Preseason week 2: Broncos at Bills

[ganesh]

8 hours ago, Bob Chandler's Hands said:

Please provide your logic other than "there were a lot of things going on last off-season". I'd argue with the change at OC and Line coach, there are a lot more 'things' going on this off-season than last relative to offensive continuity. Not to mention the hype of being SB favorites. 

The team's own offense and defense are going at each other in TC every day (especially after the pads came on).  Other teams in Preseason are going to be vanilla and not show anything.   Pre-season is not for your starters....it is for putting the fringe players a chance to make plays in live action - as they may not get the same opportunity during the TC where reps are limited and must be shared with the starters.

 

The Bills should keep their day 1 starters away from the remaining two pre-seasons and use the rest of TC to get the timing aligned by going against  each other.

[Virgil]

6 hours ago, Doc Brown said:

I don't like to overreact to one game especially when we have a large sample size of both of their NFL careers as starters at this point.

 

I don't think it's an over-reaction.  Barkley has shown flashes of being a short term capable starter.  The theme of my entire post was that Beane is probably looking for guys we can keep for depth that are cheaper options than others.  Barkley is cheaper than Keenum.  If Barkley proves he can get the job done for a few games is someone (I won't say it) gets injured, then that cap savings could help us.

[eball]

13 hours ago, Sammy Watkins' Rib said:

Credit to Moss for keeping a good head on his shoulders and coming into camp apparently better than ever after a disappointing sophomore year.  He's the anti Karlos Williams. If he really is better than ever though it could complicate things quite a bit for the back field though. With the way the NFL is though you simply can not pay RB's anything more than the vet minimum. So that means bye bye Motor in 2023 and Moss fits into Motors role in 2023 while Cook hopefully becomes the leading back by snap count in 2023. 

 

Agreed...unless your RB1 really brings something "special" to the table you can't overpay.  Motor needs to bring it this season and get his ring, because he will likely be on someone else's roster in 2023.

[eball]

20 minutes ago, Virgil said:

 

I don't think it's an over-reaction.  Barkley has shown flashes of being a short term capable starter.  The theme of my entire post was that Beane is probably looking for guys we can keep for depth that are cheaper options than others.  Barkley is cheaper than Keenum.  If Barkley proves he can get the job done for a few games is someone (I won't say it) gets injured, then that cap savings could help us.

 

It's an over-reaction.  Keenum is the better QB and backup regardless of what happened last Saturday night.  Barkley is an emergency QB only who is here to support Josh.

 

Go compare Keenum's and Barkley's career stats.  It's a no-brainer.

[Dr. K]

1 hour ago, Son of a K-Gun said:

Probably because the Bills seem to play the Lions every preseason...

 

 

This goes back to the fact that Ralph Wilson was from Detroit. When he started the Bills, he was looking over his shoulder at the Lions. In their first season, the Bills' uniforms were almost duplicates of the Lions' down to using the same colors. So the Bills always played the Lions in their last pre-season game. 

 

But that's such ancient history I don't see why they still do it.  

 

From a website about the Bills' uniforms:

 

"For the first two seasons of the Bills existence, the team's colors were Honolulu blue, silver, and white, the same colors as the Detroit Lions. Bills owner Ralph Wilson had been a minority owner of the Lions, and rumor has it the team's jerseys those two seasons were actually hand-me-downs from the Lions."

Edited August 15, 2022 by Dr. K

[sherpa]

Charter costs.

Much cheaper to charter to Detroit, or to Buffalo for the Lions.

Less time lost in travel.

Years when they aren't playing each other, I'd expect this to continue.

[Alphadawg7]

14 hours ago, Sammy Watkins' Rib said:

Credit to Moss for keeping a good head on his shoulders and coming into camp apparently better than ever after a disappointing sophomore year.  He's the anti Karlos Williams. If he really is better than ever though it could complicate things quite a bit for the back field though. With the way the NFL is though you simply can not pay RB's anything more than the vet minimum. So that means bye bye Motor in 2023 and Moss fits into Motors role in 2023 while Cook hopefully becomes the leading back by snap count in 2023. 

 

I don't think they really plan to ever see Cook elevate to a primary ball carrier.  I think with his size, the plan is to have him as a guy who at most splits carries with a primary runner but is a regular receiving weapon out of the backfield with the hopes he can be a lot like Kamara and Ingram were for the Saints during their peaks.    

 

And people writing off Devin already now is premature.  He isn't likely someone who is going to command a huge FA deal at RB, those deals are usually reserved for the top end of the position.  Devin is more in line with a good to pretty good RB, but not among the leagues best.  And if he wants to stay in Buffalo, its possible he gives them a home town discount still too.  

