Wayne Cubed

I'm no expert, but I think people are quick to judge, without actually looking back at the play. What I did is also way over-analyzing for a pre season game, but people see what they want to see.

Exactly. Maybe we should use pictures to illustrate the point? Here's the play were Sammy was running a quick slant. Manuel is in the shot gun, does a quick 3-step drop and looks to Sammy, who is wide open. Ball is hiked, notice the time on the clock. Also, as you can see there is no safety in the picture. He's basically playing center fielder, so there is no reason to "look off" the safety: This is 2 seconds later, as Manuel has completed his drop, looks to his first read, who is wide open. He's wide open, so there is no need to look anyone off. Urbik, has not engaged Kiwanuka, so he is free to do what he wants. Which is bat down the ball.

Continued... Here's a shot as Manuel has decided to go to Smith, who is again, open. As you can see there is no OL engaged with JPP, he has a free shot at Manuel. Why there isn't a lineman blocking JPP, I have no idea. And this one is for the crowd that says EJ stares down his receivers and doesn't look people off. Common theme, quick 3-step drop, first read is Watkins, who you can see is covered. Also the LB is drifting towards Watkins, following Manuels eyes. Seeing that Watkins is covered, and the space that the LB was occupying is now open, Manual looks to his 2nd receiver Smith, who is running his route towards where that LB was. Smith is open, catches the ball for a nice 9 yard pickup and a first down. IMO, I think people are making a bigger deal out of the batted balls and "staring down" the receivers. Yes, the last pass attempt to Watkins on 3rd and 11, Manuel did stare him down and it was almost picked off. To me, that seemed more like a forced throw to get Watkins the ball. Please feel free to discuss further...

Ok, lets interject some pictures into this discussion, seeing as people seem to be going off just memory and I'm not sure how much you can really pay attention to in the 3-5 seconds a play takes. First batted ball: The first batted ball is from the shot gun. Manuel does a quick 3-step drop and attempts to get the ball to a wide open Watkins, who is his first read. Notice the time on the clock, this is a view just as the ball is snapped. Here's a view after the 3-step drop: Notice how Watkins, is in fact wide open. Why would Manuel look off a wide open receiver? He's open, it's a 3-step drop, quick pass, the decision should be to throw the ball to Watkins. There is no staring the receiver down on a play this quick.You can also see Kiwanuka has already disengaged from Urbik, freeing his one hand up to bat the ball down. The 2nd batted ball was from under center. Again, quick 3-step drop and again, the first read is wide open. As there is no saftey help on that side of the field, there is no one to "look off". Smith is running a 5 yard curl route towards the sideline. After his drop, Manuel turns and looks at his first read, which is Smith: Continued onto next post....

I love this school of thought. So by your logic, Andrew Luck who had 18 batted down passes his rookie year, stares down his receivers. How about Matt Ryan, who had 16 last year? EJ, in 10 games had 4.... But you've already made up your mind about EJ, so there's not point in having a rational discussion that it could in fact be the OL's fault.

Awesome! Enjoy the season

First, the ball wasn't 10 yards overthrown. You are overly exaggerating. Second, Sammy in fact did pin himself to the sidelines, the throw was there. And the Mike Williams throw was good too. Those aren't excuses. IMO,and I went back and rewatched the fist 2 series, he did stare down a receiver once, the 3rd and 11 play, that was it.

Ah, the voice of reason. I also re-watched and made the same assessment.

I think the point the OP is trying to make, is people have already made up their mind on whether EJ has improved or not based on 7 throws in 1 preseason game.

I see you conveniently left out these quotes: "...and had another pass batted down at the line of scrimmage." "There were negative plays, too. There was a sack in which he held the ball too long. He called the wrong protections on a couple plays, and he hesitated on a deep pass that was nearly intercepted by safety Sherrod Martin." See, I can cherry pick quotes too. I find it funny that you say the Bills "should have traded up", who exactly were they going to trade with?

I'm not sure why fans are making a huge deal on the batted down passes. Yes, it's a QB's responsibility to find the passing lanes, but it's also the OL's responsibility to do a good job of engaging the DL/linebackers and keeping their hands down. Add to that, 3-step drops are what most defenders expect, so it's easy to time a jump to block it, especially in preseason. It's something I'm not at all worried about considering in 10 games last season, EJ had 4 batted down passes. For comparison Andrew Luck, had 18 his rookie season and Tannehill had 16. Last season, Matt Ryan had 14 and Matthew Stafford had 17. I would hope this is improved upon on Friday.

I thought besides the batted balls, EJs throws looked fine. He led Sammy a bit much, but that's to be expected this early, something to watch and hope it improves. Perfect throw to Mike Williams in the corner of the endzone, that should have been caught. Nice second read throw to Lee Smith, good job looking off the safety. I thought the offense the first team ran was rather basic. 2-wide, basic routes, nothing crazy. Personally, I'd prefer the Bills have EJ week 1, as opposed to being a pre-season all-star. Hopefully with more snaps Friday we'll see a bit more.

Yea, definitely wasn't out of a position of power. I remember Whaley just referring to that's what he used to do in Pittsburgh(what Brandon was doing). But it wasn't making the decision, it was Whaleys call on the Watkins trade.

Yea I remember hearing it on the John Murphy show after the draft. That stuck out to me. They also interviewed Brandon and he confirmed it. Brandon basically said he was there to help as much as he could and that I think he said he had contacts in Cleveland... If I remember correctly.

The reason Whaley brought that up, in the post-draft interview, is because that's what he used to do in Pittsburgh. Brandon wasn't calling people to make the trade himself, he was just getting people on the line, basically doing the grunt work. That's what Whaley said in the interview because that's what he used to do. The GM can't be tied up on just one phone call, so they have people doing it for them. Brandon confirmed this after the draft as well.

So where in that statement does it say Brandon manages the football side. Right, that's correct. But he doesn't directly manage the football side, he lets Whaley take care of that.

Except he doesn't manage the football side now. I don't know how many times this had been stated.

I wonder if the trust put him up to the letter. Well maybe not put him up to it but maybe they flat out said to him, after his non-binding bid, that they didn't trust him. If he wished to move on they would need to see something... I don't know maybe that's a bit far fetched.

Awesome. Laugh out loud.

Don't think this will really help Mr. Jovi's case, people/fans still won't trust him. It mostly that 2/3 of that ownership group is Toronto based. It's not Mr. Jovi fans don't like, it's the fact he hitched himself to this group. A better letter would have been "I'm ditching Tannenbaum and Rogers to form a group with...." Personally, I don't think it matters. I don't think they'll win the bid anyways.

I wouldn't exactly call that "new", he was referring to spygate.

Litres*

So it's really not surprise that he knows Strahan.

According to other reports, he is playing at Strahans party... Not sure it actually has anything to do with ownership. Wouldn't have pegged Strahan has a Bon Jovi fan, but he grew up in the 80's

In.... Mmmm bacon