dr.fishopolis

He's started 16 games once in his career. In 2011 he suffered a season ending injury in the opener and missed the last 15. In 2012 he started 11 games and missed 5 due to injury. That's 12 of his last 32 games that he's been able to suit up for. Combine this with the fact that he's 5'11", 185 lbs. Oh, and last year's injury almost killed him. So yes, I think it's perfectly fair to call him a major injury concern. I think paying 10 million for an undersized, injury prone slot receiver with a career 8 yards per catch, 7 touchdowns and 4 fumbles would rewrite the book on crazy.

I like how every black quarterback must be good at the wildcat. I've yet to hear anyone suggest Tyler Thigpen or Fitz (both mobile qbs) should run the wildcat, but there have been dozens, if not hundreds, of posts suggesting that Tjax, and VY before him, would be great at it. Get 'er done!

I just did a google search for "nfl starting qb salaries", and surprisingly enough, the first hit was about fitz http://boards.buffalobills.com/showthread.php?416633-2012-Projected-Starting-Quarterbacks-Salaries-Where-Fitz-stacks-up according to this list (which was from preseason), these qbs who a) start and b) are not on their rookie contract make less than fitz: Matt Schaub Alex Smith ... that's it. If you include all starting qbs, fitz is still in the bottom half. He's simply not being paid a large amount of money relative to other starting quarterbacks.

Yes, but after last week I drank until they looked better... 'Stache deserves credit for fitting those pink elephants into Bills uniforms, and teaching them to dance in unison like that

A few notes: - My Seahawk friends don't watch Bills games (you can't watch them out here unless you try) and have no idea how Fitz is outside of fantasy football - The simple fact is, right now, they're both poor options to be starting quarterbacks. So I'd rather not get into a false equivalency about which piece of crap is better, as that wasn't the point of my post or this thread. - Bills fans, at least this Bills fan, don't want a young QB with potential, they want to go to the playoffs this year. They wanted a young QB with potential 1-3 years ago, who would be ready to play now, and didn't get one. This year, they want both a qualified starting QB and a young QB with potential -- they have neither. My point in mentioning that they'd be complaining WITH Wilson is exactly that, Wilson wouldn't solve anything for *this* team, *this* year. We're not on a 6 year rebuilding plan, we're on a 3 year rebuilding plan, and this is year 3. There is no next year. - Fitz is one of the lowest paid non-rookie-contract starting QB's in the NFL. Can we drop this hogwash that he got a huge contract?

If Wilson was starting for the Bills, the same people saying we should have drafted Wilson would be screaming for Fitz, or Vince Young, or whatever crazy thing people scream for. Wilson is simply not a good quarterback right now, nor has he shown that he's close to being one in the regular season. I live in Seattle, watch Seahawks games, and talk to Seahawks fans daily. The common belief of those I talk to is that if Flynn was the starter, they'd be 5-0 with that defense and running game, and that they should be 2-3 or 1-4 with Wilson except for a few lucky breaks (cam newton fumbling the game away last week, the refs giving them the game over Green Bay). Of course Wilson looked better last week, he was playing one of a few defenses that might actually be worse than the Bills! Carolina signed Dwan Edwards after the preseason and instantly gave him a starting job with no preseason reps. They're that bad. Wilson is still very skittish in the pocket, to the point where it's stretching things to even say he's ever in the pocket. He's averaging 6.5 yards per attempt, has 5 tds to 6 ints, has a 75 qb rating, and has topped 160 yards ONCE in 5 games. He's also rushed 27 times for a whopping 3.4 ypc, 0 tds, and 1 fumble. Every one of those stats is significantly worse than what Fitz is doing, and nobody is trying to coddle Fitz or set him up "not to fail". Come back in 8 weeks. If Wilson is still the starter, the Seahawks will have lost a great opportunity to have a playoff team. More likely, Flynn will be starting by then. I'm not saying Wilson will never be a good quarterback, I'm saying he's a bad quarterback right now and he's the weakest link on a very good team.

