FightClub

Fitzpatrick over a full 16 game season in Gailey's offense: 277 for 453, 3173 yards, 37 TDs and 11 INTs Bills fans response: "You aren't the answer" and "Nothing more than a backup" Somebody else said it best in another thread..."only thing dumber than the front office are the fans of this team." With fans like these, who needs enemies...we're our own enemies half the time guys. "Let's draft a 21 year old from some crappy spread college offense and start over instead." Yaaay!!

I completely agree

+1000 Fitzpatrick is more than average. Get used to it.

One more thought. This morning in the shower was the first time I thought, "Maybe the Bills should leave. Right now I think I'd rather have no team in my home town than this utter embarrassment." Never had that thought before, but I admit I had it today.

The problem with these ideas lies in this story...I live in Atlanta now. Getting ready for watching the game on Sunday ticket yesterday and my phone rings. It's my sister, who's been to one game before and really could care less. She, her husband (who is a Giants fan) and a friend (not a football fan) are calling from the Bills parking lot. They've bought tickets and are going to the game. Her husband has never been to a regular season game so he figures why not. My point is, if the real fans stop buying tickets there are others in Buffalo who quite frankly have nothing better to do and will still buy a ticket and stuff Ralph's pockets and go to the game. I love my sister and brother-in-law and all but they don't even know when to cheer for what at the game. Maybe it'll stop when the weather turns, I guess, but for now it seems there is always going to be someone to step into the empty seat up there.

Fitzpatrick had a 99 rating before garbage time in that game. Yes, in garbage time, he racked up a bunch more yards and his rating rose to 121. I was watching the box score on nfl.com at that point. About three passes got away from him yesterday, which would happen to most NFL QBs that throw thirty or more times in a game. I don't understand fans that want to get rid of the only players who are playing well on this team. This is how the team ends up in this position. You'd fit right in with the guys we've had in our front office for some time now. Sometimes I think Marv was on the board listening to you guys talking about how London Fletcher and Takeo Spikes stunk too...what you wouldn't give to him them back now, hmmm?

I have been a big Fitzpatrick fan since before he was a Bill. Whatever top 5 pick we have next year, be it #1 or something a little lower, we need to take Best Player Available. If that is a QB - if there is one that is so cannot missing like a Peyton Manning / Drew Brees type, then fine. But please please do not take a QB because (as some on this board say) "we won't get the #1 pick again". That type of thinking is where picks like Jamarcus Russell and Ryan Leaf are born from. QB is far from the most lacking position on this team. We need OT badly, and we need pass rushers and competent D-linemen worse. Right now, I am not terribly convinced of the top QBs coming out being in that category. To me Mallett looks the best, followed by Luck, but neither appears to be top 3 material. Maybe top 5. BPA is the way to go and continue to keep going. Fitzpatrick could lead this team if he had a better supporting cast and the defense came then any chance at all.

I hate this argument. People on this D are in the wrong place all over the field. That's not talent guys. It's coaching. Yes, we have some small, weak players on D, but get them in the right spot and this offense can at least compete. 27 - 33 points is supposed to be enough to win in this league. George Edwards is an epic fail as DC.

No one, NO ONE, on this defense - players or coaches, should get any credit or be safe in any way at this point in time. Whitner's no better than the rest. No one on the defense is playing, and they aren't being coached into the right position either. Trying to pick out one player and give him credit is like going to the landfill and pointing out the garbage that smells the least.

Wow. Bills fans in Tokyo. Never would have thought. I come about every two years - I was there in April for the International Kyudo Seminar and tournament. Hope you don't mind if I drop you a line the next time I have to come and get tested.

+1 Call us rednecks if you will, but this is football. FOOTBALL.

+1 I feel for most of these guys. I really do. It took me several years to realize what I was a part of. It could be suggested that what these types of professional sports teams (Bills, Pirates) are doing to their fans constitutes the biggest con in America. Hundreds of thousands - even millions - of victims all at once. Perhaps only Microsoft has more people fooled.

The problem with this organization - not just this regime, but it's been consistent for the last several (must come from Ralph, then) - is that they lack conviction and decisiveness. Back when the whole McGahee fiasco was going on, I wanted him off the team as much as anyone else. When they traded him, they even got a pretty good deal - can't remember all of the particulars, but it was better than this Lynch deal. So, now they created a hole on the team, something we all know they seem fond of doing. But Levy was telling us about this kid Fred Jackson who was a good one and just hadn't got the chance yet. Okay, great. So, be decisive and have conviction in your opinion. Don't draft a RB in the first round that year...you said Jackson was good, so believe your own opinion and give him the shot. If I am not mistaken, this all happened around the time they were going to lose Nate Clements, and knew they would need a corner at some point. Another decision I was fine with, given the money involved there. So, if they had stayed away from Lynch, the top rated corner that year as Revis - we probably would've picked him given that was our other area of need. If they have just had the conviction to be decisive. I know, I know - would've, could've, should've - but imagine the scenario. You keep Revis away from the Jets, get him yourself, don't have to deal with the Lynch fiasco that simply replaced the McGahee fiasco, and Fred Jackson wouldn't have had to wait until last year to get a true full-time shot....which he made the most of, just as Levy said he would!! I run my own business, and if you cannot be decisive and have conviction that what you think will happen is right, you will go under faster than you can turn around. This is what is happening to the Bills right now. It can be illustrated with many other similar examples. Sorry, what does this have to do with your post? I agree, you can find kids like Fred Jackson at the RB position, but you have to be the type of organization that New Orleans is...you have to have the courage of conviction to know a guy like Pierre Thomas is a good player, and plug him in.

