Someone asked me who Fitz reminds me of...

[Alphadawg7]

Someone asked me the other day who Fitz reminded me of and the QB that immediately came to mind was Aaron Brooks (formerly of the Saints and Raiders). Even if you look at their stats, they are quite similar. They share quite a lot of the same qualities...

 

1. Neither had a good career comp % and both struggled with consistent accuracy...both could make some great throws then baffle and frustrate you with horrid ones.

2. Both could make plays with their legs when they needed to, but looked to pass first.

3. Both have issues with turnovers (both INT's and Fumbles).

4. Both could go out and win games for you, and yet both could go out and lose you games too.

5. Neither are great QB's, but in the right system (Brooks in NO and Fitz in Buffalo) they could be effective.

6. Neither QB is the kind of guy to build a team around, but good enough until you find your franchise guy.

 

As far as I am concerned, this team needs a better QB. I will agree that we have a lot of holes and QB is not the biggest hole on this team. However, going into next year, if a franchise QB is available with our first pick then I don't know how we pass him up. Look at what Cincy has done with essentially replacing Palmer with Dalton. A QB may not be our biggest need (and I dont want to reach for one), but it can make the biggest impact on this team if we find the right one. That being said, Fitz is good enough to not force us to reach for one just to take one. So, if a top talent is not there at QB, I would say we are much better off going after a top prospect to fill one of our other holes first (WR, LB, DE, OL).

 

My main issue of not having a young top QB prospect on this team is that the road to rebuilding is going to be much longer by not upgrading our QB and filling other holes first. That is because the team as a whole is devoid of depth and lacks play makers at so many positions. Fitz is not terrible and the best QB we have had since Bledsoe, but he also is not good enough to carry a team like this. He needs a better team around him to succeed and that's going to take a lot more players to build, and with a "build through the draft" mentality that can take a long time, especially with how few times we hit on good players in the draft.

Edited December 7, 2011 by Alphadawg7

[opfball91]

I never think its good to draw comparisons to the point of pretty much calling the two guys the same player. I like Fitz and there's no need to go looking for another QB right now in my opinion. He has a pretty huge lack of talent around him and yet he still makes plays. You call out his accuracy yet he's been above 60% this whole year, he's on track for potentially a 30 TD season. I see no reason to go looking elsewhere before we look to sharpen up other areas of our team.

[Maury Ballstein]

Fitz has no consistency and still lacks an NFL arm......He can win games but he can also lose a ton of them......I like the guy but we can definetly do better.....Dalton, Cam, Locker even have much better arm strength...

[K-9]

When I look at both of their first seven seasons in the league, I see a parallel to Rich Gannon.

 

GO BILLS!!!

[opfball91]

Fitz has no consistency and still lacks an NFL arm......He can win games but he can also lose a ton of them......I like the guy but we can definetly do better.....Dalton, Cam, Locker even have much better arm strength...

All's I'm saying is look how long it took us to find a guy like Fitz, easily the best QB to come to Buffalo since Kelly, I'm not ready to jump ship just because he's had a bad stretch of games, which he's come out of in the past two weeks, or because he has a couple errant passes a game. Bottom line is we lost 4 games this season by a combined 16 points. We are very very close to being a solid team and abandoning the QB you just signed on as your guy for the next six years is what I would call going backwards. We need to continue to build, which will give us depth and talent along the way.

[swnybillsfan]

i think fitz can help this team win OR lose a bunch of games. he is a really streaky quarterback that can be way up or way down. and as far as the draft goes, if there is a stud qb on the board, it would be really hard to pass him up. but the deciding factor has to be out of all the bodies left on the board, who is likely to be the biggest difference maker for years to come? i don't really think fitz and aaron brooks are that much alike, but i don't really know who i would compare fitz to...

[Coach Tuesday]

Isn't Fitz second in the AFC in completion percentage? Or did I get that wrong?

 

Anyone else remember Aaron Brooks giggling and guffawing in the press box during a Raiders' Monday Night Football game, when the Raiders were getting blown out and Andrew Walter was getting sacked on play after play? Brooks was an idiot and a clown, and had nowhere near the football smarts that Fitz does. Plus, he had a cannon arm.

 

So I guess what I'm saying is that I disagree with the OP...

[NoSaint]

aaron brooks was a mess mentally. he lined up under the wrong guy for a snap, the backwards pass.... a mess.

 

 

jay fiedler.

ivy league, decent runner, played well with chan, not a great arm. prior to this season, very similar numbers. havent looked recently so not 100% on how they stack up still.

Edited December 7, 2011 by NoSaint

[jumbalaya]

Before Fitz this team has a lot of needs.

[*]Veteran depth on the O line.

[*]Healthy Oline players, we may need a center the way Wood keeps breaking down.

[*]Tight end that can stretch the field

[*]WR that can stretch the field

[*]WR that can catch a game winning ball when in the open and it hits him in the hands

[*]WR that will not cost the team dearly because of acts of immaturity

[*]True NT

[*]ROLB that can get to the QB

[*]Two veteran corners. McGee is done, Florence looks terrible more often than not, McKelvin needs coaching, Williams and Rogers are too soon to tell.

