Rochesterfan

Not surprising with the COVID protocols. I just did not see anyway without near 100% vaccination rate among the players.

Why is Julio a better deep threat than Corey Davis was last year? They have very similar Y/R and catch % - the only reason Julio is a bigger name is because in Atlanta with Ryan he was targeted nearly 2x as often because it was a passing offense. The other difference is that Davis is 26 and healthy and Jones will be 32 and coming off a season with leg/Hamstring injuries. Basically under Smith - Tennessee was a run first - play action pass team that threw the ball almost 250 times less per season than Atlanta the last 2 seasons - just think about that Atlanta was throwing the ball on average 16 times more per game than Tennessee. That gives Julio Jones a lot more targets than he will see in Tennessee. Henry as we often see gets better and better as the game wears on and his carries go up. So yes - I think there is huge potential that Julio Jones and a new OC get away from what worked and try to utilize more Julio and passing to justify the trade and the big name. It has the potential to be exactly what happened with Beckham in Cleveland where they tried to force feed him balls and it cost their previous HC a job. Then Stefanski comes in and the offense struggles in the passing game - Beckham gets hurt and suddenly they focus on running and spreading the ball out and get better. It is my opinion and yes the trade helps the Titans, but it does not make them a better offense than last year and it really has potential to take the ball away from Henry and put it in Tannehill’s and that to me is a potential step back.

Look at their defense - I think it is a potential weakness. I also think losing their Run balanced OC and bringing in a potential #1 WR throws some of the balance of the offense out - similar to what happened to Dallas and Cleveland when they brought in #1 WRs and got away from their run first offenses and got worse. Julio Jones averages similar Y/R to Corey Davis and similar catch percentage. He is a bigger name, but he is not necessarily a better receiver any longer. The biggest difference was in Atlanta he was getting 160-170 targets a year. Corey Davis was getting 90 targets and AJ Brown was getting around 100 targets. If Jones gets the targets that went to Davis or Brown he will be right around 1000 yards and AJ Brown will be in the same spot - basically the same as last year. If they try to force him the ball to get numbers like Atl - then he is taking plays away from Henry. It is the exact opposite argument to why the Bills should not be trying to get a big time RB - in these cases you are taking the ball out of your best players hands. For the Bills, anything that takes the ball out of Josh hands takes points of the board. For Tennessee, anything that gets them away from Henry and a running attack and puts the ball in Tannehill’s hands changes that team and not for the better. If they maintain their current running game and basically use him as they did Davis - they will be fine, but they would have been better to have the younger more explosive player. Julio would of had more potential impact in KC, Buffalo, or LA than he will in Tennessee or Baltimore. I think this move almost brings the Tennessee offense back to last year and their defense is not as good - so I think they will be in a dog fight for that division. I think they are probably the 3rd tier with Baltimore, Indy, LA, and Miami. Good enough to win their division potentially and beat any team on any given week, but if they play a better team and get their best they are not good enough. Everything needs to fall just right for them.

I just don’t see it. They lost major pass catchers on offense and replaced Davis with Jones. They lost their OC who was a huge part of their rushing and play action game. The new guy just got handed a WR weapon - so immediately it puts more pressure on the team to use him. The Titan made the 2019 AFCCG and we beat them n Tennessee that year. Last year we had to play them will game planning for 2 teams with no idea which players were going to be cleared until right up until game time - where several starters suddenly got cleared. Last years game was a joke and means nothing plus with everything they loss they still are not even the favorite to win the division over the Colts. Adding Jones may help or it may be exactly like what you saw with Beckham in Cleveland where the OC tries to gameplan things to get him open and involved and then it backfires as they get away from what they do well. In the end - it is whatever - they may be better - they may be worse - they may be a team we have to deal with or they may be a team someone else has to deal with. Whatever - I will take my chances with what we have got and see where we end up.

Why - is much older Julio Jones a significant improvement on Davis who they let walk. Maybe slightly, but now they have a wr that they will feel the need to feed the ball - especially with a new OC. I look at it as the best player on that team by far is Henry and you are now taking handoffs and gameplans and shifting them to Tannehill and that is the 8 -10 best player on the team. Julio Jones is good, but Tannehill is not as good as Matt Ryan and you are potentially changing the entire dynamic of the offense from a grind it out - smack you in the face offense to an offense that features WRs with a very average QB.

Anything that takes the ball out of Henry’s hands and puts it into Tannehill’s hands makes Tennessee a worse team. I think this is like when Beckham plays in Cleveland and the offense is actually worse that when he is injured and out and they become a Running Back focused offense with play action to the remaining guys.

I really wish all of these alternate leagues would just take a step back - form 1 well funded league that could actually survive more than 1 - 2 seasons and come up with a proper business model in alternate cities away from the NFL and treat themselves as they are - a second class, last resort feeding ground. Make it fun and energized and sustainable, but they all want to be first and fast.

