Argument against Fitz

[A Dog Named Kelso]

You could be right....but the only thing that would explain this would be if his contract was actually a 5 year contract with the option of 2 additional years.

I say this due to the fact that teams cannot alter how a signing bonus is proportioned towards the cap....i.e. it has to be evenly divided through every year of the contract.

 

It this true? I thought that was the whole logic behind "Cash to Cap" so that you could assign signing bonuses to the year you signed the contract? Thus avoiding the amortization of the bonus.

[Maury Ballstein]

make it stop............no more fitztalk..............holy moly

[papazoid]

It this true? I thought that was the whole logic behind "Cash to Cap" so that you could assign signing bonuses to the year you signed the contract? Thus avoiding the amortization of the bonus.

 

cash to cap is an internal financial team control (cash flow) and is completely seperate and has nothing to do with how the NFL & NFLPA considers "salary cap".

[Dibs]

It this true? I thought that was the whole logic behind "Cash to Cap" so that you could assign signing bonuses to the year you signed the contract? Thus avoiding the amortization of the bonus.

 

I am 99.6% certain it's true. Teams assign roster bonuses and incentive bonuses to avoid amortizing the money. Signing bonuses are always amortized over the entire contract.....and kick in with a vengeance if the player is cut early. Example being....10M signing bonus over 5 years would mean a cap hit of 2M per year. If player is cut before year 3 then the remaining 6M(3x2M) is lumped into that year as a cap hit.

 

FYI.....Cash to Cap is a spending philosophy that most teams have adopted. Essentially it means that you will only spend actual physical dollars up to the level of that years cap.

As example.....if you sign a player to a 5 year 50M contract and pay 10M up front as a signing bonus with equal salary payments of 8M/year.....this would mean that your cap hit would be 10M per year......but your "cash to cap" would be 18M in the first year as you have spent 10M on the signing bonus & 8M on salary. Years 2-5 would however only have an 8M C2C value.

Edited January 10, 2013 by Dibs

[KOKBILLS]

It's kind of funny. One side is saying "hey, he's not the greatest, but his contract makes it silly to cut him for no reason... he'd make a solid backup at the very least" and the other side is "OMG FITZ SUX U ALL R LOOSERZ". I don't think *anyone* in this thread is "supporting" him. But there are some that are looking at the situation logically.

 

Currently we have Fitz, TT and TJ (I think TT and TJ are free agents?). The only reasons you cut Fitz is if you pick up a clearly better FA AND you draft a QB that you are excited about. So if we do only one of those two things, there's very little incentive to outright cut Fitz, even if he's not the best QB in the world.

 

OMG FITZ SUX!!!

 

Kidding...I agree...I do think The Bills would like to bring in a UFA, and Draft a QB, so they would have the option of axing Fitz...There is always the worry that keeping a 3 year starter could split the locker room should the new QB falter...But if they can't do better than Fitz as a back-up for 2013, no question keeping him is an option they should and will consider...

[Dibs]

make it stop............no more fitztalk..............holy moly

 

Don't click on the threads with Fitz in the title...........and if you do, don't read them............holy moly.

Edited January 10, 2013 by Dibs

[Maury Ballstein]

fine.....keep the 8 month fitztalk going.........im burned out on it.

 

he's no good.....too many reverse philly fans with big hearts in here........let him go. we make excuses for every bill for some reason.

 

unless they are good like Stevie......then we need to run em outta town

[Dibs]

fine.....keep the 8 month fitztalk going.........im burned out on it.

 

he's no good.....too many reverse philly fans with big hearts in here........let him go. we make excuses for every bill for some reason.

 

unless they are good like Stevie......then we need to run em outta town

 

You don't seem burned out on it. You seem quite content to not only click on the thread containing discussion about Fitz.....but also to type in your opinion on the subject.

 

Take a deep breath.....firm up your mind.....and chant the mantra "I won't click on the Fitz thread. I won't click on the Fitz thread."

