Fumble! Former Buffalo Bill J.P. Losman is Heading to the UFL
After the football season came to a close, everyone in Buffalo knew that Bills quarterback J.P. Losman would be playing for a new team in 2009. No one could have guessed that his new team would be playing their games in Las Vegas.
Losman, the Bills first round pick in the 2004 NFL Draft, is set to be the signal caller on the Las Vegas team in the United Football League, according to UFLAccess.com.
It is now clear that Losman has officially hit rock bottom, after being benched for the last two seasons as Trent Edwards took the reins of the Bills starting job and now taking snaps in a UFL jersey.
Losman certainly has the raw talent to make it in the NFL, that was never a concern about him. What hurt him was his inconsistency, his lack of field vision, undisciplined play, and locking onto wide receivers even when they were tightly covered.
He had his good times with comeback wins and almost leading the Bills to the playoffs in 2006, but also had his bad times, with not being able to finish critical drives and constantly coughing up the football in the absolute worst moments.
The move makes sense for Losman, as he is trying to work his way back onto a NFL squad. With most spots already filled this season, Losman didn’t have many opinions in terms of teams to go to, and the ones he did he had no chance of starting. He chose playing over sitting the bench and the UFL will give him a chance to show that he still has some talent that is worth putting on a NFL depth chart.
The UFL (which doesn’t even have nicknames for its four franchises in Las Vegas, Orlando, New York and San Francisco), only plays six regular season games, and is expected to have a Championship game around Thanksgiving.
Who knows, there may even be an injury to a team at the quarterback position in which they will be looking for depth. If everything goes right for Losman, he might even be back in a NFL uniform during the 2009 season.
In his five-year NFL career, Losman completed 558 of 941 passes (59.3%) for 6,211 yards, 33 touchdowns and 34 interceptions. Losman also gained 489 yards on the ground, scoring three touchdowns. He also fumbled the ball 32 times during the five-year span, 17 of which that were lost to the opposing team. Overall in his career, Losman accounted for 36 touchdowns but also 51 turnovers.
Most fans have already said good riddance to the 28-year-old quarterback, however, I am quite interested to see how this whole thing turns out. Who knows, maybe under Las Vegas coach Jim Fassel, Losman can finally turn the corner in his development and turn into a serviceable NFL QB.
Or maybe Losman might be looking for a new day job come next year.
Either way, you can’t blame him for not trying.
incredible fall!
Matt, it’s odd because it seems like just yesterday we were debating between Losman and Edwards as the starters. Do you think Losman is the biggest bust in the last ten years for the Bills (other than Mike Williams, OT)?
Chan man, Losman certainly has some competition for being the Biggest Bust in the last 10 years.
There is of course Williams that you mentioned but there is also John McCargo (26th overall), and Erik Flowers (26th overall) but in terms of hype and the team already in place, I would say Losman has been the one of the biggest busts. When he first started off, he had a defense around him to take some pressure off but for whatever reason, after the 2007 season he just wasn’t the same anymore and played scared.