college, the rap on him was that he left his feet to throw, making him fundamentally unsound. But his college completion percentage was good and interception ratio was low, so his "poor" mechanics didn't seem to hurt his on-field performance.
In your defense, though, maybe he did pick up enough bad habits from that Patriot mess to ruin his career.
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Petyon Manning, John Elway, Jim Kelly, Dan Marino, Daunte Culpepper, Donovan McNabb, Steve Young, Joe Montana, and Troy Aikmen are examples of players who's college careers were clear indicators of their NFL success.
Sure there's busts out there, that's why teams hire guys like good GMs to run their teams, instead of Mike Brown.
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Is it possible to sign two older geezers than these guys? Oh well, two more senior citizens for the early bird in South Florida.
Florida fans will be happy to know that the next time they're following a Lincoln Continental with it's right blinker on for 16 miles, they just might be following one of their new favorite Panthers!
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I would definately call him a caretaker last season.
He averaged 187 yards/game in his 14 regular season games.
He averaged just 21 pass attempts per game.
They didn't put the weight on his shoulders, they put it on the running game.
That being said if you look at his situational stats, his QB rating was at its highest when he was playing from behind.
BEHIND BY 9-TO-16 POINTS: 117.9
BEHIND BY 1-TO-8 POINTS: 106.3
BEHIND: 113.3
That is good stuff. I think the kid has a lot of potential and will have a long NFL career, but he was a caretaker last year.
Right now, I'd take these numbers for JP, without an argument. And I wouldn't care what people called him.
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I dislike TD. One can argue with merit his draft picks, player acquisitions and dismissals and on and on. There are valid pro and con arguments on either side of the fence.
Sports teams are supported by both fan's money and by their emotional capital. When it was obvious in late 2002 and in 2003 that GW/KB were abyssamal, that hang-dog DB was no real solution, TD did nothing. I'd speculate that a cadaver on a cold slab could have woke up and said, "WTF???" about the continuance of the status quo.
I believe a man who had any attachement at all to the sport would have faced the situation and shown those coaches the door. Plenty of folks knowledgable about pro ball, and not Bill's acolytes, smelled the odor.
TD seemingly could be working in the frozen vegetable industry as well as in pro football...all the same.
Yeah, his handling of the coaching situation in mid-2003 is my biggest criticism of him. In my opinion, Williams was definitely not on board with the type of team Donahoe wanted to build, and that became more and more evident as 2003 rolled along.
In my opinion, though, it's a forgivable sin, because I'm not certain that a change could have saved the season, and it's uncertain to what extent it would have affected his decision to hire Mularkey the next season. Les Steckel or Dick LeBeau could have won a few games, but were they really the long-term solution for HC?
It could have also split the locker room if the interim coach proved popular. So in the long run, staying with Williams might have given a measure of stablity to the team. The only veteren lost during Williams flame-out was Rueben Brown.
And while we're both disappointed with the patience he showed with Williams, you have to admit that the same patience he showed Mularkey during the 0-4 start has paid off.
I often wondered if Bledsoe wasn't here, who would have taken his place? Would the Bills been better off last season with Garcia, Brunnell, or Warner. It's hard to say.
While Bledsoe was hardly the franchise savior many wanted him to be, he did provide stability at the QB position, which enabled Donahoe to build a team around him. The rebuilding process would have been severely damaged the last 3 years if the Bills had to spend draft picks and cap money on a QB-of-the-month club.
Bledsoe allowed Donahoe to build up other areas of the team, and let him pick his spot to draft his sucessor. To his credit, the team he has built outgrew Bledsoe.
Despite the Williams setback, Donahoe has managed to keep the team on an upward curve. He's stocked the team with solid veteren FAs, and has drafted a good young core of players. And he's done a great job recovering from the necessary firing of Williams.
Donahoe's made mistakes, as every GM does, but he's made strong recoverys from them. I believe that's a sign of a good GM.
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Anybody else find it kind of creepy that Wilson extended Donahoes contract last year and only now is it finally leaking out?
I mean... who are we Bills fans to expect to get this type of information sooner?The bottom line is this franchise has been built on our backs....don't we deserve better?