[Direhard Fan]

I thought his cap bonus was 3 mil. ? Due March 1st. He has a heart as big as you could ask for. How many passes were dropped on third down? a ton. Who was our second receiver? Didn't have one. Tight ends always hurt. Who called the plays? Chan. Can't put alot of the blame on Fitz. We have to be fair.

[Maury Ballstein]

You don't seem burned out on it. You seem quite content to not only click on the thread containing discussion about Fitz.....but also to type in your opinion on the subject.

 

Take a deep breath.....firm up your mind.....and chant the mantra "I won't click on the Fitz thread. I won't click on the Fitz thread."

 

im not working too hard today...........i can't stop myself!! get over to that justified thread....that first episode was awesome IMO.

 

 

http://forums.twobillsdrive.com/topic/154819-pff-grades-for-bills-playersyeah-fitz-actually-does-suck/

Edited January 10, 2013 by Ryan L Billz

[A Dog Named Kelso]

I am 99.6% certain it's true. Teams assign roster bonuses and incentive bonuses to avoid amortizing the money. Signing bonuses are always amortized over the entire contract.....and kick in with a vengeance if the player is cut early. Example being....10M signing bonus over 5 years would mean a cap hit of 2M per year. If player is cut before year 3 then the remaining 6M(3x2M) is lumped into that year as a cap hit.

 

FYI.....Cash to Cap is a spending philosophy that most teams have adopted. Essentially it means that you will only spend actual physical dollars up to the level of that years cap.

As example.....if you sign a player to a 5 year 50M contract and pay 10M up front as a signing bonus with equal salary payments of 8M/year.....this would mean that your cap hit would be 10M per year......but your "cash to cap" would be 18M in the first year as you have spent 10M on the signing bonus & 8M on salary. Years 2-5 would however only have an 8M C2C value.

 

Doesn't your example reinforce what I was assuming?

[Rob's House]

Fitz is all class. I can't see him being disruptive or divisive. He's also smart. He's had his day in the sun, it hasn't worked out, & he knows his best chance at another shot is being a team-first guy even if that means mentoring his replacement.

[Bronc24]

Fitz is all class. I can't see him being disruptive or divisive. He's also smart. He's had his day in the sun, it hasn't worked out, & he knows his best chance at another shot is being a team-first guy even if that means mentoring his replacement.

 

In Jacksonville.

[Rob's House]

 

 

In Jacksonville.

I was thinking Buffalo. If Marrone goes with a West Coast offense it might work w/ his limited arm. Maybe he could be the guy.

 

F-I-T-Z - Fitz! Fitz! Fitz!

[papazoid]

im not working too hard today...........i can't stop myself!! get over to that justified thread....that first episode was awesome IMO.

 

 

http://forums.twobil...ally-does-suck/

 

i like that thread......

[Orton's Arm]

Yea well, so many of you missed the points of my post.

 

IDGAF what Fitz did under Gailey as Chan was a moron. Did you miss the part where Fitz and the entire offense were clueless on how to run a 2 min / hurry up offense which is an integral part of any offense. I shudder at the thought of how many others areas of coaching Gailey effed up on I know that when the Bills hired David Lee in 2012 off season and he was tutoring Fitz on his mechanics Fitz mentioned that nobody previously had tried to work with him on his passing mechanics or techniques. So what does that tell you how much of an influence that Gailey had on Fitz 2010 & 2011. It tells me all Gailey did was call plays.

 

Then the BB receivers corps blows chunks. They have ONE player in the top 25 for receiving YARDS, ONE! The next best was ranked 77th! Scott Chandler who was injured quite a bit. Talk about limiting the QB's chances of success.

 

Under Gailey all the offense did was throw throw throw and to WHO? ONE GUY! In 4-5 WR sets. The Bills were 6th in the NFL last season in rushing, and could have easily been #1 if Gailey utilized Jackson and Spiller more in every game. More in passing, more in rushing. Even the moron himself declared that Jackson and Spiller should get 40 touches a game between the two of them. Yet he only did that in one game all season. (which they won btw) Spiller getting 7 touches a game was almost criminal.

 

17th or 24th, who cares! Way to pull out one stat and try and make everything else in the post irrelevant. Then you have some followers agreeing with you

 

There were reasons that Gailey chose Fitz as his starter and kept him as his starter for 3 years.

