but your piece still begs the question. Owens wasn’t taking off pressure earlier in the season before the last two games according to your piece. But somehow you neglect to point out the Ryan Fitzpatrick factor. I know you probably did that on purpose to avoid an Edwards vs Fitz discussion but it nonetheless is hard to ignore. Owens is for sure drawing coverage off Evans – but I would argue he always was but that Edwards simply wasn’t making the right throws or reads to get Lee the ball. Fitz is.

It seems as though Fitz is confident that Lee will get by his man, throwing the ball to him before he’s even gotten by the corner. Same for TO, Fitz was launching teh ball before TO had his guy beat. Maybe watching the game from home will do Trent some good to see his receivers beating their guys down field. Trent is more accurate than Fitz, and will put the ball on them better than Fitz, so long as he’s confident enough to throw it.

On the positive side: He does give the bills a tough WR to break bump and run coverage, one-on-one coverage, and give the safety over the top something to think about when Lee is on the other side. He also shows some emotion on our team when he is involved in the offense or makes a catch or two.

On the negative side: His drops and inability to find the long ball in the air after it is thrown are very poor. I think someone should check his eye-sight, because on the bomb where he beat the CB yesterday and the ball was was underthrown a little, Owens seemed to never see the ball or make an adjustment like a lot of the top receivers make in those situations. It almost looked foolish. His other drops are not good either because those sometimes can be drive killers especially for this offense.

A MAJOR negative that I see is Owens run blocking. He rarely gives an effort to the downfield blocking needed to help our RB’s. Yesterday during one run deepin in Carolina’s territory, Marshawn cut back and was fighting for extra yardage and in the camera angle, Owens who was in the slot trotted out to the CB and barely tried to get in front of the guy, then as Marshawn broke a few tackles like he usually does, Owens is just standing nearby and watching when defenders are flying to the ball around him. Even if the run is not nearby Owens, he should be making a lot more of an effort there.

Whether it is Hardy or Johnson in the second half of the season, I’d like to see them sub more Owens some and see what they can do outside. Either of these guys are the Heir apparent outside and need all the playtime they can get out there.

You are absolutely right that without TO drawing double coverage Lee would not be making plays.

My concern is TO cannot continue on this pace without a major blow-up. He is playing for his next contract and right now it looks like he will be retiring next year. He will not get the type of contract that he thinks he deserves based on this year’s performance (so far). The problem is what I’ve been saying for a while is that TO drops a lot of targets and he needs a lot in order to make plays, we simply do not take enough pokes for him to ultimately be effective and at one point I fear that he is going to realize that and realize that he has painted himself in a corner.

Meanwhile it’s great for Lee, I agree.

I would rather watch them dropping balls than TO.

Quite simply, Owens is the reason that opposing defenses have been reluctant to stack the box. Or, more correctly, Owens paired with Evans has kept opposing defenses honest. I’ve been amazed at how often the Bills have come to the line to see only 6 defenders in the box. Owens can keep on ‘underproducing’ so long as opposing defenses keep worrying about him.

If and when Hardy is activated from the PUP list, what are the odds the Bills release TO outright? Any thoughts, Brian?

Even though he does provide value to the offensive approach even without eye grabbing stats, I don’t know that its a stretch that his value wouldn’t be outweighed by Jenkins value to special teams, more playing time for Hardy and Scuba Steve in a season where the playoffs are a slim probability, and a hand in hand approach that TO has conducted himself with relative class and would allow him to sign with a contending team – and avoid his becoming even more disinterested should a few more loses make the rest of the season a real pain in his butt.