Is EJ Manuel Better Than We Think He Is?

[stuckincincy]

http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/po...-concern-bills

It's a fair guess that BUF will select a day 2 qb.

[Goobylal]

Self inflicted? Did his knee try to kill itself?

Some QBs go their entire careers without a knee injury. EJ missed almost half the season with not one, not two, but THREE separate knee injuries.

I've got some bad news for you--injured knees don't get stronger. Once is an accident. twice is a habit. Three times is a trend.

He's injury prone.

EJ eschewed going out of bounds in the Cleveland game and the player hit him square on his planted right leg. He's lucky it wasn't worse than what it was, but he learned a valuable lesson. As for his left knee, he suffered meniscal tears both times. He had surgery to correct it over the off-season, and gave it the proper amount of time to heal/rest, unlike the first surgery. It shouldn't be an issue going forward, but if it is, I'll let you say "see, I told you so!"

He had more than enough "weapons" last year. Tom Brady could have taken that team to the Super Bowl. So could have ten other QBs. Your argument fails miserably.

Your second failure is not seeing all his injuries in college.

LOL! Brady couldn't even take his own team to a SB last year. I'd love to hear about the other 9 QB's you fancy could do the same, outside of Manning and maybe Brees, in 10 games no less.

And how many games did Manuel miss in college due to injury?

[swiper]

LOL! Brady couldn't even take his own team to a SB last year. I'd love to hear about the other 9 QB's you fancy could do the same, outside of Manning and maybe Brees, in 10 games no less.

And how many games did Manuel miss in college due to injury?

Take your head out of your ass. He's a bottom 1/3 QB at his ceiling. Only one team per year wins the Super Bowl Sally. There are several QBs that have done so. You ridiculing Brady shows your ignorance. But we see that in everything you post. And Manuel had multiple injury problems in college. IIRC hand, shoulder, head and more.

He is so great. He's a prodigy. His senior season has him second in FSU passing history behind only the great Chris Weinke. ROFLMAO.

You gotta feel sorry for Robert Woods and Goodwin.

[Goobylal]

Take your head out of your ass. He's a bottom 1/3 QB at his ceiling. Only one team per year wins the Super Bowl Sally. There are several QBs that have done so. You ridiculing Brady shows your ignorance. But we see that in everything you post. And Manuel had multiple injury problems in college. IIRC hand, shoulder, head and more.

He is so great. He's a prodigy. His senior season has him second in FSU passing history behind only the great Chris Weinke. ROFLMAO.

You gotta feel sorry for Robert Woods and Goodwin.

I can't argue with genius statements like "he's a bottom 1/3 QB at his ceiling." Because we've seen even close to his ceiling. If that's you without your head in your ass...

You said "10 QB's could have taken the Bills to the SB" and then changed it to "win the SB." And I didn't ridicule Brady, just told the truth, i.e. he failed to take his own team to the SB. Try some reading comprehension or at least sticking to your statements.

And again, how many games did EJ miss due to injury in college? Players get injured and often times play through them, you know. I hope you're not one of those people who is saying the Bills should take Murray or Mettenberger, because you'd be a raging hypocrite.

Wow, Chris Weinke. Steve Stenstrom passed for more yards than Luck at Stanford in fewer games played. Your point?

And you talk about EJ being injury-prone, and you bring up Goodwin? LOL!

[swiper]

I can't argue with genius statements like "he's a bottom 1/3 QB at his ceiling." Because we've seen even close to his ceiling. If that's you without your head in your ass...

You said "10 QB's could have taken the Bills to the SB" and then changed it to "win the SB." And I didn't ridicule Brady, just told the truth, i.e. he failed to take his own team to the SB. Try some reading comprehension or at least sticking to your statements.

And again, how many games did EJ miss due to injury in college? Players get injured and often times play through them, you know. I hope you're not one of those people who is saying the Bills should take Murray or Mettenberger, because you'd be a raging hypocrite.

Wow, Chris Weinke. Steve Stenstrom passed for more yards than Luck at Stanford in fewer games played. Your point?

And you talk about EJ being injury-prone, and you bring up Goodwin? LOL!

