Is Reggie Gilliam a top 5 fullback in the NFL?

[Ethan in Cleveland]

Hopefully new OC will convince McD that he is useless. 

A team with Josh Allen does not need a FB. A third TE can take all his snaps.

[GASabresIUFan]

Time to move on and save nearly $2 mill in cap

[Ethan in Cleveland]

  On 1/27/2024 at 9:19 PM, Pete said:

Reggie is a core special teamer,  playing all 4 units.  His hit on opening kickoff is one of the Bills plays of the year.  Gilliam is a very valuable Bill

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With our cap a core special team player should be a late round rookie or UDFA. 

Have to stop wasting money on marginal players.

And wouldn't it have been nice to have an extra DB on the team?

And same goes for Matakevich.  He can't play LB yet he has a roster spot. Sure would have been nice to have an actual LB on the roster for that final game 

Waste of money, cap space, and roster spots.

[Pete]

  On 1/27/2024 at 10:59 PM, Ethan in Cleveland said:

With our cap a core special team player should be a late round rookie or UDFA. 

Have to stop wasting money on marginal players.

And wouldn't it have been nice to have an extra DB on the team?

And same goes for Matakevich.  He can't play LB yet he has a roster spot. Sure would have been nice to have an actual LB on the roster for that final game 

Waste of money, cap space, and roster spots.

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Gilliam does more that special teams.  He is a swiss army knife.  He is making $2 million, and hes earning his $.  We have to pay someone to replace him.  And our special teams sucked last year.  Failure, after failure.  I do not want to see the Bills regress on special teams. Cam, Reggie, and Siran are our aces. Removing one of our aces is not wise IMO

[GASabresIUFan]

  On 1/27/2024 at 11:09 PM, Pete said:

Gilliam does more that special teams.  He is a swiss army knife.  He is making $2 million, and hes earning his $.  We have to pay someone to replace him.  And our special teams sucked last year.  Failure, after failure.  I do not want to see the Bills regress on special teams. Cam, Reggie, and Siran are our aces. Removing one of our aces is not wise IMO

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Our coverage on special teams was terrible.  Get rid of them all and start again.

Edited January 27, 2024 by GASabresIUFan

[Pete]

  On 1/27/2024 at 11:11 PM, GASabresIUFan said:

Our coverage on special teams was terrible.  Get rid of them all and start again.

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No doubt we need to improve special teams.  But we don’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water.  Did you study every all 22 special team play?  I think a better strategy is to let coaches break down failures and identify weak links.  There are 11 players- they do not all suck on every play

[TheyCallMeAndy]

Here is what Reggie Gilliam is:

 

Good blocker

Good special teams player 

Good athlete 

Emergency TE

Cheap (1.6m in 2024)

 

No reason to question his spot on this team at all. 

[BillsFanForever19]

  On 1/27/2024 at 11:27 PM, TheyCallMeAndy said:

Here is what Reggie Gilliam is:

 

Good blocker

Good special teams player 

Good athlete 

Emergency TE

Cheap (1.6m in 2024)

 

No reason to question his spot on this team at all. 

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Exactly. He does a lot of different things. Special Teams, added blocker, and versatile. And he doesn't cost much.

 

But a majority of posters around here feel anyone can block and anyone can play special teams. And unless you're scoring points or getting INT's or sacks, you're useless, can be replaced by literally anyone, and are a waste of resources. 

Edited January 28, 2024 by BillsFanForever19

[Aussie Joe]

I found it interesting that they extended him after only two years … can’t recall them doing that otherwise with a undrafted guy …. They must have liked him 

 

I’m not going to lose any sleep if he sees out his last year at $1.9m 

[gobills404]

He’s ok but more of a #2 imho. This team need a true #1 fullback to get them over the hump in the playoffs.

[GASabresIUFan]

  On 1/27/2024 at 11:17 PM, Pete said:

No doubt we need to improve special teams.  But we don’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water.  Did you study every all 22 special team play?  I think a better strategy is to let coaches break down failures and identify weak links.  There are 11 players- they do not all suck on every play

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However given our cap issues we need players that contribute on O\D and special teams.  We really can’t afford special teams specialists

[Matt_In_NH]

  On 1/27/2024 at 6:36 PM, NoSaint said:

Are there 6 true fullbacks in the nfl?

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There are in the pro bowl. 

[boyst]

  On 1/27/2024 at 6:33 PM, FireChans said:

I think he might be. Ricard and Juice are probably the only 2 dudes I take over him.

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Ricard isn't a fullback. Cmon. Dude is just a big guy who they give the rock to carry. 

 

No different than Kyle Williams was. I can't believe more teams simply don't do this. 

[FireChans]

  On 1/28/2024 at 1:07 AM, boyst said:

Ricard isn't a fullback. Cmon. Dude is just a big guy who they give the rock to carry. 

 

No different than Kyle Williams was. I can't believe more teams simply don't do this. 

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They also throw the ball to Ricard. He had 5 catches for 52 yards on the year.

 

Those are Trent Sherfield numbers.

[boyst]

  On 1/28/2024 at 1:14 AM, FireChans said:

They also throw the ball to Ricard. He had 5 catches for 52 yards on the year.

 

Those are Trent Sherfield numbers.

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Sherfield was just gross

 

I remember last spring when he and Harty were going to make us completely forget Isaiah McKenzie existed. 

[klos63]

How many snaps did he take at fullback?

[TheyCallMeAndy]

  On 1/28/2024 at 1:37 AM, klos63 said:

How many snaps did he take at fullback?

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99 snaps in total, I’m sure most at FB. 

[John from Riverside]

We seem to run a lot of extra offensive lineman sets for a team that carries a fullback

[Pete]

  On 1/28/2024 at 12:00 AM, GASabresIUFan said:

However given our cap issues we need players that contribute on O\D and special teams.  We really can’t afford special teams specialists

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The point is that Reggie is not only a core special teamer- he protects Josh, he’s 3rd TE, he is a key player helping do dirty work, enabling plays to succeed 

[GunnerBill]

  On 1/27/2024 at 6:47 PM, eSJayDee said:

Do you even call him a FB?

There's nobody on the roster ahead of him; as I recall he's been healthy all year & he's played what, prolly (well) under 100 offensive snaps.  Meanwhile, he plays most ST snaps & has prolly played 300+ there.  No, he's not a top 5 FB & he's arguably not even a FB.  For that matter, as someone mentioned above, how many true FBs are there these days?

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Not well under. 99 in the regular season. He has had less value on offense this year than in previous years.

 

But yes, he is a proper full back and in terms of how many guys would I rank above him as fullbacks.... It's Ricard, Jusczyk and Burton (Denver). I reckon there are about 10-12 teams I'd say keep and use a fullback - it is mainly Shanahan stretch zone teams: San Francisco, Miami, Minnesota, Houston, Atlanta and then E-P teams: Denver, Las Vegas, Buffalo, New Orleans and then Baltimore who kinda fit into that category as well. I'm probably missing a couple. Normally you'd add New England to that list but they didn't carry one this year I don't think.