The missing offensive weapon is TE

[Over 29 years of fanhood]

5 minutes ago, WideNine said:

Miami is having a fire sale down there - Gesicki did not look too shabby - seriously though pretty sure he is not going anywhere.

 

It is a bit early to give up on Knox or Sweeney, but we do need those reliable hands and Daboll has schemed him open so many times for the drive-killing drop. He has made some great catches too, but needs to be a more consistent target.

 

He has a ways to go as a route runner too, but have to remember that Ol' Miss did not really have much of a passing tree for their TEs. 

The Guy caught some seriously aweful Fitz balls

26 minutes ago, BillsRdue said:

when he actually starts catching passes that bounce off his hands and chest

wtf happened to him... he just disappeared

 

A few times times early on he blew some blocking assignments and ran wrong routes. Guessing injury or not he’s almost off of last chances to fix that stuff

[Ethan in Cleveland]

No tight end in the history of the franchise has made the ProBowl.   It's not like they have't tried. They drafted Tony Hunter ahead of Jim Kelly.  They tried to trade for Tony Gonzalez when he still had several ProBowl years left in him.  They had a top prospect nearly paralyzed on a kickoff. 

Knox has made some acrobatic catches that rarely have been seen in Buffalo by a TE.  He doesn't have elite speed or elite size, but neither do Kelce, Witten, or Ertz.  He has just enough size and speed to be a great TE if given more time.

I've posted many times that a healthy Kroft paired with Knox could be very difficult to defend giving Daboll run or pass options with multiple formations from a single personnel grouping.  

I also made no secret that I wanted Hockenson or Fant(with a trade down) in the draft over all other players except Josh Allen, OLB.  Hockenson is 13th in catches and yards for TE's but Knox has more than 2.5 YPC more than Hockenson.  If Knox had a few more catches he would be one of the league leaders in YPC.  

 

[Augie]

2 hours ago, Johnny Hammersticks said:

Personally, I think we’re pretty well set at TE.  

 

I’m trying to think of a position where we are better set....any suggestions?  

[Nelius]

Yeah I think we're okay too, TE is such a weak position around the league this year. All numbers are down, I think Kelce has 1 TD right now? Darren Waller looks like a freak but outside of him, Knox is one of the more interesting young TE's right now and I'm cool with seeing what he could do. Could be worse, we could be trotting out Luke Willson, or Ricky Seals-Jones, or Jared Cook, or one of the numerous slow, bad TE's that have seemingly been in the league for like a decade now, at least we have some youth at the position.

 

All that said I wouldn't hate OJ Howard. This team just needs another playmaker in general, I'm open to what position it is.

[Yav]

The missing offensive weapon is Von Miller

[Vod Kanockers]

I’d love to see Smoke, Foster, and Knox on the field at the same time. Pick your poison...add in Beasley in the slot.. oh, man... ??

[Thurman#1]

3 hours ago, hemma said:

 

At least 1 Service reports it as 6, which is the most drops in the league and that is with only 23 attempts. 

Think about that. 

12 catches, 6 drops + 5 other, meaning that he catches very catchable balls only 2 out of 3 times.

 

Add that to 3 penalties, Kroft being back and to me, it looks to be time to send him back to Phase 1 of the process.

Make him inactive and give Sweeney a swing at success.

 

 

NBC Sports has him with two.

https://scores.nbcsports.com/fb/leaders.asp?type=Receiving&range=NFL&rank=232

 

STATS has the Bills with a total of six from all players.

http://hosted.stats.com/fb/tmleaders.asp?type=Receiving&range=NFL&rank=232

 

... with Knox with two.

http://hosted.stats.com/fb/leaders.asp?type=Receiving&range=NFL&rank=232

 

The Washington Post has him with two.

http://stats.washingtonpost.com/fb/leaders.asp?range=NFL&rank=232&type=Receiving

 

Fox Sports appears to be the one you refer to, as they have him with six.

 

But it's not all that clear. They appear to be a distant outlier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[hemma]

5 hours ago, Thurman#1 said:

 

 

NBC Sports has him with two.

https://scores.nbcsports.com/fb/leaders.asp?type=Receiving&range=NFL&rank=232

 

STATS has the Bills with a total of six from all players.

http://hosted.stats.com/fb/tmleaders.asp?type=Receiving&range=NFL&rank=232

 

... with Knox with two.

http://hosted.stats.com/fb/leaders.asp?type=Receiving&range=NFL&rank=232

 

The Washington Post has him with two.

http://stats.washingtonpost.com/fb/leaders.asp?range=NFL&rank=232&type=Receiving

 

Fox Sports appears to be the one you refer to, as they have him with six.

 

But it's not all that clear. They appear to be a distant outlier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I looked in the source code for these pages and they all appear to be using (probably paying for) the same code (stats) from stats.com.

