DCOrange

It seems like a pretty ***** article overall, but that part isn't really their fault. He was supposed to be back this week up until this morning.

Assuming most people didn't seek out the actual article that Talbot's excerpt was pulled from; it's basically two PFF guys; one guy makes his case for his Vegas pick and the other guy does a counterpoint. In this case, the guy was making his case for the Steelers. I'm not sure if the article was edited after the fact or if Talbot removed the text himself, but the writer mentioned that it's obviously a very small sample size for Hodges so far, but he apparently has the highest grade in the league from a clean pocket the last two weeks. Not mentioned in the article, there's a side-by-side comparison of Allen and Hodges in one of their other articles with the following numbers (Allen on the left, Hodges on the right): Passer rating when clean: 98.8 vs. 111.5 Passer rating under pressure: 54.2 vs. 76.0 Big Time Throw %: 1.98% vs. 4.72% Turnover Worthy Play %: 4.55% vs. 1.89% On the flipside, Talbot didn't include the guy making the case against Pittsburgh, which I honestly think was way worse as he was legitimately just making fun of Bills fans instead of making an argument in favor of them:

Idk if Duke is good enough to sacrifice the kick returner, but it's definitely something I'd be thinking about. Roberts has been good in the return game this year; unfortunately, being good in the return game is effectively worthless. According to Football Outsiders, his return skills (which have been among the best in the league this year) is good for roughly 5 points above the average team (0.36 points per game). Compare this to Baltimore, who literally just let all the punts hit the ground and roll against us; we're getting 5 more points over the course of the season than they are out of the return game. As the OP mentioned, playing a guy purely for their return skills is just a waste of a roster spot at this point; it would be like using a roster spot on a kickoff specialist. Duke might be worthless too, but I think it's absolutely worth thinking about if perhaps Duke's ability to make contested catches could provide more than a fraction of a point per game for us.

Yeah, that's basically how I feel as well. Between Alabama's roster itself and also the other SEC teams, going to multiple Alabama games makes a lot of sense. Same goes for Ohio State at this point, though 4 times (plus in all likelihood 1 or 2 playoff games) is a lot.

Updated my Google Doc with all the games Yolo has posted about (and also the updated version of Matt Miller's positional rankings). Also made a couple formatting tweaks to make my life a whole lot easier lol. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EGcKt-3OhHND7shQmY9LREGwBxtnUcFwQtQDz2U-3tk/edit?usp=sharing The results: QB: 6/10 RB: 5/15 WR: 16/30 TE: 1/10 OT: 7/15 IOL: 7/15 IDL: 7/15 Edge: 10/20 LB: 8/15 CB: 9/20 S: 6/15 Some other notes: Brandon Beane has personally attended games for the following teams: Maryland vs. Penn State, Ohio State vs. Northwestern, and Alabama vs. LSU The Bills scouted 4 Ohio State games this year, which I believe is the most they've ever scouted of a single team over the past few years. No mentions of us scouting Georgia or Clemson, which is kinda shocking (though I would like to think there was some Bills presence at the SEC Championship game and will be at the CFP games, so I would assume we will check those two off soon enough).

Because it's allowing them to have the best offense in the league lol. This would be like criticizing a QB for throwing out of playaction so much when everyone should be using it statistically speaking.

A couple breakthroughs today: Sidibe looked more like his freshman self. Howard Washington got a decent amount of playing time and looked like our best PG today.

There were definitely flashes his freshman year. Unfortunately more flashes as a freshman than we've seen as a sophomore or junior now, not to mention Boeheim has seemingly gone away from utilizing much of it in our offense, instead relying on isolations and dribble hand-offs. I did like Sidibe a lot as a high school prospect and as a freshman though.

Basketball has changed a lot since those days. Fab is the only one that I might take over Lydon today. Onuaku was a worse defender than Lydon and not much better as a rebounder. Jackson was definitely a good rebounder but I'd much rather have Lydon on the offensive end. Christmas is hard to judge because he was a disappointment up until his senior season. Lydon never even got to that point but I think Lydon was probably better back then and would be a better fit today.

We don't need a traditional big. Lydon was a pretty good shot blocker and also had good hands for steals in the middle of the zone. He was vulnerable against bigger big men, but he pretty easily made up for that and more with what he provided at the other end of the floor. Girard is best suited playing off of ball-screens; Lydon's ability to screen and both pop out for 3 pointers or slip to the hoop would be pretty much the ideal big man here. Would much rather have that than a big man asking for the ball in the post all game. Fab would be awesome too, maybe even better given his defensive talents and his ability as a roll man on offense. Onuaku or Rick would be a huge upgrade over what we have right now, but I would much rather have another Lydon or Fab over those guys with the way basketball is played nowadays if I had the choice. Like I said, for the offense to work, we basically just need a big man that will set screens and either finish around the rim when they roll or shoot at least a little bit when they pop. The defense is more of a team-wide issue; one player like Fab might help to cover some of that up, but Onuaku/Rick wouldn't be helping much on that end in all likelihood. Sure they could rebound, but there's only so many rebounds they can get when the other 4 guys on the floor just stand there and don't do anything. They'd basically be competing 1 on 4 for rebounds.

