It is make or break for JP Losman
JP Losman is entering his second year in the offense of Steve Fairchild. With his improved play the ecpectations is that this year Losman will blossom into a stud or fail and become just another quarterback.
Without a shadow of a doubt many people are out there hoping that they finally have the franchise quarterback that they been waiting for. It has been over a decade since Jim Kelly retired, but I say to you the wait is over and he is here.
The key indication to me was Alan Pergaments article last summer on the time that Losman went to Ron Jaworski for some help. That told me he is openminded and willing to whatever it takes to win. In the article itself Jaworski gave Losman a glowing reveiw stating that he knew his stuff. So what was the problem last year.
The problem last year was two fold. First, Steve Fairchild was not confident enough in Losman’s abilities to handle the starting position. However, he proved enough in training camp last year to win the starting position, and showed enough progress that he could handle it.
Secondly, Losman was not able to audible out of plays early on in the season. You can tell Losman was not audibling by body movement during away games. There was no body movement, or hand signals between Losman and the receivers.
Already into OTA’s Losman looked like that is a thing in the past. John Clayton observed that passes by Losman rarely hit the ground. The ball was right at were the receiver was just breaking out of a route.
Also, both Losman and Fairchild have stated that Losman will have more control over audibles. Most likely last year during their bye week Fairchild gave Losman hot route audible control. Which, would explain the shift of game plan to more short routes instead of consitent five step drops.
Losman to many people is not out of the woods yet. People would like to see Losman consistently put the team on his shoulders and win games. However, Losman cannot do that if the opposition consistenly has the ball.
Losman’s numbers last year indicated that he was a top ten quarterback, excluding number of wins. Losman should improve this year with several factors. First, they have a legitament left tackle, that is also respected by coaches around the league. Secondly, Losman has more audible control, thus putting the offense in better spots. Thirdly, he has a great release valve in Marshawn Lynch. Finally, this is the second year that Losman is in Fairchild’s offense.
The offense should be fun to watch this year with finally having a legitament QB.