Anyone else concerned that we haven't heard...

[MikeInRoch]

... that JP will start after the bye? I'm getting nervous that they might actually keep Kelly in there.

[Pride]

I hope they do keep Kelly in after the bye.

Some of you people actually think that just by having JP be out on the field he will become better... that isnt necessarily true!

I say, win at all costs! If we are getting blown out... put JP in. But as long as we have a chance to win... you play whoever gives you the best chance to do so!

[MikeInRoch]

No, but he certainly will NOT become better sitting on the bench.

[Pride]

Tom Brady did.
Trent Green?
Carson Palmer?

[DMBcrew36]

Looking at our record and the rest of our schedule, it seems highly unlikely that we could take the next step into the playoffs. And who here really wants to throw away next season to develop JP when we can just use the rest of this season - one that is likely going nowhere anyway.

I know that the team wants Holcomb to play because they benefit and are more likely to win. I also know that Holcomb didn't lose the game against New England and doesn't necessarily deserve to be pulled. But unfortunately, we didn't win, our record is mediochre at best. Throw on top of that the fact that our schedule is about to get a hell of a lot tougher right now. We are going to have to start JP sooner or later.

[BillsFever21]

Tom Brady did.
Trent Green?
Carson Palmer?

Not many QB's step in like Brady did.

Palmer only sat on the bench for one season. He then started his next season and played terrible till about midseason when he started coming on.

If you use the logic of playing the guy who gives you the best chance even if the playoffs aren't a possibility then QB's would never get groomed. A veteran QB will always give you a better chance then a young guy without much playing time.

[OpIv37]

I hope they do keep Kelly in after the bye.

Some of you people actually think that just by having JP be out on the field he will become better... that isnt necessarily true!

I say, win at all costs! If we are getting blown out... put JP in. But as long as we have a chance to win... you play whoever gives you the best chance to do so!
Two things;

1. As DMB said here and I've said in other threads, this season isn't going anywhere- our record sucks and our schedule is only getting tougher. We already lost to two of the three worst teams on our schedule, and we've only beaten the horrid Texans, rebuilding Dolphins and injury-plagued Jets. Playoff pipedreams aren't going to help.

2. We need to find out if JP's our guy, and the only way to do that is to put him on the field. I don't want to become Detriot, Baltimore or Washington where we spend 4 years developing a worthless QB who will never figure it out. Not saying that JP is Boller or Ramsey, but we won't know until we put him on the field.

[BillsFever21]

How many more wins could Holcomb really get us?

We went 1-3 with JP with losses to a couple tough teams in Tampa and Atlanta.

We went 2-2 with Holcomb with an easier schedule with losses to the Raiders and Pats. That was our easiest stretch this year.

What's he gonna get us one or two more wins? What's the difference if we finish 6-10 instead of 5-11? This team isn't good enough to win with or without Holcomb.

The same Holcomb who turns the ball over twice a game might I add. He has 8 fumbles(4 lost) and 4 INT's in 4 games. We're averaging 16 points a game. What the hell is so special?

[camelcowboy]

First Mularkey isn't going to annouce the starter, because he thinks it will give him some kind of edge :coocoo:


Second, normally i would agree with pride, but New England has a soft second half of the schedule, and ours is tough as hell. San Diego, Kansas City, and Denver, Carolina are the worst teams that they could play. They all love to run the ball which we can't stop worth a damn. The AFC is to strong to think you can win a wild card, against teams like. Pittsburg, Jacksonville, The whole AFC west. Its win the division or nothing, and i just don't think we can win the east. Play the Kid, get ready for next year. Upgrade the lines on this team.

[BillsFever21]

First Mularkey isn't going to annouce the starter, because he thinks it will give him some kind of edge :coocoo:


Second, normally i would agree with pride, but New England has a soft second half of the schedule, and ours is tough as hell. San Diego, Kansas City, and Denver, Carolina are the worst teams that they could play. They all love to run the ball which we can't stop worth a damn. The AFC is to strong to think you can win a wild card, against teams like. Pittsburg, Jacksonville, The whole AFC west. Its win the division or nothing, and i just don't think we can win the east. Play the Kid, get ready for next year. Upgrade the lines on this team.

Exactly.

The Patriots went 4-3 through their toughest half of the schedule. We went 3-5 through our easiest part of the schedule.

When the Patriots are playing the Jets and Dolphins for their 2nd time along with the Saints we'll be playing Denver, San Diego, Carolina, Kansas City and Cinci.

There's not a chance in hell.

[BillsFever21]

I hope they do keep Kelly in after the bye.

Some of you people actually think that just by having JP be out on the field he will become better... that isnt necessarily true!

I say, win at all costs! If we are getting blown out... put JP in. But as long as we have a chance to win... you play whoever gives you the best chance to do so!

