There are many reasons to not make this (or any) deal with TO. Buffalo is facing a very uphill road to being a legitmate contender, given that 3 teams in their division finished ahead of them last season, 1 teams in their division made the playoffs last season, and a second team in their division was the Patriots last season, and presumably will continue to be the Patriots this season.
The most important reason that this is a bad idea is Trent Edwards. Buffalo drafted JP Losman in the first round in 2004, and he never panned out for them. They drafted Trent Edwards in the 3rd round of the 2007 draft, and has played in 23 games for the Bills over the past 2 seasons. Edwards is just getting into a position to assert control over his huddle, and now the Bills have brought in alpha dog Owens to compete with their young quarterback. When Owens feels he's not getting the ball enough, will Edwards have the fortitutde to tell him to shut it, and will he have the standing to make that the end of it?
I say no.
Owens makes friends in the locker room. In his spat with Witten, he had the majority of the Cowboys defensive players on his side. In his crusade against Jason Garrett, he had all of the other wide receivers backing him up. Buffalo does not have the veteran leadership to know that they must support Edwards when there's conflict. They also don't have the talent to win enough to keep the complaints to a minimum.
Expect one more team to be left in the wake of Hurricane Owens this time next season.
Even if it's a bad idea for the Bills, there are fans of at least 12 teams out there that are actually contenders. And they're all thanking God right now that their team isn't that stupid.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, if the Bills win it all with TO, we're all going to miss Marv Levy after his heart attack. Thankfully, that's not going to happen.