Fred Jackson PR Campaign and Spring League Game (FRED-WATCH)

[The Toe Show]

http://www.buffalobills.com/video/au...f-66875e93eda4

Fred Jackson is making waves trying to get back in the league. He plays in the Spring League Showcase game on July 15th.

As the #1 Fred Jackson fan, I'll be rooting him on - bigly.

I'd say we've signed 3 or 4 different players in an attempt to replace him: DiMarco (the pass-catcher), Tolbert (the pass-blocker), whatever Joe Banyard and Cedric can bring, he also has the goal-line / spell game we lost with Gil.

So, to the Bills brass, here's how you rationalize it, assuming a passing-grade showcase:
- locker-room leadership (fans don't actually know, but for #billsmafia it is unanimously accepted as a stone-cold fact)
- karma (thanks Whaley - that move will go down as disturbingly petty, Reggie Bush had -17 yards rushing GOOD EYE, BRO!)
- opening-day ticket sales, marketing (don't act like you don't know what i'm talking about, Russ)
- save some cap while setting half our backfield free without upsetting a single fan
- worst-case, going 6-10 becomes more palatable with a farewell tour

What do you think will happen?

[Night Train]

If only we could reset father time.

Who doesn't love Fred ?

[YardRat]

Maybe the biggest mistake made during the Whaley/Wrecks fiasco.

[Homegrown]

Fred was awesome, imagine if we an offense of guys like Fred...and a defense with all Freds, and then at the intrasquad scrimmage, it was 11 Freds vs 11 Freds....22 Freds on the field, all wearing #22...whoa!,!

[Night Train]

Who doesn't love Fred ?

Oh, that's right...Whaley..

[JoeMama]

http://www.buffalobills.com/video/au...f-66875e93eda4

Fred Jackson is making waves trying to get back in the league. He plays in the Spring League Showcase game on July 15th.

As the #1 Fred Jackson fan, I'll be rooting him on - bigly.

I'd say we've signed 3 or 4 different players in an attempt to replace him: DiMarco (the pass-catcher), Tolbert (the pass-blocker), whatever Joe Banyard and Cedric can bring, he also has the goal-line / spell game we lost with Gil.

So, to the Bills brass, here's how you rationalize it, assuming a passing-grade showcase:
- locker-room leadership (fans don't actually know, but for #billsmafia it is unanimously accepted as a stone-cold fact)
- karma (thanks Whaley - that move will go down as disturbingly petty, Reggie Bush had -17 yards rushing GOOD EYE, BRO!)
- opening-day ticket sales, marketing (don't act like you don't know what i'm talking about, Russ)
- save some cap while setting half our backfield free without upsetting a single fan
- worst-case, going 6-10 becomes more palatable with a farewell tour

What do you think will happen?

Says you!

[Thurmal]

Maybe the biggest mistake made during the Whaley/Wrecks fiasco.

Would love to see an alternate universe where he stayed on the team, which, during those years, was DESPERATELY lacking in the leadership department. Maybe a guy like Karlos Williams, who looked to be a true late-round stud, has a decent role model and doesn't throw his career away. I think even a veteran presence like him in the huddle goes a long way towards calming nerves and, subsequently, maybe turning some close losses into wins.

[Goobylal]

I'd love to bring him back as a coach.

[JoeMama]

I'd love to bring him back as a coach.

If there's anyway F-Jax can teach the kind of patience and vision that defined him as a player, he'd make one hell of an RB coach.

Leadership has always come naturally to him, so that's already a +1 in his favor if he takes up coaching.

[Luisito23]

Some of my best memories come from having watched Freddie run on Sundays...

He was humble and always gave it his best...

What's not to like?

[Oaf]

According to that interview, Rex called Fred to bring him in before training camp, only for the Bills to opt for Bush instead.

What a terrible decision.

[CoolBreeze]

I know most of you, like me hate Russ Brandon. But signing Fred Jackson to put asses in the seats is a total Russ Brandon thing to do. The love for Jackson here is still strong, so I would bet the idea has already been floating around in his head

[Arm of Harm]

Maybe the biggest mistake made during the Whaley/Wrecks fiasco.

The biggest mistake during the Whaley era was the decision not to draft Derek Carr, because we were supposedly "all set" at QB with E.J. Manuel.

