Beck Water

Observe the masterful way Kyle Allen stared down Sherfield (16) and threw to him even though he was covered, before anyone else had a chance to complete their route and even Cook, his checkdown, did not have a chance to leak out and get open. Admire the precision of his targeting,which throws where the DB has a better chance on the ball, instead of where Sherfield would have to come back for it and have a chance for a DH or DPI penalty if not a completion.

I think the starters are, in fact, on snap counts. For example, Joe Buscaglia tracks these things methodically and points out that Kincaid got 2 series, 4 snaps total. Poyer and Hyde were given exactly 10 snaps, and pulled in the middle of a series The idea, I believe, is to help them take a step into football shape with minimal risk of injury - and also, to keep them where they were able to practice today. Now I can't tell you for sure if that was the Bills thinking with Bates, or if they in fact do think of Torrance as the starter now. But I can tell you there IS a reason to not start Bates at RG then give him 2nd team C snaps, and that is it.

Oh, interesting. Apparently things changed in 2020 so if it worked before 2020 it might not work now. That seems sketch AF to me if that's allowed, because since only FA who are signed between the start of the league new year, and 1 week after the draft, count - if you can cut a guy you signed at that point and return to "the black" for comp picks what would stop teams from doing that routinely even with players they want - do a handshake agreement to cut and re-sign them?

I think if you look at the Overthecap article that I linked, it is pretty clear. Since the 2020 CBA, the criteria, if not the exact formula, has been pretty well publicized. From the link: That's a very fair point, but that wasn't exactly the trend of what McDermott said this time.

Just a little reminder that in Beasley's 4th season in the league, he contributed 52 catches for 536 yards. A month into Andy Isabella's 4th season, the team that had drafted him in the 2nd round waived him. Isabella is 26 years old, will be 27 years old and going into his 5th season. We usually figure "he is who he is" for most guys at that point in their NFL careers. Now I guess that can be wrong - look at Zay Jones. But he needs to do more than flash against the third stringers to stay on the team. Kyle? Kyle Allen, Is That You?

A note here, was commented upthread that Shorter only played a few snaps with Kyle Allen, who never looked his way. So it's not really realistic to say he was "outplayed by Johnson and Ateman".

Like I said, you seem very confident in your ability to evaluate OL play based on television broadcast. McDermott, in his interview, seemed much more guarded (Ha!) and as though he would want to watch film and evaluate before coming to a conclusion. I'm not convinced (personally) that Torrence in pass pro was All That and a Bag of Chips. McDermott doesn't sound convinced either. I don't know about "pissed", but I'd certainly go with "critical". McDermott made it pretty clear he thought the QB play in the first half was not good. if you listen to McDermott's presser and then Kyle Allen's the contrast is .......Wow, "surreal" is the word that comes to mind. It comes across to me as though they're in alternate universes or something, like "are we even talking about the same QB performance we just witnessed?" As I said elsewhere, I doubt a team with a backup we might want is going to trade him to us right now. They want to get closer to the regular season. But Beane and his pro personnel scouts should definitely be scouring rosters. Not just because it was a poor performance from Kyle Allen - but because Kyle Allen himself said he thought his performance was "smooth" and "overall he was pretty happy with it".

Barkley has been in this offense for years and knows it thoroughly. If Kyle Allen hasn't been able to absorb the offense in the last 5 months to be able to figure out where he should go with the ball in a preseason game where the defense probably isn't scheming for you, has he really absorbed it enough to be able to be helpful with preparation in the QB room and on game day? The other aspect of Kyle Allen is that his fiancee', Summer Juraszek, is 'super tight' with Brittany Williams. From how the latter has posted a bit on Insta/Tiktok indicating a bit of a bone to pick vs. 'just didn't work out, we wanted different things on a different timeline', might be Awkward...

