Ed_Formerly_of_Roch

Basee o nthe shortage of QB's i nthe NFL you may be right. But once he plays maybe 10 games or so, he likely will look the same. Masybe if he were to sign wit ha really great tema and is asked to do very little, he may look better.

I thought JP played very well for a backup agaisnt Az. But he also showed no improvement and no reason to expect improvment. The Bills didn't lose because of JP, but he did show he's still the same JP

You're right, in TE's 2nd year, he doesn't look any better than JP did after 4 years! I argued in 2005 and 2005 that JP, nmeeded more time to develop and I'll make the same argument now for TE. The problem with JP was he never did improve. You could be right about TE, odds are in your favor as there are way more flops at QB than successes. But he needs more than 2 seasons to answer that.

I agree he probably does have more physical talent, but that hardly makes a good GB. JP likely has more physical talent than Tom Brady too. More heart, no one knows the answer to that one including you! You compare 2006 because in your mind there is something magical about them being the same age so that means something. What relavance that has, I have no idea other than it means he must have joined the Bills at an earlier age than TE. What was JP's second year compared to this year? 8 TD's /8 int played 9 games. The problem with JP is he wasn't improving. Last year prior to him getting hurt he had 97 yards and 154 yards in two games 0 TD, 1 int 6 sacks. I don't recall alot about early last seaosn, but I think by the second game people we calling for JP to be benched. And BTW this is coming from a JP supporter. I'll make the same argument for him as I make now for TE, you need to give the person time. The problem with JP was time didn't help him get better. You could be right about TE, odds are in your favor as there are way more flops at QB than successes. But he needs more than 2 seasons to answer that. Not counting his rookie year JP had three years and showed nothing.. Granted he was jerked around, but there was a reason for it, he was playing terrible. If he were getting 200 yards per game, even meathead wouldn't have yanked him. In the last 2 games he started in early 2005 before getting yanked, he threw for 75 yards in each game and had a rating in the low 30's. So tell me which of TE's games have been anywhere near that poor? In one game that year he had more than 200 yards and that was in the Miami game where he had the three TD's to Evans. Other than that, nothing and he started the 2007 series looking about the same. He had one terrific game last year angaisnt Cinny, then looked terrible again afterwards. You compare him to Eli in 2006, well Eli did have a very good 2007 where as JP again was terrible in the 9 games he did play. Finally what possible good could be gained from giving JP "one last shot" as you suggest? What if he lights it up for the rest of the year? That would be great for him as he'd likely get a decent contract as a free agent, but do you honestly believe he's sign with the Bills after all that's happened? So if he playes great the next two games, do you offer him a 5 year contract then, because you know if he plays out the contract, he's gone. Would you give him a big contract after seeing him play two games as that would likely be the only chance you'd have of signing him and even then I think JP would say no, I'll take my chances playing out the year.

I'll be the cheerleader head trainer. Somebody has to do the dirtywork around here!

That looks like my neighbor! Just kidding as most of the people on my street are all from up north. The rednecks are getting out numbered down here.

Well I live down in NC, so won't take me long to find a few. To give you an idea of things, most states have laws outlawing riding in the back of pick up's. Down here the law limits how many can ride in the back of the pick up. The good news is the sun shines almost every day and when the game got really crappy yesterday, I went and sat out on my porch for awhile until the sun botherd me too much.

While I agree the Pats game was terrible for TE, but as mentioned he had 280 yards agaisnt the Jets and kept moving the ball. Yes he gave up 10 points on turnovers, but who else did anything in that game offensively?? There was no running game. While his turnovers created 10 points for the Jet's I really can't blame him for that loss as there was no one else doing anything, which also was true yesterday. Remove all his positive yards fro mthe Jet's game and what's left, nothing! Having said that his two int. yesterday were very poor throws. One comments I will make, while I have trouble believing this really could be the difference, this team went down the toilet about the same time as Brad Butler got hurt at guard. Is he the person who kept the line and offense looking good??

It wouldn't have made any difference if Tom Brady was the backup. (Well maybe that would have changed things a bit ) TE is the starter and in spite of everything being said, he is still young. You do want him to play through his slumps and learn from it. As bad as the game went and TE played, the Bills were still only 10 points behind until the last two minutes. You typically only see the QB pulled when the margin gets to be larger than maybe 30 points or so. So I really doubt it has anythring to do with their confidence or lack there of in JP. No matter who was on the bench as a backup, you wouldn't have brought him in in a game where the starter is only behind by 10 points. I also think the problems with the Bills go beyond TE. Did they bench all the lineman as they also could use a benching.

In the last two minutes, it must come from the booth. You couldn't hear what the ref said, but there was one view, kind of from behind NE end, where I think what happened was they ruled a Bills' player first touched it, then it hit Ted B, bounced around and Bill's recovered. However the first touch was by a Bill's player less than 10 yards downfield, therefore illegal touch by Buffalo. On one of the replays it looked like a Buffalo player stuck his arm out, but you never say that angle again on the replay. My guess is that's what the refs stated happened.