Is it Wilsons embarassment that he extended a G.M. who under his watch the Bills record has been a paltry 26-38? Or is the won loss record no longer the bottom line?
It seems to me that Wilson is now suscribing to the bunker mentality management style that Donahoe uses. If only we knew what Wilson, Donahoe and Modrak know ....then we too could lead a team to a 26-38 record after four years!! Yikes!!
Yeah, Donahoe's such an egomanic you'd expect him to be sticking the contract into everybody's face, yelling 'How you like me now?!'
And if you can completely restock the roster of an NFL team and post a winning record 4 years later, you're in the wrong line of work. You should be a highly-paid GM.
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jad1: Wrong. I would not have wanted Polian fired in '87 because the team had made dramatic progress by his third year from the absolute mess he inherited in ‘85. Plus, he was doing so within the confines of a pre-free agency, pre-salary cap NFL era that did not encourage rapid turn-arounds like we regularly see now. And I've NEVER given TD a hard time for his first two seasons here, but the team has stalled and even backtracked for the last two, which has raised my skepticism of him higher than that of other fans around TBD. Sorry.
Your comments are so far from the truth here, I don't know where to start.
Polian's 3rd year here was '88, not '87. His record by the end of '87 was 11-20. Needless to say, those of you who scream RECORD and PLAYOFFS, couldn't have been happy with Polian's record at the end of '87.
To Polian's credit you acknowledge that he inherited a mess. However, your refusal to acknowledge the mess Donahoe inherited also discredits your argument.
Polian did not draft Kelly, Reed, Talley, or Smith as GM. Those guys were on the roster when he took over.
Conversely Donahoe has purged 52 of the 53 players he's inherited thanks in large part to the salary cap, which you somehow claim encourages quick turnarounds.
So Polian inherits a core of HOF players, while Donahoe has to purge millions of dollars to get under the cap. How did their first years turn out? Polian 4-12, Donahoe 3-13. Polian is one win better.
In their 2nd year Polian is 7-8 (non-scabs 6-6) while Donahoe is 8-8. Polian improves the team by 3 wins, Donahoe by 5 wins. 5 wins matches Polians largest season-to-season improvement, by the way.
In '88, Polian's 3rd seasons, the Bills explode to 12-4. Donahoe's Bills, in his 3rd season, fall to 6-10. Donahoe's biggest season-to season backslide is 2 wins.
Polian's 4th seasons sees the Bills backslide to 9-7, 3 fewer wins than in '88. Donahoe improves his team by 3 wins in his 4th season, to 9-7.
So both GMs inherited a mess (although Polian inherited a better team), both improved them rapidly, both suffered backslides.
Etiher Polian is an "average" GM or Donahoe is a pretty good one, because these guys have more in common than you would admit.
And if you can tell me how posting a 9-7 record is "backtracking" for Donahoe, I'd like to here that twisted logic.
Despite the cap and FA there are no quick "turnarounds" in the NFL. The Pats, Rams, Ravens, Buccaneers all spent most of the '90s accumulating talent to win their Super Bowls. If you take a close look at how these teams were built, you'd see that it still takes 5 or 6 years of accumulating talent to build a consistent winner in the NFL.
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You strike me as the type of fan who got excited over the GW press conferences during the 2003 season. You probably believed that the only real problem with the 2003 team was that they just didn't "execute better." Am I right?
Holy stojan, what has happened to the Buffalo Bills fan base?
You strike me as the type of fan who would been have calling for Polian's ouster back in '87, after the Bills finished their 6th straight season without a playoff appearance. And no doubt you would have been calling for Kelly's benching, because he just finished his second losing season. Am I right?
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I do not know if I can proove that TD forced Mularkey to hire Clements over Whisenhunt, but here is an article to back it up. Not the most objective source since Cowher is the coach in Pittsburgh and this is a Pittsburgh paper.
As Far as TD being en egomaniac I think he got it right when hired Mularkey to be Head Coach, however I do think his ego has had some negative impact when he hired GW. I think TD wants to get the credit for the success of this team and that is why he has hired 2 coordinators with no Head Coaching experience in the NFL, where as if he had hired someone like Jim Faasel to be the Head Coach who had Head Coaching experience and the Bills had ended up having success TD would not have gotten as much credit. This all goes back to his time in Pittsburgh when he lost the power struggle to Cowher I think TD is scared of a powerful coach because he might lose another power struggle like he did in Pittsburgh. Anyway I hope TD and Mularkey do not go down the same path as TD and Cowher.
