PBF81

That's about as close to my take as I've read. It's not about Edmund v. Bernard v. Williams either, to me it's about not properly and adequately having addressed the situation optimally in several years.

Well, let's get one in here then. I'm 6 years of Beane it hasn't happened yet

We'll see on Sunday. GO BILLS!!!

By that rationale, Cincy should go ahead and cut Tee Higgins then. Judging Davis on three games, .... SMH I stand by my assessment, barring injury Davis finishes the season with 1,000/10 or better. If that qualifies as good, so be it. LOL Quite possibly. I have no idea, guesswork at best. But that's on him as to whether he'd rather stick around with Allen or go elsewhere for the money. Happens all the time in the NFL. All I know is that Davis is the best drafted WR we've had. Beane's success at drafting WRs otherwise is abysmal. And what, we're going to pay for a #2 (really another #1) in free agency otherwise, and end up with better? We'll see.

A chunk? How about he's earned most of it on the outside runs. You may not have looked at every run, but I have. You and I can go through them when I have time, I'm gonna be swamped from now 'til game time. I think you'll see what I'm seeing then, whether or not you agree on the prognosis I can't say. Either way, I'm tired of going back and forth on this. My position is clear. If I'm wrong, good for me too, we're all fans, I'll be just as happy as anyone.

Yeah, I'm not seeing a lot of room for TOs here. I also don't think that we leave this game with anyone thinking that our D played well. This has the hallmarks of a trackmeet written all over it. Also, keep in mind, that last two games featured 8 takeaways and only 1 INT/TO. Miami's had only 5 takeaways so far this season, still good, and about the same TOs with 3.

What, is that a joke? He has 9 catches, ALL of which have either gone for a 1st-Down or scored a TD. He caught Allen's only TD pass in the last game. He has logged 1st-Downs and in one case the TD itself, on drives featuring over half the teams offensive points and on 6 of the teams TD drives. That's not making in impact? LOL OK There's not another player in the league with that this season.

So is the argument that he sucks, or wants too much money? I'm not paying him $15/season. Not happening if I'm the GM and I don't see Beane even entertaining that notion. Yeah, pretty much.

Well, to start, these PFF grades and other indicators that people are citing, generally refer to outside runs since neither they nor the Raiders ran much UTM. So not sure how stopping runs on the outsides is in any way indicative of stopping them in the middle. Yet ... I don't know about "wearing him down" per se, I simply don't think he's going to be effective against teams that end up running UTM on us, and IMO as the season develops, I'd expect opposing OCs that have the capabilities on their teams to do that, to do that. Any overreaction as stated is from people who equate making a few tackles on outside runs is anything even approaching being stout in the middle on those UTM runs. Again, look, maybe he will be great at that, the UTM runs that is, but if so, it will be bucking every single draft profile out there on him, so I'm in good company there anyway. As another part of the overreaction, is people that don't understand my position on either Bernard or Williams. All I've ever said is that in a traditional MLB role, which frankly they're not in, they'll have difficulty stopping the UTM runs. I don't know how to make it any clearer. I know that both are great at coverage. I've never argued contrarily. Let's see how this unfolds. I'd bet good money that his UTM inability to stop runs in key games is going to cost us this season, assuming that he continues in that role. We'll see. After that who cares, I'm happy to be wrong and a moron until further notice. LOL

Well, OK, so let's use that standard then. Which receivers on the team have done better on a "per-snap" basis? Here are Davis' individual plays: Jets: 2nd-and-11, 26 yard catch for a 1st-Down, to set up a TD in the red zone. 2nd-and-3, 6 yards for a 1st-Down on a drive that resulted in a FG. Raiders: 2nd-and-7, 7 yard catch for a 1D ... followed by ... 1st-and-10, 19 yard catch for a 1D, on a drive that resulted in a TD. 1st-and-10, 15 yard catch that put us at the Raider 11, and setup Allen's next completion to Shakir for a TD. 4th-and-2, 2 yards for a TD. 2nd-and-8, 9 yards for a 1D, ... later on that drive ... 3rd-and-6, 40 yards for a 1D at the Raider 8 YL to set up Harris' TD run. Washington: 1st-and-10, 35 yards for a TD for our first TD of the day and Allen's only passing TD. Allen only completed 20 passes on Sunday, and only one receiver had more than 2 catches, and that was Diggs with 8. The other dozen catches were distributed fairly evenly among the rest of the receiving players on the team. Hammer on them as one will, but those are just facts.

My position is long-term, not overreacting on a week-by-week basis. I think I've already answered the question, but let me try another approach, I do appreciate your reasonability here!! IMO the circumstances under which he's shined are not typical of what he'll see throughout most of the season. ... without again going into any details already mentioned. We'll see. Let's hope I'm so wrong that I look like a moron. That would make me happy.

So now you're blaming Davis for Allen's underthrown pass in the Jets game and for throwing into perfect coverage against Fuller in the Skins game? I mean really, look at that coverage. I don't see Diggs much less any other receiver on our team making that catch either. I'm not defending or attacking Davis here, just laying out some facts, but dang, there's clearly an anti-Davis agenda at work here.

