Hapless Bills Fan

OK, Sal Capaccio clarified in his longer piece: Apparently according to another reporter the first INT was ruled incomplete but might have been seen as an INT on replay.

His skill set being speed or, what are you seeing? McKenzie ran a 4.42 40. Stevenson 4.45 (in a combine-less off season) McKenzie 6.64 3-cone Stevenson 6.76 I'm not trying to diss on Stevenson, and Beane absolutely likes to give his draft choices the best chance to make the roster, but Stevenson is gonna have to show he can run routes and get separation.

They also signed a guard who played for the Raiders If I were guessing, I would guess that it has something to do with Dawkins and Boettger being on the Covid-19 list. Since position groups tend to "buddy" together off the field as well as in meetings, it seems possible we may be hearing about some additions to the Covid-19 list tomorrow. Or maybe not and as someone suggested, it may be to just have 3 full OL's available with Dawkins and Boettger out.

Oh, man! Tough development for him. Injuries seemed like they really hampered his chances with the Patriots in 2018 and perhaps led to him being traded to Seattle. He stayed available in 2019 and 2020. Hopefully something he can recover from quickly. In other developments....it appears the Bills are not happy with the plethora of OLmen they already have on the roster, as they have just signed two more

I can always be wrong, I often am, but it seems to me that Bills fans often overstate the desires of other teams to poach our late round and UDFA draft picks. Didn't we go through this with Foster in 2018 where he was SO FAST and made those impressive downfield catches, he couldn't possibly be cut and put on the practice squad because other teams would immediately poach him off waivers? Stevenson was drafted with pick 203, meaning other teams passed on Stevenson at least 5x, either because they liked their WR rooms or because they had other WR in the draft they graded higher. Many of those teams will be cutting WR who are already familiar with their systems, whom they'd just as soon keep. If Stevenson shows improved release and route running skills during preseason and seems to have mastered the playbook, or if he is the clear winner of a KR/PR battle, he'll make the roster, and deserve it. But I don't think we have room for a "deep ball" specialist on the roster and while Lance Zierlein is far from infalliable, I find myself rereading his scouting reports a couple years later and nodding with fair frequency. When he describes a guy as "needing to match his play speed with his true speed" and "lacking the ball tracking and physicality to win contested catches as an outside receiver", the practice squad sounds like a great place for the guy.

Sal Capaccio had this to say:

From the Parrino story on McKenzie: Did anyone have "Sportswriter describes McKenzie's route running as exceptional" on their Bills Preseason Bingo? I had commented that last year, McKenzie seemed to have taken a good step in his route running, but if Parrino is seeing accurately, potentially sounds like another. (Parrino can be a bit of a "fanboy") There's only one response to that: ***** NO!

Way too early. The scouting reports on Stevenson pre-draft were that he had a long way to go to develop as a WR in the league: We drafted Stevenson because he has that thing you can't coach (speed), but he has to show a lot of development to make the roster as a WR, and I don't think the Bills are going to put all their "return man" eggs in the "what he showed in preseason" basket. I think there's a good chance he winds up on our practice squad. I actually don't think McKenzie makes the roster unless he wins a spot as KR or PR, hopefully both. As far as competition for KR/PR, let's not forget that Brandon Powell was signed because he returned both punts and kicks for Atlanta last season (17 of each). https://buffalowdown.com/2021/07/12/buffalo-bills-2021-player-profile-wide-receiver-brandon-powell/ He is logged as having 2 fumbles but pro-football-reference is ambiguous as to whether these were in the return game or as a WR (he had 18 targets). So the way I see it, KR/PR is a 3 way competition between McKenzie, Powell, and Stevenson The above link credits Powell with an advantage for returning both punts and kickoffs, but McKenzie had 12 punt returns and 14 KR for the Bills in 2018. It's widely known that he lost the job for Denver and the Bills acquired him due to 6 fumbles for Denver in 2017. He fumbled twice for the Bills in 2018 (1 lost), and Micah Hyde took over some of the punt return duties. Also worth noting that Andre Roberts lost 3 fumbles last season, out of 61 punt and kickoff returns, so a certain number of miscues do happen (though that may be one reason why the Bills said "goodbye") Young players do improve with practice, and McKenzie is said to have been practicing with our new punter down in Florida all summer. It's also worth noting that RB Matt Breida took a handful of KR for San Francisco in 2018, though I don't know if the Bills are looking at him there.

I have to think the Bills like Jaquan Johnson. They let Dean Marlowe walk in FA. At safety, we have Poyer and Hyde, Jaquan Johnson, Josh Thomas, and two rookies: a 6th round draft pick and an UDFA. Meanwhile they've got 9 or 10 CBs on the roster. You got to think if they didn't like Jaquan, they would have made more of a push to bring in FA safeties.

There's some film out there of Kumerow blocking in the backfield for GB. I'll try to find it.

