My Bledsoe summary

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

Cliff notes: I'm a Bills fan so I am comfortable with keeping Bledsoe at a 2nd stringer's salary or letting him go and looking elsewhere for the cheap QB help for JP and the team we will be able to afford it we have to pay deadspace for Bledsoe AND buy another QB . Cliff notes end

 

Judging from the 20 or so posts that popped up this afternoon on the latest deadhorse about the Bledsoe situation, I was tempted to post my cents and half yet again, but decided just to post this summary and if and when repeated Bledsoe threads appear, i will just post this reply because I think it applies as best as I can tell:

 

I'm undyingly loyal to whomever the Bills designate as their (our) guy at QB. Perhaps the difference though for me is that undying loyalty does not mean mindless support when the player has failings or mindless condemnation when the player has failings.

 

Some wise person defined patriotism as not promoting your country's action regardless of whether you feel they are correct, but being strong enough and loyal enough to want to correct your country when you think it is wrong.

 

Obviously my feelings for the Bills are not of the same import as my feelings about my country, but I think there is a correct analogy in that one of the problems I see in today's world is that folks seem to base their judgments and actions on taking a stance which is to the extreme one way or to the extreme the other way when both extreme approaches are virtually guaranteed of being wrong.

 

My feelings on Bledsoe is that I do not feel at all that he offers us the best chance or realistic possibilities for winning it all. However, I do not think that there is NO chance whatsoever that he can be the QB that delivers us to the promised land (Not being God, I'm not that omniscient, maybe you are and just post on the web for fun). It's a frighteningly small chance, but I think a rational person simply does a disservice to themselves when they falsely claim he has never been a winner anywhere:

 

(uhh the "statue" earned his lofty draft position with some outstanding physical characteristics and career in HS and college, as a pro he has earned numerous pro bowl berths and put up some great numbers in a few specific seasons and been good enough and better than most to amass some longevity stats. Most important, he led the Pats under Parcells guidance to the SB, and played QB in the majority of a must-win games for the Pats directly leading to their SB win. Most important as a Bill I think he merited his Pro Bowl selection as a reserve QB in 2002 for his play on the fieldif you don't think so what player would you have chosen as a reserve Pro Bowl QB over him? ).

 

However, recognizing these achievements on the field (he probably has an even stronger off-field case to make as a Bill with a rebirth of fan excitement that accompanied his Buffalo gig in 2002, in addition, he was a team-guy or NE in 2001 when many petulant athletes become cancers, this closely relates to on field because it impacts the business and the business drives on field performance, though it is different than on-field performance. Rational assessment needs to recognize it but not be driven by it) does not mean that Bledsoe should escape judgment. A rational measure of his on field performance shows him to be quite lacking from my view and he merits being sent packing by the Bills AS LONG AS WE HAVE A BETTER ALTERNATIVE.

 

I think the too many posts rehashing the QB situation (like this one) often fall to the extremes which make for amusing argument (I guess that's what internet is for) but rarely seem to get at the truth (I guess that is not what the internet is for). In the end, we don't control the Bills so our opinions don't make any real difference so it does not matter how wrong we choose to be by declaring Bledsoe a god or a total stiff when neither is true.

 

My Bledsoe assesment is this:

 

2001- Part of one of the pre-eminent teams in football and the fact they were a TEAM made all the difference in them winning the SB that season and building for a great run that continues. He played an essential role in this achievement by 1.) paradoxically by gettung hurt which allowed Brady to take the reins and for the Pats to employ a far less pass-happy and more effective O, 2. the best proactive thing he did was that he took a personal reaction of being a teamer rather than a pouting little boy and dealt gracefully with losing his job to a better performing player who thanks him for he help the vet gave to this youngster, 3. he did his job by playing QB in the majority of a must-win game they won in their SB run.

 

2002- His reaction and the actions of TD and Kraft set-up the trade which was unusual in the NFL because it was in the division. The trade paid big bonuses to the Bills on the field in 2002 as Bledsoe was a centerpiece in the achievement of an 8-8 record after a 3-13 finish under RJ/AVP the year before. He merited (in my view if not in your view who do you pick instead of him) his Pro Bowl berth with his on field achievements as the Bills achieved near record improvement in their W/L. He suffered a downturn in production later in the season and this downturn was probably real as team's got tape on him and a roadmap from BB of defensing him. However, the winter downturn in conditions were also probably a real part of this in addition to the strategic peice as good QBs like Farve suffered similar lack of production linked to bad weather in the same game and opposing QBs like Brees did even worse than Bledsoe in the same game. A sidelight is that NE proved correct in assessing it was fine to trade Bledsoe in the division because they knew him well enough to get two wins, but still trading him hurt NE badly in the short-term as the accelerated cap hit from correctly trading Bledsoe to go with the young Brady resulted in a cap hit which played a key role in costing NE even a playoff berth that year though this result is bookended by two SB wins for this high-quality team.

