Metzalaars Trashes Fitz

[mattsox]

I don't think anyone knows yet who the starting QB will be on opening day.

 

It better not Be Fitz or People will be storming OBD...

Edited February 21, 2013 by mattsox

[KOKBILLS]

What is puzzling to me is the comments on how smart this is or how great of him it was to be forthcoming. Maybe I'm too dumb to see how intelligent this is.

 

To Me... It seems rediculously stupid while looking for a job in the same biz, potentially back with the bills, and in the meantime allowing his critique of the old bosses to be splashed all over the local newspaper. Two of the guys he indirectly criticized still work there by the way.

 

Saying fitz was not good enough to win with, flies in the face of what nix and chan were saying. It's obvious by the record, but the finger pointing isn't damning to fitz, just his own job search. And fitz won't need to explain why Pete Metzalaars doesn't hold him in high regard, i mean who is Pete other than a has been, mediocre talent himself? Fitz's got a bunch of bad picks and a lousy record to worry about. Maybe fitz will be unemployed come season kickoff, but I am willing to bet Petes already in line at the unemployment office when he gets there.

 

Metz can still say he was a better player than Fitz...Because he was...Mediocre or not...

 

It better not Be Fitz or People will be storming OBD...

 

Exactly...Can't wait to hear the crowd reaction when he throws a 4th Quarter pick in the Home Opener...Oh the joy!!!

[White Linen]

Of course, he can be blamed. He hired Gailey and signed off on the move to promote Wannstedt. That latter was nothing short of a major blunder, especially considering that Nix' vision was to build a 3-4 defense and he had spent his first 2 years "trying". And, "trying" doesn't earn someone enough charity points to offset measured failure. 16-32.

 

I didn't say he couldn't be blamed, I said he couldn't be maligned for trying. No argument here on the points you make and Nix's culpability in the poor defensive play. I'm just saying I'm not so sure the players themselves are all mistakes. I want to see what Pettine does with them before saying Nix didn't build a viable defense. To me it's too early to say that the personnel is the problem.

Edited February 21, 2013 by Triple Threat

[K-9]

Like a new coaching staff needs to return the phone calls of dismissed coaches from the previous regime.

 

I like Metz as a person. I NEVER bought his myth as a player. He was a good blocker but mediocre at every other aspect of TE play. Only player in history that I can recall to have his TD pass nullified by his own holding call.

 

What makes him such a "got to have" position coach? That's two new regimes in two years that decided not to retain him.

 

GO BILLS!!!

[Maury Ballstein]

Like a new coaching staff needs to return the phone calls of dismissed coaches from the previous regime.

 

I like Metz as a person. I NEVER bought his myth as a player. He was a good blocker but mediocre at every other aspect of TE play. Only player in history that I can recall to have his TD pass nullified by his own holding call.

 

What makes him such a "got to have" position coach? That's two new regimes in two years that decided not to retain him.

 

GO BILLS!!!

 

He was a weapon in super tecmo bowl no?

[tennesseeboy]

I think Fitz is not in the plans of the present administration at this time. I guess the best way to put it is ...he's out until he's in. He'll hang around for part of pre-season, but unless he shows something great he'll be gone before the season opens up. That is...unless we draft a qb in round 1 and in that case I don't see Fitz even being on the roster at the start of training camp.

[Best Player Available]

It better not Be Fitz or People will be storming OBD...

That might be a overstatement. But, my friends and family who have religiously purchased

season tickets forever, Are in a wait and see pattern because not one of them will pay for club seats

to see Fritz as a starter. I believe they are not alone.

It's one thing to sit in the rockpile for 25 bucks a game. It's quite another to lay out $275 a pop and see a below average back up taking the snaps. For yet another guaranteed losing campaign.

Brandon is not a football man at all. He is a marketing guy, the current situation is not lost on him.

He will have loads of inventory this year either way. With Fritz as a starter besides the home opener,

it's doubtful how many sellouts will happen at the Ralph. Old timers are fed up. People who like medicore

play might be catching on too. Tailgating is fun, but a winning team is what many really come out too see.

 

Enough is enough. Fire Nix Now!

