WhitewalkerInPhilly

With Claypool I think the issue is injuries and not that many spots open. Locks Shakir Samuel Coleman I assume 6 WR considering the need to carry TE and RB That's three spots for : Hollins Shavers Shorter Hamler Claypool MVS IIRC Hollins, Shorter and Shavers are ST candidates. It's hard to imagine that you'd have to impress to get in as a pure WR unless you are a cut above the others. Claypool is injured but MVS vanishing is not what I expected

I don't know about training camp but I won't be shocked if it's for a playoff push

Honestly the rookies getting their shot sounds like the plan And I completely agree that play action rollouts seem like one of the most obvious plays to use. You have a run game to sell the play action and a QB who is a run threat. Force the 2nd level guy to choose coverage or cutting off Josh's lane

For me it's more gleaning details. It's not that Coleman is constantly doing circus catches (though he is) it's also some of the reports I've heard about working on zone recognition and his footwork. He knew he had great body control, but those were areas of concern for me

I'll be honest, my faith in the offense took some brutalizing from the end of the season through the draft. Not only has the receiving depth proven insufficient, even if Gabe Davis hadn't given you enough consistent production to be a reliable #2 WR losing him was another hole to plug. Curtis Samuel was nice but I thought the Bills could use one more guy to stretch the field...and then what seemed impossible happened: Diggs was traded. Even if his production had fallen off he was still in the top half of WR 1 and the cupboard was bare. Come draft day I watched Brian Thomas Jr. drop only to be snatched by the Jags and the Bills to trade out of the first round for one of the few prospects I thought the Bills should skip. I hated the Coleman pick in the moment and I felt a pit in my stomach. So the Bills picked up a few bargain bin WRs who cares? The Bills were going into a season with an interim OC made official with less receiving talent and the loss of Morse on the Oline. So I thought at the time. But it's been a long three months and, bit by bit, I saw signs of life. Some of Coleman's analytics were contextualized. Breakdowns of some of Brady's trends showed ways he was already attacking his deficiencies. Claypool and MVS were surprised names to pick up dirt cheap. And now in camp? Brady has leaned into new concepts of motion and condensed formations. Coleman is showing the difference between straight line and game speed and is progressing along a best case scenario ramp up. There are signs of life from the back end of the WR depth to the point it's a real competition. Shakir and Samuel look great. The offensive line doesn't seem to have missed a beat. If anything Josh is looking more comfortable spreading the ball around instead of forcing it and enjoys being able to throw a little higher for big bodied guys. Kincaid looks ready to be an offensive focal point. Is it early? Yes. I don't think anyone will really know until a few weeks in but so far I'm having more faith than I did in 22 or 23.

I mostly agree. I want to see how things look with people in pads but the first few practices have gone better than I hoped. It looks like the extra time with Josh worked.

They are already ~$44 million over so they will almost assuredly need to. Now, I'm aware that Beane managed wizardry to get the Bills under the cap and make some acquisitions of their own. But next year the Phins have one player who they'd free more than $5 M by cutting and that's Hill. I'm sure they can do it, but they signed a *bunch* of defensive free agents this year. Beane made hard cuts and the Phins kicked it down the road one more year and now they are locked on Tua.

Just a quick bit of math: Expected 2025 salary cap: $260 million Current expected cap hits Tua: $ 51 million Tyreek Hill: $34 million Jaylen Ramsey: $24 million. Waddle: $20 million That's approximately half their cap tied up on four players

I remember the points of The Drought where giving up multiple 1st round picks for Sam Bradford was seriously discussed on this board. I am aware of what desperation does when it has been so long and you look stacked everywhere but QB That said this is hilarious and I am eating it up with a spoon

I think it's safe to say that the Bills envision using Curtis Samuel the way the Niners use Deebo

I know Tua is better than we give him credit for but that is a lot of money for someone who has never won a playoff game. With even back loading the deal with a restructure this year puts a conservative $60 million cap hit for 2025. That's close to a quarter of the cap on three players

I have a feeling that someone is going to be a jerk and take this out of context but I do think this is where the league is going. Outside of QB, how many elite offensive players are just the most prototypical versions of their positions? How many Justin Jeffersons and CeeDee Lambs are there? Think about who have been the breakout stars in recent years? Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua were what happens when you take possession receivers and make them your offense's focal point. CMC and Deebo Samuel blur the line between a RB and WR. Travis Kelce is a WR in a TE's body.

