Ranking Top 3 Bills quarterbacks between Post-Kelly Era and Josh Era

[julian]

Flutie

Bledsoe

Fitzpatrick

[MJS]

2 hours ago, Rico said:

This is the correct answer, with honorable mention to Fitzy. Thad Lewis wasn’t very good, but he did exceed expectations. The Pill and Holcomb were meh. The others were either irrelevant (ie. no real playing time) or did more harm than good.

I'd say there is an honorable mention for Bledsoe too. Flutie and Taylor are the first tier. Orton, Bledsoe, and Fitzpatrick are 2nd tier. Nobody else is worth mentioning, really.

[Florida Bills Fanatic]

This is like losing that bet with your buddies and having to take "that girl" to the prom.  Everything about this is just wrong.....therefore:

 

Flutie

Fitz

Orton

[TBBills]

1. Doesn't

2. *****

3. Matter

 

B.c in the end they are all a bunch of nobodies who did nothing...

 

I guess you could say Tyrod b.c he helped end the drought, but wasn't too good which made the Bill's go get Josh Allen.

Edited July 19, 2022 by TBBills

[machine gun kelly]

2 hours ago, uticaclub said:

Flutie & Tyrod made the playoffs, so they have to make it (I'm not a Tyrod fan at all)

 

Then it's really between Orton & Bledsoe & I'd go Bledsoe.

It’s Flutie, Tyrod, and who cares.  Bledsoe and Fitz had a losing record.  A lot of older guys hate Flutie and for some good reasons, but the bottom line is Flutie was 21-9.  When he came in game 3, he ripped off a bunch of wins, and turned the team around.  I know soft arm, short, blablabla, but he won.  I unapologetically had my Flutie flakes and was the biggest bonehead move to put in Rob Johnson.  We had the #1 defense back then and not in name only, they were mean and nasty.

 

Tyrod broke our drought, and then there is….

 

Sorry, but I love that line.  When I’m in the mood, Family Guy is a riot.  My sons and I still laugh our arses off at some of the episodes, amd they are 23 and 21.

 

Can I now get back to watching amazing Super Allen highlights to purge the scourge of all other crap QBs out of my mind for 17 years.

Edited July 19, 2022 by machine gun kelly

[Alphadawg7]

I mean, its not even a question who the best QB in that era was, and it was Tyrod Taylor.  Every statistical metric shows this to be correct.  

 

At that time (before Josh got here), those Tyrod years were the 2nd highest scoring period of Bills football in history, and with awful coaching that included a defensive minded moron as HC.  He made 2 pro bowls, he made the playoffs throwing to Zay Jones and Kelvin Benjamin, had a very good TD to INT ratio (also one of his short comings as he didnt take enough chances), and was saddled with terrible defenses.  

 

The year Rex was fired, going into week 17 the Bills were tied for 3rd for most TD's scored that year behind only Saints and Falcons, and only by 3 TD's.  They would sit Tyrod week 17 and we scored nothing and would fall to 5th or 6th in scoring as a result.  

 

The following season, our new HC sat him against a lowly Chargers team to watch us get destroyed by a bad team, a team with only 2 wins on the season (both against bad teams) and was on a 3 game losing streak.  This team was a train wreck with Tyrod off the field compared to with him on it where we were solid, but not great.  

 

Bledsoe was utterly awful here, a turnover machine with way more turnovers than TD's.  And he couldn't even beat the steelers backups to make the playoffs despite having 2 stud weapons to throw to and a good run game around him.  Flutie...he couldn't even keep his job over Rob Johnson.  Fitzcraptrick...outside a couple fluke games, he couldn't score points and would blow up anytime something mattered.  

 

Its an AWFUL list of QB's overall, but the only competent one on that list that accomplished anything what so ever on the field was Tyrod.  He was a game manager type QB at best, but had that added dimension of being able to use his legs, which he probably actually should have used more given his limitations as a passer.  He didnt take enough chances, he wasn't going to out duel someone through the air, but he was a guy you could make the playoffs with as long as your defense wasn't a disaster so he wasnt in shoot outs.  

 

Rex led defenses were atrocious, and thats why we couldn't get into the post season.  Enter McD, Tre White, and Milano that first year, the defense rebounds to solid and we have a winning season (should have been 10 wins if not for the Chargers mistake) and make playoffs while Tyrod lost his top 2 WRs of Watkins and Woods and now was forced to throw to Kelvin Benjamin and Zay Jones.  

 

Only proper list IMHO is:  Tyrod then Fitz then Flutie.  And thats a sad F-ing list so who really cares.  Its really like asking which dog has the worst smelling poop...they all stink.  

 

Edited July 19, 2022 by Alphadawg7

[eball]

Wow, talk about an exercise in futility.

[C.Biscuit97]

3 hours ago, MJS said:

Flutie, Taylor, Orton

Orton is the biggest kitty cat to ever play on the Bills. No one should ever mention that scrub who just stealing on last paycheck. 

[2003Contenders]

3 minutes ago, Alphadawg7 said:

I mean, its not even a question who the best QB in that era was, and it was Tyrod Taylor.  Every statistical metric shows this to be correct.  

 

At that time (before Josh got here), those Tyrod years were the 2nd highest scoring period of Bills football in history, and with awful coaching that included a defensive minded moron as HC.  He made 2 pro bowls, he made the playoffs throwing to Zay Jones and Kelvin Benjamin, had a very good TD to INT ratio (also one of his short comings as he didnt take enough chances), and was saddled with terrible defenses.  

 

The year Rex was fired, going into week 17 the Bills were tied for 3rd for most TD's scored that year behind only Saints and Falcons, and only by 3 TD's.  They would sit Tyrod week 17 and we scored nothing and would fall to 5th or 6th in scoring as a result.  

