Bills sign C/G Will Clapp

[Watching since 1964]

Joe Marino’s technical breakdown based on game film he watched…

 

 

[Beck Water]

9 hours ago, MrEpsYtown said:

Honestly I am not sure. I have only seen him play a few times. I guess I would say that I do not think they are done. I think they add a mid level free agent and draft some guys. 

 

It makes more sense to me after I learned about the Joe Brady/New Orleans overlap.  He must have seen something he liked - potential, work ethic, locker room character, all three.

 

It makes me feel better that they have a guy who has played center in the NFL last seaon on the roster now: McGovern took 0 snaps there last season.  In this Athletic article McGovern talked about how different Kromer's blocking technique (jump-set) was from what he did with the Cowboys.  Do you know anything about the blocking techniques the Chargers OL uses?  

I hope you're right that they're not done, but what they add I guess depends upon how they assess the potential in Anderson and Kevin Jarvis,  IMHO drafting a tackle may be equally or more important; we only have Van Demark as our swing tackle at the moment, yes?  And I believe he came into the season never having played LT?  So that's a big gap to me.

[Beck Water]

27 minutes ago, Motorin' said:

 

Will Clapp is the new Rick Bates.

 

I mean, maybe?  and guys can develop since the draft, or have a bad day at the draft.

 

But Bates had an RAS of 9.57.  According to Joe Marino (linked above by @Watching since 1964), Clapp has an RAS of 3.74 which is.....not good.

 

Until seen otherwise, I'm going to go with "We know Rick Bates.  And Will Clapp is no Rick Bates".

[HappyDays]

13 hours ago, Beck Water said:

 

Clapp started 11 games for the Chargers last year, but it looks as though he got injured his previous game and DNP against us. 

Edit: looked it up, he was on IR actually.  Knee injury but couldn't find details about what it was.

 

 

Joe Brady was apparently an offensive assistant with the Saints when Clapp was drafted (7th round)

 

Ah you are correct, I misremembered. He must have been their #2 center, and they were down to their #3 when we played them.

[Utah John]

I understand his parents had to be a little careful about choosing his first name.  They're on thin ice with the choice they made, but at least they didn't go with Richard.  Dick Clapp would have been unbearable.

45 minutes ago, Beck Water said:

 

I mean, maybe?  and guys can develop since the draft, or have a bad day at the draft.

 

But Bates had an RAS of 9.57.  According to Joe Marino (linked above by @Watching since 1964), Clapp has an RAS of 3.74 which is.....not good.

 

Until seen otherwise, I'm going to go with "We know Rick Bates.  And Will Clapp is no Rick Bates".

Well, we got a draft pick for Bates and Clapp came for free (wrt the draft).  Also it was pretty clear that Bates wanted a chance to start somewhere, so the Bills tried to help him out by trading him.  In the long run, we might miss Bates, but by this point we already knew what Bates is and isn't.  For sure he's not Wyatt Teller.

[Beck Water]

1 hour ago, Utah John said:

I understand his parents had to be a little careful about choosing his first name.  They're on thin ice with the choice they made, but at least they didn't go with Richard.  Dick Clapp would have been unbearable.

Well, we got a draft pick for Bates and Clapp came for free (wrt the draft).  Also it was pretty clear that Bates wanted a chance to start somewhere, so the Bills tried to help him out by trading him.  In the long run, we might miss Bates, but by this point we already knew what Bates is and isn't.  For sure he's not Wyatt Teller.

 

You're correct.  Teller can not play center, and Bates can.

[Motorin']

2 hours ago, Beck Water said:

 

I mean, maybe?  and guys can develop since the draft, or have a bad day at the draft.

 

But Bates had an RAS of 9.57.  According to Joe Marino (linked above by @Watching since 1964), Clapp has an RAS of 3.74 which is.....not good.

 

Until seen otherwise, I'm going to go with "We know Rick Bates.  And Will Clapp is no Rick Bates".

 

Clapp's probably a downgrade from Bates as backup C/G. But so is his salary. 

[MrEpsYtown]

3 hours ago, Beck Water said:

 

It makes more sense to me after I learned about the Joe Brady/New Orleans overlap.  He must have seen something he liked - potential, work ethic, locker room character, all three.

 

It makes me feel better that they have a guy who has played center in the NFL last seaon on the roster now: McGovern took 0 snaps there last season.  In this Athletic article McGovern talked about how different Kromer's blocking technique (jump-set) was from what he did with the Cowboys.  Do you know anything about the blocking techniques the Chargers OL uses?  

I hope you're right that they're not done, but what they add I guess depends upon how they assess the potential in Anderson and Kevin Jarvis,  IMHO drafting a tackle may be equally or more important; we only have Van Demark as our swing tackle at the moment, yes?  And I believe he came into the season never having played LT?  So that's a big gap to me.

The only thing that I know is that their OL coach the last couple of years was Brendan Nugent. He is now the OL coach in Seattle. He’s a Marc Trestman guy who followed him to Chicago and wound up coaching under Aaron Kromer during that time. He also worked with Joe Brady and Ronald Curry during his time in New Orleans and coached at William and Mary. Nugent also worked for Pat Meyer who is a Trestman/Kromer guy who was Brady’s Oline coach in Carolina. Nugent followed Joe Lombardi to the Chargers and was hired by Brandon Staley who obviously worked with Kromer and LA. Long story short, there is a bunch of crossover there. The Chargers also seem to seek out high RAS linemen as well, though Clapp isn’t one of them. 
 

In terms of techniques Kromer and Meyer are all about the aggressive first contact jump set on pass pro. It’s a little different than some other guys teach it, but it makes sense. My really long way of answering your question is that I have to assume Nugent is teaching the same stuff. 
 

Here is a detailed, cool if you are into OL play stuff breakdown of the techniques Meyer teaches, which he learned from Kromer:

 

https://steelersdepot.com/2022/02/bring-the-fight-to-them-new-steelers-ol-coach-pat-meyers-pass-protection-philosophy/

Edited March 23 by MrEpsYtown

[MrEpsYtown]

On Ryan Van Denmark, he is a super high RAS guy with nearly 36 inch arms who was a 4 year starter at UCONN playing left tackle for his last 3 season. He is the exact type of guy you draft or sign and stash and help grow and add strength. i am way more excited about him than I am about Alec Anderson. There is potential there, and we saw that small sample of him filling in for Dion with no issues. 
 

And if healthy, Tommy Doyle is the other tackle depth. Very similar player to Van Denmark. 
 

 

Edited March 23 by MrEpsYtown