Jim Kelly says Bills fans should take it easy on EJ Manuel

It's not easy being a rookie quarterback in the NFL. Especially when you're a high draft pick and have so many expectations placed upon you by fans that are hungry to see a struggling franchise have some success.

Buffalo Bills fans are probably spoiled by the run of success the team had in the early 90's when Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly commandeered the Bills' high octane offense and led them to four straight Super Bowls. Bills fans have been longing for the glory years for quite a while now.

When the Bills took quarterback EJ Manuel with the 16th pick in the 2013 NFL Draft, there were whispers about Buffalo taking a risk by making Manuel the draft's first quarterback to come off the board. At 6-4 and 237 pounds and possessing a strong arm with mobility, the Bills figured Manuel was too good to pass up.

Bills coach Doug Marrone named Manuel his starter and hitched the Bills future to his first round quarterback. A few fluky knee injuries has taken Manuel away from the field and now Bills fans are already growing impatient with the rookie. Manuel has shown flashes of being the man to lead the Bills but he does  make a few head scratching mistakes.

In a phone interview, Kelly said that bills fans shouldn't rush to judgement on Manuel and that injuries have hurt his development.

 "There are so many things a young quarterback has to learn, and there's only one way to do it -- by being out there," Kelly said. "You can't learn by standing on the sidelines and just staring."

“You know what? Training camp for a rookie quarterback is so, so essential,” Kelly said. “It’s where they learn. It’s where they can make their mistakes. It’s where they really get to know their receivers, their running backs, and their system. He missed half of that.


“The mental approach at quarterback is so key. And for a young guy coming in trying to master a playbook that’s five times thicker than a college playbook, and the defences with all the ways they disguise — it’s a tough transition even if he never gets hurt.”

Manuel missed the last half of training camp in August after suffering an injury to his left knee which was revealed to be a meniscus tear. Manuel had corrective surgery on the knee.

Manuel later sprained the lateral collateral ligament in his right knee. He missed four games. The Bills were 2-2 at that point in the season. This past Sunday he sprained his knee in a game against the Jacksonville Jaguars but completed the game.

“I definitely think EJ is doing a good job,” Kelly said. “There are times, yeah, where you think, ‘What’s he doing?’ or ‘That mistake shouldn’t happen.’ But I think he’ll get better, and when he gets another year under his belt, he’ll be all right.”

Manuel didn't have the luxury of sitting behind an established veteran and learning the system like an Aaron Rodgers or Philip Rivers. He was brought in to be a savior.

"The quarterback gets too much of the blame and too much of the praise. I know that's an old cliche, but that's just the way it is now -- moreso even than it was 20 years ago."

Whether Manuel likes it or not, the fans want him to perform and will call for his head when he doesn't. it may not be fair, but that's the nature of the business.

Bills will sign QB Matt Leinart

Matt Leinart's NFL career has reportedly has new life.

With injuries to rookie quarterback E.J. Manuel and backup Kevin Kolb, the Buffalo Bills have signed free agent Matt Leinart. The Bills were left with undrafted free agent Jeff Tuel on the depth chart.

Leinart, 30, spent last season as a backup with the Oakland Raiders after two seasons with the Houston Texans and four with the Arizona Cardinals, who drafted him No. 10 overall out of USC in 2006.

Manuel has a minor knee injury and Kolb suffered concussion like symptoms in Saturday's preseason game against the Washington Redskins. Bills head coach Doug Marrone is hoping that Manuel will be ready to return for the team's season opener against New England in two weeks.

Two NFL general managers get pranked

Two 20-year-olds are looking at being in some big trouble because of a bad telephone prank. The prank involved two NFL general managers and now the law is looking to get involved.

The NFL is looking into a 'conversation' between Buffalo Bills general manager Buddy Nix and Tampa Bay Buccaneers general manager Mark Dominik last Friday. It happened to be recorded and appeared on Deadspin on Tuesday.  

From Deadspin:


On Thursday afternoon, the pranksters called Buffalo's publicly listed front office phone number. They claimed to be Bucs GM Mark Dominik and asked to be transferred to Buddy Nix. To their surprise, they were. Panicking, they hung up as soon as he answered.

Then Buddy Nix called them back.

