RuntheDamnBall

I'd never doubt it! And that's the truth. I was reading accusation that EJ is mentally weak based on this evidence, to mean that BillsVet is making a value judgment on what toughness is. A team Chaplin though? In these Modern Times?

Well, pull up the draft threads, dude. Few, if any, were beating the drum for Bridgewater and most accepted the pundits' narrative that his star had fallen. For the record, I was interested in Bridgewater but also understood why they might not have drafted him, at the time, and my posts reflect that. I also thought that Bortles would be a bust, and I'm comfortable with having said that and with being wrong if that's the case. In any case, if the kid succeeds I am sure his many soothsaying fans will come out of the woodwork to tell us "I told you so."

Thank you. Tough guy syndrome runs rampant around here. It's a wonder all of the hulking, ultra-confident supermen around these parts haven't already conquered the NFL, Al Qaeda, Antarctica and space the way some people talk. Working with the equivalent of a mental fitness coach is no more a sign of weakness than is working with a strength and conditioning coach.

How many people on here were pining for Bridgewater pre-draft? My recollection is that it was precious few.

Don't hurt yourself patting yourself on the back for being right. With any hope, your fan pressure skills will put the front office over the top and get the perfect QB here in no time. No one in the history of this board has ever said this. Ever. They might have said you were presenting scant evidence and rushing to judgment, which you were . You still are, in terms of "EJ sucks" being a concrete result. He is not good enough right now, no two ways about it. Unless you have a frickin' great crystal ball, you know no more than the rest of us. Also, nice marmot.

Savor the happy moment along with the Dude, Kellyto83TD and Chandler81. It's gotta feel terrific.

Kirby, I love ya but it's not like everyone who hates the kid needed a new place to blow a load.

Bingo.

This is all any real Bills fan has to say.

Smart posters would point out that if you're going to remove the good plays, you remove the worst plays too. But that's just statistics. He was bad today. Merry Christmas!

I'm saying "playing to win" as you describe it is not yielding the desired result. One prescription is to do whatever you can. The other is to stay within yourself and grow. Different things work for different coaches and players.

http://www.nfl.com/standings

Making a Super Bowl once, and the playoffs multiple times, is a problem I'd love to have.

I keep seeing here this mantra of "accuracy can't be improved / taught" etc etc. Here are Philip Rivers' #s focusing on his accuracy. Funny. It improved over time, especially after his first couple of seasons. And got even better the past couple of years under McCoy. Huh. Year GS Cmp Att Cmp% Yds TD Y/A 2004 0 5 8 62.5% 33 1 4.1 2005 0 12 22 54.5% 115 0 5.2 2006* 16 284 460 61.7% 3388 22 7.4 2007 16 277 460 60.2% 3152 21 6.9 2008 16 312 478 65.3% 4009 34 8.4 2009* 16 317 486 65.2% 4254 28 8.8 2010* 16 357 541 66.0% 4710 30 8.7 2011* 16 366 582 62.9% 4624 27 7.9 2012 16 338 527 64.1% 3606 26 6.8 2013* 16 378 544 69.5% 4478 32 8.2 2014 3 67 98 68.4% 778 6 7.9 Career 131 2713 4206 64.5% 33147 227 7.9 Brady's also improved generally over time although his team has always been heavy on screens, dump-offs and behind-the-line-of-scrimmage passes. He's my favorite example, but Rodgers improved a few percentage points over time. Drew Brees in YEAR 4 (!) jumped 5 percentage points higher than his career best in completion percentage. It is only natural that as QBs get more comfortable with the position, they can become more accurate. They become more comfortable with what they see on the field. They develop trust and communication with receivers (a big issue for EJ and co right now IMO). This is not a sealed deal yet. EJ has not worked wonders, but I think those who believe the book is written on him are rushing to judgment.

I forgot the part of the game where they check to see if you're a loser before enforcing the rules. DC Tom nailed this one.

That's an interesting claim - they look so slight at RB, especially with the injuries. But they seem to be able to weather that storm, so far. But other teams have made the playoffs with not much more than Donald Brown, and Rivers seems to be able to open things up for whatever RB they stick in there.

What NFL games have you seen Bortles in that make you think this?

Depends on how much they struggle, and how good the guys behind them are, no? I think Graham relative to Gilmore is much better than Orton relative to EJ, especially when you are trying to develop EJ. Others disagree and that's fine. I wish I had been able to be a Trent Green apologist. Among Wally Pipps, he was one of the best and Wally Pippiest.

Trent Green? Who actually turned out to be kind of alright? I would take Trent Green on this team. And by the way, way to make a completely unsupportable claim to support more unsupportable claims. I will happily admit I hoped for the best for each of these guys. None of them, except for the inexplicable Trent Green inclusion, were very good QBs.

That's where your scouts come in. They either believe this to be true, or they think there are no better options. Rivers was behind a guy whose career trajectory was quite what we might hope EJ's to be, actually. Brees definitely grew into the role and got better, became a franchise guy - it just turned out that they had already hedged their bets and Brees had an injury that might have caused long term harm.

http://www.wnyc.org/story/former-nfl-star-domonique-foxworth-doesnt-watch-football/ I just worked on this episode and figured it might be worth sharing with a football-loving audience. It's a nice, candid interview with an ex-NFLer who is finding other kinds of success post-football. Interested to hear your thoughts.

If only they would just get on the phone and do it.