Bledsoe being released by Bills

[skyline]

It's not that releasing Bledsoe shocks me, really. I think I'm more impressed with how much faith they have in Losman.

Anyone know who J.P.'s backup is going to be now?

[BengalNation1281]

Rob Johnson

Well, maybe not, but it would be funny

BN1281

[Willisdownyathroat]

First of all, this is one of the best days I've had in a long time regarding football. Thank god that loser does not represent the Bills. To answer your question, I have no idea. Shane Mathews was with the team last year, but I have a feeling they'll bring in a low priced vet like former Bengal Jeff Blake. Mularkey loves Losman and has all the faith in the world in him. We're going to live or die with JP under center so I'm not too concerned about the backup.

[skyline]

We're going to live or die with JP under center so I'm not too concerned about the backup.

Unless he gets hurt again...

[BengalNation1281]

Well the team was 9-7 with Bledsoe sucking, so Losman certainly can't be any worse.

Was this Bledsoe's choice? Did he pull a Kurt Warner and ask to be let go because he was convinced that he could still hack it when statistical evidence proved otherwise, or did they finally just realize that he sucked and drop him?

BN1281

[Willisdownyathroat]

Your Kurt Warner analogy is completely accurate. He was given the choice to return as a backup. His dillusional belief in his declining talent would never allow that. He's not a realistic team player like Jon Kitna. Can you believe Bledsoe has the same career QB rating as Mike Vick? This is one of the biggest frauds in NFL history.

[Willisdownyathroat]

We're going to live or die with JP under center so I'm not too concerned about the backup.

Unless he gets hurt again...

True. Personally, I've always liked Jeff Blake. Your guess is as good as mine where we'll go for a backup. My only thoughts are that it won't be a semi high priced guy who still wants to start like Garcia. It's likely to be a lower tier guy. Fiedler isn't that bad either.

[BengalNation1281]

Fiedler might try to demand more money than he is worth...he was pretty pissed about the way that he was benched in Miami, and he didn't seem to be too excited about being the tutor for a young QB.

Bledsoe should just retire. Even teams with unsure QB situations won't be too enthusiastic about making an effort for him...his attitude sucks and he's delusional. Kitna is one of a very rare breed, and Bledsoe can't even come close to what Kitna is in terms of being a team player and looking out for what is best for everyone. Bledsoe would rather go 5-11 and be the starter than go 15-1 and be a backup.

I truly hope that he fades away after he is gone...his stats baffle me, and it's odd to think that a QB who has been that weak for that long has some passing stats that rival some of the greats.

BN1281

[skyline]

Remember when the Bengals were heavily pursuing Bledsoe? Thank goodness that didn't happen!

[jjakq27]

First of all, this is one of the best days I've had in a long time regarding football. Thank god that loser does not represent the Bills. To answer your question, I have no idea. Shane Mathews was with the team last year, but I have a feeling they'll bring in a low priced vet like former Bengal Jeff Blake. Mularkey loves Losman and has all the faith in the world in him. We're going to live or die with JP under center so I'm not too concerned about the backup.

With Sam Wyche as QB coach, I think he will do well.

However, what happened to your buddy, "Drewstheman"? We haven't seen him around here for a long time.

[Willisdownyathroat]

First of all, this is one of the best days I've had in a long time regarding football. Thank god that loser does not represent the Bills. To answer your question, I have no idea. Shane Mathews was with the team last year, but I have a feeling they'll bring in a low priced vet like former Bengal Jeff Blake. Mularkey loves Losman and has all the faith in the world in him. We're going to live or die with JP under center so I'm not too concerned about the backup.

With Sam Wyche as QB coach, I think he will do well.

However, what happened to your buddy, "Drewstheman"? We haven't seen him around here for a long time.

JP's spending a ton of time with Wyche right now. That's a good thing. I dont even know about Drew'stheman or any idiot that still supported that guy. The only ones left over at our board have proven to never have been Bills fans and came over when he was traded from the Pats. It's amazing how large a following this loser has.

