Fake-Fat Sunny

The important thing here is not whether Parcells has a future is now attitude but that for some reason you thin MM has a future is later attitude regarding the Bills. It is beyond me that MM, TD or anyone will want to take on $4.3 million in deadspace for the Bledsoe contract and all they get in return for it is a a draft choice. Even if it was a 1st rounder who contributed as much as JP Losman or WM did in their first years they get nothing in terms of next season for this trade. Even if he hits the ground well like Evans he gives little before the midpoint of the season. This is a bad strategy in terms of marketing the product anyway you cut it and even on the field must assume some great benefit which exceeds the on field benefit Bledsoe co-operated in this team receiving during the winning streak. At the end of the day trading Bledsoe before June 1 makes no sense because trading him even after June 1st makes little sense for this team. I don't think the Bills should have resigned him even to the relatively cap friendly deal they got, but they did and folks are just going to have to deal with that reality.

The market says no. Particularly if you want the best candidates for co-ordinator they are going to sign a contract that allows them to take off for a better position outside of the NFL. The policy actually is right now that no team can offer (or even talk) contract with another coach under contract. The offers that folks like Clements considered and Weis got were from outside the NFL and not governed by NFL policy. In the free market a team can certainly make an agreement which stops an assistant from stepping up to an HC position in college, but the market has dictated that if an NFL team makes this part of the contract, the best assistants will pass on being an NFL co-ordinator under these circumstances. The NFL does have a policy exception by which African-American coaches can interview for and take promotions from other teams. However, as I am sure you know this policy came about to reverse years of racist practices which not only is bad business in which the majority white community will no longer be the majority in the not to distant future, but even today people of color represent a significant economic force the NFL wants to sell its product to. In addition to being bad business these race based practices hurt teams on the field as the could not sign the best players for the best positions due to a non-athletic factor. For anyone who ignores reality enough to argue this point simply look at the fact African-American players were barred from the QB position and then when this barrier was breached A-A players have relatively quickly occupied a growing share of stardom at this position. The fact that this treatment has a long term effect and still impacts the league is seen in the number of AA HCs as compared to the openings in the league and the pool of A-A players. By business and moral fairness this policy will not change and based on competition in the free market the situation regarding college coaching jobs will not change either.

Bill's Daily suggests that Williams will be moved to LT if Jennings goes. This certainly seemed to be the likelihood before MW's off-season meltdown and may actually be a possibility due to his better play, however, I'd rather have him stay on course to merely become the player he should have been at RT rather than aim for him becoming even more of a player by learning and demonstrating well at LT. I think the choices at LT are thus in terms of likelihood: 1. I like the idea of playing Teague at LT where he originally wanted to go and building Tucker into a full time center where he played well when Teague got hurt as the easiest way to be about at good at these two spots. 2. If MW has truly become a pro athlete rather than letting down his teammates and the region as he did when he took a bad blow from life hard then he may be able to make the jump to the other side. 3. I think an FA LT will likely be too exspensive as the good ones (Pace, Walter Jones, Tra Thomas) will be too expensive and we can find an internal replacement of comparable quality to the second tier of LTs (a placewhere I put Jennings) on the Bills. However, one answer might be that we buy a top level center on the FA market which makes the move of Teague easy to do and alows us to use Tucker as a super-sub or in an attempt to solve LG issues. 4. Find an existing Bill to step up to the tackle slot though they most likely would take the RT job and allow MW to move over. Tucker has played tackle in the NFL before and Peters was added to the roster as a tackle so maybe they take the RT slot to allow MW to move over. 5, The actual answer to this may be that there is less of a market for Jennings than conventional wisdom thinks there will be and we resign him. I like his play but I do not think he is worth the ranch and the dog to resign him. Specfically the average of the top 5 OL cap hit (mostly LTs) or franchise tag is about $7 million a year and the transition tag (top 10 average OL cap hits mostly LTs) is about $6 million. If someone wants to pay Jennings this much then n my mind good luck to them and to Jennings. The interesting thing to me is that in addition to most of these top 10 OL cap hits, contracts have also gone to more pedestrian LTs like Clifton, Petitgout and a couple of others at about $5 million annually (their cap hits for a given year vary from this average as some contracts are backloaded). At any rate, when you take the the 7 or 8 top 10 salaries out of the LT marjet, take another half dozen or more teams that have already made commitments to some LT, add the sense that folks like Pace will attract the big bucks and that many teams with LT openings like AT have actually already locked up a lot of cap room in resigning Vick to a 100 million+ contract and blew FA money on their commiment to Price, I will not be shocked if Jennings finds there is not a huge market for him which drives up his contract. The Bills will have to spend $3-4 million for a top flight FA elsewhere on the line anyway, if Jennings can be had for this amount (it is more money than he hasever seen before) then I say resign him. The bottom line is I think we have options at OL and I'm not worried.

