Ozymandius

LOL, let's see what he does with a week of first team reps.

No problem. I've seen Holcomb have huge games in the past, including in the playoffs. I guarantee you see much better QB play when he's in the game. I mean, the bar isn't very high right now.

And a one liner like that screams stupidity, pigheadedness, and defeat.

As much as I hope that if Holcomb does well, he finishes the season as a starter in order to make a playoff run, I do realize that the coaching staff might be looking at this benching as just a one or two week thing that can improve JP. Wait, how does JP improve this week without stepping onto the field, you ask? I can think of two possibilities: (1) One of the easiest ways to improve at something is to watch and study someone else in action who is better at doing it than you are. Make no mistake, right now Kelly Holcomb is a better QB than JP. Much better. And as JP watches Kelly in action from the sidelines, I hope he picks up on some the veteran decisions and moves that Kelly makes that help win ballgames, and that JP doesn't possess right now. When Kelly goes back to pass, I hope JP runs through the progressions with him and attempts to understand why he chose to throw the ball where and when he did. But JP already spent all of last season watching from the sidelines, you object. That may be true but the difference is, this time around, he'll have already gotten a chance to start and play almost four entire games. He can study what Holcomb is doing on the field and combine that with his own experience playing, and that combination should help him learn much more quickly. Hopefully something will click. Because right now, I think JP needs a reminder of how a veteran QB plays the game. (2) JP played nervous and tight his first four games. He's talked about how he's been pressing and not trusting his instincts, and Mularkey's talked about it as well. When you're nervous, how do you stop being nervous? Easy, you let another emotion come over you. Hopefully this benching will get JP angry at the coaching staff and eager to prove that he can play in this league, and when he returns to the field, he'll be able to play angry instead of jittery, which should make a difference in his performance.

Don't be so sure that this move doesn't jumpstart the team. Last season proved that the Bills have talent and can get hot, and I would not be at all surprised if they finish the season 10-6.

Let's reserve judgement until you see how Holcomb performs. I think you're just wrong, quite frankly. Right now Holcomb is about 600 times a better QB than JP, and this switch will make huge difference.

Only the Colts will make it out of Week 5 undefeated. Jets over Bucs (remember, a bad team in the afc might still be better than a good team in the nfc), Jags over Bengals (Sunday night primetime game in Jacksonville), and Denver over Redskins. I'm actually least confident about the Denver game.

I'd swap "situations" with Miami if that includes coaching staff. I have nothing aganist Mularkey (yet), but I think and many people agree that Nick Saban is going to be a star in this league.

Except you assume that the game would've played out exactly the same way had Carolina kicked the XP. The events of a football game aren't occurring in a vaccuum where you can just pluck out one event, change it around, and expect the rest to remain the same. Different score means different circumstances means different play means different results. You can't anticipate what will happen.

You make a good point about how New England is able to suck it up and cope with injuries better than the Bills. Look, the Patriots are going to be playing the rest of this season without freaking Tedi Bruschi, who I think is the best LB in football, and Rodney Harrison, who has been so tremendous for them in recent years. You know what? They're going to still kick ass, despite the loss of these two players, which easily outweighs the singular loss of TKO from our defense. Why are they able to do this while the Bills D stands a serious chance of collapsing? (1) More heart, better coaching. The Patriots have it. (2) Better depth. Again, the Patriots just draft better. (3) Building from the inside out. The strength of the Patriots D is their defensive line, which is probably the best in football while the strength of the Bills D is (was?) their back 7. It's much much easier for the DL to cover up weaknesses in the secondary and LB corps than the other way around. How many years of football do we have to watch before we understand that games are won in the trenches? The biggest failure of the Donahoe era is that he hasn't been able to build strength and depth along the lines. We have good skill position players on offense, but the OL remains untalented. On defense, the DL is the weak link, mainly because of poor drafting, i.e. Denney, Edwards, Bannan, and Anderson are busts to various degrees. You just can't build a football team outside in. It doesn't work that way.

