Less than a month ago, I wrote about how much I liked Trent Edwards, and yes, it was after Adrian Wilson took his head off. In fact, it was after the Bills beat San Diego to move to 5-1. The day was Oct. 20, 2008, and you can read what I wrote here if you'd like a refresher.
Since then, Trent Edwards has played like a pile of hot garbage, and that happens in football. Maybe it doesn't happen for a month, but it happens. So it's time to pose the same question: "How Good is This Guy?"
Call it Volume II.
In four games, all losses, Edwards has been a mess, with only completion percentage to hang his hat on, and even that number isn't a lot of fun. Those last four weeks, has a quarterback rating of just 61.7, completing 74-of-119 passes (62.2%) for 784 yards, three touchdowns and eight inteceptions. He's been sacked nine times and fumbled thrice, losing two.
That brings us to two very important questions if you're living in a world of mass confusion. Have other good quarterbacks gone through this, and is Edwards doing better than his rookie year, when he made many Bills fans freak out in a pleasant manner?
(In the interest of full disclosure, I hurled approximately 20-25 offerings of profanity at Edwards on Monday Night, and probably an over/under of 100 in the last four weeks. I've had 250 thoughts of drafting Colt McCoy, Graham Harrell or Matt Grothe (should he come out)).
Let's go.
Question 1: Is Trent Edwards better than his rookie year?
The answer, remarkably, is yes. You probably want to go back and read that again. Yes, because to date, he's played in the same amount of games in each campaign, and we can make a pretty nice comparison.
Edwards is better in every statistical category except turnovers and sacks, and is it possible that those numbers are affected by an offensive line that's been awful with the exception of Week One and Week Twelve. It's not just the quarterback's numbers that have been affected by the line's play, either. Marshawn Lynch's yards-per-carry is down from 4.0 to 3.7, and it appears that Turk Schonert and Edwards have resorted to calling passing plays that leave Lynch as an option with open field in front of him (This does not excuse Edwards on Monday night, however. Just awful).
Question 2: Have other good, active quarterbacks gone through stretches like this early in their careers?
Yes. In fact, no doubt yes.
Let's start at the top, looking at another signal caller's second full season after early "success." In 2002, Tom Brady -- you might've heard of him -- had both a four game losing streak, and an abhorrent three-game stretch to close the year with the Pats in contention for the playoffs. New England finished 9-7 after heading into Week Fifteen with an 8-5 mark.
In the four game losing streak, he tossed seven interceptions to go with six touchdowns in losses to San Diego, Miami, Green Bay and Denver. He completed barely more than 50 percent of his passes while having a long pass of 34 yards.
In that season's final three games, he averaged under 175 yards per game, while again completing just over half his passes, with two touchdowns and three interceptions. The long pass? 35 yards.
They were 5-5 in their first 10 games, and his quarterbacking rating from the year was an average 85.7.
Sound familiar? Donovan McNabb was worse than Edwards. It took Ben Roethlisberger three years to have an awful campaign, and he spent year four tossing 32 touchdowns and just 11 picks. It looks like it happens, folks.
A third question...
Here's a personal one: if Edwards doesn't play better the rest of the way, are you still thinking he's your starter in 2009? I might not be. I am no longer "smitten" as I typed 30 days ago. I'll look to the draft, and I'll look for a decent No. 2, especially with J.P. Losman most likely out of the area as an unrestricted free agent. What else will you be drafting early on? An offensive lineman and a tight end might be the only arguments I could make ahead of quarterback, should Edwards not look better in 2008's final six or more games.
Again, he's been miserable with a capital M. So, Miserable. Edwards looked scared on Monday Night, and had Lee Evans open all night, and passed to him once. I'm not heaping his issues on the coaching staff at all, either. Edwards has been bad.
All I'm saying, after four weeks of complaining myself, is that if you're selling your 100 shares of Edwards, I might just be buying 20-30 of them.
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