It hurts to say this, but Cowart

[Earthquake Enyart]

Looked pretty good last nite. Fletcher has been a major downgrade from Sam. I know, I know, hindsight is 20/20, and Sam had major questions about the comeback from his injury, but our D would be a heck of a lot better with Sam than London.

[Pride]

What type of Defense do the Jets play? Unless they play a 4-3, the following statement is true.

Sam Cowart would never have succeeded in our defense... much like London is not. Our defense is not geared by linebackers, it is geared by quick DE's (which we do not have either)

You stick Sam in the middle of a 4-3 with a below average front 4, and what you get is a bigger downgrade from London. I am not defending London, but I am snubbing Sam.

[Ebenezer]

Cowart had a great game last night but it was the first time he played well all season. He wasn't worth the money it would have cost to keep him and I feel the result here would be the same with Cowart or Fletcher.

[mybills]

I was one of the few that said Cowart would bounce back. I love being right! :laughter:

[Earthquake Enyart]

Cowart is more physical, and doesn't miss as many tackles as Fletcher. Didn't Fletcher miss a tackle on almost every big play the Pats had?

[mybills]

Originally posted by Earthquake Enyart
Cowart is momre physical, and doesn't miss as many tackles as Fletcher. Didn't Fletcher miss a tackle on almost every big play the Pats had?

hell yes!

[Marcos20]

i think Cowart is a little bit better than London , but for less money we have almost the same thing

Our defense is the same with London or Cowart

[LuvDaBills11]

our defense would suck with ray lewis at lb because our line blows chunks

[JJamezz]

I don't think anyone can argue against the fact that SC is the superior player - I mean, that's why he's not here anymore, London was cheaper...

That said, I agree that Cowart wouldn't have been any more successful or effective in our style of defense than Fletcher has been - probably less so. Cowart really struggled w/ the Jets all season long until they made some adjustments to cater more to his strengths. He's been a HUGE bust up until this point - if you live down here you know, the media's been ripping him apart all season long.

And don't forget about all the injury concerns... Even if we could have afforded him, TD did what he had to do, the Jets took a huge gamble on him IMO.

[WG]

Originally posted by Earthquake Enyart
Cowart is more physical, and doesn't miss as many tackles as Fletcher. Didn't Fletcher miss a tackle on almost every big play the Pats had?

Ya gotta keep that decision in context; Cowart couldn't stay healthy and even hasn't this season. We knew it was a downgrade, but that was the tradeoff.

Gotta agree w/ EE here however. Cowart had far better East-West speed as well. Fletcher, even when he sees the play develop, often struggles to get to the sideline and even then has sketchy tackling. Fletcher is nowhere near what many of us thought and hoped he would/could be. He's got some time to improve however. We won't be cutting him after this season either.

Cowart is the better MLB when healthy. But alas, the dilemma. But we all knew that.

[WG]

Our MLB is not the issue w/ our D anyway. Robinson and the DL are.

[mchurchfie]

We should have kept the superior LB, Cowart, and stayed with the 3-4 defense, a defense in which he excells. The Bills and Jets have really pulled his career down by making him play in the 4-3. I know that he wouldn't have Big Ted Washington to hide behind and make plays but we still would have had a vastly better defense if we would have stayed with it. Fletcher is a huge disappointment and very overrated IMHO. GW and JG's semi-pro caliber "Tenessee-how-many-tackles-we-can-miss" defense is the worst to ever grace a proud Buffalo Bill's uniform also.
:shakeno:

[Cntrygal]

How many games has he played this well? One that I know of (of course I haven't been following him). Why is it that some people want to get rid of a guy one bad game (ie. Hollis) and pick someone up (or regret getting rid of) after one good game????? I'll be impressed if Sam manages to stay healthy for the rest of the season and keeps the same level of play that we seen yesterday.

[ArcticWildMan]

Everybody also forgets that he just didn't want to play here. We offered him a very fair contract. He wanted to play for his friend Sam Cottrell. There was no way he was staying here with some rookie D coordinator (can't say as I blame him there).

One thing I saw that made me shake my head was the fact he was playing OLB for the Jets. We were going to have him play OLB and he made a big stink about it.

[colin]

He made some plays last night, but Robinson made plays against Miami, good ones too. One good game and a buch of down the field tackles does not make a great player.

He is no where what he used to be, and he did get himself out of plenty of plays. I was a huge fan of his when he was a Bill, but he is not playing great by any means, certainly not guaranteed signing bonus great.

Eddie Robinson for the Chargers is playing up to his paycheck and a bit beyond, and he is not nearly as good as Sam used to be.

The Detroit and Miami game would give the impression that the Bills had a good D and that London was the cat's ass at MLB, don't jump to conclusions.

[Judge]

Originally posted by Pride
What type of Defense do the Jets play? Unless they play a 4-3, the following statement is true.

Sam Cowart would never have succeeded in our defense... much like London is not. Our defense is not geared by linebackers, it is geared by quick DE's (which we do not have either)

You stick Sam in the middle of a 4-3 with a below average front 4, and what you get is a bigger downgrade from London. I am not defending London, but I am snubbing Sam.

Exactly,

EE is wrong again- what a surprise.

[Judge]

Originally posted by Marcos20
i think Cowart is a little bit better than London , but for less money we have almost the same thing

Our defense is the same with London or Cowart

Right again!

[Typ0]

Cowart had one assignment last night which was to spy and tackle Ricky Williams. He did well in one scheme. So what? Where has his performance been in other areas where they needed him to step up? No where.

