Beck Water

Tape matters Who he is playing next to, matters How the DL is playing in front of him matters a lot

Exactly my point. The depth chart has been Bernard - Spector - Buffalo Joe Spector is on IR and not available until (if applicable) the Conference Championship Game So now the depth chart is Bernard - Buffalo Joe - and who? Matt Milano has never played MLB. Dorian Williams has not played MLB in the NFL (don’t know about college). Edefuan Ulofoshio hasn’t played defense in the NFL as of yet. Nicholas Morrow is a dark horse to me. He’s been in the league since 2017. He’s started in the league for 3 teams (Raiders, Chicago, Eagles) playing at OLB. He bounced from the practice squad to the active roster for the Eagles last year and this year for the Bills. He hasn’t so much as taken a defensive snap. If we think Bernard is undersized at 227, Morrow is playing at 216? I’m not sure what the plan or thinking is with Morrow, except it doesn’t sound as though we want to see him at MLB. That’s why I feel Beane and Co better be keeping an eye on the cutout bin and scrutinizing the practice squads around the league.

Guy who claims he watches every snap of the games. Don't hassle Terps Recruiting with the Facts, Son!

I didn't calculate it as a $ per snap thing. But the Bills had to have been pissed about Miller's 4 game suspension, and he isn't playing as though he was meticulous in his S&C while suspended.

It depends on who is there, right? We're not talking find someone better than Bernard. We're talking find someone who knows how to play MLB. Which Williams, as of yet, does not. We'll see how Buffalo Joe handles himself. "Cuts" and "waiver wire" are the same thing, by the way - the second choice I mentioned was practice squad. Teams do carry vets on their practice squads. Let's pull an example from the Bills PS. We've been carrying Will Clapp on our PS all season. He's a 7 year vet. He's started 21 games in the NFL. Is he better than McGovern? Obviously not. Is he better than Sedrick Van Pran Granger? Granger has more potential and more likelihood to get sniped if he were put on the PS, so unclear - maybe, maybe not. If a playoff team had an injury to their starting C that put them on IR and needed depth behind their backup, would Clapp be someone they might try to sign off our PS? Could be a better choice for them than trying to move a 2nd year guard, who is still learning to be a guard, over to C. I don't know who might be out there on a PS or, on IR but who thinks he's recovered enough to ask for an injury settlement.

I have no hate for Dorian at all. But let's be realistic - he's a 2nd year guy just learning to play the OLB position on the Bills. He was observed to be in the wrong gap or out of position on a number of plays. That's not hate, it is what it is. It's his first year playing, first year players make mistakes. I want to see him succeed, and see the Bills succeed, and needing to play Williams at a position he's never played as far as I can tell (MLB) and where one of his duties would be to call the plays and get the other players into position - in a playoff game (!!!!!)- is not the path for success either for him, OR for the Bills. If he has to start at OLB, OK - he did that for most of the season. But not at MLB, not wearing the green dot and calling the plays. As far as "better than Milano", well, you have your thoughts and I have mine. I will say this - he's different than Milano. Williams is fast and a good tackler. If he recognizes the play and knows where he ought to be, he's fine. That's an "if" though. And we're coming into the playoffs, where the teams we'll be playing are the masters of offensive misdirection and disguise. Milano is rarely fooled and usually the fastest or one of the fastest to diagnose a play post snap. But coming back from a year(+) off, he isn't able to react on instinct yet. He has to see-decode-go and it makes him a step slow. Combine that with still recovering from the bicep surgery and he's not as sound of a tackler. But he misses tackles because he's in the right place just a fraction slow of the right time. Williams doesn't miss the tackles he's in position to make but he isn't always within tackle radius of where he needs to be.

It's a point. I was assuming that Shavers would get called up, but as you point out he's already had his 3. I think Davidson has only had 2 call ups, so they might go there I have to imagine they want to sit Shakir, Cooper, Coleman, Knox and Kincaid for most of the game.

I believe you - NFL got it from somewhere - but if the Bulls had him at 232 on their roster and he weighed in for training camp at 232, ya gotta wonder if he ate a bunch of salty food, drank a bunch of water, and "clenched" or something before getting on the pro day scale. So historically the Bills are pretty good about giving players the chance to reach their incentives. On the other hand, given Von Miller's injury history and his 4 game suspension, well...."how about if we look at your playoff incentives, Von?"

Depends on intangibles. He's one game back from a groin. Only he and the Bills trainers and coaches can balance the need to rest and rehab vs. the need for more playing time to polish off more of the rust.

Yeah, the guy has 9 tackles 0 sacks and 2 QB hits in 6 games playing 40% of the snaps and just got released by the team challenging for the #1 pick in the draft. What are you seeing?

And the Bills other Pro Bowler is not a WR or RB.

If we're playing the 2nd string OL I don't want Allen on the field, even handing off.

Really? I saw that on nfl.com but he was also listed at 6'0" - not sure they check the stats on the guys who aren't invited to the Senior Bowl or Combine On June 24, Buffalo Rumbings had him at 6'1 232 The UB Bulls Roster from last year listed him at 6'1 232

I agree with your concern about Trubisky, but McDermott has said they are going to find it difficult to elevate White due to "numbers".

Please do a little research. The top paid ILBs: Roquan Smith 6'1" listed at 230, may play at 236 [2025 pro bowl] Fred Warner 6'3" listed at 230, may play at 229 [2025 pro bowl] I'll skip Tremaine Edmunds Patrick Queen 6'0" listed at 232 may play at 230 Bobby Okereke 6'2" 235 (drafted at 239 I think) Aziz Al-Shaiir 6'2" listed at 232, may play at 227 Additional Pro Bowl: Zaire Franklin 6'0" 235 Zack Baun 6'3" 225 Let's start by you explaining why a guy who has played at a 231 frame would improve in any regard by bulking up 9 lbs? Maybe a couple pounds. Our own Terrel Bernard, listed at 224, talked about coming into the season at 227 and he would "see how he felt". But 9 lbs is a huge body composition change for an elite athlete I think there's an outdated vision of linebackers that's out of sync with the size/weight of today's top guys. Has McDermott or anyone actually said that Gore will be elevated?

