Cowart vs. Fletcher

[LABillsFan]

Do you think the Defense gains or loses anything with Fletcher instead of Cowart?

[bduff54]

i say we lose a bit. when cowart was it his peak i think he is better than fletcher. neither did much today

[venis2k1]

Cowart was nasty...when he played.

[The_Philster]

Really no comparison. They play two different positions for one thing. Last year was the first time Cowart had ever played MLB and we don't have anything to judge him on as far as playing that position.

[clumping platelets]

I agree with Phil...........tough to compare a 3-4 ILB against a 4-3 MLB.

Fletcher was more of a factor yesterday than Cowart. albeit slightly

[LABillsFan]

Let me rephrase the question, Ah, hmm, Who likes pineapple?

[timfromjersey]

I was watching Fletcher's play while at the game Sunday along with watching the safeties, and against the run I thought he was pretty active and always around the ball. His stats weren't great but they weren't horrible but you can attribute that to the fact that the safeties played the run very well and the tackling was well spread out by the defense. I think no one can argue the dee did a great job against the Jet's running game.

The only thing that concerned me was that Fletcher and the safeties didn't do a great job in covering the Jet's recievers on those short and intermediate crossing patterns.

[Earthquake Enyart]

Cowart was invisible Sunday. London wasn't much better. Next year when the DL is better, London will be a bigger factor.

[HenryRules]

EE, I agree in the first half London wasn't very visible. But in the second half, and especially in the 4th quarter, Fletcher seemed to be everywhere. If our DB's weren't as good at tackling as they are, his stats would have been a lot better.

One thing that looked bad for Cowart ... I noticed most times that when tackling Henry, Cowart got knocked right back on his ass. When an ILB outweighs a running back by 20+ pounds, he's got to be able to make the RB fall backwards. Otherwise, how do you plan on stopping anyone on the goalline.

[SABURZFAN]

if you factor cowart's history of injuries and fletcher's cheaper contract,i'd have to go with fletcher.

[THATHURMANATOR]

neither did all that much IMO

[TigerJ]

Cowart is (when healthy) a great athlete, and potentially a better middle linebacker than London Fletcher even though he never played it. However, Cowart is clearly more expensive than Fletcher. Aside from the injury risk Cowart represented when TD was faced with the choice of trying to sign him or let him go, one has to ask what the dollars saved by Fletcher instead of Cowart has enabled Buffalo to do in the way of upgrading other positions, not just this year, but the next several. Fletcher is a very good value for a player at his position. While Cowart could conceivably be a better player, he may not be the better value.

[casdhf]

Cowart wouldnt be as good at MLB as he could be at OLB

[Bert102176]

I saw on Espn yesterday that Cowart can run straight away np but is still having pain and is sluggish turning and backpeddling, so I say we lose nothing but I feel we gain with Fletcher in there.