I don’t want to get to involved because this is such a touchy subject, but I believe the first sentence is the biggest part of this. The NFL was trying to use a simple, inexpensive agreed upon way to diagnose loss of cognitive function for people without a baseline level and without baseline tests. The race norming was based upon older medical studies done that set baselines to be used in medical settings - it was not from my understanding created or developed by the NFL. The NFL needed some type of baseline to judge these older players, quickly to determine loss of cognitive function to group them into settlement groups. That was what was agreed to through the settlement and now it is going to be changed as it should. The problem is many players with minimal or no loss of cognitive function are also trying to get a piece of the settlement and once the money is gone it is gone - so both sides need to do everything they can to properly group players without spending a ton of money on things like MRIs and brain scans and the such that will quickly eat through the settlement money. The entire race norming debate is very racist in its make-up, but I do not really blame the NFL for using it as they needed to have a functional baseline for players and that was what science had developed and was being used. As we get to the current generation of players with all of the concussions testing and baselines created for each player - they have a better system in place, but that is not available for players from the 80’s, 90’s and 2000’s. The NFL should be able to take their concussion testing data and create a new more balanced cognitive test, but it is still going to be generalized and it is still going to favor certain people over others - I just hope it is not race based.

Is that where Whaley is hiding - the Troll under the bridge?

The initial report is not at all what I remember. Whaley was talking credit for EJ all over the place. Exactly what YOLO posted in the 2nd part. I also remember arguments on the practice field where Marrone did not want EJ and Whaley seemed to make it clear that was where the Bills were going. I think Whaley (which he has done before) is trying to throw everyone but himself under the bus in the hopes he can find work again. Dude is sleaze at this point.

Exactly - people think he would have developed exactly the same way in Buffalo, but even after the trade - it took and entire shift from a passing offense to a running offense for him to emerge. I struggle to think what would have happened if they kept him - I really see no way he makes the Bills 2019 - let alone 2020 roster with his limitations in pass blocking. That is ok and part of the game - some guys need the right fit - Hughes needed the defense we played when he arrived and couldn’t do a thing in Indy. Poyer struggled in Cleveland, but matched with Hyde in a zone based defense - he has grown and become an excellent player. It happens across the leagues - guys are drafted and the scheme changes and they are no longer fits and they blossom when getting into a better fit.

I agree - I think Hollister was brought in for 3 reasons: 1 - he has spent time blocking out of the H-back role - so he can help Knox, Gilliam, and Sweeney get better at it. 2 - he already has a connection to Josh and seems very smooth in the passing game - another teachable point 3 - He is a veteran presence and the coaching staff and FO want that veteran voice in each room I don’t think they are handing anything to Knox and Singletary, but I also don’t think they are actively and generally working hard to replace them either. Much like they are allowing Josh, Tremaine, Ed Oliver, Dane Jackson, Cody Ford, Phillips, etc to all continue to grow and earn playing time - they are doing the same thing with Knox and Singletary - continue to improve and earn the time or like everything else - we have guys coming up that will replace you.

I totally agree with Ross Tuckers take here - interesting after 20+ years of use - you come out with this now with no new major information. Why? It seems much like the “skipping” of OTAs the NFLPA is giving recommendations about things without merit just to pull players away from teams. It will be fun when the GMs suddenly use more games and game time missed for players against them as they negotiate contracts. I don’t disagree with the recommendation, but I question the timing and the data behind it. Without a replacement recommendation that we have not seen - it seems like a big ask of the players by the NFLPA - stop what has been working for you and what has been used by the general public and see what happens. To me it reads like a typical NFLPA response to something they lost and are now trying to gain leverage on. Moving to 17 games - we are going to try to ban a pain killer and make it look like the number of games missed shot way up and then we will blame the added game.

I have not heard if they reached out or not - it sounded like he had offers to compete for starting jobs and chose to come here to learn and develop.

Maybe, but there have been rumors of an Ertz trade since well before the draft and they have not made the move. Maybe Ertz finally agrees to a significantly reduced deal and maybe the teams can come to an agreement, but until they do - even with a ton of very good, talented TEs available in FA and guys that have produced better than Ertz over the last couple of years - the Bills chose to sign Hollister as their FA TE and stick with Knox. They do not seem to be dying to get Ertz in here or the deal would be done - so to me it seems they are still waiting with Knox on development. Even if they bring Ertz in - there is a good chance that Knox sticks and they still wait on development and give him plenty of playing time. If they thought Ertz was the piece to push them over the edge the deal would be done - they are trying to get him at their cost and their deal and therefore that tells me that they see him as potentially a fit, but not something to waste big resources on (and that does not strike me as them admitting they can’t wait on Knox). Maybe as you said - Ertz is their guy and they don’t feel they can stick with Knox, but everything they have done this offseason points to them being comfortable enough with Knox that if needed he will be their starter again.

