Like his mentor Mike Martz, Bills offensive coordinator Steve Fairchild is preparing J.P. Losman and his youthful receivers to go to the next level. This means that Buffalo has been working on five receiver sets this off-season, believing that the free-agent offensive line acquisitions will allow Losman the time to go deep and throw, throw, throw.
Such a strategy worked in the Jim Kelly era in wild-weather Orchard Park, but no one is convinced these Bills are up to the task. There is no doubt that Fairchild knows some offense and is a strong enough voice to play it safe, too.
The Bills are in one of the AFC’s toughest divisions, considering the Patriots, the newly-improved Jets and the always-reliable Dolphins. To compete for a playoff spot, Buffalo must improve on a red-zone offense that managed only 15 touchdowns on 35 visits last season. Losman showed improvement at the end of last season and must continue those strides this summer. It’s just hard to imagine #### Jauron coaching a pass-first offense.
Bears fixing Rex
Chicago’s coaching staff has been diligent in the off-season of constantly reminding quarterback Rex Grossman to quit throwing off his back foot and to remember to step into every one of his throws. It is Quarterback School 101. The Bears believe that most of Grossman’s 20 interceptions last season were the result of faulty mechanics and bad habits like throwing off his back foot.
Young quarterbacks like Grossman, who does have a strong arm, often believe that their arms can salvage any precarious situation. Well, that rarely happens unless you are a young John Elway.
What is odd about the Bears, though, is that they showed absolutely zilch confidence in highly-paid backup Brian Griese last season. They have a young team coming off a Super Bowl and shouldn’t management be focused on making sure the offense can score if Grossman doesn’t produce?
I mean, shouldn’t the Bears consider signing Daunte Culpepper? He knows the NFC North and he can throw. Wouldn’t Culpepper be a better option should Grossman misfire once again?
Zone blocking
The use of zone blocking along the offensive line has raised its head in Carolina under new coordinator Jeff Davidson. It seems like the futility of Carolina’s running game last season had as much to do with Dan Henning’s firing as offensive coordinator as Jake Delhomme’s subpar passing season. There were rumblings that owner Jerry Richardson had a hand in Henning’s dismissal, but it appears that coach John Fox believed he needed to make a dramatic change even though he had a lot of respect for Henning’s work. It’s just too bad that Fox didn’t take into consideration all the injuries on offense last season, too, before bailing on Henning.
There has been a lot of speculation about Fox’s future in Carolina and most of it hinges on the fact that ex-Pittsburgh coach Bill Cowher is retired and living nearby. But Fox doesn’t appear to be entering a win-or-else season and if Cowher does return to the NFL sidelines his likely landing spot would be Cleveland where owner Randy Lerner has the money ($7-to-$10 million) to pay him. Plus, it would be a coup for Lerner and the Browns to hire Cowher and give him the keys to the franchise.
Moss beneficiary
A lot has been written lately about Randy Moss and his strong workouts with the New England Patriots and Tom Brady. There is no question that Moss should be a splendid weapon in the Patriots offense if he remains healthy. But what Moss and speedy receiver Donte Stallworth mean to Brady and Co. is pretty obvious.
If those two receivers can be effective deep, it will allow ex-Dolphin Wes Welker to operate in single coverage underneath and be in position to catch 100 passes this season.
Welker -- not Moss -- was the pivotal New England acquisition this off-season. Not only does Welker’s departure lessen Miami’s offense, but he gives Brady a sure-handed, feisty target to keep the chains moving. When the Patriots play teams like the Colts, time of possession will be as important as scoring. With Welker, the Patriots will move the chains.
And, finally, if Brady has a successful passing offense, you can bet that running back Laurence Maroney could have 1,400 yards and 15 touchdowns. If defenses are forced to play the pass, Maroney should have plenty of opportunities to run.
Gruden's dislike of Simms is hard to figure out, from the time Simms arrived Gruden has rarely had a good word for him except when talking about his courage. Simms has played pretty well when he's been free from injury and able to play for more than a couple consecutive games (granted, that hasn't been a whole lot). But why would anyone just hand the starting job to a 37 year old QB who at best has maybe another year or two left in him when last year's starting QB is still on the roster? The only reason I can think of is Gruden's job security. He surely knows that if the Bucs don't win a minimum of 8 games he's gone. He perhaps figures that Garcia gives the best shot at an 8 win season even though Garcia is a short-term solution at best. So it looks to me like Gruden is putting his job ahead of the team's long-term best interests.
I think John Gruden is overrated. He's a smart offensive coordinator, but he isn't good at building a team. He won the super bowl because the bucs were due. Dungy would have won his that year as well, he just got the shaft.
Buffalo doing the 5 wide-reciever set? Not a bad idea. But fun-n-gun never worked for SS, and Losman looks a little more like Patrick Ramsey than he does Jim Kelly. Plus the recievers they had back then are far superior to the current ones. I'm not saying it couldn't work, but they should be the team looking at Culpepper.