I see virtually no possiility of this happening because regardless of the on-filed logic of any move you want to make the off-field cap impact of trading Bledsoe before June 1, 2005 would be the same as that of cutting him. His remaining bonus would be accelerated into a one time cap hit on the 2005 salary cap and bonus money which wull currently be paid to him over the remaining life of the contract would be accelerated into one year and become dead space allocated to the QB position with no return from the player. Even those who are so sick of Drew they don't want to see him play would actually see him have a huge impact on the 2005 team as this deadspace would likely force us to keep Shane Matthews and some type of Shane Matthews II as our other QBs with JP. Theorize all you want about wether Drew would bring a second or bring nothing, however, anyway it goes I don't see us commiting suicide by trading him before the draft to Dallas or anyone else. Regardless of what you think of Drew cutting him or trading him on this timeline would ne nad for the Bills.

I think most people are drawing this conclusion because they trust MM/Clements/Wyche to do whats right for this team and offense. They certainly were correct not to start JP when we went to an 0-4 start with Bledsoe at QB because JP was hurt. Likewise at 1-5. At 3-5 JP was healthy enough to play, but the Bills were beginning to get on a roll and throwing him in to start his first game on the road against NE would have been about the same as when he was thrown to the dogs in mop-up duty of that game. At 3-6 is the first semicredible physical opportunity for him to start, but again after the debacle in NE with his mop-up work there, this would have been a bad move. As it happens, the streak of winning games going away began here and again making a change at QB would have been the height of sillness during the streak. I think the should and will get good looks in mini-camps and pre-season and though I expect Bledsoe to prevail I do trust the braintrust to do the right thing. Don't you?

This seems like a real easy question to me because I would love to see the future start immediately and JP win the starting job and cause everyone to forget about Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and even Jim Kelly. I would think that all Bills fans outside of Bledsoe's parents would want that. However, though I would love to see that, I doubt it will happen or should happen because as good as I think JP can be I don't think he is there yet. Just as happened with Tom Brady when Mo Lewis collapsed his lung, JP may be called upon to step up before he has gotten control of all the tools. However, just as Brady came to glory not only because he has special talents for a QB, a real key for his development into the star he is today was: 1. The Pats used his injury to become a TEAM and they all picked up for each other and that got them through to the championship even though many of them had just joined the Pats as cap casualties. 2. He had great offensive and hC guidance from Weis and BB. 3. A wounded Bledsoe really worked with him and helped him to know and work for the offense. Even better, Bledsoe stepped in for Brady in a must-win game and delivered the goods and gracefully stepped aside like a teamer and turned the reins back over to Brady for the SB. Most athletes would have looked out for themselves first, but Bledsoe was a teamer all the way and I am glad it payed off for him on the field when he QB'ed the Bills to a big turnaround in their record in his first year and he earned his Pro Bowl nod. It's been the pits for Bills fans since then and I really think we should have looked elsewhere for a starting QB last off-season. But I can't feel bad for him personally that it paid off for him financially as well and he once again QB'ed for us with a big turnaround in record. I think MM/Clements recognized that the best way to achieve a winning record with Bledsoe is not through depending on him to pull an Elway, but to use his extraordinary arm a change-up for the O and to depend upon all facets of the team to bring hime the bacon. So here's another vote that I hope JP proves on the field to be the man, but I doubt that will happen out the box nect year and we are better off starting with Bledsoe if your goal is to win now.

The obvious question this raises is what will the Bills's QB situation be after this trade next year. Since Bledsoe's entire bonus would be accelerated into next year by trading him before the draft, this move would be as disastrous for our team as cutting him before June 1st would have been back when whiners were advocating that. The notion of the being remotely interested in Henry after the promise Jones showed for them at RB this year is also laughable. If Henry is too pissed at being a back-up for WM to want to stay here, then being traded so he can back-up Jones will not make him a happy camper. Neither idea makes any sense for the Bills or the other parties involved.

I think it was MM who drove the acquisition of Wyche from retirement rather than TD. The connection is that Wyche gave MM his first job from the insurance company or whatever post-career job he had and MM returned the favor by giving Wyche a shot, but he had to prove to TD and the Bills he could talk loudly enough to teach and the pressure would not kill him. If the Wyche hiring had any QB effect it was not in reclaiming Bledsoe (I think he was advocating Clements over Killdrive way back when with this in mind, but apparently GW was inappropriately allowed to win this fight) but actually was a key in the decision to trade value to move up and get Losman.

