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Unusually negative Tim Graham on PFT


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http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/07/12/pft-live-can-fitzpatrick-turn-the-bills-around/

 

Very interesting interview on PFT live. However, I was surprised with the seemingly negative tone of Tim Graham's comments. I may be off base, but he seemed to poo poo the positive spin Florio was trying to put on the Bills offseason. I only noticed because it's the first time I've ever heard a "home town" reporter speaking less positively about his team than Florio. Struck me as out of character for Tim. What do you guys think?

 

Why did I say he was "negative?"

 

1- Florio- Great offseason, fans must be excited.

Graham- Bills have a bad track record, people aren't as excited as you think

 

2- Florio- New QB coach has people excited about Fitz's potential.

Graham- New stuff never worked for old boxers, so Fitz probably won't get much better.

 

3- Florio- Who's gonna be #2?

Graham- TJ drops balls and can't go over the middle.

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1) though we're always optimistic, it's still very tempered due to our history. Negative or accurate?

 

2) it is hard to rework a motion at this point in your career. Many of us question if it will amount to more than a minor improvement and if so why isn't lee the most in demand guy around?

 

3) the number 2 wr is a huge question mark no ones filled yet. What would you say to who's the number 2?

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1) though we're always optimistic, it's still very tempered due to our history. Negative or accurate?

 

2) it is hard to rework a motion at this point in your career. Many of us question if it will amount to more than a minor improvement and if so why isn't lee the most in demand guy around?

 

3) the number 2 wr is a huge question mark no ones filled yet. What would you say to who's the number 2?

 

I understand what you're doing with this post, but if I recall correctly, Lee was pretty "in demand" this offseason...

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I'm a longtime lurker, had an account for a couple years, never posted but the season has me excited. I've been interested in getting involved on TBD but its been slow past week or two but this thread is something I wanted to comment on.

 

The guy who started this thread is offended by negativity and his whole thing is negative. He pulled out every negative slanted thing from the interview. I listened to it. I thought Graham came off as excited about the season too and layed out all the reasons. The ONLY thing that stopped him short was Fitz. He said Bills fans were guarded and I think that's accurate at least from my friends I talk to.

 

On the second question Florio himself said QB coaching doesn't always work and mentioned the failed Tebow overhaul from last year. Graham just said its hard for old dogs to learn new tricks and talked about Stevie saying Fitz looked much better throwing to his left. Graham also said he's convinced Fitz played hurt last year. Graham also talked up David Lee and the Wildcat and Brad Smith.

 

On the third question Graham said a lot of great things about Donald Jones. He mentioned T.J. had a prblem with drops and going acrross the middle at NC State which he did. Not some smoking gun accusation exactly.

 

So anyways, one of my pet peeves are people who look for reasons to get upset. This thread is exactly that. I heard a totally different interview than the author of this thread.

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I'm a longtime lurker, had an account for a couple years, never posted but the season has me excited. I've been interested in getting involved on TBD but its been slow past week or two but this thread is something I wanted to comment on.

 

The guy who started this thread is offended by negativity and his whole thing is negative. He pulled out every negative slanted thing from the interview. I listened to it. I thought Graham came off as excited about the season too and layed out all the reasons. The ONLY thing that stopped him short was Fitz. He said Bills fans were guarded and I think that's accurate at least from my friends I talk to.

 

On the second question Florio himself said QB coaching doesn't always work and mentioned the failed Tebow overhaul from last year. Graham just said its hard for old dogs to learn new tricks and talked about Stevie saying Fitz looked much better throwing to his left. Graham also said he's convinced Fitz played hurt last year. Graham also talked up David Lee and the Wildcat and Brad Smith.

 

On the third question Graham said a lot of great things about Donald Jones. He mentioned T.J. had a prblem with drops and going acrross the middle at NC State which he did. Not some smoking gun accusation exactly.

 

So anyways, one of my pet peeves are people who look for reasons to get upset. This thread is exactly that. I heard a totally different interview than the author of this thread.

I'm interested to watch/listen the interview.Thanks for the alternate take… not gonna take sides for now… but welcome to the board.

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giving an honest assessment of the bills and identifying possible areas of concern now constitutes being unusually negative?

 

i think you all might be unusually sensitive to any criticism of your favorite team, no matter how innocuous.

Edited by Dirtbag
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I watched/listened to all 20:42 of it and I didn't think it was all that negative. It was a long interview and covered a lot of territory.

