Bernard, Torrence and Benford all officially starters

[Shaw66]

12 minutes ago, SoonerBillsFan said:

I think everyone is just holding the place until Kirksey gets up to speed. 

It's always possible that Bernard will play well enough that McDermott doesn't want to make a change.  

[newcam2012]

Hopefully, the Bills and the McD led D can mitigate the MLB weakness. Get creative with different schemes. McD has a great chance to show off his defensive coaching skills. Looking forward to it. 

3 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

It's always possible that Bernard will play well enough that McDermott doesn't want to make a change.  

I would like to see that.

 

You think this is the likely happen? If so why? 

[Buffalo_Stampede]

23 minutes ago, SectionC3 said:

I don’t know what the appropriate idiom is here.  Maybe he’s the one-eyed king in the land of the blind.  Maybe he’s the lesser of the evils.  I don’t know.  But it’s clear to me that he did not, by any objective measure, win the MLB competition.  Dodson, Klein, and Spector lost it. 

It’s hard for fans because they didn’t like the Bernard pick. He didn’t play well in his 1 start as a rookie. The Bills didn’t bring in any competition. 
 

This isn’t a situation where the Bills were forced into this situation. This was chosen. One of the chosen won the job. Now had Kirksey started week 1 I was ready to criticize them. I actually predicted he would start week 1 because I also don’t have confidence in this group. But the Bills chose this group. 
 

Im glad it’s Bernard. To me it looks like it was their plan the whole time.

[BillsSbSoon]

We’ve all been skeptical of Bernard but to be fair we haven’t seen him play this year yet. Im willing to take the shot with him and seeing how it looks instead of Dodson I’ll tell ya that.

Edited September 6, 2023 by BillsSbSoon

[Buffalo_Stampede]

1 minute ago, BillsSbSoon said:

We’ve all been skeptical of Bernard but to be fair we haven’t seen him play this year yet. Im willing to take the shot with him and seeing how it looks instead of Dodson I’ll tell ya that.

It reminds me a lot of Kiko Alonso. We’ll see what happens.

[appoo]

McDermott can not plug and play Kirksey at Mike in his base defense. He's 31 and played 8 years in the NFL as a linebacker. He's probably a 4.9 at this point in the 40.  Just not happening. I mean he wasn't even graded all that high last season. My guess is that he comes only the rare times we run a 4-3 look. But if Bernard can't go, it's gonna be Dodson. 

[syhuang]

 

[Warriorspikes51]

1 minute ago, syhuang said:

 

What is he going to say to the media?  "Man, I want Kirksey out there"

Sean saying Bernard "will take it one play at a time"  could mean they expect Kirksey to take over in the near future

[Doc]

4 minutes ago, appoo said:

McDermott can not plug and play Kirksey at Mike in his base defense. He's 31 and played 8 years in the NFL as a linebacker. He's probably a 4.9 at this point in the 40.  Just not happening. I mean he wasn't even graded all that high last season. My guess is that he comes only the rare times we run a 4-3 look. But if Bernard can't go, it's gonna be Dodson. 

 

Why not?  He's played MLB in the NFL before.

[Chandler#81]

Congrats to these young players!

A drafted Guard who starts week 1? BRILLIANT!

A too small 2nd year OLB starting at MLB? BRILLIANT!

A 6th round 2nd year player starting over a 1st pick both seasons? BRILLIANT!

 

[SoonerBillsFan]

17 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

It's always possible that Bernard will play well enough that McDermott doesn't want to make a change.  

Agreed its possible, but not probable. 

[BillsFan130]

Excited for Benford and Torrence.

 

Bernard? I don’t see this going well, although he can’t be worse than Dobson

[goldenboy81]

Benford and torrence should be starters.

If Bernard can hold it down especially with his speed,this d could be special

[DapperCam]

I think Benford, Jackson and Elam will all probably see time on the field, even with Benford being named the "starter". Depth isn't a bad thing.

