JDG

I think there is a good point that Buffalo would not have been a good fit for Matt Leinart. I mean, this guy grew up in Southern California, was the toast of LA in college, he was even dating Paris Hilston. Can you imagine a guy like that fitting in in Buffalo, let alone being happy here? JDG

Roscoe Parrish might be Antwaan Randle-El someday, but right now he most certainly is not. JDG

That's what happens when all 14 favorites win in a given week.... all the sheep think that they are geniuses.... JDG - Who for one week, at least, wishes he had been a sheep.... ;-)

I won't disagree with you on the latter.... but my point was to take issue with JSP's comment that any QB with that defense would look like Joe Montana.... JDG

I generally like Brad Johnson to - but who do you rate him as being better as? Plus, he didn't impress me that much against the Bills. Rivers is tough too, but after seeing him pick apart the Steelers yesterday, I'm willing to rate him as being pretty good. A reasonable person could put him in the "unratable" category - but I don't think anyone is arguing that Losman is better than Rivers at this point.... I dumped on Kitna because of his turnover-fest in Minnesota... which was a little unfair. But I didn't want to debate "is Kitna better than Losman?" If I was doing the rankings for a non-Losman-centric perspective, I probably rate him higher.... The other guy, besides Carr (if not others) that I think I got clearly wrong in doing that quickly is that Alex Smith is too high. In fairness, he's still in the Losman-caliber mix. JDG

And he looked like Joe Montana while doing it, right? GOOD GRIEF!

I put that together rather quickly, as I was just amazed that we were having a discussion about Losman being a "Top 20" QB. He certainly isn't, at least not yet. In part, I relied upon general perceptions, as well as my own personal opinion. I personally like Michael Vick, and I think that I'd even consider him a Top Tier QB. Obviously, if I had it back, I'd put David Carr lower... he's playing well this year, but not that well. Ben Roethlisberger was a tough call as well. He's played terrible this year when I have seen him, but obviously he has produced in the past. I think we'd all agree, though, that any NFL Team would rather have Roethlisberger under center than Losman at this point. Actually, I think the things that impressed me the most about this exercise are: a) how tough it is to rank QB's 1-32 b) how good even the QB's in the 15-20 and 20-25 range are I just don't see how Losman's even in the conversation yet. JDG

Just like Kyle Boller and Kyle Orton, right? JDG

I think we'll know it when we see it. A game where JP Losman plays generally well, and then leads a 4th quarter comeback would qualify. A game the Bills win and score 20+ points and where Losman passes for 60%+ and somewhere in the vicinity of 250-300 yards would qualify. Certainly, a game like Donovan McNabb had yesterday against the Cowboys would qualify. Leading a tough road win against an opponent that is playing well could also qualify if Losman plays well too. I could even see Losman playing well in a shoot-out, where our defense fails us in the end as qualifying. I'm not going to necessarily lay down specific benchmarks, because I think there's a couple different ways that Losman could play well - and I don't want to necessarily tie him to one thing. As I see it, Losman has two B+ games, the Minnesota game and the Houston game last year (vs. the worst team in football), and maybe also the Kansas City game as a third. I also see four "F" games on the resume from last year, and you could argue that Sunday's debacle as a fifth, but I'd probably give him a "D" or a "C-" for that one, given the gameplan and things generally getting out of hand. I'm not saying that Losman should never have an "F", heck even Peyton Manning and Tom Brady toss the occasional "F" - they also toss the occasional "A", and I'm just not sure that we've seen an "A" game from Losman just yet. JDG

The problem is that Losman has a handful of B's surrounded be a bunch of F's. All I"m saying is that I'd feel more optimistic about Losman if he put together one A game. He'll have many more opportunities this season, if he stays healthy - is just one "A" game too much to ask before becoming optimistic? JDG

The problem is that the good games happen to every QB, every weekend in the NFL - except, perhaps, for JP Losman. I mean, what's JP Losman's best game as a pro so far? A game in which we scored 17 points, including a scintillating 10-play drive for a whopping 22 yards and a field goal? Or was it a game in which the coaches kept him on a tight leash, and he passed for a grand total of eighty-three yards, in a tough road win? Oh boy! Look, I'll be the first person to admit that its unfair to bash Losman for Sunday's performance. Losman was playing in one of the toughest road venues in the NFL, with a game plan that did not put him in a position to succeed, but instead asked him to carry this team on his shoulders. I can't hold that too much against him, and its unsurprising that the end result was three pretty bad interceptions in a blowout loss, without ever showing any signs of mountain a comeback. At the end of the day, though, I can't get optimistic about Losman's future with the Bills until he puts together an outstanding complete game. Three years and fourteen games into the Losman era, I think that I'm still waiting for that signature game from Losman. JDG

And JP Losman was even worse. Hasselbeck was pulled with 7:43 left. At the same point in yesterday's game, Losman was had managed a measely 89 yards - less than half! - on 10 of 22 passing.