And he kept calling back. Into Thursday evening, resuming again on Friday morning, Nix's personal number kept lighting up their cell phone. They ignored it, until they came up with a plan. They would call Mark Dominik, claim to be Buddy Nix, and send the two on a phantom game of phone tag.

So they rang up the Buccaneers, but while on with Dominik's secretary, Buddy Nix called again. It was perfect. They answered Nix's call, then fell silent while they were patched through to Dominik. They put the call on speaker, recorded with a second cell phone, and sat back and listened to the fun.

The call lasted about six minutes and after some initial confusion about wrong numbers, the pair settled in to discuss their own personnel, with Nix describing some of the team's frustration with the slowed progress of quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick. As far as juicy gossip or major revelations, there really wasn't anything of the sort, just two guys in the same profession chatting politely about business.

"We are aware of the report on Deadspin involving a phone conversation with Bills GM Buddy Nix," the Bills said in a statement. "We have made the league aware of the report and are reviewing it with legal counsel."

The Buccaneers did not respond to a request for comment.

In the state of Florida what these two unknowns did was a third degree felony. In New York they might have a loophole in which they can escape punishment.

"In Florida, it is a third degree felony so you are talking about a criminal violation," Jeff Hermes, the director of the Digital Media Law Project at Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, said. "The Florida wiretapping law does have a civil cause of action."

Federal and New York state law requires "one-party consent," meaning that you can record a conversation as long as you are a party to that conversation. The pranksters may have a loophole here in that by Nix calling their number thinking it was Dominik's, they were technically a party to the conversation.

"This is a circumstance where there was an affirmative misrepresentation," Hermes said. "I'm not entirely sure how that would affect this analysis. A court could say 'you dialed a number, you didn't know for sure, you thought it was a person's number due to this person's misrepresentation. You're responsible for initiating the call and the consequences. If that results in the person you call starting a recording, that's on you.' I think it's a stronger argument to say under these circumstances where the call was initiated as a result of the misrepresentation that the person doing the misrepresentation shouldn't be treated as the legit recipient of the call." 

We'll have to see if these two yahoos get punished or end up with a slap on the wrist.

Browns beat out Bills for Kevin Costner movie

Two of the more snakebit franchises in the NFL went head to head off the field recently. But for once it was the Cleveland Browns that came out on top.

The Browns reportedly beat out the Buffalo Bills for the right to be the franchise in the Kevin Costner movie, Draft Day.

The movie, which was to depict Kevin Costner as a fictitious Buffalo Bills general manager trying to restore his team to past glory, will instead be shot in Cleveland, with the actor portraying the Cleveland Browns GM.

Like most reasons for anything related to business decisions, it all came down to the money. Shooting in Cleveland was cheaper than shooting in Buffalo therefore the Browns will get the nod.

“At the end of the day, it was a money thing. I think Mr. [Ivan] Reitman really wanted to shoot here, but it just came down to the cost factor. What we were told is that the Cleveland incentives were better,” said Tim Clark who heads the Buffalo Niagara Film Commission .

“I feel the worse for the Buffalo Bills, because they worked real hard to convince the film company that Buffalo was the place to shoot this, and that Buffalo was America’s team.”

Buffalo Bills being America's team. Since when? I guess I missed the memo on that one.

This will be the second time a movie will be based on a Cleveland sports franchise as Draft Day hopes to be as successful as Major League. I guess the silver screen is the only place where a Cleveland franchise gets to be a winner.

Vince Young eyeing a comeback

Vince Young was once thought of to be the future of NFL quarterbacks. He was a Heisman Trophy finalist at the University of Texas, won a national championship, was the NFL rookie of the year with the Tennessee   Titans and appeared his career appeared to be trending upward.

Fast forward to now and Young is broke and out of football. After pouting  and playing his way out of Tennessee, he's bounced around to the Philadelphia Eagles and Buffalo Bills, not looking anything like the player scouts thought he would be coming out of Texas.

Young is looking for a job and is going to give it the old college try. Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated reported that Young is returning to Texas to finish his degree and work out at Texas' pro day in front of NFL scouts.

Young doesn't have many chances left if any. Young will have to perform out of his mind to impress the scouts and front office personnel that he's worth a roster spot. If he can do that he would also need to play the happy camper and realize that he's no longer starting material and barely second string material. And for the money that he thinks he's gonna get, no one will sign a third stringer for that price.

