finknottle

Calm down, nobody called anybody a jerk... (Can't be TD )

JP's is on a record passing pace, and he's really starting to spread the ball around now in the 2nd quarter! Two receivers on the board!

Look at the bright spot - JP is on pace for his career passing yardage day!

That's what I said about Rob Johnson. And Todd Collins before that.

I can't tell if he sucks or not, but it really bothered me in the off-season how the faithfull were trumpeting his prowess, taking our continued improvement on the OL as a given regardless of the lard buckets we have back there. Like he was a magician or something. One good half-season does not a great career make, even if you are from Kenmore.

Ironically, according to this administration 2025 is also projected to be both the year that we land a manned mission on Mars, and the year the deficit is eliminated (the debt comes later). All that and the Bills in the playoffs? I can hardly wait!

This surprised me - 4x the production!

Depends which story you believe. According to one, he came off because of injury and wanted it looked at, and they wanted him back in. If that's true, then it seems to me that the coaches are on pretty thin ice. I have to believe that a player that believes himself injured cannot be forced to play.

I'm surprised nobody mentioned my favorite: he was going mesh TH and WM into our own version of Thunder and Ice. That experiment ended pretty quickly with that surreal pass play against the Ravens - the one they made the TV commercial about with the clown...

well, we're looking at a likely 5-11 with this star-studded cast. Is that so much of a drop-off?

Retreads from Tennessee? No, wait, that was TD Coach 1.0. Retreads from Pittsburgh?

Good analysis, but let me temper it with the following observation: We opened a disporportionately large number of games with a long reasonably successfull drive. That leaves less time for the defense to be on the field in the quarter to score. Because of our 'free' drive, there is a disparity between our two times of possession which decreases as the half goes on. So I'm really claiming two things: 1. There should be a good correspondence between the number of times you start the game with the ball and your 1st quarter offensive and defensive ranks, and 2. The Bills started with the ball more often than not. The second should be easy to verify... (I'm going by my impression, havn't actually checked it)

Yes, we need more unproven inexperienced top 5 picks eating up a significant chunk of our cap space like Mike Williams! That's definately better than using the money on free agents! For every Eli Manning there is a Tim Couch... and they both cost more than any of our Nate Clements!

Sure, if I was simpleton enough to think every top five pick is a Tomlinson. But then another simpleton would throw Eric Couch back. Top fives are busts just slightly less often than other first rounders. Top fives cost about four times as much as mid-rounders. On average do you get four times the player?

I don't even agree with the WM assessment. The whole point of drafting a player is to have his services for a guaranteed period. In drafting Willis, we get one year less out of that first round pick before it goes FA, while paying a first rounder salary for his rehab year. It's simply a bad deal, one which I think appealed to TD because he wanted a 'genius move.'

No, the decision was dumb. But having decided to get a wr, they went for quickness instead of speed, and at least in that respect he is delivering.

Yes. If we keep losing we might get a top 5 pick. In today's NFL, that is very, very bad. You get an unproven rookie accounting for a significant fraction of your cap (see Mike Williams) while he learns on the job. You don't want a 5 million dollar man. You want your roster stocked with mid-round guys at 1 mill a pop, who you can afford to cut if they don't pan out. You want the extra 4 mill to sign a proven FA star at the height of his career. Ask yourself this - who has been a better value for the franchise: #4 pick Williams, or the best FA LB on the market TKO, at a just slightly cheaper price?

Quickness and burst are different from speed. They make you explosive and elusive. They don't make you fast neccessarily. I agree - we're getting what we want out of him. (And I too would have prefered a lineman.)

Re the improvement, I agree. I'm still a bit troubled about the completion percentage. Re the OL woes, I'm not so inclined to give him any slack. Skimming the list, we see some teams with pretty bad lines at the time. And I would argue that on paper JP has far better weapons - WM, Moulds, & Evans. One other thing - the list suggests the value of grooming and evaluating on the bench. I don't see any likely busts among those who sat except possibly Ramsey. Not so the other guys (and I didn't include those already down and out like Tim Couch.)

Meaning... what exactly? Mannings were horrible in comparison to new qb's. Should we be rooting for Losman to suck, on the off chance that he'll develop like Manning? Mannings season has warped our expectations. Besides, his first year as a starter is looking more like Joey Harrington and Kyle Bollers rookie seasons. Here are the modern young qb's first seasons as starters: Manning, Giants, 2004, 48.2% 55.4 Harrington, Lions, 2002, 50.1% 59.9 Losman (2nd y), Bills, 2005, 51.4% 65.3 Boller, Ravens, 2003, 51.8% 62.4 Carr, Texans, 2002, 52.5% 62.8 Ramsey (2nd y), Redskins, 2003, 53.1% 75.8 Orton, Bears, 2005, 54.5% 62.3 Leftwich, Jaguars, 2003, 57.2% 73.0 Brees (2nd y), Chargers, 2002, 60.8% 76.9 Palmer (2nd y), Bengals, 2004, 60.9% 77.3 Brady (2nd y), Patriots, 2001, 63.9% 86.5 Roethlisberger, Steelers, 2004, 66.4% 98.1 Pennington (3rd y), Jets, 2002, 68.9% 104.2 I don't know about you, but I'll feel a hell of a lot more confident if JP finishes the season at Pennington's end of the list rather than Mannings. (Note that I sorted on %. If you sort on the magical qb rating he's closer to the middle, but nowhere near Manning, which was the original point.)

Me-me-me! I'll play!

Lol, we have a reason to play out the rest of the season!

TELL HIM TO BRING ALONG HIS LOWER CASE KEYBOARD - AND HURRY!

Well, JP came to play but I think he went home midway through the second quarter. We're so happy with his first quarter performance that I think we're overlooking just how ineffectual he was the rest of the game. At the end of the day it was another 50% passing day for 200 and change, which (not counting the TD's) is on average a subpar outing in the NFL.

The facts say you must be right. What bugs me is this: we've had two years of talk about how we're going to build a power running team. Every time we bring in a new guy we have the TBD experts raving about how the guy is a 'road grader.' (I know, cliches like 'road grader' and 'salary cap hell' are usually good indicators that the writer has nothing intelligent to contribute...) So if Mike Williams and MV and Bennie Anderson and the gang aren't getting enough push, why are they on the roster? Excellence in pass protection?