Blogging the Boys has a weekly Q and A with other bloggers, and this week he talks to Buffalo Rumblings. The Bills, coming off their first win of the season -- behind rookie Trent Edwards, no less -- face the Cowboys on Monday night.
Dallas is 4-0 and will clinch homefield advantage with a win (joke), and Buffalo is just looking for some consistency in a season marred by injuries and crappy luck. But unlike virtually everybody else who watches football, Buffalo Rumblings makes a good point about not yet handing the starting quarterback job to Edwards, despite his solid outing against the Jets.
Take Edwards' debut success with a grain of salt - I'm pretty sure the Jets' defense could make Trent Dilfer look good, and that guy is just awful....First, Dilfer will be replacing Brian Billick with Buffalo Rumblings on his "Guys I Really, Really Hate" list. Second, that's a solid point about Losman. Ostensibly, the Bills drafted Edwards for the future -- as insurance against a Losman collapse. One line of thinking goes something like this: Losman's been awful every year and hasn't shown any improvement. Why start him?
There is a growing contingent of Bills fans who are calling for Edwards to start, but I'm not among them - for better or worse, 2007 is the Year of Losman. The team really, really, really needs to play Losman as much as possible to finally figure out if he's "the guy" - and I think that's exactly what Dick Jauron will do. So yes, there's a controversy, but I don't think that controversy extends beyond the fan base.
Fair enough, but here's the thing: Unless the league opens up the postseason to all 32 teams, the Bills aren't going to the playoffs. Why not see if Losman can do more than take sacks and throw picks? I suppose you could argue that this time could be spent grooming Edwards, but there is no evidence that playing a rookie in his first season correlates with future success. In fact, a lot of successful NFL quarterbacks sat as rookies.
I'm not completely convinced Losman will do anything other than what we expect him to do when he returns, but mayb that doesn't mean Edwards should be rushed on the field either. I think.
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Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. Here are some more reasons to stick with Losman. Denver, New England Pittsburgh.
Losman had to go against 3 of the 4 or 5 toughest defenses the Bills will face all year. Denver was able to completely take away Lee Evans, his only real receiving threat. Pittsburgh's blitzing schemes kept him off balance all day and didn't give him enough time to wait for deep routes to Evans, his only receiving threat, to develop. And New England was pretty much able to do both.
Where as Edwards played against a defense that was pretty bad to begin with and has been hit hard by injuries all over their secondary, which was really the only part of their defense that shined last year. If Losman had played in the Jets game I don't doubt he would have out performed Edwards, by a pretty large margin.
Posted at 2:04PM on Oct 6th 2007 by Gina
2. Another reason for J.P. to keep his job for now: The Bills did not open up the offensive game plan in the 1st 3 games. They did in game 4 against the Jets. W's and L's at this point should not the be the basis of the Bills QB decisions. With a wide open offensive game plan, which QB actually makes the better decisions, should be the deciding factor. Stretching the defense will help the running game which will ultimately give either QB the chance to show their decision making abilities. The QB decision should be made after J.P. has his chance to showcase those skills in several games. In the 1st 3 games the coaches' gameplan did not allow that, so it is way too early to give up on him.
Posted at 10:39AM on Oct 7th 2007 by Gordon
3. People have been saying that he has had 4 years to prove himself which is bunk. He missed 95% of his rookie year with a broken leg, something that definitely altered his learning curve. The next year he was yanked and de-yanked for the immortal Kelly Holcomb which couldn't be good for a young QB. Last year was his first full season and he finished strong. This year he had 2 games and 1 drive against 3 top defenses. So it's actually around 1.5 years.
Unless Trent ends Monday with 4 TD passes and a 95+ QB rating you have to go with JP. At the beginning of the year we were told it was his team, we have to see if it is.
Posted at 6:53PM on Oct 7th 2007 by twoeightnine