JP-era Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 Drew's games as our starter are very much over and heres why: I see the folks here are getting into true offseason form by taking the typical conservative approach and watering down how badly Drew played and that he did in fact lose games for us this year. 1) The Bills evaluate all positions every year. There is simply no way that the Bills evaluate the NE game OR the Steelers game and come away pleased with Drews performance. We all saw Drew throw directly at defenders and get picked. It is one thing to have a ball tipped and intercepted, its another thing to have a ball intercepted by a guy who streaks across the field and seems to come out of nowhere, but its just flat unacceptable to throw the ball directly at defenders! That shows the incredible decline in Drews ability. Throughout his career he has consistently thrown INT's but made up for it with good decision making, a strong arm, and consistent play. His arm is still strong, his decision making is suspect at best, and his play is now very inconsistent. More on this in a minute. 2) The Bills will absolutely compare Drews numbers with other QB's. And when the do, they will notice that when other teams stuck with young QB's such as Harrington, Leftwich, Carr, Palmer, even Rattay, each ended up with a higher passers rating than Drew! Thats a staggering fact. The front office wont overlook this when trying to argue that we need to start a seasoned vet like Drew to play well enough to win. 3) The front office cant overlook the above 2 and then proceed to pay Drew 6mil + next year! Drews numbers were mediocre at best and they have no indication that he will get better, in fact he is more likely to get worse! 4) There is more to the Henry/McGahee situation than the Bills ever let on. TD's job is to forecast how each of his players will play and whether each is good enough or not. TD had watched Henry fumble, and knew Henry didnt have the deep speed, added that into the Bills o-line equation and come up with one answer...We should get an insurance policy. McGahee was drafted and Henry was benched. The rest is history and now so is Henry. Ask yourself why TD insisted on getting our future QB, in the 1st round, of THIS years draft? Why would he be so insistant if he truly believed in Drew as our long term QB? The answer is, he didnt believe in Drew. Or that there was enough of a question mark that he felt they needed to start heading in a new direction as soon as possible. The question mark was there, TD acted to get some insurance, the questions proved true, and like Henry we will head in a different direction. 5) Ben Rothlisberger. The Bills will look at this team holistically and realize tha Drew had a good enough team around him to play much better. Then they will look at #2 above and come to the conclusion that they can in fact win just as many games behind a 1st year guy! This year is the the perfect year to demonstrate that it can be done. Furthermore, with careful consideration they will see that Eli played as bad as he did not because he lacked the talent, but because he lacked the supporting team around him and most importantly he was thrown in mid-season! The Bills will evaluate this situation and realize that it is FAR better to make the switch EARLY rather than try to again start Drew with a very good likelyhood of continued mediocre play or worse and then start Losman next season. The Bills believe in Losman now, they DID believe in Drew but his play showed them they were wrong. The believe in Losman so much as to trade ALOT to get him. When you have a 1st round QB with huge upside, a team that can probably win most of its games with an average QB at the helm, a fading QB who is playing mediocre and just cant win the BIG games needed to get to and win the SB, and a huge cap figure on your fading pocket statue, you come to one conclusion...things MUST change! Now as far as what happens? I predict that Drew takes a BIG pay cut to stay and that the starting position is truly up for grabs next year. But in fact the team is leaning towards Losman not Bledsoe as the starter next year. If Drew somehow ressurects himself, lites a fire under his own backside, and somehow shows the Bills that he can win the big games without actually doing it, then maybe they take another chance on him. But at least with JP they actually have a chance to win those games, where as with Drew we now know for sure, HE WONT!!! My true predicition is more stark...JP is given the team early in training camp after Drew is either retired, cut, or the pine rider at a MUCH reduced cap figure! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mead107 Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 JP will be the starter next year I hope Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fezmid Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 It is one thing to have a ball tipped and intercepted, its another thing to have a ball intercepted by a guy who streaks across the field and seems to come out of nowhere, but its just flat unacceptable to throw the ball directly at defenders! That shows the incredible decline in Drews ability. Were you rewatching the Packers/Jaguars game? CW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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