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Fitz under pressure


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A fast start and solid contributions by all Bills players offense and defense will certanly help. I am a supporter of Fitz. But if he falters he will take the team with him. Does he have a supper short leash? 0-2 pull him? Or ride the magic show all year long? Here is a good articlhttp://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d8294f7b1/article/ryan-fitzpatrick-faces-pivotal-seasone about him. I am sure most of you have read it.

Edited by Jeffery Lester
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Yes, I think the season is squarely on his shoulders, meaning I doubt we can win much without him. No way would we pull him after two loses unless there was something clearly wrong, like he was hurt.

 

Of course we'd pull RF at some point. I'm curious how bad people think it needs to be to pull him. I personally think the season has to be clearly lost an we need to have someone else we want to assess (VY?).

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Let's be real about a few things:

 

1) 0-2 won't be enough under almost any circumstance.

 

2) There is a leash though, and it's not "season lost" length

 

 

Obviously the length will depend on how V. Young looks. If things are going bad and coaches don't believe it will turn around w/ Fitz, they'll pull his ass for Young no question about it. No reason to wait until the season is lost to do that.

 

Personally if he's struggling bad all the way to the bye and it looks like the rest of the team is capable of winning...I sit his ass. That said I don't think that happens. So long story short IMO week 8. Now if we're 0-5 and it's all his fault...that's a different story...but that won't happen.

Edited by TheNewBills
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Depends how the losses end up. Are they because he is missing open receivers, bad decisions and turn overs ? Or are the loses from shootouts, special teams blunders, bad defense, bad oline. Etc... think you would have to carefully evaluate his performance and decide if he gives us the best chance to win

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When are my fellow Buffalo Bills fans here going to realize that Ryan Fitzpatrick is NOT a starting NFL quarterback? This team goes NOWHERE with him as QB.

 

OK, well maybe not nowhere but certainly not deep in the playoffs. Not at all!! He's just WAY too easy for opposing defensive coordinators to game plan against.

 

The guy's just not going to be there for us when it counts - in the (possible) playoffs!

 

Wake up, people!!

Edited by PearlHowardman
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When are my fellow Buffalo Bills fans here going to realize that Ryan Fitzpatrick is NOT a starting NFL quarterback? This team goes NOWHERE with him as QB.

 

OK, well maybe not nowhere but certainly not deep in the playoffs. Not at all!! He's just WAY too easy for opposing defensive coordinators to game plan against.

 

The guy's just not going to be there for us when it counts - in the (possible) playoffs!

 

Wake up, people!!

I'm awake. Now, explain yourself. Some specifics about the opposing team's gameplan would be a good start.

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A fast start and solid contributions by all Bills players offense and defense will certanly help. I am a supporter of Fitz. But if he falters he will take the team with him. Does he have a supper short leash? 0-2 pull him? Or ride the magic show all year long? Here is a good articlhttp://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d8294f7b1/article/ryan-fitzpatrick-faces-pivotal-seasone about him. I am sure most of you have read it.

 

How could he be under any more pressure than last year, where he knew if the offense didn't score a TD virtually every time they had the ball, the game would be over by halftime? That's pressure right there...knowing you have to be close to perfect because the other side of the ball is so bad, the team has no chance otherwise...

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When are my fellow Buffalo Bills fans here going to realize that Ryan Fitzpatrick is NOT a starting NFL quarterback?

 

Ah.....Pearl....Ryan Fitzpatrick IS a starting NFL quarterback. It says so on the Buffalo roster. It says so on the NFL stats. The Bills played 16 games last year and he started every one.

 

When are my fellow Buffalo Bills fans going to realize this is not an arguable point? .

 

Now he may not ever be an elite (top 5) NFL quarterback. He may not be a top-10 NFL quarterback - though he played on that level at the start of the season.

He may not be the QB you'd prefer to have starting if you were "NFL coach for a day"

 

But starting NFL QB...facts is facts jack and he's not the worst in the league by any stretch (and that includes a couple of guys drafted far higher than he was).

 

EDIT: I think this is another example of the fan judgement Meathead described as "Star or Suck". Fitzpatrick isn't Brady, Brees, Rodgers, or Manning. So he must suck. There are no middle-of-the-pack NFL starters. Oh, and every team who drafts a guy in the first round to be their "franchise QB" gets a sure-fire star from year one - they're all Stars.

