Bill from NYC
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Posts posted by Bill from NYC
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It never ceases to amaze me how cynical some of you can be.....JP is 22 years old. How many 22 year old millionaires do you know that would choose Buffalo to be their 'home' when they could easily choose anywhere else? How many QBs have we had in here since Jimbo that were truly excited about the opportunity to lead our team? How many QBs have spent 6 days a week in the offseason trying to offset his inexperience as much as possible before the season begins?
Good Lord, some of you will never be satisfied......if Jesus Christ came to town and said he wanted to be the Bills' QB, there are some of you who would openly campaign for Buddha!!
Relax Bro.
As I said in another post, we all have different ways of self preservation wrt the Bills. I am the first to say that optimism is better than pessimism. It makes sense. This does not mean that all can be flying high with optimism, right?
Choosing Buffalo? He was drafted by Buffalo. Buffalo chose him.
That said, I for one am impressed by the time and effort he seems to put forth. Forgive me if I dont jump up and down with glee and make up cute little nicknames every time he says something.
Time will tell if JP is what we want him to be.
GO BILLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Like every other fool that thinks TD should have given-away Travis for any lame-ass player and/or pick, there's a reason Clayton isn't an NFL GM. When Shelton gets cut and some team comes crawling to the Bills for Travis because their starter got hurt, started smoking crack, or busted his leg skipping down the hall, the Bills will have the last laugh.
Dude, thinking that Travis Henry does not have high trade value does NOT qualify one as a "fool."
31 GMs felt this way so who, if anyone, is the "fool" in this instance?
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My favorite stories involve Chris Speilman...
1) He called signals on his very first play from scrimage as a Bill (in practice).
2) Early one morning, perhaps at 6 AM, he ran into Mr. Wilson in the exercise room when he was first signed. He approached him and thanked him for signing him. Mr. Wilson said that CS was SO intense that it was the first time he was ever scared by a player.
3) After a practice in camp, the LBs were sitting around, talking. Exhausted or not, CS refused to let the young players go back to their rooms because he had more to say to them about playing football.
Players get bigger and faster all the time, but there will never be an era where Chris Speilman wouldn't be a great NFL football player.
My only regret wrt CS is that his stay in Buffalo was so short. I dont know his stats, but imo, this man belongs in Canton, Ohio!
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Is there also something about the highest paid players?
I wish there was a way to find this out.
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How true. I hate the preseason games for the very thought of things like this, let alone freak accidents.
This kid had all the potential in the world. Truthfully, I hope he is OK. I would like to see what he can do against non-Bills football teams.
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I saw Edwards from the 1st row last season, and he looked THEN like he weighed 320. The guy is huge. As big as PW, no...but a giant nonetheless.
Personally, I am not that worried about losing PW. Edwards showed himself to be a decent pass rusher last season, and we are hearing good things about Anderson.
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Are you sure? What about the signing bonus?
Also, what happens when a player is goes on IR during the season? Does his salary/pro-rated bonus suddenly not count?
I'm not making statements mind you, but I dont remember teams getting cap relief due to injury.
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I am not so sure. For instance, if Vick or Manning is injured in pre-season, I was always under the impression that their respective team would be crippled with a cap hit.
After all, they DID receive a signing bonus to be pro-rated.
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Gents,
As someone who grew up in Buffalo and now lives in California I know exactly what JP's trying to say. There are many bitter, angry people who live in Buffalo and want to use the tired old "I work harder than you California pansies" line. I hear it all the time when I go home on leave. There are people left in that city who have this attitude about anything not from Buffalo...that it's all bad. In a larger sense, it's that type of mentality that, IMO is what's killing the city. I'm sure many of you know the type...because you don't stay out drinking until 0400, but instead work hard to get ahead in life your some sort of weak being. I've never understood that logic.
I agree with JP, give the kid a break, he's not RJ, and I'm pretty sure he's going to show us that with his play on the field. I can't say I blame him for being tired of the comparison...shoot when did RJ ever spend as much time in the city learning his craft. The point is JP is doing all that he's capable of to try to earn the respect of his teamates as well as the people of Buffalo...what else can he do?