 

First, is his escape-ability. In 2010 and under a great deal of pass rush in those first 8 games Fitz survived because he scrambled very much like Michael Vick to the tune of 6.7 YPC. Ranked 63rd in rushing 40 attempts 269 yards The man was literally running for his life for those first 8 games until Nix finally found some O line players off the waiver wire.

 

Second, is his ability to read the opposing defense and set O line protections accordingly. This might seem trivial to most of you, but its externally important in running a decent NFL offense. Again, this was ALL Fitz as Gailey couldn't teach this to any other QB. How many other QB's? Like 6 other QB's!

 

Third, was Fitz's ability to target the open WR and hit him with the ball in usually under 2.5 seconds,and sometimes as quickly as 1.5 seconds. For the most part his ability to get the ball out so quickly would negate any pass rush on the QB. Kinda why the O line stats looked so good with a bunch of nobody's at tackle.

 

So, while some of you more obtuse Bills fans are stoking the fires of your hatred for Fitz, why don't you temper it with the understanding that Fitz just might be the answer until Marrone can build a proper supporting cast around the QB.

 

> IDGAF what Fitz did under Gailey as Chan was a moron.

 

Fitz's numbers have been significantly better under Gailey than under any of his previous coaches. Gailey did a much better job of tailoring his offense to Fitz's strengths than any of Fitz's previous coaches had.

 

> Then the BB receivers corps blows chunks. They have ONE player in the top 25 for receiving YARDS, ONE!

 

Your second statement does not support your first. There are 32 teams in the NFL, which means the average NFL team has 0.78 players in the top 25 for receiving yards.

 

> The next best was ranked 77th! Scott Chandler who was injured quite a bit.

 

A typical NFL team will have 1 player in the top 32 for receiving yards, and 2 players in the top 64. Had it not been for Chandler's injuries, my guess is he would have made the top 64. Especially if he'd had even an average QB throwing him the ball.

 

> Second, is his ability to read the opposing defense and set O line protections accordingly. This might seem trivial to most of you . . .

 

It does not seem trivial to me. Fitz's intelligence may well be his single best asset as a football player. However, I do not feel it's enough of an asset to compensate for his inability to throw the ball accurately. I want the Bills' QB to be smart and an accurate passer!

 

> There were reasons that Gailey chose Fitz as his starter and kept him as his starter for 3 years.

 

As you pointed out, Fitz's two best strengths are his football intelligence and his ability to get rid of the ball quickly. His biggest weakness is his inaccuracy. Gailey evidently thought he could design an offense which would cater to Fitz's strengths while minimizing his weaknesses. His plan was to put a lot of receiving options on the field at any one time, with the hope and expectation that one of those options would result in a mismatch. Fitz was asked to identify this mismatch immediately--or pre-snap if possible--and get the ball to the mismatched player very, very quickly. The throws themselves were not supposed to be particularly challenging to make. The kinds of throws you'd expect an average NFL backup to be able to make with a reasonable degree of consistency.

 

This offense worked for a while. But the Bengals found answers for it, and a few games later Fitz's ribs got hurt. Even before the rib injury, it had become obvious that Gailey's experiment had a limited lifespan, and that defenses in general would soon learn what the Bengals had learned. That would have been the time for the Bills to start looking for a long-term upgrade at quarterback.

 

But then David Lee decided he wanted a job as the Bills' QB coach, and told Gailey and Nix exactly what they wanted to hear. He apparently sold Gailey and Nix on the idea that fixing Fitz's mechanics could make him a more accurate quarterback. Had Lee been right--had Fitz been able to become a much more accurate version of himself--he could have been the successor to Jim Kelly. Gailey's and Nix's decision to put their faith into David Lee's QB coaching represented part 2 of the Fitz experiment. Unfortunately, part 2 has also proved a failure: the promised gains in accuracy failed to materialize.

 

> So, while some of you more obtuse Bills fans are stoking the fires of your hatred for Fitz, why don't

> you temper it with the understanding that Fitz just might be the answer until Marrone can build

> a proper supporting cast around the QB.

