hondo in seattle

It was good to see our QBs play well. But let me ask... Which QB is the best at intermediate to long passes? The old adage "You have to run the ball to open up the pass" has been turned upside down in recent years. Now you have to pass to open up the run. The better a team is throwing the ball downfield, the less guys the defense can put in the box. Tyrod is more exciting with his legs than his arm. This brings more players into the box. MC is better at short passes than long. This doesn't push anyone out of the box. Could it be that EJ offers the best complement to Roman's run game? I'm just thinking outloud.

Here's another point in Andy's favor. What if the RBs combine for 20 carries and 40 yards but the Vick-like QB scrambles 5 times for 60 yards? The stat line will say 25 rushing attempts for 100 yards. Not a terrible Sunday for the OL and backs - according to the stats. But the running game really averaged 2.0 years per carry. I'm a traditionalist and don't want to give up the traditional method of keeping stats. But it would be nice for the stat geeks to produce more sophisticated analyses of the run and pass games. A full evaluation of a passing game, for example, would include penalty yards both for and against, sacks, and scrambles. A full evaluation of the running game would include penalties, but not scrambles or kneel-downs.

Please, no more EJ threads!

It's about time NFL folks talked to this guy. But the caveat in the middle of the article is spot on... Of course, just because it’s been an effective strategy for one high school doesn’t mean it would be an effective strategy in the NFL. Punters in the NFL are far better than punters in high school. And the talent gap between two high school teams can be huge, which means that Kelley’s offense might convert a lot of fourth downs just because his players are a lot better than the players on the opposing defense, not because his strategy of going for it on fourth down is inherently correct. During my junior year in high school, our team didn't punt much. Then again, we had two RBs averaging over 10 yards per carry. Pro teams don't have offenses like that. Still, I think a statistical analysis of the NFL would show that most teams are too conservative on 4th down.

I don't agree but I love when people aren't afraid to publicly make bold predictions! On the flip side, I hate when people gloat about being right when they never actually stated anything truly definitive in the first place.

I'm with section122 all the way on this. I want EJ to be good because he's a Buffalo Bill. We pretty much know what MC is as a QB. I'm hoping EJ becomes something more than that. Alex Smith had 5 mediocre years in San Francisco from 2005 to 2010. 49er fans started calling him a bust and wanted him replaced. The year before Greg Roman became his OC, Smith had a 82.1 QB rating - the best of his lackluster career thus far. Smith's first year with Roman, he passed for more yards in Roman's run-oriented offense than he ever had before. And his rating jumped up to 90.7. The following year under Roman, Smith's rating rocketed up to 104.1! Why is it so impossible for some to conceive that Roman might help EJ get better just like he did with Smith? I'm not predicting it, but I sure am hoping for it. EJ's career rating is 78.5. Roman improved Smith's rating by 22 points over two years. If he improved EJ's rating this year by 10 points - to 88.5 - it would be awesome. I think it's fair to predict the Bills are going to the playoffs if our starting QB has a 88.5 rating. This is not an unreasonable hope.

Great article. Clearly Marrone/Hackett couldn't correct his flaws. Maybe Greg Roman and his staff can.

I'm a pacifist by nature. Violence is rarely, if ever, the right answer. But I'm a realist too. I imagine every day in some camp or another, some NFL player is punching another. IK just hit harder than the other guys. Other teams sign serious criminals and we sign a puncher and the media gets upset. Ray Lewis had a nice career after possible involvement in a murder. AP was just given another chance. I'm expecting someone to give wife-beater Ray Rice another shot. IK is small potatoes in comparison.

Yep. Clearly it's our most glaring need. It deserves a first round pick. Unless EJ or TT win the job and make the Pro Bowl.

Like it or not, there's a lot of testosterone in NFL locker rooms. Guys get in fights all the time. So I'm curious how much the league will punish him for doing what players do often. IK didn't do anything unusual. He just did it better.

Every year there's at least one guy who outperforms many of the players picked before him. Fans everywhere start unfavorably comparing that guy to their pick. Predicting the long term performance of college players going to the NFL is like trying to predict the weather 4 months from now. You might have mathematically models and do complicated regression analyses based on thousands of data points. But in the end, you just don't know. No player evaluation method is perfect. All you can do is make an educated guess and hope for the best. The Giants bet on OBJ and it worked out. Good for them. Maybe hindsight says we should have picked him instead of Sammy but hindsight will always, always say we could have drafted better. I'm not going to worry about it. I doubt if Sammy will put up great numbers this year, given who'll be throwing the ball and the kind of offense we're likely to run. As long as we win enough games to get to the playoffs, I don't care.

The personnel executive in Green Bay that Tyler Dunne talks to isn't sure if Manuel will ever develop into a good NFL QB. Apparently, Whaley and Ryan aren't sure yet either. So while professional talent evaluators aren't certain yet, you know with absolute certainty. Ridiculous. Most QBs who get drafted never do develop into good starting QBs. So you may be right because the odds are on your side, not because you have some special talent at evaluating what QB traits can and can't be taught. Maybe because I'm old, I've witnessed several QBs who were supposedly not cut out for the NFL eventually blossom. Plunkett, Brees, Deberg - all sorts of QBs - failed to demonstrate NFL caliber skill sets their first years(s) in the league. They struggled with everything imaginable - timing, accuracy, mechanics, reading defenses, progressions - so much so that fans and teams gave up on them. And then they learned and then they blossomed.

