Lol its been 2 preseason games slow down there buddy. Sanchez had a good rookie preseason and even won offensive rookie in the week I think 2 of the first 3 weeks of the regular season.
I'm not saying Manuel is going to the Pro Bowl. I'm saying that he's beaten Kolb. I think the competition is a wrap. And as for his year, Manuel is showing a lot of poise. On his TD tonight, Smith was the 3rd read, Manuel was not even looking to that side of the field off the snap. He was comfortable scanning the field and finding the wide open smith for the touch. I think he will surprise this year. So far he hasn't shown any reason to think otherwise.
Just like your # of SBs. Btw, looking at your "location," you must be a 'transient' living on the east side of Yonkers (the Central Ave. 'transient' side, vs. the real Yonkers, i.e. NW)...no one in the Terrace City follows a team located 400 miles away and who play "home" games outside of the United States of America. Rob Ford says hello.
Yeah, its pretty funny watching a fan of a team that hasn't seen the last 40? 43? SB's talk down to another team about SB success.
The thing that I find funniest about the Bills situation is that they hit on a bunch of picks last year with Manuel apparently working out at QB and Alonso being a ROY candidate and Woods playing well, etc. They have CJ Spiller having another good year and other receivers playing well. They have a Pro Bowl safety candidate in Jairus Byrd and their big free agent pickup two years ago, Mario Williams, is having a monster year for them. And they're still 4-8, a game behind the Jets. And you can't even bring up Manuel getting hurt as a major factor because they are 3-5 in games he started. The perception is that the Jets are a flaming wreck about to hit the wall hard with regime changes and all that but they're still a game better than the Bills and it's not like the Bills could have had much more go right for them or the Jets much more going wrong.
You can contribute that to this team never actually being healthy all season. We started the season without Gilmore, Byrd and Brooks.......we had to move Aaron Williams from SS to CB.........we basically played without 3/5 of our secondary for 6 games. Fred and CJ have been banged up since that 1st Jets game........CJ with a high ankle sprain and Fred with a sprained MCL. The you take into account we had to start Lewis/Tuel for 4 games. We lost to the Pats with a last second FG, Bengals in OT, Browns late in the 4th after the EJ injury, Chiefs game due to Tuel channeling his inner Geno and the Falcons in OT. Without the injuries we are anywhere from 6-6 to 9-3......but we are what we are.
The problem is that this conversation happens every year in Buffalo... (here's my buffalo rant) The organization is not the only one to have injuries, it's not the only one to lose close games, etc.. but it is the only one not to make the playoffs in this millennium. And why is that? I think it has a lot to do with an acceptance of mediocrity -ie. the using of excuses like this every year. This speaks to Bradway's point, but I spend a lot of time in and around Buffalo and the consensus you get from both the fanbase and the organization as a whole is that this year is relatively successful. Are you kidding me? the consensus on the Jets are that we are terrible and yet our record is one better than you guys...the Jets have had injuries, the Jets have lost close games, etc.. We're not here saying that, we're talking about blowing this thing up. This mentality I see from the Buffalo organization has roster ramifications. I think about a guy like Stevie Johnson - how many times does he need to blow games for Buffalo before the organization does something about it? (they can start with not offering a large extension) He has almost single handedly blown at least 1 game a year in his starting career. Last week he fumbles away the Atlanta game and at the end of the year, the narrative in Buffalo will be - "we were close all year, look at this game and that game," and the Atlanta game will be one of them. The story isn't man- "we'd be in the playoffs if Stevie Johnson didn't blow the Atlanta game" as it would be here in NY. We wouldn't be joking about the "Why so serious?" thing it would be "TIME TO GET SERIOUS JOHNSON" Maybe the Jets organization gives up on players too soon and the media/fanbase/etc makes too much pressure on it's team. But that's a hell of a lot better than accepting or even embracing (in Johnson's case) mediocrity. Buffalo has far bigger problems than just injuries this year. And for the record, EJ Manuel could very well be worse than Geno Smith. I wouldn't throw him in there as an injury excuse as your record would likely be the same whether he was injured or not.
God, you sound like Saints fans making excuses. Everyone has injuries. The Patriots lost practically all their receivers/tight ends and won a ton of games anyway. The Jets have been missing various receivers/tight ends/DBs.
Really? You cant bring up Manuel getting hurt as a major factor in our win/loss record? In the games Manuel played and finished, we are 3-4. He beat the defending Super Bowl Champs in Baltimore, lead the team down the field with under 1 minute left to beat the 9-3 Carolina Panthers, and we all saw what he did to your precious defense. The games we lost while he was out were clearly related to the despicable play by Jeff Tuel - an undrafted rookie free agent. We win in Cleveland with Manuel, no doubt. Tuel couldn't complete a pass. It was thoroughly embarrassing. We win against Kansas City, no doubt, as Tuel throws 2 pick-sixes that were just awful. He single-handedly lost the game for us. We were in overtime against the 9-4 Bengals with Thad Lewis at QB, a team that blew you out. Its clearly reasonable to think that Manuel, a better QB than both of those two, would have been a deciding factor in a win versus a loss. To say there is no difference between playing the game with EJ Manuel or playing the game with Jeff Tuel is both ignorant and stupid, especially as the QB is the most important position on the field. Not to mention the Jets won two games accidentally - 1 when Geno couldn't run the two minute drill, but the offense was lucky enough to have some moron on Tampa Bay commit a personal foul when Geno was already 2 steps out of bounds, which extended the drive, put the team in field goal range, and won them a game the Jets wouldnt have won. Another, when the refs decided to call a penalty on the Patriots, when they havent made that call on any team the entire season. So please dont act like the Jets have more going for them. One team is pointed in one direction, while the other is pointed in the other. We all know which is which. I agree with your point about mentality, but disagree with 2 of your other statements, namely that Stevie Johnson is mediocre, and also that Manuel could be worse than Geno and the Bills record would be the same had he not gotten injured. Stevie Johnson is 1 of 3 receivers in NFL history to have 3 seasons of at least 75 catches and 1,000 yards before the age of 27. He has had a 1,000 yard season each of the last 3 years. There arent many receivers who can say that. If that's mediocre, I dont know what is. What does that make Santonio Holmes? Manuel worse than Smith? I'm not even going to address how stupid that is. It isn't worth it. And for the Manuel injury comment, see my opinion above.
I liked Tyler Eifert - having a decent season. I think he'll be very good. Jonathan Cooper - on IR. Robert Woods - looks to be a solid receiver for Buffalo for years to come.
Technically our starting QB's also been on IR the entire season. To keep with the topic of the thread, we could have used Keenan Allen too, but we'd probably have screwed him up somehow.
Keenan Allen is really good. Great value. I haven't seen Eifert play to say anything one way or the other. When the Bills played them, I don't even remember seeing him. Tavon Austin is the electric player we all thought he would be.
a few of the WR that came out last year are showing promise this year and austin is a good example. - also hopkins, woods, hunter, patterson etc etc. think dallas has a rookie WR also but i forget the name.