I don't want to fly off the handle because it's early but the two biggest question marks were whether he could read an NFL defense and polish his route running. So far, we are seeing excellent signs of progress on both. I don't think Beane and Brady throw him into the fire. They will want him to earn his reps and targets. But it's looking like that might be sooner rather than later.

I won't tell you to, especially with the strengths each of them has. Coleman has the size to block at least as well as Kincaid and Samuel appears to be set up as a Deebo like WR/RB. So in practice with those three guys, Kincaid or Knox at TE and Cook/Davis in the backfield the offense could (at least in theory) effectively shift between 11, 12, 21 and 22 groupings all with the same WRs personel of

Inject that top tweet directly into my veins please I'll wait until I see a full season out of the man but I really like the wrinkles he managed to weld on to the Dorsey/Daboll offense and it appears that he's expanded on those to take bits of what the Niners, Lions and Rams were doing last year. If he can get 80% to a QB like Josh Allen whooo boy!

I have to say I am pleasantly surprised at how well the offense seems to be coming along. All sorts of qualifiers apply: it's training camp, it's two days in, pads aren't on etc, but if you were to ask me post OTAs what I'd need to see in training camp it would have been something like: -No regression in the O line. -more motion and condensed formations in play design -Curtis Samuel as a dual threat -Coleman making progress on route running and reading defenses -Signs of life from the pool of journeymen WRs And so far we've seen signs of all of those

That is encouraging. He's not going to drop 0.4 seconds on his 40 time so tools to get separation needed to be routed running and reading defenses. This is a good sign

On one hand it's silly to even compare the two at this point. It can take years to determine whether a draft pick has worked out. Even then, if you'd asked in 2017 who the best WR taken in 2014 was, OBJ would have been the answer and now he's taking one year contracts while Mike Evans keeps going On the other, we aren't the ones who felt the need to constantly brag to Chiefs fans who we took so it is delicious to see the durability concerns raring already

Don't get me wrong I love the motion but I think the compressed formations might be good specifically for the Bills. One of the knocks I heard about our WR group is how they are going to beat press coverage. Not only do condensed formations help diagnose coverage, not only can you run motion (I can see Samuel in the backfield motioned to the slot), doing so gives a free release to YAC guys AND is easier to run out of than spread. Long story short: I think we might see a really interesting offense this year.

It's day 1 and the pads have not come on, but man... So far it looks like a lot of the Best Case Scenario predictions regarding Brady's scheme, Kincaid taking a step up and Coleman being ready at his moment. This could be an amazing Red Zone offense. A Oline that seems mostly in sync, big bodies in Coleman, Kincaid and Knox, and needing to defend both Allen and Cook/Davis against the run really seems like it could stress defenses when the field is compressed.

I've seen a lot of this theorized but it's nice to see it getting expanded. One comment I heard from Brady last year was something like "we use motion but we use it for a purpose". At times it seemed that Dorsey was using motion as window dressing. Brady seems to be using it to diagnose coverages and make mismatches

It's early but yes that's what I read into it. Shakir, Coleman and Samuel being locks is no surprise. That MVS is? It's definitely an observation We need to spam Chiefs Twitter with this right? That's how it works?

Of particular note I've been curious about these confluences: -A rise in condensed formations which allow for easier pre-snap diagnosis, gives an off line WR a free release and are easier to switch to run plays on than the spread. -The Lions running something like 90% of plays out of 3 WR sets but still running effectively using Kupp & Nakua as blockers. -Kincaid as a mismatch depending on coverage -Similar (not equivalent but similar) play style and profile of CMC and Deebo Samuel in Cook and Curtis Samuel We have pieces of some of the most successful offenses from last year. Will it gel? We are going to find out. But that makes training camp more interesting to me not less.

Exactly. Look I not calling Brady the next offensive mastermind. But he came in mid season and welded some of the philosophies of the teams I mentioned on mid season. I am curious to see what he can do with a full off-season

We are going to find out aren't we