Updated Beasley signing to practice squad

[Nitro]

6 hours ago, Gen2 said:

 

so should I assume you are not a fan of the multi-year contract the Bills gave to Von Miller. They ARE the same age after all.

Yep

[JerseyBills]

Just watched Beanes interview 

 

When asked about McKenzie and Cole he basically said Cole will be on the 53 in a week or 2 and basically confirmed that McKenzie is in for more of a specialist/ gadget type role

 

Around the 12 minute mark is pretty conclusive evidence imo..

 

What yall think???

Edited December 15, 2022 by JerseyBills

[Boatdrinks]

4 minutes ago, JerseyBills said:

Just watched Beanes interview 

 

When asked about McKenzie and Cole he basically said Cole will be on the 53 in a week or 2 and basically confirmed that McKenzie is in for more of a specialist/ gadget type role

 

Around the 12 minute mark is pretty conclusive evidence imo..

 

What yall think???

Heard it on WGR and thought the same thing. McKenzie goes back to the role player type thing if Cole can get it done. Seems like Beasley has a good mindset right now 

[JerseyBills]

6 minutes ago, Boatdrinks said:

Heard it on WGR and thought the same thing. McKenzie goes back to the role player type thing if Cole can get it done. Seems like Beasley has a good mindset right now 

Yea absolutely.  Beane even talked about Coles ability vs zone defense at 1 point.

 

They're def not happy with McKenzie being the lead slot imo

[davefan66]

35 minutes ago, JerseyBills said:

Yea absolutely.  Beane even talked about Coles ability vs zone defense at 1 point.

 

They're def not happy with McKenzie being the lead slot imo

That’s what I got out of the interview. Expectations were Crowder was the guy. Injury nixed those plans and had to go to the next man up.

 

It they believe slot is important this game, Beas absolutely plays. With the phins dline rush and potential sloppy conditions, game seems ripe for him to play.  And contribute.

Edited December 15, 2022 by davefan66

[Straight Hucklebuck]

My thoughts after listening to this is ok media, Cole apologized, said he’s happy to be back. So hopefully this is the last of trying to dig into what happened and we can just go forward now.

 

In the same light, I watched John Brown’s press conference. What a cool guy. He sounds like the best teammate, friend, father that could ever have. Happy for him and he said similar things, he just wanted to be back. 

[SydneyBillsFan]

Absolutely stoked to have this guy back.

 

If he can get us just 2 or 3 first downs on 3rd and mediums, it will be well worth it.

 

I don't expect him to play against the fish so I just hope he can get a few snaps at Chicago. I think we might really need him at Cincy, they are starting to get some momentum and could yet pinch the 1 seed or hand it to the Chiefs.

[Doc Brown]

1 hour ago, JerseyBills said:

Yea absolutely.  Beane even talked about Coles ability vs zone defense at 1 point.

 

They're def not happy with McKenzie being the lead slot imo

Cole was one of the best in the league at finding the soft spot in zones.  Expecting McKenzie to emulate that was always unrealistic.  My guess is they hoped Crowder would step into the Beasley role and McKenzie would play a similar role to last season where he'd be more featured in the slot more when teams played more man coverage.  McKenzie then impressed so much in training camp that he received more playing time than originally intended.  Then Crowder goes down and our passing game suffered.  This was a break glass in case of emergency signing.

[Buffalo_Stampede]

4 minutes ago, Doc Brown said:

Cole was one of the best in the league at finding the soft spot in zones.  Expecting McKenzie to emulate that was always unrealistic.  My guess is they hoped Crowder would step into the Beasley role and McKenzie would play a similar role to last season where he'd be more featured in the slot more when teams played more man coverage.  McKenzie then impressed so much in training camp that he received more playing time than originally intended.  Then Crowder goes down and our passing game suffered.  This was a break glass in case of emergency signing.

No need to guess, Beane says the plan was to split snaps between Crowder and McKenzie. Crowders injuries messed that up.

 

 

[Richard Noggin]

3 hours ago, KOKBILLS said:

I really wish the weather forecast was better for Sat night...I hope we get lucky in that area...Because I really want to see the passing game...I'm curious...This is fascinating stuff..

 

The Bills Offense was rounding into an absolute buzz saw late last year...And Beasley was an important piece of that...He's probably heathier now...I have no idea what to expect, but it certainly can't hurt...Brady had his guys too...Josh and Beas have had a lot of success together...

 

Let's see...

 

 

 

But WERE they really "rounding into an absolute buzz saw late last year"?

 

Obviously, they were just on another level in the playoffs, and for a number of games early this season, but I remember some scrappy wins to close out 2021. Am I completely omitting a late season game or two? I more closely remember the Bills establishing an effective RUNNING game in the last handful of contests, before exploding in the postseason. 