I would hope he makes it so he can at least get back on his feet financially, but the odds aren't in his favor.

Buffalo Bills hire Syracuse's Marrone

The Buffalo Bills have filled their head coaching vacancy by hiring Syracuse head coach Doug Marrone. Many are probably saying "who?" regarding this recent hire by the Bills, but if you look deeper than his win- loss record, Bills fans will realize that this hire was more about giving the Bills offense a jolt.

Before compiling a 25-25 record over four years at Syracuse, Marrone was an offensive line coach for the New York Jets from 2002-2005 and was the offensive coordinator for the New Orleans Saints from 2006-2008. When he took over Syracuse the program had been run into the ground and Marrone made it competitive and winning two bowl games.

Now the Bills have a major problem scoring points and offense is Marrone's background. He led the Saints' offensive renaissance during his three years in New Orleans. It helps if you have Drew Brees leading the charge, but nonetheless he was the coordinator so that counts for something.

NFL analyst Brian Billick called it a "great hire", adding that Marrone "brings substantial pro experience with a  mix of college."

I will not lampoon this hire considering I'm a Lions fan, but Marrone does have a superior weapon on offense in the underused C.J. Spiller. Marrone may not get the Bills back to their glory days of the early 90's, but the fans should give him a chance before saying the guy can't coach.

Marcell Dareus Can't Wait To Play The Panthers And Broncos

Buffalo Bills first round draft pick, Marcell Dareus, is a little pissed about being taken number three in the draft. To me and many others that's not to shabby. Anyone would be happy to be chosen that high. Marcell should remember that Detroit Lions great Barry Sanders was selected at number three. Don't try to tell that to Dareus.

He was specific in an interview about what teams passed him over in an interview with Michel Irvin on   WQAM in Miami. It doesn't take much to figure it out either since he was selected at number three. And he was hot about it.

When he was asked whether he should have been picked number one, his answer was "Yes". Then he let the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers know that he's going to bring the pain.

“If I ever get a chance to play Carolina I’m going to make them pay for passing up on me,” said Dareus. ”Denver I’ll get a chance to play them in the regular season (this year) and I’m going to make it hell for them every time I play against them.”



“I worked my butt off to the point where I’m not going to give you a reason not to pick me,” he said. “You’re not going to look at me and be like, ‘Well he’s good, but…” That ‘but’ word is never going to come up when you mention my name. My sole focus was for me not to give you a reason to not pick me and you still don’t? Okay, I understand you have needs somewhere else, but if you need somebody to control your front and be a commander across the front and not let anything happen? I work my butt off to do that, and you pass me up still? Okay, I’ve got something for you.”


This is something I may keep an eye on if there is an NFL season.

Buffalo Claims Merriman

The Buffalo Bills claimed former San Diego Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman off waivers. Merriman has five days to report and says he plans to. He's not expected to play in Sunday's game against the Chicago Bears.

Even though the Bills are 0-7, this could be good pickup. Especially since they haven't gotten anything from former first round pick Aaron Maybin. I just wouldn't expect Merriman to stick around past the rest of this season.  

Dick Jauron gets canned

Dick Jauron was fired today as head coach of the Buffalo Bills.I can understand why they fired him.The bottom line in sports is wins and losses.Always has been, always will.Thing is,was it really his fault.I really don't think so.He was saddled with a mediocre team that wasn't that close to making the playoffs.For crying ou loud,he inherited the great J.P. Losman as quarterback.Please don't take me calling Losman great seriously.Losman has since been beaten out by Trent Edwards and is now quarterbacking in the UFL.Edwards hasn't lit the world on fire either.He's shown flashes but he's not a difference maker.They signed Terrell Owens to take heat off of Lee Evans and that has blown up in their face.See,Jauron was only responsible for replacing Losman.He didn't sign this roster or Owens.I'm sure he had some input in the draft room but how much? Also,who was responsible for the firing of former offensive coordinator Turk Schonert? Jauron or management? The offense has been lousy all season long and that's being generous.I'm not saying he didn't have input on some of this,but i'm sure he didn't have a whole lot of veto power with the Bills brass.My point being,he should have been given more time,at least until next year to fix some holes on the roster.I know its all about wins and losses but the Bills are on their fifth coach since 2000.You can't have high turnover on the sidelines all the time.Defensive coordinator Perry Fewell will take over in the interim.