 

Moss certainly could bounce back this year and take over next year (or draft someone too), just saying I wouldn't just assume Devin is a goner no matter what at this point.  

[Virgil]

2 hours ago, eball said:

 

It's an over-reaction.  Keenum is the better QB and backup regardless of what happened last Saturday night.  Barkley is an emergency QB only who is here to support Josh.

 

Go compare Keenum's and Barkley's career stats.  It's a no-brainer.

 

I agree with their career stats, however I think familiarity in the system is also important.  Matt knows the system better, updated or not, and neither are going to see a lot of snaps with Josh running the position.  I don't know that Barkley might not be a better back-up in this situation. 

[fergie's ire]

11 hours ago, Bob Chandler's Hands said:

Please provide your logic other than "there were a lot of things going on last off-season". I'd argue with the change at OC and Line coach, there are a lot more 'things' going on this off-season than last relative to offensive continuity. Not to mention the hype of being SB favorites. 

I think Sean McVay killed the need to play in games to "get the rust off" or for sync purposes.  His first year as head coach he played NOBODY in the preseason...was really the first to do that.  Everybody was mocking the idea saying that his players would be more likely to be health and fresh but they would NOT be ready for that first game.  It would take a few games in a new system to make it work.  They won their first game 46-9 and the "I'm not playing my starters in the preseason" movement was launched.

[eball]

28 minutes ago, Virgil said:

 

I agree with their career stats, however I think familiarity in the system is also important.  Matt knows the system better, updated or not, and neither are going to see a lot of snaps with Josh running the position.  I don't know that Barkley might not be a better back-up in this situation. 

 

That's what these three preseason games are for.  Keenum will be up to speed.

 

[ddaryl]

Keenum will get significant play time in all 3 preseason games, so I'll hold off on judgement till the last PS game is played. Intitial impressions are not good though, but I'd be fool to think this one appearance is all he's got to show us

As it stands now Barkley 1 Keenum 0 for the #2

[MiltonWaddams]

If Barkley had Keenum's arm, the #2 qb discussion wouldn't exist. He just doesn't. He is great in the system until he has to get the ball out fast and that's where Keenum has an edge. Of course we do need to see Case play far better than Saturday, but give him a few PS games and I expect we will and we will all be happy that we have a vet backup who led his team to the playoffs previously.

[BillsFanSD]

I think we should make very firm snap decisions about Keenum after watching him play behind a patchwork OL while trying to throw to our backups for a half.

[BritBill]

What a time kick off this is. I can walk home from my soccer team’s game straight into watching this. Happy days 👍 

[947]

2 hours ago, Alphadawg7 said:

I don't think they really plan to ever see Cook elevate to a primary ball carrier.  I think with his size, the plan is to have him as a guy who at most splits carries with a primary runner but is a regular receiving weapon out of the backfield with the hopes he can be a lot like Kamara and Ingram were for the Saints during their peaks.   

Cook knocked an Indy LB 2-3 yards backwards on one of his runs down around the 10-yd line. I was surprised to see him run that hard, he could be more than a scat back.

[Tanoros]

16 hours ago, MasterStrategist said:

Perhaps.  Just going off last yr tho (only 3 game preseason to compare against), Josh only played some in final game.

 

I think getting him and other starters "live" action is def a delicate balance,  but I like the idea of 1 quarter (game 2 or 3, not sure it matters much).

I think McDermott will wait until game 3 again. Because of the roster cut down dates, game 2 is the last chance to see many live before the big cut downs. 
 

Before game 1 it was stated that McDermott wanted to give the guys fighting for a spot as many opportunities as possible. 

[nucci]

16 hours ago, DapperCam said:

I think they should give Allen one or two series in front of the home crowd. Kick off the rust a bit and try to avoid another Pitt home opener where the offense looked totally pedestrian.

 

Under strict no “hero ball” orders.

why would he be rusty?

[Son of a K-Gun]

21 minutes ago, 947 said:

Cook knocked an Indy LB 2-3 yards backwards on one of his runs down around the 10-yd line. I was surprised to see him run that hard, he could be more than a scat back.

I thought the same.  Lots of folks saying that they didn't see anything out of Cook, but that 5 yard run inside the 10 looked promising, especially considering he was running behind the backup-ish O Line.

[SlimShady'sSpaceForce]

Another Home practice?

 

It’d be nice to see Russel for a series 

 

 

[Scott7975]

17 minutes ago, Son of a K-Gun said:

I thought the same.  Lots of folks saying that they didn't see anything out of Cook, but that 5 yard run inside the 10 looked promising, especially considering he was running behind the backup-ish O Line.

 

They didnt really give Cook that much opportunity either.  Its like the people that hate Singletary because he didnt show much in a game when he had only a few carries.  Its because they didnt use him.  RBs need touches to thrive.