After four seasons Trent Edwards was sent packing by the Bill
The Buffalo Bills released quarterback Trent Edwards on Monday, ending a four year affair between the Stanford grad and the National Football League club.
It’s a surprising change of the guard only a week after Edwards lost his starting position to backup, Ryan Fitzpatrick.
Fittingly, he is replaced by a reserve, as Edwards earned his first opportunity playing behind J.P. Losman.
The California-native was taken in the third round [92nd overall] by the Bills in 2007. It was a draft pick the team obtained from Baltimore in a deal that sent running back Willis McGahee, who had three straight seasons of 1,000 rushing yards, to the Ravens.
Edwards’s first game was the result of starter Losman going down to injury in week three of that same season, against the New England Patriots.
Though he wasn’t spectacular, a respectable 5-4 record with seven touchdowns and an average of 163 yards passing per game as a starter in his rookie season, gave the Ralph Wilson faithful some hope their new QB was a promising prospect.
At the start of 2008, it looked as if the Bills had finally found the man to fill in the shoes of all-time great Jim Kelly.
The third-round draft-pick led Buffalo to an impressive 4-0 start, but the praise would be short lived and the dream would come to an abrupt end.
After being knocked out by a vicious hit from safety Adrian Wilson in a week five meeting with the Arizona Cardinals, Edwards would be diagnosed with a concussion.
The following game it appeared he had no ill effect from the injury, going 25-for-30 for 261 yards and a touchdown, in a 23-14 victory over San Diego.
But things took a drastic downward spiral from there as Edwards threw eight interceptions in the next four games — all losses.
Finishing the season with a 7-9 record, much of the blame was attributed in large part to the 2-6 finish.
Different year, same result
Following the disappointing 2008 campaign, Edwards would begin the next year on a much different note.
A 1-4 start by the Bills would give the four-year veteran a 4-12 record from the time he suffered his head injury, until a week six victory over the New York Jets (where he would receive his second concussion).
It would be the last win Edwards was a part of, as he would miss the next two games before returning in an embarrassing 41-17 defeat against the Tennessee Titans — losing his starting spot to Fitzpatrick in the process.
Edwards’s fall from grace may be related to the punishment he had to endure over his career. He was sacked 23 times in each of the last two seasons — playing only eight games in 2009.
With no help from the offensive-line, the former Stanford Cardinal was hung out to dry for many games, a number of observers believe, and paid the price.
Yet another promising young career that may have been halted by the ominous effects of concussions.