Thanks for an interesting perspective.
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there is a difference between not lavishing praise and taking a daily dump on him and anyone who dare carries an once of optimism in May.
Newsflash: the people who frequent this board, especially in May, tend to be supporters of the team. Go figure that gratuitous slams against our players aren't going over very well.
Point taken Scott. I am not one to argue with the boss, but I can recall reading literally thousands of posts attacking Bledsoe, and even his family.
It IS harder for some to be optimistic about our Bills than others.
Either way, thanks for your work in making this the best site on the web.
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My point about the "Big Cat" story is that it WAS ridiculous, not something about which to praise the kid.
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That game wasn't great. Leading a team to 16 points isn't great. One drive that ends in a FG late in the game isn't "great" (though I was impressed with his ability, to just once, overcome adversity). Great is probably the most overused term in our society.
That roster was far from pathetic and if Johnson or Flutie were just better than average that team would have been in the Super Bowl instead of losing the WC game on the road.
The meaningless game before it was great (vs. Indy).
That was the problem with RJ. He would do superb things sometimes and make us forget that he couldn't play football very well.
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Not true AD. We truly need the kid to play well!!! No crusade here. I merely like to see a player do it on the field before I lavish praise upon him, and thought that the quote was in poor taste.
Something told me not to comment on it but I did anyway, so in that sense, SDS was correct with his barb.
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JP's comments concerning RJ were in relation to the "california surfer dude" stereotype. JP didn't call out RJ's physical ability or skills as a QB; he's smart enough to be aware of recent history and realize that a california boy has to prove he belongs in a blue collar town.
i prefer a glib QB who doesn't hide from the media and tells it like he sees it. we can agree to disagree on that point.
Maybe you are correct. I hope so, but I saw nothing in what was posted to indicate that.
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someone most likely posted this, but i think it was interesting:
JP stated that he was NOT rob johnson and that his dad did cement work and his mom worked 2 jobs. while i like his modest past and candor, is he trying to hard to be a blue collar/ buffalo type guy? just be yourself JP and play hard and win games. the fans will love you for who you are on the field - nothing else. these sentences - where he relates to fans - are strange. is sam W. writting these?
I was not going to mention that quote due to the probability of being castigated for being a non-worshipper, but I too found it disturbing.
Rob Johnson had at least as much talent as JP, and he is bigger. Was RJ a good qb? NO. Has JP proven that he is even as good as RJ in a real game? NO.
I am proud and delighted to see a kid from working class parents succeed. That said, I wish that the kid would just shut up and play football.
He would be much better off, because dumb statements to the press can and will come back to haunt a player.
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TD is the guy responsible for NOT locking this thread.
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Yeah, MW definitely had a great start FOR A ROOKIE PLAYER. He was not a great player his first year (2002) but I feel quite comfortable saying he got off to a great startthat he has not continued. We can certainly argue the semantics of what one means by "great" or "disaster" but I think any rational analysis (not that I expect or demand that any fan be rational actually) looks at MWs first year and judges it to be much close to the good side (great start) than the bad side (disaster).
Specifically:
1. He was chosen to start right away as a rookie.
I would judge this to be a good start and a start to be hoped for in a #4 choice, but as 50% of the choices in even the 1st round disappoint according to the pundits, breaking into the starting line-up in your first game is an essential part of a great start though it does not gurantee it. If he had not been able to start his first year you might (might) call his first year a disaster, but he did start so if you are going to justify calling it a disaster 1. it has to be shown that his play was the bad or the cause of bad things and, 2. the burden is definitely on those labeling his play a disaster because the default of the coaches choosing him to start provides some assumption of at least credible play on his part.
2. The team was very productive offensively in 2002.
Assessing lineman play is a tough thing for a fan to do. There are not the usual assorment of stats like catches, yards gained, TDs etc to point to when making a case. Even worse, what you see in terms of line plan may not be a totally accurate indicator of individual play. For example defender who lined up across from an OL player may get credit for a sack but the OL player may not be the blame if the line call gave him responsibility for a different player on a slant block.