After being released by the Bills, Fred Jackson had 100 rushing yards for the Seattle Seahawks, averaging 3.8 yards per carry. He also had 257 receiving yards. Replacing Jackson with Reggie Bush was a mistake, because Jackson was the better of the two. But Doug Whaley made much, much bigger mistakes than that.

[Goobylal]

The Bills weren't going to draft Carr a year after taking EJ. Especially with a bunch of other QB needy teams passing on him in the 1st round. The Raiders got lucky.

[Arm of Harm]

The Bills weren't going to draft Carr a year after taking EJ. Especially with a bunch of other QB needy teams passing on him in the 1st round. The Raiders got lucky.

The very instant they announced the Manuel pick, I felt a sense of sports-related heartbreak. For me the pick was as bad as the Music City Miracle; not as bad as Wide Right. In that instant I knew that Manuel would be "the plan" for the next several years; thereby precluding the Bills from using early picks on any other QB prospect. The Manuel pick also told me the Bills' front office couldn't evaluate QB talent; and that the team was very unlikely to find a successor to Jim Kelly while that front office remained intact.

Had the Bills hired a real GM immediately after the Manuel pick, it's quite possible they would have drafted Carr the next year. But instead of hiring a real GM, they hired the guy who'd prepared glowing recommendations for E.J. Manuel. Of course they weren't going to take Carr or any other QB in the first round at that point. The cause of EJ becoming "the plan" was the Bills' front office incompetence. That "plan" would not be changed until its underlying cause had been eliminated, or until Manuel's actual playing experience made it glaringly obvious, even to someone as obtuse as Whaley, that Manuel was not the answer at QB.

You wrote that the Raiders got lucky with Carr. Obviously, there's an element of luck with any draft pick. But there are also patterns, tendencies, probabilities. You draft the players who give you the best probability for success, knowing that no one draft pick represents a guarantee of anything. As a general rule, QBs selected primarily for their physical gifts--such as Losman and Manuel--represent a much lower probability of success than guys selected for their pocket passing, for their accuracy and rapid information processing. Derek Carr represented a much higher probability prospect than E.J. Manuel. Even though, before the fact, it would have been impossible for anyone to guarantee success for Carr or failure for Manuel, the Raiders certainly put themselves in a position where they were much, much more likely to experience success at the QB position than we were.

[YardRat]

The biggest mistake during the Whaley era was the decision not to draft Derek Carr, because we were supposedly "all set" at QB with E.J. Manuel.

After being released by the Bills, Fred Jackson had 100 rushing yards for the Seattle Seahawks, averaging 3.8 yards per carry. He also had 257 receiving yards. Replacing Jackson with Reggie Bush was a mistake, because Jackson was the better of the two. But Doug Whaley made much, much bigger mistakes than that.

My comment was respective to when both were here simultaneously, that's why I wrote it in that manner. And, once again, I don't give a damn about Freddie's stats with Seattle because A-his leadership can't be measured in stats and B-He sure as hell would have gotten more touches in Buffalo.

[Arm of Harm]

My comment was respective to when both were here simultaneously, that's why I wrote it in that manner. And, once again, I don't give a damn about Freddie's stats with Seattle because A-his leadership can't be measured in stats and B-He sure as hell would have gotten more touches in Buffalo.

As you imply, Whaley's decision to pass up Derek Carr was before Rex Ryan came. So you blame Doug Whaley for that, but not Rex Ryan.

Fred Jackson averaged 3.7 yards a carry in his last year for the Bills (2014), and 3.8 yards a carry in 2015 for the Seattle Seahawks. McCoy averaged 4.4 yards a carry for the Bills in 2015, and Karlos Williams averaged 5.6 yards a carry in 2015. Gillislee was only present for part of the 2015 season, but he averaged 5.7 yards a carry that year. It's very, very hard to make the argument that either McCoy (4.4), Williams (5.6) or Gillislee (5.7) should have gotten fewer carries so that Fred Jackson (3.8) could have had more. RB had become the best and the deepest position on the team. There was no longer room for an aging and declining Fred Jackson to make a contribution.

A football player becomes a star in the NFL. Contributes at a high level for many years and earns the respect and admiration of his team's fans. Then he gets old and his skills decline. At that point the NFL becomes a cruel place for him. Jim Kelly retired when he did because he was told that he would not be given the starting position, but would have to compete for it with Todd Collins. Jerry Rice retired after being told he probably wouldn't make the final roster. Dan Marino clearly had little left in the tank by the time he hung up his cleats. It's a sad story every time it's told. This time the story happens to be about Fred Jackson.