Trading a player has no effect on the comp formula. The comp formula strictly involves FA https://overthecap.com/the-basics-and-methodology-of-projecting-the-nfls-compensatory-draft-picks I don't think Houston will have any interest in trading Keenum. If any QB is available, it might be Davis Mills, but I think Houston will keep 3 QB: CJ Stroud as the promising rookie, Davis Mills as the vet who has shown he can play somewhat, and Case Keenum as the wily veteran mentor. And this isn't for you, but with injuries etc no team is going to be trading us a QB in pre-season. They will wait until they're heading into the season healthy. Maybe. But then he needed to be spending part of his off-season making a project out of that, as Knox did.

Nice write up as always, Gunner. I don't know that I agree here. I think the Bills def. wanted to get a good long look at Bates as backup C. I saw something in an article about wanting to limit the snaps Ryan Bates had to play - which would have been A Lot if he played both G with the 1s and backup C with the 2s. It was unclear if that was the author's take or something a coach said. Also that Kromer wanted to see Torrence with both the 1s and 2s (written as though said by McDermott. So I'm at "uncertain what that means" not at "Competition is over, job is won". I'd go so far as to say Torrence is showing his value as a run blocker, but I'm less clear whether he's ready to rock in pass protection. Jumping around to your "bad": McDermott commented about Torrence "“When you’re talking about interior line play in particular, it’s hard to see with the naked eye out there, but good to see a young player get an opportunity,” McDermott said. “We’re trying to do that with some other young players as well. Now we go back and look at the film." I know you're confident about your ability to evaluate players from TV broadcast, not even film - but canonically, when a QB isn't settled in what appears to be a perfectly good pocket, it can mean that from his viewpoint it isn't a perfectly good pocket. So I provisionally give Kyle Allen a "pass" for some of the jitters - but nothing else. He is not looking good. worse, from the TBN article linked above: If Kyle Allen can describe that performance as "smooth", use the word "execute" with it, and say "just overall I was pretty happy with it" - the problem isn't just that he's not looking smooth and in command, the problem is that he isn't recognizing where he is now vs. where he needs to be, he's got some 'Dunning-Kruger" going on. Our head coach sounded less enthused by Allen's performance, talking about "open competition" and "hot and cold", then kind of describing "Matt getting the ball out, getting into the rhythm" as the "hot" part: I think Kyle Allen needs to listen to McDermott and take a memo, because being Josh's buddy didn't save Jacob Hollister from the cutting room floor, and Beane has made a point about an unknown player after the Texans playoff loss "it doesn't matter if you play golf and eat dinner with the coaches if you don't play well when your number is called" So the Bills have Basham under contract for 2 more years at a moderate price. He has a cap hit of $1.17M this season, with a dead cap of $0.74M if he's cut. Lawson has a 1 year contract, $1.3M, $0.425 if he's cut but that's mostly guaranteed salary so the Bills may be off the hook for it if he signs elsewhere. Capology says if the evaluation is similar, you cut Lawson and keep Basham. Since the Bills have a great big roving question mark in the middle of their defense, you might think they want to go with the guy they can count on to set the edge. I don't see how the Bills justify keeping even 10 DLmen, personally. They *did* keep 10 in 2021, the year they drafted Basham and Rousseau, but the usual number is 9. They would need to fit 10 into the roster at the expense of DB or LB...do they want to do that this year? I had mistakenly thought Van Demark actually was playing as the 3rd C during the Heatstroke Game in Miami. I was incorrect, since he hasn't taken an NFL snap yet. But, I'd rather see Van Demark in preseason to show us what he's got, than Quessenbery. Wonder why he only got one drive with the 2's, though? Unless it was "we want to see both you and Quessenberry with the same guys"? I reluctantly have to agree with you. Minor correction on the "breaking his ankle" - it was a torn Achilles. One study suggests that ~1/3 of players who have torn Achilles do not return to play.and those who do have on average, a 50% reduction in power rating. A 50% reduction in power rating for an OLman is not good, and it may be more. They didn't cite OLmen specifically but: I said before the season, and to some folks who put out early takes on a 53 man roster, don't sleep on Quintin Morris

