PolishDave

I assumed he was a reporter... My bad. But regardless of what he is, he basically insulted Fitz's intelligence. Here are some of the stupid things he said -" Statistically, Smith is worse than Fitzpatrick. Yet their play on the field hasn't been that much different." - Did he watch them both play? Cuz from everything I watched (not every game both have ever played mind you) it wasn't anywhere near close. Fitz was head and shoulders above Geno. Another - "Last year was Fitzpatrick's statistically most impressive. " "Fitzpatrick is past his prime." "Those numbers only help paint the mirage that Fitzpatrick has become" - Doesn't that sound contradictory? He basically says last year was Fitz's best year statistically, but it was all a mirage and Fitzpatrick is past his prime. - His own figures and statistics contradict the very thing he says. The guy is a hater. Then he goes and makes up an imaginary statistic of how many interceptions he should have thrown "but the defenders dropped them". Whatever...since when is that a QB stat? Then he says that Hopkins and Johnson were such good receivers that they pulled a bunch of Fitzpatrick's bad passes away from what would otherwise be intercepting defenders. Give me a friggin break. So Fitz completes a pass to his receivers, but he doesn't deserve full credit for it because those receivers are too good for Fitz to deserve the credit for anything they catch. After all, if they weren't such good receivers, those passes would have certainly been picked off. - What a joke. That was not an objective piece of writing and/or analysis in my opinion. I have no idea who that guy is who wrote the piece, but I can tell you one thing, he is a Fitz hater who threw in a couple nice statements in an effort to appear non-biased. As I said, I don't think Fitz is going to win any team any superbowls, but geeze....he made it out like Fitz has been and always will be bottom of the barrel. And because Fitz went to Harvard, is doesn't mean he is smart or that he knows anything about football. Dude who wrote that piece is a tool.

This is where I am at too, in regards to the original poster's suggestion. It is too big of a gamble for this year at this point. It simply isn't worth wasting another year on starting him if he hasn't won the coaches over with superior play in practice. In 2 years, this defense will probably be missing enough key players where it won't be as good as it was last year or might be this year. You have to try to win now. It looks like almost all the pieces are in place. You have to try your best shot to win now. You can still keep EJ and keep developing him. If he outplays the other quarterbacks enough in practice, he will get his wings. Until that point, he rides the pine and keeps himself ready in case of emergency.

Yep. The guy who wrote that article is a tool. It was obviously biased and apparent that he very much dislikes Fitz. Insult a guys intelligence because he went to Harvard? WTF? I wonder what kind of genius degree that reporter has? Oh wait, do you need a college degree to be a sports reporter? Talk about jealousy. What a friggin dick. He thinks Geno is better than Fitz.....Yeah okay....How could you anybody take this reporter seriously after that.... Fitz won't ever see a Superbowl as a starting quarterback, but worse than Geno? Come on man......

Maybe its because they don't want to risk a mental mistake by a player who lets a kickoff go over his head into the endzone and doesn't down the football. Easy touchdown for other team. LOL I really don't know. It would be a FUBAR among FUBARs if someone did that though.

Yup. My feelings about it too. They brought him in here to make big plays. Put him in a position to make them.

Thanks Wiz. The question was specifically directed at "the dog" because I was curious if he was suggesting I was making those ridiculous assumptions. Just wondering what he was talking about.

Yes agreed. This forum actually has the best back and forth Bills talk that I have found anywhere. I wish it was available in audio format on WGR in the 3-7pm time slot.

Can you explain what you mean when you say there are "ridiculous assumptions being thrown around" and give some examples perhaps? Yes. you are probably right about that. I am not looking forward to that. I can already hear the idiots who sit around me at the stadium yelling to put other quarterbacks in. And they will be doing that regardless of which QB starts.

I predict pain! Like Mr. T kind of pain! I think our Defense is going to inflict massive pain on opponents. So much so that teams will fear playing the Bills. Here come the pain foo! And then Dareus will get caught racing again or something else stupid. He will be in jail for a while because he didn't listen to Chris Carter when he said "You need a fall guy". And then teams will run against the Bills like a freight train. - JUST KIDDING!

Why do so many of you think that the Bills' coaching staff is some kind of democracy? Rex gets the big bucks to make those decisions and the guys underneath him know that. According to the fan base and how they react, Rex will take 99% of the blame for being wrong if the QB ends up sucking. The guys underneath Rex agreed to be subordinates when they signed up for the job. They are part of Rex's cabinet, but Rex is the boss when it comes to such decisions. No brainer in my opinion. Rex will make the call and try to win the rest of the team and staff over to his side by explaining why he chose who he chose.

I just got a chuckle out of it. I know what he was trying to say. It just came out wrong. That often happens on forums. I am guilty of "foot in mouth" many times also. I just wonder how many people on this forum really think that EJ is the best QB on this team. I bet it is a really small number. I am confident that the vast majority of people on here probably realize he is good enough to be a backup at this point, but you wouldn't want to put the season on his shoulders. Most of the judgments being made on the quarterbacks are being made on fairly little game time too. So it is entirely possible that the whole QB thing might flip flop from where it is now. Maybe Cassel will be great. Who knows? Maybe Tyrod Taylor will be great. Who knows? Maybe EJ will be great. Who knows? All we have is history to go buy. And everyone on this board has watched more games with EJ starting over the last couple seasons than they have watched with either of the other two guys starting. So all we can go on with Cassel is the few games most of us have seen him in, which were mostly mediocre at best. All we can go on with TT is what we have seen of him this preseason which has been pretty impressive at least as far as moving the chains goes. With EJ, we have a bunch of games to base our opinion on. The thing is, most people here can't forget the bad things they saw from him in the past and look at him with a completely clean slate. They can't forget the bad stuff from the past. Maybe that is unfair to EJ because he was so raw then. I don't know. All I know is that even if I base my opinion on just what I have seen in the preseason so far, EJ still isn't good enough to be a starter. So far in the preseason, neither TT or Cassel has proven that to me. They both look capable. EJ might potentially be, but it would be the long shot of the 3. If Rex starts EJ in the beginning of the game this weekend and he plays well, then Rex is going to set himself up for a quarterback controversy during the season the first time any other quarterback plays poorly. I doubt he wants that situation on his hands. And therefore I doubt he will give EJ the start.