[Beck Water]

3 hours ago, WideNine said:

 

Also, cannot stress enough how often Allen has to reset in the pocket to avoid quick pressures we keep leaking.

 

I know Allen tries to keep his eyes downfield, but there are going to be plenty of times he is going to have to check the rush and slide around to escape or buy time.

 

Open windows in coverage will often close before he is able to reset to get a pass off and that means off-schedule scramble drill passes.

 

This is a very valid point, especially the last 3 games with Quessenberry replacing Dawkins (and playing hurt), then Dawkins playing hurt and Bates going out.

 

I also think Josh's elbow forces him to be more mindful of proper technique in his whole body to get the desired accuracy, which means he can't flip it out there as quickly.

 

The Jets were, I think, doing a good job of forcing Allen to roll out to his L not his R, which doesn't help.

 

But yeah, a lot of that could be avoided if Allen would just take the quick short passes that are open, instead of reading deep-to-shallow and trying to wait for the deep routes to open up, then forcing a short pass into a smaller window to a receiver with less chance for YAC and more chance to get slammed immediately after the catch.

[Matt_In_NH]

I think Beasley showed a lot of emotional intelligence in his interview.  Being able to admit things wery differently than you would have liked publicly is hard.  I give him credit and it makes me a little more optimistic of what he might be able to bring.  If he had an injury second half of last year the. He may step right in and produce.  

[Slack_in_MA]

6 hours ago, Beck Water said:

But yeah, a lot of that could be avoided if Allen would just take the quick short passes that are open, instead of reading deep-to-shallow and trying to wait for the deep routes to open up, then forcing a short pass into a smaller window to a receiver with less chance for YAC and more chance to get slammed immediately after the catch.

At the risk of mentioning his name, Tom Brady is going to the HOF in large part due to an effective ball-control passing scheme led by slot guys like Wes Welker and Julian Edelman. Aside from Randy Moss, he never had big name WRs. I pray we take a page from that book, especially as the weather gets worse.

[Saxum]

16 hours ago, Chas56 said:

Admittedly, I was not happy with the way Beasley handled the vaccine issues. That said, I understand why Josh wants to have him back. I just worry that Beasley has aged out. That would mean another guy that is ineffective out running routes, a failed experiment that will take time and balls away from Knox and Davis during a playoff run.

 

Beasley was very adamant about not playing in New York but evidently decided that playing with QB who likes hard balls is better than playing out of NYS who likes soft balls.  Players have often mentioned that when they retire being with their fellow players is what they miss most (other than pay checks) so after being on bench or not even on a team taught him a lesson.

 

I do not think at this point he is taking snaps away from other players.  He is on practice squad working on emulating opposition and may even be playing Tua since he used to be a HS QB.  Bills will be able to see how good of shape he has been in playing basketball and determine if they wish to escalate him for a game.  Coach McD likes pressure on all players including starters for pressure creates diamonds; this does not apply to Josh for he is Superman and he creates diamonds.

 

 

[Locomark]

After watching the Cole interview I really changed my opinion on what I saw in his play with Tampa. I didn’t feel he had much left. Now I really feel he just didn’t want to be there. That’s great if we can get the old Cole back to open up that short between the hashes game. 

[Beck Water]

On 12/14/2022 at 12:51 AM, Buffalo Barbarian said:

 

He better play this week, if baker Mayfield can do it so can Beasley. McDermott needs not to be so conservative with new players like Hines.

 

 

 

"He better play this week", or what?

 

Hines was on an NFL team, in football shape.

Mayfield was on an NFL team, in football shape

 

Beasley has been sitting on the sofa since what? October?

 

The coaches better not play him if he needs a week or so to get into football shape.  Xavier Rhodes tried to do too much too soon in practice and pulled a hammy.

 

It would be stupid to put Beasley out there if he's not been running routes in pads and cleats, have him do likewise, and be without him for the rest of the games.

 

 

32 minutes ago, Locomark said:

After watching the Cole interview I really changed my opinion on what I saw in his play with Tampa. I didn’t feel he had much left. Now I really feel he just didn’t want to be there. That’s great if we can get the old Cole back to open up that short between the hashes game. 

 

I think he wanted to be there while he was in the games.  I don't think he was half-assing it while he was out there.

 

What in his interview led you to believe he didn't give it what he had while he was on the field in Tampa?

[SoCal Deek]

34 minutes ago, Locomark said:

After watching the Cole interview I really changed my opinion on what I saw in his play with Tampa. I didn’t feel he had much left. Now I really feel he just didn’t want to be there. That’s great if we can get the old Cole back to open up that short between the hashes game. 

He probably just got fed up with that arse wipe Brady yelling at him every two minutes. 

