Thought experiment

[CoudyBills]

2 hours ago, Shaw66 said:

I'm interested in this.  I get that Kelce's performance is a huge upgrade over Knox's performance, but why is that?   Except for perhaps his brains, I don't see the difference.   I mean, Kelce's a little bigger and maybe is a little better blocker, but that's not why Kelce is so much more valuable.   Kelce isn't some superstar at getting separation - you watch his routes, and besides making good reads, he just isn't a guy who leaves defenders in his dust. 

 

I think it's scheme.   I don't know what the Chiefs do, but I think they really take advantage of the fact that Hill gets doubled a lot.   I think their scheme is to put a lot of additional speed on the field, forcing the defenses to respect deep threats on every play, besides Hill, and forcing them to respect their speed out of the backfield.   I'm guessing that the result of showing that kind of attach is that there's a lot of middle for Kelce to run in.  Depending on the leverage the defender plays, Kelce makes a cut, and Mahomes reads the cut and throws.  

 

Frankly, it's one of things that's kept me from being a big Daboll fan.  It just seems to me that given the same kind of openings, Knox would catch a lot of balls.  With Sanders, McKenzie and Stevenson, the Bills had the speed to play a similar game.  I think it's coaching.  

Biggest difference I saw Sunday night was 87 caught the ball.

[Shaw66]

1 hour ago, 947 said:

Kelce is an elite player, but what he did against us wasn't all him, it was our defense letting him (and T Hill) do it so easily. If Knox had traded teams with Kelce, he'd have done the exact same thing in that game.

 

All game, Mahomes was completing throws to receivers that were wide open by 5 yards. We stayed in the the soft zone with safeties way too deep, and KC just kept running zone-beater crossing routes. Every time, Mahomes had multiple wide open options to not just catch the ball, but get a bunch YAC since our defenders were so far off. We didn't even force Mahomes to take any chances, the few poor throws he made were just mistakes on his part.

You know, I just don't buy this. 

 

The Bills have a guy, name's Gabriel Davis.   Did you happen to notice how wide open he was against the Chiefs?   And Beasley?   He was wide open on several of his catches. 

 

In this league, plenty of guys on the good passing teams get wide open.   That's why the passer ratings of QBs have gotten so high.  

 

It's not as simple as you say.   If it was that simple, Knox would be wide open like Kelce was.