Fred Jackson played with a lot of heart and skill on some very mediocre football teams. He demonstrated exactly the kind of locker room attitude you want your players to have. He contributed more at the RB position than any other player during the drought, even though we didn't invest any draft picks in him, and invested enormously on draft day in a number of other running backs. For these and other reasons I'm very happy he was a part of the team. I would love to welcome him back to the Bills. But as a coach, not a player.

[Goobylal]

The very instant they announced the Manuel pick, I felt a sense of sports-related heartbreak. For me the pick was as bad as the Music City Miracle; not as bad as Wide Right. In that instant I knew that Manuel would be "the plan" for the next several years; thereby precluding the Bills from using early picks on any other QB prospect. The Manuel pick also told me the Bills' front office couldn't evaluate QB talent; and that the team was very unlikely to find a successor to Jim Kelly while that front office remained intact.

Had the Bills hired a real GM immediately after the Manuel pick, it's quite possible they would have drafted Carr the next year. But instead of hiring a real GM, they hired the guy who'd prepared glowing recommendations for E.J. Manuel. Of course they weren't going to take Carr or any other QB in the first round at that point. The cause of EJ becoming "the plan" was the Bills' front office incompetence. That "plan" would not be changed until its underlying cause had been eliminated, or until Manuel's actual playing experience made it glaringly obvious, even to someone as obtuse as Whaley, that Manuel was not the answer at QB.

You wrote that the Raiders got lucky with Carr. Obviously, there's an element of luck with any draft pick. But there are also patterns, tendencies, probabilities. You draft the players who give you the best probability for success, knowing that no one draft pick represents a guarantee of anything. As a general rule, QBs selected primarily for their physical gifts--such as Losman and Manuel--represent a much lower probability of success than guys selected for their pocket passing, for their accuracy and rapid information processing. Derek Carr represented a much higher probability prospect than E.J. Manuel. Even though, before the fact, it would have been impossible for anyone to guarantee success for Carr or failure for Manuel, the Raiders certainly put themselves in a position where they were much, much more likely to experience success at the QB position than we were.

It is rare for a team to spend a mid-1st on a QB and then use another mid-1st rounder on a QB the following year. Especially for a guy who most teams thought would be a bust in the NFL. Actually there is no example of it and the closest thing to it is the Cowboys taking Aikman in the regular draft 1st overall in 1989 and Steve Buerlein in the supplemental draft that same year.

And yes the Raiders got lucky. If teams had to do it all over again, Carr would have gone 1st overall instead of lasting to the beginning of the 2nd round. Hell the Raiders probably would have taken him at #5 overall if they had an inkling themselves.

[The Toe Show]

http://buffalonews.com/2017/07/10/bi...-playoff-odds/

Fred Jackson and Boobie Dixon aren't ready to put the NFL behind them.The former Buffalo Bills running backs are determined to show they can still contribute to a team, and will try to do so this week when they participate in the Spring League Showcase in California. A week of practices will be followed by the game Saturday at Memorial Stadium in Napa.
The Spring League is an independent, instructional league that was created in part to serve as a developmental platform and showcase for professional football talent. It concluded its inaugural season in April with four teams playing six games each. League CEO Brian Woods told ESPN that 10 NFL teams and two from the Canadian Football League sent scouts, while another 20 teams requested practice and game video.
Jackson, 36, hasn't retired despite sitting out the 2016 season. He spent eight seasons with the Bills before being released prior to the 2015 season, then spent one year with the Seattle Seahawks. Dixon also sat out the 2016 season after spending 2014-15 with the Bills. He's a veteran of six NFL seasons. Jackson will play for the Spring League California team that will be coached by Terry Shea, while Dixon will be on the Spring League East team coached by Donnie Henderson, the former Bills' defensive backs coach.

Bills have 89 players on the roster and $14MM in cap room.

[The Toe Show]

In case you missed it, Fred Jackson had 8 carries for 47 yards in the Spring League game.
You can see all Fred Jackson runs here:http://www.flofootball.com/search?q=Fred+Jackson

He looked like Fred. Deceptively fast, great vision / patience, and a little power (always falling forward).