By Sean Salisbury
Special to ESPN.com
When Jay Fiedler plays error-free, his team can almost always win. And really, what more can a team ask for than a guy who always gives them a chance?
Fielder is a system guy -- he's not a Brett Favre-guy. Fiedler isn't going to be the guy who loads a team on his back, throwing for 400 yards and single-handedly leading his team to victory. Fielder is best when he doesn't try to do too much. When he recognizes his weaknesses and stays away from them, while at the same time moving toward what he knows are his not-too-flashy strengths, Fiedler is very, very solid. He's never going to be a superstar, he'll never lead the league in passing yardage. But he will always be solid, and will always be able to execute his system.
Against New England, Fiedler will be on the road, playing his third game in 13 days against a team who can't seem to do anything wrong. It will be essential for Fielder to avoid turnovers in what will likely be inclement weather at Foxboro. If he stays within his system, Fiedler should be able to avoid those mistakes.
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By Mark Malone
Special to ESPN.com
Tom Brady and Jay Fiedler are very similar. However, I think Brady embodies almost everything you want in quarterback a little more than Fiedler does. Brady is just mobile enough to make people miss and buy himself some time, but he's not going to kill you running the football.
He's as poised a quarterback I've seen -- especially considering this is his first year starting. He is big time in that pocket -- last week when the Bills almost beheaded him, he calmly got up, put his helmet on, and sent a message to his teammates that they had nothing to worry about while he was out there. He exudes a tremendous amount of confidence to the rest of the Patriots team.
My buddy Ron Jaworski has said he doesn't think Brady is all that accurate, but I disagree. I think he's a very accurate passer who's extremely smart and reads the field as well as anybody. Fiedler isn't as good a full-field reader as Brady is, nor does he have the command of his team Brady has. I don't know who in the heck wrote the scouting report on Brady after the combine that questioned his arm strength -- but they were obviously mistaken. Brady can flat-out play this game -- he's smart, accurate, tough, competitive, can make the throws he needs to and buy himself time if he needs to. He embodies everything you'd want in an NFL quarterback.
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