 

The most negative thing to me was Graham's prediction that the Bills would go 8-8 or 9-7. He also said it was not a "playoff or bust" season which I'm not sure is an accurate characterization considering the team and fan expectations.

 

He did express doubt that David Lee would have much of an effect on Fitz but also did mention that Stevie Johnson said that there had been an improvement on Fitz' throws downfield to the left.

 

Graham seemed pretty excited about Shawne Merriman and in general I thought was just trying to play the part of the sober, dispassionate observer.

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I'm not quite sure what the OP's beef is with a couple measured (and accurate) comments from an otherwise positive interview. Is Graham supposed to be a cheerleader now that he's at TBN?

 

I completely agree with TG's comments about Fitz. In my view he's shown very little to suggest he can become some breakout star QB. Yes he's shown flashes of elite performance. Until he produces like that consistently and leads the team to the playoffs, though, it's probably smarter to keep a measured opinion of him. I don't think a new QB coach is going to change his game any more than Gailey already has. Staying healthy behind a healthy O line for an entire year might, though.

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Yeah thank you. I'm glad I'm not the only one who saw it that way. Pretty down the middle is why I was so surprised this got its own thread. And thanks for the welcome San Jose. I think this is going to be a fun season.

 

One question about the playoff or bust thing because I'm not sure I know what to think on that point. Do you think if the Bills don't make the playoffs that Chan and/or Buddy are fired? I'm trying to think of other ways it would be playoff or bust. They're not going to break up the core of the team? but its an interesting thing to think about.

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Wow. You guys really like to attack don't you? I thought the interview slanted a bit negative and I outlined my reasoning and then asked if you thought I was off base and all of a sudden I am super sensitive and looking for negative things to say? For the record, Tim Graham is my favorite Buffalo sportswriter. I read all of his stuff and I agree he is objective and a very good writer. If you go back in the timeline you'd see that I regularly sided with Tim when he used to post here on the board. The ONLY thing about my post I would change is the title, which states the article was negative. I should have put a question mark at the end.

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One question about the playoff or bust thing because I'm not sure I know what to think on that point. Do you think if the Bills don't make the playoffs that Chan and/or Buddy are fired? I'm trying to think of other ways it would be playoff or bust. They're not going to break up the core of the team? but its an interesting thing to think about.

 

i was surprised that graham suggested the team could win 7 games and still be thrilled by their progress. the notion that they might not surpass the jauron threshold makes me physically ill.

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Wow. You guys really like to attack don't you? I thought the interview slanted a bit negative and I outlined my reasoning and then asked if you thought I was off base and all of a sudden I am super sensitive and looking for negative things to say? For the record, Tim Graham is my favorite Buffalo sportswriter. I read all of his stuff and I agree he is objective and a very good writer. If you go back in the timeline you'd see that I regularly sided with Tim when he used to post here on the board. The ONLY thing about my post I would change is the title, which states the article was negative. I should have put a question mark at the end.

 

Nah, not trying to attack you man. I just thought his responses were measured, not negative. And as far as his Fitz comments, i agreed with all of them.

 

I do think much of the fanbase is excited this offseason based on the Williams, Anderson, and Stevie signings, so i disagree with Graham on that point.

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Wow. You guys really like to attack don't you? I thought the interview slanted a bit negative and I outlined my reasoning and then asked if you thought I was off base and all of a sudden I am super sensitive and looking for negative things to say? For the record, Tim Graham is my favorite Buffalo sportswriter. I read all of his stuff and I agree he is objective and a very good writer. If you go back in the timeline you'd see that I regularly sided with Tim when he used to post here on the board. The ONLY thing about my post I would change is the title, which states the article was negative. I should have put a question mark at the end.

I didn't see this as a Tim Graham issue... I saw it as a strange thread to start by taking only the critical things he said and the positive things Mike Florio said to use in your post and ignoring all the positive things Tim Graham said and the critical points Mike Florio had. the thread came off to me as totally the opposite of the interview I heard.

 

i was surprised that graham suggested the team could win 7 games and still be thrilled by their progress. the notion that they might not surpass the jauron threshold makes me physically ill.

same here

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Yeah thank you. I'm glad I'm not the only one who saw it that way. Pretty down the middle is why I was so surprised this got its own thread. And thanks for the welcome San Jose. I think this is going to be a fun season.

