Kaiir’s game

[bobobonators]

3 hours ago, BuffaloBill said:

He seems to get beat often and easily. I’m still not sold. 

That’s where I am. He’s just as likely to completely blow a coverage as he is to get an INT. He seems to lack game awareness - like he doesn’t know where he needs to be or what he needs to do on any given play. 

[DJB]

3 hours ago, BuffaloBill said:

He seems to get beat often and easily. I’m still not sold. 

Hes also useless in the run game. Pretty scared to stick his nose in there 

[Beck Water]

1 hour ago, Matt_In_NH said:

I have never seen a horse collar defensive holding/PI.  Deante Johnson gave him an interesting stare.

 

Yeah, it looked to me as though Deonte was telling him off.

[Royale with Cheese]

He gets left easily too often....but then he will make the big play.

[Don Otreply]

3 hours ago, Ya Digg? said:

So the PI was really bad, but he made up for it with the pick and almost had another one! I thought he had a pretty good game. Granted there’s a huge difference between Mahomes and Rudolph, but I have confidence he can go in and makes some plays if he needs to play next week. 
 

I’m trying to remember any other plays that caused concern and am not thinking of any. They needed him to step up and he did, props to him 

Iirc Elam intercepted Pat in the end zone at arrow head in his rookie season, 

[PonyBoy]

2 hours ago, Ridgewaycynic2013 said:

So Elam is 'Gallant' to Gardiner's 'Goofus'?

*
Only old people and teef will get that reference. 🤔

 

Highlights magazine baby!

My dentist always had them in his office 😀

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

16 minutes ago, DJB said:

Hes also useless in the run game. Pretty scared to stick his nose in there 

 

i thought he had a couple decent run fits after he settled in.  

[GunnerBill]

3 hours ago, Doc Brown said:

He picked off Mahomes last year in the regular season.  He also had a key pick in the Wild Card game last year just like this year.  He's a very frustrating player to watch because you can see the flashes of what made him a first round pick.  

 

Yep. He played the INT perfectly. That is a play Benford or Jackson can't make. They don't have the athelticism to stay with Johnson there and be in position to undercut it. He remains the most talented corner on the Bills (with the possible exception of Tre White if we ever see him healthy again). 

 

But on the flip side he just isn't a natural fit in this scheme and so he makes mistakes the other guys don't make and he can't be trusted to do the fundamentals that the scheme requires as consistently. There might be a moment where it all clicks for Elam and if it does he will be a high end NFL corner. But it might never click and he may become an Eli Apple type former 1st rounder who bounces around as a talented but unreliable short term depth piece.

 

[Freddie's Dead]

Freiermuth did not get the Angry Run, so Kaiir's got that going for him, which is nice.

[JohnNord]

3 hours ago, BuffaloBill said:

He seems to get beat often and easily. I’m still not sold. 

To be fair, after the INT when was he beat?

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

3 hours ago, Limeaid said:

Kaiir Elam seems like Sauce without allowance by referees for extra contact.

It is weird that certain young dbs are just allowed to operate without the rules applying lol 

[Shaw66]

2 minutes ago, JohnNord said:

To be fair, after the INT when was he beat?

Exactly.  It seems like people reaurrected their observations from 2022 and repeated them here.  We've only had one game to watch him, and what I saw seemed encouraging. 

 

If he was so easy to beat, why didn't the Steelers attack him?  

[Beck Water]

3 hours ago, pocoboy said:

 

Officials seem to put targets on certain guy's backs, and Elam may be one of them. There's a lot of contact in the defensive backfield every game that gets ignored. It's really difficult to take anything to do with officiating seriously.

 

To me the situation seems like a 1st rounder who thought he should be gifted opening day, got in McDermott's doghouse, then injuries & solid play from Benford pushed him off the depth chart. Has a real chance to show he can contribute and/or rehabilitate value to find another opportunity elsewhere in 2024.

 

Elam has a target on his back because he's not subtle about his grabbiness.  He's not running step for step and sliding a little arm around the guy's waist out of the ref's vision or committing a jersey grab that's hidden between his body and the receivers.

 

He's getting beaten by two steps because good NFL WR are successfully juking him, then he tries to make up for it by reaching out and using their jersey as a leash.

 

It IS difficult to take officiating seriously, but the stuff Elam is doing is slam-dunk.

