Was Trent Edwards broken?

[jr1]

He missed a lot of games in college. Damaged goods

[row_33]

That was a brutal hit, not a single Bill even looked in AW’s direction

 

Joe Montana took almost two years to recover from the Marshall hit in the playoffs.

 

Edited March 21, 2018 by row_33

[Clockwork]

HesiTrent

[Fadingpain]

I think the OP is asking if Edwards was physically changed in some way by the hit.

 

I think that is unlikely, but I think the hit had a psychological impact on his game for sure.

 

 

[HenryJones]

I was at the game, sitting second row.  They carried him off right in front of me.  I yelled something at him as they drove by me, something to the effect of get better/shake it off.  He absolutely NO clue where he was or where the voice was coming from.  I was like 5 ft away from him.  He was never the same after that hit.  That changed his career.  First play of the game too, so typical.

[Nihilarian]

9 hours ago, The Red King said:

After reading a post on Polian that mentioned Edwards, I figured I could put up a non-draft related one as a change of pace.

 

Trent Edwards started hot out of the gate, giving us hope for the first time in awhile.  And then we played the Cards, and Trent was blasted into next week.  The purpose of my post is to see if anyone holds my theory, that Trent never fully recovered from the concussion.  That, had he never been concussed, he might well have been a star QB.

 

I know, I know, I can feel your skeptisism.  I shared it.  But then I saw it.  One specific game against Miami made me question.  Edwards took a shot, and something seemed to click.  He was sharper, more decisive.  He led them to an impressive, efficient TD drive.  A later hit and he was back to captain checkdown.  But what really drove it home was far later that game.  3rd and long, and yet again he checked down and took off...even though it was obvious he wouldn't make it.  He was run out of bounds 2-3 yards shy.  Or...was about to be.  He ran to the sideline and then just pulled up and stopped, not past the sideline but just before it.  Even the defender seemed confused.  He eased up, and just as he was about to make contact, Edwards finally stepped out.

 

Once I saw that, I knew something was still wrong with Edwards.  I went from being frustrated with him, to pitying him.  And wondering, was the Edwards we saw him at his best, or were we watching a quarterback that never recovered from an early concussion?  What do you all think?

Trent Edwards was recommended by the late great Bill Walsh and at first, he looked like he might be special. 

 

Drafted by Buffalo in the third round of the 2007 NFL draft, and he came into Buffalo with JP Losman as the starter * (JP is another story entirely) Edwards started in his first season going 5-4. Marv Levy was the GM at that time and I think he Jauron got together to bring the greatest show on turf to Buffalo to make the greatest show on snow. Allow me to explain. 

 

After the 2005 season, the owner fired GM/team president Tom Donahoe and sought out an old friend to be his new GM. Marv Levy wanted to be a head coach again so he took the job thinking he could be both GM/HC. Shortly thereafter Ralph Wilson made it very clear that Marv was only ever to be the GM and he needed to hire a HC.

 

Marv settled on two candidates in ex-Chicago Bears HC Dick Jauron and ex-Green Bay HC Mike Sherman. After the Sherman interview, Levy stated that he blew his socks off so anyway he, later on, hired Jauron. Jauron hired ex-St Louis OC Steve Fairchild to be the new OC in Buffalo along with Perry Fewell as his DC. 

 

Steve Fairchild was the Rams OC for three seasons under HC Mike Martz (2003-2005)and he didn't call the plays, Martz did. This is relevant because Fairchild changed the offensive playbook from Erhardt-Perkins to Air Coryell. Basically moving to a deeper passing scheme (Mike Martz's scheme) like the Rams had during their super bowl run with Dick Vermeil as the Rams HC and Martz as OC. Now if you know anything about that deep passing Martz scheme it really only worked when they had an all-pro offensive line and Marshall Faulk out of the backfield. 

 

Back then Martz took over as the Rams HC after Vermeil retired and his passing scheme with calling deep passing plays kept getting his QBs killed. Kurt Warner hurt his hand badly and wasn't the same for a few years so Marc Bulger took a beating for a while until Martz was fired in St Louis after 2005. If you follow Martz he went to Detroit next as OC for two years, SF for one year and finally his last two years in the league as OC was for the Bears where his scheme kept getting Jay Cutler killed. 

 

This is all relevant because Trent Edwards played in a West Coast offensive scheme in college at Stanford and wasn't familiar with an NFL deep passing scheme. So, Trent only got one season to learn that scheme from Fairchild in 2007 as Fairchild after that season to the head coaching job in college at Colorado. If you know anything about Bill Walsh's WCO it's an offense mostly predicated on a short passing scheme like an elongated handoff. 

