Drew Bledsoe-JP-Edwards

[thewildrabbit]

What is the million dollar question concerning quarterbacks...Why do the Bills QB's keep failing?

 

The Bills obtained Drew Bledsoe and he won a bunch of games and Bills fans were in love for awhile.

The Bills drafted a rookie in the first round to replace Bledsoe ,JP Losman showed some early promise and fans were in love again.

The Bills draft a QB in the 3rd round and bench JP, Trent Edwards shows promise and fans are in love for awhile again.

 

Trent Edwards will also fail because the Bills will set him up to fail.

 

Let me ask...why is it that when the bills try and run the ball and gain no yardage do they stop trying to run and start throwing and then when the throwing doesn't work either everyone blames the QB...

 

There must be something wrong with the QB here, He can't win games for us we need a new QB...AGAIN!

 

Trent Edwards isn't broken like the others....yet! He will be though and it will be because of the coaching.

 

This current coaching staff's catastrophic failure to build a focused rushing attack.Even when the Bills have a running back that is literally killing the opponent they STOP utilizing him and force the back up QB to throw it up,or TRY*to throw it up like they did in the 4th QTR against the 49ers.

 

Even in the past with Drew Bledsoe the Bills would always get behind by as little as 3 points and stop running and go pass crazy.

 

What The Buffalo Bill Franchise has lacked for years and years is a Offensive running minded coordinator. The last one the Bills had was Ted Marchibroda.

 

Its one big reason as to why Kevin Gilbride and Mike Mularky are offensive geniuses now, they focus on setting up the pass with the run. A focused powerful rushing attack that they make work!

 

The Bills focus on setting up the pass with the pass and if that fails ...blame the QB

[basskik11]

What is the million dollar question concerning quarterbacks...Why do the Bills QB's keep failing?

 

The Bills obtained Drew Bledsoe and he won a bunch of games and Bills fans were in love for awhile.

The Bills drafted a rookie in the first round to replace Bledsoe ,JP Losman showed some early promise and fans were in love again.

The Bills draft a QB in the 3rd round and bench JP, Trent Edwards shows promise and fans are in love for awhile again.

 

Trent Edwards will also fail because the Bills will set him up to fail.

 

Let me ask...why is it that when the bills try and run the ball and gain no yardage do they stop trying to run and start throwing and then when the throwing doesn't work either everyone blames the QB...

 

There must be something wrong with the QB here, He can't win games for us we need a new QB...AGAIN!

 

Trent Edwards isn't broken like the others....yet! He will be though and it will be because of the coaching.

 

This current coaching staff's catastrophic failure to build a focused rushing attack.Even when the Bills have a running back that is literally killing the opponent they STOP utilizing him and force the back up QB to throw it up,or TRY*to throw it up like they did in the 4th QTR against the 49ers.

 

Even in the past with Drew Bledsoe the Bills would always get behind by as little as 3 points and stop running and go pass crazy.

 

What The Buffalo Bill Franchise has lacked for years and years is a Offensive running minded coordinator. The last one the Bills had was Ted Marchibroda.

 

Its one big reason as to why Kevin Gilbride and Mike Mularky are offensive geniuses now, they focus on setting up the pass with the run. A focused powerful rushing attack that they make work!

 

The Bills focus on setting up the pass with the pass and if that fails ...blame the QB

 

offensive schemes and offensive line play. We haven't had a line that has played consistant since 1999 (IMO)

[DDD]

Bledsoe- over the hill

Losman- great from the neck down

Edwards- great from the neck up BUT I think the guy can be a successful, NOT all-pro QB, in a west coast offense.

[Brandon]

Its lack of talent. The Bills have rarely given their QBs a full compliment of weapons since Kelly was here and it has shown on the field. The lack of a good receiving TE, in particular, has been a killer and has limited the Bills ability to threaten the middle third of the opposing defense.

 

As a result, the Bills passing game is easily defended. Opposing defenses can concentrate on taking away the outside receivers and just take their chances defending the middle of the field, because the Bills can't consistently hurt you with the TE or a possession receiver over the middle.

[Jim in Anchorage]

What is the million dollar question concerning quarterbacks...Why do the Bills QB's keep failing?

 

The Bills obtained Drew Bledsoe and he won a bunch of games and Bills fans were in love for awhile.

The Bills drafted a rookie in the first round to replace Bledsoe ,JP Losman showed some early promise and fans were in love again.

The Bills draft a QB in the 3rd round and bench JP, Trent Edwards shows promise and fans are in love for awhile again.

 

Trent Edwards will also fail because the Bills will set him up to fail.

 

Let me ask...why is it that when the bills try and run the ball and gain no yardage do they stop trying to run and start throwing and then when the throwing doesn't work either everyone blames the QB...