 

The thing that bothers me most about Elam is that he seems to shirk physical contact.  He got run over pretty good yesterday afternoon.  5'9" 180 Cam Lewis and 5'11" Dane Jackson out-thump him regularly and so can Damar Hamlin who's like the same size. 

 

Pacheco runs like a junkyard dog that hasn't been fed in a week and the DB is a steak dinner.  We can't have a CB who plays like Wiley Coyote when too many Chiefs players can say "Beep! Beep!"

[JohnNord]

5 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

Exactly.  It seems like people reaurrected their observations from 2022 and repeated them here.  We've only had one game to watch him, and what I saw seemed encouraging. 

 

If he was so easy to beat, why didn't the Steelers attack him?  

I just pulled up YouTube TV and went back and watched after the INT.  He doesn’t play man so it’s hard to know exactly what his responsibilities in zone are as opposed to other players.  But he didn’t really many plays where he straight up got beat.  
 

Pittsburgh seemed to target Dane Jackson more often.  So everyone saying he gives up easy catch is basing that on his past and not what we saw last night.  

[Success]

Getting bowled over didn't bother me.  He set up to be in good position for the tackle - but it was a mismatch, and the receiver had momentum.

 

The PI bothered me, but some good observations on here about how it's a TD if he didn't.  Still, he got beat.

 

The INT was special, imo.  He turned around right when the ball was there.  Really quick processing and reflexes there.

 

And that might be who he is.  He does seem to have a knack for getting picks - but also misses some plays.  It's not a bad trade-off.

 

[transient]

3 hours ago, GoBills! said:

I think with enough playing time he can be a nice back up or maybe switch to safety. He needs to tackle better but his hand eye coordination and catch ability is there. 

Why would you want a safety who can't tackle?

[Beck Water]

12 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

Exactly.  It seems like people reaurrected their observations from 2022 and repeated them here.  We've only had one game to watch him, and what I saw seemed encouraging. 

 

If he was so easy to beat, why didn't the Steelers attack him?  

 

You're asking a good question and one I personally, can't answer without all-22.  I don't know who was covering whom.  I'm very up-front that I'm not someone who can look at the meagre glimpses the network allows us pre-and post-snap before they focus in on the QB, and read out the coverage.  You gotta ask someone who knows ball at a higher level. 

 

I can tell you that Rudolph's bread-and-butter in his stint as a starter this year has been short passes with YAC.  Going into yesterday's game, a whopping 60% of his passing yards were YAC.  And with the Bills missing their starting MLB, using their 3rd string OLB, and missing their nickle corner, if I were Eddie Faulkner I would be driving into the demonstrated strength of the game which got them there, vs. the apparent glaring weakness of playing a guy who just got off his couch at MLB and backups at OLB and nickle.  And that's the short passing game.

[Mr. WEO]

50 minutes ago, Beck Water said:

 

The Bills really need to put oven mitts on him at the start of OTCs next season.  He has got the "grabby habit" and he needs to be forced out of it.

 

To be fair, Rudolph was really slinging it yesterday.  He had his opportunity and he was really taking advantage.  He made some outstanding throws.

 

 

I do know that Next Sunday's ref crew apparently calls the largest number of DH penalties in the league and we can not afford that.

 

It is pretty clear that the Bills receivers are coached to take a penalty if they have to instead of being beaten for a score.

 

The play where he let himself get run over concerns me more.

 

Elam gets grabby not because he's coached to be, but because he get's burned so often.  

[LABILLBACKER]

3 hours ago, fasteddie said:

I was at the stadium so you would not see this on tv, but on one play, he was playing the outside receiver with another in the slot. At the snap, he decided to run straight past the receiver, straight up field. He was covering air, while the receiver made the catch.  I have no clue of what he was thinking. 

I know exactly the play you're talking about.  It was like what the hell is he doing?  His man skills are good. Everything else is terrible.  He's not surviving next year.

4 hours ago, CNYfan said:

He got bowled over easily; had the egregious PI and then everyone knew they would continue to attack him.  

Then he intercepted that next play and it was mostly quiet after that.  

I did notice a certain unwillingness to tackle at least once later in the game, and I think I saw why he has been inactive.   

 

His terrible tackling or willingness not to was what stood out.  I don't know if they are willing to teach him something a 1st round db should already know. 

[Beck Water]

4 hours ago, dorquemada said:

Given that he's been riding the pine allyear he was a pleasant surprise

 

I gotta like the kid for this:

 

 

And maybe I need to give him a couple drive allowance for being rusty.