If you think we have such a great chance then how about we add on another 10k ZB bet that the Bills won't make the playoffs along with our Patriots bet?

If you're as sure as you think then you would be up 20k.

[ShadowHawk7]

If we lose to KC, then J.P. for the rest of the year IMO.. Until then I'd say keep Kelly in there.

[BillsFever21]

If we lose to KC, then J.P. for the rest of the year IMO.. Until then I'd say keep Kelly in there.

The time is now. Losman was benched because we wern't winning. We just lost two in a row against very winnable teams and only 2-2 through our easy part of the year.

Had Holcomb played the entire year we would be 3-5 just like we are right now. He would've gotten smashed against Tampa and Atlanta too.

[HHURRICANE]

JP will not get better without playing. It is ridiculous to think otherwise. This kid has talent and we need to know if he is our future. We may need to go after another QB in the off-season if he isn't. We only have 8 games left which is already not alot of time to find out. I don't give a sh..t if the team thinks they are in it or if they think Holcomb gives them the best chance to win. The fans pay their salaries and knowing that even if we made the playoffs it is going to be a one and out scenario, lets work on getting a better team to win a SB.

[Mudflap1]

I agree with Pride and Shadowhawk. I understand all y'alls points, it's just that I have a hard time quitting midseason. That's not what football is all about. Heck, that's not what life is all about.

I don't like where this team is headed. The coaches and general manager put us in a box by starting Losman from Day 1, but promising playoffs. That was an almost no-win situation. If you want one reason why things aren't going the way they should, blame them, because they put unrealistic expectations on the kid, maybe without a lot of us really even noticing it. If he didn't perform well -- disappointment. If he did but we didn't make the playoffs -- disappointment.

Everyone on here likes to keep bringing up the Carson Palmer, Eli Manning, etc. comparisons. Well, here's one for ya. In 1996, the Patriots were 3-6, they then won all 7 of their remaining games and went to the Super Bowl. There's one reason to keep starting Holcomb. Will that happen to us this year? Probably not, but you can't just quit. If he doesn't win the next game or so and starts getting this team on a roll, it's J.P. time for the rest of the year, because I think you can then say that QB position is not making a difference with the end result. However, so far Holcomb is the 8th rated QB in the NFL. EIGHTH RATED! That's close to Pro Bowl-like status.

Sorry, I just have a hard time pulling him for "Man Pills" who recently said that he's not going to listen to anybody anymore and is going to play the game his way. Oh, and he also said he's as cocky and confident than ever. That's fine, I want someone in there who is confident in his abilities. However, from his statements, he does not sound like someone who is ready to go back in there. He should've been extremely humbled by his performances earlier this season, with a fire to go back in and prove the critics wrong, not be a cocky pop-off. What right does he have to be cocky? Sounds like a Rob Johnson/Ryan Leaf comment to me.

I want to see what the kid's got, but he has to seriously grow up and be ready to be a leader. So far he's not, he's a brat.

I say give Kelly the nod for K.C., see how that goes, then maybe Losman after that, if not, one game more maximum.

Jon

[camelcowboy]

Football is not about winning, its about the superbowl. What gives you a better chance of getting there. Kelly taking the kids reps. or the kid taking his lumps, and getting ready for next year. You can't win everyhand in poker sometimes the best move you can do is fold the cards.

[Iehoshua]

Tom Brady did.
Trent Green?
Carson Palmer?
Tom Brady = one in a million, maybe best QB ever to play the game

Trent Green - not familiar enough with his situation to comment

Carson Palmer - Sat and watched ONE year. Was HANDED the starting job, there was NO competition.

Eli Manning - watched a few games, was HANDED the starting job AFTER Warner had a winning record.

We are NOT going to discover what JP has unless he plays. Holcomb isn't taking us anywhere we haven't already been.

[mysticsoto]

Tom Brady did.
Trent Green?
Carson Palmer?

That can go the other way too, can't it?

Peyton Manning didn't
Eli Manning didn't
Carson Palmer? Ummm...he stuggled quite a bit last year.
Drew Brees didn't
.
.
.
Some QBs need the experience and playing time...I don't know which JP is, but considering the bone-headed play that Kelly Holcomb did to lose us the Patriots game...if he's supposed to be our "intelligent" veteran and still makes bone-headed plays to lose us games...then we might as well put Losman in!

[Forward_Lateral]

Couple of observations and comments.

1.) I say put JP in vs the Cheifs. See how he does. There is no way he can be as bad as he was at the start of the year. If he hasn't learned ANYTHING from standing on the sidelines watching, then maybe he's not the QB the Bills thought he was.

2.) If they play Holcomb vs the Cheifs, I won't mind. If they lose to the Cheifs, however, then it's 140% JP time. It's hard to justify throwing 8 games of the season away just to get your young QB reps. If they do it, they better make sure the entire team is on board, or it could get ugly.