 

The Bills have a proper supporting cast. When healthy, the offensive line is good enough to please even Bill from NYC. Spiller and Jackson represent a good 1-2 punch at RB. Stevie Johnson typically gets open against even elite CBs like Revis. Chandler is a fairly decent pass catching TE. The absolute last, worst, stupidest, most obtuse thing the Bills could do would be to pass up a franchise QB in the 2013 draft to give themselves time to build up the supporting cast still more. If there's a reasonable chance of getting a franchise QB in the upcoming draft, the Bills have to either avail themselves of that chance, or resign themselves to another few years of mediocrity. Opportunities to obtain franchise QBs are very rare, and it would be the height of foolishness to pass up one such chance in the expectation of soon being granted another. Doing so would be almost as bad as tearing up a winning lottery ticket, with the thought that, "If I won once, I can always win again. So what's the big deal?"

[thewildrabbit]

> IDGAF what Fitz did under Gailey as Chan was a moron.

 

Fitz's numbers have been significantly better under Gailey than under any of his previous coaches. Gailey did a much better job of tailoring his offense to Fitz's strengths than any of Fitz's previous coaches had.

 

Who really cares if Fitz's numbers were better... HE LOST GAMES! Who cares if Fitz throws for 3000+ yards a season if the team only wins 6 games.

 

> Then the BB receivers corps blows chunks. They have ONE player in the top 25 for receiving YARDS, ONE!

 

Your second statement does not support your first. There are 32 teams in the NFL, which means the average NFL team has 0.78 players in the top 25 for receiving yards.

 

Go look over the rosters of the all the playoff teams, particularly the passing teams. Denver, Atlanta, New England, all have 2 or more receivers in the top 25. Its a passing league, if you want to compete with the top teams you need more then one decent receiver. Kinda why the Falcons gave up 5 drafts picks in order to move up in the draft to obtain Julio Jones when they already had Roddy White.

 

> The next best was ranked 77th! Scott Chandler who was injured quite a bit.

 

A typical NFL team will have 1 player in the top 32 for receiving yards, and 2 players in the top 64. Had it not been for Chandler's injuries, my guess is he would have made the top 64. Especially if he'd had even an average QB throwing him the ball.

 

> Second, is his ability to read the opposing defense and set O line protections accordingly. This might seem trivial to most of you . . .

 

It does not seem trivial to me. Fitz's intelligence may well be his single best asset as a football player. However, I do not feel it's enough of an asset to compensate for his inability to throw the ball accurately. I want the Bills' QB to be smart and an accurate passer!

 

Exactly how do YOU know all those inaccurate passes were all Fitz's fault, looking over his list of scrub receivers I'd says its a good chance many errors were on the receivers part. I can recall rookie WR TJ Graham being called out as the one who made the epic blunder of running the wrong route in the end zone on a Fitz INT. This also addresses my second sentence, Gailey was a moron for calling Graham as the primary WR on that play, and yes he was the primary as Stevie Johnson stated such, and then complained that Graham HAD NEVER EVEN RUN THE PLAY BEFORE, and shouldn't have been put in the position to fail.

 

> There were reasons that Gailey chose Fitz as his starter and kept him as his starter for 3 years.

 

As you pointed out, Fitz's two best strengths are his football intelligence and his ability to get rid of the ball quickly. His biggest weakness is his inaccuracy. Gailey evidently thought he could design an offense which would cater to Fitz's strengths while minimizing his weaknesses. His plan was to put a lot of receiving options on the field at any one time, with the hope and expectation that one of those options would result in a mismatch. Fitz was asked to identify this mismatch immediately--or pre-snap if possible--and get the ball to the mismatched player very, very quickly. The throws themselves were not supposed to be particularly challenging to make. The kinds of throws you'd expect an average NFL backup to be able to make with a reasonable degree of consistency.

 

This offense worked for a while. But the Bengals found answers for it, and a few games later Fitz's ribs got hurt. Even before the rib injury, it had become obvious that Gailey's experiment had a limited lifespan, and that defenses in general would soon learn what the Bengals had learned. That would have been the time for the Bills to start looking for a long-term upgrade at quarterback.

