Is Singletary Daboll’s secret weapon?

[LABILLBACKER]

3 hours ago, Ethan in Portland said:

I think he is a rookie from a small school. He is being brought along slowly with purpose.  He has never been hit by guys with the size and speed of the NFL. So far his pass blocking seems fine, but that could be a worry too.  Lastly there is the rookie wall so a few less touches now may mean more in Dec and Jan. Stay the course and get him more touches as the season progresses.

Its one thing to protect him or bring him in late as a "secret weapon", but 6 touches is just stupid.  He probably tightened up from standing on the sidelines so much yesterday.  All I know is if you were smart enough to draft a talented RB, then for gods sake use him.....

[Numark3]

30 minutes ago, Inigo Montoya said:

 

Playing the Pats is like a playoff game for this franchise and being able to even split the season series with them would be huge and give us a chance to win the division out right and not need a wild card to make the playoffs.

 

Maybe for the fans it is...

 

30 minutes ago, Inigo Montoya said:

If the Pats and the Bills both sweep the Jets and Phins it’s not an overstatement to say week 4 at New Era has significant playoff implications.  Do you think Daboll and McDermott haven’t thought of that?

 

Sure

 

 

30 minutes ago, Inigo Montoya said:

Maybe you have a better explanation for why you don’t let someone touch the ball who is averaging 17+ yards per carry.  Daboll isn’t stupid, he knows how important week 4 is for this team.

 

Yes, a player is being misused.  It has happened thousands of times in sports.  Do you have theories of why Tolbert was overused?  Why Freddy Jackson wasn’t given a chance for awhile.  Why spiller was underused?

 

30 minutes ago, Inigo Montoya said:

If keeping Singletary under wraps for the first three games gives them an advantage against the Pats I think that’s exactly something that Daboll would do.

 

 

Think about what you’re saying.  It is ridiculous, I’m sorry.  Maybe there are packages or plays you don’t run to keep that under wraps, but not letting a running back touch the ball at all for three weeks for the purpose of surprising a week 4 game is wildly outrageous.

[Dan]

There's no doubt that Daboll and McD ..and the players.. know what the gane against NE means to this franchise.  I also think we finally have an OC that understands that you need to be aware of your tendencies and what you put on tape for other teams to see.  Are they purposely holding Singletary in check?  I don't know.  But, I do hope they're developing game plans and plays to set up other schemes based on future teams we'll play, in particular the cheaters.  

 

The players need to take it one game at a time.  But the coaching staff need to be thinking about the season as a whole.  I feel like the offensive game plan for the Giants was very different than what we saw against the Jets.  Hopefully, we see an entirely different plan next week as well.  

[1ManRaid]

Kind of reminds me of when everyone was complaining Jackson was starting, because Spiller was getting huge yards in his limited touches.  But then when Spiller had to carry the load his production dropped off a cliff.  Not saying that will happen with DS but let them ease the small school rookie into it.

 

Also I object to the idea that we're going to surprise the Pats with 30+ touches of DS running wild on them.  I'm pretty sure BILL FREAKING BELICHICK is not going to get caught sleeping like that for an entire game.  He'll make adjustments like we did against Barkley after the first touchdown.

[Buffalo716]

I think he's just getting the smart approach

 

Alvin Kamara didn't get crazy amount of touches early in his rookie season..  the veteran Ingram took the load for the most part

 

Second half of games and the second half of the season when teams were wore down , Sean Peyton unleashed Kamara

 

Singletary is already good but he looks elite when he goes in vs tired defenses

[Buffalo_Stampede]

They're obviously easing him in as a between the tackles RB. Remember he's not big. I don't think the Bills want to pound him between the tackles 15-20 times a game. They're showing confidence in him though by making him the passing down RB over Yeldon. So they trust him.

[Buffalo716]

3 hours ago, mjt328 said:

 

Agree with this.  

 

The last two years, we've seen a lot of rookies getting tons of snaps.  But that was out of necessity, because our roster had very little depth.

I think McDermott prefers easing his younger players into the lineup gradually.  You will see that Ed Oliver and Cody Ford are both splitting reps.

 

Don't forget the importance that our coaches also place on blocking and ball security.  

Not to say that Singletary struggles in those areas, but there is also a confidence when rolling with a vet like Gore.

 

Every single person on our Dline is playing in a rotation.

 

Pretty much Every other drive McDermott rotates the Dline to keep them fresh

[1ManRaid]

46 minutes ago, LABILLBACKER said:

Its one thing to protect him or bring him in late as a "secret weapon", but 6 touches is just stupid.  He probably tightened up from standing on the sidelines so much yesterday.  All I know is if you were smart enough to draft a talented RB, then for gods sake use him.....

You don't think they have ways of keeping players loose on the sidelines, literally just standing around doing nothing?  No bikes, or other exercises to keep them warm?

 

Then there is the difference between talent and skill.  He may have a lot of raw innate talent, but maybe they feel his learned skills need to be developed.  Maybe with a season of practice he won't juke himself out of a touchdown like he did against the Jets. 

[nucci]

1 hour ago, Sunshower said:

You wanna know what I think it is? I think they’re simply wearing down the defense with Gore and inserting Singletary in after the D is all worn down.

The D is worn down in the 2nd Qtr?

[1ManRaid]

8 minutes ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

They're obviously easing him in as a between the tackles RB. Remember he's not big. I don't think the Bills want to pound him between the tackles 15-20 times a game. They're showing confidence in him though by making him the passing down RB over Yeldon. So they trust him.

He wasn't listed among the 10 different receivers who got targets against the Giants, which was kind of weird to see.  Even the FB got a target.

[VW82]

31 minutes ago, 1ManRaid said:

Kind of reminds me of when everyone was complaining Jackson was starting, because Spiller was getting huge yards in his limited touches.  But then when Spiller had to carry the load his production dropped off a cliff.  Not saying that will happen with DS but let them ease the small school rookie into it.

 

Also I object to the idea that we're going to surprise the Pats with 30+ touches of DS running wild on them.  I'm pretty sure BILL FREAKING BELICHICK is not going to get caught sleeping like that for an entire game.  He'll make adjustments like we did against Barkley after the first touchdown.

 

This is a pretty close analogy. A good all around starter (Jackson, Gore) and a specialist (Spiller, Singletary) that performs well behind him in a limited role which only puts him positions to succeed. 

 

We ran 30 passing plays vs 34 running plays (7 of which were Allen rushes and many of those were scrambles on passing downs). In week one the split was 37 passes vs. 25 rushes (includng 10 Allen rushes/scrambles). I think people really underrate how important pass protection is at the running back position, and more specifically the knowledge of when to pass protect vs. when to present yourself as a target in the passing game, and the ability to run good routes while doing so. Frank Gore is excellent in the passing game; Jackson was too. Spiller was below average and it looks like Singletary might be as well. Clearly the coaching staff thinks so otherwise he'd be out there getting more touches instead of being limited to a change of pace, exclusive running down type back just like CJ was for us initially.  

[Thurman#1]

5 hours ago, Gugny said:

 

They've won, collectively, 76-3 in two games.  That defines dominant.

 

 

Unfortunately, yeah.

 

And as for the OP, no, Singletary's not a secret weapon. But he's a fine weapon and should cause problems. They've seen him catch a pass or two, and they know screen passes and that RBs who can catch can be thrown them.

 

Are they keeping some plays under wraps and only showing them as the season goes along and those plays are part of the game plan? Yeah, sure.

[GreggTX]

I doubt anyone in the organization is deliberately holding anyone back, much less Singltary. I too wonder why they don't give him a lot more touches. It's a mistake that I hope gets corrected soon.