[BillsFever21]

That can go the other way too, can't it?

Peyton Manning didn't
Eli Manning didn't
Carson Palmer? Ummm...he stuggled quite a bit last year.
Drew Brees didn't
.
.
.
Some QBs need the experience and playing time...I don't know which JP is, but considering the bone-headed play that Kelly Holcomb did to lose us the Patriots game...if he's supposed to be our "intelligent" veteran and still makes bone-headed plays to lose us games...then we might as well put Losman in!

Bravo :clap:

He fumbled the go ahead score to the Patriots and threw a 3 yard pass into double coverage on 4th and 7.

He hasn't been that great these 4 games and we played some of the worst defenses and teams on our schedule.

Just wait till we go up against the good teams. There won't be a chance in hell.

[HHURRICANE]

I think everybody has lost thier minds. Why are we so concerned about keeping Holcomb in there. One of the reasons Losman went 1-3 was our crappy offensive game plan. The Bills are at least trying to go downfield now and the OL played much better on Sunday night. I am not sure that Holcomb gives us any better chance to win? How do we know that we would not be 3-5 if Losman had started all of the games? In the 2 wins that Holcomb had why could have JP not won those games. Miami had 5 turnovers and when you are +4 you should win the game. In the Jets game Testaverde had like an 18 pass rating with 2 ints and no TD's. Why doesn't JP win those games?!

[HHURRICANE]

Bravo :clap:

He fumbled the go ahead score to the Patriots and threw a 3 yard pass into double coverage on 4th and 7.

He hasn't been that great these 4 games and we played some of the worst defenses and teams on our schedule.

Just wait till we go up against the good teams. There won't be a chance in hell.

If you look at this post fast enough it sounds like Bledsoe!

[colin]

the team prolly doesn't want to give up on themselves, so they will keep in holcomb.

the reason why those other guys were handed the job are

1) they were top picks, JP was the 4th QB picked, so they were not expected to be development guys

2) they are being paid top money (7-8 mill each a year with huge bonuses). JP is not getting anywhere close to that kind of money

the expectation for JP coming out of school by most scouts was that he has upside but is far from ready. we aren't paying him too much, so we can afford to keep him sitting. except for the fact that we let bledsoe go, our situation would be identical to that of the jets a few years back, with pennington sitting and vinney playing well enough as the starter to keep his job.

if the season is a bust for sure then we would be foolish not to at least let JP start some games, but our division is weak this year and we have a shot of winning it.

[Jan Reimers]

Holcomb's been given 9 years and still hasn't done squat. We know he won't be getting any better. Couldn't we at least give JP the next 8 games?

[gr8slayer]

Im afraid that Ill have to see Holcomb again. Im so tired of this experiment.

If were going to lose lets at least make the loss count. Build the future of our franchise.

[BillsFever21]

Im afraid that Ill have to see Holcomb again. Im so tired of this experiment.

If were going to lose lets at least make the loss count. Build the future of our franchise.

Tell some homers this that think we're still gonna make the playoffs. These are the same people who predict us to win 10+ games every season and contend in the playoffs.

[Michael82]

If you look at this post fast enough it sounds like Bledsoe!
That's the thing that bugs me the most. Everyone bashed Drew Bledsoe and tore him apart every week for him making the same damn mistakes that Kelly Holcomb is making. Why is Holcomb getting the free pass? Do we want another year down the drain? IMO if we stick with Holcomb til the Bills lose again, it will turn out just like last year or worse. they'll get close, but wont make it. Meanwhile, 2 years have gone by and we still dont know anything more about our future Quarterback.

[Mr. Cynical]

It wouldn't surprise me if KH started. Why?

Because TD and MM suck as GM and coach.

[OpIv37]

That's the thing that bugs me the most. Everyone bashed Drew Bledsoe and tore him apart every week for him making the same damn mistakes that Kelly Holcomb is making. Why is Holcomb getting the free pass? Do we want another year down the drain? IMO if we stick with Holcomb til the Bills lose again, it will turn out just like last year or worse. they'll get close, but wont make it. Meanwhile, 2 years have gone by and we still dont know anything more about our future Quarterback.

Holcomb is getting a free pass cuz he played much better than Losman and we won a couple of games. But I agree- he's making a lot of mistakes that are similar to Drew's.

[Michael82]

Holcomb is getting a free pass cuz he played much better than Losman and we won a couple of games. But I agree- he's making a lot of mistakes that are similar to Drew's.
Much better? 2-2? versus 1-3? I dunno about that.

[AndreReed83]

I don't know if anyone has said this, but I can see why Mularkey hasn't named a starter yet. Why let the team we play after the bye week know who is going to start?