Thought Exercise: Best Bills QB (99-2017) who'd be JA17 backup

[mannc]

11 hours ago, The Jokeman said:

Easily Fitz.

This is the only answer…

Edited 5 hours ago by mannc

[boyst]

2 hours ago, Alphadawg7 said:

Ok…so seeing Vince Young and Matt Leinart on this list legit blew my mind as I totally forgot their career farewell tours had a stop here.  
 

Who would have thought watching the absolute epic 2005 National Championship game with Young, Leinart, and Bush that they would all make stops here as shells of their former college glory on farewell tours of disappointing careers.  
 

 

Not only that we had Mario williams, too. 

 

With whitner we had 5 of the top ten picks of the 2006 draft on our roster lol

[dave mcbride]

Flutie, and it's not even close. Fitz would be second and Tyrod third.

[chris heff]

11 hours ago, Bruffalo said:

Prime Flutie for me and I don't know that it's really close. Fitz is a distant second.

 

Flutie could make magic happen, I'd prefer having a wildcard backup QB who can make plays out of nothing when things break down over a gunslinger like Fitz.

The problem with Flutie was that the league figured him out. He was like a pitcher that once hitters got a good look they knew what he couldn’t do. I’d have to go with Fitz, he went to Harvard you know.

[dave mcbride]

10 hours ago, 34-78-83 said:

It would never be Flutie with his team dividing locker room presence and tactics. 
 

Taylor has the perfect mentality for it and won’t lose the game with turnovers but won’t win you games on his own.

 

Fitz could win you 2 out of 4, or 4 out of 9, with ups and downs.

 

 

Guess I’d go with Taylor

 

 

 

 

I don't know about that. Flute was flat-out better than Johnson. He's not even in the same league as Allen.

Just now, chris heff said:

The problem with Flutie was that the league figured him out. He was like a pitcher that once hitters got a good look they knew what he couldn’t do. I’d have to go with Fitz, he went to Harvard you know.

Flutie played extremely well in 2000, going 4-1. That was his third season with the Bills, but Johnson was handed the job that year on the order of Wilson. He was 22-9 overall as a Bills starter.

[Bruffalo]

3 minutes ago, chris heff said:

The problem with Flutie was that the league figured him out. He was like a pitcher that once hitters got a good look they knew what he couldn’t do. I’d have to go with Fitz, he went to Harvard you know.

I think Flutie in a modern offense would be a more effective Kyler Murray.  I think he'd shine with Joe Brady or a lot of the newest generation of OCs.  

[Mat68]

Fitz and it is not remotely close.  Good vibes.  If needed for a 3 game stretch he would go 2-1 maybe 3-0 with the current team.  
 

Best non Bills game experience was being at the Tampa game when Fitz started and threw for 5 tds.  He wore Desean Jacksons jump suit and chains to the post game presser.  Fitz is the master of here for a fun time not a long time.  Always came in hot.  After defenses catch up he cools off.  Perfect backup.   

Edited 4 hours ago by Mat68

[chris heff]

13 minutes ago, dave mcbride said:

I don't know about that. Flute was flat-out better than Johnson. He's not even in the same league as Allen.

Flutie played extremely well in 2000, going 4-1. That was his third season with the Bills, but Johnson was handed the job that year on the order of Wilson. He was 22-9 overall as a Bills starter.

That team went 4-1, the entire league and anyone watching him knew he couldn’t throw down field. A deep out? Forget it.

[dave mcbride]

39 minutes ago, chris heff said:

That team went 4-1, the entire league and anyone watching him knew he couldn’t throw down field. A deep out? Forget it.

They were 4-7 with Johnson, though.

[Sgt. Ski]

13 hours ago, boyst said:

Since Jim Kelly we have had many pretty good guys come to town and be a good QB, a few even great. We have had some guys who were below par and some barely deserving a roster spot.

 

From Kelly Holcomb, Kevin Kolb, Vince Young, Matt Leinert, Drew Bledsoe, Doug Flutie/Rob Johnson, Todd Collins, Alex Van Pelt, Tyrod Taylor, and Ryan Fitzpatrick we can think of many to take a snap. Any QB who has taken a snap for us since Jim Kelly retired is eligible.

 

But which QB would be the best backup to JA17 in 2025?

They cut vince young before the season even though he was better than who we had at the time. he had a 3-1 good games to bad. would have liked to see him during the reg season.

