How Is T.O. to Buffalo a Disaster? Let Me Count the Ways.

When is going out and getting a terrific receiving complement to Lee Evans to try to get your young quarterback to the next level a bad idea?

When that complement is named Terrell Owens.

Make no mistake, the Bills needed a personnel upgrade at wide receiver. 

However, that isn't the only position they need an upgrade at.  Tight end, offensive and defensive line, and maybe even quarterback come to mind as well. 

But for the offense to have any shot at operating efficiently, Lee Evans absolutely had to have someone to line up opposite him who could take some pressure off him.

I've heard some say that Lee Evans needs a No. 1 WR for him to be a compliment to.  Nonsense.  Evans is a legit No. 1 WR.  He has been since his days at Wisconsin. He has the hands, the speed, and all the abilities to be a No. 1 WR for any team in the league. 

What he's lacked is someone on the other side to make defenses pay attention to. 

Some including myself, would also say he needs a quarterback who can get him the ball.  That's for another day.

So, if Lee Evans needs a compliment so badly, then why is this move a disaster for the Bills?

Let's start by taking a look at the aforementioned quarterback position. 

If you have a young quarterback who already has shown he has issues with his confidence, there are two bad things that can happen to him. 

One is not getting good consistent protection from his offensive line.  Edwards already has that problem.   When you don't get consistent protection, you can't be consistent.  I don't care who you are, even Joe Montana never completed a pass from his backside.

The other bad thing that can happen to a young quarterback is to have someone, anyone, on the offense who by virtue of force of personality demands that the offense go through him.  This will make a young quarterback press to get that person more involved in the offense, sometimes to the point of making a mistake. 

Mistakes equal turnovers, which usually equal losses.  There's been enough of those to go around in Buffalo lately.

It's worse when the player demanding the offense run through him is a wide receiver.  He will always be open, just ask him.  He doesn't get enough balls thrown to him, he will tell you.  He's not a big enough part of the offense, that's why the team didn't score enough points and lost on Sunday, he tells reporters after the game.

It all adds up to unnecessary pressure on both the quarterback and the offensive line to make the passing game hold up so that the guy can get enough balls thrown to him to make plays. 

Don't think it matters how many balls the guy has thrown to him that he drops, either.  Those don't count. It's as if the ball wasn't thrown to him at all.  All he knows is the ball wasn't in his hands enough.  That's when the trouble starts.

Pretty soon, the locker room becomes divided and players start talking.  Then, the whole thing falls apart, the team becomes split into factions, and it's no longer about the team quite so much as it is the individual.

Something seems like it's missing here, but I can't quite put my finger on it.  Wait, I've got it!  I haven't even mentioned him by name, but I've just spent the last few paragraphs describing what has happened to every team Terrell Owens has played on.

Look, I'm not going to sit here and tell anyone Owens wasn't a great wide receiver.  What never gets mentioned with him because of all his baggage is the fact that he is second all-time in touchdown receptions, behind only Jerry Rice, the greatest of all time. 

But notice how I just phrased that.  I put it in past tense.

Why did I do that? 

For those of you who can, look back at some Cowboys game replays from last season.  Yes, Owens was still double covered most of the time, but for the first time in his career, cornerbacks were no longer afraid to press him at the line of scrimmage. 

That generally only happens when a guy is declining, and perhaps losing a step.  Owens is 34 and the clock is ticking.  He's not going to get faster at this point.

A young team and a young quarterback, both with very fragile confidence.  Confidence that can be broken at any time, with no real successes to fall back on to restore that confidence. 

Not exactly the best scenario to put a noted toxin like Terrell Owens into.  In fact, the results could be disastrous.