 

Bill Walsh's West Coast Offense differs from traditional offense by emphasizing a short, horizontal passing attack to help stretch out the defense, thus opening up options for longer running plays and longer passes that can achieve greater gains. This is kinda why Ewards was noted for being "captain check down" because that was the scheme he was used to running.  

 

After Failchild left Buffalo the Bills then promoted the QB coach in Turk Schonert who was a backup QB for a lot of seasons before taking the job as QB coach. It is noted that the Bills switched to a WCO scheme and yet that Martz playbook was still in Buffalo. No offense to Schonert but he had no business being the Bills OC after only one season as QB coach and the team switching schemes away from what Schonert was groomed under.

 

Anyway, that 2008 season started out magical for Buffalo in that they started the season 4-0 by beating the Seahawks, the Jags, the Raiders, and Rams.

 

The Buffalo Bills forums went mental after those four games at that time with so many saying that Trent Edwards looked like a young Joe Montana by beating the Seahawks in the opener 34-10 with Edwards going 20 of 31 for 234 yards, 2 TD's. The next game at Jacksonville with Edwards going 20 of 25 for 239 yards, 1 TD. Beating the Raiders at home in a close game with Edwards running the game-winning drive with 4 min left, Bills win 23-24. Edwards went 24 of 39 for 279 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT. The fourth game was a win at St Louis 31-14 with Edwards going 15-25 for 197 yards 1 TD, 1 INT. 

 

In those four games, Edwards took 11 sacks. one sack from the Seahawks. Jacksonville 3 sacks. Raiders, 3 sacks. Rams 4 sacks. In the two seasons of playing Trent Edwards had been concussed more than once by some hard hits. the big one came against Arizona in week 5. This was the hit that ruined Edwards career IMO. 

 

Concussion protocol is different in today's game and Edwards would not have been allowed to return until he was medically cleared and perhaps even needing to sit out the rest of the season. He returned the next week against San Diego in beating the Chargers and he looked good by going 25 of 30 for 261 yards, 1 TD. In today's game that hit by Adrian Wilson would have been a huge fine and even a suspension

 

The thing is concussions can have lingering effects and the more hits you take after a severe concussion the more it can affect you and cause complications. Edwards wasn't sacked in that Chargers game but he was sacked 2x against Miami, 5x against the Jets. As the season went on you could see Edwards wasn't the same player we all saw at the beginning of the season. 

 

So yeah. In the end, Edwards was a Broken QB IMO. 

[4merper4mer]

11 hours ago, DFT said:

I don’t think there are too many sports analysts out there that wouldn’t admit to the drastic difference before and after the hit.   He was never the same and still struggles with severe complications.  A shame.

Revisionist.  He sucked badly both before and after that hit.

[Prickly Pete]

11 hours ago, DFT said:

I don’t think there are too many sports analysts out there that wouldn’t admit to the drastic difference before and after the hit.   He was never the same and still struggles with severe complications.  A shame.

 

Ugh..

 

He sucked. Watch those games again if you have to.

 

He was ALWAYS Captain Checkdown, Trentative Edwards. 

 

I don't know why this is a consistent "throwback" topic. He blew the big one, and it had nothing to do with the hit. 

 

[K D]

He was scared to get hit after that. Simple as that. You can't play scared in football and you saw why. After that he short armed everything and was quick to check down. He was in survival mode and it ruined his career.

[4merper4mer]

7 minutes ago, OJABBA said:

 

Ugh..

 

He sucked. Watch those games again if you have to.

 

He was ALWAYS Captain Checkdown, Trentative Edwards. 

 

I don't know why this is a consistent "throwback" topic. He blew the big one, and it had nothing to do with the hit. 

 

Thank you.  He was a Glove Wearing Mary from Los Gatos.

[DFT]

42 minutes ago, 4merper4mer said:

Revisionist.  He sucked badly both before and after that hit.

Well, you’re half right.  Nice work.

12 minutes ago, OJABBA said:

 

Ugh..

 

He sucked. Watch those games again if you have to.

 

He was ALWAYS Captain Checkdown, Trentative Edwards. 

 

I don't know why this is a consistent "throwback" topic. He blew the big one, and it had nothing to do with the hit. 

 

Which games should I watch again?  The ones after he sustained an undocumented grade 3 concussion that led to his current complications?  When you say it has nothing to do with the hit, are you saying that based off of your medical knowledge of brain damage, professional knowledge of football or as the atypical lazy fan that just kinda calls it as you interpret, because it’s neat and stuff?

[Prickly Pete]

8 minutes ago, DFT said:

Well, you’re half right.  Nice work.