What's this "still" business? ;-) Top Tier QB's: P. Manning T. Brady C. Palmer D. McNabb M. Hasselbeck D. Carr Second Tier QB's E. Manning M. Bulger J. Delhomme M. Vick (an * if ever there was one) D. Brees R. Grossman P. Rivers Third Tier QB's: B. Leftwich C. Pennington B. Favre (I still put him up here) S. McNair A. Smith Fourth Tier QB's: J. Plummer B. Roethlisberger M. Brunell C. Frye B. Johnson Cover-Your-Eyes-Awful Tier: D. Bledsoe J. Kitna D. Culpepper A. Brooks/A. Walter/M. Tuiasasopo Unratabe: M. Leinart V. Young B. Gradkowski D. Huard I probably put Losman at the bottom of that 4th Tier, which I guess gets him into the Top 20 - but consider that four teams are playing without ratable QB's, and another four are in the cover-your-eyes-awful tier (which I do *not* put Losman in), being in the Top 20 isn't saying that much.... JDG

Because that was *not* our gameplan? The Bills began the game with 13 passes and 5 runs, all while never down by more than 13-3. JDG

If JP Losman had thrown that last interception against San Diego, I would almost certainly have been all over him. I don't see how you can win a Super Bowl with a guy who throws a pass like that. ;-) JDG

Sorry, but you are completely backwards. You are the person who argued that Grossman was just as bad in his first 8 starts as JP Losman. I pointed out that in just the first 12 games, JP Losman had *three* games that were worse than any game that Rex Grossman had. *YOU* are the person who tried comparing Losman's 2nd, 3rd, and 4th games to Grossman's 7th and 8th starts. As for Matt Hasselbeck, he had a bad game against the Bears - but there are different levels of bad. Hasselbeck managed to pass for 196 yards before getting pulled with 7:43 left in the game. By comparison, Losman managed a measely 89 yards - less than half! - on 10 of 22 passing. JDG

Indeed I did.... and as bad as those games were, what does it tell you that Losman's were worse?

I'm normally the last person to question a team's playcalling.... playcalling is like driving - 90% of people think that they are above average drivers and that their team's playcalling is below average. Nevertheless, this one left me scratching my head. In two road games this season, the Bills nearly stole a win in New England and got a win in Miami. Faced with our toughest road test yet, I would have expected a similar gameplan - lots of running, and lots of conservative, controlled passing. I expected to see a lot of the WR screens, swing passes, and quick slants that had dominated our game plan even in the subsequent two home games. Instead, those controlled WR passes were almost absent today. I don't recall any of the designed plays to get the ball into Parrish's hands. Early on, it was drop back and pass almost all the time and very little McGahee. Even if the Bears were anticipating that - I just think that that gameplan is too sensible to abandon, especially with a subpar QB in a very tough road environment. Losman was pretty horrible today, those INT's make you completely shake your head, but I can't criticize him too much, because I definitely don't feel that the coaches set him up to succeeed today. JDG

Your comment that Losman would have blown out the Bills 40-7 if he had been on the Bears....

Shirley, you can't be serious. Did you see Losman's games against the Bucs and Saints last year????? JDG

As usual, anyone but Losman..... While I do agree that our Coaches and running game did not put Losman in a position to succeed today, Losman is justly deserving of criticism for not executing what was asked of him today..... JDG

Its amazing how much perceptions can change in just one week. I don't think people would be considering this a "no-hoper game" if we were getting the Bears right after the Vikings game. Suddenly, though, the Bears beat the Seahawks without Sean Alexander and its 1985 all over again. The Bears are good, and I like Dick Jauron's ability to make this a close, ugly, ball-control football game. If JP Losman can continue his improvement, I even think that we pull the upset... JDG

I don't see how a guy who isn't even on his own team's Wall of Fame could be so automatic for the NFL Hall of Fame.... JDG

You clearly have a deep visceral hatred for JP Losman.....

Thanks Dan for the level-headed response.... No problem. I would point out, however, that my words have been exactly the opposite - that JP Losman is much improved from last year (when he didn't look like an NFL QB - especially early on), that he is the best QB on the Bills' roster, and our legitimate starting QB for the season. True enough, but I also don't think that JP Losman has had an unqualified good game yet (although he came very, very, close yesterday.) I also wonder if the same thing isn't true of other posters, though. For example, Kelly the Dog has often insisted to me that he never says something good about Losman without qualifying it with some critique as well... Actually, in my original post I went out of my way to emphasize that Losman's accuracy has improved, regardless of the playcalling. And I don't see how it is a "crusade" against JP Losman to point out that the Bills seem to be calling an unusually high number of WR screens and swing passes - especially if it is true (particularly in the Miami and Minnesota games) If someone cares to demonstrate to me that it is not unusual, I will respectfully eat crow if proven otherwise - but I watch a good number of football games, and unless I am really mistaken, the Bills seem to be somewhat unusual in the frequency with which they call these types of plays, as opposed to plays where Losman would have to pick apart the defense downfield. I think that has to affect one's overall assessment of Losman. Yes, he has shown improvement - but the playcalling may be making the improvement appear to be greater than it really is. In any case, wouldn't it be reasonable to hold off on proclaiming that JP Losman has arrived as a "good NFL QB", justifying his draft status, until he graduates from being a QB that the Bills manage the game around to being a QB whom the Bills manage *for* to make the players around him better, and indeed, the whole team better? There's a modicum of truth to that. I do believe that with better QB play we would be at least 3-1, if not 4-0 right now. I only rate a handful of teams as having worse QB situations than the Bills: Oakland, Tennessee, Miami, Arizona, and Tampa.... maybe a few others like Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Kansas City, and Cleveland. We can quibble about the exact spot - but that still puts him in "below average" territory no matter how you cut it. I agree 100% with the first part - Losman needs to improve, but he is showing weekly improvement. The the only way JP Losman could possibly deserve to be benched this season would be for him to reprise his performance of last season over multiple games. No one game could do it, in my mind, and personally I don't see any sign of that happening at this point. As for the next 2-3 years, I think a lot can change between now and December. His current track has him on pace to be firmly entrenched as the franchise QB by then. But he isn't there yet. If his improvement ends here, however, then come December we may have a tough call to make, on which reasonable people could argue either way... JDG