 

There must be something wrong with the QB here, He can't win games for us we need a new QB...AGAIN!

 

Trent Edwards isn't broken like the others....yet! He will be though and it will be because of the coaching.

 

This current coaching staff's catastrophic failure to build a focused rushing attack.Even when the Bills have a running back that is literally killing the opponent they STOP utilizing him and force the back up QB to throw it up,or TRY*to throw it up like they did in the 4th QTR against the 49ers.

 

Even in the past with Drew Bledsoe the Bills would always get behind by as little as 3 points and stop running and go pass crazy.

 

What The Buffalo Bill Franchise has lacked for years and years is a Offensive running minded coordinator. The last one the Bills had was Ted Marchibroda.

 

Its one big reason as to why Kevin Gilbride and Mike Mularky are offensive geniuses now, they focus on setting up the pass with the run. A focused powerful rushing attack that they make work!

 

The Bills focus on setting up the pass with the pass and if that fails ...blame the QB

How did you miss Rob Johnson?

[billybob]

The Bills are not kind to there QBs - Drew Bledsoe the one thing this guy could do well is go deep- so what do the Bills do, let go of guys who accounted for about 150 receptions brought in even worse pass blocking linemen and told Drew we are now a power running team and you are a dink and dunk QB- J.P. Losman first let a veteran player break his leg and then blame J.P. for being cocky and running around to much- then bring in J.P. when he wasn't physically back 100% and hadn't practiced a lot to take a beating by New England, then next season yank him around like a yo yo - Trent Edwards, coming into the season anyone with half a brain knew cupboard was quite bare when it came to offensive play makers but no moves were made in Free agency - Here's James Hardy hope you can wait three years to see if he's a player or not- Jim Kelly was a tough guy but he would have also called people on all this Horse s#!t he was not afraid of calling out players, coaches, GM's or owners- Fire me as a player F#<k you I fire you as a team.

[thewildrabbit]

Its lack of talent. The Bills have rarely given their QBs a full compliment of weapons since Kelly was here and it has shown on the field. The lack of a good receiving TE, in particular, has been a killer and has limited the Bills ability to threaten the middle third of the opposing defense.

 

As a result, the Bills passing game is easily defended. Opposing defenses can concentrate on taking away the outside receivers and just take their chances defending the middle of the field, because the Bills can't consistently hurt you with the TE or a possession receiver over the middle.

Talent?

Look at the San Diego Chargers,they went 14-2 with a QB playing his first year and sent more players to the pro bowl then any other AFC team including the Patriots and Colts. Then they fire the head coach because he didn't see eye to eye with the GM and hire Norv Turner. Now what is the difference there between those two coaches,Talent?

 

Look at the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2005,they go to the super bowl with a rookie QB. How did they manage to do that? Because they had a powerful focused running attack that allowed Ben Roethlisberger to throw sparingly 15-20 times a game and not 30-40.

 

Listen to what Lee Evans has stated earlier this year,he didn't throw anyone under the bus but he did state that when they call a fly-go-deep route with him as the main target they often have nobody crossing underneath so the opponent can roll the coverage towards him and double him,triple him. The way Evans phrased it the bills don't even try to send someone across the middle,Talent or scheme ?

 

You know something is drastically wrong with the offense when you have two players speak out in public and state that the Bills should have run the ball more against the 49ers,Lee Evans and Jason Peters.

 

The Bills passing game is easily defended because its screwed from the start,formations,routes. The Bills have called more shotgun formations this year then I think I've ever seen any team call ever. The Bills had RARELY used play action all season until week 10 and the Cleveland game.

 

You state its the talent, I think its the coaching and schemes.

[Brandon]

You state its the talent, I think its the coaching and schemes.

 

Its that as well, but the reason that the Bills' schemes suck is because they don't have the personnel to do much else and more importantly, actually have the opposing defense respect it. Opposing defenses are not afraid of the Bills' other receivers and can concentrate on Evans. They know that the rest cannot consistently burn them. You can run Robert Royal underneath all day, for instance, but nobody really cares. He may catch 4 passes for 40 yards, but odds are, he'll either fumble one of them or somehow cause an interception. Defenses can gamble that he's not really going to hurt them, and 9 times out of 10, its a good gamble.

 

I'm not defending the coaching staff at all. Its an indictment of both the front office and the coaching staff that they do not bring in the players that they need to run a credible passing attack.

[thewildrabbit]

Bledsoe- over the hill

Losman- great from the neck down

Edwards- great from the neck up BUT I think the guy can be a successful, NOT all-pro QB, in a west coast offense.

