A realistic poll on JPs back-up

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

The Bills gave Bledsoe the choice between staying and restructuring his deal down to a back-up QB salary and fighting it out for the starting job with JP Losman or deciding he wanted to be cut.

 

He chose the cut (he likely would have lost the fight as MM seemed to have told him the playbook was going to be built for a mobile QB with things such as a moving pocket rather than the stable pocket Bledsoe prefers, more use of the QB draw and sneak which Bledsoe can do on occaision as shown last season but is not a staple in his game, naked bootlegs whre the QB needs the moblity to defend himself if the backside defender is not fooled by the motion as Bledsoe would have to excel at an offense designed for JP rather than JP learning an offense designed for Bledsoe) with the statement this is still my team, and TD responded this Buffalo's team.

 

TD did Bledsoe a great favor by announcing his cut early to some extent by cutting him now. Even with the million dollar payout, the Bills would have had a lower cap hit from him in 2005 by making him a cap casualtyafter June 1st and spreading his deadspace over 2 years. He now apparently will walk into a significant contract with a team like Dallas and not only has he pocket a set of prorated payments for NE scheduled to be a lifetime contract. but has added the Bills bonus pro-rated at $2.15 million per year and a new contract which if similar sized to his current deal will see him pocket another $8 million or so (base pay this year and bonus the next two) simply for signing the deal.

 

At any rate, the $4.3 million dead space this year left to the Bills is less than the $6.5 million dollar cap hit for paying him what (I think) TD foolishly agreed to pay him. However, this leaves the Bills with $2,2 million in cap room to buy a back-up QB.

 

A poll was posted earlier which gave folks the choice of QBs like Garcia, Warner and others for the role of JP's mentor. This poll at the point I saw it seemed to attract few people choosing from the list given because:

 

1. Some felt the QB listed were bad players (I have tried to solve this by putting in a vote for other and asking folks to explain who other is).

 

2. Others felt that JP needs to be molly-coddled and if someone who wants to start is the #2 JP will look over his shoulder (I hope these folks are wrong and JP is a big boy and that one of our requirements - particularly after JPs injury last year, not because I think he is injury prone but it simply shows what can happen in the NFL- is that he needs a credible back-up who can start and win if necesary due to injury and he simply needs to tough out the fans and the media if they want to give up on him).

 

3. Others and I feel that the Bills need to keep cap room to improve our team in other places (TE to replace injured players, back-up RB when Henry goes cause I like Shayd Wiiliams but see him as a change-up rather than consistent starter. back-up LB to continue improving ST and to challenge Posey who I think will win the job but compettion is good). Further we will have to deal with or replace JJ and Phat Pat and that will likely cost us cap room..

 

At any rate once the cost of a back-up QB goes over $2.2 million then hte Bledsoe cut diminishes our cap room. In terms of on the field acquisitions and further showing the extension of Bledsoe was a mistake, I do not think TD wants that to happen.

 

I have held this list to the QBs who I think have a snowballs chance of doing the job (though MikeMacMahon gives me pause as in his two longest (though they were quite short seasons for starts his completion % was below 50%) and I actually have no confidence in Chris Chandler but he was on the other list and differed from therest as I think he will cost less than $2.2 million.

 

I also left Matthews off the list because though he is currently on the roster and talked about as the back-up he does not seem like a credible choice to me because like Chandler I don't think his record indicates he can do the job and also because he has already talked about retiring and 2004 being his last year. I agree with Marv that when you talk about retiring in your mind you hve retired. I see him at best as our disaster QB 2 which despite his gaudy stats was the role he played this year. If you think he is a crefible choice plese mark down other and I hope you can convince me and others he is areal choice.

 

Other possiilities I have left off but folks can other them and explain if they wish are Maddox who is not on the redzone availabe list and Holcomb who is a possibility as AUFA who has played well recently but I think he may well cost over $2.2 .

 

So please poll up on what I think is a more realistic approach to this difficult quesion.