In 2019, Kyle Allen played well more often than badly for the Panthers. Started 12 games, 5-7 overall - team won 5 out of the first 6 games he started with a lousy defense. He had some really good games, and also like 3 skunks, really bad stinkers. Overall threw too many picks, but that's not uncommon in the 1st year a QB starts. Rivera thought well enough to trade for him and he started a handful of games and looked OK. Then he had a bad injury - dislocated and broken ankle after being leg-whipped - which put him on IR for the rest of the season. He frankly hasn't looked like the same guy in the games he's started, since. I don't know if the ankle still isn't right, or if throwing while rehabbing screwed up his motion, or if being injured like that screwed with his head for the game. Point is, what people saw in Kyle Allen was some real flashes in 2019 along with some sub-par play. He didn't look as good in Washington, but the whole team was bad so who knows. But the last 2 years, not the same. I frankly don't trust either Barkley OR Kyle Allen to mind the store and at least break even.

What position on OL is he playing?

That's....alarming

Elam too?

That happened in practice when Bernard went out, as well. So much for pre-season depth charts

Tasker in Mid-season Form

That's horseshite, obviously. If he's the #2, he needs to be able to play even if Josh takes every snap, so he can tell Josh what he's seeing.

Have we already got the 2's in on defense?

Who pulled out?

I am not worthy. I was not posting then, but I was here. I had a good google search for the original thread and could not find it. Basically, it was a post where someone extolled a fritatta recipe featuring pickle juice, and was arguing with a professional chef ( @Chef Jim, who is still around sometimes) about his recipe. It evolved from people calling it a "short bus fritatta" to a "###### fritatta" to a "retatta"

I think in this case they had witnesses who came running over to attempt to save the woman and her dog by getting them out of her car And the witnesses told the police who was driving

I think, before potentially diving down a wormhole of misunderstanding in further discussion, I need to ask you what you mean by tactical and what you mean by strategic in this context Because part of the behavior you believe you see - "the team really needs a CB on day 1 of the draft" "I must come out of day 1 with a receiving talent", IF it is what's occurring, sounds like what I would call draft strategy. How you get there (trade up, stand pat and reach, trade back) sounds like tactics.

OK. But I do think after the draft, every GM channels his "inner cat" You know, how a cat will fall off the edge of a table and then give you a look like "I meant to do that. Obviously, that was what I wanted to do". The players they wind up with are the ones they really wanted and are thrilled they had the opportunity to draft. After the draft, when talking up their draft picks, no "spin" intended at all 😇

to @Gunnerbill's point, it's notable that in this video, Beane is busy wheeling and dealing (and has his crew querying) to see what he can get if he moves back. I didn't here that in 2022, but it's hard to prove a negative. If you had any links to articles and videos demonstrating that, would be cool.

Beane did say they had a first-round grade on one of the receivers who was drafted in the early 20s, before Kincaid. He didn't say which one (natch) and he didn't give any indication who he would have taken if they were both there. I don't think you (or any of us) can know whether the Bills did, in fact, "laser in on a pass catcher" or say "we must have a pass catcher". And I don't think Beane was flying by the seat of his pants "oh, there's only one pass catcher we want left, and we really need one, let's give up a 4th" On the other hand, obviously roster building does have to factor into it to some degree, or you wind up drafting CB (for example) every year when you have real needs at every position. My guess would be that the Bills have a handful of guys, maybe 10-15, they have graded as first round talents then a smaller set, maybe 6, they have graded as a match between 1st round talent and roster-building needs. They probably have 1 or 2 they would be willing to use resources to trade up for. And then I suspect they work scenarios - three draft picks ahead of our slot, how many of those guys are left? And how high is our grade on the ones that are left? Are they players we have flagged as "trade up worthy?" Because if it gets to 3 picks ahead of you and you have 2 guys graded as 1st round picks who remain, your choice is 1) trade up 2) stand pat and trade down if you can 3) stand pat and reach That's how I think it happens, not "Oh my goodness, we MUST have a pass catcher, so much that we'll squander resources and trade up to get one".