I’m just about as tired of hearing “maybe this is the year” as all the cynical Bills fans out there. Maybe that’s why instead of my obligatory 10 win prediction I’m sticking to six or seven wins max for Buffalo this year. But for a few precious moments, I thought the Bills would have a shot. It wasn’t just the hopeful Bills fan in me either. I genuinely had high hopes for this team throughout the first two weeks of the Pre-season. Those hopes could be attributed to one player: E.J Manuel.
Manuel had a very strong outing in the first two tune-up games. I also saw him live at St. John Fisher and he looked light years ahead of Kevin Kolb. Now I know he is a rookie but hear me out. The Buffalo Bills have not had such a promising prospect at Quarterback since Jim Kelly retired. For those of you who want to point out that J.P Losman, Trent Edwards or Ryan Fitzpatrick were once viewed as the answer to the Bills problem at QB, none of those guys, even at their best gave the Bills as much hope as Manuel did.
After Fitzpatrick’s amazing start to the 2011 season and subsequent contract extension most thought he would finally end the Bills playoff drought. I believed, but I never expected anything more than that from him. Fitzpatrick is a game manager at best and would be hard pressed to win a Super Bowl.
Hate is a strong word, but I always HATED Trent Edwards. Even before the infamous Cardinals game in 2008, I didn’t think he was starting material. People who say he was a bust forget the fact that he was a third round draft pick. I think he should have sat a couple of years before even being considered as a starter but he was anointed the savior after a couple of good but not outstanding performances subbing in for the injured JP Losman.
Edwards proceeded to show me and everyone else that he shouldn’t have been a starter in the NFL over the next several years. I could never have real hope in the Bills when their starting Quarterback’s nickname was Captain Checkdown.
Moving on to JP Losman, he was a first round draft pick. He had the talent to take over games unlike Fitzpatrick. So why didn’t I have hope in him leading the team? Well, I did. And matter of fact, I thought he could have been a Super Bowl winning Quarterback. To this day I will still argue that Losman did not get a fair shake at the Bills QB job. He had a broken leg his rookie year then three offensive coordinators in three years with a horrible offensive line.
But if I am making a comparison I have to say that EJ Manuel provides more hope for the Bills simply because if the Bills front office is right than EJ Manuel will be the best of this year’s QB class since he was the first taken. Let’s say Losman panned out. For argument’s sake let’s even say he brought Buffalo its first Super Bowl victory. Losman would have been a savoir but I still would have questioned what would be had we gotten one of the Quarterbacks taken before him. Eli Manning and Ben Roethlisberger both have two Super Bowl rings and are most likely first ballot Hall of Famers with at least five more years to pad their resume’s. The fact that Losman was the fourth QB taken would have lingered in the back of my mind.
To get to the guy who is supposed to be “the man” moving forward. I had high hopes about this season for a while thanks to E.J Manuel. He has the size and arm strength to take over games. Until another QB in his class steps up, he has to be considered the best and he represents a change that has taken place at One Bills Drive this year. For the first time since 2001, the roster is free of players brought in during the Tom Donahoe era, the unofficial start to the Bills decade plus of mediocrity. Manuel was endorsed by Doug Marrone, a head coach who looks not to be a subdued leader like Chan Gailey, Dick Jauron and other Bills coaches of the last 10 years.
Manuel represents real hope for this franchise. With his injury some of that hope was temporally lost. Kevin Kolb was by no means horrible but he has nowhere near the skill set of Manuel. Then what little hope was left was crushed when Kolb went down with a concussion in the Washington pre-season game, which is being termed by some as career ending by some. While I may not have approved of him as a starting QB, I never want to see anyone’s career end because of injury and I truly wish Kolb a speedy recovery, and if it is safe for him, the ability to step onto the football field again.
Because of these injuries, the hopes of Bills fans are, for the time being, placed on the arm of undrafted rookie QB Jeff Tuel. When Doug Marrone indicated that Tuel may start Week One, the city of Buffalo seemed to panic. I’ll admit I thought the Bills season would be over before it started with the announcement but realized quickly I’m not worried so much about having a guy who knows the system and has two solid pre-season games under his belt as much as having two backup quarterbacks brought in two weeks before the season opener be the next options.
There is the outside chance that Tuel could be the next Kurt Warner but the reality is if Bills fans want true hope there is only one player who can offer it: EJ Manuel. While his injury may put things on hold for a while, once Manuel is healthy I think he will show that my hope, and the hope of all Bills fans is rightly placed.
For more articles by Jerome visit www.buffalobornjerome.com
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
