Welborn9 Posted July 29, 2011 Posted July 29, 2011 Per Buffalo Rumblings "A year ago, after the Buffalo Bills made James Madison defensive end Arthur Moats a sixth-round pick, they moved him to inside linebacker during training camp. Moats looked horrific during the pre-season, was moved back to outside linebacker during the regular season, and by year's end was clearly the team's most promising pass rusher. Flash forward to this afternoon at St. John Fisher college. Mark Ludwiczak of CBSSports.com confirms that Chan Gailey and Buffalo's coaching staff are set to move Moats back to inside linebacker. This is one that I can't really wrap my mind around, folks. Perhaps the team is filling the pinch at inside linebacker, where they are admittedly woefully thin from a numbers standpoint at the moment. From that angle, I suppose it makes sense that they're using Moats as an extra body at the position until they can find more reinforcements. Here's the thing, though: there are a bunch of other young linebackers they can use in that capacity, and unless the Bills are willing to put all of their eggs in Shawne Merriman's basket - apparently, they are - Moats is going to be a highly important player to this team as a pass rusher. He needs every snap he can get outside. From that far more important angle, I don't get this decision - even if it's short-lived." I DONT LIKE THIS AT ALL!
BEAST MODE BABY! Posted July 30, 2011 Posted July 30, 2011 Me either. Hopefully it's a short-lived situation and we pick up someone like Channing Crowder.
Welborn9 Posted July 30, 2011 Author Posted July 30, 2011 Per Buddy Nix.....Torbor is Poz's replacement.
eschej13 Posted July 30, 2011 Posted July 30, 2011 If its camp, what do they have to lose. He's been exposed to the position, maybe you catch lightning in a bottle.
rpcolosi Posted July 30, 2011 Posted July 30, 2011 buddy's words per BB.com “The three young guys (we’ve got) are our two drafted guys, Chris White, (Kelvin) Sheppard and we’re working Moats in there right now,” said Nix. ”I wouldn’t want to take snaps away from them. I think they progress along with our team. We’re pretty young anyway and we’ll kind of move forward. We know they have the ability it’s just a matter of getting them up to speed.” Moats began his rookie year at inside linebacker in the spring workouts before moving outside come training camp where he had a decent rookie season. Now Moats is back inside and Nix indicated that wouldn’t be changing unless he really struggled. “We’ll give him some work in there and see how he’s doing,” Nix said. ”If we were to move him, it’d probably be to move him permanently to the outside.” Obviously this is a numbers game. They want their best players on the fieldan d with Merriman/Kelsay set at OLB, they think Moats can probably unseat Torbor inside. If he can't, he goes back to riding hte pine until Merriman gets hurt again on the outside. In addition, I dont get what Batten isn't working at ILB. I'd rather see him there and Coleman/Moats at OLB.
Mark Long Beach Posted July 30, 2011 Posted July 30, 2011 Obviously this is a numbers game. They want their best players on the fieldan d with Merriman/Kelsay set at OLB, they think Moats can probably unseat Torbor inside. If he can't, he goes back to riding hte pine until Merriman gets hurt again on the outside. In addition, I dont get what Batten isn't working at ILB. I'd rather see him there and Coleman/Moats at OLB. Summed up rather well.
Welborn9 Posted July 30, 2011 Author Posted July 30, 2011 Moats needs to be at OLB....Period! The pass rush we got last year (if you call that a pass rush) came from Moats. Year two is where the biggest strides are made. Why start from scratch at a position he clearly could not play because he tried that last year.
Ghost of Rob Johnson Posted July 30, 2011 Posted July 30, 2011 (edited) They're probably hurting for camp bodies at ILB as well, as opposed to having a pretty deep roster at OLB. Wouldn't be surprised if he works at both until the sign someone or the season starts. Edited July 30, 2011 by Ghost of Rob Johnson
Mopreme Posted July 30, 2011 Posted July 30, 2011 They're probably hurting for camp bodies at ILB as well, as opposed to having a pretty deep roster at OLB. Wouldn't be surprised if he works at both until the sign someone or the season starts. Move Maybin to ILB, he can't be much worst than at DE or OLB.