 

The following season, our new HC sat him against a lowly Chargers team to watch us get destroyed by a bad team, a team with only 2 wins on the season (both against bad teams) and was on a 3 game losing streak.  This team was a train wreck with Tyrod off the field compared to with him on it where we were solid, but not great.  

 

Bledsoe was utterly awful here, a turnover machine with way more turnovers than TD's.  And he couldn't even beat the steelers backups to make the playoffs despite having 2 stud weapons to throw to and a good run game around him.  Flutie...he couldn't even keep his job over Rob Johnson.  Fitzcraptrick...outside a couple fluke games, he couldn't score points and would blow up anytime something mattered.  

 

Its an AWFUL list of QB's overall, but the only competent one on that list that accomplished anything what so ever on the field was Tyrod.  He was a game manager type QB at best, but had that added dimension of being able to use his legs, which he probably actually should have used more given his limitations as a passer.  He didnt take enough chances, he wasn't going to out duel someone through the air, but he was a guy you could make the playoffs with as long as your defense wasn't a disaster so he wasnt in shoot outs.  

 

Rex led defenses were atrocious, and thats why we couldn't get into the post season.  Enter McD, Tre White, and Milano that first year, the defense rebounds to solid and we have a winning season (should have been 10 wins if not for the Chargers mistake) and make playoffs while Tyrod lost his top 2 WRs of Watkins and Woods and now was forced to throw to Kelvin Benjamin and Zay Jones.  

 

Only proper list IMHO is:  Tyrod then Fitz then Flutie.  And thats a sad F-ing list so who really cares.  Its really like asking which do has the worst smelling poop...they all stink.  

 

This is spot-on, and I would also go with Tyrod, Fitz and Flutie (probably in that order). Bledsoe had that great first-half season -- and then was terrible after that. The 2003 team was actually pretty stacked (especially on defense) -- and his limitations more or less single-handedly held the team down (6-10 that season). The team almost made the playoffs in 2004 IN SPITE of Bledsoe, and (like Alpha said), when everything was on the line, he came up short against the Pittsburgh backups. I think Fitz would have had more success if he had anything resembling a decent defense -- but, of course, he probably would have made those terrible back-breaking decisions at the most inopportune times.

[Homey D. Clown]

I don't get the negativity surrounding this topic...  Now the memes and GIFs are funny, can't say anything about that.  It's Bills history, fun to look back at, and if it doesn't float your boat, so what.

[FilthyBeast]

For me it's really just Flutie and Bledsoe since the rest were pretty much journeyman/backup types including some of the idol worship ones like Fitzpatrick.

 

Had Orton stayed beyond 2014, Taylor probably never happens and he likely would be in the conversation.

[Spiderweb]

3 hours ago, DrDawkinstein said:

Bledsoe, Flutie, Taylor.

 

Honorable Mentions: Fitz and Orton.

 

Dishonorable Mentions: Everyone else.

Hard for me to go with Bledsoe since after his first 8 games as a Bill he was pedestrian at best.

[Jeffalo]

You left Billie Joe Hobert off the list.

[extrahammer]

10 minutes ago, JV14 said:

You left Billie Joe Hobert off the list.

 Oh yeah? Give us your best BJH hot take. 😈

Edited July 19, 2022 by extrahammer

[Homey D. Clown]

9 minutes ago, JV14 said:

You left Billie Joe Hobert off the list.

Did he even start a game?  I mentally block so much of this era....

[Buffalo Boy]

    Bledsoe was the only reason we went 8-8 in 2002. They were fifth in passing, 24 th in rushing. We ranked 27 th in Defense.

    Bledsoe passed Kelly in some of the single season records at the time. 
    Did he throw picks? Yep! That’s what happens when you are carrying a team, which he did.

    After that be sucked but he was the best QB we had for any single season between Kelly and Josh.

    

 

Edited July 19, 2022 by Buffalo Boy

[StHustle]

Fitz, Orton and Taylor. In no particular order. Could possibly swap out Orton for Bledsoe...I think I put Orton in there cause I didn't have high expectations for him and he fully surpassed what most fans expected. While Bledsoe overall was a huge disappointment.

[LeGOATski]

Orton and the Uncle Rico comparisons were fun,  but I'm a little surprised so many people want to rank him high.

 

Do you all remember him sliding short of the first down?

 

To me it's Flutie, Bledsoe, Tyrod. Fitz just outside the top 3. The rest are not worth mentioning.

 

People naming Orton are the same people who have never heard the phrase "dyed in the wool"

[ChronicAndKnuckles]

4 hours ago, extrahammer said:

After reading through the Tyrod legacy thread (really makes you love the offseason) I woke up this morning wanting to fight by ranking the top 3 quarterbacks for the Bills between the Post-Kelly era and before Josh arrived. Curious how each of you would rank the Bills quarterbacks between 1997-2017, here are your options:

 

Todd Collins

Doug Flutie

Rob Johnson (pro tip: this is not the answer) 

Alex Van Pelt

Drew Bledsoe

J.P. Losman 

Kelly Holcomb

Trent Edwards

Ryan Fitzpatrick

Brian Brohm

E.J. Manuel

Thad Lewis

Jeff Tuel

Kyle Orton

Tyrod Taylor

Matt Cassel

Nathaniel Peterman

 

Who are your top 3? 

 

Fitz, Bledsoe, Flutie

[hondo in seattle]

4 hours ago, gobills404 said:

1. Tyrod

2. Fitzmagic

3. Bledsoe

 

I'd flip #1 and #2.  Otherwise, agreed!