I'm tired of hearing about how "good" Grossman is. He's not good at all. He's too small to play in the NFL. It's not bad mechanics that cause his mistakes, it's that he makes decisions pre-snap and follows those decisions. He can't do anything else because he can't see over his offensive line. If the Bears want to help him out, they should start by watching film of what the 49ers are doing with Alex Smith. They've got a formidable enough play action game to do some rollouts (or at least they did until they let Thomas Jones go).
I love how underrated Losman is this offseason. Comparing him to Ramsey and saying Culpepper would start over him is fun to read. Someone needs to go look at what Losman did last year. You might want to rethink his abilities. I'm hoping he lasts in the fantasy drafts, too. He climbed to #11 in the NFL in TD passes after a rough first half of the season even though his attempts per game were low. His attempts are about to go up. I wonder if that means more scores? You're right on about the receivers, though.
That said, I can guarantee that the Bills will not be "pass first." There is a difference between installing more formations into an offense and what they actually run come game time. Five-receiver sets are just a new wrinkle, not the base offense.
The Bills seem to be close but Losman needs to prove he can do it over and over.
The Bears I can not see much in Rex he put up numbers in college but that was with a coach who couldn't make it in the NFL either. Griese had some success but his drinking has kept him from being as good as his dad.
Carolina is much like the Bears where Defense can stop anyone but offense is still trying to find the field.
New England will be happy with Welker who fits what New England wants in their players. Moss can be good with now knowing he can play with a team who wants to win. Also knowing this is a chance to get what maybe his last big pay check and even commercial endorsements.
Mickey T's.... (Michael or Mike) Turner. " 24!, 25!, 26!. Hut!, Hut!, Hike!!!!" get him some free- form amino acids.... foil top on pedialyte and amino fuel gave him a problem with the criticisms. 19- andro or 19- NORandro gave him an appearance of a slow gate., mr. roboto. ferrulic acid instead of a ferrous, hydrated nitrate-like "MCL" Eddie Payton's friend.... He needs headphone - expensive ones, cheap ones to listen to heavy - uncecored dance music while he trains -- running with headphones. He is the most valueable player in he national football league right now due to deja vu's.... Deja blue. an ethyl or ethel amide was messin' ...."Zonked out! Los Angeles, Illinois. Gary Brown's Larry's Czonka, no czar included. BATMAN! Lynn Cain, William Andrews -- LaDanian T, and 33! Thanks for trrading James Lofton to Buffalo, thank you.... KC Masterpiece ended his career in San Diego.... cigarette & nitrate... get him some home fries. and fre- form amino acids.... Kelvin Byner!!!! Gary Brown attack, suck my bug mack, and you don't want this (that)....natrone and Pruitt!!!! Mike, that is.... Call Michael Turner "Mickey" ensign. Aspirin and Niacin in a lucid dream, use a laser if experimenting with it's correlatory efficacy or efficacies.... ensign. (ensign, M2.) Billy "kilz" Kilmer!!!! Chucks-catel, with!!!! Willy t. cribbs.... He is like Otis Amstrong. "you're slipping" ha ha.... call him Mickey Turner. Dorsett's Newhouse. "you dropped your phony duck ####...." Sims and Mims.... Sanders (Barry, that is....) Marshall's Youngbloods.... Eddie's Pay
david carr should be traded to Green-Bay and used to supplement Brett Favre. He is a Redskin, though , with a yellow R.... redskins and Dallas and /New ORleans and also Miami will support his Italian. He was heavily cursed by people screwing me for his Carr...
The Bears QB is horrible there is only one excuse that would sound fitting for them losing the superbowl. the qb sucks i'm going on record to say he's the worse QB in the league you probably could bring and freshmen college QB in and he would do better than grossman. what they should of done in the draft is trade grossman and either orton or griese to pick up a better QB thats what they should of done. who cares if they win 14 games next year aslong as he's the QB there not going to win nothing in the playoffs
first of all, what the hell are you talking about? The Bears should sign Daunte Culpepper. That's maybe the dumbest thing one could say. Why? So if Grossman really is what people write about him we can throw daunte in there and have a bad grossman impersonater out there. They are both high-risk/high-reward quarterbacks, and right now i want the one who played more than 3 games last season. And TRUAIC13, to say grossman is the worst QB in the NFL is just so ridiculous i almost have to laugh. Grossman is in the top 5 in the NFC. whos worse than him? joey harrington, aaron brooks, eli manning, charlie frye, chris simms, tony romo, michael vick, byron leftwich, jon kitna, brett favre(right now), tavaris jackson, jason campbell, matt leinert, vince young, need i say more? and the only thing Griese is doing on the bench right now is causing controversy. no would be talkin about how bad grossman was in 6 games last year had kyle orton still been our back-up. one last thing, as a life-time Bears fan I am extremely happy with Rex Grossman. Why? well, because he's better than any quarterback we have had since jim mcmahon. hes a whole lot better than the guys we've had in recent years. jonathon quinn, craig krenzel, chad hutchinson. he is a whole lot better than all those guys because he wins games. i know what your thinking, the defense wins the games. well besides the arizona monday night game, our defense didnt win the games. they held them down. the offense still had to put up more points than the other team, and they did that because our defense didnt let the offense score. like
Amen! Grossman did a good job in '06. The Ravens, whose D is probably better than the Bears, brought in McNair and they fell to the Colts too. Colts year in 06.