Cash Posted July 30, 2011 Posted July 30, 2011 It's stories like these that sap all of my optimism. Moats is an edge rusher. That was patently obvious last year. He is not an ILB. Us fans could see that plain as day, so why couldn't the coaches? Kelsay is very bad at playing linebacker. Moats should be starting ahead of him.
Welborn9 Posted July 30, 2011 Author Posted July 30, 2011 It's stories like these that sap all of my optimism. Moats is an edge rusher. That was patently obvious last year. He is not an ILB. Us fans could see that plain as day, so why couldn't the coaches? Kelsay is very bad at playing linebacker. Moats should be starting ahead of him. EXACTLY!!!
ExWNYer Posted July 30, 2011 Posted July 30, 2011 They're probably hurting for camp bodies at ILB as well, as opposed to having a pretty deep roster at OLB. Wouldn't be surprised if he works at both until the sign someone or the season starts. Good point...can't hurt to get him some exposure there either in case there's an emergency inside this season.
Welborn9 Posted July 30, 2011 Author Posted July 30, 2011 Good point...can't hurt to get him some exposure there either in case there's an emergency inside this season. "Now Moats is back inside and Nix indicated that wouldn’t be changing unless he really struggled" So there will be no working both. Also....if he started at ILB last year and was bad ,how after playing the entire season at OLB and no OTA's at ILB do you expect him to play well? Not doing much in FA im used to...but @#$%!@ up the players you already have is something different.
bills_red Posted July 30, 2011 Posted July 30, 2011 It's stories like these that sap all of my optimism. Moats is an edge rusher. That was patently obvious last year. He is not an ILB. Us fans could see that plain as day, so why couldn't the coaches? Kelsay is very bad at playing linebacker. Moats should be starting ahead of him. thanks for saving me the time to type all that!
bearc012 Posted July 30, 2011 Posted July 30, 2011 I don't get it. Moats might be the closest thing to a proven commodity we have on our defense outside of Kyle Williams and maybe a couple guys in the secondary. He's certainly one of the brightest reasons for optimism. Much of us think he was our best linebacker last season. Even if he is taking reps on a contingency basis as the front office looks for a replacement for Poz, it doesn't make sense to have him play inside at any point of the season.
coldstorage5 Posted July 30, 2011 Posted July 30, 2011 (edited) I loved Poz at PS.. Was so happy when we drafted him. But he never lived up to the hype. He got hurt, was allways blocked. He wasnt that good. If Moats taked some reps there in JULY, so what. Moats will be playing somewhere on our D. Id rather we resign our good players, than the proven average ones. Edited July 30, 2011 by coldstorage5
Welborn9 Posted July 30, 2011 Author Posted July 30, 2011 I loved Poz at PS.. Was so happy when we drafted him. But he never lived up to the hype. He got hurt, was allways blocked. He wasnt that good. If Moats taked some reps there in JULY, so what. Moats will be playing somewhere on our D. Id rather we resign our good players, than the proven average ones. Moats started camp at ILB last year and sucked! Thats why he got moves...He is not a lateral guy...he is a Passss RUSHER...straight ahead. He played DE at James madison and won Defensive player of the year 1-AA. Thats what he does. At this point any amount of reps at ILB is counter productive.
....lybob Posted July 30, 2011 Posted July 30, 2011 I hope the Bills go after Manny Lawson - he and I know it's shocking to Bills fans is a LB who can actually cover TEs and RBs- Merriman, Shepard, Moats, Lawson would give the Bills the best Team Speed and Size we have had at LB in a long time.
bearc012 Posted July 30, 2011 Posted July 30, 2011 Moats' best skill is rushing the passer, why put him at a position where he won't be able to utilize his strength. Might as well give him reps at punter.
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