Bleeding Bills Blue

They also brought in Samuel and Coleman so its not as if they have much more in the way of expectations for MVS than KC ever did.

Like half of the 15 are pass plays where he just saw it and went for it. There were a few red zone QB draws and sneaks. Early in the year they ran a couple of read option ones.

The one that jumped out to me was Miami. 36 runs and 41 pass plays for 77 total plays. Miami ran 48. 26 1D to 16. The 3 turnovers in miami territory were the reason it wasn't a blow out. The thing about dorsey... and daboll before him... they'd abandon the run game when it isn't working. There isn't an adjustment other than to just let josh do his thing. No pass to set up run, no counters to opposing tendencies, etc. We'd just stop doing it. The team had 10 turnovers in these 4 games (i think 1 was a fumblerooski). Loss to Cinci - 8 carries by backs. Loss to Jax - 10 carries by backs. Loss to NE - 17 carries by backs. Loss to NYJ - 16 carries by backs.

So you call out the fewer yards per attempt, and fewer yards per carry. How many more carries did we have than our opponents in that stretch? How many more pass attempts? More plays = more yards. More yards = more first downs. More first downs = more Touchdowns. You also control the game flow considerably better while maintaining time of posession.

I'm not sure how its all going to shake out tbh. Shakir always projected as a primarily slot player due to his size, but so has Samuel - so i think they'll probably mix and match them at flanker opposite likely Coleman/MVS. If one of them takes the job and runs with it i think that player has potential for 1000+ yards, since the slot targets are likely to be split with Kincaid.

I think thats part of it, but i also think we were a largely soft team in the dorsey/daboll offenses. Coleman, Kincaid/knox, even Shakir gives you some guys who will fight for YAC and just generally hit back. Brady really likes those 3x1 swing pass looks as well, and it just gives you a multitude of options on how to approach it.

Other than a potential injury - i don't worry much about milano. Guy works out a lot and will have likely taken his rehab very seriously. And his instincts are off the chart, and thats what makes a LB great. Miller i think needs a camp, and a bit of competition. He was limited all summer, started on PUP, and it was just a huge team distraction. Then after his return it felt like he still wasn't ready, and just couldn't trust the knee. I have a bit of faith in his return barring an injury - he looked a lot more dynamic towards the final couple of games (more than Floyd anyway), and I don't think he wants his career to end so abruptly.

This is the exact reason you pay offensive linemen and QBs and not running backs. A good QB makes your running game more effective as they're forced to more often keep two safeties back. A good OL unit both protects that massive QB investment, and also creates the seams that give backs the space to create.

Eh - preseason hockey isn't really a money mover like preseason football.

Players i think could upgrade the roster - 3 are safeties, and honestly there are more 3 safeties too. Justin Simmons Eddie Jackson Micah Hyde Mike Purcell - Keeping 10 linemen i think he'd be an upgrade over Ankou and Williams

I'm strangely optimistic on Miller finding a new normal as a solid rotational player. I didn't think Floyd was as good as his sack number was, and he really faded down the stretch (1 sack, 2 TFLs, 2 QB hits and 12 combined tackles in the final 8 games of the season including playoffs). By comparison Rousseau had 2 sacks, 6 TFLs, 9 QB hits and 21 combined tackles in the same stretch. Lawson was a JAG, and i don't see how Smoot can't replicate that production. Rookie Solomon likely starts at 5 on the depth chart. It's an interesting rotation though imo.

I'd say safety - i think the feelers are likely out there for Hyde on the cheap cheap, or a Simmons/Jackson vet. Rapp's AAV would have made him the 13th highest paid FA safety this offseason, and Edwards was 17th. Rapp is the 38th highest paid safety in the league at AAV, and Edwards is 49th. Considering how many players on their 1st contract, they're basically high-end depth.

There are a few teams in similar spots - KC - Rice was their strongest but is also a 2nd year player with some off field challenges, and a rookie Buffalo passed on. Hollywood Brown is a nice upgrade for MVS, but I'm not sure he's much stronger of a player than Samuel. LAC - Palmer, Johnston, McConkey Den - Sutton, Reynolds, Mims and rookies. Meh. Pitt - Pickens, jefferson, Rookie. Meh. NE - Bourne and Douglas plus rookies. NYG - Rookie #1 and scrubs. GB - Reed was a pleasant surprise, doubs and Watson are 3rd year players looking for a jump. I don't put this group ahead of buffalo by much at all.

