PolishDave

I thought that Rex would have been the guy the Bills could have gone after last year instead of Kolb. I wonder what the season would have ended up like. And I wonder how much it would have helped our young QB's progress.

Good Stuff Big Buff.... That was and is my biggest problem with the Bills' QB situation. We have a team that has enough of the pieces in place to make the playoffs. Yet we are essentially gambling that well built scenario by having a QB that we can't confidently EXPECT to play at an average or better level. If EJ plays well in the regular season I would consider us very lucky and I would be unbelievably happy. I don't see how anyone can EXPECT him to play at that level based on what he has shown us thus far. I would expect this "project" to take another couple years if not longer. If it happens sooner it will be a pleasant surprise. If it doesn't look like its going to happen by about 1/2 way through this season then I expect the average fan will be ready to start throwing coaches and QB's off a cliff. And that is a scenario that almost nobody wants.

From a player’s perspective they probably are more like games. Think about it. A player is going up against another team’s player who he is not used to playing against. He knows that the guys on the other team are trying to impress their coaches. That means there is a higher risk of injury and higher propensity for dirty play. Plus, you are out there trying not to embarrass yourself or lose your starting position. So you have to play with even more effort than you might give in practice. I think these sorts of things are good for the team as a whole, especially young players - but bad for veteran players. That is why I think FJ is a little miffed. He probably feels like he is going to beat the hell out of his body a couple more times than is probably necessary in a preseason environment. Other veterans probably feel the same way if you ask them.

To be honest, I love the topic. But to discuss this topic I feel like I have to talk politics. And I don't feel like pissing a bunch of people off talking about politics. That happens often enough just talking about football.

Your reasoning makes sense if you think about how an older player should regress. Your reasoning does not make sense if you look at the way Fred plays (he hasn't regressed in my assessment). We won't really know until the regular season is well underway. I firmly believe that Fred Jackson makes every guy on that offense a little better when he is in there. I think most of the players really look up to him. (Maybe right. Maybe wrong.) The guy gives his all 100% of the time. If every player did that, this team would win a few more games. I can't recall how many times (it was a lot) that I turned to my wife during a game at the Ralph and commented how glad I am FJ is on this team because the dude is a stellar player both in terms of talent and in terms of character. Give me 10 more guys who play as well as and as hard as Fred Jackson on offense and this offense is unstoppable. Remember there is much, much more to winning than putting a bunch of guys out there who can run the fastest.

I seem to recall there were a lot more fist-fights back then. Seems as though the number of fist fights has decreased in recent years. As far as I can recall about the drinking back then, it was pretty much the same as now...except now I see more out of control youngsters in the parking lot....like teenagers-early 20's hammered beyond reason...

Last year I was in vegas before the regular season started. I placed a $20 bet on Buffalo to win the Superbowl just because I couldn't bring myself to take anyone else. I think they were only something like 20:1 to win. Easiest $20 that Vegas Sportsbook ever made......lol...would have been better off betting on UB to cover the spread against Ohio State....would have won....

Watching the Denver game replay on NFL network. I didn't realize the acquisitions they made in the offseason. Yikes! That defense has been upgraded substantially. They might take it all this year if they can stay healthy.

I am a big fan of Whaley and would be sad to see him go. I think getting an excellent GM is harder than finding a good quarterback or a good coach. I really like the moves he has made in terms of player personnel. I don't know who the Bills could get that would be better. As far as the coaches go, I would give Marrone this year to see how he does and then decide. I don't mind Marrone so much, but he certainly hasn't won me over to thinking he is going to be great. I am amazed that an ex-lineman coach doesn't have one of the most dominant offensive lines in the NFL.

I love the fact that Bills fans tailgate hard. I really look forward to that aspect of it. I must admit though, I really don’t like when fans start getting obnoxious while drunk, especially in the stadium. Is classy drunkenness too much to ask for? Is classy drunkenness an oxymoron? Instead of buying that last beer for yourself so you piss yourself, buy it for that out of town guy sitting next to you who is at the game with his kid because they are dedicated fans of the other team and they heard Buffalo fans love their football.

The controversy with EJ is caused by EJ not playing well enough, consistently enough, to win more fans over to his side. If he strings a couple more good games together, back to back, then he will start winning more fans over to his side. Some of the fence sitters will start believing in him. If he comes out in the next game and plays poorly he is going to lose some more people whose patience is starting to wear thin.