13 hours ago, boyst said:

Since Jim Kelly we have had many pretty good guys come to town and be a good QB, a few even great. We have had some guys who were below par and some barely deserving a roster spot.

 

From Kelly Holcomb, Kevin Kolb, Vince Young, Matt Leinert, Drew Bledsoe, Doug Flutie/Rob Johnson, Todd Collins, Alex Van Pelt, Tyrod Taylor, and Ryan Fitzpatrick we can think of many to take a snap. Any QB who has taken a snap for us since Jim Kelly retired is eligible.

 

But which QB would be the best backup to JA17 in 2025?

why is Petermen not on this list?

[boyst]

6 minutes ago, Sgt. Ski said:

They cut vince young before the season even though he was better than who we had at the time. he had a 3-1 good games to bad. would have liked to see him during the reg season.

why is Petermen not on this list?

because you can't compare the legendary Peterman to anyone else... maybe Jeff Tuel or Brian Brohm.

 

the disappointment had by many that neither of the latter were given a fair chance was hilarious, too.

 

Kyle Orton also gets no love

[billsfan89]

13 hours ago, RyanC883 said:

I’d go with Tyrod.  He’d win at least 50 percent of games if he needed to come in and play. 

 

Tyrod also keeps the running component of Josh intact. Toss in that he can play in a way that complements McD's defense (as seen in 2017) and I think he by far makes the best backup. 

[JJGauna]

No love for Tuel time?

 

Fitz by a mile. Flutie, Tyrod, and Orton receive honorable mention.

[chris heff]

38 minutes ago, dave mcbride said:

They were 4-7 with Johnson, though.

Johnson sucked, Flutie was better than Johnson.

[NoName]

My top three:

1: Tyrod - protected the ball, made plays and was a dual threat.

2. Fitz - He threw too many picks, but his anticipation and football smarts were really good.

3. Flutie - That little guy was fun to watch.  He was a play maker and shouldn't have gotten benched for the titan's playoff game. 

 

14 hours ago, EasternOHBillsFan said:

Drew Bledsoe by far... the best QB after Kelly and JA we had.

Bledsoe was the best for half a season. 

1 hour ago, boyst said:

because you can't compare the legendary Peterman to anyone else... maybe Jeff Tuel or Brian Brohm.

 

the disappointment had by many that neither of the latter were given a fair chance was hilarious, too.

 

Kyle Orton also gets no love

Speaking of legends, Billy Joe Hobert!  The man who was proud about not studying the playbook before going on to throw multiple picks.  

Edited 2 hours ago by NoName

[Capco]

14 hours ago, transient said:

There is only one answer… the Chroisen one himself, Gibran Hamdan. 

Iirc, on the old bbmb message boards there was at least one poster who advertised a fan group called "Hamdan's Honeys" 🤣

[GunnerBill]

The right answer is Fitz. I was kinda sad he didn't come back to back up Josh for one final year in 2021 to then retire a Bill. I believe Beane had a conversation with him and then Washington arrived on the scene offering an opportunity to start and obviously he was gonna take that. 

 

I started watching the Bills in 02. Fitz was easily the most fun watch of any QB we had between then and Josh. And when the team isn't good just give me entertainment. Nothing worse than a bad team trying to Jauron ball its way to 7 wins with Kelly Holcomb throwing 3 yard passes 15 times a game. 

[JP51]

Fitz

[EasternOHBillsFan]

34 minutes ago, NoName said:

My top three:

1: Tyrod - protected the ball, made plays and was a dual threat.

2. Fitz - He threw too many picks, but his anticipation and football smarts were really good.

3. Flutie - That little guy was fun to watch.  He was a play maker and shouldn't have gotten benched for the titan's playoff game. 

 

Bledsoe was the best for half a season. 

 

As a backup, all you would need was half a season in play, right? Bledsoe had a lot of playoff experience and won four playoff games and appeared in the Super Bowl while Flutie did not, so I'm taking Bledsoe as a backup.

Edited 2 hours ago by EasternOHBillsFan

[frostbitmic]

I thought I'd go with Fitz ... He went to Harvard ya know. The problem with Fitz though is that it seemed wherever he went as a backup, the starter got injured, so not wanting Josh to get injured I'd have to go with Bledsoe. Our line is good enough to protect the statue that was Bledsoe and he was pretty good at throwing it.