FanPost

Erik Rodriguez  Manuel

Wow, has time flown by and we are three preseason games deep into the season. With that said, of course all the attention is on E.J. for all the right reasons, the main one, we just want him to show us SOMETHING or ANYTHING that tells us fans that he is improving.

Let us start from the beginning where this all started, Buddy Nix. The man that was once in charge of making all the personal decisions for our roster told us before he left that his main goal would be to find us a franchise quarter back. In my opinion, he reached. Say what you will, and no, I have no idea of what any of the 32 NFL team’s draft boards looked like, but think of it in this perspective. 15 teams passed on EJ and the other teams, 17-32, knew the Bills needed a quarter back. Considering the fact that all the other 31 teams have their own issues to address in the draft, I still believe that if any other team truly valued EJ Manuel as much as the Bills did, EJ would have been at the very least drafted in the top 10 and I would also like to remind you that he was the only quarterback drafted in the 1st round. It’s a quarterback driven league and when teams see a QB with NFL talent it’s a race of dogs trying to get to the steak. I think recent examples of the Redskins giving up the barn for RG3, the drafting of Blaine Gabbert to the Jags (10th), Jake Locker to the Titans (8th) and Christian Ponder to the Vikings (12th) proves that the "race" for a franchise QB is very real. All of these quarterbacks at some point had an overall consensus that they would be picked in the 1st round. Did they ALL pan out? Hell no. But I think the point that I am trying very hard to convey to you is that Ej was not the "hot commodity" that every quarterback needy team were drooling for. I am not going to go as far to say we could have drafted him in the 3rd or 4th round because the reality to that is no one truly knows that for a fact. My concern is that we drafted a raw and talented kid that has no business starting right away.

Which brings me to the point of this post, Ej is raw. You knew that, I knew that, and I am pretty sure the 32 NFL teams of the NFL had that same feeling or general idea. I think when you sit back and evaluate how Ej started and finished last year a few things stick out to me

1) He was not supposed to start.

2) Before getting hurt, I can honestly say he was pretty ok for a guy who was not supposed to be playing.

3) Getting hurt multiple times stunted his growth.

With all that said, I somewhat understand why some or most (I don’t know, just guessing) are panicking after 3 preseason games, but I am in no way there yet. I think with us fans dealing with the sale of our team, we feel that this team MUST win at all cost and every microscope that is hovering over every player just enhanced by a thousand. All I can say is that my observations of the progress of the team is not influenced by the fact that they will be sold and I understand the circumstances and the reality of the growth of EJ. After 16 games of being healthy, I will have my consensus.

Lastly, as fans we have been spoiled with guys such as Cam, RG3, Luck, and Wilson making noise so early, that we fail to realize that before those guys, quarterbacks took time to groom, either by giving them standouts on ever skill position and a great defense or they sat a year. Before Tom Brady became the guy who threw 50 touchdowns and passing the ball 30-40 times a game, he was the guy surrounded by a talented defense and skill players and won Super Bowls by managing. Bill practically asked Tom to take care of the ball and make high percentage throws. That’s what I believe they are doing with EJ and who knows 2-3 years from now we can ask him to throw the ball 30-35 times and will us to the playoffs with scrub skill position players. Who knows?! All I know is that I am excited and cautiously optimistic.

Best case scenario: 9-7

Worst case scenario: 7-9


Just another great fan opinion shared on the pages of BuffaloRumblings.com.