 

BTW- I join Simon in signing Batch but I also sign Kordelia as my slash and am comfortable letting these two fight it out. JP's precence actually gives this player a 25% chance of starting for this team and it very good ST and D if his play in minicamp and pre-season is simply lighjs out great and a 5)% chance of being the starter at some point this season if Losman (who i think will earn the starting job) turns out to be not ready yet. unfortunately no matter how much I believe happy feet and other problems do happen.

[RuntheDamnBall]

I'd like to see us try to pick up Brad Johnson if he becomes available. We could use a smart, selfless and underrated guy who has won a Super Bowl, is perhaps on the downside of his career, but can get the job done if the situation calls for it.

[Like A Mofo]

I wouldnt mind seeing the Bills take a flyer on Mike McMahon.

[Rico]

Shane Matthews.

 

and you continue to be dead wrong here:

The Bills gave Bledsoe the choice between staying and restructuring his deal down to a back-up QB salary and fighting it out for the starting job with JP Losman or deciding he wanted to be cut.

248641[/snapback]

The only way Drew could've come back was as JP's back-up.

[RuntheDamnBall]

I wouldnt mind seeing the Bills take a flyer on Mike McMahon.

248650[/snapback]

I'm curious why people are so interested in him, to be honest. He seems like a gritty guy, but with not much else going for him. But perhaps he is more than just another QB ground up in the Lions' sh-- mill, who knows?

[FTW_BillsFan]

I think Bledsoe will see that there is no job for him and come back as the backup.

 

Right now, except for Dallas, no one wants him.

[KRT88]

I don't know who but I don't like those choices.

[mead107]

realisticly i would say FLUTIE

[d_wag]

i agree with rico on two fronts:

 

1) shane matthews will return and be the backup -- cheapest option

2) you are wrong -- bledsoe was never given the option to compete for the job

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

Shane Matthews.

 

and you continue to be dead wrong here:

 

The only way Drew could've come back was as JP's back-up.

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I gnerally agree as I think it is pretty impossible for Bledsoe to win a battle with Losman running an offense designed for Losman a more mobile QB. I think that MM and the braintrust could easily and honest promise a fair decision because it would not be a fight Bledsoe can win if he has to perform in a moving pocket rather than the straight drop back he prefers and performs best in.

 

I do not think Bledsoe can win if the playbook call for our QB to run a strong does of plays with a naked bootleg and we count on the QB to make the first tackler miss if the outside defender stays home despite the motion and the play action fake to WM going the other way.

 

I think Bledsoe must run some QB draws to keep the D honest and not pin their ears back and blitz every play (Clements realized this Killdrive did not)but he cannot perform with steady diet of this that Clements and MM want to run. I don't hink he is a statue (the fake QB sbeak and the pitch to WM for the TD, several QB draws he ran last year for 6+ yards and several hand-off to WM, a couple of nice TD passes to Evan on the rollout and oitches back to him leading to a bomb to Evans or Moulds showed he is not statute incapble of movement, but make no mistake though he must and can do this occaisionally mobility is not his game and that is the MM playbook.

 

I think he came out of meeting and testily said this is my team because he was told he would get a fair judgment on how he did but it would be a fair judgment of he did running the whole playbook and not one watered down for his strenghts and weaknesses. This was not his team if anyone's its MM (and really TD's) team.

 

I'm not so certain that I am right about all things that I would claim a stone cold certaionty he can't successfully run the full playbook (I'm pretty sure he can't) but I fell for the repetive rants from posters that he was a statue and i was quite pleased to see the success of the Bills this year with Bledsoe running a few times, pulling off some nice fakes and fleaflickers, and even htting Evans on the rollout a couple of times. I'm not makling this stuff up and I wrong to buy into Killdrive's actions and posters rants that he could not. HE DID IT.

 

Hoever, as nice as this ws to see, I have been clear from last minicamp that I thought it was a mistake to extend Bledsoe's contract because even with some unexopected improvment in his production from Killdrive to Clements he merely improved the team from horrendous to inadequate.