[jjakq27]

It sounds like Drew's ready to burst. Maybe he will end up in Cleveland, although Crennel already knows about him since they were both at NE.

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art...170392/1067/SPT

Thursday, February 17, 2005

QB Bledsoe to be cut loose by Buffalo

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. - Unwilling to accept a secondary role with the Buffalo Bills, quarterback Drew Bledsoe is seeking a new team and another shot at being a starter.

Granting Bledsoe's request to be cut, the Bills announced Wednesday they will waive the 12-year veteran Feb. 22, the first day NFL teams officially can release players. The decision came after the Bills informed him last week of their plans to give the starting job to J.P. Losman, a first-round draft choice last year.

"I completely disagree and can't understand their point of view," Bledsoe said during a conference call from his home in Oregon. "Do I think this is fair? No, I don't think it's fair. But I'm also aware that that's how it works, and I understand that."

Bledsoe, 33, had an inconsistent three-year tenure with Buffalo in which he started all 48 games.

But Bledsoe didn't bring enough victories, finishing 23-25 with the Bills, who haven't had a postseason berth since 1999. Bledsoe set 10 franchise passing records in his first season with the Bills but has gone 30 straight games without throwing for 300 or more yards.

[jjakq27]

http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/story/NFL_SC-RUMOR

Rumor Mill

SportsLine.com staff and wire reports

Bledsoe would be interested in Dallas The Bills will go with QB J.P. Losman over Drew Bledsoe next season, according to the Buffalo News. In making that move, the team announced on Wednesday that Bledsoe's tenure in Buffalo will come to an end. Bledsoe has no interest in being a backup and said he was shocked by the Bills' decision. He has interest in reuniting with the Cowboys' Bill Parcells.

[LesterLyles]

Bengals fans have to be a little happy to see this punk struggle the last few years after he made it clear he didn't want to play in CIncy....who is he to decidde where he wants to be traded to. The guy has stunk since 1997.

On that September 2001 afternoon, I absolutely loved when Mo Lewis pinned him into the sidelines...little did I know that the hit would change the entire football landscape forever.

[schweinhart]

Bledsoe has no interest in being a backup and said he was shocked by the Bills' decision. He has interest in reuniting with the Cowboys' Bill Parcells.

It sounds like Bledsoe is likely to be a Cowboy this year.

So the Bills are free to pursue Vinny as backup.

[BengalNation1281]

Vinny will only go to Buffalo if a "Shawl and Cup of Cocoa" clause are included in the contract.

Bledsoe in Dallas will give me yet another reason to hate the Cowboys, so I'm all for it. Let him go and ruin another team...not that he can do much to make the Cowboys any worse.

BN1281

[jjakq27]

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/8201404

Bills won't add much risk going with J.P.

By Vic Carucci

National Editor, NFL.com

(Feb. 16, 2005) -- The Buffalo Bills' decision to make young J.P. Losman their starting quarterback carries some risk, but not much more than they would have taken by sticking with Drew Bledsoe for another season.

Losman is raw. He has plenty of rough edges. He will make the kind of mistakes all first-time starting quarterbacks make.

And the Bills will have to deal with the consequences, some larger than others.

But the Bills also would have traveled a dangerous road with Bledsoe as their starter. Nothing he showed at the end of last season made a compelling enough case that, in the short run, he would have been a better choice to start than Losman, who obviously offers a far better long-term solution.

Bledsoe essentially produced a great half-season after arriving in Buffalo via a trade with the New England Patriots after the 2001 season. Since then, he has done little to deflect from the fact that his body of work as a Bill consists of a losing record (23-25) and not a single playoff appearance.

As his time in Buffalo progressed, Bledsoe looked less like the savior the Bills had hoped he would be after their 3-13 finish in 2001 and more like a mistake waiting to happen. His lack of mobility and general slow decision making became increasingly pronounced as opponents discovered the most effective way to stop the Bills was to generate unrelenting pressure on Bledsoe. If Bledsoe wasn't being sacked, he was forcing throws. Either way, he was susceptible to a turnover.

