I have to hand it to Tom Donahue(Bills’ GM), he showed guts and made the sensible decision to cut Drew Bledsoe. Even though I think it was one year too late, he still did what had to be done.
The cutting of Drew Bledsoe was done for a few reasons.
#1 Salary cap relief. Though he will still count against the cap, he won’t count as much if they released him before training camp.
#2 Performance. He’s over the hill, he can’t make the short throws and hardly ever makes the long throws. His internal clock is forever broken, he stands in the pocket too long, and with the barely adequate O-line, he was getting sacked like potatoes. There wasn’t ONE game where the Bills won because Bledsoe won it for them. The reason the Bills went on that winning streak was because of McGahee, the defense and special teams(I forget the returner’s name). For the most the games, I wished that Bledsoe didn’t lose the game for the Bills. That’s not a good sign.
#3 The Future. J.P. Losman, has had a year to watch and learn, and half a year of practice snaps to hopefully grasp the offence well enough to compete during training camp and win the starting job. And at worst he’ll start halfway thru the season. Let’s hope he lives up to the hype.
Position overview:
QB: Drew is gone, Losman hopefully will start in 2005. If not then a vet QB(Garcia, Warner,etc..) will start the season. Not Warner though, he’s worse than Bledsoe.
RB: They need to get rid of Henry. Getting a 1st rounder for him is probably impossible, so I’d be happy with a 3rd rounder. Once again, Donahue waiting one year too long to pull the trigger. I would like to believe that Shaud Williams is an adequate backup but he’s too small to carry the load for an extended period of time should McGahee get hurt. The NFL draft is deep with RBs so hopefully a backup will be drafted.
WR: Evans emerged as an excellent deep threat. Josh Reed is nothing more than a 3rd receiver. Hopefully they can pick up a sleeper in the draft.
FB: It would be nice to pick up a pass-catching FB. Just to give Losman another outlet. Jon Ritchie is a free agent, he would be nice.
OLine: Jonas Jennings will be leaving, so hopefully the Bills can pick up a lineman in the draft or get a vet free agent like Andruzzi from the Pats.
TE: The top 2 TE’s were hurt during the season but hopefully they’ll be ready for training camp. If not, then they may sign a veteran.
DLine: They have to resign Pat Williams. If he leaves he’ll leave a run-stopping void that will be very hard to replace. They may have to overspend.
Coach: No complaints…
Prediction for 2005: 8-8