Ryan Fitzpatrick aims to recapture magic for Buffalo Bills

[MidnightVoice]

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000054006/article/ryan-fitzpatrick-aims-to-recapture-magic-for-buffalo-bills?module=HP11_content_stream

Ryan Fitzpatrick has never met Jeremy Lin. Their Harvard careers didn't overlap. But that didn't stop Fitzpatrick from enjoying a unique perspective on Linsanity, when it captured the sports landscape, and beyond, for eight winter weeks.

"That was very cool," Fitzpatrick said, "to see a fellow Harvard athlete do something great."

Fitzpatrick could relate to the then-New York Knicks point guard. With a string of standout performances, the Buffalo Bills quarterback led his team to a 5-2 record through Week 8 of the 2011 season.
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"You saw magical throws," linebacker Nick Barnett said.

That, of course, wasn't enough. The good feelings ended with a thud as the Bills, ravaged by injury, lost eight of their final nine games...........

[Oaf]

"I would let him babysit my kids," Fitzpatrick said, "and I can't say that about all the receivers on our team."

haha.

[BertSquirtgum]

If he is aiming at anything, we can't expect him to hit it.

[Joe Fo Sho]

If he is aiming at anything, we can't expect him to hit it.

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m98npjYIR21qfaj0v.gif

[Mike13]

what magic?

[feldspar]

If you guys want to get behind your team this year, you are going to have to get behind Fitzy IMO. He's the QB this year, no ifs, ands, or buts. You know, it COULD happen that he plays well. Other guys have caught on even later in their careers at the position. He has played well, but consistency is his problem. Hopefully, David Lee helping him is not another fluff piece.

From what I see, Fitz is a good dude and a great guy to root for. You don't have to the think he's the answer, but rooting for him doesn't include putting him down every time his name comes up. Fan support is likely to help to some degree, believe it or not.

Go with the flow, cuz you have no choice. I think this is Fitzy's make-or-break year, or should be.

[Mr. Pink]

If you guys want to get behind your team this year, you are going to have to get behind Fitzy IMO. He's the QB this year, no ifs, ands, or buts. You know, it COULD happen that he plays well. Other guys have caught on even later in their careers at the position. He has played well, but consistency is his problem. Hopefully, David Lee helping him is not another fluff piece.

From what I see, Fitz is a good dude and a great guy to root for. You don't have to the think he's the answer, but rooting for him doesn't include putting him down every time his name comes up. Fan support is likely to help to some degree, believe it or not.

Go with the flow, cuz you have no choice. I think this is Fitzy's make-or-break year, or should be.

The alternative is to hope he does so bad that he's replaced by week 5 when it's not too late and Young comes in and lights it up.

Can't say I'd root for anyone to fail that horribly however.

[OpIv37]

If you guys want to get behind your team this year, you are going to have to get behind Fitzy IMO. He's the QB this year, no ifs, ands, or buts. You know, it COULD happen that he plays well. Other guys have caught on even later in their careers at the position. He has played well, but consistency is his problem. Hopefully, David Lee helping him is not another fluff piece.

From what I see, Fitz is a good dude and a great guy to root for. You don't have to the think he's the answer, but rooting for him doesn't include putting him down every time his name comes up. Fan support is likely to help to some degree, believe it or not.

Go with the flow, cuz you have no choice. I think this is Fitzy's make-or-break year, or should be.

Um, no.

That's not how it works at all.

First, no one actually wants Fitz to fail. We're all Bills fans. But some of us have seen enough of him that we don't expect him to succeed. There's a difference between hope and expectations.

Second, being fans of the team means we want the team to win. When a player like Fitz has a big part in causing us to lose, the put-downs and criticisms are well-deserved. Being a fan doesn't mean liking every player on the team all the time. It means wanting the team to win. Regardless of what people say on this board, we are all cheering for Fitz and every other guy on the team on Sunday afternoons.

[Thurmal]

Um, no.

That's not how it works at all.

First, no one actually wants Fitz to fail. We're all Bills fans. But some of us have seen enough of him that we don't expect him to succeed. There's a difference between hope and expectations.

Second, being fans of the team means we want the team to win. When a player like Fitz has a big part in causing us to lose, the put-downs and criticisms are well-deserved. Being a fan doesn't mean liking every player on the team all the time. It means wanting the team to win. Regardless of what people say on this board, we are all cheering for Fitz and every other guy on the team on Sunday afternoons.

I never got the whole, "If you don't fully support everyone on the team, YOU AREN'T A REAL FAN!!!" way of thinking. It would be great if Fitz was awesome, and I genuinely like the dude, but everyone that is realistic knows that he will single-handedly blow a couple games this year. I find it ironic how the media keeps talking about how great our Harvard-educated QB is at making decisions while he throws into triple coverage every other drive.

[feldspar]

Um, no.

That's not how it works at all.

First, no one actually wants Fitz to fail. We're all Bills fans. But some of us have seen enough of him that we don't expect him to succeed. There's a difference between hope and expectations.

