Fan in San Diego Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 What is the Bills QB coach position supposed to be doing with Fitz? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebug Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 It's a little broke... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fan in San Diego Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 I hope Fitz shaves his face this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajzepp Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 It's a little broke... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T master Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 (edited) Seeing as how he was a 7th round pick out of Harvard behind Marc Bulger and Jamie Martin, then went to Cinci to back up Carson Palmer then came here to backup future hall of famer Trentative Edwards, maybe the backup QBs mechanics werent the highest priority to the coaches. Lots of QBs have bad mechanics. Its not uncommon. The ones with the best mechanics arent the best at the game. Ask Trent and Brian Brohm how much mechanics have made them successful QBs. Be Happy that Fitz is continuing to get better rather than rest on his fancy contract Well all that you said is well & good & more than likely has some substance to it , but if we learn by example & the example is the best in the NFL , those being the obvious - Brady , Manning , & Brees then i think he should have been motivated to find some one to help him long before now . Especially seeing as he has been in the NFL for a while now .. Teabow noticed & did something to help his mechanics ! Brady had his college coach that he called after every game to tell him what he did wrong & hooked up with him every off season . So to sit back & say that he didn't know how to fix it or what ever it may be at this level of competition doesn't really show a winning mentality ! But let's hope that with Lee now fixing what is wrong with his mechanics Fitz will realize what it takes to be the winner we need in B/lo !!! Edited June 4, 2012 by T master Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buftex Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 Somewhere in that interview, Fitz made the distinction between "completing a pass" and "being accurate"...which I like hearing....of course, he still has to put it into practice. I really think, in some ways, our receivers (Johnson, Jones, Nelson, Hagan, Chandler etc) put up some pretty decent numbers last year, considering how inaccurately Fitz got the ball to them. They really had to work to catch a lot of that stuff. If Fitz learns how to place the ball where it leads the receiver, they could look a whole lot better as a receiving corps. Teabow noticed & did something to help his mechanics ! Brady had his college coach that he called after every game to tell him what he did wrong & hooked up with him every off season . So to sit back & say that he didn't know how to fix it or what ever it may be at this level of competition doesn't really show a winning mentality ! But let's hope that with Lee now fixing what is wrong with his mechanics Fitz will realize what it takes to be the winner we need in B/lo !!! We still have to see it in game situations. A lot of guys take the time to improve their mechanics in the off-season, only to have them break down again, when the bullets start to fly, and instinct kicks in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwolf02 Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 Bubba Watson... "Never taken a lesson and never even watched my swing on video or had any video analysis of my swing" - he's won a major and a score of other events...great golfer and what does he say? "I'm a feel player"... that could be Fitzy. If it ain't broke don't fix it. +1. Beat me to it. Also said if he ever took a lesson the game wouldn't be fun for him anymore and he'd likely quit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockpile Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 It's a little broke... Everyone can be improved with good coaching. Using a baseball sidebar to make a point, Jeter had some batting coaching and changed his hitting mechanics a bit last year, and went on to hit (and pass) the 3000 mark last summer. No one suggested drastic change, like batting 'lefty', just fined tune a good player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marv's Neighbor Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 It's the truth, it's actual, Everything is satisfactual, Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockpile Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 What really hurts is when the ball is placed on the numbers and the receiver drops it! Fitz understands QB and receiver have to both perform well. Accuracy improves that percentage of success, though. Somewhere in that interview, Fitz made the distinction between "completing a pass" and "being accurate"...which I like hearing....of course, he still has to put it into practice. I really think, in some ways, our receivers (Johnson, Jones, Nelson, Hagan, Chandler etc) put up some pretty decent numbers last year, considering how inaccurately Fitz got the ball to them. They really had to work to catch a lot of that stuff. If Fitz learns how to place the ball where it leads the receiver, they could look a whole lot better as a receiving corps. We still have to see it in game situations. A lot of guys take the time to improve their mechanics in the off-season, only to have them break down again, when the bullets start to fly, and instinct kicks in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobChalmers Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 +1. Beat me to it. Also said if he ever took a lesson the game wouldn't be fun for him anymore and he'd likely quit. Fitz has real accuracy issues. It's most definitely at least a little broke. I don't hold the lack of mechanics training specifically against Fitz or the Bills - I'm sure it's pretty typical. I am a bit surprised that at the NFL level it's not addressed more aggressively. My son is a D3 lacrosse goalie. All through his school and club ball growing up, the level of mechanics work he got from 95% of his coaching staffs - even some of the really hgood club teams - was limited at best. He does also have a private coach/tutor who is a real guru of goalie technique. Every time he gets a chance to work with him, my son ends up showing significant improvement in his next action. Just this spring, his college coaches didn't know he'd gotten private lessons the week before, but two of them remarked at his next sessions how sharp he looked in practice. They didn't know WHY he was better - they could just see the effectiveness. Point being, it's amazing how little good technique coaching there is at a lot of positions in a lot of sports. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramblin' Rob Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 I hope Fitz shaves his face this year. Booo! His beard is epic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeFerguson Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 Remember in gym class there were certain kids that just couldn't throw a spiral and then there were some that could? Do you think Jim Kelly ever had throwing lessons? You either are good at throwing a ball or you're not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eball Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 I loved the recent comments from Lee about how quickly Fitz was picking things up. He said something along the lines of, "I didn't think he'd hit the back shoulder throw until the middle of camp, but he hit it Friday." Fitz is a smart guy (he went to Harvard, you know) and despite what you'd think from reading this board, he's athletic and has plenty of arm strength. If he sees the results from tweaking his footwork and it becomes muscle memory, he'll be just fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buftex Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 What really hurts is when the ball is placed on the numbers and the receiver drops it! Fitz understands QB and receiver have to both perform well. Accuracy improves that percentage of success, though. Agreed. I just think there is still some up-side to the Bills passing game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meark Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 Because the Rams and Cincinnatti are two teams we want to emulate. Who said anything about emulating anyone besides you? Just pointing out facts.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodeMonkey Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 I loved the recent comments from Lee about how quickly Fitz was picking things up. He said something along the lines of, "I didn't think he'd hit the back shoulder throw until the middle of camp, but he hit it Friday." Fitz is a smart guy (he went to Harvard, you know) and despite what you'd think from reading this board, he's athletic and has plenty of arm strength. If he sees the results from tweaking his footwork and it becomes muscle memory, he'll be just fine. Hitting them statically is one thing, and doing it under pressure yet another. But if Fitz can improve his accuracy just in the 20 yard passes it should make a huge difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
folz Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 I'm a big Fitz supporter and think he's going to have a great year (just thought I'd get that out of the way first). Two years ago, I was not sold on Fitz from the 8 games or so he'd started as a Bill to that point. I thought his throwing motion looked erratic (like he was pushing the ball) when he'd throw to the sidelines. Then he totally won me over with his heart, play, and moxie during the 2010 season. I've seen him improve from 2009 to 2010 and then again from 2010 to 2011. I don't think Fitz's issue is arm strength, I've seen him zip passes into his receivers between two defenders, he's been able to hit Chandler and Nelson deep over the middle, I've seen him throw the deep ball (like that 99-yarder to T. O.) when he has time and a consistent legit deep threat to throw to (when he has missed bombs in the past it's more of a timing issue with he and the WR, rather than the throws always being short). He's been great with the short passing game and I think he hits the guys in stride pretty well...just look at Stevie's YAC over the last two years. He's been able to improve his accuracy. Guys last off-season said he was a career sub-60% passer and would never improve. Then last year, even with the bad second half to the season, he had a 62% completion percentage. So, I really don't think those are the major issues even though that's what so many people continually bring up. Now, I'm no football guru by any means, but where I think he has still struggled is with the deep sideline throws (deep outs and sideline hooks over 10 yards--"back shoulder throws?"). Look at the two picks in the Giants game for example (both were the same type of throw). Now that could be arm strength, but maybe it's mechanics (like I said earlier, his motion on those throws always looked weird to me). I think if Lee can get Fitz to improve on those throws, he'll be a more complete QB and his Accuracy % will go up even more. And I really think with a healthy O-line and WR corps and a better defense that prevents us from playing from behind all the time (and making Fitz feel he has to force things) his interceptions will go down significantly. And like others said, being a career backup until the last couple of years (with questionable franchises/coaches: Rams, Bengals, Jauron-era Bills) it's not surprising that he didn't get coached up that much individually. And sometimes you don't know you're doing anything wrong or know how to improve it until someone points it out to you and shows you how to fix it. So for me, this is a good thing that someone is finally pointing out the flaws in his game and working on them...not a point to get down on Fitz for. I have a feeling there will be a lot fewer Fitz-detractors after this upcoming season. Go Bills! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eball Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 I'm a big Fitz supporter and think he's going to have a great year (just thought I'd get that out of the way first). <snip for brevity> I have a feeling there will be a lot fewer Fitz-detractors after this upcoming season. Go Bills! Nice post, folz. Lots of good stuff in there. I think Fitz' accuracy can still be reasonably debated -- it's not just making the completion, but where you get the receiver the ball -- but the mechanics he's working on now should allow him to improve that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meathead Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 my uncle joe smoked two packs a day and lived until he was ninety, therefore smoking is safe this is essentially the rationale of not taking instruction because somebody else didnt need to in order to be successful. you see this a lot among aspiring musicians, they point to jimi hendrix and say hell he played the guitar upside down so i dont need no damn lessons. lol yeah for every one of those theres a thousand pro musicians that did take lessons. you dont need to recreate the entire wheel to be a good race car driver yes it indeed was surprising to me that fitz said he had never had mechanics instruction. while its true that most of a qbs success comes from between the ears, that still doesnt mean you cant improve with various types of physical training including throwing mechanics. it doesnt guarantee anything, it could just be putting lipstick on a pig cough tebow cough, but considering fitzs struggles with wtf throws especially long balls to his left you would think it would have been provided by now nevertheless, if this training sticks with him and he fixes those glaring weaknesses in his game he could easily transform into a legit undisputed franchise guy this season. if Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyBaroo Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 i think the comment had to be slightly exaggerated. never had a technician might have been never had one quite this thorough or demanding of changes even. it wouldnt make sense that no one ever looked at his mechanics Agreed - Fitzy is just a good company man. I just don't think it usually works to mess with mechanics at this stage - there is such a thing as overcoaching. Look at what they tried to do with Bledsoe with the timer and everything - that didn't even come close to working Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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