A feature of TDs activity seems to be that he is motivated by cap structure most of all and as such sees first round choices for being 50/50 for whether they will meet their value but 100% certain they will cause a 1st round hit to your salary cap. This does not mean that he thinks first rounders have no value and are always to be avoided of course, but that he shows far more willingness to trade future 1st round picks to get value today and to see the first round picks as a commodity to be traded around rather than attribute the value to it that others seem to. In my mind the record is thus: 2001- 1st year here and traded down the 1st rounder to get other picks. Good move it put our first round pick in a lower cash slot and we still got the 1st DB chosen fulfilling a clear need for us and we got extra picks when depth was a clear need in a rebuilding year. TD read the market beautifully. 2002- Picked MW which was a definite need and because McKinnie has sucked even worse than a troubled MW who seems to have turned it around this was the right choice to make. The high pick gave MW a huge salary for that slot but cetainly OL players are viewed as a far smaller risk than using the pick for a QB or most other positions. 2003- TD showed his willingness to trade what many people value as a grea resource for the benefit of getting a replacement QB for RJ the year before. In my mind the move itself was a wash for the Bills as Bledsoe not only helped with the off-field marketing of the team, but his play on the field where he had an excellent 1st half was a key to the Bills improving from 3-13 to 8-8. NE was raped in the first year of this deal as the accelerated cap hit of trading Bledsoe was a big part in costing them even a trip to the playoffs after the SB win. In addition the trade of the 1st rounder ended up being a middlin choice for NE rather than the top pick the Bills had when they traded for Bledsoe Even more impressive in terms of TD reading the market beautifully in many regards is that he was able to reacquire a 1st rounder with an an unusual and nifty transition tagging of PP. Even better than that he used the newly acquired 1st to make a surprising pick of WM who has turned out to merit his #3 rating among collegians in that draft but the Bills got him with a low 20s pick. This low slot allowed TD to sign WM to a very cap friendly incentive laden deal with a 5th year option. As I think about this, I am even more impressed as TD once again correctly read the rush on DL players (a clear Bill need) as allowing him to pass on Kelsay in the 1st round (few would have labeled this pick outrageous if we spent our 1st rounder on Kelsay) and instead get him in the 2nd. All that has occured makes me willing to label this one of the best drafts I;ve seen a GM pull off. 2004- Once again the Bills meet a clear need by drafting a WR in the first which more than justifies his huge cap hit because Evans production has paid off handsomely in terms of his production and Moulds once again making almost 100 receptions after his injury year. His pick of JP once again shows good awareness of cap value as the 2005 QB class looks very weak and if you want a QB of the future you will not find him with a pick in the 20s but with a top 5 or so pick in 2005. Though JP is slotted in the 20s, the fact he was our second pick in the draft was actually a rate limiting factor which denied him the usual premium QBs get particularly when they are your first pick. I think this adds up to us be unlikely to add a 1st rounder this year as I have yet to here of any player who will go in the first after the top 10 picks who fits a clear need for us like Evans at WR, Clements in the late 20s or even Kelsay (who was deemed by some a late 1st round talent who we got in the 2nd). I doubt TD will want us to go on the hook for big money for a player who does not address a big need who can probably be had later in the draft (for example we really need a kicker who can be a weapon but Nugent should be there in the 2nd round and may be there in the third).

Posters are taking their shots professing that Bledsoe is satan or a saint, but i think while this debate is interesting football fodder, the real question is do you as a Bills fan have faith in MM and the braintrust to do the right thing. I am of the mind, that the NFL has shown me that it is possible certainly make the playoffs and even win the SB wthout a QB who is capable of carrying the team (do you disagree this will be an easy one to talk about and we can if you want to). I have faith in MM and the braintrust to make the right call based on the TEAM they build to go with Bledsoe and his limitations if he thinks the TEAM is up to it and think they will go far. I have also seen that MM/Clements have done outstanding work in re-developing QBs and matching of Os and O strategy to put varying types of QBs in a position to win. The addition of Wyche's knowledge and talents has me feeling very good about their ability to shepard the development of JP and use him at the point he gives us the best chance to win. It is an interesting question whether Losman will develop quickly enough to replace Bledsoe as early as next season (I think he can if he used his enforced absence from the field to download knowledge from Wyche and to learn what it means to be a vet in the NFL by watching the O and Ds from the booth without the pressure and distraction of preparing himself tto lead men in the immediate game). However, I think the basic question is one of do you have faith in MM and the boys to do the right thing at QB and for this team or not.

