Time for Tyler Kroft to step up EDIT: He Did!!!

[Freddie's Dead]

I don't think Josh looks at Pufnstuf.  On the Gilliam TD last week, Kroft is wide open behind and to the left of Gilliam.  Josh picked the harder throw to a covered Gilliam.

 

Edited September 26, 2020 by Freddie's Dead

[3rdand12]

6 hours ago, Inigo Montoya said:

Kroft restructured his contract earlier this year and is essentially on the last year of a two year $10.5 million contract that is fully guaranteed.  Since he arrived in Buffalo at the beginning of the 2019 season he has had 6 catches for 71 yards and 1 TD.  You can do the math about how much money that is per catch.  He has battled injuries and has had limited availability.  Beane brought him in because he flashed some pass catching skill in Cincinnati in the 2017 season before being injured there.

 

Kroft is healthy right now, and with Knox and Sweeney out, he is the Bills' primary pass catching TE.  This game on Sunday has all the looks of a shootout, especially if we don't get both Edmunds and Milano back on the field.   The Rams' defense is going to be focused on Diggs, Smoke, and Beasley and Kroft could end up being Daboll's sneaky X factor in the game plan.  One thing is certain though, with Knox out, now is time for Tyler Kroft to finally step up and justify that contract.  

He owes us.

6 hours ago, Fan in Chicago said:

To be a "primary pass catching" TE, he has to be on the field and actually catch passes

I find you to be overly critical.............

6 hours ago, bobobonators said:

I completely agree. Im confident that as long as MCD is the coach our defense will be decent even with average talent. We have the chiefs and ravens in our conference. We need to be able to score 30-35pts when we play those teams in the playoffs. Looks like theyre going to be around a few years with those QB’s. Maybe even the next decade. 
 

Josh is showing us hes the man. We have the RB’s. We have WR. Build the OL more and get him another big weapon at TE. 

we need the Ravens TEs from last season all 3 of them

[Hapless Bills Fan]

6 minutes ago, 3rdand12 said:

we need the Ravens TEs from last season all 3 of them

 

Ravens are not giving any of them up

[Rc2catch]

I think as fans our expectations of Kroft have always been too high. 
We overpaid in case we didn’t get tight ends in the draft. Obviously just my opinion but I always thought he was just an expensive backup plan cause we had so much cap space. 
I watched a lot of Kroft his one good year in Cincy, he’s not a weapon. He’s a check down. 
He was extremely reliable for dalton in the 5-10 yard range as a check down receiver. He has size and works good in short range. I have always wondered why he hasn’t seen more red zone snaps with us just based on size alone. Knox is a mismatch across the field who has to be accounted for even if not targeted. Kroft though is going to chip block and be wide open in the 4-5 yard range probably all game long if he’s out there. Rather Allen uses him or not is anyone’s guess. 

[3rdand12]

3 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

Ravens are not giving any of them up

Beanes has majic powers y'know.
 

 I like Sweeney and hold great hope for Knox yet still.
Bills would do well to fortify at TE position asap. Ala the draft and FA.
Just a position that needs consistency from the #1 and 2.
also have some hope for the Hybrid Kid  I think he might have something worth development.
 

Go Krofty !

[Hapless Bills Fan]

3 hours ago, LABILLBACKER said:

Laura Kroft is a walking injury. Terrible signing and basically worthless. I'd rather put 10 lbs on Duke and teach him the TE position than waste anymore time with the tomb raider.

 

Lara Croft, Tomb Raider, is renowned for her derring-do, butt kicking, and  just general Bad-Assery.   I get the name-based play-on-words, but she's probably a poor choice  for someone you describe as a "walking injury", unless you're speaking of someone who causes them.

 

Which Tyler Kroft isn't, as far as I can tell. 

 

I looked it up - he was on the field for 50% (!!!!) of the offensive snaps last week and ~50% of the ST snaps so far this season. 

And yet I can barely remember seeing him.  He's like the Invisible Man

 

 

[The Firebaugh Kid]

1,750,000 per catch? 

1,750,000 per catch? 

1,750,000 per catch? 

1,750,000 per catch? 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

4 minutes ago, Rc2catch said:

I think as fans our expectations of Kroft have always been too high. 
We overpaid in case we didn’t get tight ends in the draft. Obviously just my opinion but I always thought he was just an expensive backup plan cause we had so much cap space. 
I watched a lot of Kroft his one good year in Cincy, he’s not a weapon. He’s a check down. 
He was extremely reliable for dalton in the 5-10 yard range as a check down receiver. He has size and works good in short range. I have always wondered why he hasn’t seen more red zone snaps with us just based on size alone. Knox is a mismatch across the field who has to be accounted for even if not targeted. Kroft though is going to chip block and be wide open in the 4-5 yard range probably all game long if he’s out there. Rather Allen uses him or not is anyone’s guess. 

 

Well....Allen was blind to the check-down last year.  But it seems to me a reliable pass catching outlet who is "always open" 'cuz he's so tall, in the 5-10 yd range is pretty much just what we need, especially against a fierce pass rush or QB pressure.

 

I don't think anyone pays out the contract Kroft got to be a "back up plan", and certainly not Mr. Beane.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

1 hour ago, Freddie's Dead said:

I don't think Josh looks at Pufnstuf.  On the Gilliam TD last week, Kroft is wide open behind and to the left of Gilliam.  Josh picked the harder throw to a covered Gilliam.

 

I saw that too.  I think, at the point where Josh decided to throw, he had a clear window to Gilliam but a LB in position to batt the ball down between him and Kroft.

 

It can be argued that means Josh has more trust/chemistry with Gilliam that he will surge or dive to make the contested throw, but I think it mostly means he had a clear throwing lane to Gilliam. 