 

Many posters have taken to summarizing the trade as NE raping the Bills but I think pretty clearly for the 2002 season it was the other way around.

 

2003- This was a disaster year for the Bills and Bledsoe. The O guided by Bledsoe simply did not produce that year particularly in mid-season when they went multiple games/quaters in a row without producing any points. In my mind, this outage was driven by decisions by Kevin Killdrive which played to Bledsoe's weaknesses (the O relied on the pass too much and a cocky athlete like Bledsoe too the opportunity to audible into even more passes) and did not rely on his strengths (his arm is a great threat, but we should have played off this threat rather than over-utilize it in order to be most effective). Also, the OL was not there yet and by knowing Bledsoe was not at his best running, we never ran with him when we needed to use him that way a little simply to stop the D from blitzing all the time,

 

Still overall, the year made it more than reasonable to look elswhere for QB leadership and his contract made it essential that we do something different.

 

2004- Darn if TD didn't deal with the contract issue by extending Bledsoe and lowering his cap hit to a reasonable level for a starter, but the extension made him a very unfriendly cut prior to 2005 if he ended up with the likely possiblity of repeating in 2004 his poor play of 2003. Extending him was not the right move in my book, but at least he extended him in a way that was reasonable if MM/Clements/Wyche could improve his game. I really doubted they would but the deed was done.

 

Well surprise surprise, Clements actually did produce some substantial improvement in Bledsoe's 2004 game. The improvement proved to be inadequate for my tastes, but quite frankly I expected his play to more like the 2003 version of Bledsoe and instead among other things they:

 

1. Once WM got in they really emphasized the run which allows for far more O production under Bledsoe as his arm becomes most useful as a threat rather than relying on it.

2. The reduced Bledsoe's ability to audible and this simplified D really helped him and the WRs to be on the same page and ended our tendency to pass even on 3rd and short,

3. They revived effective use of the QB draw and of play faking by Drew which led to numerous pitch-backs to Drew by WM leading to successful bombs to Moulds/Evans and stopped the blitz from pinning their ears back and making a beeline for Bledsoe because there might be a run that goes right by them.

 

The effort fell short because to O still could not carry the team against Pitts with the ST missing chip shot FGs and the D getting run all over by Pitts scrubs, but this does not make it rational to simply ignore the improvements in Bledsoe's use.

 

In the end, I am in the same place I was last year. I'm happy to see Bledsoe go if the cap room is used to get a better alternative. The market allowed for their too be fewer alternatives than I expected last year as folks like Feeley and Garcia got much bigger contracts than I think they merited. However, I think think the market looks even worse this year so if Bledsoe is willing to take a paycut (which I think will tangibly signal that he is willing to play a back-up role for Losman if JP wins the job on the field) then Isay by all means sign a chepaer Bledsoe and may the best QB win the competition which will occur between him and Losman.

 

If he won't sign a deal it is going to be even tougher for us as cutting him will produce a lot of deadspace which will make it harder for us to sign another QB.

 

Yet, I am intrigued by what Simon says in his pro Charlie Batch posts and also by the potential for obtaining Warner on the cheap if that happens so we may not be up the creek if JP turns into more of a Pennington (needs 2 years on the bench) rather than a Tom Brady (one year on the bench and he wins the SB).

 

I think we're in as good a shape as we can be at QB (of course we'd be in better shape if we picked Brady in the 5th round in the 2000 draft but this was not a realistic alternative) and I feel comfortable if we let him go and even more comfortable if we keep him with him making the kind of money that you would spend to have him play the same role for JP by plan that he played for Brady by reality and injury in 2001.

[kota]

This is cliff notes?

[stevestojan]

This is cliff notes?

228765[/snapback]

 

no, these are the cliff notes:

 

Cliff notes: I'm a Bills fan so I am comfortable with keeping Bledsoe at a 2nd stringer's salary or letting him go and looking elsewhere for the cheap QB help for JP and the team we will be able to afford it we have to pay deadspace for Bledsoe AND buy another QB . Cliff notes end

[crackur]

no, these are the cliff notes:

 

Cliff notes: I'm a Bills fan so I am comfortable with keeping Bledsoe at a 2nd stringer's salary or letting him go and looking elsewhere for the cheap QB help for JP and the team we will be able to afford it we have to pay deadspace for Bledsoe AND buy another QB . Cliff notes end

228808[/snapback]

fo real lol

 

that sh-- was a novel

 

I hate reading ..................