Agreed

I'm stoopid and need some explaining, so can you guys please elaborate on this logic? Wouldn't you want to attempt the 2-pt conversion as soon as possible, so that if you miss, you know early on that you will need two scores and can plan accordingly? If you wait until the end of the game instead to try the 2-pter and you miss, then game over, and you can't do anything about it at this point. If you attempt it early, you give yourself time to plan for the two scores, right? Why has it all of a sudden become law that you wait on the 2-pt conversion? I just don't get it. There might be something obvious I'm missing, and I'm beginning to doubt myself about this, considering Simon is on the other side here.

Favre and Manning had great first seasons (relative to what you would expect of a first year QB, of course), and I'd be thrilled if JP could match their production in those seasons. Some of you have broke memories if you think they actually sucked in their first year, because they moved the ball well and showed lots of promise. I distinctly remember especially that everyone was fawning over Manning and how he was able to throw 26 TD passes his rookie season. Bottom line is that if JP sucks this year, and he has sucked out loud so far, there's a decent to good chance he will suck in the future. Let's hope he improves soon.

The only QB anyone could possibly take over Brady is Peyton. Daunte Culpepper? Bwahahahahahah. Has anyone seen this guy play in a big game? Fumble, urgh, choke, urgh, terrible INT. Brady is much better. Why do people continue to be threatened by Brady's great looks and ass-getting? Whatever. So the man effs a lot. No need to be jealous and downgrade his skills as a QB.

Keep Chicago. If you do switch, go with Detroit. Bears-Lions should be low scoring affair. Do not go with Jax, of course. Playing Indy on the road.

Haha. Donahoe was just quoted as sayin that Lindell is a "very good kicker" in this article: http://www.buffalobills.com/news/news.jsp?news_id=3357 I don't think our kicker is going to change any time soon. It's really a shame.

the logic may be unoriginal, but it's probably going to be accurate as well

Are you serious? Sarcasm, right?

that's giving up too much... i don't like parrish but he's our second rounder this year, and i'm not going to give up a second rounder and henry for injury question mark Calico

I can see what you're saying, but I was more excited about making the playoffs. Last year's run was nice, but it was tempered by the fact that all those blowouts occurred against either bad teams or slumping playoff teams.

i'm glad Miami took a RB, who are a dime a dozen

I'm pretty fed up with not making the playoffs as well, and I think most Bills fans are. However, keep in mind that when the Bills do make it, they'll be very well positioned to make it several years in a row, as opposed to teams like Chicago a few years ago that are one and done. BTW, we're not going to make the playoffs this year, not with basically a rookie QB. At least I wouldn't bet on it. But 2005 will be wildly successful if Losman has shows flashes of being smart, accurate, and a leader amid his expected inconsistency as a first time starter. Losman = key to the franchise's future.

I'm of course willing to give Roscoe a chance (as if he cared what I thought), but I think he's going to end up being just a good punt returner for us after failing to be a good slot receiver due to his slight build. I thought this as soon as he was drafted, and Badol's low opinion of him only strengthened my belief. He's a 4th round type prospect that we took in the 2nd round (and I know some draft guides say differently, but you're asking for my opinion, and there it is). Everett is boom or bust because of his great natural ability but overall rawness and low experience. I'm okay with taking a chance on getting a great player with a 3rd round pick -- there's no rush for him to develop because for now we have Campbell and Euhus. In other words, this pick makes total sense, and if Everett pans out, then Losman has his security blanket for the next decade. In summary, I think we f'ed up the 2nd rounder, and with Everett being a boom/bust type, we risk getting basically squat from the 1st day of the 2005 draft. However, I really like the second day players we drafted, especially Geiginger and King. Our second day guys are durable, smart, tough players who have proven productivity. Let me add that the reason we didn't have a first rounder this season was, of course, JP Losman. He's the key to this draft -- basically the fate of the six guys we drafted is insignificant when compared to how important Losman is to this franchise. If Losman sucks, then it doesn't matter how good these guys are, the Bills will continue to suck.

The two best players we got from this draft were Geiginger and King... great, proven, tough college players... great intangibles... Everett has the most upside but as of right now, these two guys will be the major contributors

I've been saying it for weeks... Bills are comfortable with Teague and, apparently, Peters... no surprise that they drafted interior linemen to allow Teague to kick outside