 

One question about the playoff or bust thing because I'm not sure I know what to think on that point. Do you think if the Bills don't make the playoffs that Chan and/or Buddy are fired? I'm trying to think of other ways it would be playoff or bust. They're not going to break up the core of the team? but its an interesting thing to think about.

I think it is interesting to consider having to go into next season with a playoff or bust mentality, while also having to rely on a rookie QB - so, the Bills coaches and GM are either taking a longer look at things, or they are putting a lot of faith in Fitz.

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http://profootballta...e-bills-around/

 

Very interesting interview on PFT live. However, I was surprised with the seemingly negative tone of Tim Graham's comments. I may be off base, but he seemed to poo poo the positive spin Florio was trying to put on the Bills offseason. I only noticed because it's the first time I've ever heard a "home town" reporter speaking less positively about his team than Florio. Struck me as out of character for Tim. What do you guys think?

 

Why did I say he was "negative?"

 

1- Florio- Great offseason, fans must be excited.

Graham- Bills have a bad track record, people aren't as excited as you think

 

2- Florio- New QB coach has people excited about Fitz's potential.

Graham- New stuff never worked for old boxers, so Fitz probably won't get much better.

 

3- Florio- Who's gonna be #2?

Graham- TJ drops balls and can't go over the middle.

 

#1 Buffalo also had a Extremely bad track record before the SUPERBOWL years

#2. Fitz is not a boxer

#3 Who says Graham will even play?

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1) though we're always optimistic, it's still very tempered due to our history. Negative or accurate?

 

2) it is hard to rework a motion at this point in your career. Many of us question if it will amount to more than a minor improvement and if so why isn't lee the most in demand guy around?

 

3) the number 2 wr is a huge question mark no ones filled yet. What would you say to who's the number 2?

I with you on all 3.

 

Cautiously optimistic.

 

It will take more than 1 off season to change how Fitzpatty plays QB. He's been using that throwing motion for quite some time and I don't expect it to change much. I think that they are concentrating on footwork and that does make sense to me. Don't tear apart everything he does, work on one aspect and see if he can do that better/more consistently.

 

We don't know who our #2 is. TG's namesake may be able to step in, but that's questionable. If he can catch the ball can he hang on to it? Jones got lots of pub during OTAs and minicamp. Is the team trying to boost his morale or did he do very well? Can he repeat that performance with pads on and angry men wanting to rip his head off. Can SJ take the next step?

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To the OP -- wow, you should get into political advertising. Way to nitpick and put the most negative slant possible on Graham's comments, without providing ANY context. Thank you, JeffNixonFan, for filling in the blanks.

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Let's see this objectively...

 

1. Tim has been a regular here.

 

2. Most every TBD thread includes "we're doomed" or some such notion.

 

3. Tim writes that fans are not as excited as you may think.

 

Sounds accurate to me.

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http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/07/12/pft-live-can-fitzpatrick-turn-the-bills-around/

 

Very interesting interview on PFT live. However, I was surprised with the seemingly negative tone of Tim Graham's comments. I may be off base, but he seemed to poo poo the positive spin Florio was trying to put on the Bills offseason. I only noticed because it's the first time I've ever heard a "home town" reporter speaking less positively about his team than Florio. Struck me as out of character for Tim. What do you guys think?

 

Be careful, don't criticize him too much- he might take all his toys and go home.

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I understand what you're doing with this post, but if I recall correctly, Lee was pretty "in demand" this offseason...

 

He had us and the jets. Which is fair. If he could easily turn around any qb though, he'd be the most valuable coach in the league. Thats all I was getting at. Sure we like him, but it's not a gimme that it works out.

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I'm a longtime lurker, had an account for a couple years, never posted but the season has me excited. I've been interested in getting involved on TBD but its been slow past week or two but this thread is something I wanted to comment on.

 

The guy who started this thread is offended by negativity and his whole thing is negative. He pulled out every negative slanted thing from the interview. I listened to it. I thought Graham came off as excited about the season too and layed out all the reasons. The ONLY thing that stopped him short was Fitz. He said Bills fans were guarded and I think that's accurate at least from my friends I talk to.

 

On the second question Florio himself said QB coaching doesn't always work and mentioned the failed Tebow overhaul from last year. Graham just said its hard for old dogs to learn new tricks and talked about Stevie saying Fitz looked much better throwing to his left. Graham also said he's convinced Fitz played hurt last year. Graham also talked up David Lee and the Wildcat and Brad Smith.

