Worries about the O-line are unfounded

[Tolstoy]

Bledsoe may have had a rifle arm, but he did not have a quick release, nor was he mobile (a bad combination). Remember Marino? He ran like a turtle, but he had the fastest release I have ever seen. Flutie, he had an average or slow release, but he could run like a hare. Bledsoe had neither of their good qualities. As a result, he put a lot of stress on the O-line. Add to this that opposing defenses were quoted as saying they knew if they went after Bledsoe, he would still be there with the ball when they got to him. More pressure on the O-line.

 

Any O-line will look bad under Bledsoe (let's watch the Dallas line and see how they fare--its a good test). I expect that simply putting J.P. in will keep defenses guessing, make the D-linemen hesitate, and take pressure off the O-line. Hence, they will necessarily look improved.

 

More good news lies in McNally. If he is half as good as they say he is, he should keep this O-line fundamentally sound, even if not spectacular.

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

Bledsoe may have had a rifle arm, but he did not have a quick release, nor was he mobile (a bad combination).  Remember Marino?  He ran like a turtle, but he had the fastest release I have ever seen.  Flutie, he had an average or slow release, but he could run like a hare.  Bledsoe had neither of their good qualities.  As a result, he put a lot of stress on the O-line.  Add to this that opposing defenses were quoted as saying they knew if they went after Bledsoe, he would still be there with the ball when they got to him.  More pressure on the O-line.

 

Any O-line will look bad under Bledsoe (let's watch the Dallas line and see how they fare--its a good test).  I expect that simply putting J.P. in will keep defenses guessing, make the D-linemen hesitate, and take pressure off the O-line.  Hence, they will necessarily look improved.

 

More good news lies in McNally.  If he is half as good as they say he is, he should keep this O-line fundamentally sound, even if not spectacular.

321748[/snapback]

 

 

This why the coaches who have had the most success with Bledsoe are those who have coached him to release the ball as quickly as he could.

 

Parcells made the SB with Bledsoe leading the way by constantly harping on him in practice with NE to just throw the damn ball whenever he went into his trademark pat and held the ball.

 

Last year one of the swift things TC and MM did was to have Bledsoe practice with an alarm clock on the field set to go off 4 seconds after the snap to remind him to throw the damn ball and the team improved to 9-7 from 6-10.

 

My sense also is that Bledsoe filled in for Brady in a must-win game for the league championship in 2001 and threw the game winning TD running an O and practiced by the receivers for the quick passing of Brady. Bledsoe certainly failed to run the Brady O perfectly but did so well enough for them to make the SB.

 

I suspect that Bledsoe will actually perform relatively well with Dallas in 2005. He will have a good running game with Jones and Parcells knows better than anyione that he will have to get Bledsoe to just throw the damn ball.

[ExiledInIllinois]

This why the coaches who have had the most success with Bledsoe are those who have coached him to release the ball as quickly as he could.

 

Parcells made the SB with Bledsoe leading the way by constantly harping on him in practice with NE to just throw the damn ball whenever he went into his trademark pat and held the ball.

 

Last year one of the swift things TC and MM did was to have Bledsoe practice with an alarm clock on the field set to go off 4 seconds after the snap  to remind him to throw the damn ball and the team improved to 9-7 from 6-10.

 

My sense also is that Bledsoe filled in for Brady in a must-win game for the league championship in 2001 and threw the game winning TD running an O and practiced by the receivers for the quick passing of Brady. Bledsoe certainly failed to run the Brady O perfectly but did so well enough for them to make the SB.

 

I suspect that Bledsoe will actually perform relatively well with Dallas in 2005. He will have a good running game with Jones and Parcells knows better than anyione that he will have to get Bledsoe to just throw the damn ball.

321781[/snapback]

 

Exactly.

 

Sounds like DB is a pefectionist?... Not good in the hurried world of NFL QB's?... Make a choice, throw the ball, and be done with it!