[appoo]

7 minutes ago, Warriorspikes51 said:

What is he going to say to the media?  "Man, I want Kirksey out there"

Sean saying Bernard "will take it one play at a time"  could mean they expect Kirksey to take over in the near future

Because he'd play that role in a massively different way than Bernard, to the point you'd have to change the entire coverage scheme. 

 

Kirksey is absolutely not playing man on anyone

[Buffalo_Stampede]

1 minute ago, appoo said:

Because he'd play that role in a massively different way than Bernard, to the point you'd have to change the entire coverage scheme. 

 

Kirksey is absolutely not playing man on anyone

That is true. All offseason Beane talked about Edmunds being too big to cover in man. Bills have a plan here and we’ll see how it turns out. I think they want to challenge receivers more this season.

[billieve420]

3 hours ago, KDIGGZ said:

Bernard is terrible. He's undersized and for being so you would expect him to be super athletic which he's not. If he would have played in the preseason we would have all seen that. I definitely don't like the idea of them experimenting with him in a live game. This is going to be bad. Hopefully Kirksey will be available but I doubt it 

 

Early part of the schedule after the Jets isn't too bad. Team can live with some growing pains if Bernard shows anything while he gets some live reps. If he underperforms they have Kirksey as their insurance policy. If all else fails don't think Beane will have hard time making deal for LB come trade deadline as last resort.

[Max Fischer]

7 minutes ago, newcam2012 said:

What in your right mind makes you think he's competent? 

 

He played 45 plays in 7 games last year. He was pretty much a liability out there. 

 

All you have is that he's young and can improve. But that kind of goes by the waste side too because he wasn't very good in college either. 

 

Come on now let's get honest here. The guy is nowhere near starting caliber. We fans have to hold out breath and hope he doesn't blow up the defense. 

 

I can't tell if this is a troll job but just in case . . .

 

45 plays is 15-30 less than an average full game of defensive snaps.  Moreover, he took those snaps over their first seven games, which is not an adequate measure of a player's ability.  

 

As for your college analysis, it seems you forgot to mention he was a team captain, twice second-team Big 12, once first-team Big 12, and MVP of the Sugar Bowl. 

 

 

[newcam2012]

7 minutes ago, Max Fischer said:

 

I can't tell if this is a troll job but just in case . . .

 

45 plays is 15-30 less than an average full game of defensive snaps.  Moreover, he took those snaps over their first seven games, which is not an adequate measure of a player's ability.  

 

As for your college analysis, it seems you forgot to mention he was a team captain, twice second-team Big 12, once first-team Big 12, and MVP of the Sugar Bowl. 

 

 

https://syndication.bleacherreport.com/amp/10021397-terrel-bernard-nfl-draft-2022-scouting-report-for-baylor-lb.amp.html

 

 

Lets paint a clear picture here.

 

Thus far, the scouting report looks pretty accurate. 

 

Bernard play light, can't shed blocks well, doesn't fit well into a MLB role, and has shown nothing thus far to think he's a quality starter. Correct me if I'm wrong. 

 

He was a projected 5th round pick and a project. Beane reached and the pick was a head scratcher then and now. 

 

In short, I get the optimism and of course he could blossom; maybe into the next Lawrence Taylor. Let's dream big!

 

Edited September 6, 2023 by newcam2012

[NewEra]

37 minutes ago, Max Fischer said:

 

The key point here is we don't know anything until Bernard's snap count is large enough to make a rational evaluation. Too many here seem to have prejudged Bernard before he's had any significant playing time. However, when so many fans disliked to hated Edmunds, there's little reason to believe there'll ever be any kind of consensus.  

No, the key point here is that this is a message board and this is what we do here prior to the actual game.  Discuss bills football.  All we can discuss is what we’ve seen to date. What I’VE seen to date is less than what I consider a viable Mike starter in the nfl.  
 

until that changes, that’s how I see it.  I am actively hoping to be wrong.