[John from Riverside]

You know Suny....I usually dont give anyone crap including you about the way they post.....

 

but that is NOT a god damned summary

[Rico]

You know Suny....I usually dont give anyone crap including you about the way they post.....

 

but that is NOT a god damned summary

228844[/snapback]

[Alaska Darin]

You know Suny....I usually dont give anyone crap including you about the way they post.....

 

but that is NOT a god damned summary

228844[/snapback]

Now you've done it - that's basically a dare for him to post the full blown version.

 

YOU'RE solely responsible for the inevitably required server hard drive upgrade.

[John from Riverside]

Now you've done it - that's basically a dare for him to post the full blown version. 

 

YOU'RE solely responsible for the inevitably required server hard drive upgrade.

228852[/snapback]

 

 

[OGTEleven]

Now you've done it - that's basically a dare for him to post the full blown version. 

 

YOU'RE solely responsible for the inevitably required server hard drive upgrade.

228852[/snapback]

His moniker shall no longer be Fake Fat Sunny. He shall be known as Petabyte Pete.

[Eric in Akron]

looking elsewhere for the cheap QB help for JP and the team we will be able to afford it we have to pay deadspace for Bledsoe AND buy another QB . Cliff notes end

 

Why does everybody write Shane Mathews off as a viable backup for JP? He looked pretty good last preseason. Actually, he looked better than Drew though he was playing against the 2nd string defenses. Remember he was playing ahead of JP in the preseason.

[Nanker]

My Bledsoe summary:

 

2001: Lost a lot of blood and his job as starter. Maybe lost too much blood.

2002: No Playoff Appearance.

2003: No Playoff Appearance.

2004: No Playoff Appearance.

2005: Lost a lot of esteem and his job as a starter. Maybe lost too much esteem.

[obie_wan]

no, these are the cliff notes:

 

Cliff notes: I'm a Bills fan so I am comfortable with keeping Bledsoe at a 2nd stringer's salary or letting him go and looking elsewhere for the cheap QB help for JP and the team we will be able to afford it we have to pay deadspace for Bledsoe AND buy another QB . Cliff notes end

228808[/snapback]

 

makes no sense to keep Drew as the backup since he can't run the offense that will be designed for JP.

 

Ofensive braintrust was forced to run a dumbed down offense with no passing game more than 10 yards downfield because Drew was incapable of running anything else without making bad decisions, taking sacksa and turning it over.

 

Let Drew continue his Hall of FAme career somewhere else where mediocrity is acceptable.

[stevestojan]

You know Suny....I usually dont give anyone crap including you about the way they post.....

 

but that is NOT a god damned summary

228844[/snapback]

 

For ***** and giggles, I threw the original post into Word. When doubled spaced, with no top or bottom margins (which would make it longer) it is 7 pages. ... Just an FYI.

 

I find Nanker's summary a bit more powerful, to the point, and non apologetic.

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

Why does everybody write Shane Mathews off as a viable backup for JP?  He looked pretty good last preseason.  Actually, he looked better than Drew though he was playing against the 2nd string defenses.  Remember he was playing ahead of JP in the preseason.

228955[/snapback]

 

Mathews has apparently said he plans to retire after this season. If you have even announced you are contemplating immediate retirement or allowed that talk to publicly continue a player is probably done. Given that the Bills rescued hin from the couch, I'd actualy need to hear some affirmative statement from him that he wants to stick around before I even count him into the 2005 mix.

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

For ***** and giggles, I threw the original post into Word. When doubled spaced, with no top or bottom margins (which would make it longer) it is 7 pages.  ... Just an FYI.

 

I find Nanker's summary a bit more powerful, to the point, and non apologetic.

229053[/snapback]

 

I actually found Nanker's summary regarding the no playoff appearances with the Bills true but the bookend years about the impacts of his loss of blood and loss of esteem from the back and forth with off-season with TD theoretical rather than powerful as you found it.

 

From what I see, the next chapter is yet to be written but will happen before his March ballon payment. Either he refuses to take less money and the Bills will have to deal with problem of the silly extension for Bledsoe limiting our cap space because his the Bledsoe deadspace combined with cost of a back-up for JP and potential #1 if JP fails is going to be a management trial. On the other hand, he agrees to take a paycut, actually increases our cap space and allows us to buy additional help and since this commitment on his part involves giving up real money I think he shows he is committed to the Bills and I am more than comfortable letting him lose the battle with JP and play the role of the back-up or win the battle with JP and try to build on the improvement of his production from the sorry 2003 season to his inadequate work in 2004.

[njsue]

I say bledsoe stays. Tom Donahoe beefs up the offensive line. Drew improves more in 2005.