Moulds Price/Evans Price

[bills_7]

Just some thoughts i was thinkn about... it always seemed like price would get the long balls whn moulds was around getn doubled teamed...

Now, how come Evans gets all the longs balls and Price hardly any... are teams not double teaming Evans like they did Moulds? is JP not lookn deep for Price? is it the play calling?

Are teams gna pick up on JP and Evans next season?

just thought i would post this and see what ppl think

[hurls]

I think Price is worthless, not Peerless. So obviously JP will look for Evans on deep balls. Moulds was just an awesome all-around WR, so it left Price free to roam. Now that he's lost whatever he had, yes, Evans will get picked up on. Unless Parrish or someone steps up to show teams can't double Evans.

[LifetimeBillsFan]

Some of it is the play-calling--Faichild has admitted that he has limited the amount of pass plays that he was allowing the offense to use.

Some of it also has been the "trust factor"/rapport between JP and Price vs JP and Evans--there has been a noticeable rapport between Evans and Losman since their first practices with the Bills and that has only grown as JP has developed as a QB, while both Price and Losman both admitted around the middle of the season (it was in an article in either the BN or D&C) that it took them awhile to develop a rapport and for JP to start to trust Price (to throw the ball to him and trust that he would be there to get it).

Some of it also has to do with Losman's ability to read defenses and go through his progressions on a play--young QBs who aren't very good at reading defenses or confident in their reads, or who are too impatient to go through their progressions, will lock on to a favorite receiver; in Losman's case, Evans; and ignore their other receivers.

And, perhaps some of it has to do with the fact that, even though Evans is now playing the same position that Moulds did, Evans is a different kind of receiver than Moulds was when Moulds was paired with Price and Price is a bit older than he was then and perhaps a step slower.

Your concern about JP relying too much on Evans has some validity, but, if Losman continues to develop as a QB next season, the situation is not as bad as you may think:

To begin with, Evans was already getting double-teamed consistently by the opposition this season. If you recall, at the beginning of the season, Lee was having a hard time getting open because he was having trouble adjusting to the double-teams and Fairchild's play-calling was so limited that he hardly saw the ball in some games. But, then, as the season went on, Evans began to find ways to get open against the different kinds of double-teams he was getting, adjusting his routes depending on how he was being doubled, and Fairchild began to open up the play-book so that Losman began to spread the ball around more (which, in turn, helped Evans get open more). There's no doubt that, given the season that he had this year, from now on Evans is going to be double-teamed and game-planned against by the Bills opponents--but that's what happens when a guy is as good as Evans is and Evans is a # 1 WR because he is good enough to still get open and make plays inspite of that. So, Evans is still going to get his share of catches, yards and TDs--just like Moulds did.

But, also, if Losman keeps developing and, as a result, Fairchild continues to open up his playbook more and more, JP is going to not only throw the ball more but begin spreading the ball around more. There were games this season when JP didn't throw the ball 25 times. As he continues to develop, it is likely that JP will be throwing at least that many passes or more in every game. The more passes he throws, the more catches his WRs will be able to make. You have to remember that when Moulds and Price both caught 90+ passes and Reed caught 40, their QB was Bledsoe, a veteran, and there were no restrictions on the playbook. It might interest you to note that, between them, Price and Reed caught virtually the same number of passes as Evans this season (Price 49, Reed 34, Evans 82, with Parrish adding 23--Price, Reed and Parrish caught just 25 fewer passes than Price and Reed did in 2002, even though Losman was working with a far more restricted playbook than Bledsoe). Better protection from the offensive line will allow the Bills to throw the deep ball to all of their receivers more as well.

Would it help if the Bills had another big, fast, stud-receiver who was a deep-threat opposite Evans? Probably. But they don't absolutely need to go out and get one to have a productive passing game if they improve the offensive line and Losman continues to develop so that Fairchild can open up the playbook some more. Having a better offensive line and a more productive running game would probably do as much to improve the Bills passing game as replacing Price with a big, fast, stud-receiver at this stage (which does not mean that I would not be in favor of the Bills doing so if they could!).