Bleeding Bills Blue

It is a dump. The "club" seats area is so horribly laid out and doesn't feel even slightly premium. The concourse in the 300s is laughably narrow. The seats up there are really steep. I went to get my vaccine there during covid and it just felt... very dated and ugly with no one there.

I just see them keeping 6 corners, and Tre's the inactive one until hes healthy - then benford likely moves into the inactive role. Tre Jackson Elam Benford Johnson Neal

I think they just keep him on the 53. Not sure who would be added for that window that makes a huge difference that you won't then have to cut when he returns. A LB? Lineman?

If you are on initial 53 you can be placed on IR on 8/31. You can return in 4 weeks as one of 8 returnee's per season. If you are not on the initial 53 and placed on IR, you are gone for the season unless injury settlement is reached. PUP/reserve (where boettger was placed) means he opens season on PUP - doesn't count for 53, and can return to 53 later in the year.

I personally think they keep him on 53. You have jackson/benford/elam all active week 1 - and it doesn't seem like you would want to expose any to waivers anyway so you won't be moving any of them to the PS to bring tre back.

Re: Tre With PUP he is out 4 weeks minimum - they then have 5 weeks to activate him. Once activated he'd essentially be the 54th man on the roster for practice, and they have 21 days to put him on the 53. To me it's PUP or not-PUP. Injured Reserve you can only return 8 players per season, and its still a minimum of 4 games. You'd also have to put him on the 53 before putting him on IR anyway (you cant put him on IR until 8/31 which is after the 53 man cutdown, or he can't return this season), so it doesn't help from a roster standpoint. So Ike's out... 4 initial + 5 additional so 9 weeks. Then they'll activate him and he gets 21 days to get on the roster. 12 weeks max, which i believe is the cutoff for IR re-activation as well. If at that point he's not ready he's done for the year.

Id rather keep him on the 53 and hope he's ready to rock in week 2, 3, etc.

I think Arizona could be an interesting spot. Played there before and none of those guys pop to me, and they overpaid conner imo. If he plays this year it'll be for pennies.

I always thought he was solid with Miami, then he looked good in the opportunity with Arizona. The Raiders move killed any momentum he had, but he got the pay day so it was probably worth it. Running backs sort of have to chase cash. Depending on how bad the broken leg is I could see him catching on somewhere for a couple.

Guy must love process if hes back for round 3.

He's only 28 and this is his 3rd stint in Buffalo 🙂 I remember watching him play for Tennessee last year and he didn't look like the absolute turnstile he did in last years preseason so maybe he's just improved a bit.

Why? Didn't he just have a TD last week?

Can't all be hits. I think its ok considering he has like 30 starts with Buffalo and has mostly been really lousy. Pending UFA next year, and likely wouldn't have factored into a compensatory pick formula anyway, so a 5th round pick to me reads as a steal.

Yeah - i don't mind seeing anyone competing for a starting spot getting some snaps. He adds a lot to the run game, but his pass protection was always a bit of a work in progress.

Special teams players do all play offense/defense positions? At that part of the roster, you don't play on the field other than special teams so you should practice that as well. Why would you intentionally shoot yourself in the foot? We punted 52 times, kicked off 99 times, returned 37 punts, 32 FGs, 51 extra points, and returned 33 kick returns. An entire unit of inexperienced guys means things like blocked punts and FGs, long returns, and just general field position lost. There isn't a coach in the league who wants to trade field position for players who might be better position players (stress MIGHT here because its all board speculation at this point) but aren't very good on special teams.

I think Wind somewhat plays into it, rather than just boot it deep you may want to kick to a specific side of the field and crash, etc.

