Beck Water

Shakir played 275 snaps. That means that 205 of them were probably against zone coverage, since I doubt he was doubled up in man with Diggs and Davis on the field. Since 75% of his snaps were presumably against zone, the question for his long-term prospects would be “how well did he get open there?” I believe this stat is just measuring whether the receiver has separation at the completion of his route vs. man coverage It’s not assessing: 1) whether he ran the correct route at the correct depth 2) whether he was open at the point where the QB had to make a decision and throw the ball 3) whether there was a better throw available

I don’t think a team could do that under the terms of the CBA 1) the NFL, an entertainment business, mandates media availability for players. It’s not consistent with that to limit in-season media 2) the players want to “build their brand”, gain name recognition so they can sell merch and perhaps be marketable for broadcasting gigs. They can’t say anything “detrimental to the league”, but requiring team approval would allow teams too much control of what players do on their time off. So the NFLPA would fight it.

So Logic-ally, the problem with the "gadget role" niche is, if the player does not run any other plays, opposing defenses key on him and say "here comes the reverse" or "get ready, there's that jet sweep again!". We saw that towards the end of the 2019 season, and Daboll started to use McKenzie on shallow crossers and slants, just so that teams couldn't key on it. So "gadget guy" really needs to have a broader vocabulary.

First of all, a lot of my post to which you're responding was in response to someone else, not to your comment "Idk why, but he’s too dam small and his arms to too dam short to be a good target." Lose the crowing about "checkmate", because I'm not trying to argue that the history of the NFL is replete with successful small short receivers - I'm making the point that if what you say is true about McKenzie, it's an ongoing problem for the Bills. (as far as NFL history, there's always a rule until someone comes along and breaks it. And Beasley, FWIW, measured 5'7 7/8" which gives him a mighty 3/8" on McKenzie) Second, it absolutely has a lot to do with Beane! If the problem with McKenzie is that he's "too damned small and his arms are too short to be a good target", then in fact the Buck stops in the middle of Beane's desk by going into the season with two options at slot: 1) Crowder, who at 5'9"( combine 5'8 3/8") is not THAT much bigger, and who had missed almost 1/3 of his games the previous two seasons 2) McKenzie, who is listed in Pro Football Reference as 5'8" (combine measurement 5'7 1/2") and who has 28 3/4" arms And it will also be on Beane that he's apparently replacing a good bit of McKenzie's role in the slot with Harty, who is listed as 5'6 3/8" and 28 1/4" arms. Please note that McKenzie was used on deep routes (from the slot) as I expect Harty will be - but do you really expect Harty to be able to line up outside and gain a clean release or hand-fight against much longer armed corners? That seems like a big "ask" to me. And if McKenzie's problem was that he's "too damned small and his arms are too short" to be a good target, isn't that just exacerbated with Harty? Personally, I don't think McKenzie's issue is that he's too small to be a good target. I think some other folks called part of it out correctly: he could lack focus within games leading to some inexplicable gaffes. And even if he is correct that he was open, his habit of body-catching the ball made him a dangerous target on some routes and didn't necessarily mean he was running the route Josh expected against that coverage (wherever the disconnect may lie). So if Harty can stay healthy, I think he can be a good target despite his short stature and arms. And yes, Beane explicitly said "we see him as our #4" meaning not as the starting slot - but he does have to be able to run a larger route tree than just gadgets, and I'm not sure he can handle the outside role you suggest at his size vs. getting a free release as a slot then running a deep route. PS short arms are also an issue with Shakir, 29", which may also hinder his use outside. Unless Shorter or Patmon or someone come thru, I think we're still thin outside, it's Diggs Davis and who?

I could be wrong, but I thought he’d been a decent pass blocker in LA and the notion was Kromer would get him back to that

I think there's a bit of revisionist history or at least edited history by Beane there. They clearly expected McKenzie and Crowder to compete for snaps in the slot last season. Going into the season Beane talked as though McKenzie had earned a shot at the slot role. McKenzie said he was open against zone and Josh wouldn't throw to him. I think that's true. At least in part, I think that's because Josh simply didn't trust McKenzie to 1) read the defense and run the route option Josh expected him to run as Josh expected him to run it - he could be open, but if he's open doing something different than Josh expects, as Beasley said "there will be a lot of interceptions" so Josh wouldn't take that risk 2) run the routes with the proper shape and timing 3) make it "his ball or no one's ball", especially if the throw were a bit off-target. McKenzie's biggest flaw as a receiver IMO was his persistent tendency to body-catch. As we saw in Miami with Josh's interception off Beasley, it's dangerous to try to body-catch in traffic; if the ball is deflected, it can very well be picked. I also had the impression that he had a bit of the "mule trained with loving kindness" about him, in that it took A Lot to get him to listen to feed back and make changes. Mmm, that would be why Beane paid more money to Deonte Harty, who is like an inch shorter and has slightly shorter arms? Because he's too damned short to be a good target?