Second, being fans of the team means we want the team to win. When a player like Fitz has a big part in causing us to lose, the put-downs and criticisms are well-deserved. Being a fan doesn't mean liking every player on the team all the time. It means wanting the team to win. Regardless of what people say on this board, we are all cheering for Fitz and every other guy on the team on Sunday afternoons.

Whatever you say, Doctor. Perhaps I'll figure out how it works after sixty...five...THOUSAND posts on a message board. Until then, I'll just have to settle for 35 years of watching football.

If you don't want to support his being QB, I'd say being on the Internet all day putting him down is pretty unhealthy. Seriously, how many times do you really need to say it?

All the other pieces were in place, huh?

I happen to believe that Fitz is the major Wildcard on this team this year. Who do you think we should have gotten instead? Anyway, only two teams allowed more points than the Bills last year. That's tough to overcome. That's tough to overcome. Teams were scoring an average of 34 points-per-game against the Bills in their 8 losses after we went 5-2.


I never got the whole, "If you don't fully support everyone on the team, YOU AREN'T A REAL FAN!!!" way of thinking.

I don't believe I said that.

[BertSquirtgum]

They should have never signed his stank ass to a deal last year and drafted a qb.

[feldspar]

They should have never signed his stank ass to a deal last year and drafted a qb.

Drafted WHICH QB specifically and when?

I agree about the contract though. They should have at least waited until the season played out to consider a new contract...said so before, during and after.

[kishoph]

I'm hoping that David Lee can help correct some of Fitz's inconsistency. Fitz has shown that he can be a good QB, the first half of last season, he was on fire and it showed in the win column. It wouldn't be easy to find a QB with better intangibles than Fitz, his intelligence and leadership are tops. I'm hoping that the problems that he has shown are correctable, if so Fitz could be a big part of this team going somewhere.

[GingerP]

I'm hoping that David Lee can help correct some of Fitz's inconsistency.

I keep hearing about how Lee is a some sort of QB Guru, but I can't get the image of a flailing Chad Henne in Miami out of my head. Has Lee developed any QB of note? I know he was at Arkansas when Houston Nutt was there, but I hope Mitch Mustain isn't his biggest success story.

[BertSquirtgum]

Drafted WHICH QB specifically and when?

I agree about the contract though. They should have at least waited until the season played out to consider a new contract...said so before, during and after.

I wanted russel wilson in the third.

then I was hoping to see them draft kirk cousins when they passed on wilson.

[kishoph]

I keep hearing about how Lee is a some sort of QB Guru, but I can't get the image of a flailing Chad Henne in Miami out of my head. Has Lee developed any QB of note? I know he was at Arkansas when Houston Nutt was there, but I hope Mitch Mustain isn't his biggest success story.


He's been coaching QB's for a long time, I had looked it up before and some of the QB's that he has coached include, Tony Romo, Chad Pennington, Drew Bledsoe, and Vinny Testaverde, all of those QB's had pretty good accuracy throwing the ball. A problem with Fitz has been his accuracy, I'd guess the Bills brought in Lee to hopefully help with that problem.

[feldspar]

I wanted russel wilson in the third.

then I was hoping to see them draft kirk cousins when they passed on wilson.

I definitely wanted at least a project QB the past two years. I too had my eye on Russell Wilson. After taking GriffinI could not believe it when the Redskins took Cousins in the 4th...I was sitting there thinking the Bills might pick him. We'll never know. Brock Osweiler was another possibility in the third, but he was gone by then; we DID bring him into Buffalo for a look-see, but I don't think they could have passed up Cordy Glenn in the second (for one thing).

In last year's draft, I really wanted to take a flyer on Ryan Mallett in the 3rd. That didn't happen. I also had my eye on Colin Kaepernick in the second. I was also thinking about Christian Ponder, but WAY later than where he was picked. Anyway, there is no way we don't take Dareus when he fell to us in the first. I wasn't thinking Dalton in the second, but we'll see how that plays out...

These are all project QBs that I was thinking about IMO, though. They could pan out sometime, but you really gotta pick a QB in the first round if you are looking for a franchise QB, I think. I wouldn't feel that good about trading for a guy that played well in a couple of few games like Matt Flynn. We went there with Rob Johnson. Sometimes it works out pretty good with the likes of a Matt Schaub, but it doesn't work out more often than not by a longshot. Franchise QBs are extremely hard to come by, especially these days where everybody reaches for them in the first round and early.

The Bills are probably going to have to trade up to get one next year, if that's what they want to do. They might be in a good position to do it, we'll see. The good news is that most teams either have a QB they feel relatively comfortable with or have recently drafted/acquired a guy to try and fill that spot. You like to give a guy some time to develop in a lot of cases. The bad news is that drafting a QB high in the first round isn't quite the risk it once was with the new rookie wage scale. Teams might find it easier to dump their guy in favor of one of the top prospects, which makes more competition to get a guy. I'm not a fan of drafting a QB just because you need one...gotta really like him, and really like him quite a bit.

[gebobs]

Fan support is likely to help to some degree, believe it or not.
OK...I don't believe it. Are we going to lobby for reiki in the locker room?

[gebobs]

If you don't want to support his being QB, I'd say being on the Internet all day putting him down is pretty unhealthy.
Some would say that catharsis is a good thing.