This. And I think McDermott and Beane have learnt their lesson the hard way that what one sees in pre-season may not 100% reflect what one gets when it counts. Or maybe I'm just....Hopeful about that. I don't think McKenzie is "just being handed the job", but even if Stevenson appears to win the job based on pre-season, I think it's highly likely Beane and McDermott will hedge their bets and keep another option on the roster (besides Micah Hyde)

The Steelers game was good. But my phrase was "epic stands" not "epic games". I had the Colts game in mind. 1Q: 1st and 10 from the Buf 15, stuffed runs for 1 and 2 yds and pass for no gain 2Q: 1st and goal from the Buf 4, stuffed runs for 2 yds, 1 yds, -3 yds, INC pass 3Q: 1st and 10 from the Buf 18, 3 yds, INC pass, INC pass, FGA (No good) The passes were well defended or made less accurate through pressure. One can make the point that if the B'lo D had been less porous, they wouldn't have been defending their own red zone so much, but anyone fair must acknowledge they put up some tough, tough stands there. So absolutely without Josh, No Way we win that game but we also don't win without key defensive contributions at key times. Rivers didn't play a bad game, 309 yds, 2 TD, 0 INT. He wasn't great in some key moments, but the Bills D had a lot to do with that.

Not knowing the details of any physical limitations from Covid protocols or anything else about the situation, I would not judge. For all we know, Benjamin was asked to come to a meeting in an office and blew it off.

A ball which puts the receiver in position to take a huge hit, sometimes from more than one DB, right after the catch.

I understand your point, but if Josh is going to work on how/where he throws under pressure, perhaps now is the time when pads are off? Just a note for the fans "Jonesing" for video, per Jon Scott "All of the highlights coming during the portion of practice where local media is not allowed to shoot video or even still photos." I believe I read somewhere (from Matt Fairburn perhaps?) that the same rules as last season would apply, the credentialed media are not allowed to report on which players took reps with which team unit (1sts, 2nds etc) Last but not least per the above, Siran Neal intercepted a Mitch Trubisky pass: Elsewhere being reported that Neal picked Josh: It makes more sense that if it was Trubisky's reps, Allen would be able to go talk to Daboll about it vs. pausing the entire practice while the QB confers with the OC which is not the usual SOP as far as I've seen, but we're still having some "Rashoman" moments from the press unless Neal had 2 picks in today's practice (which would be highly noteworthy)

Paging @JakeFrommStateFarm - Fromm sighting

Those are better than mine were from last season. Jealous! "Bills Mafia donates to the charity of a serial killer because they eat ranch with their victim's brains" 😂 "Pat Moran tweets to new Bills reporter to be on his podcast to talk wings" 😂😂

That's just Benjamin's side of things. It's entirely possible Judge was more open to the move, and that Benjamin's preparedness and deportment during OTAs put him off - not to mention being asked to meet a weight of 251 and showing up at 268.

"Here Lies the Body of Ernest Gray, Who Died Defending his Right of Way. He was Right, Dead Right, as he sped along...but he's just as dead now as if he'd been Wrong"

I mean, do you know this? There are a couple of hints to that regard - one is Mayfield's quotes (which are IMO a bit of a barb aimed at Allen, Darnold, and the rest of Jordan Palmer's S. Cali QB Summit crew) “It’s not about going somewhere on a beach for a beach workout. " (May 2018) and "I would not say that I will go on the beach and swim through the ocean and try and learn how to play quarterback by doing that." (December 2019) Alex Van Pelt was also quoted after his hire in early 2020 as saying he preferred to be the one working with Mayfield, which Covid kinda put a crimp into. But I don't really know what Mayfield was or was not doing this off season, do you? https://buffalonews.com/sports/bills/how-did-josh-allen-spend-most-of-his-summer-break-working/article_b7f5b3b6-efe2-11eb-adcf-0bbd5bc505fb.html Article you're talking about?

https://www.sportskeeda.com/nfl/explained-do-players-get-paid-nfl-training-camp Basically about $3,400 for a rookie, and $6,400 (plus whatever may be in their contract) for the month, plus housing, food, training facilities, and recovery/rehab services of trainers. So, for example, a vet like Forrest Lamp who may or may not make the team, signed a contract with $137,000 signing bonus and $350,000 guaranteed (bonus plus part of his salary). If the Bills cut him, he walks away with $350,000 for his OTA and training camp work, in addition to the $6,400 training camp money. But others like Jake Kumerow, Justin Zimmer, Tanner Gentry, Mike Love, or Joe Giles Harris just get that training camp per-diem summing to $6,400 plus food and housing etc. Looks like it’s inside?

There is a point about performing at that level for a longer time. But other than that, it seems like the people doing the “tiering” pre-defined the number in each tier, instead of collecting opinions and then making tier divisions according to the observed clusters.

Er....he did need to learn the game of football. I hear that sometimes takes a bit of time. And of course, no one on an NFL practice squad ever developed, made the regular roster, and became a starter.

There is a reason why he had 3 straight >1000 yd seasons with Denver in 2014,15,16 - even with a catch % under 60% for two of them (which last probably had to do with the Ghost of Peyton Manning and Brock Osweiler then the undaring duo of Siemian and Lynch throwing passes in his general direction). The only question about Sanders is how much speed he’s lost due to age and whether he can hold up OK. He was active for 16 games in 2019 and 14 games in 2020 (2 games on the Covid list). The problems I saw in the run game last year had more to do with GETTING the RB downfield. But yes, downfield blocking is a thing. The main thing is (again, to my eyes) Brown could just be neutralized by physical DB play. If he could get separation he was great, but if they could get away with that “sticky” coverage he could get thrown off his route. He could make some great sideline catches where he knew he was gonna get hit but he would miss if his arm was grabbed or he was held. Sanders looks like “Honey Badger” out there, He Don’t Care. Time will tell.