 

On the third question Graham said a lot of great things about Donald Jones. He mentioned T.J. had a prblem with drops and going acrross the middle at NC State which he did. Not some smoking gun accusation exactly.

 

So anyways, one of my pet peeves are people who look for reasons to get upset. This thread is exactly that. I heard a totally different interview than the author of this thread.

 

Thanks for the alternate take on the interview.

 

A significant difference between the Tebow total-overhaul attempt and Lee's attempts to help Fitz is the scope of the overhaul needed. Lee acknowledges that at times Fitz is "deadly accurate", not to be messed with, and that his "funny body" (on the run) throws are good. He made the point that it's a subset of throws, throws when Fitz has time in the pocket, that need change. And it doesn't have to see a lot of success - 1-2 more completions and 1 less interception on average per game would put Fitz up in the top 10, where he was for the first 8 games.

 

I think it's spot on that people are on the fence about Fitz. Teen Insight summarized it well in another thread if Fitz is playing like himself, are we 0-6 or 6-0? They want to know if we're seeing progressive improvement in a serviceable QB who is now getting 1st team reps and coaching attention for the 1st time in his life, or an above-average streak of games for the first half of the year, to be followed by regression to the mean. I think the former, but I understand why there is concern about the latter.

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While a lot of us around here are excited for the upcoming season, I'm sure we all have a little hesitation, given the good starts the team has enjoyed in recent years with a complete unravel for each, and I also feel like the Sabres awful season has something to do with the tempered excitement sentiment from Tim as well.

 

As far as the Fitzpatrick comments, I tend to agree with him slightly, since we have been down this road with JP and Trent having Turk Shonert.... But this is a new season, different players involved, and I'm taking a we'll see approach on that too.

 

And as far as TJ Graham goes, we haven't had the best of luck with our WR draft picks, he(Tim) was not entirely wrong with his assessment on the drops, and I think that the team may already have more game ready talent on the roster, so TJ will have time to develop, and may not even be a factor this season.

 

I'd be happy to see TJ flourish, but I am also a fan of Donald Jones and the rest of the goon squad if they can stay healthy, plus I also have that desire to see Easley make a splash, I just have a good feeling about the guy, like a lot of TSW members did about Stevie when we were all waiting for Hardy to not be a bust.

 

I can see the OP's point a little, but I probably would have had similar comments in an interview too.

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*shrugs*

 

He makes valid points. We've been excited in the recent past and failed. We've started strong and failed. We need to put it together before talking up this year's team as great. Fitz may or may not improve, there's no guarantees. At the very least he's shown improvement over the last couple of years, but he's still incredibly inconsistent. There is no way that any reasonable person can predict with 100% certainty that we will have a good year, or that Fitz will make giant strides. I'm hopeful both things happen, but that's about all I can be.

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Wow. You guys really like to attack don't you? I thought the interview slanted a bit negative and I outlined my reasoning and then asked if you thought I was off base and all of a sudden I am super sensitive and looking for negative things to say? For the record, Tim Graham is my favorite Buffalo sportswriter. I read all of his stuff and I agree he is objective and a very good writer. If you go back in the timeline you'd see that I regularly sided with Tim when he used to post here on the board. The ONLY thing about my post I would change is the title, which states the article was negative. I should have put a question mark at the end.

I agree with you.

 

Graham sounded irritated and was much more negative than expected.

 

Florio was asking fluff, softball, rah rah questions. In any other team it would be much more rah rah shish boom bah.

 

I wonder if someone pissed in his Wheaties that morning.

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i was surprised that graham suggested the team could win 7 games and still be thrilled by their progress. the notion that they might not surpass the jauron threshold makes me physically ill.

 

 

No way is seven wins to be considered a "good" season. I might accept missing the playoffs but not a losing season. The Bills need to be in the playoff picture with a winning record going into the final week for this to be a "good" season.

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Listened to it and I disagree with the characterization that he said there isn't much excitement. I think he's saying that fans have been burned before, but there was excitement for adding the FA's along with the playmakers they have, and that excitement will build as the season approaches.

 

As for Fitz not being able to improve based on watching boxers, that's ridiculous.

 

And Graham probably won't be the #2 this year. Not to mention I didn't hear of problems with dropping passes or not going across the middle in OTAs/minicamp.

