BillsVet

EJ rifled in a 7 yard pass to Watkins IIRC in the 2nd half.

There's a GM who drafted a QB in the middle of the first round about 10 years ago, the guy went bust, and that GM still has his job. His name is Ozzie Newsome and he's one of the best in the business. Newsome signed Steve McNair for a couple years and then hit on Flacco in 2008, which has been a solid choice. Unfortunately, Whaley is not in the same situation where there's ownership consistency such as Baltimore has had for years. A new owner may not be so patient, and that's entirely reasonable seeing as how that owner just plunked down 1.4B. I think Whaley will go and it's because he's not made enough solid decisions. This season may well bear that out, but I'll yield that his predecessor did him no favors with even more bad decisions which impacted both this and last season.

Whaley's responsible for not just the Manuel pick, but eschewing veteran options this year when it was clear Manuel wasn't ready. Strategically, they haven't handled the QB position well, i.e. finding a veteran, unless you believe the narrative Kolb was brought in to start last year. Throw in the revolving door post-Levitre at LG. The Kouandjio pick which isn't looking good. And the book still isn't complete, because Watkins may well turn out to be a great pro...but giving up a 1st rounder pick to move up 5 spots for a team without a QB sure looks more foolish with each EJ incompletion. It's the entire strategy behind this team. They may have more talent but they're not much better in the W column either and there's an overhaul necessary. It doesn't help Whaley's case that he was Nix's top assistant from 2010-2012 when they bungled everything on their way to winning one-third of their games.

Frankly, you don't know me. And I don't know you. But I know a little bit about mental toughness and leadership from experience being tested in a third world country. The way an individual responds when they're down is important. I don't expect EJ to stand up and say he stunk, but I don't expect sulking either. Leadership is something that becomes infectious to an organization, good or bad. And I believe his teammates are watching their QB get down, which can be a huge negative in that locker room. A mentality coach isn't going to resolve this issue either.

Mental toughness is an oft-described concept that I don't think is discussed properly. That said, we have an issue where kids today are told they're doing well when they're not. When those kids become adults, the big boy and big girl world is hard for them to adjust to and they struggle. Sure there are exceptions and the old-school ways of yelling at people all the time isn't healthy either. I just get the sense EJ's been told he's great and now that's obviously not the case he's struggling. I don't know anything about EJ's upbringing, but I'll go out on a limb and say he's never really dealt with adversity the way he needs to now. And to echo what Coach Tuesday say above, he's done if he's gotta get mentality coaching.

Sorry I missed that. I'm just stunned. I guess I need to get a life coach now to deal with my depression about the Bills losing so much.

Jairus Byrd doesn't play for the Bills any longer. This schadenfreude over former players is pointless.

Matthew Fairburn writing for syracuse.com noted that EJ is going to be in contact with his mental coach from FSU. I don't even know how to adequately and appropriately respond to this, if true. A mental coach. You've got to be kidding me. Unbelievable. "Prior to the game, Albert Breer of NFL Network reported Manuel was again working with his mental conditioning coach from Florida State." Marrone cannot fix someone who's been told for years that he's good. Nor can Hostler, Downing, or Hackett. If a guy's mentally weak because no one has been hard on him at times, then the NFL isn't the correct venue to start.

The biggest positive is Pegula has to be watching and making opinions of the current regime. A lot can happen, but there's no doubt regime change becomes more likely with losses like today's.

And if he continues to play it won't be the last time. 4 games in they look like a defeated team and are trending in the wrong direction.

Amen CT. They've shown they can't be trusted to build a team. I don't see that changing. Perhaps it's games like this they cement the need to change the organization so fundamentally.

I think the players know they will struggle to win with EJ. No one seems fired up because theyre working at a disadvantage. At the same time I just don't understand throwing 44 times if I'm Hackett or Marrone (whoever called plays) and not trying to win with the run game. Perhaps I'm missing something, but if they've tried to minimize EJ's weaknesses, running more than 23 times seems like a better option.

Only when the guy has no one around him and is standing still.

Especially considering how poor Houston's been defending the run this season.

And Buddy was responsible for switching the defense from a 4-3 coming off 2009 to a 3-4 in 2010, then back to a 4-3 in 2012. In many ways the defense was a self-inflicted thing, despite the fact they drafted heavily on that side of the ball from 2010-2012. Nix also signed off on the DC hires, especially Wannstedt, who he had to have known would want to go back to a 4-3. There were so many errors made during the Nix/Whaley years it's not even funny. And people wonder how the team managed to win 22 games in 4 years.