[*]Stud Strong Safety.

[*]Punter as Moorman is about done.

[*]Kicker as Lindell is almost done, Rayner may be that guy, he has a leg.

[Captain Hindsight]

100% disagree.

 

Fitz is the only one keeping us in a few games this year. Minus a 3 game stretch where the entire team didn't bother to show up, Fitz has been pretty consistent. Over 200 yards passing, a TD or 2 and maybe a pic

 

 

3 years ago we woulda killed for those numbers

[EldaBillsFan]

we lost a player that produced probably close to 50% of the offense...and the whole offensive line is or was a mess, and then you been rotating wrs all year long....but still manage to have 20tds ...pass over 60 plus percent, and be 10 top in qb rating .... I'll. Take it

[dave mcbride]

Someone asked me the other day who Fitz reminded me of and the QB that immediately came to mind was Aaron Brooks (formerly of the Saints and Raiders). Even if you look at their stats, they are quite similar. They share quite a lot of the same qualities...

 

1. Neither had a good career comp % and both struggled with consistent accuracy...both could make some great throws then baffle and frustrate you with horrid ones.

2. Both could make plays with their legs when they needed to, but looked to pass first.

3. Both have issues with turnovers (both INT's and Fumbles).

4. Both could go out and win games for you, and yet both could go out and lose you games too.

5. Neither are great QB's, but in the right system (Brooks in NO and Fitz in Buffalo) they could be effective.

6. Neither QB is the kind of guy to build a team around, but good enough until you find your franchise guy.

 

As far as I am concerned, this team needs a better QB. I will agree that we have a lot of holes and QB is not the biggest hole on this team. However, going into next year, if a franchise QB is available with our first pick then I don't know how we pass him up. Look at what Cincy has done with essentially replacing Palmer with Dalton. A QB may not be our biggest need (and I dont want to reach for one), but it can make the biggest impact on this team if we find the right one. That being said, Fitz is good enough to not force us to reach for one just to take one. So, if a top talent is not there at QB, I would say we are much better off going after a top prospect to fill one of our other holes first (WR, LB, DE, OL).

 

My main issue of not having a young top QB prospect on this team is that the road to rebuilding is going to be much longer by not upgrading our QB and filling other holes first. That is because the team as a whole is devoid of depth and lacks play makers at so many positions. Fitz is not terrible and the best QB we have had since Bledsoe, but he also is not good enough to carry a team like this. He needs a better team around him to succeed and that's going to take a lot more players to build, and with a "build through the draft" mentality that can take a long time, especially with how few times we hit on good players in the draft.

Career sack rate for brooks -- 7.3 percent and rising as his career went on.

 

Career sack rate for fitz -- 6.3 perecent and nosediving as his career has gone on (it's a microscopic 3.5 percent this season despite an untalented set ot of OTs).

 

Career completion percentage for Brooks -- 56.5

Career completion percentage for Fitz -- 59.5 and rising (64 percent this year)

 

Brooks has a better interception rate and a better ypa, but for both, the trajectory over time was downward for brooks and upward for fitz. In fact, brooks' int rate skyrocketed in his final three seasons.

 

Let's not even get into the fact that for all of his flaws, Fitz is ten times smarter than Brooks, who was basically an unbrilliant malcontent.

 

The basic point: they are not even remotely alike. The ol' eyeball test will tell you this, of course, but the stats help too.

[maddenboy]

Naw, bruh. I strongly disagree.

 

a few months ago, I was watching an old re-run of some NFL quarterback challenge from the Pro Bowl, maybe around 2005. In a side segment, they asked the quarterbacks what their favorite play was, and why. Then they showed video of the qb actually running that play the previous season.

 

Tom Brady: (something like) "36 flanker shallow z right h fill shaggle tree on 2. The 36 is the protection shifting to the right, the h fill means the running back will chip if there's penetration and run a hook, or if the linebacker drops, then he goes to the flat. What we're trying to do here is score a touchdown with the Z. If the safety bites on the flanker, its a read between me and the Z to go to the post. Shaggle means that the Z and me will do a hand signal, depending on whether its zone or man."

 

Peyton Manning: (something like) 23 fade shallow right cross z trail 77 jet trey on 2. I'm able to audible to a run if the safeties play off, but what i'm looking for is Marvin and me to read the Free Safety. The 77 means a play action run fake. If the safety bites, then Marvin knows I will pump to freeze his cornerback, then let it fly deep. If the safety is disciplined, then he isnt moving, so he has to decide between the shallow fade or the cross, and we at least get a first down.

 

AARON BROOKS: (specifically called the play as) "X Y go. That's my favorite play." The X receiver and Y go deep, and I get to decide who is open. We try to get a touchdown here. (And in the video, the X receiver had to cut it off because Brooks got flushed, the X ended up running a post route and Brooks somehow found him in the end zone).

 

Seriously. The Fitzpatrick Harvard thing is not hype. Dude is super smart about football. Brooks, not so much. Either "XY go" is all he could remember of the complicated play call, or else the coaches dumbed it down for his ass.

Edited December 8, 2011 by maddenboy