I felt like Sherfield was interfered with on a lot of his targets, but never got a call. But he also never really had much in the way of separation, and his only TD was a fluke.

I think Hollins is probably an upgrade over sherfield FWIW. I'm going to go with Hardy as PR/KR and ideally not playing a snap on defense.

I don't think position matters as much on kickoffs - but taking your kicker off gives you an 11th football player which i think can help tremendously.

I'd say they got worse at the top 2 spots for sure, at least on paper. - Samuel is objectively worse than diggs. I'd say the only thing Samuel offers more than Diggs is YAC. He's faster, but I'd trust diggs to create more separation on a deep route. However Diggs is going to be 31 in November, and while he's largely avoided injury - age is always creeping up. Is Diggs today the same as the Diggs people compare to Samuel? I think an argument can be made that he is not the same Diggs. I'd still take Diggs the player over Samuel though. +/- Coleman is a rookie. It's a see it to truly believe it type of thing - but rookie WRs have come in and made huge contributions in the past so it wouldn't shock me. Higgins (also pick 33) had 67/900/6 his rookie season with a rookie QB and Boyd/Green taking a lot of targets. Comparing him the player vs. Davis? Davis had certain routes that he was really good at, and flashed an impressive catch radius at times. Great sideline feet. He was also a plus blocker. My issues with him were concentration drops, and miscommunications. It just felt like the majority of throws to "no one" were almost always with him reading the coverage differently. I do think this spot in the offense may get more targets, and i think there is the strong possibility that coleman exceeds davis production. Big strong dude too, who likes the physical blocking aspects of the position. = Shakir is the returning player... but he's also in year 3, had a very strong year 2 despite giving up targets to players like Kincaid Diggs and harty. And i think he's primed to take a good step. He has become a very solid blocker as well. + Sherfield couldn't create much in the way of separation, played special teams on a lousy unit so i don't see much of a reason to bring him back anyway. Hollins can hopefully help improve the teams unit, and has made much greater offensive contributions to his prior teams. + MVS technically replaces Harty, who never really got going here. Did have an absolutely money return at a critical juncture, and made a few plays here and there but never saw the field enough to make any noise. Buffalo drafted a returner who also is a DB, so judging him just based on offense - He's been upgraded with a superior deep threat, and any of his gadget type contributions are likely upgraded with Samuel/Shakir. I think the thing is - we weren't particularly strong at WR before either. Just had Diggs as a reliable bonafide #1.

He's played 3 full seasons out of 8, played fewer than 10 games 3 times including each of the last 2. It's not "old" its just risky.

I always look at this in the context of Brokeback mountain. Came out in 2005 - and was looked at very negatively, jokes were made, etc despite clearly being both culturally impactful and just generally the best picture of the year. That same movie comes out in any of the last 5 years and it wins best picture in a likely landslide. Not even 20 years ago it was a punchline on late night TV.

Of the 3 playoff misses - 1 was low trajectory and blocked, and i think he slipped on the short one against pittsburgh in the playoffs. One against the Eagles was also blocked. I'm hoping he's trying new stuff to avoid blocks. He likes to kick them high and push from the one has through, but that is harder to do in wind conditions late in the year. Last year his harder kicked balls were low trajectory block targets, so that's not going to work either - but i don't think the team has given up on him, nor do i think he's unable to improve at it. His miss in KC wasn't a chip shot, but it was that bad hash again where he doesn't seem as comfortable. I don't mind a player having a preferred spot, but that needs to get cleaned up, and he needs to have multiple kick types for locations and conditions.

Perhaps he's trying something different. Wouldn't minicamp be the time to try stuff?

I mean - you're trying to win but you also DO want to get scouted and go pro. It's a lot harder to do that when you're not playing.

I just picked a team at random (the rams) and they also had 8.

Good call!

There are 8 team captains - Buffalo only has 2 currently returning: Josh Allen and Von Miller. Hyde, Poyer, Morse, Davis, Diggs, and Matakevich are no longer on the roster. Assuming Josh Allen and Von Miller are captains who are the other 6? I was going to make this a poll but then i realized it was too many options. Offensive - Allen, Dawkins 1 of - Samuel, Knox, McGovern, Brown Defensive - Miller?, Milano, Bernard Maybe DQ? could throw Groot or oliver in the mix too ST - Gilliam or Hollins i guess?