K J Hamler the new speed threat?

[Buffalo_Stampede]

3 minutes ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

The Bills appear to be holding their breath that this is the case.

 

Hopefully they are bluffing and acquire DK Metcalf in June and we can stop this KJ Hamler/Andy Isabella nonsense.

Bills haven’t had a true deep threat since 2019 and part of 2020. 
 

Actions speak loud.

[TheyCallMeAndy]

1 hour ago, Back2Buff said:

 

23 games, 42 recs, 620 yards, 3 tds.  The definition of a JAG.

Bad hamstrings and a heart condition.

 

I think it’s still a long shot for him to have any kind of meaningful role, but he’s talented. Like an above poster mentioned, if he can gun or return kicks he could make it. Otherwise he’s a safe bet for the practice squad. 

1 minute ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

Bills haven’t had a true deep threat since 2019 and part of 2020. 
 

Actions speak loud.

Teams also stopped playing single high against us. 
 

Cook should help that return, but taking away Josh’s deep game has been defensive’s priority.

[JohnBonhamRocks]

16 minutes ago, Logic said:

KJ Hamler is the new blue medical tent threat.

Needed one since EJ Manuel left

[nucci]

2 hours ago, Buffalo03 said:

I don't know about that. This is a sneaky good signing

why is it sneaky?

[BADOLBILZ]

6 minutes ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

Bills haven’t had a true deep threat since 2019 and part of 2020. 
 

Actions speak loud.

 

 

That's not really the case.......Gabe Davis was one of the league's most effective deep threats since he came into the league.   His air yards per target and yards per catch were massive and it lead to impressive TD stats.

 

He just didn't offer anything else so defense's adjusted and the Bills gradually got diminishing returns from his role in the passing game.  

[Solomon Grundy]

2 hours ago, BuffaloRebound said:

Guy has had injury after injury since he got drafted and Broncos have been one of the worst run franchises the last couple years, but not sure why Indy let him go if he’s some kind of hidden gem that just needed to get healthy.  

Indy traded Jerry Hughes for Kelvin Sheppard. 🤷

25 minutes ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

Bills haven’t had a true deep threat since 2019 and part of 2020. 
 

Actions speak loud.

Forget about Emmanuel Sanders? 

[pennstate10]

2 hours ago, JESSEFEFFER said:

Isabella and Hamler are similar in that they were smallish, fast, early day 2 draft prospects that failed on their original teams which have proven to have been rather poor situations.  There's a good chance that the Bills liked them in their draft years and are thus willing to give them a chance within their organizational walls and see what they might unlock.  There is such a thing as bad luck with injuries and poor environments where one's career begins.  Josh repeats his dad's "bloom where you are planted" mantra but there are some franchises that are asphalt parking lots surrounded by overfilled dumpsters. Little chance to make roots and bloom there. 

 

They are also decent candidates for one or two of the six veteran slots on the practice squad.  Remember the Bills 2022 season when they were running thin in their WR group heading into the playoffs and brought Beasley and Brown back late in the season?  I think Beane might be inclined to do more to prevent that from happening again.

Hamler was both fast and quick in college. Biggest problem he had at psu was drops, which I think knocked him out of the 1st round. 
 

Year 1 at Denver he averaged 19 yds per catch on limited targets. 
 

the cardiac issue he had seemed to be a viral myocarditis, which typically resolves completely. 
 

Biggest issue I see is hamstrings and acl. If he’s recovered from these, he could be the deep threat Bills currently lack. 
 

in any event,, a pretty low risk signing. Cost the Bills no draft capital and little salary cap. 
 

[RobbRiddick]

Even if he makes the team I really don't expect much from him. The most I could see is a Robert Foster type of year, absent for most games but shows up the odd week with big receiving numbers based on one or 2 long passes. Maybe 4 TDs over the season.

 

Depending on how the rest of the guys do, those could end up being some nice complementary numbers, but first he has to stay healthy

[MJS]

5 hours ago, Mailman said:

It wouldn't surprise me, at this point. McBeane just doesn't value the wide out spot like most modern teams. Same song and dance in Carolina. 

Of the four teams who made it to the conference championship game last year, three of them had fairly weak receiver rooms. The fourth is the 49ers, who were loaded with weapons, but also had the most limited of the QBs.