[PromoTheRobot]

Bledsoe may have had a rifle arm, but he did not have a quick release, nor was he mobile (a bad combination).  Remember Marino?  He ran like a turtle, but he had the fastest release I have ever seen.  Flutie, he had an average or slow release, but he could run like a hare.  Bledsoe had neither of their good qualities.  As a result, he put a lot of stress on the O-line.  Add to this that opposing defenses were quoted as saying they knew if they went after Bledsoe, he would still be there with the ball when they got to him.  More pressure on the O-line.

 

Any O-line will look bad under Bledsoe (let's watch the Dallas line and see how they fare--its a good test).  I expect that simply putting J.P. in will keep defenses guessing, make the D-linemen hesitate, and take pressure off the O-line.  Hence, they will necessarily look improved.

 

More good news lies in McNally.  If he is half as good as they say he is, he should keep this O-line fundamentally sound, even if not spectacular.

321748[/snapback]

Couldn't agree more.

 

PTR

[ROCCEO]

Also, i never really thought bledsoe was good at calling the right audibles and hot routing recievers so i think that may have something to do with it as well. If you gave bledsoe a paper test about playing qb hed probobly get a 100 but when u put him back there his decision making becomes somewhat flimsy.

[obie_wan]

 

I suspect that Bledsoe will actually perform relatively well with Dallas in 2005. He will have a good running game with Jones and Parcells knows better than anyione that he will have to get Bledsoe to just throw the damn ball.

321781[/snapback]

 

 

Until teams start blanketing Drew's favaorite WR.

 

In NE, it was Ben Coates. In Buffalo, it was Moulds.

 

Drew can only lock onto 1 WR. If he is taken away, Drew is incapable of going thru his progression to the next WR. (pat, pat ,pat).

 

Philly and Washington will have a field day agaisnt Drew.

[Fezmid]

Drew can only lock onto 1 WR. If he is taken away, Drew is incapable of going thru his progression to the next WR. (pat, pat ,pat).

 

Why don't you ask Peerless Price if that's true? Or better yet, Larry Centers.

 

CW

[obie_wan]

Why don't you ask Peerless Price if that's true?  Or better yet, Larry Centers.

 

CW

321956[/snapback]

 

better yet, why not ask Mike Mularkey and Teflon Tom about what prompted them to cut loose this Hall of Fame Qb after paying him almost $9 mil in 2004?

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

better yet, why not ask Mike Mularkey and Teflon Tom about what prompted them to cut loose this Hall of Fame Qb after paying him almost $9 mil in 2004?

321959[/snapback]

 

 

I think that the two Ts cut Bledsoe as much because the felt JP was ready to learn and blossom as much as the did so because of Bledsoe's failings.

 

It strikes me as a mistake to assert he was cut purely because of his failings and not to recognize that having an alternative matters. TD made the mistake if extending Bledsoe's deal in part because the Bills saw no better alternative for the 2004 season than Bledsoe.

 

Once JP demonstrated to them that he was a reasonable alternative, the would have been happy to keep Bledsoe at a #2 QB salary. However, he chose to be cut instead. It would be a mistake in my view to say they totally gave up on Bledsoe as a player, though they did give up on him as a starter.

 

Bledsoe does have a problem of needing to be worked with constantly (from Parcells reminding him to just throw the damn ball to the MM alarm clock, but I think the success he had spreading the catches between Moulds/Price/Reed/Centers in 2002 shows he did not go into his trademark pat all the time. Even last year when both Moulds and Evans were both productive Bledsoe did lock on too much but it would br incorrect to claim he did this all the time.

 

MM did suceed in getting him to divvy up the passing attempts to the tune of the team eventually producing a winning record.

[d_wag]

I think that the two Ts cut Bledsoe as much because the felt JP was ready to learn and blossom as much as the did so because of Bledsoe's failings.

 

It strikes me as a mistake to assert he was cut purely because of his failings and not to recognize that having an alternative matters. TD made the mistake if extending Bledsoe's deal in part because the Bills saw no better alternative for the 2004 season than Bledsoe.