Your attitude towards this is pretty much the same as mind, but fortunately the decision for the Bills isn't up to you or up to me because we don't have enough imformation about JPs state of development or about whether the Bills will play as a TEAM with the ST and the D really cokking so we don't have to rely on Bledsoe to bail out subpar play by the D or ST (he can't and never has been the QB to do so consistently). Fortunately as shown by the Bledsoe team coached to an SB by Parcells and by Bledsoe playing QB in the majority of a must-win game, if your team plays like a TEAM one only needs the QB to still do the tough but doable job of being a consistent threat, making a few big positive plays and not making a lot of big errors and a TEAM can make the big dance and even win it all. I'd rather build for the future if there is no present glory to be had and thus I'd rather sit through the learning period than through the demise of a vet QB. However, the judgment that the Bills braintrust will need to make is whether the Bills are a good enough team to not demand a performance from Bledsoe is unlikely to give in big games and which it is impossible for him to pull off consistently in my view. I think MM's call was the right one this year. At the point where I, and just about everybody else, had decided to throw in the towel (I didn't give up but after the second loss to NE I thought it was pretty logical for the fat lady to begin warming up her voice) MM and the TEAM stayed he course and were rewarded with a 9-6 record and a homefield shot at the 14-1 Steelers who were playing their 3rd and 4th string at key positions. I think the real question here is not whether we think Bledsoe is good to go or not as a player capable of carrying the team to the SB (he ain't) or even whether 2nd year starter Losman can carry a team to the SB (he almost certainly can't as even productive first year starter RoboQB is being carried by Pitt toward the SB rather than carrying them). The real question is whether fans have faith in MM and the football crew in calling the games and the season correctly and whether one has faith in TD and the player acquisition crew in getting them the tools necessary to do the job. My sense is that after watching an outstanding job by MM (this means Clements, Gray, April et al.) do a phenomenal job for a rookie HC. I have good faith in them making the right call as to whether this a team capable of making SB which in a big part will call on Bledsoe doing only what he has done well before. I also have faith in them with the job they have done rehabbing QBs like Kordell and Maddox and with the addition of the Wyche knowledge starting JP when he is ready to start and no sooner or later than that point/ I don't think any GM is perfect, but i think the better GMs give their teams close enough to the tools that they need that individuals can step up and do surprising jobs to make up for the GMs failure to be all seeing and all-knowing. TD has demonstrated to me that though he is far from perfect (good kickers are a dime a dozen, hiring GW, cutting Holecek and Jones after extending them only to have Raion Hill prove to be not good enough and Cowart get hurt with no back-up but Spoon) but he is good enough in my book to win it all if the players step up.

I had to go back and read the Sullivan column based on the topic of this thread, because when I read it it certainly stuck me as less histrionic than his usual screed but cotaining no great truths or points. Upon re-reading it I feel the same way. He correctly lays out some stats but once again fails in my view to draw reasonable conclusions which are supported by the stats he cites. For example it is true that in the 9 games the Bills won they had it done by the 5th quarter, but while it shows that Bledsoe did not win the game with an Elway like TD drive in the final minutes, this stat fails to have any relevance to whether DBs play was good or not. Perhaps he should get all sorts of praise for putting it out of reach so early or allowing JP a bad of time in mop-up duty. Perhaps we want to sing the praises of the ST or D for delivering us these comfortable margins. What it says conclusively or even indicates about the quality of QB play in the wins is nothing. I think Sully has fallen pray to the same mistake highlighted by your line which I quote above. My sense is that playing mistake free, limited mistake or even making a bunch of mistakes at the right time when you can afford to take risks is in fact a big part and a big contribution to many victories. If Bledsoe threw 3 INTs a game but they were all like the INTs he threw in one game this season where we ended up blowing the oppenent out in a laugher I'd still love the SB trophy from this undeated season as much as if i had won it with great QB play. I think an overall assessment of Bledsoe's play has to be that he was a same old same old. A team can win going awsy with Bledsoe if they use his powerful arm as a change-up rather than rely on it top win games for them and if the rest of the team plays like we expect pro to play. Against Pittsburgh the D really stunk on a few plays and gave up big gains to a 4th string RB and let lower string QBs knife them. The ST did not turn in the stellar performance it has much of the season and sucked bad in fumbling an early punt and missing a chip shot field goal. These problems do not forgive DB at all his own errors, but why anyone would expect DB to deliver a team playing bad ball is beuyond me. DB can QB team to alot of wins and wins in crtical games as he did under the guidance of Parcells in their SB apearance and in a must-win game as he did under BB. However, henever has and probably never won the big one all on his own. It seems that amidst his tirafes Sully may have stopped ranting and realized this.

