Einstein's Dog

The lack of a penalty on the Helmet swing baffles me. They replayed it and it seemed to me the announcers were covering it like they assumed that was going to be called. Then things got murky, I guess the call was offsetting penalties, and the announcers dropped it quickly. But when I saw that replay it looked like the little guy was deliberately swinging his helmet and it grazed someone. We already had the Giants nonsense where they had what looked like 3 different guys doing personal fouls to our one and saying they offset, now this? Does anyone have an explanation on what happened there?

I agree with you. And while I usually like the aggressive mode, sometimes I think you need to back off. Our short yardage offense is no gimme. I am hoping McD learned from the Giants game. i didn't like the long field goal attempt vs the punt in that situation. This time he was going to make them go the whole field, and while it was still scary, it wasn't as scary as when the Giants got down to the one.

The way it could make sense is if Tenn actually wants to unload Henry to give Spears a chance while avoiding the PR hit of not extending Henry. It could be a throw-in to the deal with the Bills for DHop and where the Bills kind of throw in Elam. It makes evaluating the trade difficult. The Bills have to finish out paying Henry's salary for the year but get great value out of DHop. I think this year's salaries are $5M for Henry and only $1.1M for DHop. If they could do something like DHop and Henry for a 2nd and Elam both GMs move on from situations they don't want to deal with.

It might not be a late rounder for DHop because of the potential for a bargain price. Tenn gave a signing bonus so the remaining salary is reduced. I believe it was this kind of arrangement that had Beane's interest when DHop was with AZ. But AZ didn't want to eat any salary. I'm hoping Beane is thinking big, a package deal for both - Dhop and King Henry. Henry would just be a remaining year rental, which looks like around $5M. DHop I would like to secure for the remainder of this year and two more. You would get his excellent salary but add to it and extend him 2 more to go beyond Diggs (kind of insurance against Diggs losing it). This would mean the end is near for Gabe. If our extra third for Edmunds along with Elam could get this done, I would take it. Maybe go to a 2nd if Tenn eats a huge chunk of the money needed.

I want a WR, an upgrade over Gabe Davis. Gabe hasn't been getting as many targets because he doesn't deserve them. But a good WR would get more looks and make our offense much more dangerous. It would take advantage of one of Josh's strong points, creating time in the pocket then firing a laser 25 yards downfield. This would have to be a good WR to be an upgrade.. A veteran that will be able to be used quickly. M Evans/D Adams/ DHop/A Thielen/T McLaurin DHop is the most realistic at this point IMO. I would like his contract extended to add another year, making it two and half going over what we have for Diggs, for insurance there. We would need give Tenn a decent draft pick to have them eat a significant portion of the contract. The Edmunds third might do. DHop only has a $1.1M salary because of the $9.8M signing bonus. A lot to work with there.

DHop - make it happen! Just read an article in the WA Post by Jason La Canfora, he mentions DHop and how the Titans might look at the $9.8M signing bonus as a sunk cost. DHop has a $1.1M base salary.

Yes, we want Josh to learn to take the short pass, to take less of a beating. We have better personnel this year with Cook/Kincaid. It looks like a priority that Dorsey has emphasized (and doesn't seem to be getting much credit for). There is a big benefit to the future of the team and Josh to learn this skill. In the playoffs you take off the restrictions.

I disagree, the hope is for Kincaid to be much more pass catching oriented. Kincaid's role will be different, much more slanted towards a big slot, a hands guy. Knox is a more rounded, traditional TE. There is plenty of room for both IMO.

Who is your replacement? J Smith, H Hunter, D Njoku? All in the same range. D Waller at $17M? Good, experienced TEs cost in the range of Knox.

I think Knox has good hands and should be included in regularly receiving targets. This catch and drop % stuff is highly subjective and subject to large movements based on the small sample size. For instance, do you call the incompletion at the end of the Giants game a drop? For a player with about 25 targets and 14 receptions these subjective calls make a big difference.

I agree. With our current personnel I would like to see more short, high percentage, passing to Cook/Kincaid and Knox. You still have Diggs targeted a lot, and slightly reduce the number of targets to Gabe. We've seen flashes that this could be potent. I think McDemott was talking to this.

And those thinking that Kincaid has hit his ceiling are mistaken. So IMO, you use and develop Kincaid and Cook in the short passing game - this is better than last years McKenzie/Singletary duo. You don't get a slot guy like Renfro, that would block the development of talented young players. Kincaid and Cook are a big part of the foundation for our future. You instead upgrade the WR2 if possible, where it looks like Gabe is what he is at this point. If the FO can get a D Adams or Meyers or DHop or Thielen, this would be most beneficial this year and not block the development of our future.

How could we cut him if his contract with the Raiders from last year had $65M guaranteed (according to spotrac)? He will have received about $50M.