I'd agree. Over the 14 year playoff drought, I'd say there have been 3 eras (after Butler in 2000): Donahoe (2001-05), Levy/Brandon (2006-09), and Nix/Whaley (2010-present). If they get 1 QB in that timeframe this drought doesn't happen.

But Williams took a nice picture outside with Marrone during that big snow storm. Don't you remember?

The wind also discriminated unfairly against the Bills. It seemed like Rivers never had to throw into it and Manuel had to every time.

I'm most interested in how the Bills run the ball to set up the pass. Without the former it'll be increasingly difficult to do the latter. EJ needs to keep the defense on their toes with some passes down-field. Defensively, I think Buffalo can handle Fitz and Houston's offense. But the Bills can't just hope to Jauron ball and expect to win with defense and a weak offensive performance. Besides, you don't draft Watkins and have the remaining skill players to do that.

Richardson is completely unproven, so they're rolling the dice on a 5th round rookie. Not what I'd call a plan. And Williams has a history of back problems, which typically never completely heal when you play such a physical game. He got a nice contract not long ago. He seemed a lot better when it was Levitre playing to his left. But they couldn't pay Levitre and have tried to replace him with the likes of Colin Brown, Doug Legursky, and now Chris Williams. I'd rather have let Wood go, not re-signed Urbik or signed Williams and kept Levitre. It's the Bills' MO to choose more lower tier players who cost less than proven types who'll cost more. Hopefully Pegula can clear house of the dead weight remaining from the RW years.

Post-Donahoe, this is the common denominator. Whether via the draft, free agency, or trades, it's been miss after miss. And it's not simply choosing the wrong QB, it's how they planned for the position. This latest example of trying to go with the likes of Thad Lewis and Jeff Tuel as opposed to a veteran is another theme. It's obvious the Bills are deathly afraid of having a QB controversy and prefer to go with unheralded types to avoid the situation. Inevitably someone will ask here what they should have done and predictably respond with a "hindsight is 20/20" response. But the fact remains they're back in an unenviable position trying to win games with a guy who's not ready to play.

Miami was 2 weeks ago. What value is there to highlighting the good if you're not going to discuss the bad? And isn't it reasonable to say that metrics can help provide a view to whether or not the QB can play? Throw in the All-22 analysis which is a better visual, and you've got evidence something's wrong with the QB despite having offensive skill players said to be better than they've had.

If, on draft day 2013, I told you the Bills first round QB would never be more than a game manager, would you be satisfied with the selection? And more importantly, if fans can see that EJ's inaccuracy is so obvious, then why couldn't the current front office see that and pass? Or were they backed into a corner because the GM responsible for refusing to draft a QB in 2011-12 meant they had to take one? When I think about the QB's Buffalo's since 2006; Losman, Edwards, Fitzpatrick, and Manuel, it tells me they have no idea how to evaluate QB talent. At this point they need to get lucky because they don't seem to know how to find one. Whiffing on 2 1st rounders, a 3rd, and handing a big contract to Fitz point that way. Going 7 of 21 for 49 yards on passes not to RB's is good enough? Perhaps if this is the NFL in the 1930s. The 2-1 record is misleading. Do you honestly believe future opponents don't know how to handle a Bills offense with EJ? And how does that bode for their future?

The season is a grind, but if you have a combination of a) not having the players and b) poor schemes you're going to be exposed sooner or later. Fitz had a huge hole in his game (the lack of a sufficient arm). EJ's is being wildly inaccurate (so far). Trent Edwards was accurate, but wouldn't throw deep either. Losman was similar to EJ, but could at least drop in a long pass now and then to a receiver in motion. Sooner or later it depends on how you adapt to what opposing DC's are doing. The mark of a good front office-coaching staff is to find the players to do that and then put them into positions. I'm very interested to see what Marrone/Little Nate/and the Schwartz come up with after getting rolled last week. Winning in week 1 and 2 is a lot easier than weeks 11 or 12. But I will agree, the Bills retained some players that previous years would have seen them let go to ensure the Wilson family banked a little more.

So far in his NFL career, after about 400 pass attempts EJ's completing slightly less than 60% of his throws. Some may say this is acceptable given his lack of playing time, but considering his 6.6 average yards per attempt on (which in 2013 puts him in the 27-29 range of QB's) it's not really something to highlight. This year, he's averaging a little over 7 yards per pass and completing 63%, which are improvements. What should be concerning is the performance on Sunday where at one point in the 4th quarter he was 17-27 (63%) for 163 yards (6.04ypa). That's not going to win games even with a stellar defense in today's passing dominated league. Stats can be skewed to support or oppose a position. The question to ask oneself is whether EJ trends back up or continues to slide as he did this past week.