 

I looked in fox sports code to see where they are getting their #'s, but it is a little thick of a read for me. 

Probably a poster here somewhere that writes code would be able to figure it out.

 

So anyway, there are likely 2 different services in play, not a bunch.  Based on my feeble memory, I think Fox's numbers look more accurate.... 6 vs 2.

 

 

[Todd Allan]

9 hours ago, Augie said:

 

I’m trying to think of a position where we are better set....any suggestions?  

 

DB?

[Hapless Bills Fan]

11 hours ago, Sunshower said:

Knox will be that guy.

 

Only if he hits the Juggs more

[Augie]

1 hour ago, ToddAllan said:

 

DB?

 

Tough game for Levi, so maybe CB. But they do seem to be easy for this FO to find! 

[wppete]

12 hours ago, atlbillsfan1975 said:

Let Kroft get acclimated and Knox hopefully will settle down and make the easy catches like he makes the difficult ones. 

Kroft really is the best all around TE on the roster when healthy. It appears he is healthy now and hopefully get some worked into the game plan more this week and moving forward. 

I think if Kroft and Knox pick up their games we are going to be ok. 

[Not at the table Karlos]

12 hours ago, hemma said:

 

At least 1 Service reports it as 6, which is the most drops in the league and that is with only 23 attempts. 

Think about that. 

12 catches, 6 drops + 5 other, meaning that he catches very catchable balls only 2 out of 3 times.

 

Add that to 3 penalties, Kroft being back and to me, it looks to be time to send him back to Phase 1 of the process.

Make him inactive and give Sweeney a swing at success.

He’s been dropping balls too

[Buffalo_Stampede]

9 hours ago, Vod Kanockers said:

I’d love to see Smoke, Foster, and Knox on the field at the same time. Pick your poison...add in Beasley in the slot.. oh, man... ??

Foster is such a great fit for Allen. I don't understand why he fell down the depth chart so far. 

 

Duke should be a redzone threat. Foster should be starting opposite Brown. It will open up the offense.

Edited October 23, 2019 by Buffalo_Stampede

[TheBeaneBandit]

1 minute ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

Foster is such a great fit for Allen. I don't understand why he fell down the depth chart so far. 

Im starting to think he just isnt a guy who is committed to working on his craft to being a pro. Just speculating but it makes the most sense right now.

[Mr. WEO]

Sweeney needs to get in there.  He’s the pass catcher.  Knox can be the new Lee Smith

[Call_Of_Ktulu]

Rookie TE’s take time to develop.

 

We have no offensive player that demands a double team.

 

No team is worried about Gore taking it to the house.

 

The priority in the Draft and FA should be to get Allen a elite offensive weapon and constantly improve the starters and depth on the O-Line.

Edited October 23, 2019 by Call_Of_Ktulu

[dave mcbride]

12 hours ago, WideNine said:

Miami is having a fire sale down there - Gesicki did not look too shabby - seriously though pretty sure he is not going anywhere.

 

It is a bit early to give up on Knox or Sweeney, but we do need those reliable hands and Daboll has schemed him open so many times for the drive-killing drop. He has made some great catches too, but needs to be a more consistent target.

 

He has a ways to go as a route runner too, but have to remember that Ol' Miss did not really have much of a passing tree for their TEs. 

Gesicki is part of their future, not their past. He's one of the guys they've gotta build around.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

12 hours ago, Bangarang said:

Lee as in Lee Smith? He doesn’t belong on that list. You aren’t signing that guy to be a threat in the passing game.

 

Agreed.  And yet, he does have 3 pass receptions on 4 targets, including a TD - the latter because the Bills exploited that very assumption

 

20 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said:

Sweeney needs to get in there.  He’s the pass catcher.  Knox can be the new Lee Smith

 

And yet, in his 5 active games, Sweeney has 3 catches on 8 targets.  That's the same number of catches as Lee Smith, on 2x the targets.

37.5% catch % is not promising support for this point of view.   That's Zay Jones territory.

 

Even Knox is doing better.

 

[Mr. WEO]

4 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

Agreed.  And yet, he does have 3 pass receptions on 4 targets, including a TD - the latter because the Bills exploited that very assumption

 

 

And yet, in his 5 active games, Sweeney has 3 catches on 8 targets.  That's the same number of catches as Lee Smith, on 2x the targets.

37.5% catch % is not promising support for this point of view.   That's Zay Jones territory.

 

Even Knox is doing better.

 

 

 

The simple solution is throw him more balls---or at least play him and cut that ridiculous Kroft pickup.

 

Knox was never a receiver....anywhere except maybe a bit in HS.  He came out of college way too soon.  Sweeney played 4 years, was used as a receiver at BC.

 

If they both turn out as solid receivers, that's great.  But just tossing Knox out there to find out if he's any good at catching footballs in games isn't a solid TE plan.