Buffalo Junction

I view him similarly to Deebo Samuel (IIRC 40 was 4.7-8). Not quite as physical, but excellent burst right after catching the ball and the kid has excellent YAC ability. Plus, Aiyuk did the JUCO route, so there’s plenty of room to grow technique and experience wise. If he’s there at our 2nd pick I’d be rather content with the selection. I think he’d make McKenzie expendable.

Head fake, eyes, setting up double moves with consistency, proper and consistent use of leverage. Van Jefferson should be good at this considering his father was a NFL WR and has been a WR coach in the NFL for over a decade (currently NYJ). My concern is that Van Jefferson is maxed out physically and close to his limit with coaching. The flipside of that is he’s probably an instant upgrade to depth and could be a value as an instant WR 3.

I’m not as gung-ho over height as long as they’re over 5’ 10”. If they’re at that mark other traits can make up for it. If a guy is 5’ 11”, but has a giant wingspan and vertical coupled with serious speed, suddenness, and/ fluidity it’s fine. The one thing I want to see above all others is a WR who fights for the ball like it’s their god given right to catch it.

Which blew my mind, because the few times they ran jet sweeps with Foster, Knox, Roberts, etc they were effective. Any rational person would have gone back to the well for more.

Has he ever tightened up a run D? I can’t recall a good run D since his first year in NY under Rex.

Odds on Pettine getting fired?

They need to give Rodgers whatever he had after that bears game.

No. Shannahan groomed LaFleur. Reid would be the master in a KC SF matchup.

Not really. Baldwin grew with Wilson. He came into the league as a UDFA and improved.... as did Beasley. My point was that as good as those guys became they weren’t as good during Wilson’s first two seasons. I’ve also stated that it makes me concerned about our ability to identify, draft, and develop wide outs.

It’d have to be a situation like the 49ers with Bosa or a team that ended up with another teams 1st. Basically a team that had an anomalously horrid year or just got lucky. Getting a DE talent like that is rare enough to warrant the choice of QBS isn’t an immediate need.

I’ve watched a fair amount of Perine, and I agree with everything you said. I honestly think he’ll be around later because he couldn’t showcase with that O line. The uva game was an indication of his potential when the line does its job and you get him the ball in space... along with how he seems to elevate his play in big games. He’s an underrated talent that could be better in the NFL than college because of that. His pass blocking needs to improve, but he’s willing. There were a few times I saw him lead block for Trask and he looked competent. I’m looking forward to seeing him in the senior bowl. I view him as an upgrade on Gore that can sub in and not give away playcalling. Perine is a good fit without spending a ton of capital. At the very least he could take Yeldins spot. Add a guy like Shenault early along with him and this team could basically run 21 personnel and still use “5 wide” formations.

Pretty much. However, I’m okay with a team requesting an interview for a coordinator position from a LBer or WR coach before the playoffs start.... Those guys, if successful, will broaden the coaching ranks we can hire from later. Key is “early and substantial”. Being too late to find a quality replacement should be a non-starter for all requests unless they’re offering draft picks as compensation.

I’m happy they blocked it. We’ve had a few teams sniffing around assistant coaches and coordinators. I like the bills sending the message that unless it’s early in the hiring process and a substantial promotion there shouldn’t be a request.

I generally agree, but if there’s a guy in the big 10 that dominated against Ohio State and the rest of the conference I’m keen. As long as they perform in big matchups there’s no reason to devalue them.

They’re rarely equal. It comes down to the strengths of the coaching staff and how they interact with players. Either approach can get a talented team to the super bowl if the fit is proper. Sustainable success requires a blend as successful teams lose and replace both players and coaches. I say it’s an oversimplification because the basic question ignores the hiring practices of coaching staffs an GMs. How much “adaptation” is due to replacing an OC that was hired away or the HC actively changing his desired schemes? 9/10 times I’m going to assume that the new coordinator brought in fresh ideas or different approaches.

I think this is an oversimplification. The best coaches are “all of the above”. What defines their consistency and effectiveness is reliance upon arriving at their systems goals with adaptive scheming. Belichick seems to do this every year, but he’s not really changing the system. They’re really adapting formations, personnel groupings and play calls to fit personnel while keeping fundamentals the same. The first thing for BB is always situational football; don’t beat yourself. The routes and plays never really changed in NEs offense. It slowly shifts every year with additions. They just find ways to run similar concepts with 12 personnel instead of 11 personnel, or something similar. Same goes with defense. It’s almost always been about 2 gap play up front and controlling the LoS regardless of personnel. A lot of what they do looks more complex than it actually is. Generally NE utilizes simple wrinkles to existing schemes that the other team isn’t expecting. A good example would be blocked players on a cover 0 blitz dropping back into coverage; small wrinkle but massively effective. It’s taken straight from Fritz Shurmur who used it to fabricate a pass rush with a big nickel when he had a bunch of LBers get injured. Wade Phillips does the same thing. He runs 4-3, 3-4, etc. based upon available players and talent. Notably going from a two gap 3-4 here to a single gap 3-4 in Dallas, and what’s basically a single gap 4-3 over in LA. He just finds roles for the available players that fit the basic responsibilities and parameters of his defense.