Which games should I watch again?  The ones after he sustained an undocumented grade 3 concussion that led to his current complications?  When you say it has nothing to do with the hit, are you saying that based off of your medical knowledge of brain damage, professional knowledge of football or as the atypical lazy fan that just kinda calls it as you interpret, because it’s neat and stuff?

 

"Waaaahhhh! I loved Trenty, and he was my hero when I was 12!"

 

NO. OBVIOUSLY, WATCH THE GAMES BEFORE THE HIT.

HE SUCKED.

Edited March 21, 2018 by OJABBA

[DFT]

Just now, OJABBA said:

 

Waaaahhhh! I loved Trenty, and he was my hero when I was 12!"

 

NO. OBVIOULSY, WATCH THE GAMES BEFORE THE HIT.

HE SUCKED.

Sweet response, yo!  You’ve gotta call out those guys that try to attack a bloated, emotional response with facts.   Those pesky “fact” guys...   am I right?   Anyway, onto the games you’ve asked me to re-watch.  The games where famed analysts all had him as the 3rd best QB in the draft?  Those games?   Cool.  I’ll do that and we’ll reconnect after school let’s you out.   

[Prickly Pete]

1 minute ago, DFT said:

Sweet response, yo!  You’ve gotta call out those guys that try to attack a bloated, emotional response with facts.   Those pesky “fact” guys...   am I right?   Anyway, onto the games you’ve asked me to re-watch.  The games where famed analysts all had him as the 3rd best QB in the draft?  Those games?   Cool.  I’ll do that and we’ll reconnect after school let’s you out.   

 

Is this Tibs?

[DFT]

1 minute ago, DFT said:

Sweet response, yo!  You’ve gotta call out those guys that try to attack a bloated, emotional response with facts.   Those pesky “fact” guys...   am I right?   Anyway, onto the games you’ve asked me to re-watch.  The games where famed analysts all had him as the 3rd best QB in the draft?  Those games?   Cool.  I’ll do that and we’ll reconnect after school let’s you out.   

 

7 minutes ago, OJABBA said:

 

"Waaaahhhh! I loved Trenty, and he was my hero when I was 12!"

 

NO. OBVIOUSLY, WATCH THE GAMES BEFORE THE HIT.

HE SUCKED.

Hey, so I re-watched them.   I’m still seeing a 7 yard average in College with no weapons.  I’m still seeing down-field passing in his first pro games until the hit.   Any other games I should watch?  I really want to try to see this thing more clearly from your professional perspective, which is clearly based off of facts and not juvenile emotional outbursts.   

[4_kidd_4]

There was some flap with WIVB and cable providers before this game.

 

So I went and bought our first HDTV to tune it in, not realizing I needed an external antenna, which were sold out locally, due to EVERYONE trying to watch the Bills without cable.

 

So I made a last ditch trip around noon, don’t even remember what store I was attempting to try, but as I sped down W. Delevan I noticed an opportune gentleman standing on the sidewalk, his arm extended, and a single ray of sunlight illuminating the precious treasure he held in his palm...an HD antenna.

 

A brief haggle and a $20 bill later, I got to watch Trent Edwards get his bell rung silly in blazing 720p HD.

 

The End.

[Tenhigh]

2 hours ago, Nihilarian said:

Trent Edwards was recommended by the late great Bill Walsh and at first, he looked like he might be special. 

 

Drafted by Buffalo in the third round of the 2007 NFL draft, and he came into Buffalo with JP Losman as the starter * (JP is another story entirely) Edwards started in his first season going 5-4. Marv Levy was the GM at that time and I think he Jauron got together to bring the greatest show on turf to Buffalo to make the greatest show on snow. Allow me to explain. 

 

After the 2005 season, the owner fired GM/team president Tom Donahoe and sought out an old friend to be his new GM. Marv Levy wanted to be a head coach again so he took the job thinking he could be both GM/HC. Shortly thereafter Ralph Wilson made it very clear that Marv was only ever to be the GM and he needed to hire a HC.

 

Marv settled on two candidates in ex-Chicago Bears HC Dick Jauron and ex-Green Bay HC Mike Sherman. After the Sherman interview, Levy stated that he blew his socks off so anyway he, later on, hired Jauron. Jauron hired ex-St Louis OC Steve Fairchild to be the new OC in Buffalo along with Perry Fewell as his DC. 