[Heitz]

Metz also explained why CJ gets winded and says he's not a 20 - 25 carry guy: http://blogs.buffalonews.com/press-coverage/2013/02/a-plausible-explanation-for-how-cj-spiller-might-get-winded.html?ref=bmh

 

And the Bills claimed they reached out to Pete: http://blogs.buffalonews.com/press-coverage/2013/02/bills-refute-pete-metzelaars-claim-that-doug-marrone-blew-him-off.html?ref=bmh (unless of course, Doug never made the call...)

[BuffaloBill]

Metz said nothing that everyone wasn't thinking. Perhaps the only thing worse than Fitz last year was the fact the defense sucked so badly given the draft emphasis and the addition of Williams. The D line theoretically should have been dominating. It was sadly quite the opposite.

[Over 29 years of fanhood]

 

 

Metz can still say he was a better player than Fitz...Because he was...Mediocre or not...

 

 

See he can SAY that but, it's baseless really. Metz was a third rounder that had little impact, Fitz was a 7th rounder that had little impact. TE vs QB... Longer career possibly when it's all done but who earned more dough?

 

He can say what he wants but he had a very similar career to Fitz thur far except at a much less critical position and was a much greater disappointment given where he was drafted.,.

 

Either way he's obviously not smarter because no one needs a third or fourth level coach that likes to shoot their mouth off.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

http://blogs.buffalo...itzpatrick.html

 

"Fitz is an average to below-average kind of guy, and unfortunately he made some bad decisions at the end of games and then didn't make plays at the ends of other games we had chances to win. So it's got to start there."

 

Interesting that he also says that he inquired about a job with Marrone's staff and no one even returned his calls. So OBD keeps Fitz around, and doesn't even return the phone calls of a decent coach who was also a solid contributor and warrior as a player. Classy stuff.

 

You say "classy stuff" I say "pot kettle"

 

Metzelaars was a great Bills player. He threw Fitz under the bus big time prefaced with "I don't want to throw Fitz under the bus"

 

1) This is Junior High Mean Girl talk "I don't want to hurt your feelings but..." followed by something the speaker knows dang good and well will hurt your feelings. If you want to throw someone under the bus, Cowboy up and admit that's what you're doing, don't dodge owning it with "I don't want to do this but...."

 

2) I don't think his assessment of Fitz differs substantially from that of most football knowledgeable folks

 

3) Metzelaars isn't "most football knowledgeable folks", he's a member of the Bills 2012 coaching staff. And his remarks will be seen in that light by folks looking for possible coaching hires - here's a guy who will publically throw your team's players under the bus after he's fired - begs the question, when did the bus tossing start? During the season? In coaches meetings? In player's meetings? Convo's in hallways?

 

It 's not whether his assessment is accurate that's the issue to me, it doesn't leave a good impression for a coach to trash a player on the team he coached that way. You lose the right to speak as a member of the football knowledgeable general public when you take your bread and salt from an organization, at least if you want to display a standard of football conduct other organizations will favor.

 

PS he also seems to acknowledge that Fitz' receiving corp consisted of SJ and not much else.

Edited February 22, 2013 by Hopeful

[Dragonborn10]

I'm not suggesting that they should let ticket sales dictate personnel decisions. I'm simply saying that given the difficulty they already have in selling tickets, and the way they've operated in the past (where they HAVE allowed ticket sales to play a part in personnel decisions), I'm somewhat amazed by all of this.

What difficulty?

[NewEra]

[/size]

Don't agree. IMO, Fitzs' biggest weakness at clutch time is that he tries to overcompensate for the weaknesses at other positions and ends up taking risks that his physical skills don't allow him to overcome.

 

Is that choking...or just a lack of the necessary skill set to play the position at this level? I think it's the latter. He's a gamer, but will never make enough plays to be able to carry a mediocre team on his shoulders.

 

Thanks for the laugh.

[ganesh]

Dalton was another Buddy miss, especially considering how awful Williams is.

+1. Whoever says Dalton is same as Fitz don't know what they are talking.

Buddy also missed picking Kaepernick in that same round.

[NewEra]

[/size]

Don't agree. IMO, Fitzs' biggest weakness at clutch time is that he tries to overcompensate for the weaknesses at other positions and ends up taking risks that his physical skills don't allow him to overcome.

 

Is that choking...or just a lack of the necessary skill set to play the position at this level? I think it's the latter. He's a gamer, but will never make enough plays to be able to carry a mediocre team on his shoulders.

 

Thanks for the laugh.

