Fear the Beard, on 15 June 2012 - 02:48 AM, said:
NFN, but I've been saying for years the Bills have had NOBODY in that Bills OC position that knew WTH they were doing!! Even Jauon's first OC Steve Fairchild wasn't a true OC as Mike Martz called the offensive plays in St Louis. So yea! It doesn't shock me in the least to hear Fitz state he has never had proper training in proper fundamental QB technique. Kinda the reason as to why JP Losman and Trent Edwards were never developed properly either.
I look at Fitz and see a Rich Gannon type clone, another QB who was also a very smart guy. A seasoned journeyman veteran QB that flourished under offensive minded Jon Gruden near the end of his 17 year NFL career, and took his team to the super bowl. Didn't become a pro bowl QB until his10th year, and played on some pretty crappy teams before he joined the Raiders.
Fitz is a very smart guy, and not just book smart as 49 out of 50 on his "wonderlic"will tell you. He also learned how to beat the AFC north teams during his time in Cincy. That was evidenced by the way he played in 2010 against the Steelers, Ravens, Bengals, Browns. So it stands to reason if given time he will learn how to beat Rex Ryans, Bill Belichicks and Mike Nolans defenses, the main ingredient in the recipe to winning the AFC East.
I think teams don't necessarily need to develop a "franchise" QB from scratch as long as they build the offense properly, starting with the O line. Build the very best O line you can, get the QB a top TE as an outlet. Get a top WR corps and go from there to see what the QB can do if given time in the pocket. Stating that,the Bills still have a ways to go to catch teams like the NY Giants offensively! Line, receiving corps, play calling, offensive game plan.
So in my view Fitz will do better this year just having a better line and proper QB coaching.
Gannon comparison holds no water at all. It is a complete farce to say he was on bad teams. He played for the Vikings for 6 seasons, and they made the playoffs in 4 of them. He just happened to play behind Wade Wilson who was not that bad, but got hurt a lot. He played 4 years in KC and in two of them they were 13-3 and in 2 of them they were over .500 in 3 of them, they just had guys ahead of him like Steve Bono and Grbac.
Gannon was always decent, this is the complete misconception. He just had guys that were successful, played well, and went to the playoffs who were ahead of him on the depth chart. There is a major, complete major difference in Gannon and Fitzpatrick, and they are not even close to the same story or player. Fitz was a backup on all back teams, Gannon was a backup on all good teams, when Fitz finally got to start he was terrible, absolutely awful, and when Gannon got to start he was instant money, a pro bowl level player.
Please never compare Fitzpatrick to any player that was a good QB, Fitzpatrick should never be an NFL starter.
Edited by paintmyhouse, 15 June 2012 - 07:43 AM.