[rusty shackleford]

46 minutes ago, Limeaid said:

 

Beasley was very adamant about not playing in New York but evidently decided that playing with QB who likes hard balls is better than playing out of NYS who likes soft balls.  Players have often mentioned that when they retire being with their fellow players is what they miss most (other than pay checks) so after being on bench or not even on a team taught him a lesson.

 

I do not think at this point he is taking snaps away from other players.  He is on practice squad working on emulating opposition and may even be playing Tua since he used to be a HS QB.  Bills will be able to see how good of shape he has been in playing basketball and determine if they wish to escalate him for a game.  Coach McD likes pressure on all players including starters for pressure creates diamonds; this does not apply to Josh for he is Superman and he creates diamonds.

 

 

The defense wouldn't find him to be a good Tua simulation; he's way too tough to pretend that.

[JakeFrommStateFarm]

28 minutes ago, Beck Water said:

What in his interview led you to believe he didn't give it what he had while he was on the field in Tampa?

I added him to my fantasy team.

 

He was on the practice squad for a bit then they finally elevated him.

 

He played a couple of games but had no catches.

 

He finally retired saying he needed to spend more time with his family. 

 

That was it.

[Beck Water]

13 hours ago, GoBills808 said:

I don't think McKenzie is a bum, but he's not a very good wideout. That's the main reason he doesn't need more targets.

 

I think they papered over the loss of Crowder until it became apparent the McKenzie/Shakir combo wasn't cutting it. 

 

 

 

I agree McKenzie is not a "very good wideout" (depending on definition of same, of course - but he's not top tier, we certainly agree). 

 

But he's what we got this year.  He is able to "get open and catch the ball".  (Yes, folks, I hear you, but 69% of the time, he does in fact catch the ball, and he's averaging 10 Y/R when he does, so it's not all just pitches)

 

My point is twofold, based on logic:

 

One, you throw it to the guys who are open and catching it, until they prove they don't.  Knox is catching 74% of his targets.  McKenzie is catching 69% (even with all the ***** he takes about drops).  Davis is catching just over 50% (arguably a lot not his fault because Josh is forcing it in sometimes or throwing it away in his direction, but still). 

 

So I would say provided they're open, Knox needs more targets and McKenzie needs more targets - and when I look at film, I see them open. To me, that's logic.

 

Two, the QB needs to follow the design of the offense.  Right now, Dorsey's idea seems to be to have deep stuff and short stuff and the QB hits the short stuff until the D is either forced out of that coverage (or the Bills get to the endzone on short stuff.)   This is a simple-minded breakdown, but the point is, it doesn't work for Josh to keep trying to force it in to Diggs and Davis when they're covered and that's the basic offensive design.  Take the easy short throws and let the guys try to get YAC.  I personally would like to see Knox or Morris targets increase more than McKenzie because I think they can better handle catching and taking hits in bad weather, but you get my point.

 

Crowder is a good zone receiver, but Beane (and some folks here) are indulging in revisionist history painting it as "Crowder was really intended to be the slot and McKenzie's role was intended to just increase a little bit" (paraphrasing Beane).  At the point where Crowder was hurt, McKenzie's snaps had already doubled from 2021 (from 24%-ish to ~50%), thiswhile Crowder was playing.  Crowder was consistently getting fewer snaps than McKenzie - ~1/3 to McK's 1/2.  Crowder caught 46.2% of his 13 targets (~3 targets per game).  McKenzie was getting more targets (5.3 tg/game), and catching more (62.5%), in the 4 games Crowder played.

 

So any ideas that Crowder would be a valuable contributor and push down McKenzie's snaps is based on a hope that Crowder would settle in and develop more "chemistry" with Josh, not based on what he actually had done at the point where he was injured.  Which he might have done, that woulda been nice.

 

Factually, McKenzie's snaps per game only increased about 10% when Crowder went out (from ~50% to ~60%).  What we did (as far as I can tell) is started to play Diggs more in the slot and put Shakir (or Kumerow, or Gentry, or Brown) outside.

 

Where McKenzie totally lacks what Beasley gave Josh, is in the secondary route concepts - the receiver who keeps working and working and gets open while the QB moves around to extend the play.  McKenzie will do scramble drills, but they're simpler and he will also sometimes run his route and be done instead of playing to the whistle. 

 

So if Beasley comes in and gives Josh that and it helps us get to the playoffs and deep in the playoffs, I'm For it, but ultimately it would benefit Josh and the Bills if he could learn to play within the structure of the offense more and not lean on that "Cole Crutch".  That's what's killing Denver right now IMO - Wilson got so used to going his own way and playing off-script, that he doesn't seem able to follow his reads and hit plays that are there.

 

You may be right that the Bills had high hopes that Shakir would step up more, and that's why they didn't do more to bring in WR help, before the trade deadline.  Or, maybe they were really banking on OBJ, who knows?

 

 

Edited December 15, 2022 by Beck Water