 

He needed and deserved to be cut last year and he need and deserved to be cut this year if he would not restructure his contract to be paid like a #2. He did a perfect job as the #2 in 2001 because he:

 

1. Helped their second year QB understand the O like the vet he was not yet.

2. Played the majority of a must win game and even threw the winning TD though he was running the O designed for Brady which the rest of the team had practiced and thus ran even though Bledsoe's numbers in the game were not good because he was running an O not suited to his strengths and weaknesses, however, he won a must-win game and that is all one rationally can expect from a stand-in looking good doing it is merely style points and do not count or matter if you just win.

3, Was not a cancer to the team insisting he should start sfter his AFC Championship win with some garbage about not losing his job to injury. He stepped back gracefully and let a better QB running an offense designed for him win the SB and was quietr and graceful about NE trading him and keeping the better QB.

 

I agree that Bledsoe was almost certainly gonna be the 2005 back-up and needed to take a pay cut to show he recognized this and for the team. Unfortunately, restructuring so that he had no deadspace and incresed our cap room flat our by 3-4 million bucks would have been the best move for the team.

 

Instead, by cutting him we now have increased our deadspace from a minusule 500K to a wet blanket like $4,3 million. We are likely going to have to risk putting our QB play into the hands of a secomd year QB. Having Bledsoe or some mentor would have been nice because Bledsoe being forced to the sideline helped Brady be all that he could be (according to Brady, Belicheck and others). Thy may be lying but I don't think so as NE showed a team spirit seemingly unburdemed wih behind the scenes bellyaching by Bledsoe or the faction of players (led by Milloy actually) who were his buddies. Instead at $2.2 million I doubt we can afford a mentor.

 

I hope Matthews sticks around because he is a vet and had a year to watch the Bills O and Clements and seems to have a vets understanding of it and managng the team which JP is learning but did not show when he was thrown into the NE game and is still learning as we saw him improve from taking an unecessary penalty to merely taking an unecessary timeout in his second and third games.

 

However, his record of play over the years is that of a Chicago level back-up and starter and not that of a player who has been there before.

 

You may disagree for no good reason that I see but I see him as a disaster QB at best. A good one to have but still a disaster QB based on his on-field performance. Add to that he was already thinking seriously about retirement ho the extent he began talking about it publicly, maybe you feel good about him watching and carrying the clipboard as our #3 but trusting in him to prepare himself fullout to play every week is a bit too much risk for this fans blood.

 

Please give me the benefit of good arguments to the contrary but the numbers and the events seem pretty clear to me.

[Rico]

I gnerally agree as I think it is pretty impossible for Bledsoe to win a battle with Losman running an offense designed for Losman a more mobile QB.  I think that MM and the braintrust could easily and honest promise a fair decision because it would not be a fight Bledsoe can win if he has to perform in a moving pocket rather than the straight drop back he prefers and performs best in.

248738[/snapback]

The fact is there was no promise of a fair decision. If you missed it, go to buffalobills.com and access MM's press conference from last week. Either read the transcript, listen to the audio, or watch the video. A decision was made to make JP the starter. NO competition. Maybe a reason why there was to be no competition was that Drew couldn't win the fight you mention above... but the choice to compete was never presented to Drew and was not his to make.

 

I hope Matthews sticks around because he is a vet and had a year to watch the Bills O and Clements and seems to have a vets understanding of it and managng the team which JP is learning but did not show when he was thrown into the NE game and is still learning as we saw him improve from taking an unecessary penalty to merely taking an unecessary timeout in his second and third games.

 

However, his record of play over the years is that of a Chicago level back-up and starter and not that of a player who has been there before.

 

You may disagree for no good reason that I see but I see him as a disaster QB at best. A good one to have but still a disaster QB based on his on-field performance. Add to that he was already thinking seriously about retirement ho the extent he began talking about it publicly, maybe you feel good about him watching and carrying the clipboard as our #3 but trusting in him to prepare himself fullout to play every week is a bit too much risk for this fans blood.

 

Please give me the benefit of good arguments to the contrary but the numbers and the events seem pretty clear to me.

Again, you must have missed the press conference, go check it out, it couldn't be any clearer. Both MM & TD mentioned that they wanted to bring Matthews back. They are looking at other options, but Shane is a definite possibility... and the price will be right.

[obie_wan]

I think Bledsoe will see that there is no job for him and come back as the backup. 

