Here ya go, its from Chris Brown's blog.. http://buffalobills.com/blog/index.jsp?post_id=575
<TABLE style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #002d78 1px solid" width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD align=left>November 5, 2006
</TD><TD align=right>Posted By: Chris Brown | Time: 10:47 AM ET | Link (http://buffalobills.com/blog/index.jsp?post_id=575)
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J.P. QUESTION: I recently got a question from a fan in my askchris email box that I thought I'd post here on my blog, since I've been asked this quite a few times. Here's the question and my answer. Hope this helps to shed some light on things.
Hi Chris,
Do you think the coaching staff is suffocating JP in the pocket that seems to keep collapsing?Lets face it its just not his style.Maybe they should look back at college film and see what he is comfortable doing.Not that Im a expert but he has made some great passes on the run.Maybe he is over thinking stay in the pocket stay in the pocket as he gets plowed again and again.Does what comes natural mean anything?Thank you for keeping us informed you must love your job.
Vermont Fan
MY ANSWER
Vermont fan
I actually talked to Steve Fairchild about this very subject this week. He maintains the way to develop J.P. the fastest is to keep him in the pocket and force him to read defenses and only use his running ability as a last resort. I agree allowing a running QB to use his legs prematurely on a play stunts their growth in reading defenses because they don't hang in there long enough to watch things unfold.
I think that's why he is a slow reader right now, because his college coaches let him run around all over the place. As a result he saw less plays from the pocket and now is less experienced than players like Phillip Rivers who are forced to read defenses because they don't have the same mobility. Michael Vick only now is starting to read defenses effectively and he's in his fifth season.
I think Fairchild is committed to developing Losman's ability to read defenses knowing he's going to take his lumps. But I think he feels if J.P. is going to be successful at this level that he has to go through this process to understand and read defenses properly. If he doesn't he'll never get better and never be a consistent or effective QB.
LOSMAN RUNNING TODAY: Despite all this staying in the pocket talk. Today might be a day where he takes off to run a bit more. The reason why is the Packers play a lot of man-to-man defense, which typically offers a few more running lanes to quarterbacks. A month ago Donovan McNabb ran five times for 47 yards and two touchdowns against Green Bay. You might see J.P. take off a bit more today.
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That is exactly what I thought about JP. Don't forget he started only two years in Tulane as well. In contrast, Philip Rivers started all 4 years in college, double the experience of JP!
If I were the GM of the Bills in 2004, I would not draft JPL at all for this simple reason. Too much risk. Look at Vick. This is his fifth year and he finally starts to put it together. If you are not Vick, you would not get away with so many things with your athletic ability the first 4 years. You would be playing QB in CFL by now.
That said, if you are Levy and Jauron, what do you do when you have Losman in your hand, entering his third year? To be honest, I think Losman absolutely had no idea what he was doing at all the first two years (and his teamates can see that easily, let alone a fan like me). This year is the first time he sounded like he knows what he's talking about, so I presume that he started to get a realistic feel of the game in NFL. He began to learn to read defenses. I applaud Fairchild's approach to force him to do that. I think every week, JP is seeing new things that he never saw before (well maybe he saw them before last year but he didn't know what he was looking at then). It's a learning experience.
Realistically, major improvement of JP, if there is one, will come next year. But the coaching staff will have a much better idea by the end of this year. That's when they will decide if JP is just a slow learner or does not have it all.
The rollouts, the scramble will come when JP gets the defense reading part down because then he'll know that's the right thing to do. To me those fumbles and sacks are all part of this learning process. Like everyone else, I gets frustrated at him at times. But in terms of his development, he's at least a year behind Eli, Ben and Philip from the day he was drafted. Coaching changes and offense philosophy changes don't help either (anyone else noticed that all the other 3 QBs have been with the same coaching staff, the same offense the whole time in their career so far?).
The bottom line: we just have to be patient with JP. That's if Ralph does not come in and demand a change this winter.
Can everyone just STFU!!! Fever you're the man!!
The coaching staff is committed to him being a better QB. So he's obviously going to take a few more sacks when you are repressing your urge to scramble. All the more reason that your OL can't suck!!