Edited by Hopeful
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How could he be under any more pressure than last year, where he knew if the offense didn't score a TD virtually every time they had the ball, the game would be over by halftime? That's pressure right there...knowing you have to be close to perfect because the other side of the ball is so bad, the team has no chance otherwise...

 

You mean the defense which bailed him out a number of times w/interceptions or are you talking about fantasy football?

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You mean the defense which bailed him out a number of times w/interceptions or are you talking about fantasy football?

 

Well, I could be mistaken, I think he means the defense which allowed a bottom-feeding 27 points per game (30 out of 32 in the NFL), including scores on every successive possession in a number of games.

Or he might mean the defense that was 27th in the league for rushing YPA given up (4.8) and 28th in the league for rushing yards given up. He could mean the defense that allowed a generous 63.3% completion percentage, on the other hand, when you give up enough rushing yards to make every series 3rd-and-short, how much does the opposition really need to pass? 3,714 yds or 7.7 YPA would appear to be the answer.

 

I guess hauling in 20 INTs ((top 10 in the league, an average of 1 1/4 per game) makes up for all that? Or defensive stats only count in fantasy?

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He *shouldn't* have the entire season riding on his shoulders. That's why we have 53 men on the roster.

 

Ok, overly simplistic. I know. Fitz is the quarterback. A lot will be riding on him. But I agree with what I lot of people here have already said: Fitz is not an elite Top-10 quarterback. He simply isn't.

 

Does that mean that without one, we won't go to the playoffs? Of course not!

 

Joe Flacco, Andy Dalton and Tim Tebow are NOT elite QB's, yet their teams all made the playoffs.

 

I think that it is prudent to remind people that in the "year of the elite quarterback" it was NOT the team with the best passer. Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers are all better quarterbacks than Eli Manning. What led the Giants into their turnaround was the type of D-line that we are trying to build, coupled with a potent RB combo, which we have the tools for.

 

If we have those, I think a lot of pressure comes off of Fitz.

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He *shouldn't* have the entire season riding on his shoulders. That's why we have 53 men on the roster.

Ok, overly simplistic. I know. Fitz is the quarterback. A lot will be riding on him. But I agree with what I lot of people here have already said: Fitz is not an elite Top-10 quarterback. He simply isn't.

Does that mean that without one, we won't go to the playoffs? Of course not!

Joe Flacco, Andy Dalton and Tim Tebow are NOT elite QB's, yet their teams all made the playoffs.

 

Also in playoffs: TJ Yates. Alex Smith. Not ready to call Matt Ryan a "top 10 QB" quite yet either.

 

I think that it is prudent to remind people that in the "year of the elite quarterback" it was NOT the team with the best passer. Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers are all better quarterbacks than Eli Manning. What led the Giants into their turnaround was the type of D-line that we are trying to build, coupled with a potent RB combo, which we have the tools for.

If we have those, I think a lot of pressure comes off of Fitz.

 

This.

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Ding! DIng! Ding! :worthy:

 

We all luvs to be appreciated :rolleyes:

 

Looked at numerically in another way:

 

Fitz threw 23 INTs last year. Let's say that every single one of those put the D in such a bad position that 7 points were inevitable (this isn't true, of course - work with me here).

That would be 161 points, or 10 points per game.

 

That means the D gave up 17 points per game that had nothing whatsoever to do with Fitz. If they cut the bleeding by just 1 TD per game, even if our offense does not one bit better, now all of a sudden we average 23 points on offense and 20 points on defense. (That would have given us a 9-12th ranked D last year, by the way, which is respectable for the personnel we've acquired but not unbelievably stellar)

 

Football is a simple game: you score more points than you give up, you typically win more than you lose. And if you're above average on both offense and defense, even only slightly, you typically do see playoffs.

Edited by Hopeful
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Now wait just a minute there, hoss.

 

There's definitely pressure on Fitzpatrick, and rightfully so. IMO, he could use a bit more pressure in terms of competition for the starting job, but the whole thing isn't riding on Fitz's arm.

 

I see this entire season as CHAN GAILEY'S BABY. He's the guy who's supposed to be designing this offense to cater to the strengths of it's players. Whether or not Fitz stumbles out of the gates next season is a secondary concern. I want to see how mr big-shot creative offensive guru calls the first three games. That will tell me alot about what to expect from the remaining thirteen.

 

I think it goes without saying that if we go 6-10 next season, Chan should recieve the proverbial boot. And truthfully, I don't see a new head coach keeping Fitzpatrick as his starter. No way.

Edited by #34fan
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