 

 

We will learn a lot about what Nix has done with Pettine. The possibility exists that Wannstedt was the problem. Nix can't be maligned for trying. The contract extension of Kyle, drafting of Dareus and Gillmore, and the signing of Anderson and Mario were all things that made a lot of sense. Let's see what an innovative coordinator does with it. I believe we will more accurately be able to judge those moves this year.

 

For sure. Pettine is the answer. Bad coaching can make good players look bad. But we need LBs. especially one or two that can cover.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

Metz also explained why CJ gets winded and says he's not a 20 - 25 carry guy: http://blogs.buffalo...ed.html?ref=bmh

 

Sounds kinda like horse-puckey to me. Is he seriously claiming that a guy who runs 8-12 yds in order to make 4 yds takes more punishment/gets more tired than a guy who makes 4 yds by putting his shoulder down and shoving 470 lbs of defensive players 2-3 yds backwards?

 

Not that I have objection to keeping both CJ and FJ - best players on the team.

[Sisyphean Bills]

Metz also explained why CJ gets winded and says he's not a 20 - 25 carry guy: http://blogs.buffalo...ed.html?ref=bmh

 

Did you notice the quote at the end?

 

"You'd like to hit the opponent with a combination of him and Fred Jackson, where they get the ball 30 to 35 times a game receiving or carrying the ball. But to say 'We need to hand the ball off to C.J. 25 times a game, and it's going to be great,' I don't know if he could carry the ball that many times -- or would want to."

[BuffaloFan68]

Fitz is not a QB that can win a Super Bowl so why keep him as QB? NEXT!

[Solomon Grundy]

 

 

Of course, he can be blamed. He hired Gailey and signed off on the move to promote Wannstedt. That latter was nothing short of a major blunder, especially considering that Nix' vision was to build a 3-4 defense and he had spent his first 2 years "trying". And, "trying" doesn't earn someone enough charity points to offset measured failure. 16-32.

 

No, that was a GM trusting/allowing his HC to pick his staff and form his roster. Buddy brought in talent to help team(Danario Alexander), it was the HC who thought others were a better fit(Ruvell Martin). Buddy hired Gailey because he was referred to by the HC that everyone wanted but decided to stay on TV(Cowher). If Buddy is guilty of anything it's trusting other people's evaluations instead of believing in his own.

 

 

 

Good point about Green. But why stop there? Montana was throwing to Rice, Manning to HArrison, Kelly to Reed.......

 

And you could also have pointed out that Buddy could have had Dalton AND Green instead of Dareus and Williams. 2 years later, our Offense would have been much better and our Defense certainly no worse than it is now.

 

Didn't you know that DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS!? Once again, the Bills figured that an average QB and a great defense can get them to the playoffs and maybe Super Bowl. Buddy brought in the talent, our coaches obviously didn't use them correctly or had them playing wrong position(Aaron Williams). Apparently Wannstadt thought Williams was a better CB than McKelvin or that Kelsay was better at setting the edge against the run that Merriman.

[Sisyphean Bills]

No, that was a GM trusting/allowing his HC to pick his staff and form his roster. Buddy brought in talent to help team(Danario Alexander), it was the HC who thought others were a better fit(Ruvell Martin). Buddy hired Gailey because he was referred to by the HC that everyone wanted but decided to stay on TV(Cowher). If Buddy is guilty of anything it's trusting other people's evaluations instead of believing in his own.

 

This is the age old traditional posturing pablum. Blame everything on the last guy fired while claiming without evidence that the guys still in the building that were involved were just innocent bystanders. Claim that an organization was run entirely by an ousted individual while the rest of the organization had to stand around, helplessly tied to the mast of the ship as it sailed through the horrors. In a word: scapegoating.

 

But, even if one were to suspend their disbelief and accept your theory, what you are really saying is that the Bills management was on different pages, completely dysfunctional, and each member of management was taking the team in a different direction. Since Buddy was the boss, this theory leads directly to the conclusion that Nix is a bumbling incompetent as a leader who has no idea how to build and work with his staff.

 

By the way, a GM hires a head coach of his own choosing precisely because he can relate and shares a common vision and feels like they can work together. The GM and HC discuss the coaching staff and the direction they want to go in. The GM and the entire coaching staff get together with scouting to discuss and evaluate players and specifically which players can help improve the team. And, yes, it is up to the coaching staff to observe every facet of practices and meetings and determine who makes and does not make the final roster.