I agree with Section122 on a lot of this - especially the part I bolded. I am a fan of anyone who wears the Red, White and Blue of the Buffalo Bills. Whatever shortcomings in their game, I hope they overcome them. I also think it's odd people criticize the pick. A vocal group of fans wants us to draft a QB every year until we get it right. Nix/Whaley drafted a QB. Some believed he was the best QB that year. Was he worth a first round pick? Good question, but he wouldn't have still been on the board if we had waited until the second round. To get the highest rated that QB, we had to roll the dice at #1. Drafting QBs is always a crapshoot. I don't KNOW if EJ will ever be good but... Jim Plunkett, big college star, started for 6 years for the Pats. By the end of his time there, almost everyone agreed the guy could be a good backup in the league but was not a franchise QB. He just didn't have NFL skills. In his 9th year in the NFL, Plunkett was backing up the great Dan Pastorini in Oakland. When Pastorini got hurt, Plunkett had the best year of his career and led the Raiders to the SB where he was named MVP. Some QBs are late bloomers. They continue to improve their skill set during the NFL careers until they're finally good. No one KNOWS if EJ will continue to improve or not. No one can KNOW.

That's a scary comparison. Brings back bad memories.

My thinking was, if the three QBs were performing equally, then Rex will want to go with the veteran guy who's led playoff drives before. Seems to me the trust factor would be higher with MC than the others. So in a tie, MC is the winner. But Alphadawg makes a good point. Everything else being equal, why not go with a younger guy who may still have some upside. We know MC isn't getting better at his age. Maybe if TT or EJ are just playing as good as MC during preseason, they get the nod because of their athleticism and the possibility they may get better as the season progresses with continual playing time and coaching.

Everyone knew EJ was a flawed college QB. There's no news here. Very, very few college QBs - if any - are NFL ready. They all have to learn new skills to compete at the NFL level. The question is, can they learn what they need to learn? Can they take the next step? Obviously, Buddy Nix and others in the Bills organization felt EJ could. Or at least, given the roster at the time, they felt he was worth a roll of the dice. Every college QB has his critics and 99% of the time the critics are right because most college QBs will never become good NFL starters. I'm not impressed by the acumen of these FSU fans. Sorry.

I like Peter King a lot. I don't always agree with him, but he often entertains and frequently provides information not available elsewhere. When he calls, there are a lot of people - from rookie players to seasoned executives - who answer the phone. I don't expect any national media guy to be perfectly versed on the Bills. Imagine trying to follow 32 teams. Nevertheless, his analyses are usually pretty good because they're shaped by the opinions of the experts and insiders he talks to.

I suspect their observations are much like our own here on the board. They probably hope EJ steps up but note his deficiencies. The probably speculate that MC could be a good game manager, but not a game changer. They probably like TT's athleticism. They probably wish we had a true franchise QB. Their conversation might be spiced with a little more expertise, and a little more insider knowledge, but nonetheless generally the same as our own. IMHO.

That's exactly how I interpreted the report that MC is working with the ones. He's going to be playing with the ones on Friday so he needs to work on his timing, rapport, etc. Rex has said or done nothing yet to tip his hand. I am prone to believe the argument that says if none of the QBs separates from the others, MC will be the starter when the regular season starts. And certainly no one so far has outshone the others. But the battle to line up under center has a ways to go yet, I think.

Fans reacting... Enemkpali has been cut? I would have named him team MVP. No jury in the tristate area would convict him. Jets fans need to get a Kickstarter up to pay Enemkpali’s salary, plus a bounty. If people think you can punch a Jets player every time he does something to piss you off, there’s going to be a mob of angry, violent, ignorant people milling around MetLife stadium after ever home game. Actually, never mind, that happens anyway. This is the Jetsiest thing that could possibly happen

I was never convinced any of them would be great but I did have hope for Rob Johnson, TE, JP... and I continue to have hope for EJ. Wishful thinking tends to color my view of QBs, though I never did get on the Flutie bandwagon. Rob Johnson: just needs better protection TE: just needs to take more risks downfield JP: just needs to grow up as a leader

I had wondered when we signed Richie and Percy if the Bills were deemphasizing character. But over the past five years, we've done reasonably well with off-field issues.

Do choir boys win more? This chart shows the correlation between arrests and wins http://imgur.com/6vlss7p

While the Bills signed a couple notorious players this off-season in Percy Harvin and Richie Incognito, the club is a collection of choir boys, relatively speaking... http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2544821-vikings-lead-nfl-teams-with-most-player-arrests-in-last-5-years?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=editorial The Vikes have suffered 18 player arrests over the past 5 years to lead the NFL. The Bills, just five.

I sympathize with your observation. I was watching Jake Locker once go through some passing drills as part of some pre-draft evaluation. I couldn't help but think that a couple of my friends and I were more accurate than him when we were younger. It seemed like he couldn't hit the broadside of a barn. But Locker was more athletic than my friends and I. Could throw with more zip and for greater distances. Could read defenses better, release the ball faster, etc. Accuracy is just one of many skills a QB must have. Plus watching on TV is probably misleading. The targets he was throwing at were probably smaller than they seemed on TV. And the moving targets probably moved faster than they appeared to me. As far as game day/full scrimmage accuracy, others make good points about NFL DEs coming at you, trying to throw before the receiver actually makes his cut, throwing to spots at a precise moment in time, getting the ball out of your hand in 2.5 seconds, and so on. Another thing is that the NFL lineman are huge. I remember playing big neighborhood games where I had trouble seeing over the line, and I'm 6'1" playing sandlot. In the NFL, you may only get glimpses of your target in the so-called throwing lanes, and all those guys downfield are moving super fast. It's got to be challenging.