So the guy was just waived for a boneheaded roughing the passer decision; he hasn't been impactful enough for the Patriots to overlook it - 9 tackles and 2 QB hits in 6 games where he played like 40% of the snaps - and you want to bring him in here? Dude. For comparison, Dawuane Smoot has 16 tackles and 4 QB hits in 10 games, 29% of the snaps. I'm thinking Baltimore waived him in November for a reason. The only position where I'm hoping Beane and his minions are speed-scrutinizing the waiver wire and other team's practice squads is LB because right now if Bernard can't go we're kind of hosed. I do NOT want to see Dorian Williams trying to play MLB.

I appreciate and in fact agree with your POV that Beane has found talent, but is short on elite talent. But mentioning Josh Allen and Taron Johnson as 2nd team all-pros just illustrates the shortcomings of using All-Pro designations as a metric for elite talent. It may have been once, but it is no longer. Dawkins has been playing at an elite level as LT; Spencer Brown seems to be moving into the "elite level" category if he stays healthy. We'll see on Bernard, but if he can have a DL who keeps the LB clean I think he'll prove elite. Cook could be elite. I think the biggest place where Beane has not shown the ability to acquire/develop elite talent is at receiver (WR and TE).

Buffalo Joe for reals. It's sounding as though they're leaning towards "shake the rust off Hamlin"?? McDermott has flat out said Hyde will not be called up for this game "you can see him on the sideline". Your wish for Van Pran Granger is likely to be satisfied, but I didn't get the impression that McDermott intends to expose 2 practice squad players to waivers. So the PS callups may be limited to 2 guys who can automatically revert.

I don't know if this would work for you, but for me, I honestly went into the season feeling this was a rebuilding year and while, with Allen, there is always a good chance, we just didn't have the "hosses" on Defense and at Offensive Skill Positions to make it work. And the guys I felt the best about (Samuel, then Cooper) haven't been the major contributors I'd hoped. I've been delighted to be wrong on the W/L record, but I'm trying to remember that I didn't go into the season saying "Superbowl, Baby!" I went into the season saying "I hope we can be competitive in most games"

So Drake Maye will play, injured hand and all? (Limited on Wednesday) Mayo says "I've never been a part of a team as a player or as a coach going into a game not wanting to win. That's not going to change today. ... My message to the guys was we want to finish off the season strong." Mcdermott says Winning is our #1 Priority and Mitch Trubisky will play most of the game <-----does not compute #2 priority is coming out of the game healthy Soooooooo I'm starting to think that coach speak at this time of year is like listening to general managers during the pre-draft process LOL

So is this the actual pro bowl roster? https://x.com/RapSheet/status/1874818120805990725/photo/1 https://x.com/RapSheet/status/1874818120805990725/photo/2 Because if so it actually makes some sense (Allen, Dawkins, Ja'mar Chase, Derrick Henry, Patrick Ricard etc)

Oh Ya and it's not just the Bills. Crazy to have Patrick Ricard at fullback - he plays like 40% of the snaps - #5 in the pro bowl voting behind Carson Steele of the Chiefs (16% snaps) and Alex Ingold of the Dolphins (34% of the snaps). The Ravens have the #2 rushing game in the league, and clearly Ricard is a big part of that. The Dolphins have the 24th run game in the league and the Chiefs 16th. It's like bandwagon fans and "Oh, he's on my team, must be great!"

A little bit gauche to follow up my own post, but I was just reading a Joe B article in the Athletic that confirmed what I deduced: Rather than playing 4-3, what the Bills were doing was pulling Milano on 3rd and longs and bringing in Cam Lewis as a dime back.

I don't know about "normal in the NFL", but if a team wants to win it all in the post season they better have quality backups at some key positions. And MLB is one of them. We started the season with Spector as Bernard's backup, and it was pretty clear there was a substantial drop off. Now we're down to ?3rd string at MLB and Bernard nursing a quad injury We kind of need a prayer wheel for Bernard's good health, because him going down from (if I recall correctly) 'friendly fire' from Rapp, led to us playing AJ Klein (hot off the sofa) at MLB against KC. It would not be fair to pin the loss on Klein at all, but playing what one chap here referred to as "The Little Sisters of the Poor" at LB was certainly one factor in KC's victory

I'm not sure whether we fundamentally disagree or whether this is a nit Josh's success is a direct reflection of Josh's athletic talent, combined with an incredibly competitive drive to win AND a willingness to self-reflect and strive for improvement. Beane, McDermott, and the offensive coaches stumbled out of the gate with Josh - crap OL and poor WR in 2018, no experienced vet QB on the roster who could show Josh the ropes for game prep - but they recovered and did a good job keeping Josh in a consistent offensive system and putting talent in front of him and around him to enable his success. This isn't entirely serendipity - Beane has talked about how, in the lead up to the 2018 draft, they talked about how more QB talent is ruined than is developed in the NFL. We agree that without the success and stability of a HC, an offensive system, and a positive culture, you get NYJ Sam Darnold and Cleveland Baker Mayfield as well as the Bears blowing multiple high picks - though I'm uncertain some of the Bears QBs would have succeeded anywhere. But Josh is "1 of 1" as far as talent, competitive drive, and willingness to improve himself.