Bass kicked 56/99 for touchbacks, and this seems to be around the league average. Some guys are higher - 2 regular guys hit TBs on about 80% of kickoffs - but they don't play 8 games in Buffalo with another in NE for good measure. We had among the lowest yards per return on both punts and kicks. We were 17th in defensive drive starting field position despite one of the worst punters in the league. They addressed the punting, but I do think they like to kick short from time to time on kickoffs. Difference from 17th to 1st is about 3 yards - so over 186 drives that's about 558 yards of field position. Special teams players also block btw... its a lot harder to get any yards on a return with lousy blocking. Teams can exploit this and kick short on kickoffs, and kick deeper punts since an inexperienced special teams group might block poorly, or get more penalties. Touchbacks for punts are typically bad as they're likely to occur when you're punting from plus territory.

We traded that pick for EJ, Kiko, Goodwin, and Chris Gragg. He never busted out of gadget/PR player, he's been in the league 9 years now and he's 32 so... he's basically a punt returner on a team that doesn't really have room for a punt returner who can't play WR.

Betweens week 15-18 last year. 12 punts for 425 yards - a solid 35.4 yards per punt with a 32 yard net. He showcased a lot. there was back to back 20 yarders after a penalty on the first. There was a 7 yard punt where he dropped the ball. Constant shanks all season.

I agree on slot WR throws vs. designed RB plays. But being able to have a dynamic RB receiver out of the backfield can help dictate a lot of what the defense is able to do. If they play man coverage on cook with a linebacker its going to be a problem, if they are in a deep set cover 3 or cover 2 then he can turn nothing into like 8-10 yards really easily. It's maximizing the checkdown, and creating a mismatch that forces the defense to adjust. I'd rather have Hodgins than Blackshear if we're keeping a player on the 53 for potential. WRs are harder to find, especially with size and hands. Gives him a chance to continue to work on his route running, and learning how to play bigger and more physical.

To be fair... Daboll was never coach of either of these players with Buffalo. The Giants also already have Breida and Antonio Williams. So if they grab Johnson, or Blackshear - we can just grab Breida or Williams.

I figured they'd use the starters at a home game, they got out of it pretty unscathed. They should spend their time getting ready for the Rams. I'd expect to see a lot of the back end of the roster guys.

Good running back 4.5 YPC Bad running back 3.9 YPC .6 YPC over 100 carries is 60 yards. Over 200 thats 120 yards. Getting that extra .6 YPC is one long run. Or just being used in different situations. Job-share running backs run into the issue of one guy being short yardage, or pass catching, etc. So the short yardage guy may have more TDs per touch but a low yards per carry. Pass catcher might see light boxes. Some offenses feature really good offensive lines or fullbacks and TEs that really open up holes. I think Blackshear's ceiling is probably someone like Duke Johnson. We are cutting Duke Johnson too.

Drop Blackshear (to me this is too many running backs on a 53 man roster, especially for a team that passes on like 60% of plays) and Options would be Sweeney/Morris - add another to the PS Spector, Giles-Harris to then possibly get waived mid-season for Smith (assuming they like smith here) Another Olineman - Tenuta or Van Roten - Likely gets waived mid-season for Boettger So I see it likely being a TE instead of Blackshear. It gets interesting when Smith returns from suspension, and if Boettger returns. I think Smith will only show up based on an injury, and Boettger will be a while on PUP with a torn achilles week 16 last year so I wouldn't base too many roster decisions around him as there's a pretty decent chance he can't contribute much this year.

https://www.ourlads.com/nfldepthcharts/depthchartpos/RB Thats a lot of running backs. Pretty much everyone in the 5th column will be cut candidates. You have to really like a player you've never really met, to cut one of your own to bring him in. Especially a 1st year UDFA. I'd expect it to more likely happen mid-season when someone needs a fill in player for a few weeks if they were to do it at all. He was on the Bills PS, then signed to the eagles active roster, then waived to likely go to PS, then claimed by Indy, then released and back with the eagles. Then he was on the saints for a playoff run. Then waived.. and signed with the saints again on the PS. So... he did sign some non-PS NFL contracts his first year. He didn't really play at all until 2 years later in 2012. Cool story when you read it though, he went to wayne state and was security at the Lions training camp, then went on to have his best years of his career there.