[Earthquake Enyart]

Originally posted by Judge


Exactly,

EE is wrong again- what a surprise.

What's the matter judge? Robe riding up again?

Sam is bigger, more physical, and as fast (if not faster) than Fletcher. The undersized Fletcher can't survive behind this DL, Cowart would have more success. And Cowart would have made the tackles on those screen passes.

[colin]

London and Robinson looked great against Miami too. 2002 Cowart can't even hold 2000 Sam's jock.

[Ingtar33]

Originally posted by colin
London and Robinson looked great against Miami too. 2002 Cowart can't even hold 2000 Sam's jock.

I agree...

Listen... this post isn't a defense of the Bills or London Fletcher, only a quick note on what I've seen from Cowart. Last night Sam looked “OK,” but not $4 mil “OK.” Compared to the player he was, last night he looked horrible. He is much slower than he used to be, and has little to no power left. The vast majority of his tackles came 5-10 yards down field, and he disappeared consistently against the inside run. He simply couldn't avoid the up field blocking guards or FBs like he used to in Buffalo.

BTW: Right now, Cowart is (and always was) a better tackler than Fletcher. And while two years ago I would have said that Cowart was about as fast (or a little bit faster) a LB than Fletcher, right now it looks like Cowart is about a step and a half slower than Fletcher.

[Earthquake Enyart]

I don't know what Robinson you guys have been watching.

Will Robinson? Danger, danger!!!

This Robinson has been horrible.

[colin]

That is the whole point EE, robinson sucks, but had a very good game against Miami.

Cowart is not hitting at full speed. When he took down Ricky, he kinda wrapped his waste and slung him, it would have been a broken tackle if Ricky was running at full speed.

Cowart used to be the Big Pat of linebackers, he was perhaps a hair shy of Ray Lewis, and no murders to boot. Way better than Urlacher.

[The_Philster]

Originally posted by ArcticWildMan
Everybody also forgets that he just didn't want to play here. We offered him a very fair contract. He wanted to play for his friend Sam Cottrell. There was no way he was staying here with some rookie D coordinator (can't say as I blame him there).

One thing I saw that made me shake my head was the fact he was playing OLB for the Jets. We were going to have him play OLB and he made a big stink about it.

That's the big thing everyone seems to forget. Cowart was a WLB in college and in Buffalo when he first got here....we were still playing a 4-3 for about 5 games in the 1998 season until they felt they HAD to get Cowart on the field more. When we switched back to the 3-4, he was put at MoLB, a position that is a hybrid of a 4-3 MLB and WLB...though the coverage responsibilities of the position more closely resemble a 4-3 WLB. Simply put, he NEVER played MLB in a 4-3 except at the Pro Bowl until he played a few snaps at it in the opener last year. It's not a case of Fletcher vs. Cowart, but Robinson vs. Cowart. In that case, yes...Cowart would be better for us but he made it clear he didn't want to stay here.

[Mad Bomber]

Originally posted by LuvDaBills11
our defense would suck with ray lewis at lb because our line blows chunks
:lolcry:

Unfortunately, this is the bottom line...

[TigerJ]

Is this what is called a typical bye week thread? We don't have anything of substance to discuss so we talk about players who have departed or other things that we can't control. I liked Sam Cowart immensely as a player while he was a Bill. I think it is true however, that he did not like the direction that the team had gone in its defence and wanted out when he had a chance. Cowart may someday regain his pre injury speed and effectiveness, but Tom Donahoe took a calculated action when he declined to give Cowart the bank in contract negotiations. Can a team afford to pay a guy $4,000,000 per year in hopes that his rehab will be successful and he'll eventually be effective while at the same time the team is trying to emerge from salary cap hell? It would have meant that Donahoe would not have been able to sign all the free agents that he did. Not every free agent has been as effective as we might have hoped, but all together they have made the Bills a much stronger team. If a couple of them had not been signed, would they have been the ineffective ones (Charles Johnson) or those who have made the team better. Unfortunately you can't always predict. The bottom line is that I'm not unhappy with Donohoe's personnel decisions, and I'm not going to complain as long as he makes a lot more right ones than wrong ones.

[SABURZFAN]

hindsight is 20/20 but it looked like the way to go at that time.

[ublinkwescore]

The Jets are playing a 3-4. Ted Cottrell is their coordinator.

[mybills]

What's done is done, although I think it's funny how so many people said he'd never amount to anything, ever again. He looked sweet, IMO! :D

[Earthquake Enyart]

Sorry colin, Urlacher is the man. You see him snuff the 2 point conversion? That guy is a monster.

[Fat Tony]

I would take Urlacher in a NY minute...

I would also trade anyone off this Roster, straight up, for him too! (except Bledsoe)

[colin]

Originally posted by Earthquake Enyart
Sorry colin, Urlacher is the man. You see him snuff the 2 point conversion? That guy is a monster.

If you are comparing him to Cowart now, then sure Urlacher is much better. But the 2000 Cowart was a machine, 180 tackles in less than 12 games, several sacks on a non blitzing team. In that last game, agains Tampa Bay, he had 3 consecutive sacks on one drive. Urlacher is a great player, a top 5 LB for sure, but that year Cowart was far and away the best player on an outstanding D. Urlacher makes plays while roaming, but Cowart made plays on every single freaking down. He really looked like LT out there.

Then he lost everything in a huge injury, I wonder if he was ever fully healthy after the first injury that put him out against Tampa.