 

Right now, except for Dallas, no one wants him.

248673[/snapback]

 

There is no way Drew will ever come back to the Bills.

[obie_wan]

The fact is there was no promise of a fair decision. If you missed the press conference, go to buffalobills.com and access MM's press conference from last week. Either read the transcript, listen to the audio, or watch the video. A decision was made to make JP the starter. NO competition. Maybe a reason why there was to be no competition was that Drew couldn't win the fight you mention above... but the choice to compete was never presented to Drew and was not his to make.

 

Again, you must have missed the press conference, go check it out, it couldn't be any clearer. Both MM & TD mentioned that they wanted to bring Matthews back. They are looking at other options, but Shane is a definite possibility... and the price will be right.

248759[/snapback]

 

hey- don't let facts get in the way .

 

Drew lost the starting job for good with his performance (or lack thereof) against Pittburgh.

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

The fact is there was no promise of a fair decision. If you missed it, go to buffalobills.com and access MM's press conference from last week. Either read the transcript, listen to the audio, or watch the video. A decision was made to make JP the starter. NO competition. Maybe a reason why there was to be no competition was that Drew couldn't win the fight you mention above... but the choice to compete was never presented to Drew and was not his to make.

248759[/snapback]

 

Actuslly thanks for the reference, rather thsm listening to the press conference, I dp tend to read summaries or hear key lines through a variety of mediz sources. Upon listening to both press conferences it was clear in both of them that they told Drew he was the back-up. Hpwever, there was difference in the two press conferences as while MM was crystal clear about this point TD wasn't as flat out about it.

 

I think this reflects the timeline that Bledsoe is a guy brought in by TD and MM had nothing to do with this so he is a lot more willing to let Bledsoe go because it is harder to win with him. I was actually operating from what TD said right after they had this talk which sounds pretty unequivocal from what Mm says, but defintely said that everyone has to win there job on the field which I took to mean that Bledsoe was still in the mix in terms of a competition, though as I said I would be really surprised if Bledsoe won such a competition with the team adopting a playbook styled for a more mobile QB.

 

The sad thing here is that TD flat out lied with his commentd jud post discussion with Bledsoe, JP did not win the job on the field it was simply handed to him.

 

Drew's comments that this was his team were also a little odd as if the conversation was as unequivocal as MM stated, this was obviously not Bledsoe's team. Its probably most interesting that TD and Mm were sating different things or at best the same thing in very different ways.

 

Again, you must have missed the press conference, go check it out, it couldn't be any clearer. Both MM & TD mentioned that they wanted to bring Matthews back. They are looking at other options, but Shane is a definite possibility... and the price will be right.

248759[/snapback]

 

 

Again i think there was some slight difference here between the two but sort of the other wat around, TD seemed to be emphasizing more that Matthews was the man if he choose to come back, but Mm seemed to be saying that Matthews definitely had a shot at being the man if he came back.

 

I still think the Marv dictum rules here. Probably the person who has the most to say about whether Matthews comes back and how involved he is Matthews wife. Je sounds like there are some real commitment and family issues it sounds like Matthews is done to me at least from looking at his record and jusfing his play I hope he is. If we end up with him as our starter I fear we are toast.

 

Still even though I stand thankfully and somewhat corrected on where the Bills stood on the Bledsoe having a chance to start (I think even with a fair judgement between him and JP Bledsoe is the #2), I stand by my assessment that we are in worse cap shape after the Bledsoe cut if we get a credible #2. matthews ain't it. We will need to buy a number 2 who has been there before, who has played QB for a winning team in the SB or at least the championship game, and who has been around a while and has experiece training a youngster. Bledsoe by far would have been the best backup for us but that did not happen and I hope our lesser choices bring something to the table.

[njsue]

I hope that none of the above choices are in a bills uniform

[Spikes16]

Doug Flutie....

[CarolinaBill99]

I think it depends on what the Bills are looking for...

Older Vet/mobile- Kordell or Batch....

 

Younger guy with potential if JP bust. McMahon...

 

Personally, I think there will be a few late surprise cuts with some Vet being available to come in late.