Way to deflect Sally. And I changed nothing. My reference was to ANY Super Bowl, yet you want to enumerate all the QBs that failed to make the LAST Super Bowl. Did Manuel play 4 years? Oops. I guess he played through all those injuries for just 2 years. What is that? 20 games? That doesn't mean anything as it can't change what he missed last year. He's in the NFL now. He runs like a stick. He's going to continue to get hammered whether they draft a guard and a tackle or not. To not admit that the QB position is still the weakest position on this team is just silly.

[Goobylal]

Way to deflect Sally. And I changed nothing. My reference was to ANY Super Bowl, yet you want to enumerate all the QBs that failed to make the LAST Super Bowl. Did Manuel play 4 years? Oops. I guess he played through all those injuries for just 2 years. What is that? 20 games? That doesn't mean anything as it can't change what he missed last year. He's in the NFL now. He runs like a stick. He's going to continue to get hammered whether they draft a guard and a tackle or not. To not admit that the QB position is still the weakest position on this team is just silly.

Deflect. LOL! You clearly stated that (sorry, I made a mistake, you actually said) 11 QB's could have taken the Bills to the SB last year and EJ was the only reason holding it back. So you changed it because you realized how ******ed it sounded when I called you on it, because you didn't think before you wrote it. Then you tried to weasel out of the missed games in college due to injury question.

As for last year, again had EJ not taken that shot in the Browns game, the Bills win at least 8 games and should have won the Atlanta game if not for Stevie and Chandler, which would have put them in the playoffs. This despite poor non-defensive coaching (the real weakness on the team until proven otherwise). And even then, the defense was in the bottom half in scoring defense.

As for the QB position, there's little the Bills could do in FA. As for the draft, it's looking like a much weaker-than-projected QB class. And the problem is that there are 5, arguably 6 (Rams) teams who need QB's who pick before the Bills and just 4 QB's considered to have a 1st round grade (if even). If any of those top-4 QB's get past the 6 teams, why would the Bills want them at 9? And the later in the draft you go, the longer the odds of a guy hitting, never mind guys like Murray and Mettenberger who suffered major knee injuries in college and therefore should be completely written-off, right? But by all means, take a late round flyer on a guy and pray he hits because it's a worthwhile gamble.

So what you're left with is making EJ the starter, giving him all the starting reps and starts in pre-season, putting as much talent around him as you can, and see what he does. If he falls flat, you get a new QB in 2015. If he does well, great. As I said, if guys like JP and Trent can show improvement in completion rate and YPA after their rookie years, it stands to reason EJ can and will. But it doesn't mean he'll flame out like they did because JP wasn't a leader and Trent got his brain scrambled.

[YardRat]

C'mon...you can't seriously believe that 1/3 of the QB's in the league would have led last year's Bills team to the Super Bowl, can you?

[WagonCircler]

EJ eschewed going out of bounds in the Cleveland game and the player hit him square on his planted right leg. He's lucky it wasn't worse than what it was, but he learned a valuable lesson.

Every single one of these injuries weakened his knees, which makes him even more susceptible to injury than he was in a season that he missed 40% of due to.....wait for it.....injuries.

This would make him "i-n-j-u-r-y p-r-o-n-e"

And "He learned his lesson"? WTF is that? You don't know that. He learned his lesson not to play a game where giant, fast men are launching themselves at him?

Please.

[WagonCircler]

As for last year, again had EJ not taken that shot in the Browns game,.

Had my Aunt been born with a penis, she's be my Uncle.

It happened. You can't wish the injuries away.

By the way, his accuracy is piss poor.

[Goobylal]

Every single one of these injuries weakened his knees, which makes him even more susceptible to injury than he was in a season that he missed 40% of due to.....wait for it.....injuries.

This would make him "i-n-j-u-r-y p-r-o-n-e"

And "He learned his lesson"? WTF is that? You don't know that. He learned his lesson not to play a game where giant, fast men are launching themselves at him?

Please.

I don't know that he's learned his lesson, but you know that his knees are more susceptible to injury now? LOL!

Please.

Had my Aunt been born with a penis, she's be my Uncle.

It happened. You can't wish the injuries away.

By the way, his accuracy is piss poor.

