Shaw66

I think they're different. I think a lot of the west coast throws are read and react, which any good athlete can learn. The anticipation throws that I think most people talk about are longer routes where the qb has to make a judgment about whether a receiver will get open. That's different. People talk about Brady like he's God. I think a lot of his throws are read and react. He sees the defense, takes the snap, makes one read and throws. The read is something like did the LB drop or not? Is the safety poaching? Depending on what he sees he throws it. He doesn't wait to see if the guy is going to open up because he knows if the LB dropped the guy will be open.

I disagree that this is not an offense suited to Taylor. I think it's likely to be perfect for him. First, this offense requires a simple read and throw. It's decision making that a good athlete like Taylor can learn. Look for a key; if you see it, throw it. It really isn't anticipation. It's recognition and reaction, and those are athletic skills. Second, it's an offense based on stretch runs to the outside, and that's an offense that leads to moving pockets and rollouts. Those are strengths for Taylor. Third, the stretch runs, with zone blocking, also fit his running style. I think people will be surprised at how well Taylor runs the offense.

I never understand why some people put some "words" in quotation marks. "Words" are "words"; there aren't "special" "words" that need quotation marks. If some "words" were more "special" than other "words" we'd need "special" "dictionaries" for "special words." Like Webster's "Special" "Words" "Dictionaries." "Go" "Bills"!!!!

Don't underestimate the leap from college to the pros, especially from the level Jones was playing at. Vets have a huge advantage at this time of year. Same is true for Ragland. IF the Bills were in the same defense, it would bother me that Ragland can't crack the starting lineup. But he's getting a brand new defense thrown at him, and vets like Humber have a built-in advantage. Give it time. If they aren't seeing a lot of playing time by mid-season, then it's on them. But right now, they're just working their way in.

Send them to me for screening.

Dear Mr. Boldin, Welcome to Buffalo and the Buffalo Bills! Bills fans have been waiting and hoping you'd decide to join the Bills, and now you have. You've been widely admired around the National Football League for a lot of years, as much for your professionalism and dedication as for your receiving talents. Bills fans have a special place in their hearts for guys like you, and we're excited you've joined our team. We're sure you and your family will feel welcome in Buffalo, and we looked forward to seeing you on and off the field, and not just in 2017. Welcome! Shaw

I had given up hope on this deal. So glad it happened. Boldin will be Taylor's security blanket. The phrase is overused, but Boldin is open when he isn't open. You can throw to him and expect the catch and know it won't be intercepted. I don't know Holmes but liked what I read about him. And I like what I've been hearing about Jones. Adding Boldin means that the Bills have a really solid receiving corps. Assuming the receivers and McCoy stay healthy, it'a all on Dennison and Taylor. There's no reason this team should not be able to move the ball. Weapons galore!

It's funny how we're all encouraged by dumb little stuff, and we've all been there before. As you say, the proof is in the pudding, and that's a still a month away.

This is illogical. First, you don't know what you have with a rookie head coach after his first season. All the coaches tell us that it takes a year to figure out what they're doing. Second, if you think Rex was a cluster!@#$ with these players and McDermott puts up the same record as Rex, then why doesn't that mean McDermott is a cluster!@#$, too. Or if McD goes 7-9, does that mean you're going to revise your opinion of Rex and say he was a star head coach who had terrible talent to work with? Fact is, if the Bills go 7-9 this season, what that means will depend on a lot of things, like injuries, officiating, strength of schedule, etc. When the season is over, it'll be possible to look back and form some opinions about the quality of the coaching and the quality of the talent. Right now, it's pure guesswork to talk about what 7-9 means. Now, if the Bills go 4-12 or 12-4, you can say that's on McDermott, because with more or less the same talent he did something vastly different from Rex. But 7-9 or 9-7, it'll mostly be wait until next year.

Nice, Astro. Thanks. Are you seeing much zone blocking? How does it look?

What's the weakest position on the team is an irrelevant data point. If your team is All-World, you still have a weakest position on the team. The question is how does this position compare with the other 31 teams? I'd guess it's not horrible, maybe in the range of 15th to 20th in the league, because there are plenty of teams that are hurting at right tackle. For most teams, the position is always a work in progress. Bengals starting right tackle has four career starts in two seasons, for example. The problem with right tackle is that if you have someone good, he moves to play left tackle, on your team or another team. The result is that the starting right tackle on most teams changes every year or two or three. The Bills have a Mills, a guy with good experience, Dawkins, a guy with a pretty high rating coming out of college, and Henderson, a guy who can play but with questions about him. That's about as much as you can expect at right tackle. It isn't a dumpster fire.

Thanks for these, Astro. Nice reports.

