why did we trade for travaris jackson

[Billsouth]

We gave away a draft pick for a guy who has yet to be active and whose contract is up at the end of the year. he should be good enough to at least beat out thigpen for #2.

[T-Long]

Re: why did we trade for travaris jackson

I was thinking the same thing. I think their plan was to bring him in in hopes of re-signing him so we had a veteran backup once Thigpen is gone next year. But then I feel like we are going to QB early in the draft, so then it may get messy. But I agree, if we are going to give up a pick for an inactive QB and then not sign him back is a horrible business move

[coastal]

Re: why did we trade for travaris jackson

There's something more to this story that were not getting.

[Joe Fo Sho]

Re: why did we trade for travaris jackson

I bet we activate him soon. We're passed the point of giving up a higher round draft pick to add him to our active roster.

[OpIv37]

Re: why did we trade for travaris jackson

I think the draft pick we traded was conditional based on Jackson dressing for more than a certain amount of games. I suspect we will start seeing him dressed for games soon. But if we do draft a QB, they will just let him walk at the end of the year. As bad as Fitz is, he's far more suited to help groom a young QB than anyone else on the roster (and, unfortunately, probably more suited than anyone on the coaching staff as well).

[Mr. Miyagi]

Re: why did we trade for travaris jackson

At the time when we traded for him, the plan was to have him beat out Pigpen to be #2, and staying with Fitz as the starter for the long haul.

Of course, Fitz has shown us through the season that he sucks ass. So the plan has changed to drafting a young guy early, pushing Fitz to a backup role or outright cut him, and Jackson suddenly doesn't fit the plan.

[mysticsoto]

Re: why did we trade for travaris jackson

There's something more to this story that were not getting.

I agree. For this, we should have kept VY...

[GingerP]

Re: why did we trade for travaris jackson

I think the draft pick we traded was conditional based on Jackson dressing for more than a certain amount of games. I suspect we will start seeing him dressed for games soon. But if we do draft a QB, they will just let him walk at the end of the year. As bad as Fitz is, he's far more suited to help groom a young QB than anyone else on the roster (and, unfortunately, probably more suited than anyone on the coaching staff as well).

How much are you going to pay for a guy to "groom" your young QB? Fitzpatrick is due a $3M roster bonus and $4.25M base salary next year.

What evidence is there that Fitzpatrick would be suited to groom a young QB? He has said on many occasions he sees himself as the starting QB for this team, why would he help someone else take his job?

[trapezeus]

Re: why did we trade for travaris jackson

to me it seems like the bills knew that thigpen wouldn't be able to play at all. and they took tjax to hedge against fitz multi game injury risk.

and since he didn't get hurt, it looks like an expensive,useless hedge.

but had fitz gotten hurt, i think tjax would have been dressed as number 2 for first game, and if fitz was still missing for a second straight week, the coaching staff would have fought so hard to get him into action the following week.

i think tjax is the odd man out in this equation next year. Clearly thigpen is gone as well. i think the team optimally wants draft a qb in the 2-4th round. i think they want to ride with fitz again if possible to save face for signing him. So if the team wins, they'll keep fitz regardless of his stats and draft a qb later to "groom". If fitz plays like he has and they keep losing and miss the playoffs, they'll have to cut fitz. Maybe tjax and a rookie from round 1 will be on the roster openning day and they'll have fought it out in camp to see who gets the gig.

[Johnny Bugmenot]

Re: why did we trade for travaris jackson

Because they needed an excuse to get rid of Vince Young without looking like complete, bumbling amateurs. Young outplayed Fitzpatrick, and it was obvious. Yet Fitz can lead the team to four straight preseason game embarrassments and Young can hold his own for three out of four, yet the one meaningless game he doesn't gets him axed while Fitz stays.

[trapezeus]

Re: why did we trade for travaris jackson

Because they needed an excuse to get rid of Vince Young without looking like complete, bumbling amateurs. Young outplayed Fitzpatrick, and it was obvious. Yet Fitz can lead the team to four straight preseason game embarrassments and Young can hold his own for three out of four, yet the one meaningless game he doesn't gets him axed while Fitz stays.

not necessarily a fair assessment. young went against the back-ups and he's been known to be a cancer in the locker rooms and way out there.

if i was a coach, young would have to be lights out better and phenomenal to consider the change. fitz is beloved by the locker room. to make the change, you have to have a guy who can process that the move is stepping on toes and can guarantee wins. i didn't think young showed that at all in the preseason.

[Ed]

Re: why did we trade for travaris jackson

I think it's pretty simple. The Bills genuinely believed that they would be a playoff team this year and expected Fitz to play well. They knew that if something happened to him and they had to turn to Thigpen than their chances would be screwed. They obviously didn't believe in Young either. So Jackson seemed like the best available option for a backup that could come in and still give them a chance to win in the event that Fitz got hurt. Ideally they would have liked Young to step up and prove to be a capable backup, but he failed. They traded for Jackson too late for him to be able to step into the #2 role right away so they were forced to keep Thigpen too. Now there's no point in activating him until the conditional pick they traded becomes less valuable. If Fitz had gotten injured at some point earlier in the year and had to miss a lot of time I think you would have seen Jackson activated and playing. Jackson was just insurance that ended up being kind of a waste.

[MTBillsFan]

Re: why did we trade for travaris jackson

He may know Seattle's playbook so he's simply on the roster to give the Bills an edge in Toronto?

[GingerP]

Re: why did we trade for travaris jackson

Young outplayed Fitzpatrick, and it was obvious.

Young looked absolutely terrible in preseason. He looked completely lost with no idea what he was doing. He completed 48% of his passes, had 5.3 Yards-per-attempt, no TDs, 2 ints and took 3 sacks. He QB Rating was 48.2.

Fitzpatrick may be bad, but he wasn't that bad. Every team in the league watches preseason games and nobody has picked up Young. The Bears just signed Josh McCown, for Christ's sake.

Young was a great player in college, but he flamed out as a pro. He sucks, that is why the Bills got rid of him and that is why nobody else has thought about adding him to their team.

[mysticsoto]

Re: why did we trade for travaris jackson

not necessarily a fair assessment. young went against the back-ups and he's been known to be a cancer in the locker rooms and way out there.

if i was a coach, young would have to be lights out better and phenomenal to consider the change. fitz is beloved by the locker room. to make the change, you have to have a guy who can process that the move is stepping on toes and can guarantee wins. i didn't think young showed that at all in the preseason.

And the FO knew what VY was like before they brought him in...so why bother then? VY is def better than Thigpen and sometimes comes close to besting Fitz...he also brings an added dimension in being able to run also.

TJ was just a waste of a pick. He's done nothing, and for doing nothing, we could have kept VY and kept our draft pick. If Fitz went down, I would not feel comfortable with TJ in there...had Vince been kept, I'd probably be somewhat more comfortable...