Losman keeps head in game
Backup QB admits to some frustration
PITTSFORD — J. P. Losman got a taste of the moment’s-notice nature of his role as backup quarterback for the Buffalo Bills on Tuesday night.
Losman got thrown in with the starting unit midway through practice after Trent Edwards went out with what appeared to be a minor thigh bruise.
“You’ve just got to be ready,” Losman said at St. John Fisher College. “During this whole situation, I’ve just kind of been trying to force myself to kind of get ready. It can be tough at times. It’s hard at times. But like tonight, it could happen for just a couple of plays. I’ve got to be ready.”
Edwards banged his thigh with the knee of running back Marshawn Lynch on a simple handoff play. Edwards walked off the field a few minutes later with only the faintest sign of a limp. Coach Dick Jauron downplayed the injury after practice, calling it a “deep quad contusion.”
Nevertheless, it put the spotlight on Losman for a day. Losman’s comments after practice were his first to reporters since last December. He had declined all interview requests all spring and summer.
Losman, who lost his job due to injury in Week Three last season and then again in Week 12 as a result of an organizational decision, admitted he struggled to accept his backup status this offseason.
“It was very difficult,” Losman said. “It was very difficult to get motivated, but with the help of friends, family and my agent, we just keep pressing on. You have to keep looking at that light. You have to keep saying something could happen; you have to be ready for it.
“So overall, looking at the overall picture, the overall career of a player, this is just one year. There’s a long way to go, and that’s the picture you have to look at. And just constantly push yourself to get better, not just for this year but for years to come because you plan on doing this for years, for sure.”
Losman asked for the right to seek a trade after last season. But the prospect of a deal never gained any traction, and by April it was obvious Losman was going to have to return to Buffalo for the final year of his contract and accept being Edwards’ backup.
He said he is committed to being as prepared as possible this season for whatever chance he might get.
“If it’s [just] three plays this year or whatever,” Losman said, “I want to come through for my teammates, for sure.
“I’ve got to keep forcing myself. I’m going to ask my teammates to keep helping me with that. Keep fighting through every day. I’ve just got to be ready. There’s a lot on the line every game.”
Losman said he and Edwards have a good relationship.
“Trent’s great,” Losman said. “No situation has changed there as far as the friendship. Regardless, it’s not his fault the situation is the way it is. . . . It’s not his doing by any means. It’s not his fault. For me to be upset at him [would be] childish. You have a team here. We’re all grown men. You have to handle this situation the way it is, like grown men. I’m pulling for him. I try to help him out as much as I can and vice versa. When I ask him a question, things are answered pretty quick.”
Losman also said he likes the Bills’ offense, under new coordinator Turk Schonert, better than last season.
“The main thing is I feel very, very comfortable with Turk and [quarterbacks coach] Alex [Van Pelt]. I like going to work with those guys each and every day. We’ve agreed in the past over many things. They just weren’t in a position to make those things come true. Even though the situation has changed, I’m still working with those guys, and that makes coming to work that much easier.”
Losman said he loves what Schonert is doing with the offense.
“Turk has always shown signs that when the game is going on, he’s always thinking what I was thinking when I was in there. I was like, ‘Yeah, why don’t we do this. I think we should do that.’He was always on that same page in game situations. So I do expect him to be that way now. . . . I think he’s very, very confident and he knows exactly what he wants to get accomplished.”
Losman refused to discuss his displeasure with the Bills’ brain trust for not having a greater commitment to him or sticking with him longer last season.
“Like I said right now is not the time to be thinking about anything like that,” he said. “I had a chance to digest everything that happened in that situation in the offseason. And right now I’m strictly focused on being ready, for instance, in a case like happened today.”