After a 0-4 start in 2004, the Bills found a workable formula to succeed with Bledsoe. They played power football that featured the talented rushing of Willis McGahee, strong defense and great special-teams play. The Bills didn't ask much of Bledsoe; they didn't put the weight of their offense or their team on his shoulder pads. They just needed him to be mostly efficient and make plays when necessary, and for the most part, that is exactly what he did as they rallied to nine victories.

But in the final game of the season, where a victory would have clinched a playoff berth, Bledsoe reverted to the mistake-prone player he had been for the second half of the 2002 season and most of 2003 -- the quarterback whose struggles prompted the Bills to make Losman one of two first-round draft picks last year. Facing a Pittsburgh Steelers team that had clinched home-field advantage through the playoffs and, therefore, was using mostly second- and third-string players, Bledsoe came up small. He completed 16 of 30 passes for 189 yards. He was intercepted once and was sacked three times. He had a perfect opportunity to rise to a postseason-like occasion. He didn't, and the Bills lost.

That undoubtedly factored heavily into the Bills' thought process when determining what to do about their quarterback position. If Bledsoe couldn't deliver under those circumstances, how was he going to deliver in other pressure-packed situations in the future? And when such questions surfaced about a 12-year NFL veteran, the obvious conclusion was that a second-year player wouldn't present much less comfort ... but he would present much more promise.

"We have a lot of confidence in J.P.," coach Mike Mularkey said.

That might be a tad of an overstatement, considering Losman made only four mop-up appearances as a rookie after missing the first half of the season with a broken leg suffered in training camp. However, Mularkey needs to express strong faith in the youngster. More important, Mularkey and his offensive coaching staff need an offseason and preseason of intensive work with Losman to prepare him for the 2005 campaign.

Losman needs to be fully committed to putting in the massive amount of time and energy to get ready for the starting role. Unlike Bledsoe, he has the footwork and playmaking skills on the run to make things happen when plays break down. But he has yet to demonstrate he has firm enough mental grasp of NFL defenses for anyone to automatically conclude he will represent a noticeable improvement over Bledsoe.

Could the Bills, who were so close to being a playoff team in '04, take some backward steps with Losman at quarterback? Yes. Are they taking a chance of failing to capitalize on their strong defense and special teams as they wait for Losman to develop? Absolutely.

Would keeping Bledsoe as the starter put them in a better position to reach the postseason? Not necessarily. Bledsoe continues to show he doesn't always locate open receivers all that quickly. He still takes too long to set up and often pats the ball before delivery. And his touch on short routes, the kind that allow an offense to exploit blitzing defenses, remains a major shortcoming.

"This is obviously a big decision," Mularkey said. "But this happens every year."

It does. Veterans move on. Young players take their place.

The Bills weighed the risks of sticking with a veteran or going with a rookie. In the end, there wasn't much short-term difference with either move.

[BengalNation1281]

"he has yet to demonstrate he has firm enough mental grasp of NFL defenses for anyone to automatically conclude he will represent a noticeable improvement over Bledsoe."

I bet Losman has better stats in his rookie year than Bledsoe had in 2004. I also bet that he has better stats in 2005 than Bledsoe will. Maybe I am just saying this because I hate, hate, HATE Bledsoe, but I don't think that Losman will do any worse against NFL defenses in 16 games than Bledsoe has or will.

It might take him a few games to get a good grasp of the NFL, as it did for Palmer, but I think that he will be one of the hot new QBs coming out of 2005...but the Bills still won't make the playoffs.

[jjakq27]

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/3413684

Bledsoe reportedly agrees to deal with Dallas

Drew Bledsoe was released by the Buffalo Bills on Tuesday and within hours, according to several reports, agreed to a deal with the Dallas Cowboys.

Bledsoe's reunion with coach Bill Parcells, who drafted the quarterback No. 1 overall and guided him to the Super Bowl in New England, was first reported by Dallas-Fort Worth television station KTVT and later by The Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. All cited sources.

