We have a backup QB problem

[Sammy Watkins' Rib]

5 hours ago, FireChans said:

Did we win the Super Bowl? Did we make the conference championship?

you might have point if some team other than the Super Bowl champs knocked us out in a 3 pt game.

[White Linen]

12 hours ago, LABILLBACKER said:

The better version of Mitch disappeared a long time ago.  Just another "buddy" overpaid retread who God help us has to win a couple games to keep us in a playoff hunt. 

 

Overpaid?  He's one of the least paid backups in the league.  Clearly they didn't want to spend much and has nothing to do with his friendship with Josh.

 

Who's making less, that you would rather have?

 

 

Edited August 18 by White Linen

[stinky finger]

1 hour ago, Captain Hindsight said:

Yeah I get this, but who is the Chiefs backup? No one knows? 
 

oh because it doesn’t matter. No one else is Mahomes, just like no one else is JA17

 

I hear you. I was just referring to JA17 remaining injury free.

[FireChans]

53 minutes ago, Sammy Watkins' Rib said:

you might have point if some team other than the Super Bowl champs knocked us out in a 3 pt game.

It’s actually exactly my point.

 

Footbal is a zero sum game. Any investment in backup QB is less investment elsewhere. 

 

focus on the  player that helps us win the 3 point game in the playoffs, not the guy who is sitting on the bench. 

[Sammy Watkins' Rib]

10 minutes ago, FireChans said:

It’s actually exactly my point.

 

Footbal is a zero sum game. Any investment in backup QB is less investment elsewhere. 

 

focus on the  player that helps us win the 3 point game in the playoffs, not the guy who is sitting on the bench. 

So are you conceding that we were in fact a Super Bowl contender last year?

 

Or are you of the opinion that we were not a Super Bowl contender last year because Kyle Allen’s $1.2M salary was too rich and prevented us from signing a player that would put us over the top?

[SCBills]

1 hour ago, MikePJ76 said:

Bad example there.  Andy Reid is from the west coast tree and specifically grew up within Ron Wolfe's Green Bay philosophy of taking quarterbacks in the draft every year and developing them.  

 

Reid has not done quite that but he always has capable backup qb's and because he is such an excellent quarterbacks coach and offensive mind he knows exactly how to get these backups to succeed.

 

Right now he has Carson Wentz and think what you want but in the same/similar system in philly with Doug Pederson in 2017 he was the leading candidate to be mvp until his injury.   Ironically his backup won the superbowl.

 

in 2006 Mcnabb tore an acl and the eagles looked like they were in trouble but Jeff Garcia played great and they won the division and a playoff game.

 

Andy Reid always has capable backup quarterbacks who he then puts in the best situations.

They won a playoff game with a backup QB coming in over the Browns. 
 

This is also a Mahomes comment, but I digress. 

[sven233]

32 minutes ago, Sammy Watkins' Rib said:

So are you conceding that we were in fact a Super Bowl contender last year?

 

Or are you of the opinion that we were not a Super Bowl contender last year because Kyle Allen’s $1.2M salary was too rich and prevented us from signing a player that would put us over the top?

 

I think the other problem is in the short term.....  This team still is a Super Bowl contender even with all the turnover we have had this offseason.  It's one thing if Allen goes down for the season, but it is a completely different situation if he is out 4-6 weeks or something like that.  Sure, if Allen goes down for the year, put a fork in this team because we're done, just as most good teams would be in this situation.  However, if it is a shorter term thing, you need your backup to be able to come in and go at least .500 in the games that Allen misses. 

 

Right now, does anyone trust that any of the backups on this roster can win a single game, let alone 3 out of 6?  This team will compete for a championship every year that Allen is healthy and the QB of this team.  But, if he misses a few games, we will need a competent backup QB that can go at least .500 in the games that Allen misses.  If we don't have that, this team can have all the talent in the world, all the Super Bowl aspirations you could ask for, but if the backup goes 1-5 or 0-6 instead of 3-2 or 3-3 and you end up missing the playoffs by a game, it doesn't matter how much other talent you have on this team because we'll be watching from home.  I am not saying we need to invest 10 million in a backup QB, but man, it would be nice to have someone that inspires confidence because Mitch and the rest of these guys surely don't.  

 

The thing is, though, they were thrilled to get Trubisky back in the building.  They love the way he practices and gives the defense looks during the week.  Unfortunately, when forced to play, it just seems like he has no idea what he is looking at out there.  The first series was such an eye opener to this.  On third down, you could see what was coming on TV even before the snap.  Anyone that knows anything about offense and the X's and O's of football knows that the RB leaking out there is the throw in that 3rd and short situation and yet, sure enough, Cook is wide open off the line and would have strolled for an easy first down.  Instead, Trubisky doesn't see him.....not even sure he looked at him, and got buried for an awful sack.  There were other plays in that game as well where he was just not seeing open guys or didn't know where to look. It was alarming how bad he was.  

 

But again, all of this is something we are seeing.  I am sure they see it too.  The difference is a lot of us want to do something about it whereas I think they may hope he just settles in and gets better.  Regardless, I hope none of it ever matters and Allen plays 100% of the snaps this season.  The only time I want to see Mitch or anyone else for that matter, under center is if Allen is in a baseball cap because we're up by 30. 

Edited August 18 by sven233

[DefenseWins]

If Allen gets injured the Bills are screwed. After waiting for final cuts the Bills should seriously consider cutting Trubisky and bringing in anybody else. Tannehill perhaps? I dont have a favorite. Even a guy like Zappe might be better than Trubisky. ANYBODY.