 

But then David Lee decided he wanted a job as the Bills' QB coach, and told Gailey and Nix exactly what they wanted to hear. He apparently sold Gailey and Nix on the idea that fixing Fitz's mechanics could make him a more accurate quarterback. Had Lee been right--had Fitz been able to become a much more accurate version of himself--he could have been the successor to Jim Kelly. Gailey's and Nix's decision to put their faith into David Lee's QB coaching represented part 2 of the Fitz experiment. Unfortunately, part 2 has also proved a failure: the promised gains in accuracy failed to materialize.

 

What you, and other fans fail to realize is ...you are not going to change a QB's technique and mechanics in one season. An example is Tim Tebow who is trying to change his mechanics since leaving college and has been constantly working to do so, and yet so far has failed. Its even harder on someone like Fitz who has been set in his ways for 8+ years

 

> So, while some of you more obtuse Bills fans are stoking the fires of your hatred for Fitz, why don't

> you temper it with the understanding that Fitz just might be the answer until Marrone can build

> a proper supporting cast around the QB.

 

The Bills have a proper supporting cast. When healthy, the offensive line is good enough to please even Bill from NYC.

 

Yea well, that is your opinion, and its not 100% correct IMO! When was the last time you saw the Bills O line drive anyone off the LoS on 3rd and short. When was the last time you saw the Bills run with great success from a closed formation, or non spread set? They got stuffed almost every time as I recall. Also, even when that line is completely healthy it is still not that good. As quickly as Fitz gets that ball out he is still being hurried, harried and hit far to often. This IMO is a big reason for a lot of his so called inaccuracy. Fitz almost never has the time in the pocket that Tom Brady or Peyton Manning has.

 

You will see the failings of this line should they not make changes or additions to it in the draft or free agency. Just wait until the Bills put a QB other then Fitz behind center and call a play action pass, or a run play from a closed set. Then you just might see what I'm talking about.

 

Spiller and Jackson represent a good 1-2 punch at RB. Stevie Johnson typically gets open against even elite CBs like Revis. Chandler is a fairly decent pass catching TE. Agreed

 

 

The absolute last, worst, stupidest, most obtuse thing the Bills could do would be to pass up a franchise QB in the 2013 draft to give themselves time to build up the supporting cast still more.

 

The Bills seem poised to take a QB i this years draft regardless if he is or isn't "elite"

 

I'm not going to judge what Doug Marrone does with Fitz based on what Fitz did playing QB for Chan Gailey. Gailey never taught Fitz how to run a 2 min drill on offense properly, nor did he teach the other Bills players how to run a "hurry up" offense to win the game. Lets see what Marrone can figure out to do with Fitz, and see if he is salvageable. I'm thinking he is at first, while Marrone gets a backup QB or rookie QB ready to take over. Meanwhile teaching Fitz how to do his job properly.

If there's a reasonable chance of getting a franchise QB in the upcoming draft, the Bills have to either avail themselves of that chance, or resign themselves to another few years of mediocrity. Opportunities to obtain franchise QBs are very rare, and it would be the height of foolishness to pass up one such chance in the expectation of soon being granted another. Doing so would be almost as bad as tearing up a winning lottery ticket, with the thought that, "If I won once, I can always win again. So what's the big deal?"

Yea,OK. Name that rare opportunity the Bills should draft at QB in 2013.

Edited January 11, 2013 by FeartheLosing

[bigdogtim]

OK, but what does Brent Musberger say??

[ganesh]

Do the math.

 

If we go by the contract details on Billsdaily (Steve is usually close to the truth in his Front Office section) - Fitz received a $10 mil signing bonus in 2011, and was paid a $5 mil option bonus + $2.8 mil base salary in 2012. That adds up to $17.8 mil. His contract calls for an additional $6.2 mil in payments to hit the $24 mil guarantee. I don't know how those would be structured, but he has not hit the guarantees yet.