It will indeed be interesting to see what they get out of Harty, and yes, they paid him quite a lot of their limited FA budget (not quite twice what McK earned last season, but significantly more) Whatever folks say about McKenzie not being able to catch, the facts are he caught 64.6% of the passes listed as targeting him (2nd on the Bills team to Diggs and 15 percentage points higher than Shakir for whom folks here clamored). He was durable - missed something like 2 games due to injury in the last 3 seasons. Harty has a better catch % over his career, but he's missed something like 25 games over the last 3 seasons. So I don't know what we'll see. I've gotten "thumb down" or X'd in another thread for pointing out that Beane has a bit of a track record for spending significant $$ of a limited budget on potentially high-ceiling contributors who have not worked out - Corey Coleman, OJ Howard etc. I just hope Deonte Harty isn't this year's version. (Note that I'm not suggesting we should have kept McKenzie, who clearly wasn't able to be on the same page as Josh against zone for whatever reason)

'Fess Up, Wise Guys: which of you have been posting on The Twitters? https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/fans-are-already-blaming-hailee-steinfeld-for-distracting-josh-allen/ar-AA1c0aj6 Which of you Wise Guys posted that? But once again, I can't keep up. This article is claiming that So all you people who heard rumors of a bartender?...or maybe it was a college soccer player? Who was it? No one? Bartender? Soccer player? Actress? Then again: What I wanna know is who's the dude with Greer Gustavon?

Someone had already called 911 The lifeguard was performing chest compressions initially, later a doctor took over the chest compressions. Under those circumstances, running off to look for the AED was the exact appropriate thing to do

Is that what's meant by "Gay Conversion Therapy"?

"Far removed from my 30s" -> you're 17 and live with your mom, amiright?

I agree with you that his odds are poor and he faces an uphill fight, especially with the current trend being to hire offensive coordinators and assistants. My point was that he has faced poor odds and an uphill fight at many previous stages of his life, and nevertheless he's prevailed. I think the HC interview process depends a lot on salesmanship: how good of a plan the coach has put together and how tailored it is to the specifics of the interviewing team. So I can see where time to self-reflect and spend analyzing one's plans and maybe taking a fresh approach to them might be helpful, along with not trying to divide responsibilities between defensive game planning and interview prep.

Having a different or unpopular opinion doesn't make someone a troll Making a certain style of post repetitively does though. Wait, I can't keep up. Weren't you worried that Brittany Williams was basically Amber Frey?

It's his specialty. He's already critiqued JA for "dressing like he's in HS" and looking like a bum, as well as admitted he knows that cosmetics make a huge difference to a woman's appearance in photographs. And that's not even getting into his posts in other threads where he was opining that because athletes get asked about their hobbies and movies and favorite eats, it's appropriate to ask them about every detail of every aspect of their personal lives. 🙄 He may at some point have something useful or interesting to say about football At present he's behaving like a troll-y troll and would be better left alone under his bridge.

https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0002

I imagine one could probably find some errant passes at the Bills practice did the press choose to show them. We know Baker can complete 60% of his passes at the NFL level.

This is so cool. Morris had a checklist in his head, thanks to his training, someone called 911 (check), someone doing chest compressions (check), Morris knew about AEDs and went to get it. It's awesome that he got the training and applied it successfully, vs. learning that 911 had been called and someone being there to do chest compressions and just standing about.

Spill the Tea then mate This ain't the tea you promised. Tell us about those "lot" of big name former WR1 cut around age 30-32 who didn't do much for the next team or were done. Hopkins was due $19M and change with a big $$ next contract. He's coming off a season where he was suspended 6 games for PED, following a season ending injury the previous season. He hasn't been available as a FA, Arizona wanted to trade him. His contract severely limited his trade market.

That's pretty much how I read it.

Gabe Davis joined Diggs among the missing:

I was pretty interested in what Parrino said about Dezmon Patmon: We quietly picked Patmon up off the Colts practice squad after the season. He's 6'4", 225 lbs, and ran a 4.48s 40 in the 2020 combine. It's interesting to wonder if he was the Colts version of Isaiah Hodgins (only faster) and if he can blossom given a chance. The bad news is that it doesn't seem as though he's ever played STs. As we know, that's expected for the WR who are further down the depth chart with the Bills.

Allen would be justly criticized if he weren't there. The QB is the engine that makes the offense run. There are a lot of new players and new-to-us players, and Josh needs to work with them and get them accustomed to how he wants them to run routes, and to catching his passes. Diggs is an individual contributor. Diggs not being there doesn't keep other guys from using their time to best advantage and is, in some ways, a benefit to the team. It gives Kincaid and Shakir and Shorter and Cook more pass-catching reps. As long as he and Allen get together enough to be on the same page (whether it's with the team or individually), it works

The man was born in a town of 25,000 people nicknamed "Possum City". He didn't know his father. His grandmother raised him while his mother struggled with substance abuse. "I'm going to college" Probably someone told him, "You're delusional" Went to a HBCU in Mississippi. "I'm going to play in the NFL" Probably someone told him, "You're delusional" Especially after he tore his hammy his Jr year then skipped his Sr season and declared for the draft. Wasn't drafted - it woulda been long odds with the injury and from a small school. Signed as an UDFA with the Bears. "I'm going to be a starter" Probably someone told him, "You're delusional" Became a starter. Played in the Superbowl on what may have been one of the greatest defenses ever. Injured during the Superbowl, couldn't come back from it. "I'm going to be a football coach". Probably someone told him "You're delusional". First HC for Trinity College, built the program from the ground up. Jumped to an assistant position in a big college program 1 year, then to the NFL. Rest is easily discoverable. I can't tell you if Frazier will be given the chance to become a HC in the NFL, but I can tell you for sure he's overcome pretty steep odds to his previous achievements. I think he probably looked methodically at what he thought he needed to do to get the HC gig he wanted, and that he wasn't going to be able to do that while giving his full attention as DC of the Bills. Personally, I wouldn't bet against him. Wouldn't bet on him, either of course - there are only a few of those gigs up for grabs each year.