Source? I remember him saying this about Eric Moulds in 1996 when Wannstedt was coaching the Bears, and coached Moulds in the Senior Bowl. He could have also said the same thing about Losman, but why? Wannstedt was coaching Pitt at the time, why would they go to him to evaluate another team's draft? All I can find for sources on Moulds are TBD posts (highbeam.com cuts off the article right before the source, and the chicagotribune alludes to Wannstedt not liking Moulds, but doesn't quote it), but I remember him saying it after the draft as well. http://forums.twobillsdrive.com/topic/56704-willis-mcgahee-loves-sandwiches/ http://forums.twobillsdrive.com/topic/146462-spotlight-on-wanny/ http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-22850791.html http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1996-08-30/sports/9608300196_1_kent-hull-miami-dolphins-receiver Anyway, I think we can be agree that Wannstedt was completely wrong about Moulds, regardless of his football knowledge.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/7637479/drew-brees-new-orleans-saints-divided-money-first-three-years-sources-say "Brees... is seeking a contract that averages $23 million per season for the first three years of his deal, sources told Schefter. But the Saints are offering Brees a five-year contract that averages $18 million a year"

This is absurd. Andre Johnson is the best receiver in football for about 8 years running. If that's your standard for a #1, only Andre Johnson meets it. If the question is "how does Andre Johnson get so open despite being injured", the answer is b/c he's Andre F.N. Johnson.

I look forward to reading the outraged posts about how we traded a 1st round pick for a 7th. McCargo is a young, first round stud DT who will take over this league now that he's been given a chance. All they could get for a 27 year old stud DT is a former 7th round pick who almost lost his job to Matt Friggin' Cassel? Unbelievable. I look forward to watching him play with the Patriots, and predict 15 sacks for 2010, and an MVP in 2011. The Bills will rue this day!

I understand that, but if the location of his feet aren't accurately represented in this simulation, what are the chances that the location of his arm when he released the ball is accurately represented? 1. it seems that the 2 would be directly related in any legit simulation 2. it seems that if they can't get right the one detail that you can without a doubt know about the situation (his feet are on the ground, at a yard marker, there's no optical illusion or lens warping at work here), then the legitimacy of their simulation is a pretty big question.

If you watch the real play side by side with the animation, they have Wycheck's feet a foot or 2 further than they actually were... in the actual play, his front foot barely hits the 20 when he sets up to throw, in the animation he starts clearly over the 20... in the actual play, you can see green space between his feet and the 20 yard line while he throws... in the animation he's on the 20 the entire time.

Right, you have important business to take care of... like responding to message board posts about video games, and judging people you've never met because they spend their leisure time differently than you. Gotcha.

Not to mention he was wrong. a few(a): more than one but indefinitely small in number; "a few roses"; "a couple of roses"

If that's the play I'm thinking of... 1. bell got punched in the throat on that play. He wasn't holding his forearm, he was holding his throat. 2. it wasn't bell's guy that hit edwards I remember rewinding that and watching it to see why Bell was standing there, and thinking "that guy doesn't get paid enough for that". I suspect it wasn't covered by the announcers b/c they were so focused on edwards.

Was curious about this, so I checked out the stats. The offense is slightly less effective under AVP than it was under TS, over the last 6 games each have called. last 6 games of 08: 302 yards/game, 19 1st downs/game, 8 turnovers first 6 games of 09: 291 yards/game, 16 1st downs/game, 13 turnovers to me the big difference seems turnovers, and most of that difference comes from special teams and not offense.... if the bills had the ball for 5 more possessions, they very well might have gotten 11 more yards a game (though that is far from certain, I have watched this team) another view, by yards per attempt: last 6 games of 08: 5.2 yards per pass attempt, 4.9 yards per rushing attempt first 6 games of 09: 5.1 yards per pass attempt, 4.2 yards per rushing attempt At least at this level, seems a bit much to blame "dialing back the offense". The offense sucked last year, it sucks this year. What's to dial back? We've run a little less effectively, passed about the same, and sucked about equally. source: http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/buf/2009.htm http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/buf/2008.htm

I'm guessing b/c he's been hurt for weeks, and was on the field the entire game against the best passing offense in football.