For Real??? As Many bonehead plays that Rex Grossman made, he should not be allowed to touch the pigskin EVER again. In any league. He is not the worst quarterback in the league, hell not even in his division. BUT DO U WANNA KNOW WHY HE GETS SO MUCH FLAK, "HE MADE A GREAT NFL TEAM, LOOK LIKE A POP WARNER TEAM." HE MADE PEOPLE FEEL LIKE THERE WAS NO JUSTICE OR REWARD FOR HARD WORK. IT COMES WITH THE TERRITORY!!!! STOP SUCKING ARS AND WE WILL STOP TALKING THAT ISH!!!!
Are you kidding me? A guy that goes to the Super Bowl is worse than guys who have neer taken a professional snap? That is ridiculous. Yeah, he is no Peyton Manning, but he his not that bad. Also, this was his first full year as a starter. Give him chance to grow.
Lifetime Bears fan here:
I'm ok with Rex. Once they didn't make the switch to Griese near the end of the season I liked the way Lovie handled it for the rest of the way.
I'm not ok with the nothing for Jones deal, but Adrian Peterson may shock the world when he gets some more carries this year. Da Bears have a tough schedule this year, but they are exiting on offence, defence and special teams. Gonna be another great year...
at times i wonder if people who post comments on the board even watch the games. you will be a fool to think Grossman is the worst QB in the NFL. people forget the first six to seven games of the season. Grossmna honestly looked liike he was going to be the best QB of last season. Grossman played brillant all the reporters was on his nuts. he did look terrible in the second half of the season but he still manage to come in key areas and get his team the win. he did end the season with 23Tds, but he did have 20ints. you ask me thats better stats then half of the QBs in the league. Kitna throw 30ints and i haven't heard anything bad abouthim last year or for the upcoming season.
i do however believe Levi Smith should have put in Brian Griese in the second half of the superbowl because Grossman was a little out of controll. the bears still had a chance to win. and honestly i think the bears would have won with an QB that could have kept his composure. Brian Griese would have given the bears the composure they needed.
ima bills fan and i starting to grow on J.P Losman. at first i hated him but i am starting to like what i see. i luv spread formations. Jim Kelly days we had a very donamic offense, but i not sure if we can pull it off yet. we have a young team and we can work on it but will it be successful. i dont think so. not next year i will give it two or three years. we still need the run game and they are asking alot from the rookie HB
Everybody's talking about how deadly the Patriots are going to be this year. They will be tough on offense I agree, but they were pretty good there last year. What strikes me is that there defense let them down and I don't think they've done enough to fix it. They're getting old and slow at some key defensive spots.
As a fan of the Cleveland Browns I have to say that in no way do I want the drooling caveman known as bill cowhler to be in any position with the browns ever (except for on his knees in front of us i guess).
The man made his choice when he went to shittsburgh and we certainly don't need their 2nd hand, overhyped, over rated coach trying to "fix" this team. Phil Savage and Romeo have the team going in the right direction- we don't need bill cowhler of all people.
pittsburgh ####.
what is the love affair that the national media has with the dolphins? the always "reliable dolphins?" whens the last time the dolphins have done ANYTHING????? so sick of the media kissing the dolphins fannies, its been so long since they have made any noise in the division. i mean, i realize neither has the bills but noone is saying they have. dolphins finish dead last in afc east this year, bet the farm.
Watch out though, should Maroney get hurt. With Dillon gone (or.....is he ?), and Maroney was ####ed-up a bit last year, can he handle the workload ? If he's hurt, Brady may set a record for # of passes attempted in a year !!
John Czarnecki, a former sportswriter with over 20 years experience covering the NFL, has been the editorial consultant for the Emmy Award-winning FOX NFL Sunday since its 1994 inception. Prior, he provided exclusive information to CBS Sports' The NFL Today program from 1991 to 1993, holding a similar position.
Prior to joining CBS Sports, Czarnecki was a pro football writer for The National Sports Daily (1989-91), The Dallas Morning News (1989), and The Los Angeles Herald-Examin er. An archive of work can be found here.
