Gailey In Full Panic Mode?

[yungmack]

I've been a strong supporter of Chan Gailey since he was hired. He had a history of identifying the range and limits of his QBs abilities and working with him. So I was more than willing to believe that he saw something in Trent Edwards that I surely never did, and that he'd build an offense around him that would minimize his weaknesses while playing to his strengths. Hope springs eternal.

 

Yet two weeks into the season he benches his personally chosen starter. He did this on the heels of, for example, Brett Favre throwing three picks and the "great" Eli Manning and his "powerhouse" Giants getting beaten as badly as the Bills did on Sunday (worse, without that garbage TD at the end), with the team the Bills had a solid chance of beating last week (the Dolphins) besting media darling Minnesota.

 

I'm surely not saying benching Edwards is the wrong move only that it smells of panic. And then replacing Edwards with Fitzie? If, in Gailey's assessment, he wasn't good enough to dislodge Edwards (!!!) prior to yesterday, why in god's name does he think he's suddenly become the answer? And it comes on the heels of benching Spiller after ONE game.

 

I don't know about you guys, but this change causes me to question everything I thought about Gailey. And by extension, Buddy Nix's thinking.

[tjprime]

I wouldn't say it's panic mode, what I'd say is that what he saw in Edwards in camp and preseason hasn't translated to the regular season with more complex defenses and full speed games. We've seen it many times over the past few years here in Buffalo, a great workout/practice player but is complete crap during an actual game. That was practically a drafting philosophy the past few years, best athlete not best player. So now, Gailey has to weed out the athletes and find football players that don't disappear during games. Unfortunately with this roster and this culture of accepting losing he came into it isn't going to be a quick fix. Like I told my buddy, if they are showing improvement by the end of the season like they are learning and Gailey hasn't lost the team that's better than now.

Edited September 21, 2010 by tjprime

[b stein 22]

I dont feel like explaining this to you, but We have three running backs in a QB that turns into a retard on the field. Jackson and lynch are more productive so they are out on the field more then spiller. Also Chan is fed up with Edwards being the cancer of the team. I could go on, but I would just be ranting on how I hate Trent.

[Another Point of View]

Nope, It had to be done. This is nothing more then a coaching decission.

 

Lets face it,the fans are in Panic mode, not the coaches.

[RuntheDamnBall]

If he doesn't make the change he's an idiot and doesn't see what we all see: that the offense sucks. If he makes the change he's in panic mode. He's not going to win with people like you and Jerry Sullivan, so are you looking for a lot of "right on!" statements here, or a conversation, or what?

 

I take issue with giving Edwards the shot to begin with (and not giving Brohm et al a chance with the #1s), but this is a pretty conservative league and I understand WHY it happened that way. The Spiller pick should have signalled that this is a regime that is trying, at least, to take the long view. That might make the games excruciating right now, but at least Chan is adjusting to respond to the veterans' (and by extension, the fans') needs while building it up.

[dpberr]

I'm not sure Chan Gailey has ever had a moment of panic in his life.

[Green Lightning]

Apparently the OP read Sullivan's wasted space of a column this morning. Since when is moving your players around to create some synergy panic? That's why you have more than one player at each position. Sometimes you bench one and play another to get better results. If Gailey is in a full panic, what would you call Lindy Ruff's style? He benches players weekly. It's called "coaching" and you may want to study some other teams sometime and see that moving players around is not that rare.

[RuntheDamnBall]

Just travelling back in time, I wonder what a Dick Jauron panic attack looks like. Perhaps he raises his eyebrows, or adjusts his cap.

[Guest dog14787]

I've been a strong supporter of Chan Gailey since he was hired. He had a history of identifying the range and limits of his QBs abilities and working with him. So I was more than willing to believe that he saw something in Trent Edwards that I surely never did, and that he'd build an offense around him that would minimize his weaknesses while playing to his strengths. Hope springs eternal.

 

Yet two weeks into the season he benches his personally chosen starter. He did this on the heels of, for example, Brett Favre throwing three picks and the "great" Eli Manning and his "powerhouse" Giants getting beaten as badly as the Bills did on Sunday (worse, without that garbage TD at the end), with the team the Bills had a solid chance of beating last week (the Dolphins) besting media darling Minnesota.