Nope...didn't try to imply that...Simply saying he shares that one trait (always looking for the homerun opportunity) that I personally like to see in my quarterback...that's all...

I don't get the comparison. VY is pretty much opposite of what I was talking about. He made more big plays with his feet than with his arm. Fun to watch though when he was in college. Hard to believe he was a bust in the NFL. Give me a pocket passer who looks to throw a touchdown on every series and only checks down because the defense took away the big play.

I think one of the things I like most about Tuel is his tendency to look for the big play and his willingness to try it. Donovan McNabb had that similar trait. I always loved that about him. When you know your quarterback is more likely to take a shot down field, it makes the guy more exciting to watch. Even when Tuel is pressured, he is still looking to make a big play down field. A couple other good QB's who had that trait are Rothlisberger and good ole' Brett Favre.

Maybe, maybe not......When you play with 1's your supporting cast is also better which can make you look better.....depends how close in talent your 1's and 2's are and how close in talent their 1's and 2's are..right?

When have you seen EJ destroy 2s and 3s? I haven't seen EJ play well consistently with any group. Have you? And why make this a Tuel vs. EJ thing? Can't it just be about Tuel? If Tuel plays well with 2s and 3s then it seems rather logical that if he had time to develop some chemistry with 1's he just might look good with 1's too? Seems logical to me...

Right now Fitzpatrick is a better quarterback. So yes I wish he was on this team. Better QB = more wins in my opinion. I am convinced that if Fitz was here and there was an open quarterback competition, he would win. From extensive practice and coaching, EJ would have time to develop those "coachable" shortcomings that we have been told he has. If and when EJ eventually "earned" his start in the NFL because he outplayed a legit starting QB, then I predict we would see a much better quarterback than we see now.

My main beef with EJ is that he started last year and is starting again this year by the looks of it. I think the Bills were very smart for drafting him if they honestly thought he was the future franchise QB here (which they obviously did think and still do apparently). And I am okay with where they drafted him. My beef is that they KNEW he was and is a project, yet he is starting at QB. He should be on the sideline in a backup role learning from a proven veteran and getting his mechanics straightened out. Kolb was never a proven QB. The dude was possibly the worst QB out there. Anyone who followed Arizona knows this without a doubt. He sucked beyond words there. Yes that bad. You had to watch him play. (Injury prone under-performing whiner lacking leadership skills) There were better QB’s backing other teams up including some 3rd string QB’s like the Redskins had for example. I think people are smoking crack if they think there wasn’t an Alex Van Pelt available if the Bills really wanted one. And I think an Alex Van Pelt kind of QB (like Fitz was) just might have taken this team to the playoffs last year and again this year. Instead I feel like “if EJ doesn’t work out this year” then the whole thing is going to get blown up again which I don’t want to see happen. I want a new starting QB, a new Offensive Coordinator and a new special teams coach pronto. I want to keep EJ until the coaches truly decide if he has it or not based on his ability to outplay a proven veteran QB in practice. I just don’t want to see him starting regular season games while they do that evaluation. I think it is a waste of an otherwise damn good football team.

I thought Tuel played well in at least one preseason game last year (going off of memory here). I was also impressed with his play against KC. More about moving the chains and extending drives (which I happen to place an extremely high value on.). And I seem to recall that almost everyone, including national media and a lot of Bills fans, predicted that KC was going to absolutely destroy the Bills. Wasn't KC undefeated coming into that game? I thought they were, could be wrong about that too. So based on the level of pressure for that game, I thought Tuel handled it exceptionally well. During that pick 6 play I was screaming at the field that it was one of the most idiotic play calls ever (thanks Hacket). But yes Tuel did throw the pick. And Tuel did have a pretty lousy game against Cleveland. So fans have a right to question advancing him. If Tuel does manage to outperform the other quarterbacks throughout the next 2 preseason games, then I think he deserves a shot to run the number ones in the 4th or 5th preseason game before regular season starts. If he still played great, then the coaches would have to give credit where credit is due and play whichever qb they think would give them the best chance to win with. They claim to do that now, but sometimes I wonder. Is Tuel likely to outplay EJ and Thad in the next two preseason games? No... But it is cool to think maybe one of these quarterbacks, any one of them, might step it up and become much better than what they have shown us over the last year. I don't care which one of them does it. I will root for that guy if it happens.