I think they will have an open competition and actually any chatter that declares we will have an open competition by someone on the team in a position of importance would actually be a declaration of bias toward the future being now that would mean the fix is in for JP. If JP does what many seem to feel he is capable of doing in min-camps and in pre-season I doubt he will be denied. By failing to have his team make the playoffs I think Bledsoe has give JP all the opening that he needs to take the job from him. My sense is that the game will be determined by how much JP used his enforced absence to sit in the booth and download from Sam Wyche in learning NFL Os and Ds like a vet. In addition, he needs to show progress in repetive practice sessions ironing out any mechancal issues he has. ICE is right in his continual carping that a player must play in order top get better, but he is flat-out wrong in the assertion that starting is the only way to play. If JP is as good as his press releases or folks seem to feel he is, then facing NFL level speed and competition in practices, in pre-season and in mini-camps will easily be enough to show that he is worth the risk of giving him time in real games. If this plays out for Bledsoe the same way it did when he started for NE in 2001 when he starts 2 games and gives up the starter role to a young QB who didn't start a game his rookie year, this will be one bummed Bills fan if it takes a near death experience to get Drew out, but I will be one happy Bills fan to see us win an SB. JP is way ahead of where Brady was in his training for the job mandating a 1st round pick (plus the trade value to get him) and getting some experience running the team successfully in several mop-up duties this year.

Just wantted to say many thanks for a thoughtful analysis without the usual chipper fan stupidity!

My sense is that there is much more to the placekicking game than FG% and even +40 yard FG%. This is my sense of Lindell: under 40 yard FG%- One of the best in the league in terms of percentages and this is reflcted in a flawless PAT performance where messing up here is a true ticket out. His good record at this distance makes his miss of a chip shot Sunday even more vexing. over 40 yard FG%- he stinks here even to the extent that MM seems to have lost confidence in this part of his game. Lindell has gone incredibl long without the game resting on his toe by everyone'sexperience including his own. Part of this is that we have blown out the opponent or been blown out such that the game was never a 3 pointer in the final ticks. In the vast minority of games like the Jets in NYC it just happened that we never got a chance. Still this is a big issue and Lindell's failure to inspire any rational hope in this part of his game is a big problem. It is ironic that he hit a couple 45+ kicks this year butwe took them off the board by calling TO. Kickoffs- Lindell has been extremely good at this portion of the game. A poster is correct that a stat on drive starts is the true measure of effective kickoffs, but the fact the Bills finished 2nd in the league in covering returns speaks well of Lindell kicking it where his tacklers expected him to and also of hang time with kickoffs. The poster who observed from the upper deck that the opposition outkicked Lindell because they boomed it and he never got it into the endzone needs to consider the fuller kick coverage story which would be better reflected in drive start numbers. A record number for the Bills of those boomers allowed McGee to note how the coverage was setting up and what blocks he had and he ended up in the opposing endzone having never been touched. Meawhile if a high Lindell kicked was caught at the seven on the left hashmark and our tacklers has the time to get downfield and count count on the kick ending up on the left hashmark if they tackled the return guy quickly the opponents would get the bad drive start. I liked how Lindell's kicks seem to vary in location and whether they were hanging kicks or squib kicks and we tackled the opponent for a bad drivestart. Onside kicks- Before the last game at Pitt the one time Lindell was called upon to do this job he did it masterfully. He not only got it the appropriate 10 yards with the proper speed and pace to allow him to recover the kick himself before our team had even blocked an opponent because the ball must travel 10 yards before anyone is hit. Lindell handled this well. However, i think the key that determines his fate is that he has $600K left on his contract as bonus for 2 more years plus annual salaries which will push him up near the million mark in cap hits each year. Even by delaying his cut until the cap casualty date of June 1st this is a lot of deadspace for a cut kicker and it should be added to any new kickers contract. Before the miss Sunday, I did not see the Bills braintrust taking a string kicker like Nugebt in the second round and giving him his big 2ns round slotted contract with the addition of the deadspace. However, after the miss Sunday cutting Lindell is much more possible. My guess is that the Bills will likely fill one of their other needs with their 2nd and hope that Nugent slips to the 3rd round where we he will have a lower cap hit in that slot. If Nugent is gone, I think we sign a UDFA and Lindell sees some heavy pressure for the job next year.