 

I'm surely not saying benching Edwards is the wrong move only that it smells of panic. And then replacing Edwards with Fitzie? If, in Gailey's assessment, he wasn't good enough to dislodge Edwards (!!!) prior to yesterday, why in god's name does he think he's suddenly become the answer? And it comes on the heels of benching Spiller after ONE game.

 

I don't know about you guys, but this change causes me to question everything I thought about Gailey. And by extension, Buddy Nix's thinking.

 

 

Same thoughts here...

[tbonestake]

When he runs out onto the field Sunday in his birthday suit covered in blue and red body paint, then you could say he is in panic mode. This move was the smart one that ALL of us were pleading for on Sunday. Trent just doesn't have it and he never will. They showed him pouting on the sidelines. How many times did you ever see Jimbo pouting on the sidelines? We need a QB with some stones and the only one on the roster close to that is Fitz. Case Closed.

 

Edited September 21, 2010 by tbonestake

[RuntheDamnBall]

Same thoughts here...

Why? What, if anything, has Edwards shown you that leads you to equate him with Favre or even Eli? Is it his numerous 300 yard games? Is it the fact that he is too scared to even go after the garbage time TD? Is it the ability to completely avoid the receiver with open field ahead of him, instead trying to hit the guy on a crossing pattern with two tacklers ready to destroy him? Please share. This isn't a panic move. Edwards was a liability out there. For as much as Favre and Eli have been liabilities at times, it's because they are taking chances and trying to lead their teams to win - not to "not lose."

[Meark]

How can you keep a guy on the field when in the 4th quarter on 3rd and 10 with an open CJ Spiller in front of him.. he runs out of bounds for no gain. The next play on 4th and 10 he holds the ball and takes a freaking sack! Next series on 4th and 11 he freaking runs out of bounds.

 

Sorry, but there is no place on the field for someone that won't even attempt to throw on 4th down. You turn the ball over anyway if you don't make a completion so throw the damn ball!!!

 

At least Fitz will run up field vs out of bounds.. and he gets rid of the ball fast.. He also can make a completion while flushed out of the pocket.. something I can't remember Edwards ever really doing successfully..

[mowisc]

Nope, It had to be done. This is nothing more then a coaching decission.

 

Lets face it,the fans are in Panic mode, not the coaches.

 

This

[HARCO186]

I don't see it as panic mode. I feel he did the right thing right now. He seen the OTA's and watched the preseason, and even those who were on the sideline said Trent looked better. Trent just chokes when it counts. That's the bottom line I believe. I have been bashed for saying how bad Trent looked, but it showed. Trent can be a great guy, but it doesn't matter if he's not getting it done. I don't think things will improve either, but it shows the coach is not scared to pull a trigger and that message needed to get sent, and sent fast. Someone put a post on here saying Trent may have a disorder, and it might very well be true, we will never know. I hope Chan takes this to the top. We also have to get our o-line in order as well. I believe that unit starts at center and needs to work it's way out! I also feel Chan gave his team the benefeit of doubt that they were poorly coached. Now maybe he knows it was both, bad coaching and bad players. This is why they call it rebuilding.

[Buftex]

I've been a strong supporter of Chan Gailey since he was hired. He had a history of identifying the range and limits of his QBs abilities and working with him. So I was more than willing to believe that he saw something in Trent Edwards that I surely never did, and that he'd build an offense around him that would minimize his weaknesses while playing to his strengths. Hope springs eternal.

 

Yet two weeks into the season he benches his personally chosen starter. He did this on the heels of, for example, Brett Favre throwing three picks and the "great" Eli Manning and his "powerhouse" Giants getting beaten as badly as the Bills did on Sunday (worse, without that garbage TD at the end), with the team the Bills had a solid chance of beating last week (the Dolphins) besting media darling Minnesota.

 

I'm surely not saying benching Edwards is the wrong move only that it smells of panic. And then replacing Edwards with Fitzie? If, in Gailey's assessment, he wasn't good enough to dislodge Edwards (!!!) prior to yesterday, why in god's name does he think he's suddenly become the answer? And it comes on the heels of benching Spiller after ONE game.

 

I don't know about you guys, but this change causes me to question everything I thought about Gailey. And by extension, Buddy Nix's thinking.

 

He is benching Edwards because his performance is poor, whether he says it or not. Thee have been plays avaialable for Trent to make, he is just too timid to make them. Favre and Eli threw ints, their teams lost, but they also made some plays along the way, and neither looks like a deer in the headlights. Also, both QB's have a strong track record of success. Trent has a long track record of not being able to perform. Give credit to Gailey for seeing that, and acting on it. We all know this season is a wash, but it is Gailey's job to try to win games.