 

Steve Fairchild was the Rams OC for three seasons under HC Mike Martz (2003-2005)and he didn't call the plays, Martz did. This is relevant because Fairchild changed the offensive playbook from Erhardt-Perkins to Air Coryell. Basically moving to a deeper passing scheme (Mike Martz's scheme) like the Rams had during their super bowl run with Dick Vermeil as the Rams HC and Martz as OC. Now if you know anything about that deep passing Martz scheme it really only worked when they had an all-pro offensive line and Marshall Faulk out of the backfield. 

 

Back then Martz took over as the Rams HC after Vermeil retired and his passing scheme with calling deep passing plays kept getting his QBs killed. Kurt Warner hurt his hand badly and wasn't the same for a few years so Marc Bulger took a beating for a while until Martz was fired in St Louis after 2005. If you follow Martz he went to Detroit next as OC for two years, SF for one year and finally his last two years in the league as OC was for the Bears where his scheme kept getting Jay Cutler killed. 

 

This is all relevant because Trent Edwards played in a West Coast offensive scheme in college at Stanford and wasn't familiar with an NFL deep passing scheme. So, Trent only got one season to learn that scheme from Fairchild in 2007 as Fairchild after that season to the head coaching job in college at Colorado. If you know anything about Bill Walsh's WCO it's an offense mostly predicated on a short passing scheme like an elongated handoff. 

 

Bill Walsh's West Coast Offense differs from traditional offense by emphasizing a short, horizontal passing attack to help stretch out the defense, thus opening up options for longer running plays and longer passes that can achieve greater gains. This is kinda why Ewards was noted for being "captain check down" because that was the scheme he was used to running.  

 

After Failchild left Buffalo the Bills then promoted the QB coach in Turk Schonert who was a backup QB for a lot of seasons before taking the job as QB coach. It is noted that the Bills switched to a WCO scheme and yet that Martz playbook was still in Buffalo. No offense to Schonert but he had no business being the Bills OC after only one season as QB coach and the team switching schemes away from what Schonert was groomed under.

 

Anyway, that 2008 season started out magical for Buffalo in that they started the season 4-0 by beating the Seahawks, the Jags, the Raiders, and Rams.

 

The Buffalo Bills forums went mental after those four games at that time with so many saying that Trent Edwards looked like a young Joe Montana by beating the Seahawks in the opener 34-10 with Edwards going 20 of 31 for 234 yards, 2 TD's. The next game at Jacksonville with Edwards going 20 of 25 for 239 yards, 1 TD. Beating the Raiders at home in a close game with Edwards running the game-winning drive with 4 min left, Bills win 23-24. Edwards went 24 of 39 for 279 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT. The fourth game was a win at St Louis 31-14 with Edwards going 15-25 for 197 yards 1 TD, 1 INT. 

 

In those four games, Edwards took 11 sacks. one sack from the Seahawks. Jacksonville 3 sacks. Raiders, 3 sacks. Rams 4 sacks. In the two seasons of playing Trent Edwards had been concussed more than once by some hard hits. the big one came against Arizona in week 5. This was the hit that ruined Edwards career IMO. 

 

Concussion protocol is different in today's game and Edwards would not have been allowed to return until he was medically cleared and perhaps even needing to sit out the rest of the season. He returned the next week against San Diego in beating the Chargers and he looked good by going 25 of 30 for 261 yards, 1 TD. In today's game that hit by Adrian Wilson would have been a huge fine and even a suspension

 

The thing is concussions can have lingering effects and the more hits you take after a severe concussion the more it can affect you and cause complications. Edwards wasn't sacked in that Chargers game but he was sacked 2x against Miami, 5x against the Jets. As the season went on you could see Edwards wasn't the same player we all saw at the beginning of the season. 

 

So yeah. In the end, Edwards was a Broken QB IMO. 

I felt like it was PTSD. 

[DFT]

6 minutes ago, Tenhigh said:

I felt like it was PTSD. 

Agree, mixed with elements of brain damage.  It’s a sad story altogether.  He’s a great guy and is currently a VP for a company I work closely with.  He never has a negative word for Buffalo.  Class act, all the way.  But he struggles with things today due to that hit.   He’s doesn’t strike me as anything but genuine.   That hit took away his ability to play.  It would be awesome of Bills fans to not begrudge a guy that got devastatingly injured, just because said player showed a propensity to check down, after the injury.  But, empathy has never been our strong suit.

Edited March 21, 2018 by DFT

[thebandit27]

If it was the hit, then why did he play his best game as a professional the following game against the Chargers?

 

For me, his decline was simple: defensive coordinators took away the quick interior routes that he lived off of and he couldn't challenge teams down the field.

[Chicken Boo]

The biggest fallacy in recent Bills history.

 

He was always a check down artist. All the way back to his first TD drive against NE.