Say what people will about Davis, but all 9 of his catches have gone for 1st-Downs or TDs. They've been heavily instrumental in scoring drives and putting points on the board. Some of the throws to Davis that he didn't catch were on him. And now we're blaming Davis for those?

Almost all of Cook's rushing yards have been with us leading. He's got 13 carries for 36 yards when we're tied or trailing. He has no rushing TDs. All but one of his carries have been on 1st or 2nd down. He's useless in the Red Zone; 8 carries for 22 yards, no 1st-Downs or TDs. In the first halves of games he's got 21 carries for 93 yards, a 4.3 YPC average, and 4 1st-Downs. In the second halves of games he's got 22 carries for 174 yards, 7.9 YPC average, 8 1st-Downs. It's the 4th Q with us up insumountably is where he's shone. 11 carries for 106 yards, 9.6 YPC. 4 1st-Downs Calling him a "bell cow" is way premature. A heavy dose of caution is recommended here. FWIW Let's see how he does as a "bell cow" with the games on the line.

IDK, our last three games vs. them have been a loss, then in the two wins, one with Skylar Thompson at QB, they lost 34-31 and 32-29. In that last one, in the heavy snow, in Buffalo, Tua posted an excellent game and their rushing game put up nearly 200 yards on over 7 ypc. That was without Achane. IMO this game will come down to how well we defend their running game. Also, I thought that we had a pretty emotional win last week too, matching our second highest scoring game of last season.

That's the biggest thing for me. Both O and D are going to have to show up and this is a classic game that will also highlight coaching. Lose and we'd be 0-2 in the division and 1-2 conference, making it an uphill battle to win the division. Also, we'd be 0-1 vs. the only team that we'll have played that's likely to post a winning record or make the playoffs.

Thanks, and please, don't get me wrong, I'm far from the notion that Bernard sucks, both he and the rookie Williams should have zero troubles in pass D. The draft profiles on both, pervasively, state that. Williams is supposed to be even more quick thinking/processing than Bernard. I'm sure that both are intelligent leaders for the D, etc. My criticism of Bernard is limited because the UTM runs against us in the past two games have been limited. I think there were only 7 or 8 combined in both games, of 26 carries. Bernard shone in two of them. I leave room for him becoming a beast there, I simply never see it happening however. Whether that become relevant, who knows. I suspect that come playoff time when we face balanced offenses with good OCs and HCs, that it would become a problem, at least in one game, and that's all it takes to get outsted from the playoffs, eh, a one-game lapse like that where the opponent capitalizes on a weakness. As to Edmunds, I've never looked at him in crazy detail, but enough to know that he was hit and miss vs. the run. Inconsistent is the one word I'd use to describe him. My big thing re: Edmunds is that he was expected to play a weird role, similar to what we're running this season, not typically a traditional 4-3, and the reason for that, to me anyway, is obvious, we don't have the proper personnel to run one. We're so overly focused on stopping the passing game that IMO we've overlooked the key pieces for stopping the run. We'll find out more as the season develops and we begin to play better coached, more talented, more well-rounded teams. Also, and this is huge for me, he was the youngest player in the NFL in his rookie season. He's always been asked to play in a weird non-traditional alignment that he's never been in, and I'm not sure many LBs have been in, and he was 24 last season, his fourth here. He's only 25 as of May. IMO it was way too early to determine that he wasn't going to be good here. Having said that, IMO it was in his own best interests, as a player with an NFL career in mind, to get out of here. So while I don't believe that either Williams or Bernard (who's exactly one year younger than Edmunds) will ever be as good as Edmunds, if this is the defense we're going to play here, I suppose that there's a chance that they're better suited to it. McBeane don't explain to us what they're doing with their alignments and whether or not 'they're doing what they can with the talent that they have,' or this has been fully planned, but I see it being an issue come playoff time and in our games agains tougher offenses. I haven't paid much attention to Edmunds this year, but I do know that unlike us, he is playing in a traditional 4-3 most of the time over there. But a quick google just now turned up the following, which seems to contradict the sour-grapes take that's prominent here; https://bearstalk.com/tremaine-edmunds-earned-bears-highest-pff-grade-on-defense-in-week-2/ https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-every-nfl-team-most-improved-player-2022 https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-2023-free-agent-rankings-linebacker FWIW At the end of the day, as much as I think Edmunds was better than anyone we now have on the roster, without hesitation, I think that for his own sake he's better off not here. I've said before, I expect him to finish the season among the top-10 traditional MLBs in all facets of the game, likely towards the higher end of that. Look, I know we're going to disagree here, and I'll be the pariah in the forums that is the retraded skeptical guy. But in traffic, whether people see it or not, he gets bounced around like a lightweight. I've pointed out the plays and people simply make excuses. I'll tell you what though, I'll make a friendly wager with you that come December, few people will be defending his run defense skills. And handful of plays in couple of routs don't do it for me. Like I said, I'm happy to play the role of the retradeed skeptic. I've been there often, ... initially. And BTW, if he becomes a beast at MLB vs. the run, great. Happy to be wrong. Just what we need, so I'd be elated. Why wouldn't I be.

