Zay Jones is Bills' most likely player to emerge on offense

[dayman]

Do or die season for Zay. We will see. Hope he arrives at long last. Hope conditions at least give him a chance. 

[ChevyVanMiller]

9 minutes ago, 3rdand12 said:

He was trending up last season.
he is no Bob Woods though..

see , now that is just cheap humor.
 

 but

begets the question ? how would you know  :  )

TMZ video, just like everyone else.

[BuffaloBill]

7 hours ago, NewCastleFanBills said:

Between Zay, Foster and Sills we may have to many good WRs and not enough spots.

 

 

Sills is a completely unproven UDFA -hard to believe that there is so much love for the guy here.

[3rdand12]

13 minutes ago, ChevyVanMiller said:

TMZ video, just like everyone else.

okay.
if you say so.

4 minutes ago, BuffaloBill said:

 

 

Sills is a completely unproven UDFA -hard to believe that there is so much love for the guy here.

Bills fans are always about the Underdog winning the fight.
why we liked Ray Ray and Foster

 why we root for Sweeney etc

 Go Bills

[Florida Bills Fanatic]

5 hours ago, MJS said:

I'd prefer investing more in Foster than in Zay Jones, but I think those two will be sharing snaps all season. Brown is the #1 and Beasley is the slot receiver. That leaves Jones and Foster sharing time opposite Brown.

 

Or I suppose they will rotate all three of Brown, Foster, and Jones and all three will get close to an equal share. Guess we'll see. I just think Foster and Brown provide more upside because they at least have elite speed and Foster has decent size too. Jones is just average in everything. He'll always have a job in the NFL, I think, but I don't see any upside.

You're probably right.  The Bills need four guys that can play.  I can't remember a season where at least one of the top receivers didn't get hurt and miss games.  Having receivers that can play both outside and in the slot helps that too.  I think a rotation early in the season will give the best guys the chance to emerge and prepare the others to replace injuries.

[LSHMEAB]

I think he is the most likely offensive player to break out. I also think that means virtually nothing.

 

Who else is gonna break out? Gore and McCoy are going to the Hall of Fame. They could have solid seasons, but not "break out."

 

At tight end, Kroft is never healthy and unlikely to be much of a receiver even when he's on the field. Knox is a candidate, but it's not likely a raw rookie will make a huge impact.

 

At receiver, Brown and Beasley have already established themselves. Robert Foster kind of broke out last season. He could emerge and solidify his role, but break out? McKenzie is a guy I like, but he's a limited gadget type. Zay obviously has some talent. He was a 2nd round pick and has put up numbers, albeit on a team that pretty much had to get him the ball. It would be an extremely pleasant surprise if Jones made a huge leap, but this "award" doesn't mean much. 

[NoSaint]

8 hours ago, RoyBatty is alive said:

Not it isnt, not at all.  100% correct.  

 

I dont have a great amount of hope in Zay's "emergence".

 

And what about this brilliant line from that blog, "Buffalo added John Brown and Cole Beasley to their receiving corps. It may cut down on his targets."

 

Seriously, it MAY cut down on targets to Zay?

 

Zay could still end up our number 1, honestly.

[Teddy KGB]

47 minutes ago, BuffaloBill said:

 

 

Sills is a completely unproven UDFA -hard to believe that there is so much love for the guy here.

 

Guy scored 33 touchdowns in his last two seasons.   

 

Ive got nothing but love for him and hope he sticks around for a long time 

[3rdand12]

8 minutes ago, Teddy KGB said:

 

Guy scored 33 touchdowns in his last two seasons.   

 

Ive got nothing but love for him and hope he sticks around for a long time 

ain't nuthin wrong with that

 Go Sills !

[Phil The Thrill]

9 hours ago, NewCastleFanBills said:

Between Zay, Foster and Sills we may have to many good WRs and not enough spots.

Sills will be watching from the practice squad

[BADOLBILZ]

2 hours ago, NoSaint said:

 

Zay could still end up our number 1, honestly.