Look, I think the Bills should have gone elsewhere looking for QB options for 2004 other than resigning Bledsoe, but I really disagree with a lot of the points you make because I don't think they correspond with the reality of his performance. Ball handling skills- I think this was actually an area where Bledsoe showed unusual strength. Trey Teague really was a total adventure on shot gun snaps and it was actually Bledsoe's ability to handle these wandering snaps which saved us from fumbles any number of times last year. He did lose 9 fumbles in his 16 games this year but this his not an abnormal amount in at league where other QBs such as Boller and Carr had better years than before and still gave up double digits in fumbles. I think that numbers indicate he is a far better ball handler than you give him credit for. Escapability- No one would mistake Bledsoe for being a maneuverable QB, but he has shown the ability to sidestep the rush from time to time. In fact, it is his ability to throw the ball with somone hanging off his big body that seems to cause him to hang in there and try to throw it under duress even though rushers are closing in rather than trying to excape which seems to get him into trouble. Again Bledsoe is not mobile but I think the argument that he is incapable of getting the pass off is wrong. Pocket presence- This is a fairly difficult thing to see or define or to match it to a particular stat. Does a signigificant decrease in the number of sacks Bledsoe suffered compared to his other years as a Bill mean some increase in pocket awareness? I doubt it. In general I describe a lack of pocket awareness as being demonstrated most clearly by QBs who bail out when they don't have to or have happy feet. Bledsoe does not have this. The other side of the equation would be a QB who is unaware of an imminent tackle and hangs in there anyway. This is a more credible accusation against Bledsoe, but the number of fumbles he lost (9 in 16 games) does not seem to indicate him having a prediclection for fumbling after bone-jarring hits though he did this a couple of times in 2005 (NE and Pitts) there was no rash of these occurences. If anything, I would ask him to work on getting the hand-offs into the hands of the RB, because these miscues (rather than bad ballhandling on snaps were more the source of the fumbles). Improv ability- I think improvisation is overrated in todays NFL which is over-systematized to the point where freelancing often leads to errors as a QBs actions are not only difficult for the D to predict but for his receivers to predict. I actually feel quite comfortable with Bledsoe's fakes. His ability to sell the idea he was going to do a QB sneak which allowed him to pitch it back to WM who scampered for a TD and his ability to receive the pitch from WM and lauch the accurate long bomb to Evans a few times this season and clear cases of sincerity being key, but once you learn to fake that you are good to go. Reading Ds- I think Bledsoe has some limitations here and this was shown in the brain cramp he had last year where he threw the ball OB on a 4th down play, However, just because he is limited and can't do everything in this regard, it wpuld be a mistake to assume he can't do anything. One of the great jobs I thinkl Clements did this year was to realize that Bledsoe is far from at his best throwing on the run. However, he has the ability to sometimes hit on these passes so if you have him do this on 2nd down rather than 3rd and train him to throw it away if there is any coverage rather than attempt to snake it in, this can be a potent weapon. We saw this in the game against SF when Bledsoe rolled right and threw a TD pass to Evans. He should not be counted upon to hit this pass often, but if you do it once in awhile on 2nd or 1st down with orders to him to throw it OB if there is any coverage it can work and also keeps the blitzers from selling out for the blitz as much. On plays such as the several QB draw plays Bledsoe ran toward the end of the season. he made good reads that the safety was leaving the center of the field unguarded because he was blitzing wide or falling back in coverage. Bledsoe is not the greatest at reading Ds, but he can do well enough that with an approrpiately limited play call he has gotten the job done. People seem to me to be hot and cold in their judgments, Those who deem Drew a god are wrong because their are real limitations to his game, but those who claim he can do nothing are wrong as well because there are several strengths to his game as well. Overall, I would have looked elsewhere for a QB rather than resign him, but having resigned him I think that with the right O calls and the rest ofthe team picking up for his limitations with good ST and O work, we can win with him.

I disagree. If Bledsoe had played lights out perhaps he could compensate for: 1. A rash of penalties called on this team which not only are the blame of the O and the D (ex. pass interference on Reed and Fletcher) but stopped the ST from playing the great role it played during our streak. 2. The D giving up over a hundread yards to a fourth string RB and us giving up a critical 1st down to a 4th string QB. 3. Huge ST errors from the missed chip shot by Lindell to the fumble by Clements 4. A host of other errors to numerous large and small to name that contributed to this loss. However, if what folks expect is some QB to come riding in on a white pony to save us from these errors and deliver an SB to us, then they are motivated by something other than reality. Bledsoe did not save us and his production sucked, but this is by far not the only or main reason this team got beaten by Pittsburgh at home.

One of the things I wonder from reading posts which seem to divide the Bills world into one of two camps is whether I am a Bledsoe apologist. I don't thinkl I am since if I were in control I would have said good luck and see ya to Bledsoe this off-season. I don't think I am of the mind that if Losman is ready to play he should play. However, I think that it ignores reality to claim that Bledsoe has not won or played QB in a substantial way for an NFL winner. You need a great coach to do the job of building a team capable of winning the big ones with Bledsoe as QB. However, Bledsoe QB'ed teams certainly made it to the SB when he led a Parcells coached team there and when he played QB for the majority of a must-win game for the Pats in their first SB winning season. He had the very best of HCs who reminded him constantly in practice to throw the damn ball under Parcells and under BB who employed an offense powered down for Brady to win a must win game. MM/Clements deserve great plaudits for play calling, using all of Drew's capabilities, and most important building and maintaining a good TEAM to get as far as they did until they ran into a much better team which forced them to rely on Bledsoe's arm to make-up for some poor ST and D play. This was not going to happen against a better team. So mark me down as a Bledsoe apologist if that means someone who judges Bledsoe's play to be at about the same level it always has bee. It is a level of play which a team can win the big ones if the rest of the team plays well. It is a level of play where if the OC maximizes what Drew does well and minimizes what he does poorly the team can win and even blow out inferiot teams. I'm a Bledsoe apologist if it means I judge him to be a reasonable starter if Losman isn't ready yet.