That is true now - please note I had put this out several weeks ago and had expected Tampa to fold. Unfortunately they did not. D Adams remains a long shot IMO because the Raiders aren't out of either, 3-3 w Chi up next. And I think he is too expensive - I see people claiming an inexpensive hit but for a player that just last year signed a $140M contract I think he would be over budget for us. And now the article linked showed just the kind of diva attitude we don't need more of - while winning Adams is complaining because his personal stats are not up to his standard The in-season trade to get a WR upgrade over Gabe is looking tough. Not a lot of teams out of it. Of those maybe Thielen of Car. I had floated out DHop again because Tenn is in the basement. If they lose to ATL they might give up.

I agree with you. One good way to reduce Diggs workload is to increase the Kincaid/Cook/Knox target share. IMO Kincaid/Cook are much better than last years McK/Singletary combo. Kincaid and Cook look to have excellent hands and could do some damage w YAC. IMO this slight offensive change should result in a year over year improvement. I had hoped for an upgrade at WR2 over Gabe. I realize this would be called by many a 1b. Giving a 6'4" 240 hard to bring down, laser throwing QB a 1a +1b makes for an exciting, difficult to defend offense. The OL gives Josh 3 seconds and then Josh creates 2 more on his own before unleashing a 25-30 yard rope.

I think they can reduce Diggs target load by giving more looks to Kincaid/Cook/Knox and even Harty/Sherfield. Kind of like what they did in the Miami game.

I've been hoping because I've never felt Gabe was the guy. I don't think the records of the teams have gone our way though. Not many teams are out of it and would be willing to trade away a good veteran WR. My new hope is Dorsey resets the offense to include more Kincaid/Cook/Knox and lessen the load on Gabe.

I brought this up in another thread, so yeah, I'm on board. He got the 2yr $26M deal which seems reasonable in todays market. And the $13M this year would be prorated to exclude about a third of it. Since this is old news to me, I'll one up it and go for DHop and King Henry for Elam and a third. Henry is on a one year $10M contract that would cost us a third less. With Harris out we may need another RB, and Henry is better than Lenny.

They should! I'm hoping they are looking into it. This may have been the plan after failing on OBJ and DHop. That they would give Gabe a 5 week trial run and if there wasn't significant improvement go out and get a veteran for an in-season trade.

Why the snide comment? Who said that's all we can ask? The OP said "it stands to reason this is what they wanted". I don't believe that is true. I believe the FO investigated WR upgrades but they didn't work out budget wise. They then went with the hope that Gabe would improve, that maybe he was hampered by injury last year.

It looks to me that you are interpreting this to mean this is what they wanted. I believe they investigated getting OBJ and DHop as possible upgrades. And you can have all the stats in the world but playing the WR2 in the Bills offense is a golden opportunity. Kind of like the opportunity Singletary had as RB, average-ish players can put up good stats because of the usage. Excellent players would excel with this opportunity.

What about resurrecting the DHop talk? The Titans stink. Dhop is a veteran that does nothing for their future. DHop has what seems a reasonable contract, 2 yrs $26M+, and he is a third of the way through the year. If Beane floats out our extra Edmunds third maybe Tenn will eat some of the contract.

Unfortunately Tampa's excellent start has taken M Evans out of the in-season trade market. And like how the odds for DHop took a dive when a trade was not able to be made, the odds to the Bills took a hit with the lack of in-season trade. But if the market is as bad for M Evans next year as it was for DHop there is a chance. If M Evans is only a $3-4M excess over G Davis it's possible.

I think the biggest factor is personnel. The upgrade to Cook and Kincaid over Singletary (and over rookie Cook) and McK, along w the improvements to the line. These people are better at receiving and get Josh's and Dorseys trust. Dorsey/Beane tried to get the people last year, tried for the Wash traitor, then drafted Cook, got Crowder and had McK. It boiled down to McK and Singletary were poor at the receiving short passes and it made more sense to go 25-30 yards downfield for the 65% catch rate than the 70% chance of 4-5 yards.

The timing of reposting makes it seem like this is some sort of victory post. Yet by your own self proclaimed playoff centric views that won't be determined until much later. I liked the change because I didn't like how Frazier employed the bend but don't break style. While the win-lose numbers don't bear it out, I didn't like giving QBs that I considered inferior the ability to dink and dunk down the field. It gave the Mac Jones, Zach Wilsons, K Picketts of the world breathing room and a chance to keep things unnecessarily close. And it didn't seem like a good idea against Burrow either. I like what this defense is doing so far, the more aggressive and unpredictable style. But we also have better personnel - Floyd is a major upgrade. And it is starting to look like Edmunds was not only bad, but detrimental to running an aggressive style (when he was injured and we put in Klein I liked the D better).