 

Ryan Fitzpatrick does little to excite me either, but I will say, he has, in the past, shown that he is at least willing to try to make plays.

[Koufax]

It is simply the right decision here. Trent had a chance. He has the tools, he edged out Fitz in camp, but all along Chan said that was the order they were in at that point, and it could change, and never "Trent is our guy, he is our starting QB, chips fall where they may". Trent was the slightly better performer out of three so-so QBs in camp, and Chan chose the best option at that time. The hope being that Trent could continue to put it together and perform once the season started.

 

Trent fell flat on his face, not just with overall results, but with decisions and actions on individual plays. Chan doesn't need to give him six weeks to realize that it isn't working, and a fourth year QB who barely won the competition has a short leash. I'm happy for the spark and change because the first two weeks were pretty embarassing.

 

I am disappointed that it isn't Brohm who at least has the mystery potential to be a good NFL QB that we could hope for, while I think we know Fitz's upside limits. Brohm will get his chance, and hopefully he takes better advantage of it than Trent did his. But for now, go Fitz!

 

I also do wonder if it might have been a better bet to try to hide things and have the surprise advantage against the Pats, but probably in this age of Twitter it would have been too hard and made it more difficult for the two QBs during practice.

[BuffaloBill]

Nope, It had to be done. This is nothing more then a coaching decission.

 

Lets face it,the fans are in Panic mode, not the coaches.

 

 

Amen .... a voice of reason.

 

Look if the Bills had signed Edwards to a new multi-year deal or something then I would say this is a panic move. Right now I see this as nothing more than Nix and Gailey still trying to figure out who and what they have on the roster. Personally, I wish that Brohm would get a shot as he is the only one amongst the three that has upside but probably hard to say to the rest of the team that we are going to "throw the season away" while we figure out if Brohm has a future in this league.

[DrDawkinstein]

no one is panicking at OBD. this is probably a surprise to no one that actually works for the team. This entire year is simply a try-out to see what piles of crap Nix/Gailey inherited that they might want to work with in the future.

 

Expect Fitz to be benched after the Bye week and the Brohm try-out to begin next.

 

MAYBE, if we were predicted to win the division and make the playoffs, they would be in panic mode. But we are no where near that yet, and with the amount of times Nix has said "you can't do it all in one offseason", no one at OBD is in "win now" mode.

 

nothing to panic about. this says nothing about the coaches, only about the one player (Edwards).

[zow2]

I actually respect Chan Gailey MORE now. He has what it takes to yank his hand picked starting QB only 2 games in. SOme coaches would let this linger for a few more weeks b/f pulling the plug. I questioned Gailey's intelligence for making Edwards the starter in the 1st place, but now respect the man for realizing quickly that it was a mistake. Fitz or Brohm may not make this club a whole lot better, but i suspect they won't retard the play of the rest of the offense like Edwards did,

[Amstel]

I don't think Gailey gives a damn what the fans or media think. He's going to do what he thinks is best (whether it turns out to be right or wrong). I think the move is exactly what he says it is- to try and get a spark. Its been two weeks and even with a more simplified game plan nothing changed from week one to week two. I know its not all Trents fault and I have nothing against him. Maybe he's just not capable of executing. Throw Fitz in there and see if he can rally the guys and score some points. It wasnt a kneejerk reaction in the middle of a game, he obviously gave it thought before making the decision.

 

Even if he truly "expects to win" surely he's "been around enough winning programs" to know that this roster is devoid of talent. With that said, I'm sure he wants to win as many games as he can in his first season even if he knows it won't be many. He knows he and Nix are going to be looking for the QB of the future after this season. However, I'm sure he wants to see improvement in the players that will be here next season especially the younger guys. Hence the move to Fitz to try and bring some life to the offense to give the other guys a chance to learn and have some success.

 

What Sully calls "panic mode" I call balls. While he doesn't come out and scream "Hey I made a mistake picking Trent to start" he's not too stubborn or worried about people thinking that he made a mistake to make the change. Jauron would wait until things got even worse or Trent got slightly knicked up to pin it on an injury or would've been worried about hurting Trents feelings......

 

I fully admit, even having seen all the same games and films you guys have I blindly hoped that Trent would put it all together and I fully support the move to put Fitz in.....

Edited September 21, 2010 by Amstel