One of the misreadings of stats which seems to have some prevalence is that the Bills play against Pittsburgh revealed that the 6 game winning streak was simply blue somk and mirrors and that this team cannot beat good NFL teams. This view may be convenient for those who want to claim this team is bad, but it is simply not factually accurate. True the Bills are not one of the elite teams in the league and were simply beaten by a better team on Sunday, but the dirty little lie is that you do not have to be an elite team to make the NFL playoffs. The Bills had a losing record against the 12 teams which made the playoffs, but the fact remains that they were actually 3-4 in their 7 games against these teams. The breakdown is this: NE- 2 losses against a team they not only were not as good as, but no one knows Bledsoe's weaknesses like BB, Weis and Crennel, Pittsburgh- Hopelessly outclassed by a team which beat both NE and Philly. We got ripped by their 4th string RB and QB in Buffalo. but: NYJ- they were 1-1 against a team which was slightly better than them in the beginning of the season but actually was worst than the Bills at the end of the season when the Jets backed into the playoffs St. Louis- lost to the Bills in a laugher for us at the Ralph. Seattle- loss to us in a laugher for us on the road. One of the oddities for the Bills is that the league is bisected with Pitts, NE and Philly (prior to the injury to Owens being much better than the rest. The Colts, Atlanta and San Diiego are a cut above the crowd but have some obvious flaws which mean they can be beatan at any time. The rest are pretenders at about the Bills level or worse. The fun thing about the NFL is that on any given Sunday (or Monday night) even a pretender can beat a real team. The big disappointment for the Bills is that if the first games against Jax and Oak had gone according to form and the refs had employed the tuck rule as they did when they saved NE in their first SB run or missed a coin flip we woulda, coulda, shoulda have gone far.

Actually if we want to rely on hindsight (reinforced by the current record) we should have never cut Steve Christie, Sure he had big failings as he no longer had the leg for the long field goal or the deep kickoff. However, how is that any different than Lindell's performance except that Christie is ice-sold as seem by him going 4 for 4 (or was it even 5 for 5) in a recent game. If we wanted short directional kicks from an overpaid player we should have kept Christie. One of TD\s stupidest comments was the claim that good kickers are a dime a dozen when he cut Christie. The one thing which makes me happy about Lindell's performance is that prior to his miss of the chipshot I doubted the Bills braintrust would admit another kicking error on Lindell but now I think we will take the deadspace to get someone better.

I think we saw the failing that the Bills had no one listed on the depth chart behind CV. His impact came not simply beause he played well, but because the patchwork which replaced him limited the Teague blocking calls and changes as it was not clear his replacement could execute them. I like CV's play (after the potentially phantom penalty on him which cost us a critical first down against Oakland) but the problem was not simply that he was so good but that the efforts to replace him were unsuccessful and threw off our whole blocking scheme at a time when we needed it to be great because the ST tooketh away as much as it gave and the D was spotty at best.

This is a fact, but a team can win with a QB that sucks as long as its D and ST plays like a team and as long as the QB mistakes are not such that they are easily turned into points by the opposition. My sense is that Bledsoe is playing about the way he always has played and I'm merely surprised why people are surprised at this. I reject the arguments that he has never won anywhere because this is simply factually inaccurate. His teams won a substantial number of big games and just fell short when he QB'ed NE to the SB and he QB'ed the majority of a must-win game and even threw the winning TD which was an essential part of NE;s first SB victory. His legitimate Pro Bowl qualifying season in 2002 for the Bills indicated to me he still has the same skills (and the way NE undressed the Bills and his drop in productivity once opponents had ample tape of him running the Buffalo ottense was clear evidence to me that he also had the same limitations. Its possible to win with Bledsoe sucking if you have an HC that does a job which compares to the job Parcells did with Bledsoe when he kept yelling throw the damn ball when he would go into his pat, and that BB/Weis did having Bledsoe run an offense which was powered down for Brady. I was impressed witn MM/Clements that they did as much with a Bledsoe led Bills team as they did, but ultimately they and the Bills were not up to the level of BB and the SB winning Pats or Parcells and the second place Pats. Next year to me is pretty much a question of whether JP shows he can do more than Bledsoe in pre-season. Its possible if he has ironed out the mechanical problems in practice. if he has used his enforced absense from playing well to soak up the Wyche knowledge and learn NFL offenses and efenses like a vet from a perch in the booth, and if in his limited play against NFL quality players in practice, pre-season and mop up time he has seen enough of the game to be calm and productive. If JP is good enough I see no problem, if he is not good enough he will need some more time and MM/Clements will need to improve and refine the work they did winning against poor and second tier competition to a level where we can take on the best with Bledsoe's failings. Its been done before by great coaches and I think it can be done again, though I would much prefer that Losman turn out to be ready for primetime.