If we go 0-16, the Bills will forever have that stigma with the Lions and Bucs. Embarassing. Add to that the undeniable probability that Ralph and Nix will trade the #1 pick away and you've got to be crazy to root for anything like that.

Some of these players are funny. Only a few weeks ago Revis was calling Moss names because he played so poorly. Now, he says he was some secret to the Pats* success on offense.

I'm sorry, but honestly this type of post is what is wrong with the Buffalo Bills. A big part of these problems are the fans and their acceptance of mediocrity. All you did here was state of bunch of things that have happened as if they were expected all along. Sorry, that's just ridiculous. Our head football coach is supposed to be able to identify before the season that Trent Edwards blows and cut his butt. I could see it from my living room. Our general manager is supposed to see that he is going to draft Spiller and before he pulls the surprise trigger, rob some team blind by trading Lynch to them during the draft. These are the things that are "expected", not your restatement of what has occurred as if it is all some part of a grand plan rather than what is really is...a reaction to previous poor planning. And while I am venting, I am also tired of the "you can't turn a team around in one year" posts. These are another symbol of the fan's acceptance of the ridiculous state of the club. This team has been trying to turn around for 10 years!! Not one year. No, Gailey and Nix don't get a pass because "they just got here". You guys keep giving these passes out and that's why this team continues to suck. Every three years we give another set of fools a free pass to start over. Things'll never change at that rate.

November 22, 2009 - Jaguars 18, Bills 15 September 14, 2008 - Bills 20, Jaguars 16 November 25, 2007 - Jaguars 36, Bills 14 November 26, 2006 - Bills 27, Jaguars 24 September 12, 2004 - Jaguars 13, Bills 10 September 14, 2003 - Bills 38, Jaguars 17 October 18, 2001 - Bills 13, Jaguars 10 The "horrible team" has gone 4-3 against them since the "90's". They are as delusional about Edwards as we all once were. I pity what the future holds for their team. We've been better than them this decade already and it's not going to get any better for them.

Trent's brand of courage will fit right in there.

This is well written, but there's plenty I disagree with here. First off, I've written elsewhere that Fitz would have won the job in preseason if there had been a real competition. He's the best QB of the three. If the competition had been "fair", then we might very well be 2-1 at this point. We would at least be 1-2. Increased reps throughout the preseason and these first few weeks of this season would likely have decreased some of the mistakes he made at the last game. And so what if Edwards was relegated to backup?? Yes, personally I would have cut him outright, as I could claim to "know" from last year's performances that he was lost, regardless of the ineptitude of play calling compounding the issue. I was and still am immensely disappointed in Gailey for not seeing what I, a layman football observer, could plainly see about Edwards. He was done. And yes, he is a coward. I saw this point disputed in another thread but it's just plain fact. Anyone can see it. Ok, those are my last words on Trent Edwards. Let me talk a bit more about Fitz though, because something bothers me greatly that I see in both this article and from many posters here. That Fitz is a "career backup". Says who? Expert Bob DiCesare? The rest of you? You know, if the Pats* fans had this same attitude when Brady came in for Bledsoe, they would have all said, "Well, these wins are all well and good, but he was drafted in the 6th round, so he's just a 'career backup' and doesn't deserve the shot at the permanent starting job. He's just warming the seat until we draft Bledsoe's 'real replacement'." Sorry, that's b.s. It speaks of the mentality we have in this society that people have to earmarked for certain things ahead of time, or they don't deserve the opportunity. You can't earn the right to something unless you were earmarked for it first. I'll stay away from social issues and stick to sports for my metaphor - college football. In the system we have today in that sport, you get "anointed" as a top 5 team before the season and really without playing any games, only those teams have any chance of winning the whole thing. If TCU goes undefeated and beats every team by 60 points, and Alabama goes undefeated and beats every team by 1 point, Alabama is anointed the national champion because they were ranked higher to start the season. What's worse is that most likely TCU doesn't get the chance to prove it on the field. Alabama probably plays some other big conference team like Ohio State in the bowl game, also because they were earmarked ahead of time. Okay, so I am rambling. And I totally admit to being an unabashed Fitz fan. I see more in him than Brohm, and he's only a couple of years older. Why can't he be our QB of the future? Bills fans, please, give him a chance!! And for those who say he is inaccurate...I say again if our coach had given him the job and practice time from day 1, he might have had the chance to practice those routes he threw those two ints on this past weekend.

Fitzpatrick has been my horse in this race from the beginning as well. I knew Edwards sucked and was completely perplexed in the way the QB "competition" shook out over the course of the summer. I have nothing against Brohm, but I personally see more in Fitzpatrick. Back when we had Fairchild (I know, he was terrible..) as our OC, I had identified Fitz as a potential future QB of the Bills because he played well for Martz and Fairchild was something of a Martz disciple. I was so glad when we signed him as I had followed his career since. Everyone sees him as a stop gap but don't be so sure. I think Fitz can play QB in this league if we give him a chance to succeed. Our line does need work, and so do our WRs, but I promise you Fitz will make them both look better.

That just sucks. Good eye.

+1 This is what I said all preseason

Sorry, I know this is being discussed in plenty other threads already, but I promised myself to start a thread with this title the day Edwards was benched. A little juvenile, yes, but it makes me feel so good. Edwards is the only Bills player I have ever disliked to the point of outright hate, and this time, he has to be benched for good. If Fitz had started from the beginning, we'd have beaten the Dolphins and the entire division would be 1-1 going into this game. Ok, I got my cheap thrill in having my own thread for this.

Boy, are you all you guys rooting for "bottoming out" going to be disappointed when Ralph trades the #1 pick away.

I think you're right on this one. It almost worked for Jauron last year, but now we've really got them fooled. They don't stand a chance.