Edwards told to learn from errors
Van Pelt thinks bar was set a bit high
Buffalo Bills quarterbacks coach Alex Van Pelt recently showed Trent Edwards some video of bad interceptions thrown by San Diego’s Philip Rivers and the New York Giants’ Eli Manning.
The message: Growing pains are a fact of life for NFL quarterbacks.
“You’re going to have bad days,” Van Pelt said. “The thing is, learn from it. Grow from it. Put it behind you and have a short memory.”
Edwards’ struggles over most of the past six games are part of the reason the Bills find themselves 6-6 entering this week’s game against the Miami Dolphins.
In the first six games of the season, Edwards completed 70 percent of his passes with five touchdowns, two interceptions and a passer rating of 98.8.
In the next six games, Edwards completed 62.8 percent with five touchdowns and eight interceptions and a rating of 73.03.
This week it looks like Edwards will end up watching from the sidelines due to a strained groin muscle. He was not able to practice Wednesday, and J. P. Losman took all the snaps in his place.
Van Pelt says a healthy dose of perspective is needed when assessing the 25-year-old Edwards.
“I think he’s probably where a lot of guys are in their second year, honestly,” Van Pelt said. “I think the bar was set really high early on by his play. I think that’s what we expect from him after he puts a few of those games together. Then when he starts to play more like a second-year player at times, you start to realize, maybe you were expecting a little much early on.
“I think he’s a tremendous player. I like what he does for our offense.”
Van Pelt says he’s stressed to Edwards that unwavering confidence in the face of adversity is an essential characteristic of a good quarterback.
“That’s the biggest thing I try to preach to him; you’re going to have bad games,” Van Pelt said. “Ultimately it’s about the confidence you have to have in yourself to fight through. Then you also have to have people who believe in you within the organization. . . . He knows we have confidence in him.”
Edwards hit only 10 of 21 passes in the first half Sunday against San Francisco before exiting the game with the groin injury.
Van Pelt said it was evident as the first half progressed that the injury was affecting Edwards, particularly on an incompletion that was too low for tight end Derek Schouman.
“I consider him one of the more accurate quarterbacks in the league as far as ball placement,” Van Pelt said. “And after that throw and a throw to Josh [Reed] in the first part of the game, you could tell it was affecting his accuracy and his ability to open his hips and get through throws.”
Van Pelt thinks Edwards’ performance in Kansas City, when he completed 75 percent for 273 yards, was an important showing coming off a poor game against Cleveland the week before.
“It was huge,” he said. “That’s one of the things about putting it behind you and moving on and growing. I think he grew in that game and learned from his experiences. He used his legs a little more.”
Van Pelt said he thinks Edwards has not come close to tapping into his full ability as a passer.
“There’s a lot of room for improvement in a lot of areas,” he said. “I have a list that’s getting longer of offseason project work — technique things and fundamentals. And every young quarterback is like this, from throwing to throws to slowing down your drop in the gun as opposed to under center. Now is not the time you can really focus on it. But there’s a lot of things we can work on.”
One example of faulty footwork would be the interception Edwards threw in New England on a pass up the seam for Lee Evans.
“That’s just part of the growing pains he’s got to fight through and grow from,” Van Pelt said. “That’s part of becoming a player in the league.” your left and getting through
Log into MyBuffalo to post a comment
MyBuffalo is the new social network from Buffalo.com. Your MyBuffalo account lets you comment on and rate stories at buffalonews.com. You can also head over to mybuffalo.com to share your blog posts, stories, photos, and videos with the community. Join now or learn more.
Reader comments