PFF is one resource. I had spoken to them about working for them years ago, I understand how they arrive at their ratings, which is a sound process. It's not an end-all-to-be-all, but it's a sound decision based on well more than a single person rendering a determination. Agree on your third sentence, but consider, teams haven't run much against us, 13 non-QB carries average the last two weeks. Which as you know is way below average. The single game in which a team did run against us, and with all but zero balance in the passing game, was the Jets, who were generally successful at it, rushing 24 times for 166 yards. Even with that 83 yard long run not considered, which was largely on Bernard BTW, we can call it alignment or whatever, but it was his play to make, they still put up 23 carries for 83 yards, which given the circumstances was decent. As to your last statement, yes, I realize that it's not linear, but at the same time, if as I suspect will be the case, as teams run more on us, and more UTM, little of which happened the past two games, I suspect that he's not even going to be average, again, specifically vs. UTM/off-tackle runs. I have also noticed that we're running several different configurations re: LB set-ups. We'll see what happens Sunday. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about that game, for which a loss would put us in a significant hole for both division and conf record. I'm optimistic however. Overall I'm quite satisfied with the way we're playing, but I'm also not delusional in thinking that the three teams that we've beaten won't be anything but finishing with losing records with none making the playoffs come the end of the season. Also, I'm also not expecting any of the QBs that we've played to finish above-average in passing either. As always, we'll see. Sunday will be huge however. The fan energy is going to be sick. I hope we capitalize.

Appreciate your take. Royale's just giving me the business and overreacting to my original take, which more or less aligns worth yours, as you know. I never said he was horrible vs. the run on Sunday overall, but IMO he wasn't as good vs. the run as the overall hype on him following that game, but his highlights are primarily on pass D. IMO, looking at his entire body of work vs. the run on Sunday, he was average at best. He was outstanding in the passing game. Unlike some I don't care about being right, I call it as I see it. If I'm wrong, great, I'm content with that as it's a good thing to be wrong about. But I will say, if he's really that good as everyone is saying now, he should only improve, not get worse. So we'll see if all. Perhaps he'll make our collective year and be DPOY, who knows. But right now I still see trouble ahead when we don't play the of the worst teams on our schedule. Sunday should be a good test on this. 🙂

And BTW, if by the end of the season the take on him is that he's more liability than answer at MLB against the UTM/off-tackle runs, then it sure won't have meant that he's excellent at it now but for some reason regressed throughout the season, as your take would have to be if that ends up being the case. LOL

I'll tell ya what, post the same plays A22. I dare ya! If I could get access and didn't have technical difficulties I'd post 'em myself, just for you. And look, I get that you may be excited over his play, but at least be honest, run D isn't his forte. It's obvious.

Nah, sorry bro, the one that's hallucinating is you. Here's a marvelous stop by Bernard, boy, you sure are right. LOL https://www.youtube.com/shorts/5XW6KTUABVE And another, ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb-uJ9PnQ7g First play, Bernard gets turned around and neutralized. Second play he gets plowed. Third play was the one you provided. Granted. Fourth play, first time I've seen it. Also granted. Fifth play, DL did the job, GL. DNA Sixth play, ... LOL Seventh play, ... more LOL Eighth play, group tackle Ninth play, 6 yard gain, not sure what to make of that one. Contributed to a group tackle at best. 10th play, completely neutralized at the second level and taken out of the play by an interior OL-man. The last play is a pass. The long run by Gibson was to the outside, wasn't on Bernard. Not in that video anyway. Either way, he'll have plenty of opportunities to cement himself as a good UTM run-defending MLB forthcoming. I'm pretty confident that vs. the Skins isn't going to be his toughest challenge in that way. I hope he responds as you seem to think he is.

Diggs was ranked 14th last season in YAC among WRs. He had 419 YAC on 1,429 total receiving yards. 29.3% Only one of the WRs before him had a lower percentage, Hill, 28.2%. Diggs ranked 4th among WRs for YBC. He ranked 22nd among WRs for YBC/Recpt. Guess who ranked 1st among WRs in YBC/Recpt.? Diggs ranked 49th among WRs in Avg. Depth of Target when targeted. We weren't good with broken tackles. Diggs ranked 42nd among WRs. Our next best was Shakir at 74th.

He was. It was clear. Find the UTM running plays that he did well on? To start, there were only a couple. Two for large gains. I realize that living in fantasyland where a guy plays well against the pass means that he's been perfect all around, but that simply was not the case. I provided the time shots in the highlight video. Again, it's the UTM plays that I'm referring to, and sorry, but he did nothing on any of them. ... as the MLB. He'll have an opportunity to shine in that role on Sunday quite possibly. Let's hope he's better then than he was on Sunday or we're in trouble if the Fins run UTM often.

Snap Counts: Torrence & Brown 100% McGovern 93% Morse 88% Dawkins 87% That's great, so much better than past seasons. I'm eager to see how Allen's pocket play changes after 6-8 games like that. Not like our OL of Ballard, Wolford, Hull, Ritcher, but still solid. Torrence, I've gotta say, may be our best OL-man by the end of the season.