1. The ST play was outstanding due to good use of schemes (in contrast to the mediocre ST schemes under GW/Smith). acquisition of some good players (Smith, Peters), increased and better training of existing players (Wire, Stamer), and strategic use of starters (Clements, Fletcher). The really good news is the play of several skill position players like McGee and Moorman. 2. The D play was also outstanding as not only did the run blitz continue to be well employed under gray, but he showed some wonderful strategic ability both in terms of game-planning and making effective adjustments and implementing them within games. Most impressive was that this unit became a big play unit in terms of generating turnovers and even turning them into points. 3. The O play improved from its horrendous non-production last year to reach an improved but still inadequate level of being spotty at best. The OL improved now that it has adult management rather than the inexperience of Vinky and Ruel. There are miles to go but it is at least moving in the right direction. The receiving corps is much improved with the addition of Evans. The TE corps was wracked by injuries but hung in there, There is no Ben Coates in terms of production but we can now think at this level as we are a player away from effective TE use. WM shows every sign of being a Pro Bowl runner and depth is now the question. The QB play is improved by better use of Bledsoe positives and non reliance on Bledsoe negatives ut still needs more help. I think we are actually in a better situation to make some changes: 1. As always in the NFL, there are FA issues but they appear minimal by normal NFL standards and manageable. 2. Lindell has provided all the room needed to eat a $600K inveestment in him and look elsewhere for skill position kicking help. I really doubted that the Bills braintrust would want to upset the applecart of ST play since our kick coverage results wiht Lindell's directional and height of kickoffs has been good. However, by missing a crucial chip shot yesterday, Lindell has erased the benefit of a good statistical performance by him under 40 yards this season and his inability to hit kicks over 40 will rule. If the Bills feel confident that they can get good kickoff results from Nugent or somebody else I think they will do this! 3. The team improving from 6-10 to 8-7 under Bledsoe makes it a virtual certainty that he will be our #1 QB moving into next season. However, Bledsoe's lack of production in the critical game yesterday means that Losman will get a real look as to when the future begins. If JP is good enough he can beat out Bledsoe next pre-season. He obviously would be improved if he played more this year, but if he is that good he should still be able to beat out Bledsoe in the next pre-season. Wait til this year!

I feel betrayed by the results produced under Bledsoe last year and this year, but actually feel more "betrayed" by improper use of what seemed to be some fairly obvious strengths and weaknesses that he has as a player. In order for a team to succeed with Bledsoe (I count his mid-90s trip to the SB and his QB play in the majority of a must-win game for the Pats in their SB winning run in the 2001 seasons as successes, if you don't then you should explain to me and interested readers why these were failures by Bledsoe QB'ed teams) I think it is critical to not rely on his extraordinary arm to win games and to use him as a threat and change-up. I think Bledsoe has sucked and done well with his play at about the same level througout his career. I do definitely betrayed by Kevin Killdrive and GW's poor skills in that the overrelied on Bledsoe's arm which produced outstanding results for about half a season until other teams got enough tape on him running the Bills O to dissect it and neutralize him. This effort took on warp speed impact when BB used his knowledge of Bledsoe to really exploit his weaknesses running the Bills O and everybody copied this. I think Killdrive and GW's skills can really be faulted because they refused last year to change things up enough to deal with this problem with the results of a horrendous year last year. Hiring MM has proved to be a great move because he attracted Bobby April here and remade the ST, kept Jerry Gray here and stepped things up a notch on the D, but unfortunately had them take on the too difficult task of reviving the O with a resigned Bledsoe. MM/Clements/Wyche did a phemomenal job of doing this by diversifying the play calling so it was not so pass happy as during the Killrive era (error), limiting the audibles which Bledsoe could call which further limited our pass-happy predictability and simplified the O for the team, and also refound the good part of Bledsoe's abilities as an occaisional rollout passer and even a runner. However, even this effort failed when the going got tough and the ST became a burden on our play with some bad penalties and plays and the D continue to giveth (the Nate Clements INT and other turnovers produced) but also giveth away (the Parker run and some bad D plays). Once again we were back on our heels, over-relied on Bledsoe and some bad things happened. In my mind, the acquisition of Bledsoe remains a wash as he was phenomenal in 2002 and sucked in 2003. The bust was the decision to resign him this year and the expectation hope that a rookie HC was going to be able to get it done with him. They came close than I suspected they would, but did not get there.

One saing grace is that it is already 2005 and rather than waiting til next year, I onkly have to wait until this year.