92-95? it seems like you're taking an already arbitrary statistic, and putting an arbirtrary cap on it. Last year 7 qbs in the NFL had a qb rating above 92. Below 92 included Eli Manning, Jay Cutler, Matt Ryan, Tony Romo... I could go on. And as to how meaningless QB rating is... 2008 QB rating for Jay Cutler, 86.0. Trent Edwards, 85.4. 2008 TDs for Jay Cutler: 25. 2008 TDs for Trent Edwards: 11. What exactly is your reason for requiring a starting qb to have a "92-95" ? Would you throw away Tony Romo, Jay Cutler, or Matt Ryan if they were qb'ing the Bills?

Anyone watch the highlights of XXXVIII and see Tom Brady throw for nearly 400 yards and 3 tds? He was under constant pressure, and still managed to throw the ball all over the field to barely-open receivers. Some of those receivers were cornerbacks at the beginning of the year! Makes you wonder how good Trent Edwards really is when he can be taken away by an ineffective line and even has some receivers that aren't cornerbacks. What's that you say? Tom Brady is one of the greatest quarterbacks in the game? And if we use that as a standard, virtually *nobody* is a good qb? oh, right, I see your point...

from nfl.com: Season Pass Avg. 2007 6.1 2008 7.2 2009 Preseason: 5.0 Trent Edwards First Game in the NFL: 4.9 avg First 3 games in the NFL: 6.4 avg And finally, just b/c I noticed a pattern in these: Bills record when Trent Edwards throws for more than 6.5 yards per attempt: 11-1 (1 exception is last year's first jet's game, where Trent threw at 8.3 ypa) Bills record when Trent Edwards throws for less than or equal to 6.5 yards per attempt (excluding last year's ARI game): 1-10 (one win was 2nd Jets game 2007, when Trent threw at 6.2 ypa. I believe Trent was injured in that game, and it was won by a JP losman to evans bomb in the 4th qtr)

Conjecture? Sure, but everything we can say right now is conjecture I don't mean to say that this move is good just because it is unpopular. Rather, it's nice to see a football decision being made for football reasons and not for the sake of pandering to an overly eager fanbase or an overly aggressive local media. In itself, that's an assumption on my part. I recognize this. In my book, though, Marv Levy has integrity to challenege most in his profession. I have a hard time believing that a man with his mind, after nearly a decade out of the game spent clawing to get back in, would blow his shot hiring his unqualified buddies. So when I see the choices come down to 'cronyism' or 'football decision', I choose the later. Ticket sales may fall off, that's a trade off. Wise football decisions will always win those ticket sales back. Will it work, is this wise? I have no idea, as football is a fickle beast. I'm only trying to judge if the decisions are made for the right reason, as a means to a positive end. In my book, this passes. It's a move meant to better a football team from guys who have more football knowledge than myself. Thanks for the warm welcome guys, glad to be here.

I was initially shocked and disheartened by the hiring of DJ, when leaked yesterday. Sherman seemed perfect. Now, with a bit of time and forum lurking, I've had a change of heart. Not only is this a great hire, but it bodes well for the future of the franchise. My support of this argument is simple - we all hate it. Donahoe listened to everything we said for 5 years, and we ate it up... and NONE of it worked. We're not good football people. Tom Donahoe is not a good football person (a great salesman though). Marv Levy is a good football person. Think for a second about the history of TD, and everything we hate about it. We complained about JP? Benched. We complained about Williams? Fired. We wanted Takeo Spikes? Ours. Jim Mcnally will solve our O-line problems? Signed. We wanted Bledsoe, and clamored more after day 1? Traded for on day 2, parade on day 3. The fans and the Buffalo News owned this team, and it has taken them nowhere. Marv made a decision entirely independent of what fans would think of it, what the media would write about it, and what impact it would have on ticket sales. Do not feed me this garbage that a man as intelligent as Marv Levy hired a man to coach his football team because he watched him as an announcer. Who are you kidding. He made a decision he thought was for the best of the franchise, and would eventually win football games. How long has it been since any of us could say that about a decision made by the Bills? I, for one, welcome our new ant overlords.