ndirish1978 Posted July 13, 2012 Posted July 13, 2012 http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/07/12/pft-live-can-fitzpatrick-turn-the-bills-around/ Very interesting interview on PFT live. However, I was surprised with the seemingly negative tone of Tim Graham's comments. I may be off base, but he seemed to poo poo the positive spin Florio was trying to put on the Bills offseason. I only noticed because it's the first time I've ever heard a "home town" reporter speaking less positively about his team than Florio. Struck me as out of character for Tim. What do you guys think? Why did I say he was "negative?" 1- Florio- Great offseason, fans must be excited. Graham- Bills have a bad track record, people aren't as excited as you think 2- Florio- New QB coach has people excited about Fitz's potential. Graham- New stuff never worked for old boxers, so Fitz probably won't get much better. 3- Florio- Who's gonna be #2? Graham- TJ drops balls and can't go over the middle.
PromoTheRobot Posted July 13, 2012 Posted July 13, 2012 (edited) I think Tim does that act for cred, so he doesn't look like a homer. That or he has Sully cooties. PTR Edited July 13, 2012 by PromoTheRobot
mrags Posted July 13, 2012 Posted July 13, 2012 Wow. Very suprised. I think PTR is right possibly. Maybe he's just doing that so he doesn't look like a homer too much.
NoSaint Posted July 13, 2012 Posted July 13, 2012 1) though we're always optimistic, it's still very tempered due to our history. Negative or accurate? 2) it is hard to rework a motion at this point in your career. Many of us question if it will amount to more than a minor improvement and if so why isn't lee the most in demand guy around? 3) the number 2 wr is a huge question mark no ones filled yet. What would you say to who's the number 2?
NickelCity Posted July 13, 2012 Posted July 13, 2012 1) though we're always optimistic, it's still very tempered due to our history. Negative or accurate? 2) it is hard to rework a motion at this point in your career. Many of us question if it will amount to more than a minor improvement and if so why isn't lee the most in demand guy around? 3) the number 2 wr is a huge question mark no ones filled yet. What would you say to who's the number 2? I understand what you're doing with this post, but if I recall correctly, Lee was pretty "in demand" this offseason...
JeffNixonFan Posted July 13, 2012 Posted July 13, 2012 I'm a longtime lurker, had an account for a couple years, never posted but the season has me excited. I've been interested in getting involved on TBD but its been slow past week or two but this thread is something I wanted to comment on. The guy who started this thread is offended by negativity and his whole thing is negative. He pulled out every negative slanted thing from the interview. I listened to it. I thought Graham came off as excited about the season too and layed out all the reasons. The ONLY thing that stopped him short was Fitz. He said Bills fans were guarded and I think that's accurate at least from my friends I talk to. On the second question Florio himself said QB coaching doesn't always work and mentioned the failed Tebow overhaul from last year. Graham just said its hard for old dogs to learn new tricks and talked about Stevie saying Fitz looked much better throwing to his left. Graham also said he's convinced Fitz played hurt last year. Graham also talked up David Lee and the Wildcat and Brad Smith. On the third question Graham said a lot of great things about Donald Jones. He mentioned T.J. had a prblem with drops and going acrross the middle at NC State which he did. Not some smoking gun accusation exactly. So anyways, one of my pet peeves are people who look for reasons to get upset. This thread is exactly that. I heard a totally different interview than the author of this thread.
San Jose Bills Fan Posted July 13, 2012 Posted July 13, 2012 I'm a longtime lurker, had an account for a couple years, never posted but the season has me excited. I've been interested in getting involved on TBD but its been slow past week or two but this thread is something I wanted to comment on. The guy who started this thread is offended by negativity and his whole thing is negative. He pulled out every negative slanted thing from the interview. I listened to it. I thought Graham came off as excited about the season too and layed out all the reasons. The ONLY thing that stopped him short was Fitz. He said Bills fans were guarded and I think that's accurate at least from my friends I talk to. On the second question Florio himself said QB coaching doesn't always work and mentioned the failed Tebow overhaul from last year. Graham just said its hard for old dogs to learn new tricks and talked about Stevie saying Fitz looked much better throwing to his left. Graham also said he's convinced Fitz played hurt last year. Graham also talked up David Lee and the Wildcat and Brad Smith. On the third question Graham said a lot of great things about Donald Jones. He mentioned T.J. had a prblem with drops and going acrross the middle at NC State which he did. Not some smoking gun accusation exactly. So anyways, one of my pet peeves are people who look for reasons to get upset. This thread is exactly that. I heard a totally different interview than the author of this thread. I'm interested to watch/listen the interview.Thanks for the alternate take… not gonna take sides for now… but welcome to the board.