/Thread Insanity reigns!

You only do that if you think Cassel gives the best chances to win in game one and Taylor gives the team the best chances to win in game two. The only way I see that happening is if 1) Cassel actually starts game 1 which he might and 2) Cassel sucks big time during that first game so bad that they make a QB change immediately (very unlikely)

I agree with this. As I recall, the Jets were expected to be at the very bottom of the NFL in 2013. They did much better than expected and it was usually in games they weren't predicted to win. The coach has to get some credit for that. I can't imagine anyone winning when Geno is your best QB. Come on people.

The main reason I think they might prefer Cassel is because of his extensive veteran experience. Basically, it should be harder for defenses to confuse Cassel than it will be to confuse either of the other guys. And he is less likely to make the dumb mental mistakes that younger players make.

11 points didn't phase me a bit because it wasn't our number 1's against their number 1's all day. It is preseason which means it is time to throw in the guys who are struggling to make the team. The score really doesn't matter one bit. I think the coaches look like they are doing well so far. Let's see how they gameplan for some of these upcoming teams. That will be the real test.

Most overrated on the team right now = The top 3 quarterbacks. Most underrated on the team right now = The top 3 quarterbacks. It just depends on who you ask.

It seems like you are sort of grouping Woods into a category of "receivers who are a dime a dozen". I think he is much better than an average receiver. He catches balls at times that most other receivers would not catch. I suppose if you don't think he is very good, then I can see your logic and it makes sense. I just think he is better than that. I think he proved it at key times during the regular season.

Woods makes your team better right now. Not every draft pick works out. So why would you want to risk trading a great player who makes your team better for a chance at maybe finding another quality player. There is a really good chance that they guy you draft with whatever pick you got for him won't end up being as valuable to this team as Woods is. Therefore trading him = stupid. It's just a really bad idea. You make trades to acquire players like him, not to get rid of them.

Yep. People were calling for their demise last year after the way they started the season. But inevitably, they still got it done. If they start this season 0-4 I will feel a lot better. At least it will be another major uphill battle for them. But I won't count them out until they have 8 losses.

Yes this is a possibility. I will believe this to be the case if they start EJ this week and let him play the whole first half. IF they don't, then I assume that he is not as close to being number 1 as many people want him to be on this board. With the quarterback being such an important position in determining what type of offense you can run, and with the huge differences in types of skills that each of these quarterbacks brings, I am thinking that they would want to have it nailed down. I am sure Roman/Rex have a specific type of offense they want to implement. And they either want the best qb for that scheme or else have to adjust the scheme for the QB they choose. I think it is easier to pick a QB who fits your scheme than the other way around especially with each passing day as we get closer to the season opener.

Yes this is true. Cassel could end up proving to be a huge upside surprise. I'm totally okay with that. Would rather have it happen to one of the other guys, but I'll still take it.

No not necessarily. They could be playing the other two guys for different reasons. You are making the assumption that the coaches see TT and EJ as equals in a competition for the starting position. And I can see why everyone would assume that. After all, that is what the coaches have said. What the coaches haven't said though (and probably the real truth) is that they already know what order the quarterbacks are in. They already know who they are going to start in week 1 unless circumstances change between now and then. They aren't going to tell us that though. There is no benefit to telling the fans who they favor right now. It will only create more controversy no matter who it is. It is plausible that they could be giving Tyrod reps with the first team to get him ready to start and they are just giving EJ more practice so he continues to develop. It's anybody's guess really. We don't have much to go on until we see who Rex names as the starter for the next preseason game. That should give us more insight into what the pecking order really is. And depending on how the guys perform in the next game, it might have an impact on the starting lineup for week 1. But only if one of the guys outright sucks or if one of the guys plays perfect football.

If you are suggesting I have an agenda with EJ you are dead wrong. I just want my team to have the best quarterback possible starting. I don't care whose name is on the jersey. I don't care how tall he is or what he looks like. All I care about is his play on the field. Can he move the chains consistently. Does he pose a big play threat to the opposing team. How hard is it for teams to defend against him. EJ possesses the second part of the puzzle there which is posing a big play threat. But Thursday he showed he can't move the chains consistently (only did it 1 series out of 4) and he showed he isn't hard to defend against in (3 out of 4 series also). Again - good play 25% of your possessions makes you a backup in this league which is what he deserves to be right now.

Ej would have been better off if he had a good veteran QB to learn from for a few years. Ideally we would have kept Fitz. He could have taken us to the playoffs with the defense we have had the last two years. And he would have been an absolutely terrific mentor for EJ. Unfortunately that whole situation was a fiasco. EJ looks like he is getting better. If he keeps improving, then he will earn the starting job eventually. I just don't think that is going to happen anytime soon. Maybe next year. Who knows? I am being objective. I gave him credit for the plays he made. You are the one with blinders on if you think his first 3 series in that game resemble anything close to being a serviceable quarterback. They did not. He looked like a rookie out there the first 3 series and not a talented rookie mind you, but a bad one. Then he had a good series in the last seven minutes of the fourth quarter. Before that, he sucked. If you can't see that, then you do have some kind of man love going on. Its indisputable.