Majority of people are still in the let’s keep giving him more time camp I see….. Yeah..I get that…I know that is what the Bills need to do..as hard as it is to keep doing that….. But I tell ya…..(local weathermen, sports reporters and politicians excluded) …..I can’t think of another person anywhere who gets more accolades and praise for showing up to work and doing a crappy job…… Based on his ratio of good plays vs. bad plays from last year and the very limited amount of this year, so far I am still personally inclined to think the dude is not ready to lead an NFL team to anything but another losing season. For the life of me I can’t see how a rational person could believe EJ is going to be great…What are you watching that I am not? I think you EJ supporters are over-analyzing his “potential” and placing too little emphasis on his “play”. I will believe in his potential when and if he ever starts playing well with even a little consistency.

Although I never expect it to happen, I think the Batavia site makes a lot of sense for these reasons: 1) As it will be primarily NYS taxpayers paying for the stadium, the stadium should be built with NYS taxpayers in mind. Most of the people paying for this new stadium construction live east of Buffalo. Shouldn’t the stadium location be chosen with that in mind? 2) Isn’t it in the long term best interests of the team to expand its fan base to the east rather than to the west? The people of Toronto have already shown their lack of interest in supporting and cheering for the Bills. The future of the Bills fan base is to the east if only the Buffalo Bills organization would exploit that opportunity. 3) Corporate Suite Sales should improve substantially because of the much closer proximity to Rochester. Existing Canadian market would be barely affected in terms of drive time. 4) Batavia exit is ½ hour east of Williamsville exit and ½ hour west of Henrietta exit which makes the stadium equally as accessible to both the greater Buffalo market and the greater Rochester market. 5) Traffic will be split in two primary directions away from the site – I90 east and I90 west. Additional Thruway exits would be added to the Batavia exit from both the east and west directions that would only be open on game weekends. These exits would take people directly to stadium lot parking. Or they could create a new additional exit called Batavia exit North and make the existing exit Batavia exit South. Main reasons I don’t like downtown Buffalo or Niagara Falls is that the congestion nightmare it would create. At times the city of Buffalo has a hard time dealing with traffic for hockey games. How in the world would they ever deal with something 4x larger in terms of traffic? And Niagara Falls would be even worse except for Canadian fans attending a game. And the Canadians aren’t funding this stadium through their taxes are they? I am assuming that Toronto is going to get its own NFL team someday. And the existing Bills games in Toronto experiments have proven that the Bills aren’t going to be able to regionalize the Toronto market as part of the Bills nation. Fort Erie and Niagara Falls yes, but Toronto no. However, the Rochester market and to a lesser degree Syracuse market are both ripe for expanding the Bills fan base. I think it is crazy not to maximize their efforts there. As of right now, my personal bias is to keep the stadium where it is now rather than relocating it anywhere. But if a stadium is to be relocated in the best interests of the team and taxpayers, then I would rather see a move a bit farther into New York State whether it is Genesee County or the Eastern outskirts of Erie County.

I am in the camp that thinks the front office in Cleveland is a bad group to work for. It is a massive professional insult (regardless of how much you are paid) to be fired in your first year as head coach. So, I think that any worthwhile potential coach would be very concerned about the real reasons why they fired the last guy. That would be one of the bigger deciding factors I would think. And I also think it puts Cleveland in a position where they might end up setting for someone other than who they had hoped they could get to coach there. Anything could happen. There are so many variables.

Why not start another thread about EJ if you guys want to make this about EJ again? Isn't this thread supposed to be about Pettine - head coaching speculation?

I like it, but make it a 55 yarder or longer in order to get 4 points. You could also say that field goals under 35 are only worth 2 and force the team to make a harder kick for more points. Or you could add the crossbar to the top (as an option for the kicking team) and if they get the kick in, they get 4 points instead of 3. (Forces them to kick lower thereby increasing the chance of a block)

Now we know what happens to old players' jerseys when the Bills store can't seem to sell any more of them. There must be a lot of ex-Bills quarterbacks over there.