I disagree - many 3rd round picks get into year 3 to develop as long as they are showing progress and are doing what the staff want. It is this year that will determine if next year comes or not. For the Bills - both Singletary and Knox are 3rd year guys that will most likely get year 3 to show what they have learned. Neither had real serious competition brought in and both are being given the opportunity to be starters/role players on this team.

Right now he is still all untapped potential. He improved in catching from year 1 to year 2. They totally changed his blocking as they went more to motion and h-back role to help with pass blocking. Lets hope that improves along with his catching and then you may have something - right now he is just untapped potential.

It also depends upon the player - watching the highlights - several times Diggs makes a catch and then continues to accelerate and run to the end zone. Watching Sanders - he makes a move and catches the ball and then almost immediately was slowing down - almost like I am saving myself. You also really saw the speed on the deep throws where Josh led Diggs into the end zone. You don’t see the same type of action from the DBs. I love that the Bills collect and use this data. Wish more was shared, but I can only imagine how tight they want to control everything.

Just remember Knox never got a ton of chances in college - almost all of the throws in college went to WRs (they had some good ones). so I am not sure he knows what to make of himself at all. He is not a natural blocker, but got almost no practice at that in college- so he has to learn. He is not a natural route runner and catcher of the ball as he did not really do that in college with the WRs on the team. He got specific plays called that they knew would free him up - very limited block and then flare out type routes. TE is one of the hardest transitions from college because there is so much more expected of them on every play and they suddenly go from guys that are bigger than most LBs and as fast as most DBs to guys that are not elite with size or speed and need to find new ways to adapt. They are suddenly asked to block blitzing LBs and DEs that are strong and have actual pass rush moves and in college it is more of a chip than full on blocking. I think you really saw him in the second half of last year try to focus so much on the catches and not focus on the runs, but he still was not fluid in any of it. The good news is he is working on it - the bad news for him is that they brought in a guy that I believe is a better blocker and is already more fluid in his routes and also knows Josh from college. I really like what Hollister can bring especially out of the H-Back roll and I think he will be getting a lot of playing time if he stays healthy. I agree and you still saw Josh do that several times and it led to some fumbles and I think he finally cleared his head and realized how much better it was to beat them with his arm - now that he has answers.

It was - he talked about that last off season, but he as doing a lot of it on his own with just catching passes from a Juggs machine. It is why his catch percentage increased, but you still see lapses where he takes his eye off the ball and was turning upfield before securing the catch. I believe that was part of what they talked about getting someone external to connect the eyes and the hands so he is focused on the catch. Once he gets that - then the runs come. I said I believe the worst thing that happened to him was the notoriety that came with his angry run - he was always looking for that rather than the catch.

Why would anyone double team him on passing plays? He is not and has never been a skilled pass rusher. The Bills (Carolina before them) have not seemed to expect him to be effective rushing the passer - that is why he is rotational and taken out on passing downs. The expectation is that he will help occupy blockers on running downs and try to gum up the middle and keep blockers off from Edmunds (or other LBs/safeties filling the gap). On passing downs they would put Jordan Phillips or Alexander inside to rush and take Star out. He is only mildly effective as a 1T, but the difference in YPC is somewhat significant with and without him - so he must do something well.

The “salary Cap” is a major reason they folded since teams did not abide by the cap in an effort to sign players like Herschel Walker - who was paid 3x more than the Cap. The 2 point conversion was already part of college football - well before the USFL and was one of several college rules that the USFL adopted - similar to stopping the clock after the 2 minute warning with a first down. Not a USFL innovation. They did allow coaches to challenge calls - so yes - highly innovative. They did allow the run and shoot to start, but again that was due to coaching - not really anything the league did. It is not like the old AFL that changed the football size and texture to allow better passing or something. The USFL did not put any emphasis on passing and really tried to highlight the RBs because they were so limited in talented QB play. I would not call really any rules put in place as innovative. Their goal was to as closely as possible merge NFL and college rules. I stand by my statement - it really was not very innovative as a league, but it did allow some coaches from college, NFL, and Canada to get a head coaching job and try some things they were running other places.

Just another waste of time league that will fold in short order. USFL was never innovative- it was previously well funded to get stars. This will be another league of alsorans. Basically Fox needs something to cover in the spring without Baseball.

Why don’t we wait until at least training camp ..... two seasons from now. Edmunds is under contract this year and next (at minimum) and you are marking a low end FA to replace him 2 years from now.

Not my style either, but I can imagine for veteran OL and DL - these OTAs can’t do a whole lot. Non-contact drills - no blocking or pads - in a system they have been in. Limited meeting time and lots of teaching of young guys - I think OTAs are really a waste for the 2 lines. I get WRs and DBs as they can run and tangle, but the guys on the line are not getting anything and can actually get more accomplished away from OTAs. Not an excuse as I would prefer 100% participation, but I get the group missing.