 

 

I am hoping to be able to change his nickname from Drop-Zone to End-Zone.

 

If he does significantly elevate his game it will be as a Keenan Allen style WR.......a guy whose game is greater than the sum of his skills..........because the raw skills aren't special if he's not catching everything he gets a hand on.

[NoSaint]

14 minutes ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

I am hoping to be able to change his nickname from Drop-Zone to End-Zone.

 

If he does significantly elevate his game it will be as a Keenan Allen style WR.......a guy whose game is greater than the sum of his skills..........because the raw skills aren't special if he's not catching everything he gets a hand on.

 

Ill admit, it wasn’t an aggressive endorsement of him as much as the acknowledgment that Beasley certainly shouldn’t be #1, brown hasn’t reliably proven to be that guy and foster is a huge wildcard. 

 

As a generally well rounded guy that led the unit in snaps last year.... even if unspectacular the depth chart could easily be zay, brown, Beasley, Foster.... or darn near 100% the opposite without zay playing substantially different

Edited June 8, 2019 by NoSaint

[Mr. WEO]

5 hours ago, Rico said:

I'm hoping for something very right: Foster, Brown, and Zay turning out to be 3 stud WRs, then you play the 3 best & leave the gimmick player for a change of pace.

 

Jones is the gimmick in any offense.

4 hours ago, 3rdand12 said:

Sills ?

: )

core muscle surgery ?

 

 

BS surgery.  No reason he shouldn't be readynto go immediately.

[Orlando Buffalo]

Zay should get a huge boost in production from the fact he is no longer our "#1" reciever. he is not good enough to continually beat a top CB but he might be good enough to beat lesser CB all day long.

[OldTimeAFLGuy]

2 hours ago, Buffalo Timmy said:

Zay should get a huge boost in production from the fact he is no longer our "#1" reciever. he is not good enough to continually beat a top CB but he might be good enough to beat lesser CB all day long.

 

.....he has a golden opportunity to "put up or start packing"........."carpe diem" lad....your choice..........

[BigDingus]

I seriously believe Robert Foster will emerge into a bigger threat than Zay Jones ever will.

[Call_Of_Ktulu]

I think Zay Jones will struggle to make this roster. He is a very bad route runner and he struggles to get open, he is like the opposite of Hines Ward. When he does catch the football he looks unspectacular and slow, his mental understanding of offensive concepts seems slow. I think by removing Jones and Croom you improve the team at their respective positions.

[Ga boy]

21 hours ago, Flip Johnson said:

Good topic! I think Zay hasn't been discussed enough on this board.

I hope someone starts a thread with title "T.O. should be brought in to help Zay"!!

[Ronin]

13 hours ago, Phil The Thrill said:

Sills will be watching from the practice squad

 

Yet strangely, on a power-5 team Sills' stats dwarfed Jones' TD production was nearly three times was Jones' was in their Jr/Sr seasons.  35/13 TDs.  

 

Also, with Sills being a considerable reason as to why WVU was 7-6 & 8-4 in the Big 12 while Jones was largely a non-factor in helping EC win games in their 5-7 and 3-9 seasons, largely mopping up stats in garbage time and in 5-spread formations that aren't common in the NFL.  

 

If Jones does much more than he did last season, I'll be pretty surprised.  

 

Catch % Career:  

 

Beasley 70.9%

Foster 61.4%

Brown 50.2%

Jones 47.2%   

 

Sills was around 55% according to nfl.com's draft profile:  

• Just 55 percent of throws his way were completed

Otherwise, Jones' draft profile and Sills are comparable with the exception that Sills at least played against players that will be in the NFL.  

