Fake-Fat Sunny Posted October 26, 2004 Posted October 26, 2004 I know many folks propose that in real life the Bills can solve all their offensive woes by cutting DB, the only problem is that cutting DB is simply not going to happen in reality: 1. The resulting accelerated cap hit from absorbing all the bonus paid to Bledsoe in next years cap would certainly make 2005 a rebuilding year as our ability to sign FAs would drop to near cap hell levels. 2. For the next month or so if Bledsoe stays he plays as Losman is not even ready physically to take the field for 2-3 weeks. 3. Even after that point unless he has absorbed and learned the O and NFL Ds far faster than QBs most people would consider to be better or similar talents at QB (Vick, Pennington, Palmer) and he has worked with Wyche to eliminate any mechanical bad habits developed while running for his life at Tulane he will not even be ready to play NFL QB much less start. 4. Folks can reasonably make a case that Bledsoe is as bad a player as they want to say, but no one has yet made a credible case that Shane Matthews (who would probably still be at home on his couch if Brown and JP weren't hurt) is more than a play him if you must back-up. His career stats have been posted but even these were fairly unconvincing that he offers much as a starter (AGAIN I'D LOVE TO SEE THE PRO-MATTHEWS CASE CREDIBLY OFFERED, BUT AGAIN THERE IS A BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE PRO-SHANE AND ANTI-DREW CASE. THE ANTI-GRE CASE IS EASY TO MAKE BUT MEANINGLESS WITHOUT THE PRO-SHANE CASE BEING MADE. At any rate, one of the obvious failings of the anti-DB case is the claim that he will never be a winner. Yes, his failings are obvious, and I was an advocate of cutting him this past off-season. But I'm not in charge, we didn't cut him and now like a country which is marooned in Iraq we broke it and have to fix it. DB did QB a team to an SB berth early in his career. DB did answer the call at QB for an injured Brady and though his stats were mediocre for the game the TEAM won a must-win game with Bledsoe at the helm. Further, if you want to go out in opinion land rather than the fact of making it to the Big Dance, in my mind Bledsoe did deserve his 2002 Pro Bowl reserve nod with his play with the Bills that season (though most of the stats have their base in his first half season performance. My question for all Bills fans (Bledsoe haters, Bledsoe lovers, and rational people) is how do you make the best of this very bad situation since Bledsie will be our QB for another month at least and will be a part of this team all season. Since Bledsoe has always been this bad even in the minds of Bledsoe haters, how do we replicate the past success he has has with Parcells, in a critical game under BB/Weis and in the 2002 season with our very own Bills even if you take it as a given that he is who he is.
Paco Posted October 26, 2004 Posted October 26, 2004 My question for all Bills fans (Bledsoe haters, Bledsoe lovers, and rational people) is how do you make the best of this very bad situation since Bledsie will be our QB for another month at least and will be a part of this team all season. I've found alcohol helps a lot. There are a number of things you could theoretically do at this juncture, but I'd argue that it would still take some time for those changes to take hold. If you had to choose ONE thing to change, it would have to be our redzone mindset. It's easy to say Bledsoe cost us the game this week, and I'll be the first to say I've lost my patience with him, but the bottom line is we had four opportunities in the redzone to put this game away and we ended up with six points and two picks. Even with all the other boneheaded crap that went on in this game, if we could have only punched it in when we had the chances, the boneheaded crap would be more tolerable. I suspect the answer to this sub-problem is playcalling to some extent. I suspect, also, that Bledsoe falls apart when he only has 12 yards of field in which to play. To that extent it may be somewhat defeatist to say "run it, run it, run it" in the redzone...but passing with so little room to maneuver doesn't seem to work, so maybe giving McGahee the blockers in that situation would be an option since he has a way of turning one-yarders into four-yarders. Other than that, I defer to my original response: alcohol.
Rubes Posted October 26, 2004 Posted October 26, 2004 Since Bledsoe has always been this bad even in the minds of Bledsoe haters, how do we replicate the past success he has has with Parcells, in a critical game under BB/Weis and in the 2002 season with our very own Bills even if you take it as a given that he is who he is. 86205[/snapback] Isn't that the $6,000,000 question? If this group knew how to replicate past success with Drew, we wouldn't be here asking this question. Problem is, nobody knows how to fix this train wreck.
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