Who said anything about wishing the injuries away? I said that the 2nd one could have been avoided if he'd gone out of bounds like he should have. And that he'd have won the Browns, Chefs, and two Dols games if he'd played in them, while other players blew the Altanta game. It's far less of a stretch than say, claiming 1/3 of the QBs in the NFL could have led the Bills to the SB last year or that you're a doctor and know how stable EJ's knees are.

And EJ's accuracy will improve. Like I said, if JP's and Trent's could improve...

[WagonCircler]

I don't know that he's learned his lesson, but you know that his knees are more susceptible to injury now? LOL!.

Absolutely. Damaged knees are weaker knees. They're not like bones, that fuse and become stronger.

And the "learning his lesson" part is laughable.

You've never actually played football, have you? Or been on the field for an NFL game. The speed is unimaginable until you actually witness it. There's never going to be the exact same situation for EJ as there was in Cleveland. Every play is different. The angles of attack are different, the distances between the sideline and defender are different. And QBs don't have eyes in the back of their heads.

He's going to injure his knees again. And they'll come back even weaker.

[BuffaloRedleg]

Way to deflect Sally. And I changed nothing. My reference was to ANY Super Bowl, yet you want to enumerate all the QBs that failed to make the LAST Super Bowl. Did Manuel play 4 years? Oops. I guess he played through all those injuries for just 2 years. What is that? 20 games? That doesn't mean anything as it can't change what he missed last year. He's in the NFL now. He runs like a stick. He's going to continue to get hammered whether they draft a guard and a tackle or not. To not admit that the QB position is still the weakest position on this team is just silly.

I agree with a lot of what you are saying but I just need to make sure I note that you are a serious douche.

[The Popcorn]

We will find out this year if he is better. The injuries seem to be fluke-like when he really hasn't been known to be injury proned. Hopefully, he got into some kind of strength and conditional program that may help eliminate that problem. He should be adjusted to the speed of the NFL. That shouldn't be an excuse. He also has had a year with the majority of WRs and TEs. They should be on the same page with the majority of the playbook now. The addition of Williams gives him an additional target on offense. We just hope he can keep his head screwed on straight and become a WR that makes big plays. The backfield seems to be stable and appears to be dangerous for the passing game. Beef up the OL and EJ has no excuses this year.

[Goobylal]

Absolutely. Damaged knees are weaker knees. They're not like bones, that fuse and become stronger.

And the "learning his lesson" part is laughable.

You've never actually played football, have you? Or been on the field for an NFL game. The speed is unimaginable until you actually witness it. There's never going to be the exact same situation for EJ as there was in Cleveland. Every play is different. The angles of attack are different, the distances between the sideline and defender are different. And QBs don't have eyes in the back of their heads.

He's going to injure his knees again. And they'll come back even weaker.

Um, no, you can't make an unfounded statement like "his knees are weaker," not to mention tossing in a laughable comparison to bones theoretically being stronger. Talk to Gronk about how much stronger his forearm is.

Meniscal tears like the ones he suffered in his left knee don't create greater instability and saying it will over and over won't make it come true, so stop pretending you're a doctor. And a sprain doesn't necessarily make the knee more unstable either, although I'm sure if he takes a similar shot to his knee, he'll suffer another sprain, like any QB would (and again at least he didn't tear his ACL). As I said, if presented with the same situation again, he'd go out of bounds next time.

BTW, he's planning on wearing knee braces, so worries about instability are pretty much moot. I think it's overkill but if it doesn't significantly impair his mobility, why not use them?

We will find out this year if he is better. The injuries seem to be fluke-like when he really hasn't been known to be injury proned. Hopefully, he got into some kind of strength and conditional program that may help eliminate that problem. He should be adjusted to the speed of the NFL. That shouldn't be an excuse. He also has had a year with the majority of WRs and TEs. They should be on the same page with the majority of the playbook now. The addition of Williams gives him an additional target on offense. We just hope he can keep his head screwed on straight and become a WR that makes big plays. The backfield seems to be stable and appears to be dangerous for the passing game. Beef up the OL and EJ has no excuses this year.

It takes awhile to get adjusted to the speed of the NFL. And you do that by playing more. He'll be given the majority of reps and starts through OTA's, minicamps, training camp, and pre-season, and that will help enormously. He missed a lot of time and gelling with his receivers having to split reps with Kolb and due to injury. But yes, he gets just this season to prove himself one way or another.