dave mcbride

Gronk was a significantly slower player in 2018 after a couple of ACL tears and the numbers bear it out. Edelman was a product of Brady — full stop.

Your legs are literally everything. The criticism of burrow right now is way more intense than the criticism of allen after his injury. Simply look around nfl coverage on the internet. You’re manufacturing an inaccurate narrative in the name of homer-dom.

The website that’s linked to is terrible.

Yet ... they beat a red-hot Mahomes-led offense (#1 over all in points and yards) in the AFC championship game two weeks before. And on the road. Plus they had the ultimate trump card: Tom Brady. Kincaid actually does end up blocking a lot of time. Beasley wasn't doing that. Kincaid is kind of a tweener, but he's still an actual TE with traditional TE responsibilities.

One other thing of note: the TEs have caught 24 balls this year, which puts them on pace for 102 receptions. In my long career as a Bills fan, the Bills' have never come close that reception production from that position. The closest I can recall was 73 catches in 1993. So this is a very different Buffalo Bills squad in an important way.

It's arguable -- and I'd in fact argue it -- that the 2018 Patriots had neither a #1 nor a #2 receiver. They had a slot receiver, an aging TE who had lost a step, a troubled former #1 who didn't last the season, and a bunch of jags. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/nwe/2018.htm

I hear you, but we have only played four games. I think they're gradually incorporating him into the offense by giving him a lot of early (and to be fair easy) successes. But he's too good at seam routes and getting open for that to remain under wraps for too long. At a certain point, I expect to see them expand his route tree through deeper routes.

Let's see where Kincaid is by the end of the season. I have a hunch they've cooked up some bigger plays for him that'll show up as the season progresses. He's on pace for 64 catches and has caught 15 of the 17 balls thrown his way. The success rate is 70.6 percent, which is really good. The ypc is low, but I don't expect that to stay static given what I know about his game. I expect we'll see him getting an increasing number of targets as we get into the second half of the season.

Yup. Passer rating differential is the king of all NFL stats.

Team passer rating differential is the most predictive stat (outside of actual points scored and given up!) in all of football: https://www.si.com/more-sports/2011/06/23/most-importantstatpasserratingdifferential. Right now, the Bills have a team passer rating of 106.7 and opponents' collective team passer rating is 66.4. It's a good stat despite not being perfect.

Yeah, and I have my issues with him, but the eye test in this case might be a little deceiving. His 66.7 catch rate and 18.3 ypc might mean we’re looking at an Alvin Harper ‘92 season. That said, early days. Long way to go.

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/D/DaviGa01.htm His success rate on passes thrown his way and his catch rate are significantly higher than in the past. Granted, it’s only a quarter of the season. I will never treat him as the second coming or as a 1A, but the deeper numbers indicate real improvement.

Hate to see this, but there is a reason they spent a first on a CB last year. Time for Elam to prove that he’s learned enough to play effectively in this system.

The problem is … he’s actually very likable!

My recollection from last season is that he never really recovered from that elbow injury, where the swelling made it look like he had a small mammal living inside of it. He got that injury in camp (August 3), and we were still seeing this in November: .

I’d hire him in Denver now. He can’t be any worse than Vance Joseph even though he’d be implementing a new scheme.

I sympathize in a way with Saleh, but wasn’t that a fairly obvious penalty? Gardner was all over him with both hands.

The Bengals o-line in 2021 was abjectly terrible and Burrow covered for them to the point where he almost won a Super Bowl.

Will the bills game next week be unavailable too? I don’t have espn+.

It’s free if you subscribe to the New York Times, just as an fyi.

Those two QBs aren't even remotely alike.

I was somehow unaware of this. It collapsed in July 2023 and it involves a bad (and badly run) new owner (Champion Gaming, based in Toronto) that didn't pay staff: https://awfulannouncing.com/nfl/football-outsiders-aaron-schatz-champion-gaming.html. All of the people who started the site 20 years ago left, including founder Aaron Schatz. Too bad.

Poyer ranked eighth overall in the entire NFL with regard to passer rating on balls thrown his way in 2022 -- 60.1. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2022/defense_advanced.htm

Are you suggesting Jones is auditioning for the person who pays his salary?

This is the fifth time Jones has done something like this. Here's the history, complete with videos: https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nfl/news/mac-jones-dirty-plays-timeline-patriots/mdhtlbuadezsf017gzqdogte