Well to say start over, you're keeping 22 players which is half the team and about half the starters. All you're really recoomending is replace the positions that everyone has been saying are weak, offensive interior line, def end and outside LB. Not much of a change there. Most teams change 5 -10 players per year anyway. All you're really stating is get rid of the coaches, and very unlikely a new coach would keep the offensive coordinator anyway. However if you're going to bring in new coaches likely they will want differnet players, so you may as wel lget rid of the 22 you wanted t okeep too.

I was thinking the vsame. Apparently they ruled he was stopped in the field. That wasa questionable call too.

Defences are getting film on TE so not as easy for him. He needs to mix it more, but hard to do with all the injuries. Put all these things together, and easy for him to look bad real quick.

Well one way to solve this will be, just like Pop Warner, have a weight limit so larger players can't hurt the smaller ones. In all seriousness it is becoming a problem. Players keep getting bigger and faster. QB is one positiuon though that bigger and faster doesn't help much. Couple that with the game being so much faster, QB's need to process everything quicker to the point of it can't be done. That is why there are so few teams with good QB's as no one can mentally keep up with the game. Not rrying to knock JP here, but 20 years ago , he may have been an all pro with his arm and the decision making wasn't as big of an issue as he would have had more time to think.

That could be what caused the "plantar fasciitis"!!

I doubt it will be OL as we need an interior lineman and you usually don't use a #1 pick on inside lineman. So I agree also likely either DE or OLB

A week or so back someone else posted the thought that maybe being tall is bad as they can't get low enough to get under the defenders.

Or it could be that is the problem with this concept of small fast players. OK I took physics F= ma. Well when the guy on the other team is much bigger and almost as fast, guess who loses? The other argument is you can't hit what you can't catch, but apparently they are catching them.

Well first off, I think the running game last year was still much better than this year. The reason I'm willing to give TE more of a pass that I would have given JP last year was cause JP was in his 4th year and still making the same errors. If you say the errors yesterday were horrendous by TE and it cost them the game, well kept them in the game then? Even with these errors, they had a chance until the last TD by the Jets. They couldn’t run the ball so how were they staying close? Because TE kept getting first downs. It probably is hard for anyone to appreciate that as it’s been so long since we’ve seen that around here. So there were some good things in spite of the errors. Now look at JP. Last year he came in when TE got hurt, played lights out against Cinncy. People were hoping that making from watching Trent, he finally got the idea. Then the next week, can’t recall whom they played, but he did absolutely nothing all game. The only thing maybe you could count on JP doing was completing one bomb per game. I don’t even think that helped keep the D honest though as they knew, OK just rush the hell out of him and watch out for the long ball. Anything thrown short, he’ll screw up. TE had some accuracy problems last year, that seems to be cleaned up, that was JP’s other issue. So in spite of all the bad negative plays, there was still positives. Last year many games there was no positives, so that’s why I’m willing to more give him a pass on the errors. With no running game and his inexperience, and the fact that the entire offence is on his shoulders, I can’t fault him too much.

While I agree with the mistakes that TE made, the problem I have with stating that he cost us the game, besides him, who else made any plays? There was a no running attack, little stops defensively in the game, yes, they didn't give up TD's, but allowed the Jets to move down the field. One thing TE does appear to be very good at is moving the chains and he did do that yesterday throughout the game. Last year, he'd dink it for 3 yards and after three of them we'd have to punt. This year he is getting first downs from it. So without TE out there yesterday, who would have done anything? With no running game when you get down closer to the goal line, it makes it tougher to get it in when everyone is dropping back in coverage. It also helps when you don't need to blitz as our O-line allows you to pressure with three guys. I don't have any stats to back this up, but I'd be surprised to see that any QB who throws more than 40 times a game doesn't have similar number of bad plays, fumbles, ints, sacks, etc. When you throw that much, bad things are going to happen.

Everyone is talking about the problems with the line. While I don't disagree with any of the comments, why are we getting worse by the week and from last year?? The one big change is the coach. Is that what's killing us??

Well we certainly ra nthe ball better last year, and also had less sacks. Not sure what point you're trying to prove. I will say one difference beteen JP and TE. TE keeps the chains moving. JP had one play, throw it long and once in awhile it would work. Yeah there were some bad turnovers, but considering he's as second year QB and essentially is being asked to take over the game on his arm. We're not even trying to run, so all things considered, he played well. The problem is when a defense knows the other team can't run and is just going to keep passing, it makes their life much easier. Eventually it will catch up with you.

I certainly don't blame Hardy, the ball was underthrown, however he did look like a rookie, (which he is)in not doing much to fight the DB off to at least knock it down. An experienced vet likely would have tried more to knock it down, or as was suggested take the offensive interference call. Not that it would have mattered much, but that's why Hardy isn't playing too much as he needs to learn those things yet.

Well you're going to be awful disapointed as I doubt they are going to use another high draft pick on a reciever when they have other needs. Did you read Matt Millon's book on how to build a football team? That's Detroits recipe for years, give up immediately on whomever you picked and pick his replacement by the following year, and get rid of the first guy by the year after. Hey it worked for Millon for what 8 years before they figured it out.

That's true, but the defense can never get off the field. They stop them on 1st, and 2nd, then give up the first down. There's no pass rush. In the first half the defense hardly played, so they can't use an excuse of being worn out. The last NY drive was over 8 minutes.