I wouldn't say a low post scorer is a need; we just need a big man that can set screens and catch passes when he rolls or pops. We haven't had a big man that was an actual threat after setting screens since Tyler Lydon. Jesse Edwards and Jon Bol Ajak could theoretically develop into that guy, though I'm pretty skeptical of both of them. Girard should be fine as a PG if we convert to a pick-and-roll based offense; unfortunately Boeheim still has us running a ton of isolations and dribble hand-offs and we just don't have the pieces for that style of play at all. Granted we also don't have the big man for the pick-and-roll offense, but it would probably be much more successful than what we're currently doing. Aside from a big man that can catch passes, we badly need to start getting guys to actually attempt to box out; it seems like Boeheim just doesn't really value rebounding because we've pretty much never had a team that actually boxes people out aside from 1 or 2 players. We should in theory have the shooting we need with this roster, and I think Girard has shown enough to have some faith that he can be the primary creator long-term. But we don't have the big man we need, the offensive system we need, or the effort to try to rebound that we need, and unfortunately, if Edwards/JBA don't develop, we don't seem to have a plan on how to address that (at least at the moment).

I collect Funkos. I'm not one of those collectors that has to have every color of Thanos for example, but I do enjoy having funkos of TV/Movie/Athletes that I like. I'm up to 40 now, ranging from The Matrix, Stranger Things, Westworld, superheroes, and some one-offs like Ferris Buehler, Pennywise the clown, etc. My girlfriend hates having them in the house, so the only ones we have at home are a Harry Potter and Niffler (character from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them). The rest are at work as basically a pop culture decoration. I just think they're cool personally. Edit: Should mention that by "house", I mean our one-bedroom apartment. If we end up getting a place with more space/a possible man-cave, then maybe I'll bring some of them home.

I'm not really sure what you're trying to argue here. All I was saying that at least in the case of this season, the top passing offenses coincide pretty well with the top scoring offenses. Scoring more points is better. The top 5 passing offenses is made up of a mix of good teams and teams with good offenses and bad defenses.

He's been average to below-average. Certainly not good enough that I'd consider my search for a franchise QB to be over. But with him locked up for another year, I'd probably be looking to draft a QB rather than sign someone like Cam.

Foles for sure. Marrone definitely seems to be in jeopardy as well. Seems like some combination of the following teams will have new QBs: Tampa - Guessing Jameis returns next season, but we'll see. Tennessee - Seem likely to re-sign Tannehill if he keeps it up, but we'll see. Miami - Might forego QB in the draft and wait for next year, so this could be an option for a vet like Cam. Pittsburgh - possible retirement, but I doubt it. Indy - Probably stick it out with Brissett or draft. Jacksonville - Seems like Foles is likely done already and not sure if Minshew will be unquestioned starter. LA Chargers - Rivers might retire or might just leave. Las Vegas - Not sure what Gruden thinks of Carr; he's been solid this year for the most part. New England - Brady might retire or just leave. Cincinnati - Almost certainly drafting someone. Atlanta - Could potentially try to blow things up?

Very curious to see who else is gone this offseason from Carolina. In the very least, seems like a relative certainty that Cam will be moving on somewhere, and there will be a lot of musical chairs with QBs.

If the front office thought he'd be fine in the locker room/has been humbled a bit, then yeah, I'd pretty gladly take him.

Not surprising, figured he'd end up in New York next year with the Giants. We'll see though; would be shocked if he didn't land another HC gig this offseason (unless he wants to take time off).

Looks like this thread has taken on a life of it's own, but to the OP: The top 5 passing offenses in the league this year are: Dallas - #4 in points per drive Atlanta - #12 in points per drive Kansas City - #2 in points per drive Tampa Bay - #10 in points per drive LA Rams - #19 in points per drive 3/5 are top 10 offenses and 1 of the remaining is just a tad outside. That's pretty pretty good. Edit: Just want to make it clear I'm not saying Allen needs 300 passing yards in a game or anything. Simply pointing out that the best passing offenses pretty closely coincide with the best offenses.

If you took just his past 7 games, he’d be slotted in as the 13th best QB in the league. I think that’s an accurate barometer of how he’s playing right now. But those first few games in which he either cost the team the game or tried to lose it for 3 quarters before saving the day still happened and that’s weighing his rating down at the moment. If he continues playing the way he has recently, his QBR will be much higher this season than it was last year.

Nah, that's frankly incorrect. The Jets game was terrible. Eagles and Titans were bad. Bengals was pretty bad. And the Patriots he pretty much singlehandedly lost the game. He was also quite good when he returned from his injury last season. He's certainly been better statistically this season, and the past 7 games for him have been a significant step up from what he's previously been, but the beginning of the year still happened and he was bad/sometimes terrible then.

Passer rating basically just focuses on completion percentage, passing TDs, and INTs. He hasn't thrown INTs outside of the first few games, so his passer rating has increased a ton. It doesn't factor in the fumble woes he had earlier in the year, the dropped INTs, etc. that QBR factors in. He also hasn't added THAT much value as a runner this year. He's only 7th in the league in that regard. He's been good at running it in at the end of the drives, but QBR is all about expected points added, so the fact that he hasn't used his running ability all that much up until they actually get to the end zone results in his rushing value not being as high as you might expect.

Lowest rated in terms of what? Barnwell doesn't do draft scouting. Jameis has been top 10 once; last year when he only played half the season. FWIW, Allen's QBR over the past 7 games would slot him in at 13th in the league. It's just that he was bad for the first few games and it's weighed his overall ranking down.

I’m like 80% sure I won’t be able to watch the game at all. Might be able to watch the first few minutes and maybe catch the end if I’m lucky but I’m a guest this year and dinner is at 5:00 and these families generally stretch dinner out over the course of many hours. Wrong year for Buffalo to have a Thanksgiving game haha

I wouldn't say Washington has been silent; he's put up over 300 yards the past 4 games (a 1,200 yard pace). But coming out of Oklahoma State, he had basically no experience running routes and unlike a guy like DK Metcalf, he didn't have the physical tools to overcome that right away.