COMMENTARY
Leadership wears well on Edwards
Trent Edwards has started nine games in the NFL. He’s the leader of an offense that set a team record for fewest offensive touchdowns last season. His Pro Bowl left tackle is nowhere to be found. His fellow captain, Donte Whitner, has guaranteed the playoffs. Fan expectations are soaring.
That’s a lot of pressure for a second-year quarterback, don’t you think?
“Sure there’s pressure,” Edwards said Wednesday to a media day gathering. “The expectations are soaring for Marshawn Lynch, too. He feels pressure and expectations he wants to reach. So do I. The only reason there’s more pressure on me is because the offense goes where I go.”
Do you embrace it, I asked? “Sure,” he said. “Put yourself in my shoes. You have to. You don’t have any choice.”
Well, if Edwards can run the offense as deftly as he does a news conference, the team will be in good hands for a decade. The kid is sharp. Behind that cool, modest facade, there’s a confident competitor, a quarterback with the edge needed to survive in the NFL.
The time has come for Edwards to take that next step and put the doubts to rest — about his arm strength, his durability, his ability to make big plays against the top defenses. If the Bills really are a playoff team, Edwards needs to go from wide-eyed rookie to steely veteran, and in a hurry.
It’s his show now, his football, his offense. And the 24-year-old Californian isn’t backing away from the challenge.
“You have to feel like the offense is in your hands, and the offense only goes where you want to take it,” Edwards said. “You look at the teams that go deep in the playoffs. For example, Eli Manning last year. You look back at every single Super Bowl champion, it’s the quarterbacks that make the offense go.”
Edwards even brought up Trent Dilfer and the 2000 Ravens, showing a grasp of NFL history and a tendency to defend the least of his QB brethren. It’s the sort of rapid intellect that convinced the late Bill Walsh that Edwards would be an NFL star someday.
He knows the impression he left at the end of last season was a bad one. Edwards played poorly in brutal weather against the Browns and Giants, and failed to produce a TD in the finale at Philadelphia. As soon as that game ended, he was prodding himself to be better.
“I told myself there were mistakes and things I needed to change,” Edwards said. “I’ve been thinking about it since the first of January. Now here we are, a couple of days from the Seahawks game, and I’m expecting big things of myself.”
Big things start with a bigger body. Edwards put on about 15 pounds in the offseason to protect his body from a season of abuse from NFL defenders.
“I think he’s moving better, too,” said coach Dick Jauron. “He’s certainly more confident, though he’s never lacked for confidence. He’s more familiar with our offense. He never missed a day in our offseason program. He has a good command of what we’re trying to do.”
Alex Van Pelt, the quarterbacks coach, gushed about Edwards’ calming influence on the offense. Of course, Edwards’ demeanor will be put to the test if Jason Peters’ holdout results in any disastrous breakdowns in the offensive line.
“I’m going to be very honest with you guys,” Edwards said of the Peters issue. “It doesn’t even come up all that often. Guys are focused on the Seattle game.”
Edwards mentioned the players who narrowly earned a spot on the 53-man roster, and how happy they were to make an NFL team. It was his way of pointing out that the team is bigger than any one player. A simple thing, but the sign of an emerging young leader.
Now, if only he can back it up on the field.