 

I don't think the 2.8M counts against the guaranteed money. Doesn't he have two 3M roster bonus and may be that is what counts against the guaranteed money.,

[Orton's Arm]

Who really cares if Fitz's numbers were better... HE LOST GAMES! Who cares if Fitz throws for 3000+ yards a season if the team only wins 6 games.

 

Your second statement does not support your first. There are 32 teams in the NFL, which means the average NFL team has 0.78 players in the top 25 for receiving yards.

 

Go look over the rosters of the all the playoff teams, particularly the passing teams. Denver, Atlanta, New England, all have 2 or more receivers in the top 25. Its a passing league, if you want to compete with the top teams you need more then one decent receiver. Kinda why the Falcons gave up 5 drafts picks in order to move up in the draft to obtain Julio Jones when they already had Roddy White.

 

> The next best was ranked 77th! Scott Chandler who was injured quite a bit.

 

A typical NFL team will have 1 player in the top 32 for receiving yards, and 2 players in the top 64. Had it not been for Chandler's injuries, my guess is he would have made the top 64. Especially if he'd had even an average QB throwing him the ball.

 

> Second, is his ability to read the opposing defense and set O line protections accordingly. This might seem trivial to most of you . . .

 

It does not seem trivial to me. Fitz's intelligence may well be his single best asset as a football player. However, I do not feel it's enough of an asset to compensate for his inability to throw the ball accurately. I want the Bills' QB to be smart and an accurate passer!

 

Exactly how do YOU know all those inaccurate passes were all Fitz's fault, looking over his list of scrub receivers I'd says its a good chance many errors were on the receivers part. I can recall rookie WR TJ Graham being called out as the one who made the epic blunder of running the wrong route in the end zone on a Fitz INT. This also addresses my second sentence, Gailey was a moron for calling Graham as the primary WR on that play, and yes he was the primary as Stevie Johnson stated such, and then complained that Graham HAD NEVER EVEN RUN THE PLAY BEFORE, and shouldn't have been put in the position to fail.

 

> There were reasons that Gailey chose Fitz as his starter and kept him as his starter for 3 years.

 

As you pointed out, Fitz's two best strengths are his football intelligence and his ability to get rid of the ball quickly. His biggest weakness is his inaccuracy. Gailey evidently thought he could design an offense which would cater to Fitz's strengths while minimizing his weaknesses. His plan was to put a lot of receiving options on the field at any one time, with the hope and expectation that one of those options would result in a mismatch. Fitz was asked to identify this mismatch immediately--or pre-snap if possible--and get the ball to the mismatched player very, very quickly. The throws themselves were not supposed to be particularly challenging to make. The kinds of throws you'd expect an average NFL backup to be able to make with a reasonable degree of consistency.

 

This offense worked for a while. But the Bengals found answers for it, and a few games later Fitz's ribs got hurt. Even before the rib injury, it had become obvious that Gailey's experiment had a limited lifespan, and that defenses in general would soon learn what the Bengals had learned. That would have been the time for the Bills to start looking for a long-term upgrade at quarterback.

 

But then David Lee decided he wanted a job as the Bills' QB coach, and told Gailey and Nix exactly what they wanted to hear. He apparently sold Gailey and Nix on the idea that fixing Fitz's mechanics could make him a more accurate quarterback. Had Lee been right--had Fitz been able to become a much more accurate version of himself--he could have been the successor to Jim Kelly. Gailey's and Nix's decision to put their faith into David Lee's QB coaching represented part 2 of the Fitz experiment. Unfortunately, part 2 has also proved a failure: the promised gains in accuracy failed to materialize.

 

What you, and other fans fail to realize is ...you are not going to change a QB's technique and mechanics in one season. An example is Tim Tebow who is trying to change his mechanics since leaving college and has been constantly working to do so, and yet so far has failed. Its even harder on someone like Fitz who has been set in his ways for 8+ years

 

> So, while some of you more obtuse Bills fans are stoking the fires of your hatred for Fitz, why don't

> you temper it with the understanding that Fitz just might be the answer until Marrone can build

> a proper supporting cast around the QB.

 

The Bills have a proper supporting cast. When healthy, the offensive line is good enough to please even Bill from NYC.