 

Knox was arguably open enough for a contested catch at the R side of the EZ but again, there was a DB between Josh and Knox who could potentially have made a play on the ball.

 

OK...I watched that play again - Josh had that window because of a SICK block by Moss.  Just upended a guy.  So I think it may have been designed to go to Gilliam.

 

 

[Rc2catch]

29 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

Well....Allen was blind to the check-down last year.  But it seems to me a reliable pass catching outlet who is "always open" 'cuz he's so tall, in the 5-10 yd range is pretty much just what we need, especially against a fierce pass rush or QB pressure.

 

I don't think anyone pays out the contract Kroft got to be a "back up plan", and certainly not Mr. Beane.

I’m sure they saw some potential when they signed him, but I always figured it was just to make sure they had someone signed before the draft in case they struck out. Had Kroft not been hurt Knox might of sat for awhile before seeing the field 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

24 minutes ago, Rc2catch said:

I’m sure they saw some potential when they signed him, but I always figured it was just to make sure they had someone signed before the draft in case they struck out. Had Kroft not been hurt Knox might of sat for awhile before seeing the field 

 

I'm sure you're quite correct that if Kroft hadn't been hurt, neither Knox nor Sweeney would have seen the field.

 

But I'm pretty sure they thought of Kroft as the incumbent starter that allowed them to take a shot at a physically talented but raw, inexperienced Knox - because he wasn't expected to start, he could sit behind the guy they signed.  Now your point may be they didn't see "star" potential in Kroft, and that's probably true - but I think they saw him as a solid, capable NFL-talent starter who could serve as that big reliable pass-catching checkdown target for their new QB and be in on every down because he can block.  They were paying him way too much money to not be pencilled in to start..

[CircleTheWagons99]

I forgot he was on the team. 

[John from Riverside]

I would love it but I am not counting on it

 

I will be satisfied if he can just gt his blocks so our running game gets on track

[Rc2catch]

15 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

I'm sure you're quite correct that if Kroft hadn't been hurt, neither Knox nor Sweeney would have seen the field.

 

But I'm pretty sure they thought of Kroft as the incumbent starter that allowed them to take a shot at a physically talented but raw, inexperienced Knox - because he wasn't expected to start, he could sit behind the guy they signed.  Now your point may be they didn't see "star" potential in Kroft, and that's probably true - but I think they saw him as a solid, capable NFL-talent starter who could serve as that big reliable pass-catching checkdown target for their new QB and be in on every down because he can block.  They were paying him way too much money to not be pencilled in to start..

I’ve been a big Kroft supporter since he’s been here. We’ve never really seen him play. I hope he’s featured a little for this Ram game 

[LABILLBACKER]

1 hour ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

Lara Croft, Tomb Raider, is renowned for her derring-do, butt kicking, and  just general Bad-Assery.   I get the name-based play-on-words, but she's probably a poor choice  for someone you describe as a "walking injury", unless you're speaking of someone who causes them.

 

Which Tyler Kroft isn't, as far as I can tell. 

 

I looked it up - he was on the field for 50% (!!!!) of the offensive snaps last week and ~50% of the ST snaps so far this season. 

And yet I can barely remember seeing him.  He's like the Invisible Man

 

 

Yeah, you were probably just staring at Angelina's rack.

[brianthomas]

8 hours ago, Real McNasty said:

Agree with all, for all you Fantasy Football freaks he is a real good sneaky play this weak if hurting at that position.

Nobody & i mean nobody should be hurting that much

There's plenty of good TE's out there... more than i can remember in recent years. Picking up Kroft on ur FF team is like picking up Croom

Theres much better options out there.

Dalton Schultz, Logan Thomas, Jordan Reed, Mo Alie Cox just to name a few, but we could list 20 other names better than Kroft this week.

All that being said, as a Bills fan i hope Kroft puts up 3 tds & 150 yards... but thats not likely to happen. One foot at a time with Kroft, which also describes his injury history.

[billybrew1]

9 hours ago, bobobonators said:

2021 is setting up to potentially be a good draft for TE with a couple worthy of going in the 1st round/early 2nd
 

i would love to see Kolar or Freirermuth in a Bills uniform

 

Allen is showing he is the franchise. Its time to keep adding tools to his toolbox - continue adding talent to the OL to protect him and pass catching weapons. Those two positions should be our focus rounds 1/2, then we can get a LB or CB rounds 3/4

I’m with you 100%. If we can get a great two-way TE, go get him. If Knox turns out great we’ll have two.

[Nuncha]

Who?

[billybrew1]

1 hour ago, Rc2catch said:

I’ve been a big Kroft supporter since he’s been here. We’ve never really seen him play. I hope he’s featured a little for this Ram game 

He played about 30 snaps last week if I remember correctly, he helped block on a few of those longer runs by Singletary and Moss. I hope we go to him Sunday, I really do. I like him to at least get targeted for a TD tomorrow. I think he’ll catch it. He’s big, tall, a very good blocker and athletic for someone that size, I hope we go to him but the problem has been he blocks too well. We don’t have an over abundance of good blocking skill players, so.... We have him block.

[Real McClappy]

33 minutes ago, brianthomas said:

Nobody & i mean nobody should be hurting that much

There's plenty of good TE's out there... more than i can remember in recent years. Picking up Kroft on ur FF team is like picking up Croom

Theres much better options out there.

Dalton Schultz, Logan Thomas, Jordan Reed, Mo Alie Cox just to name a few, but we could list 20 other names better than Kroft this week.

All that being said, as a Bills fan i hope Kroft puts up 3 tds & 150 yards... but thats not likely to happen. One foot at a time with Kroft, which also describes his injury history.

We will see Brian