I was autocorrected into a filter. Damn technology. ?

Totally missed that. ?. Granted, it’s about the only time that shouldn’t be filtered.

SEC. A lot of matchups against Georgia, Florida, etc. You’re going to want to watch this years tape as last season the opposing team often put their best corner on Deebo Samuel if they could. I believe Edwards was injured for the second half of this season though. Played pretty well against the Gators before that. The game ***** don’t exactly have great QB play (streaky), so keep that in mind.

No one I was referring to his use of Baldwin, Tate, and Kearse as references to WRs. Rice is a bit of a wash to me. His one good healthy season was with Favre force feeding him the ball. He never returned to that, and John Brown just put up a season that trumps Rice’s Seattle performances. Where Wilson’s WR weapons were better is the talent they identified as depth. Those guys improved rapidly. I’ll address that in my concerns below that ruminate on the bolded. Lynch is a different factor all together. He was the engine in that offense. It was a similar formula to what the Steelers did with Big Ben early; protect the young QB with a dominant defense and dominant run game. Allen certainly has not benefited from a dominant O-line and/ a RB producing at a HoF level. To me that’s part of why we see him trying to force things from time to time, and why Allen performs better when Singletary is in the game. The bolded is what concerns me moving forward. I’m not sure how good this FO and staff is at identifying receiving talent. I’ll give them Knox as we can all see the potential. Unfortunately, every time he drops a gimme we can also see why he wasn’t a focal point in college. I’m worried that we have three issues with fixing the passing game. 1) They aren’t properly identifying draft prospects. Zay was a big whiff and they haven’t taken anyone else high. It’s hard to judge, but we’ll likely know if this is a problem in 8-12 months. 2) Are these prospects being properly coached? Specifically, are they being coached up in a way that makes Allen’s life easier? I wonder about this because I don’t see our WRs work back or settle into zones consistently when Allen scrambles. 3) Daboll. Are the best players on the field, and are they being utilized properly? Getting away from Singletary, sending a FB on deep routes, etc. lead me to believe that there could be an issue here. It’s also entirely possible that Daboll is pressing and experimenting because of talent deficiencies as well. However, I tend to fall into the camp that believes he out thinks himself at times. I think some if not all of these questions will be answered next season. It’s also possible that McD adjusts the coaching staff if #2 is an issue. I’m hoping they identify a couple weapons, Daboll’s personnel groupings settle down with more consistent talent, and Allen can trust all his playmakers to make plays. Im keeping my fingers crossed.

I think part of that was Hyde’s playoff experience and the complexity of the defense he came from. Those are likely determining factors for McDs views on leadership.

If you threw that cast on this team Tate would be playing with Beasley and Brown. The rest would be developmental guys. What they turned into and the players they were when they first got into the league are very different. Kudos to their work ethic and Seattle’s coaching staffs. Comparatively, Allen is throwing to a veteran Beasley and not fresh out of camp UDFA Beasley that caught 15 passes. I’m not knocking Allen. He’s improved tremendously and no where near his ceiling. His play style and inexperience aren’t exactly great for improving the play of inexperienced receivers though. Some of that is on coaching though.... A lot of these other teams with scrambling QBs have WRs who settle in zones, work back to the QB, etc during a scramble. Ours don’t do that well, and that’s most likely due to coaching. The one guy who really seems to have that aspect figured out is Sweeney, and they stopped playing him (coaching).

No he wasn’t. Tate aside, the rest of those guys were late round picks and UDFAs on rookie deals. They developed with Wilson and made plays, but a lot of that had to do with Wilson throwing perfect balls and scrambling to give them time to get off coverage. Not to mention 8 man boxes to stop Lynch.

Echoing what I said in the game thread... Every time I watched a Clemson game Ross was the WR that made an impression. Go back to Higgins TD run and look at Ross’ block. That kid is always grinding.

I think we’re undervaluing the kid. He has the frame any physical athleticism to turn into a starter. One thing that is neglected is that he also has a drive similar to Allen. He’s going to maximize his off season. I would not be surprised if he shows up to camp comfortably carrying an extra 10 pounds and armed with a few countermoves. He was behind this year because of where he played college ball.