[DaBillsFanSince1973]

 

[Captain Hindsight]

3 hours ago, GoBills808 said:

This yr it's Wentz

 

Remember the other year tho when Mahomes went down in the wildcard round iirc w an injury? Chad Henne stepped right in and led a 98 yard TD drive

And Chad Henne sucked for Miami prior to that. And Matt Moore won a few games when he played when mahomes hurt his knee. I’m sure the fans felt terrible about that situation

 

Who is to say that Joe Brady can’t coach up Trubisky for a few games? I think it’s silly to assume he can’t 

[BullBuchanan]

This is an every year thing. The NFL doesn't have 32 capable QBs, let alone enough for us to have two. the only time that happens is when you have a vet and a rookie. Trubisky is within margin of error of most of the backups int he league. He may be "terrible", but so is everyone else. Would having Sam Howell, Easton Stick, Desmond Ridder, Josh Johnson, Jarret Stidham be meaningfully better?

If our team thought it was a priority to get someone better than Mitch, they should have drafted one.

This is what's out there. Take your pick.
 

[Livinginthepast]

So far on this thread I have heard the following excuses for getting Trubisky back:

1. He is cheap

2. He knows the offense

and this strange one:

3. He wont make Josh feel any pressure of a QB controversy

 

Maybe some others? But they are all LAME. If your backup QB cannot come in and at least run a competent easy offense. let alone win you some games then he is irrelevant. I'm not sure that Trubisky can do either of those things.

[TurfToeJam]

So have the bills signed Matt Barkley yet?  We all know it's inevitable 

[BullBuchanan]

15 minutes ago, Livinginthepast said:

So far on this thread I have heard the following excuses for getting Trubisky back:

1. He is cheap

2. He knows the offense

and this strange one:

3. He wont make Josh feel any pressure of a QB controversy

 

Maybe some others? But they are all LAME. If your backup QB cannot come in and at least run a competent easy offense. let alone win you some games then he is irrelevant. I'm not sure that Trubisky can do either of those things.

You just described every backup QB and 10-12 starting QBs.

[BillsFanForever19]

There's a number of teams in the league that have a starting QB problem. Most teams in the league have an underwhelming Backup QB. That's why they're Backup QB's in a league that doesn't have 32 good starters.

 

@FireChans put it best:

 

22 hours ago, FireChans said:

Bills fans lived through an era where we couldn’t find a starting QB to play .500 ball. Now we are complaining we don’t have two of them lol

 

[BobbyC81]

22 hours ago, FireChans said:

If Allen misses two games, the season shouldn’t be over, even if we lost both games.

 

so what are we talking about? A very specific scenario where we are bad enough to be in danger of missing the playoffs if we lose an extra game or two, but where we are also good enough to win a Super Bowl?

 

it makes zero sense. Backup QBs don’t matter

 

Guys like George Blanda, Don Strock & Jeff Hostetler proved otherwise.

[TheWeatherMan]

Our backup QBs are so awful a it’s nearly impossible to asses the WRs on this roster from preseason tape.  We don't have a capable running QB on the roster, and at this point Trubisky is waste of a roster spot.  If Josh can’t Josh, might as well run the wild cat with 3 RBs in the backfield.  

[FireChans]

5 hours ago, Sammy Watkins' Rib said:

So are you conceding that we were in fact a Super Bowl contender last year?

 

Or are you of the opinion that we were not a Super Bowl contender last year because Kyle Allen’s $1.2M salary was too rich and prevented us from signing a player that would put us over the top?

No. We didn’t even make it to the final four. A better backup QB would not have made the different last year.
 

We could have saved some dollars and paid Hopkins and maybe we don’t lose a close game to the Chiefs? Who knows. 
 

All I know is that Josh Allen has been our QB for almost 7 years and we haven’t missed a Super Bowl because of his backup yet. 

1 hour ago, BobbyC81 said:

Guys like George Blanda, Don Strock & Jeff Hostetler proved otherwise.

Let me know when they join this millennium. Don’t forget to warn them about Y2K.

Edited August 19 by FireChans

[BobbyC81]

36 minutes ago, FireChans said:

No. We didn’t even make it to the final four. A better backup QB would not have made the different last year.
 

We could have saved some dollars and paid Hopkins and maybe we don’t lose a close game to the Chiefs? Who knows. 
 

All I know is that Josh Allen has been our QB for almost 7 years and we haven’t missed a Super Bowl because of his backup yet. 

Let me know when they join this millennium. Don’t forget to warn them about Y2K.

OK. 2022 season- SF named starter Trey Lance knocked out for the season and Brock Purdy led them to the NFC Championship game.

 

Carson Wentz got injured during the playoffs and Nick Foles led them to a Super Bowl win.  

[BobbyC81]

1 hour ago, FireChans said:

No. We didn’t even make it to the final four. A better backup QB would not have made the different last year.
 

We could have saved some dollars and paid Hopkins and maybe we don’t lose a close game to the Chiefs? Who knows. 
 

All I know is that Josh Allen has been our QB for almost 7 years and we haven’t missed a Super Bowl because of his backup yet. 

Let me know when they join this millennium. Don’t forget to warn them about Y2K.

OK. 2022 season- SF named starter Trey Lance knocked out for the season and Brock Purdy led them to the NFC Championship game.

 

2017 season-  Philadelphia QB Carson Wentz gets injured during playoffs.  Nick Foles leads them to Super Bowl win.

 

 

Edited August 19 by BobbyC81