Bledsoe had a cannon for an arm when he left Buffalo and could still probably throw it farther then most current NFL QB's even today. He wasn't over the hill,what he was,was completely immobile. The opponent knew if they blitzed him and got in his face they would get him to start seeing the rushers instead of his receivers.

 

So what do the Bills do?They focus on Bledsoe to work on getting rid of the ball in a more timely manner,usually withing 3-4 seconds max.It worked for awhile abut then the opponent would rush harder,faster, hit him a few times and again with him seeing the rushers instead of his receivers.

 

If anything the Bills are constantly suffering the Drew Bledsoe syndrome with each QB they bring in,getting hurried harried and hit until they start watching the pass rush instead of whats going on down field.The Bills still have not addressed the real problem and change the passing plays and schemes.

 

Look at the Arizona game, the Cardinals have Kurt Warner an older veteran QB who managed to get the ball out within 3-4 seconds and the Bills were never able to stop him. Those short quick timing routes killed the Bills all game long. You would think that the Bills would notice what Warner managed to do against them and copy it.

[DrFishfinder]

Its lack of talent. The Bills have rarely given their QBs a full compliment of weapons since Kelly was here and it has shown on the field. The lack of a good receiving TE, in particular, has been a killer and has limited the Bills ability to threaten the middle third of the opposing defense.

 

As a result, the Bills passing game is easily defended. Opposing defenses can concentrate on taking away the outside receivers and just take their chances defending the middle of the field, because the Bills can't consistently hurt you with the TE or a possession receiver over the middle.

At the beginning of this season, the OL was absolutely putrid at run blocking, pass blocking and picking up blitzes. During the course of the season, they've improved on pass blocking and picking up blitzes, and gotten a little better at run blocking. Now that the OL is actually playing better, either the receivers aren't getting open or the QB's aren't in sync with them.

 

During games, I've heard commentators say, on multiple occasions, that Edwards was waiting too long....until the receiver WAS open instead of throwing to the spot where the receiver SHOULD be open after separating from the coverage. I'd love to watch a game replay of cameras on receivers to see if it's the receivers or the QB. Evans deep has been pretty much MIA all year.

[BADOLBILZ]

Its that as well, but the reason that the Bills' schemes suck is because they don't have the personnel to do much else and more importantly, actually have the opposing defense respect it. Opposing defenses are not afraid of the Bills' other receivers and can concentrate on Evans. They know that the rest cannot consistently burn them. You can run Robert Royal underneath all day, for instance, but nobody really cares. He may catch 4 passes for 40 yards, but odds are, he'll either fumble one of them or somehow cause an interception. Defenses can gamble that he's not really going to hurt them, and 9 times out of 10, its a good gamble.

 

I'm not defending the coaching staff at all. Its an indictment of both the front office and the coaching staff that they do not bring in the players that they need to run a credible passing attack.

 

The coaching has been mostly terrible, but you are right, the constant has been the lack of a good OL and a good receiving TE. Not having a top TE KILLS this team because their top receiver does all of his best work along the sidelines and no threat in the middle means it's easier to defend him. Other than Josh Reed, none of the receivers gets anything done in the middle of the field, and while Reed makes important plays, he doesn't make big plays.

 

I am all for running the hell out of the football, especially when your team is in a rut like the Bills have been in for the past two months. I've been advocating run it, run it, run it and punt it for a month now. They couldn't do much worse than they've done against Cleveland and SF even if they never threw a pass. But the original poster's claim that we haven't had coordinators who focused on the running game is not correct. All Fairchild wanted to do was run the ball. But he couldn't put a dominant run game together because they had two starting lineman who weren't athletic enough (Dockery and Walker) and two who weren't strong enough(Fowler and Butler), and no respect at all for a passing game lead by young QB's who didn't have a dangerous short range option to keep 8 man fronts honest.

 

The premise of the post I completely agree with, however. The first objective of an organization should be maximizing the performance of your QB and the Bills are terrible at this. It's the easiest way to achieve long term success. The best way to do that is to focus on the offensive line first.

[JPicc2114]

Trent Edwards fail?? Jesus guys, this is his first year starting. QBs need to develop you know..

[San-O]

You forgot R.J. I think.

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

I don't think the Bills are any different than half the teams in the league regarding QB play. There aren't 32 good QB's in the league so many teams are in the continual recycling program. If you look at all the teams in the league over the past 5 years, you'll find half the teams either have been recylcing hooking to find the next Joe Montana or have some one decent, not great, but figure he's good enough for now (see Chad Peddington with Jets) Of the top of my head, here's the teams I'd put in that group: Bills, Jets, Miami, Balt, Cleve, Jax, Houston, Tenn, KC, Oak, Wash, Tampa, NO (prior to getting Brees), Minn, Det, Chi, Az, and SF That's 18.

