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Jauron: Edwards not Permanent Starter at QB

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By Brian Galliford
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Speaking publicly for the first time since the bye week, Bills head coach Dick Jauron today addressed the starting quarterback controversy surrounding the team. Confirming reports from last night, Jauron officially named rookie Trent Edwards the starter for Sunday's game against the Baltimore Ravens.

And that, Bills fans, is as far into the future as Jauron would go. From the early report at the team's official site:

"Trent Edwards will be our starting quarterback this week," said Jauron. "I talked to both Trent and J.P. yesterday and told them that's where we were going and that was the extent of it. We just said we'll go this way for this week."

More from Jauron:

"J.P. only practiced three times and they were abbreviated fundamental practices in our bye week. And he was still a little bit rusty. We'll give J.P. another week of practice and see where it goes."

GM Marv Levy:

"Dick made the point that this is what we're doing right now. It's not necessarily, 'This is where we're going and we're sticking with it all year.' If there's reason to that will unfold as we play the games. He's definitely leaving the door open."

On Losman's future in Buffalo: "I think it's an unresolved situation still."

"J.P. has shown good improvement. He played against tough teams. He unfortunately received an injury. Sure a player doesn't like to hear that he's not going to be in the lineup. He's not physically 100 percent ready. You might say 92 or 93 percent."

QB J.P. Losman:

"I talked to coach yesterday and he said that going into a game like this, they're not 100 percent convinced that my leg is healed. So they've obviously made the decision to keep this thing going another week. This is a decision for this week."

On if he's still the Bills' #1 QB: "We'll find out."

QB Trent Edwards:

"I met with coach yesterday and he was just letting me know that we were going with the same guys that we went with against the Cowboys and we'll see how it goes this week. That's all I was told and I have to get ready to try and win this football game this week. That's my understanding and that's how I'm looking at it."

Final Decision on Hold
With the announcement that Edwards will start against the Ravens, and then the position will be re-analyzed next week, Jauron has officially put into motion a week-by-week analysis of the position that could end up developing into a Quarterback Carousel. This "one week at a time" approach, Bills fans, will not work for the rest of the season. But honestly, we should not have expected different answers from this press conference.

Strangely, I'm OK with the decision for this week. That is, I'm OK with it if Losman truthfully didn't get the nod because of his being "rusty". Even if that's true, you get the feeling that if Edwards performs well on Sunday and is able to lead the Bills to a victory or a close loss, he'll continue to play. We've seen it with this coaching staff before - Craig Nall lost an opportunity to compete for the starting QB job last spring/summer due to a hamstring injury; are we about to see a similar development with Losman?

As most of you who frequent the site realize, I've been a supporter of J.P. Losman starting as soon as possible. I'm a bit disappointed that the circus surrounding this position will continue for another week, but for now, I'm very close to done talking about it. Trent Edwards is playing on Sunday, and we've got a must-win matchup coming up against the Ravens. So, for four glorious days, the Bills will have a starting quarterback. Let's use those days to talk about the game - we'll get back to the QB Carousel when it resurfaces next week.

Other Notes: DE Ryan Denney OUT for the Ravens game; WR Peerless Price to IR soon; CB Jabari Greer will likely continue to start.

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