Again you offer no proof that Donahoe is an egomanic or that he is afraid of a strong coach. And if you look objectively at how Donahoe has run the team, you'll see that your speculation is wrong.
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Henry's a Titan now. Clog up their board with this nonsense.
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Knock up your wife. That way she won't be able to travel when the wedding rolls around, and you won't want to leave her on her own that close to her due date. Works every time!
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If Gandy and Anderson were less popular than Verba, wouldn't they be hosting Vegas champagne parties while Verba was in an NFL camp somewhere?
By your logic, James and Alexander must be less popular than Henry, because Henry was traded and those two weren't.
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Saban looks like a tool. His players can't stay out of jail, he spent most of the offseason bending over backwards to bring back a quitter, and his QB of the future is a guy who once gave himself a concussion, banging his head against a wall.
Right now, Saban looks more like Butch Davis than Bill Belichick.
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That's true, but the team would have had a much higher pick in last season's cancelled draft, so this is a set back in it's aquisition of young talent.
We'll see how much Crosby will help the Penguins fill the oldest building in the league.
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Yeah, that and out-of-control health care costs.
Of course taxation and healthcare costs certainly haven't hurt executive salaries or dampened the stock market over the last 15 years.
Too bad nobody's compensated with stock options, right? They'd make out like bandits. Wait a minute....
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why did todd heap, santana moss, marcus stroud, jamal williams, mike minter, and joe horn resign before the expiration of their contracts??? because their team showed them a fair contract and they jumped on it!!!
funny how our guys always seem to be the greedy ones who want all the cash whereas other teams lock up their best young talent before they hit free agency.......screw the CBA garbage, just another excuse why we can't lock up young talent -- treat the player fairly and they will resign, just like the guys above did.......
there is no reason clements shouldn't have had a fat offer with a 12M bonus LAST YEAR.......does anyone think he was offered that? not a chance.......now it would take at least 15M.......GM needs to show foresight, not be reactionary........you wait on a player and he will walk, plain and simple........
Let's see, of the guys you mention, only Heap is considered top 5 at his position, and that's at TE, which is near the bottom of the position salary scale.
Clements has a chance, with a strong season, to be the highest paid CB EVER.
There's no way that Moss, Minter, Horn or Stroud will ever be the highest paid at their position. There's no way a TE will be paid as much as a top-level CB.
Your belief in this "so-called" fairness is naive, to say the least. You should have learned from the Henry situation the importance of market value. Market value trumps "fairness" in all cases of player moves.
Clements market value, in the new TV contract era, is going to be huge. And not knowing what the market for CBs will be in 2006, TD would be foolish to make a move today.
Most likely, Clements will be franchised. TD will be smart to pay him the average of the top 5 CBs with current contracts under the new cap. This will make Clements a bargain in 2006.
It will also give both Clements and the Bills time to figure out the new market value, which will put both on better footing to negotiate a long term deal.
The amount of money Clements will command on the open market and the new salary cap will make this an ugly negotiation.
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Clements, a pro-bowl CB, is going to be an UFA the first year of the new television deal. Why the hell would he have agreed to anything before 2006?
Donahoe would love to tie him up at pre-2006 rates, before the salary cap jumps, but Clements, most likely, isn't stupid enough to do that.
Like the Henry trade, Clements resigning is going to all be about the market. Right now, it's unclear what that market for an elite CB will be, so both sides are in wait-and-see mode.
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Wasn't that the 'nicknames' class?
Struggle student trying a nickname: "Drew Bledsoe much that he needed a transfusion." (Berman shakes his head).
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Travis got thrown in to a new system in the first four games of this season when no one was producing. We had a entirely new staff and an entirely new system. Willis thrived in it, but had the benefit of not looking bad during the learning curve, against some mediocre competition in the remainder of the season and everything started clicking. What's to say Travis couldn't have done the same?
As a pro bowl back, I'd expect Henry to rise above the learning curve.