322109[/snapback]

 

this doesn't make sense -- bledsoe was signed for the '04 season regardless and the option bonus wasn't due until november........that option bonus related to activating the next 3 or 4 years on the contract........so the bills could have waited until november to make their decision, but TD made comments that he didn't want the distraction mid-season.......thus, he extended him in may as opposed to waiting.........

 

anyway, regardless of those details, it had nothing to do with bledsoe being a bill in '04 or not -- either way he was going to be on the team, new contract or playing under the old terms.........

[Mickey]

Bledsoe may have had a rifle arm, but he did not have a quick release, nor was he mobile (a bad combination).  Remember Marino?  He ran like a turtle, but he had the fastest release I have ever seen.  Flutie, he had an average or slow release, but he could run like a hare.  Bledsoe had neither of their good qualities.  As a result, he put a lot of stress on the O-line.  Add to this that opposing defenses were quoted as saying they knew if they went after Bledsoe, he would still be there with the ball when they got to him.  More pressure on the O-line.

 

Any O-line will look bad under Bledsoe (let's watch the Dallas line and see how they fare--its a good test).  I expect that simply putting J.P. in will keep defenses guessing, make the D-linemen hesitate, and take pressure off the O-line.  Hence, they will necessarily look improved.

 

More good news lies in McNally.  If he is half as good as they say he is, he should keep this O-line fundamentally sound, even if not spectacular.

321748[/snapback]

None of that explains our running game problems.

 

Granted, Drew was slow and JP is faster and more mobile and may even have a quicker release however, none of that will matter if a blitzer comes up the middle untouched as happened time and time and time again last year. Marino had "quick release" but the reason he didn't get sacked much had a lot more to do with him having a solid line and his penchant for throwing it away at the first sign of trouble. It is one of the reasons he had good stats but the Phins either didn't make the playoffs or made an early exit form the playoffs.

 

I think we all want to believe that simply having a more nimble quarterback will transform our line from one of the worst performing units in the league to one of the best but I don't think that is realistic. There are plenty of quarterbacks who are just as slow as Drew in every department and have done fine because they had a solid line and becuase they did, a running game that had to be respected.

 

Bill B., who has 3 Super Bowl rings to attest to the accuracy of his judgment has said or line was "for s..t". He was right and that has to change no matter who our QB is.

[Tolstoy]

Did we have a terrible running game problem? Any problems that we may have had are arguably attributable to the defence's lack of respect for the passing game, and a pretty bad play-action game. I remember here in New England that when Bledsoe first left, they all talked about how he was the worst play-action QB in the league. Not only was his fake bad, but he just couldn't through the little dump off with any accuracy and zip.

[Tolstoy]

throw

[Fan in San Diego]

Bledsoe may have had a rifle arm, but he did not have a quick release, nor was he mobile (a bad combination).  Remember Marino?  He ran like a turtle, but he had the fastest release I have ever seen.  Flutie, he had an average or slow release, but he could run like a hare.  Bledsoe had neither of their good qualities.  As a result, he put a lot of stress on the O-line.  Add to this that opposing defenses were quoted as saying they knew if they went after Bledsoe, he would still be there with the ball when they got to him.  More pressure on the O-line.

 

Any O-line will look bad under Bledsoe (let's watch the Dallas line and see how they fare--its a good test).  I expect that simply putting J.P. in will keep defenses guessing, make the D-linemen hesitate, and take pressure off the O-line.  Hence, they will necessarily look improved.

 

More good news lies in McNally.  If he is half as good as they say he is, he should keep this O-line fundamentally sound, even if not spectacular.

321748[/snapback]

 

I agree and not as many pages as War and Peace either to make your point.

[obie_wan]

I think that the two Ts cut Bledsoe as much because the felt JP was ready to learn and blossom as much as the did so because of Bledsoe's failings.

