Maine-iac

We haven't even won a SB with Allen and people complain. Taylor never had a chance. He wasn't a first round pick, he wasn't ever invested in to be a franchise QB, and by his final season (the playoff year) the plan was already in stone to draft a QB. When Watkins and Woods were healthy (which wasn't often especially together) Taylor was good passer. He was always a great runner and for a defensive team he did not turn the ball over. Problem was our defense didn't show up time and time again his first few seasons starting and the final season we were mortgaging everything for our next QB and Taylor was throwing to Deonte Thompson and Zay Jones (and people complain about Davis). Taylor was never as good as Allen would become and I'm happy we moved on but I'll be the first on to say if Watkins hadn't been a bust and we had a defense Taylor would have seen the playoffs several times.

Silver lining ............. Dantzler was (according to this) as good in coverage as any of our CB's listed and now he's a Bill.

Davis had 6 catches 93 yards and a TD in that game. Guess Peterson didn't know everything. We were up 3 scores with 2:00 left in the third quarter. Bad ball management, bad defense, and fumbling in your own end zone caused that. None of those things had to do with Davis. Davis is as much a decoy as Diggs he's just easier to stop but the cost should be underneath throws which Beasley used to make and Josh used to throw. Josh frequently looked off easier throws and threw deep and I'm guessing it had as much to do with not trusting the guys underneath as it did with over estimating what Davis could do. My guess is a healthy dose of a running game (I still don't trust them to commit to it) and some of our off season additions should address those things.

Looking at the big picture the passing game in general dipped the second half of the season (2022) and we employed more of the running game and finished the season strong ................... and then all but abandoned it in January. The Miami game we came out stomping on them and then up two scores we are throwing and let them back in the game. Ultimately what I'm saying is run the ball more and the passing stats will become more efficient. I'm not sure there would be a ton more yardage and touchdowns but the efficiency of the passing game would be a lot better if we tried to run the ball and hit a few check downs instead of throwing 70 something times at Davis at an average of almost 16 yards down the field.

No doubt ........... was saying the same thing.

Yes but how many snaps did he play?

Just because of all the snap count talk I was looking into it and from mid season on nobody played more snaps on the D line than Oliver and he actually averaged 70 percent per game the second half of the season. Seeing how he was injured the first half it stands to reason he played less then. More than Hargrove or Cox over the second half of the season. About on par with Reader but not as many as Hill or Jones. I think Reader is a great comparison actually. The money is similar the play is similar. About where it lies for me. A middle of the road contract for a solid player with a hint of upside left at his age. If we resigned him at 21 or 22 mil a year like Hargrove or Payne I'd feel a lot worse about it. Sign a big bodied DT to play beside him he plays the role of penetrating DT pretty well and stands a good chance of playing up to the dollar value of what we signed him at. https://www.footballguys.com/stats/snap-counts/teams?team=BUF&year=2022

We had no one signed after this season. We weren't going to sign someone better for less. We weren't going to sign someone as good for less. We weren't going to draft someone who was going to come in and play better from day one as a rookie. Given what Hargreaves and Tomlinson got paid Oliver is right in line. Funny sportrac statistics has Oliver's snap % listed higher than Hargreaves. I'm not going back to look but I swear someone was arguing a DT needed to play 70 percent of the snaps

I mean Dline yes ............. DT no.

Who are we getting at DT for 15 mil a year?

Didn't Saffold make the Pro Bowl ?

They signed McKenzie to a bigger contract than Crowder during the same off season. Possibly they signed McKenzie before Crowder (I can't remember). At the very least he must have been expected to compete for the slot job at some point. Not surprised Crowder got it. The breaking point for me was that not only was he hot and cold playing WR he couldn't be trusted returning kicks either.

I don't wholly agree but I can't really argue against what you are saying. I feel like Beane's investments were good and had we not had the rash of injuries and ended the season the way we did last year everyone would feel fine with everything. The reality is we did have the injuries and there's no way to tell so I have no tangible way to argue that. My hope is that a healthy Miller rushing the passer and a healthy secondary combined with McDermott calling the defense will have the defense firing on all cylinders and we'll be back knocking on the SB door and hopefully kicking it down. ps I don't think we should sleep on Epenesa yet. He had a number of good flashes the more he played after Miller went down.