This being said, all the objective signs point to MW and the OL being part of an O which performed in objective terms and relative to other Bills teams produced on the field:
A. This OL provided the blocking which allowed even a statue like Bledsoe to set multiple single-game and season records for offensive production.
B. The OL provided the blocking which allowed Henry to gain the fifth highest rushing total in Bills history.
C. The OL provided the blocking which saw 3 Bills O players (Moulds, Bledsoe and Henry) qualify for the Pro Bowl (not a perfect indicator but a pretty good assessment of accomplishment from third parties).
There were objective limitations to his game. he did not start all 16 games, but starting 14 as a rookie is very good. He logged some sack free games and did so early (Bledsoe for example was only sacked once in MWs first start and I'm not sure who was responsible). However, all in all I'm not sure where you get calling this a disaster from.
In my view MW clearly got off to a great start because he was a key part of an OL that helped the team produce offensively and in the most important indicator the team went from 3-13 to 8-8.
I will concede that I was not as accurate as I could be if I gave the impression I thought he was a great player his first year rather than what I meant that he got off to a great start at the beginning of his career. However, I'd love to see you lay out the case that his first year was a disaster because I saw nothing that would indicate this is true in the least.
Jeepers, if Bledsoe made the Pro Bowl with a disaster playing RT for him and Henry racked up about 1400 yards and caught over 40 passes with a disaster playing RT in front of him then maybe well all better reconsider how good Bledsoe and Henry are. If they can pull off their 2001 accomplishments with MW being a disster they must be good.
FFS, it is kind of you to attribute Henry's yardage and Drew's pro-bowl selection to Mike Williams, but imo you are simply wrong to do so.
Again, imo, Henry gained a good deal of yardage due to the Gilbride system; an ill advised mess which was pass oriented, behind a weak OL. Defenders were charging past the LOS to sack Drew, so in essence, Travis was running by these guys, who were not thinking run.
Wrt Drew, if you want to credit MW for his pro-bowl appearance, please inform us who you wish to blame for more than 100 sacks in 2 seasons? Although he was FAR from the only cause for these sacks, the sad truth is that speed rushers got around MW almost at will. He could always run block to a degree. Big deal. That is the easy part of playing the OL.
My hopes for MW were high because of when he was selected. There are posts galore (all quite true I might add) telling us how GMs know more than fans. It was TD who devoted the 4th pick of a draft on this kid, along with tens of millions of dollars.
A great OT CAN be worth this kind of investment to be sure. Pace and Ogden were instrumental in their team's superbowl wins. One had a qb who was from the Arena League, the other a qb with a non-descript career before that season.
Disaster might have been a tad harsh no doubt, but MW has simply not earned the big bucks since his arrival in Buffalo, at times falling far short of doing so.
The good news is that it isn't too late. We have him for 3 more seasons, and I for one wont be distressed about his cap hit IF he develops into one of the top 10 offensive tackles in the NFL, and I dont think that this is asking too much.
He is already beind paid as such.
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Glad you appreciate it. QB would be another one. I mean, if spending TWO second round picks on specialized slot receivers in the past four drafts wasn't bad enough, how about exhausting two first rounders, a second and a fifth on the QB position in the past 4 drafts. Combined, that's two firsts and three seconds spent on two positions for players that lack the versatility to be moved around if they fail to excel at the position they are drafted for.
When you put it like that, I agree. In order for the Bills to take it to the next level, they need succcess at positions for which they allocated so much resources.
Imo, they also need at least one of the 2 offensive linemen to be a player. Everybody is quick to give Big Ben all or most of the credit for the Steeler's splendid 04 season. I am just as quick to cite their strong, deep and talented offensive line.
What are your thoughts on our new blockers? Have you seen much of them?
Anthony Thomas a Cowboy
in The Stadium Wall Archives
Posted
I happen to agree, but that of course remains to be seen. Either way, a backup with experience would also be a good thing.