Dirtbag Posted July 13, 2012 Posted July 13, 2012 (edited) giving an honest assessment of the bills and identifying possible areas of concern now constitutes being unusually negative? i think you all might be unusually sensitive to any criticism of your favorite team, no matter how innocuous. Edited July 13, 2012 by Dirtbag
San Jose Bills Fan Posted July 13, 2012 Posted July 13, 2012 I watched/listened to all 20:42 of it and I didn't think it was all that negative. It was a long interview and covered a lot of territory. The most negative thing to me was Graham's prediction that the Bills would go 8-8 or 9-7. He also said it was not a "playoff or bust" season which I'm not sure is an accurate characterization considering the team and fan expectations. He did express doubt that David Lee would have much of an effect on Fitz but also did mention that Stevie Johnson said that there had been an improvement on Fitz' throws downfield to the left. Graham seemed pretty excited about Shawne Merriman and in general I thought was just trying to play the part of the sober, dispassionate observer.
Zulu Cthulhu Posted July 13, 2012 Posted July 13, 2012 I'm not quite sure what the OP's beef is with a couple measured (and accurate) comments from an otherwise positive interview. Is Graham supposed to be a cheerleader now that he's at TBN? I completely agree with TG's comments about Fitz. In my view he's shown very little to suggest he can become some breakout star QB. Yes he's shown flashes of elite performance. Until he produces like that consistently and leads the team to the playoffs, though, it's probably smarter to keep a measured opinion of him. I don't think a new QB coach is going to change his game any more than Gailey already has. Staying healthy behind a healthy O line for an entire year might, though.
JeffNixonFan Posted July 13, 2012 Posted July 13, 2012 Yeah thank you. I'm glad I'm not the only one who saw it that way. Pretty down the middle is why I was so surprised this got its own thread. And thanks for the welcome San Jose. I think this is going to be a fun season. One question about the playoff or bust thing because I'm not sure I know what to think on that point. Do you think if the Bills don't make the playoffs that Chan and/or Buddy are fired? I'm trying to think of other ways it would be playoff or bust. They're not going to break up the core of the team? but its an interesting thing to think about.
ndirish1978 Posted July 13, 2012 Author Posted July 13, 2012 Wow. You guys really like to attack don't you? I thought the interview slanted a bit negative and I outlined my reasoning and then asked if you thought I was off base and all of a sudden I am super sensitive and looking for negative things to say? For the record, Tim Graham is my favorite Buffalo sportswriter. I read all of his stuff and I agree he is objective and a very good writer. If you go back in the timeline you'd see that I regularly sided with Tim when he used to post here on the board. The ONLY thing about my post I would change is the title, which states the article was negative. I should have put a question mark at the end.
Dirtbag Posted July 13, 2012 Posted July 13, 2012 One question about the playoff or bust thing because I'm not sure I know what to think on that point. Do you think if the Bills don't make the playoffs that Chan and/or Buddy are fired? I'm trying to think of other ways it would be playoff or bust. They're not going to break up the core of the team? but its an interesting thing to think about. i was surprised that graham suggested the team could win 7 games and still be thrilled by their progress. the notion that they might not surpass the jauron threshold makes me physically ill.
Zulu Cthulhu Posted July 13, 2012 Posted July 13, 2012 Wow. You guys really like to attack don't you? I thought the interview slanted a bit negative and I outlined my reasoning and then asked if you thought I was off base and all of a sudden I am super sensitive and looking for negative things to say? For the record, Tim Graham is my favorite Buffalo sportswriter. I read all of his stuff and I agree he is objective and a very good writer. If you go back in the timeline you'd see that I regularly sided with Tim when he used to post here on the board. The ONLY thing about my post I would change is the title, which states the article was negative. I should have put a question mark at the end. Nah, not trying to attack you man. I just thought his responses were measured, not negative. And as far as his Fitz comments, i agreed with all of them. I do think much of the fanbase is excited this offseason based on the Williams, Anderson, and Stevie signings, so i disagree with Graham on that point.