Isn't Hargreaves getting over 21 mil per season and over 80 mil for the life of the deal? Oliver's deal (according to ESPN) works out to 15.75 mil per season. It seems like they are getting paid accordingly.

McKenzie shows the difference between a track star and lets say Kupp or Beasley. When it comes to playing the slot a track star is not the most valuable trait. Finding holes in the zone and catching stuff thrown at you in weird positions make the difference. When you consider the drop off from 80 catches with Beasley to 40 with McKenzie you have to consider that Allen didn't trust McKenzie to read the defense and get open quick enough to catch the same passes that Beasley would have had thrown at him. I'm making some assumptions there but I feel fairly safe in assuming those things.

I've thought about this and I like the thought. Go 3-4 with Jones at NT and Oliver and Groot at ends with Miller your rush LB? While Frazier was here the defensive formations were seemingly set in stone. Lots of adjustments and post snap movement but little change to the formations.

I think Phillips also can still play but as we saw last year injuries can play a part. Everyone was injured last year and if that happened again it would be hard to imagine an outcome much different but I think everyone is hoping we have less injuries than last year. If Miller and Groot are healthy I think we can still pass rush and if Oliver and Jones or Phillips are healthy we can still play alright in the interior. They've all had injuries but they've also all put together seasons healthy. If everyone stays healthy I think Oliver can put together a respectable stat line and make Beane look good. He isn't Donald or JJ Watt (in his prime), he's not going to change a game by himself.

Oliver is better with Jones beside him. Oliver actually kind of reminds me of Kyle in that he gets decent penetration and is disruptive but not necessarily a wall. Kyle was better with Dareus beside him. Both are good on their own but but when Dareus left the run defense went with him and Jones the same thing. Signing someone with Oliver's ability always costs more than signing a run stuffer. We paid for Star and then Jones but not what you'd pay for a pass rushing DT which is what we are hoping Oliver can be (I'm assuming). If the pieces stay healthy having Groot, Miller, Jones, and Oliver is really good on paper. When injures start happening is when things break down.

So we signed Rapp from the Rams and his stunt double.

Reading a few Steelers articles it sounds like he had another very Levi Wallace type year. The Steelers tried playing two guys in front of him and within a few games he was starting. People still throw at him because he's frequently the best option to throw at but he doesn't make it easy. He only gave up a few TD's (to four picks) and was far better against the run than the two guys they played before him. If you asked me who'd I'd start first Dane or Levi it would be Levi just because of Levi's size. I'm betting the Steelers keep him anyways.

Everywhere he goes they try to start other players and yet every team he has played for, by the end of the season, he's starting. I would hope Elam and Benford are on track to compete for a starting spot and I hope White is back to himself and has the other starting outside spot locked up. As we've seen though, by the end of the season you might need a guy like Wallace. Just because of his size I'd rather have Wallace starting outside than Dane in an injury situation.

I think the bigger question is who will be 3rd. I might have to go with Shakir and then Knox and Kincaid. If Shakir takes over the old Beasley stuff plus plays outside for Davis and Diggs on occasion I think he could see a lot of targets. If Knox and Kincaid both catch between 40 and 60 balls I'd consider that a win compared to Knox and Morris/Sweeney. If Kincaid catches 40 balls I'll be happy. Sixty or more and I'll start listening to talk about him being the next Kelce or something of that ilk.

We were a top 5 offense with Morris and Sweeney. I'm pretty sure Kincaid makes the offense better even if he doesn't put up Kyle PItts numbers.

You're assuming that we played McKenzie 100 percent of the time then? I didn't quantify reps. I simply agreed that Kincaid would have McKenzie like numbers and that Shakir would also put up McKenzie like numbers. I'll stick by that. I think there are plent of snaps in a game for both Kincaid and Shakir to have 40 catches even if they aren't on the field at the same time.