 

It strikes me as a mistake to assert he was cut purely because of his failings and not to recognize that having an alternative matters. TD made the mistake if extending Bledsoe's deal in part because the Bills saw no better alternative for the 2004 season than Bledsoe.

 

Once JP demonstrated to them that he was a reasonable alternative, the would have been happy to keep Bledsoe at a #2 QB salary. However, he chose to be cut instead.  It would be a mistake in my view to say they totally gave up on Bledsoe as a player, though they did give up on him as a starter.

 

Bledsoe does have a problem of needing to be worked with constantly (from Parcells reminding him to just throw the damn ball to the MM alarm clock, but I think the success he had spreading the catches between Moulds/Price/Reed/Centers in 2002 shows he did not go into his trademark pat all the time.  Even last year when both Moulds and Evans were both productive Bledsoe did lock on too much but it would br incorrect to claim he did this all the time.

 

MM did suceed in getting him to divvy up the passing attempts to the tune of the team eventually producing a winning record.

322109[/snapback]

 

 

nice try-

 

Teflon Tom extended Drew's contract with the full intention of him staying on the team for at least 2 years- with a very real chance of being the backup to JP who had been identified as his successor.

 

 

To say that Drew was not let go because of his performance is ludicrous. Drew played himself off the roster in spite of tremendous financial reasons to keep him. Teflon Tom invested almost $9 mil in Drew in 2004 and incurred almost $5 mil in dead cap hit by cutting Drew loose.

 

People whine about not trading Travis Henry, but don't find it odd that TD did not hang on to Drew to maximize his trade value. The fact is the front office determined that the Bills were better off with Drew off the roster for no compensation than to keep him around to mess with the team's chemistry.

[Fezmid]

nice try-

 

Teflon Tom extended Drew's contract with the full intention of him staying on the team for at least 2 years- with a very real chance of being the backup to JP who had been identified as his successor.

To say that Drew was  not let go because of his performance is ludicrous. Drew played himself off the roster in spite of tremendous financial reasons to keep him. Teflon Tom invested almost $9 mil in Drew in 2004 and incurred almost $5 mil in dead cap hit by cutting Drew loose.

 

People whine about not trading Travis Henry, but don't find it odd that TD did not hang on to Drew to maximize his trade value. The fact is the front office determined that the Bills were better off with Drew off the roster for no compensation than to keep him around to mess with the team's chemistry.

322476[/snapback]

 

!!!!!REVISIONIST HISTORY ALERT!!!!!

 

Everyone in the Bills front office, along with Drew himself, has said that the Bills wanted Bledsoe to go into camp as the #2 QB and help tutor JPL along. Bledsoe didn't want to be a backup, so requested to be released and the Bills granted that. Why did they grant it for Bledsoe and not Travis? Simple - Travis isn't impacting the cap much at all, while Bledsoe was. The Bills would've had to do some contract shuffling to keep DB on the roster (which they were ready to do), but since he didn't want to be the backup, they figured why waste the time and affect the cap in the future.

 

So MM and TD didn't cut Drew because of his performance (at least not directly), but rather because DB didn't want to be here and it would've cost too much to keep him as a disgruntled backup. Yes, if he took us to the playoffs or Superbowl, he'd probably still be the starter and we wouldn't be discussing this. But that doesn't mean he was cut because he didn't make the playoffs. I'd also say that they cut him (instead of trying to trade) because he's a classy established veteran (as opposed to TH) but that'd be pure speculation.

CW

[Mickey]

Did we have a terrible running game problem?  Any problems that we may have had are arguably attributable to the defence's lack of respect for the passing game, and a pretty bad play-action game.  I remember here in New England that when Bledsoe first left, they all talked about how he was the worst play-action QB in the league.  Not only was his fake bad, but he just couldn't through the little dump off with any accuracy and zip.

322187[/snapback]

I don't understand your position here. You seem to say that Drew killed our running game but that in fact we had a perfectly good running game.