JeffNixonFan Posted July 13, 2012 Posted July 13, 2012 Wow. You guys really like to attack don't you? I thought the interview slanted a bit negative and I outlined my reasoning and then asked if you thought I was off base and all of a sudden I am super sensitive and looking for negative things to say? For the record, Tim Graham is my favorite Buffalo sportswriter. I read all of his stuff and I agree he is objective and a very good writer. If you go back in the timeline you'd see that I regularly sided with Tim when he used to post here on the board. The ONLY thing about my post I would change is the title, which states the article was negative. I should have put a question mark at the end. I didn't see this as a Tim Graham issue... I saw it as a strange thread to start by taking only the critical things he said and the positive things Mike Florio said to use in your post and ignoring all the positive things Tim Graham said and the critical points Mike Florio had. the thread came off to me as totally the opposite of the interview I heard. i was surprised that graham suggested the team could win 7 games and still be thrilled by their progress. the notion that they might not surpass the jauron threshold makes me physically ill. same here
sllib olaffub Posted July 13, 2012 Posted July 13, 2012 Yeah thank you. I'm glad I'm not the only one who saw it that way. Pretty down the middle is why I was so surprised this got its own thread. And thanks for the welcome San Jose. I think this is going to be a fun season. One question about the playoff or bust thing because I'm not sure I know what to think on that point. Do you think if the Bills don't make the playoffs that Chan and/or Buddy are fired? I'm trying to think of other ways it would be playoff or bust. They're not going to break up the core of the team? but its an interesting thing to think about. I think it is interesting to consider having to go into next season with a playoff or bust mentality, while also having to rely on a rookie QB - so, the Bills coaches and GM are either taking a longer look at things, or they are putting a lot of faith in Fitz.
HOUSE Posted July 13, 2012 Posted July 13, 2012 http://profootballta...e-bills-around/ Very interesting interview on PFT live. However, I was surprised with the seemingly negative tone of Tim Graham's comments. I may be off base, but he seemed to poo poo the positive spin Florio was trying to put on the Bills offseason. I only noticed because it's the first time I've ever heard a "home town" reporter speaking less positively about his team than Florio. Struck me as out of character for Tim. What do you guys think? Why did I say he was "negative?" 1- Florio- Great offseason, fans must be excited. Graham- Bills have a bad track record, people aren't as excited as you think 2- Florio- New QB coach has people excited about Fitz's potential. Graham- New stuff never worked for old boxers, so Fitz probably won't get much better. 3- Florio- Who's gonna be #2? Graham- TJ drops balls and can't go over the middle. #1 Buffalo also had a Extremely bad track record before the SUPERBOWL years #2. Fitz is not a boxer #3 Who says Graham will even play?
Beerball Posted July 13, 2012 Posted July 13, 2012 1) though we're always optimistic, it's still very tempered due to our history. Negative or accurate? 2) it is hard to rework a motion at this point in your career. Many of us question if it will amount to more than a minor improvement and if so why isn't lee the most in demand guy around? 3) the number 2 wr is a huge question mark no ones filled yet. What would you say to who's the number 2? I with you on all 3. Cautiously optimistic. It will take more than 1 off season to change how Fitzpatty plays QB. He's been using that throwing motion for quite some time and I don't expect it to change much. I think that they are concentrating on footwork and that does make sense to me. Don't tear apart everything he does, work on one aspect and see if he can do that better/more consistently. We don't know who our #2 is. TG's namesake may be able to step in, but that's questionable. If he can catch the ball can he hang on to it? Jones got lots of pub during OTAs and minicamp. Is the team trying to boost his morale or did he do very well? Can he repeat that performance with pads on and angry men wanting to rip his head off. Can SJ take the next step?
eball Posted July 13, 2012 Posted July 13, 2012 To the OP -- wow, you should get into political advertising. Way to nitpick and put the most negative slant possible on Graham's comments, without providing ANY context. Thank you, JeffNixonFan, for filling in the blanks.
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