Thanks for the update interesting and thorough report.

I don't subscribe to the bad drafts notion, but I never understood the Jones pick. If the guy couldn't start in college with all his talent, why would anyone think he can start in the pros? Inches going to make it, its a 5+ year project. Let him get his experience someplace else.

Thanks. Leaving the door open suggests they're done talking for now. That almost always results in the guy signing elsewhere. Bolden probably is looking for a relatively big final payday. Maclin and now Bolden suggests the new regime has a serious discipline about spending, which would be consistent with building through the draft. Bills could afford Bolden, but it seems they just won't overpay.

Sorry, maybe it's in here somewhere. Did Bolden actually leave Buffalo? If he doesn't sign somewhere in the next day or two, I suspect he sits out until a good team has an injury to a key receiver, either in preseason or early in the regular s

Does he have other visits scheduled? This seems to me to be one of those situations where both sides already have negotiated the deal and today is a kick the tires meeting before he signs.

This is what you said at post #188: .yet he cannot be a consistently be an offense bailout due to overall offense ineptitude unless you want to get the kid killed.....what team fears the anemic passing "attack (COUGH)"?.....shut down the run and contain TT and then what?..........white flag of surrender? So if your "Offense ineptitude" wasn't referring to the Bills of the last year or two, what was it referring to? Some imaginary offense that ran the ball well and the offense still was inept? Well, I don't care to talk about some imaginary offense. The Bills' offense was NOT INEPT last season. It was quite good. If you want to say it could be and should be better, I won't argue with you. But to suggest that it was inept is completely and totally contrary to the facts. The facts are that the offense scored well and moved the ball well. Better than most teams in the league. So are we talking the actual Buffalo Bills or some imaginary offense so that you can score debating points? So what? People seem to be enjoying what they're talking about. If it's so disappointing to you that there's no Bridgewater discussion going on, go find a Vikings forum.

You didn't defend your statement - absurd statement in my mind - that the Bills offense was inept in 2016. If you can pass and can't run, your offense sputters when you struggle in the passing game. Just the same as you seem to think the Bills offense struggles when the run game is in trouble. Practically no offense is perfect. But imperfection doesn't make it inept.

I guess I missed this "overall offense ineptitude." Since does 16th in yards and 10th in scoring equate to ineptitude? Maybe you mean the passing game was anemic. But if that's what you mean, then you're saying the only kind of offense that is any good is passing offense. That's wrong. If my team is first in yards and first in scoring, I don't care how they got there. They could lead the league in penalties called against the opponent. Works for me, if it translates into yards and points. Everyone knows that if the defense (19th in yards and 16th in scoring) had been 16th and 10th, like the offense, the Bills would have made the playoffs.

Playoffs. Now, there are a few non-playoff scenarios that I guess I would call successful. Like going 11-5 and somehow not making the playoffs on the tie-breaker rules. And there can be season that are good to build on, that make me hopeful for the future, etc., but I don't think I'd call that successful. It's like this: Football is about winning. End of the day, nothing else matters. Stats are for losers. The primary measure of winning is making the playoffs. If you aren't winning enough to make the playoffs, you aren't relevant. Make the playoffs. It's the first step toward winning it all.

Makes Taylor a good QB, just like Newton. Newton's been asked to pass more than Taylor has - and when he passes he isn't as effective as Taylor. Taylor's career passer rating is 92; Newton's is 86. Why the difference? Taylor's TD/INT ratio is nearly 3 to 1, Newton's is less than 2 to 1.

It isn't meaningless. How can you possibly say that someone's football skill is meaningless to his evaluation as a player? Is jumping ability meaningless to a pass receiver? Is catching ability meaningless to a running back? Cam Newton is a TOTALLY average quarterback without his running ability. His running ability "props him up" into the near-elite category. As for losing vs making the playoffs, well, more teams have losing records than make the playoffs, so EVERYTHING is more associated with losing than making the playoffs. What you're saying is just stupid. Better that you just recognize it than continue to try to defend something that's stupid.

you are literally wrong. If five of the top 10 rushing and had losing records that means exactly half of them were associated with losing and the other five were not. It makes no sense that the stat is meaningless AND it's associated more with losing. The second concept gives meaning to the stat. And if you believe Russell Wilson and Cam Newton running had nothing to do with their teams winning then there's truly no point in listening to your opinions.

Thanks for the post. It's a great discussion of the technique differences. Nicely done. Others have said it, and I saw it somewhere - the Bills ran a lot of outside zone last season, so this isn't a big change. Plus, to expect the Bills rushing attack to be BETTER than last season is expecting a lot. Last season it was about as dominant as a we could expect a running attack to be.