Were the Bills "Hiding" Cook's skillset in the preseason?

[WotAGuy]

Bills were just trolling us with all those carries by Duke and Blackshear. 

[FilthyBeast]

I'm not sure what exactly they would be trying to hide because his skill set speaks for itself.

 

Won't be surprised if he's eventually starting for this team and getting the bulk of the carries by the end of the year.

[dollars 2 donuts]

1 hour ago, NoHuddleKelly12 said:

I have little doubt your inter-practice squad scrimmage tapes were glorious however! 
 

🤩

 

 

 

[JakeFrommStateFarm]

15 hours ago, Captain Hindsight said:

Do other teams not have his college film?

Yes. Alabama has plenty of film on James Cook.

 

 

[Tanoros]

15 hours ago, Stank_Nasty said:

Well 2 days ago on nfl network mike giardi said staff was raving about him the whole time he had been there. Add that to the fact that we didn’t see a whole lot of him in games and I would guess they’ve got some planned hidden gems with his name on it coming up. 

Exactly this. McDermott is all about brining rookies along slowly, which means pre-season reps. The fact that he didn’t get a lot, seems to indicate they like what they see and don’t want others seeing it until it counts. 

[Comebackkid]

This reminds me of one of those Reddit questions like, if Mike Tyson was to fight a gorilla who would win.

[Buffalosouth]

I'm willing to bet they have packages with him lined up at receiver. Can't wait.

[JakeFrommStateFarm]

Here is more film that Alabama has on James Cook

 

 

Edited September 1, 2022 by JakeFrommStateFarm

[Shaw66]

22 hours ago, MPT said:

Every team knows his skill set from draft scouting and he's protected from waivers on the 53 so there's no reason to hide him. If anything, they would be hiding the  scheme or specific plays that utilize his talents. 

This.   The Bills weren't showing how he will be used. 

 

The open question is how well his skills will transfer to the NFL.   CJ Spiller had a great skill set, it was fully on display in college, but it wasn't enough in the NFL.  That could be the case with Cook, too, although I doubt it.   The Bills are going to throw the ball to him in space, space that's created by scheme, and he's going to catch it and run.   Whether he jukes guys or not, he's going to have a lot of plays where he gets the ball in space.   I hope he'll be great, but we have to wait and see.   He at least will be adequate in that roll.  

[Alphadawg7]

People read too much or too little into preseason.  

 

Our starting offense literally played one drive all preseason.  Anything we did or didn't see with Cook with the backups is practically irrelevant.  

 

He was electric and promising in practice when he got time with the starters.  No need to over analyze here, there wasn't some conspiracy either to "hide" him.  Our starters just didn't play along side him.  

 

Just like how too much excitement was made of a couple good plays by Blackshear or a couple short catches by Hodgins against backups and guys who didn't make rosters.  

[TFBillsfan]

I truly hope Cook will be a difference maker. If so, it makes the offense even more dangerous. The D will have to account for the WR’s and TE. Bring pressure and Josh can dump it off to Cook who can take it to the house. If the LB has to account for Cook, Josh then has even more room to run if the no one is open.

[Shaw66]

7 minutes ago, Alphadawg7 said:

People read too much or too little into preseason.  

 

Our starting offense literally played one drive all preseason.  Anything we did or didn't see with Cook with the backups is practically irrelevant.  

 

He was electric and promising in practice when he got time with the starters.  No need to over analyze here, there wasn't some conspiracy either to "hide" him.  Our starters just didn't play along side him.  

 

Just like how too much excitement was made of a couple good plays by Blackshear or a couple short catches by Hodgins against backups and guys who didn't make rosters.  

I'm with you on all of this except Blackshear.  You can see good football quickness, and he has it.   In fact, he made cuts that I didn't see from Cook.   (Not saying he's better than Cook; just saying Blackshear has NFL-level quickness.)  That's always useful.  He may be too small to be able to stay healthy, and he may be too small to take the pounding that any running back gets who's getting even seven-eight touches a game, but that kind of quickness is an asset I think the Bills want.  That's why they drafter Stevenson, and that's why they drafted Cook. 

 

I went into the preseason games not expecting much of anything from him, despite the hype in camp, but I was impressed watching him on the field.  I'm glad they were able to keep him, because I think he's a talent the Bills can use on the field in the future, including this season.  I'm sure the Bills want to keep him around to see if he can be special somehow.   Maybe he's punt and kick returner.  Look at how McKenzie's role has changed and evolved.  I'm not predicting it will happen, but I think it's quite possible, that If the Bills get an injury in November at the wrong position, Blackshear could find himself on the roster.  He's the kind of guy who can bring a different juice to the offense, or to kick returns.  

 

I'm just talking about what he could be, not what he will be.   

[Putin]

4 hours ago, Buffalosouth said:

I'm willing to bet they have packages with him lined up at receiver. Can't wait.

Exactly nobody is showing anything in the pre season 

[Shaw66]

11 minutes ago, TFBillsfan said:

I truly hope Cook will be a difference maker. If so, it makes the offense even more dangerous. The D will have to account for the WR’s and TE. Bring pressure and Josh can dump it off to Cook who can take it to the house. If the LB has to account for Cook, Josh then has even more room to run if the no one is open.

I think it's all this and more.  It's not dump offs to Cook - it's Cook running patterns in the flat, on curls, off fake running play.  The defense is going to have to account for him, which makes it easier for everyone else.  Cook allows the Bills to attack places on the field that they didn't attack effectively last season.  That's what the Bills DIDN'T show in preseason, except maybe one play in the first game, a pass that went left, a quick throw to the flat where the Bills could get a blocker and numbers.   

[Shaw66]

1 minute ago, Putin said:

Exactly nobody is showing anything in the pre season 

I don't think that's true.  My impression watching various preseason games was that there are a lot of different advantages that come to the good teams.  One of them is that you don't have to play your starters much, so they start the season rested.  Another is they can run only the part of their offense that they want, because they already know it works, and they already know they can execute it, so they don't need to run it.  But the teams that aren't so good, like the Lions, they've got their first teams on the field for a lot more snaps than the good teams, because they're trying to find something that works.  And I think they're running more of their offense, for the same reason.   

 

Think back to pre-McDermott.  Man, every preseason, watching video from camp and watching preseason, hoping you're going to see somebody, anybody, who can be a consistent producer, passer, runner, receiver, someone, anyone.  Hoping you're going to see some scheme or theme in the offense that promises to be effective in NFL games.   Those teams we watched then were trying to do their stuff in preseason, because they had to find out if it worked.  And what they found out, year after year, was that it didn't work.   And then the regular season started, and we saw the same stuff, and it still didn't work.  

 

The result is that it's easier to stay good than to get good, because part of getting good is having to run your whole offense in the summer.    

[buffaloboyinATL]

Yeah. We hid Da’Rick Rogers too, but then we forgot where we put him.