 

It seems like every problem this team has is somehow attributable to Drew if you trace it back far enough. All I am saying is that we have problems beyond him. I did a play by play analysis after most games last year that I posted and all I'm going to tell you is that this team had problems running the ball well enough to sustain drives, especially on first down. We had receivers dropping passes, we had blocking assignments missed so badly you would have thought you were watching a little league game.

 

Take the now infamous bootleg play at the end of the first Patriot game. The whole play depended on faking Henry to the left side while Drew went the other way. Problem was, Henry went the wrong freaking way. He went right instead of left. Meanwhile, the left takle and guard miss their blocks while Teague and Villarial let a guy in between come in untouched. Guaranteed that even if you had Superman back there instead of Drew, that play was over the minute Henry went the wrong way.

 

Do you really think that on offensive line that has lost arguably its best player is going to go from leading this team to a 26th in the NFL finish to a top ten finish in one year by inserting a QB with zero starts under his belt simply becuase his 40 time is 5 tenths of a second better than Drew?

 

One thing is for certain, the coaches are certainly worried about the line, look at their FA acquisitions and draft picks. They have added Gandy, Anderson, Preston, Geisinger and moved Bannan (and moved him back) to the OL and moved Peters to OT. They didn't do that because the line was great.

 

I understand the idea that a niftier QB, a younger QB etc, is going to make some plays on his own and all that is great. Still, I have never seen a QB so nifty that he didn't need blockers and blaming Drew Bledsoe for everything from a rainy day to our zero gain runs inside the 5 is just getting old. The line needs to get better, is that so radical?

[Fezmid]

The line needs to get better, is that so radical?

 

Unfortunately, yes.

 

CW

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

It makes sense to me that various posters accuse previous posts of not making any sense because I think everyone chooses their point to assess or blame Bledsoe where it is convenient to their view of the world.

 

Just to clarify, this is my sense of the Bledsoe performance and what it made sense (to me) for the Bills to do based on that performance.

 

2002- Bledsoe performs well both on the field (if you think that someone else deserved the Pro Bowl reserve nod then please name them) and off. In the first year, this trade of a future 1st rounder for Bledsoe is a great move. Bledsoe not only achieves on the field (the record which is the ultimate measure moves from 3-13 to 8-8 and Bledsoe even with his getting used and abused by the Pats is a big part of this, he sets multiple Bills QB records and gets the validation of a Pro Bowl reserve nod) and off of it (his presence hear restores excitement and credibility which was sorely lacking during the RJ era and the QB debate. Particularly since the Pats followed an SB win by missing the playoffs in strong part to the cap strain created by the accelerated Bledsoe hit, the Pats were the one raped in 2002 by this trade even though they made by far the right choice in sticking with Brady.

 

2003- Drew simply sucks with the O failing to score even a TD during mid-season crunch time as Kevin Killdrive refused to vary his approach and BB had provided a roadmap in how to take advantage of Bledsoe. As Bledsoe could have been cut after this season with no cap acceleration for the Bills HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN CUT RIGHT THEN. The downside to cutting him was that the Bills had spent the 2003 1st round choice on him, but the Bills had already been restored to the 1st round by some great work by TD raping Arthur Blank and they had turned that pick into WM. If the Bills had walked away from Bledsoe at this point, they would have had to find a replacement starter, bt given the Bledsoe cap room they had room to shop.

 

2004- TD erred in extending (renegotiating) the Bledsoe deal but my hats off to MM and TC because they got far better performance out of Bledsoe in 2004 than his horrendous 2003 season. Nevertheless, even an improved Bledsoe was still an inadequate performer in the end, as he simply is not a good enough player to overcome the D giving up over 100 yards to a Pitt scrub, a sudden OT outage tipified by a Lindell shank of a makeable FG and Clements laying the ball on the carpet.

 

Overall, my sense is the trade was great for our football team but TD did not cut an run from Bledsoe when he should have. The cut of Bledsoe this year was a grim acknowledgment by TD that Bledsoe is great as a #2 QB, but not ready for primetime as a starter.