The Bills announced plans to release him last week and the Cowboys were prepared with an offer right away. Bledsoe was ready for it, too, even saying last week that "Dallas is intriguing for obvious reasons."

"Playing for my old coach and then looking at the weapons they have offensively, that's intriguing," Bledsoe said in a conference call with reporters. "But there are a number of teams that are possibilities and Dalllas is one of those."

Bledsoe also indicated then that he'd rather retire than not be a starter, so there's little doubt he'll be taking over the Dallas offense, especially considering Parcells' affinity for his former players. Among his receivers will be receiver Terry Glenn, who caught passes from Bledsoe from 1996-2001 in New England.

The Cowboys have said all along they wanted to go with a veteran quarterback rather than turn to one of their youngsters, Drew Henson or Tony Romo. Henson threw just 18 passes as a rookie and Romo has never thrown a pass in his two NFL seasons. Bledsoe's arrival also means that Vinny Testaverde won't return.

Although Bledsoe is eight years younger than Testaverde, he's still considered on the downside of his career.

His statistics last season in guiding Buffalo to a 9-7 record were comparable to what Testaverde did in Dallas' 6-10 season. Bledsoe had 20 touchdowns and 16 interceptions, while Testaverde had 17 touchdowns and 20 interceptions. The Bills went into the final Sunday of the season with a chance to make the playoffs after an 0-4 start.

Bledsoe has thrown for more than 300 yards only once in the last two seasons. He made the Pro Bowl the year before that, his first with Buffalo after losing his job in New England to Tom Brady. He was 23-25 over three seasons with the Bills, never reaching the postseason.

[skyline]

Sorry, but I don't think this is a good move for Dallas at all.

I guess it just depends on your opinion of Bledsoe. I think his best years are behind him. If this team is going to sink again this year it needs to happen because they are trying to find their future solution, not because they are trying to fill in the holes with a temporary fix.

[bengalboomer7]

This is Parcell's ego getting in his own way. I'm glad I'm not a Cowboys fan cause he is ruining that team to try to maintain his "genius" status. Then he'll quit and they'll have all these old guys on their team that they'll have to cut and start over again. Some genius there, huh Tuna

[LesterLyles]

Sorry, but I don't think this is a good move for Dallas at all.

I guess it just depends on your opinion of Bledsoe. I think his best years are behind him. If this team is going to sink again this year it needs to happen because they are trying to find their future solution, not because they are trying to fill in the holes with a temporary fix.

He's lost w/o those assistants. Think about that staff he had w/ Giants, Pats and Jets. W/ Giants he had Bellichump, Coughlin, Groh, Crennel. W/ the Jets Bellichicken, Weiss, Groh, Crennel, Henning. Excellent excellent staff. Tuna is being exposed right now.

[BengalNation1281]

My favorite Parcells quote from 2004 was the one that he repeated on a weekly basis when asked why he was keeping the young, promising, future-of-the-franchise QB on the bench in favor of Testaverde: "Vinny gives us our best chance to win."

How can a 41-year-old, INT-prone QB who led the team to a 6-10 record be their best chance of winning? Easy answer: he isn't. What he was was the excuse that Parcells used when he couldn't come up with any legitimate reasons to keep Henson on the bench, but wanted to maintain his stranglehold on the situation and not let Jerry Jones have the say in who was going to be the QB, even when he knew what he was talking about.

If I was a Cowboys fan, I would hibernate until Parcells leaves and the team can rebuild itself with a coach who will look for the best way to build his team and make it win, rather than an egomaniac who only wants to show that he's the coach and you're not, so what do you know about anything?

Parcells is such a joke. but wouldn't it be funny if Bledsoe got hurt and Henson came off the bench and won a few games, cemented his status as the franchise QB, and forced Bledsoe out? I would find that hilarious.

[BengalszoneBilly]

It seems that if you ever played for Parcells at any time, you got yourself a job with him later if you need it! Now that's a buddy, eh?

[jditty47]

cowboys will suck next year. i cant wait.