 

I'm far from convinced that this staff knows what to look for in WRs.  Here's the summary from Jones' profile at nfl.com, which I thought was favorable at the time, although the end-assessment I agreed with generally speaking;  

 

BOTTOM LINE

 Possesses high football character and a desire to push himself forward. Record-breaking receptions totals in 2016 were due more to scheme and excessive targets than separation ability or top-end speed. As a one-on-one receiver on the pro level, he will have to prove he has the speed and quickness to uncover against man coverage if he is to become more than just wide receiver depth.

 

The bolded was obvious from watching his highlight videos.  EC was usually playing from way behind in about half their games, garbage-time city.  The fact that our staff didn't manage to work that into their lofty calculations on Jones while making him their sole tenable WR prospect in four drafts now is worrisome to say the least.  

 

Beasley, Foster, and Brown will be the starters.  Again, an average bunch at best at the moment on paper.  The narrative on Brown, namely him being some great deep-threat WR doesn't match the reality of his 1/season TD catches of 30+ yards, only one of which has been in the past two seasons.  

 

As always, we'll see what happens. 

 

[Ronin]

33 minutes ago, Call_Of_Ktulu said:

I think Zay Jones will struggle to make this roster. He is a very bad route runner and he struggles to get open, he is like the opposite of Hines Ward. When he does catch the football he looks unspectacular and slow, his mental understanding of offensive concepts seems slow. I think by removing Jones and Croom you improve the team at their respective positions.

 

I agreed with this following last season, but given the team's refusal to address the WR position adequately, as I see it, with Jones having been the only WR that they've drafted now in four drafts in the first 5 rounds, and with Allen's progress and NFL status hanging in the balance it should be added, I'm not sure how they can afford to release him.  Which is telling.  

 

I mean Jones ranks among the absolute worst in the league in catch-% as you can see above, not even at 50% in two seasons.  He's scored TDs in only 7 games, 5 of which have been divisional games, with 4 against the Jets and Fins who've sucked, the other against the Pats in extreme garbage time down by 3 scores on one of the last plays of that futile game.  Only 3 have been in wins, two of which against Miami and the Jets, where needless to say, if we needed Jones to beat them, well, ...  

 

He won't start, at least not all season long, whether one of the other largely unknown commodity WRs beats him out for a depth spot remains to be seen.  Like many of us, I fully expected them to draft a WR in rounds 1-3, 2 or 3 anyway.  I have no idea what they're thinking.  This group of WRs, pending Foster's development, isn't even an average group on paper right now.  Same with the OL, it might be average, but it's not much more than that.  

 

I just don't think that they're supporting Allen anywhere near to the extent that they should have, or perhaps rather that what they have done while thinking that they did simply isn't going to cut it.  It's strange, because as Allen goes so too will Beane/McD go.  At least Whaley was smart enough to recognize that when he made that idiotic trade to draft up to get Watkins, he too simply didn't have a clue.  

 

We'll find out soon enough.  But seriously, for Brown, Beasley, and Jones, in 202 games with stats among them they've collectively posted a mere 8 100-yard games.  That translates to about one 100-yard game every 25 games among them, so based on that history, we should expect a 100-yard game from one of them every 8 games, or twice this season.  

 

In contrast, in 11 games last season with stats, only three as a starter, Foster put up three 100-yard games.  He had another of 94-yards, which best Jones' best game.  The questionable thing is that he only did that against the Jets (twice), Lions, and Jags, none of which were good teams, the Jets being particularly horrid.  Troubling is that in the other 7 games Foster had 24 targets, only 11 catches (45.8 catch %), for less than 19 ypg avg.  First time players often surprise as D's don't plan for/around them.  So we'll see how that develops.  

 

But as I see it, this team's passing game will go as Foster goes insofar as the WRs are concerned.  Beasley's a fine slot WR but he won't carry a team and doesn't play a WR position that Allen looks for first.  Brown's entirely overated and somewhere between a starter and depth player.  And Jones, as you indirectly imply, can only make the team due to the lack of viable WRs otherwise.  His salary is what's keeping him here.  He's cheap and therefore no-risk.  I mean WRs like him will be available at numerous points throughout the season on waivers.