 

Then you have the teams that have a QB who was excepted to do well out of College and for the most part has done well; at this point, I'd put both Manning brothers in there, Brees, Rivers, McNabb, It was so long ago, but out of college, I don't recall much expected of Farve?, Rothesburger, Palmer(done OK), Maybe Cutler though to early for certain. Thats 8 more

 

Then you have the teams who are pretty well set at QB, but with a guy who basically came out of no where and wasn't expected to do much; Brady, Romo, Farve, Warner, Maybe I'd put Bugler and Delome in this group too however it's debateable calling both of them big sucesses, There's another 6.

 

For that reason alone, I don't think you give up on TE yet as he has looked to good in some games to write him off. If it were easy to find a replacement, then great, but as hard as it is to find anyone, you ned to stick with QB's longer.

 

Why is it so hard? My opinion is the game has become to fast and players too big to expect anyone to be able to mentally process the required information fast enough to execute a play successfully the majority of the time. Many of these guys have the physical skills but just can't mentally handle the game. JP, Culpepper, Jeff George, (any QB who's played for Oakland in past 20 years with the exception maybe of Gannon) are a couple names that come to mind but there are many others. Then there are players mentally sharp but lack the physical skills such as Peddington, Flute Garcia. Usually what does them in is arm strength. These guys usually can stick around longer as they don't lose games for teams as much so coaches put up with them longer and try to buid a team around them. In college the competition isn't as good, so these guys can look good, but once they reach the NFL, they go down the tubes. Likely Tim Tebow will be the next college success to go down the tubes in the NFL, though many people don't expect much of him so will be tought to call him a bust whatever he does.

 

I think what the NFL needs to do is develop a "Stepford Wives" program for super bio QB's. Just change the sexes, though it might make the game more entertaining to watch QB's with big hooters.

[SageAgainstTheMachine]

I don't think the Bills are any different than half the teams in the league regarding QB play. There aren't 32 good QB's in the league so many teams are in the continual recycling program. If you look at all the teams in the league over the past 5 years, you'll find half the teams either have been recylcing hooking to find the next Joe Montana or have some one decent, not great, but figure he's good enough for now (see Chad Peddington with Jets) Of the top of my head, here's the teams I'd put in that group: Bills, Jets, Miami, Balt, Cleve, Jax, Houston, Tenn, KC, Oak, Wash, Tampa, NO (prior to getting Brees), Minn, Det, Chi, Az, and SF That's 18.

 

Then you have the teams that have a QB who was excepted to do well out of College and for the most part has done well; at this point, I'd put both Manning brothers in there, Brees, Rivers, McNabb, It was so long ago, but out of college, I don't recall much expected of Farve?, Rothesburger, Palmer(done OK), Maybe Cutler though to early for certain. Thats 8 more

 

Then you have the teams who are pretty well set at QB, but with a guy who basically came out of no where and wasn't expected to do much; Brady, Romo, Farve, Warner, Maybe I'd put Bugler and Delome in this group too however it's debateable calling both of them big sucesses, There's another 6.

 

For that reason alone, I don't think you give up on TE yet as he has looked to good in some games to write him off. If it were easy to find a replacement, then great, but as hard as it is to find anyone, you ned to stick with QB's longer.

 

Why is it so hard? My opinion is the game has become to fast and players too big to expect anyone to be able to mentally process the required information fast enough to execute a play successfully the majority of the time. Many of these guys have the physical skills but just can't mentally handle the game. JP, Culpepper, Jeff George, (any QB who's played for Oakland in past 20 years with the exception maybe of Gannon) are a couple names that come to mind but there are many others. Then there are players mentally sharp but lack the physical skills such as Peddington, Flute Garcia. Usually what does them in is arm strength. These guys usually can stick around longer as they don't lose games for teams as much so coaches put up with them longer and try to buid a team around them. In college the competition isn't as good, so these guys can look good, but once they reach the NFL, they go down the tubes. Likely Tim Tebow will be the next college success to go down the tubes in the NFL, though many people don't expect much of him so will be tought to call him a bust whatever he does.

 

I think what the NFL needs to do is develop a "Stepford Wives" program for super bio QB's. Just change the sexes, though it might make the game more entertaining to watch QB's with big hooters.

 

And the award for worst spelling of Roethlisberger goes to.....drumroll please...Ed Roch!

 

Seriously though, you make a good point. We tend to freak out because our QB situation is less than desirable, but that's more or less a common theme in the NFL today. We are not alone.

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

I figured I was off by a letter or two but didn't realize it was that bad.

 

Hey I'll just act like most people today in the "Never my fault" group and say it's not my fault he has a name so hard to spell. Let him change his name to Smith!

 

And the award for worst spelling of Roethlisberger goes to.....drumroll please...Ed Roch!