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7-8 wins would be awful for this team in my eyes. The final year of the 3 year plan that the FO set in place and after one great draft and one un-proven, yet still looks great, draft; Getting off to a 5-2 start to lose out to what seemed like depth issues which looks to have been fixed; and the fact that its been so long since this team has made the playoffs.

 

Ending at or below .500 would be disappointing to me.

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I think some people are too hung up on QB performance, in that they expect perfection. In all my years of football watching I've yet to see a QB play a perfect game. Even the greats have bad games. Not saying Fitz is one of the greats, just that people's assessment of him can be unrealistic.

 

PTR

Edited by PromoTheRobot
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think Tim Graham comments fair enough. Think generally speaking supporters of team are pleased with general direction of team and optimistic , but this tempered by the sobering realities of past failures. Fans will be excited when they actually make playoffs .

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http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/07/12/pft-live-can-fitzpatrick-turn-the-bills-around/

 

Very interesting interview on PFT live. However, I was surprised with the seemingly negative tone of Tim Graham's comments. I may be off base, but he seemed to poo poo the positive spin Florio was trying to put on the Bills offseason. I only noticed because it's the first time I've ever heard a "home town" reporter speaking less positively about his team than Florio. Struck me as out of character for Tim. What do you guys think?

 

Why did I say he was "negative?"

 

1- Florio- Great offseason, fans must be excited.

Graham- Bills have a bad track record, people aren't as excited as you think

 

2- Florio- New QB coach has people excited about Fitz's potential.

Graham- New stuff never worked for old boxers, so Fitz probably won't get much better.

 

3- Florio- Who's gonna be #2?

Graham- TJ drops balls and can't go over the middle.

 

 

1. I think he's wrong about being excited. I think we all are. Obviously we shouldn't be thinking playoffs until we see what this team can do this year, but there is a buzz about the team and you'd have to live in a hole not to notice it...

 

2. The X-Factor. Can Fitz get better and lead this team to the playoffs. That's the Million dollar question...

 

3. We don't know who the #2 is. All points right now it's Still Donald Jones' to lose. Stevie came out of nowhere. We need someone to do the same. It that's TJ, Even better...

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think Tim Graham comments fair enough. Think generally speaking supporters of team are pleased with general direction of team and optimistic , but this tempered by the sobering realities of past failures. Fans will be excited when they actually make playoffs .

 

 

Agreed, the Bills by any measure had a solid off-season, and with their resignings and added free agents, have shown a willingness to build a strong team. But they still haven't played a down yet, even the players are tempered in there remarks that they have to prove it on the field. TG's interview was hopeful, but tempered with a wait and see attitude.

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I thought I would chime in here. He was rah rah about the defense. He was realistic about the offense. Can David Lee make a big difference in Fitz? Who is our #2 and #3 WR's? He didn't talk about the OL where we have improved IMHO. The most negative thing was the W-L record he predicted 8-8 or 9-7, I think we go 10-6 this year. TG conceded losing the division to NE. I don't concede defeat we can win the division and then we don't have to fight for that 6th play off spot.

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I'm a longtime lurker, had an account for a couple years, never posted but the season has me excited. I've been interested in getting involved on TBD but its been slow past week or two but this thread is something I wanted to comment on.

 

The guy who started this thread is offended by negativity and his whole thing is negative. He pulled out every negative slanted thing from the interview. I listened to it. I thought Graham came off as excited about the season too and layed out all the reasons. The ONLY thing that stopped him short was Fitz. He said Bills fans were guarded and I think that's accurate at least from my friends I talk to.

 

On the second question Florio himself said QB coaching doesn't always work and mentioned the failed Tebow overhaul from last year. Graham just said its hard for old dogs to learn new tricks and talked about Stevie saying Fitz looked much better throwing to his left. Graham also said he's convinced Fitz played hurt last year. Graham also talked up David Lee and the Wildcat and Brad Smith.

 

On the third question Graham said a lot of great things about Donald Jones. He mentioned T.J. had a prblem with drops and going acrross the middle at NC State which he did. Not some smoking gun accusation exactly.

 

So anyways, one of my pet peeves are people who look for reasons to get upset. This thread is exactly that. I heard a totally different interview than the author of this thread.

 

Thanks for joining in... I appreciate your point of view.

 

However, while Tim certainly didn't morph into Sully and wasn't entirely negative, he was more Negative Nancy than usual in his Florio interview.

 

Tim's predicting 8-8 or 9-7... says playoffs are possible but doesn't seem optimistic.

Edited by hondo in seattle
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