 

Yea well, that is your opinion, and its not 100% correct IMO! When was the last time you saw the Bills O line drive anyone off the LoS on 3rd and short. When was the last time you saw the Bills run with great success from a closed formation, or non spread set? They got stuffed almost every time as I recall. Also, even when that line is completely healthy it is still not that good. As quickly as Fitz gets that ball out he is still being hurried, harried and hit far to often. This IMO is a big reason for a lot of his so called inaccuracy. Fitz almost never has the time in the pocket that Tom Brady or Peyton Manning has.

 

You will see the failings of this line should they not make changes or addittions to it in the draft or free agancy. Just wait until the Bills put a QB other then Fitz behind center and call a play action pass, or a run play from a closed set. Then you just might see what I'm talking about.

 

Spiller and Jackson represent a good 1-2 punch at RB. Stevie Johnson typically gets open against even elite CBs like Revis. Chandler is a fairly decent pass catching TE. Agreed

 

 

The absolute last, worst, stupidest, most obtuse thing the Bills could do would be to pass up a franchise QB in the 2013 draft to give themselves time to build up the supporting cast still more.

 

The Bills seem poised to take a QB i this years draft regardless if he is or isn't "elite"

 

 

 

Yea,OK. Name that rare opertunity the Bills should draft at QB in 2013.

 

Fear the Losing: IDGAF what Fitz did under Gailey as Chan was a moron.

 

Edwards' Arm: Fitz's numbers have been significantly better under Gailey than under any of his previous coaches.

 

Fear the Losing: Who really cares if Fitz's numbers were better... HE LOST GAMES!

 

Under Gailey, Fitz averaged 6.8 yards per attempt in 2010, and 6.7 yards per attempt in 2011 and 2012. Prior to Gailey, Fitz had never averaged more than 6.3 yards per pass attempt in a season. That's one of several reasons why I believe Gailey did a much better job of tailoring the Bills' offense to Fitz's strengths than his previous head coaches had done.

 

> Go look over the rosters of the all the playoff teams, particularly the passing teams. Denver, Atlanta, New

> England, all have 2 or more receivers in the top 25. Its a passing league, if you want to compete with the

> top teams you need more then one decent receiver.

 

No matter how much of a passing league it becomes, an average team will always have one player among the top 32 receivers, and two players in the top 64. Fitz's receiving corps was about average in that respect, which means it cannot legitimately be used as an excuse for his below-average yards per attempt numbers.

 

> What you, and other fans fail to realize is ...you are not going to change a QB's technique and

> mechanics in one season. An example is Tim Tebow who is trying to change his mechanics since

> leaving college and has been constantly working to do so, and yet so far has failed.

 

Tim Tebow is a great example of a hitherto inaccurate QB who'd become accurate after changing his mechanics. Or would be, if he'd ever become an accurate quarterback. Thus far that transformation hasn't happened. Those in the Broncos and Jets organizations apparently have little or no faith in it ever happening. In fact, I cannot think of any previously inaccurate quarterbacks who became accurate after receiving good coaching. If a QB is going to be accurate in the NFL, odds are he'll also have been accurate back in college. Even in high school, Joe Montana was known for his remarkable level of accuracy. He had a gift for throwing the ball accurately--something which can't be taught. Would that Fitz had even 30% of that gift!

 

> When was the last time you saw the Bills O line drive anyone off the LoS on 3rd and short.

 

The OL is better at some things than others. Driving people off the ball on third and short is one of its weaker points.

 

> As quickly as Fitz gets that ball out he is still being hurried, harried and hit far to often. This IMO is a big reason for a lot of his so called inaccuracy.

 

Fitz is an inconsistent, unreliable passer even when he's given plenty of time in the pocket.

 

> Yea,OK. Name that rare opertunity the Bills should draft at QB in 2013.

 

I haven't followed college ball closely enough to commit to one guy. That being said, Nassib and Glennon come to mind as guys worth serious consideration. That examination needs to be critical. The Bills need to avoid the error of seeing what they want to see on the one hand, or of being unduly pessimistic on the other.