They had 3 months of mini camps, 6 weeks of training camp, four preseason games, and it still took Travis more than a quarter of a season to learn his blocking assignments and pass routes?
How much practice does he need to keep from tripping over the line of scrimmage?
This is further evidence that Henry played himself out of the starting position.
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No, absolutely not. You bring up the point that I'm coming from in that I still think we should have drafted Dallas Clark over Willis McGahee in 2003. Overall it would have set the Bills up for success with Bledsoe immediately. But, what's done is done.
I just think it stinks the way Travis was treated. They didn't set him up for success they set him up for failure. And I can't imagine how that felt for Travis especially after being a pro bowl back. This could very well end up being the same as Jamal Lewis and Priest Holmes in Baltimore in 2000. Did Baltimore go with the better back? Hard for me to say now. Or Deuce McCallister and Ricky Williams in New Orleans. A decision had to be made and it was made.
There's no way TD should have drafted Clark over McGahee. McGahee is a top 5 talent. Clark is a TE, and not a very durable one at that.
I like the decision Baltimore made with Lewis, and there's no argument New Orleans did the right thing in replacing Williams with McAllister.
Travis was treated like a guy who stunk the place up in 2004 and lost his job to a better player.
Maybe if Henry ran for a couple 100 yard games and scored 3 or 4 TDs at the beginning of last season, but still lost his job, you'd have an argument. But he flopped, and that's no way to keep a guy as talented as McGahee on the bench.
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I don't remember anyone questioning the guys pride when he ran with a broken leg for half of the season.
And how do you "quit" when you aren't given the opportunity? You say he was given every opportunity. I don't think 8 carries is an opportunity.
Don't get me wrong here I think Willis is one hell of a back. But, I feel the same way about Henry. I don't like how TD had this entire thing go down and honestly I don't think we are that much better with Willis than we were with Travis. You can say what you want about a sample size of four games at the beginning of the year but there were other factors along with Travis that went in to us losing those games.
One quarter of a season IS a HUGE opportunity to prove one's worth. There may have other factors contributing to the Bills losing streak, but name ONE play Henry made in those games. Name one time where he put the team on his back like a pro-bowl player should, and lifted them to a win. It didn't happen.
At a time where he was fighting for his position, he stumbled, missed blocks, and ran the wrong assignments. He was terrible.
Did you really expect the Bills to name Henry the starter this season? After McGahee was instrumental in their best win streak since the early 90s? Mularkey is supposed to say, 'nice job Willis, but I'm starting the guy who had his best seasons under a different coaching staff?'
Because this seems to be what Henry expected Mularkey to do, even after his own horrible performance in 2004.
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Henry wasn't given the opportunity to win his job back. He got seven carries in the Baltimore game and averaged more yardage per carry than Willis. After that he recieved a total of 8 carries all year. 8 carries. That's getting the opportunity to take the job back?
Bottom line for me is that Henry's 2003 numbers are practically identical to Willis in 2004. Henry may not be as flashy as Willis but he's as good as Willis.
He did nothing the first 4 games of the season. Henry was worthless last year. McGahee outperformed him in the preseason, but Henry was still given the starting job for the opener.
If Henry is just as good as McGahee, he sure as hell didn't prove it last season. No 100 yard games + No TDs + No wins = no starting job.
Henry LOST the job after he was given every opportunity to keep it, and then he quit after losing the job, even though the McGahee-led Bills finished the year at 9-2.
And Travis expects to be handed his starting job back? Because he was good 2 years ago? Yeah, right. Too bad Travis didn't have the pride to EARN the job back.
Jerry Gray
in The Stadium Wall Archives
Posted
Gray's a punk for wanting a HC job? Well Cotrell also wanted one, as did Marvin Lewis, Jim Fox, Jack Del Rio, Romeo Crennell, and just about every DC in the league.
Gray's job isn't to groom a successor, and the Bills could easily retain Krumrie by promoting him if they want to.
Bottom line is that the Bills 3rd quarter defensive stats were amazing last year. If they repeat those numbers again this year, Gray WILL have head coaching opportunities, because he will prove himself to be a great on-field manager.
If that happens, Mularkey, Donahoe, and Wilson are responsible for finding and hiring Gray's replacement, not Gray himself.