 

If anything, the Bills are current with NFL trends and fans are behind in their thinking.

[ngbills]

More likely to not make team that be a threat. But you never know. 

[Bangarang]

I have low expectations

[Alphadawg7]

5 hours ago, Mailman said:

It wouldn't surprise me, at this point. McBeane just doesn't value the wide out spot like most modern teams. Same song and dance in Carolina. 

 

And how many track team WR groups have won a Super Bowl in the last 20 years?  

[ngbills]

8 minutes ago, MJS said:

Of the four teams who made it to the conference championship game last year, three of them had fairly weak receiver rooms. The fourth is the 49ers, who were loaded with weapons, but also had the most limited of the QBs.

 

If anything, the Bills are current with NFL trends and fans are behind in their thinking.

Except:

KC is trying and investing in the WR room. Both in terms of drafts - 1st this year and 2nd in that past two drafts, as well as free agent $. 

BAL has Bateman and Flowers who are recent 1st round picks. They paid $ for OBJ. They have decent WR room and again have invested in it.

DET has St. Brown and Williams (recent 1st round pick) and some decent role guys. Again not a weak room and have invested heavily.

 

BUF in comparison has shelled out middling free agent $ and until a 2nd rounder this year, low level draft picks. 

[Buffalo03]

2 hours ago, nucci said:

why is it sneaky?

If you have ever watched him play, you would know why

[Alphadawg7]

This concept we are a "slow" team is puzzling to me.  We may not be a track team, but we are also not slow and have a ton of athleticism across our offense.

 

Samuel is a 4.3 WR

Shakir is a near 4.4 WR

Kincaid is athletic and a mismatch type TE out there who can attack the seem

Cook is an explosive RB as a runner and a reciever

Allen is one of the most dangerous QB's on the run ever in the NFL

 

Then we just added Ray Davis who has great acceleration and burst to go along with some power.  We still have sleeper guys like Cephus, Hamler, and Isabella who all have top end speed to potentially come in a stretch the field (Hamler maybe having the most potential) and/or be a weapon on the new kickoff format.  

 

And, while Coleman may not have deep ball speed to just run past DB's, he is one of the most athletic WR's in the draft this year and has plenty of acceleration, agility, and burst to rip off large chunks and still beat guys deep.  I mean everyone wanted DeAndre Hopkins at multiple times in his career and Colemans pro day 40 time was faster than Hopkins fastest recorded 40 time.  Coleman is fast enough to beat guys all over the field and the kind of guy who also doesn't even need a lot of separation to be open like Hopkins.  He is also faster than Mike Evans, another guy people have been wanting us to go get for years.    

 

And in Buffalo, we play a lot of bad weather games and a lot more physical games where speed is nice, but isn't as valuable as toughness, athleticism, and execution. 

 

The fastest team in NFL history with 2 MVP candidates at QB and WR cant beat teams over .500, can't win a playoff game, and can't even win their division with a 4 game lead and 5 games to go.  In fact, Miami probably doesn't even make the playoffs this year with all the AFC teams on the rise and the ones getting their QB's back like Bengals and Jets.  

 

[sven233]

A lot of people on here have been on the Justin Shorter train and think he could potentially be the next guy to come out of nowhere and contribute.  Some are still on the Isabella and Shavers trains as well.  I hope you are all right and they do come out of nowhere and surprise.

 

I said a while ago that I will be conducting the train for KJ Hamler until he gets hurt.  Obviously that has been the thing holding him back since he entered the league.  But, if you watch the tape of when he actually was healthy and did play, he offers things this WR room just doesn't have.  But, obviously, it's on him and his body to stay healthy.  I think if he can, he can definitely help us in a limited role.....10-15 snaps a game.  He's a very talented dude.  And you know what?  I hope I am right too!

Edited May 2 by sven233

[MJS]

Samuel is the speed guy. No need to even talk much about the depth receivers who will rarely, if ever, be on the field.

[MJS]

1 hour ago, ngbills said:

Except:

KC is trying and investing in the WR room. Both in terms of drafts - 1st this year and 2nd in that past two drafts, as well as free agent $. 

BAL has Bateman and Flowers who are recent 1st round picks. They paid $ for OBJ. They have decent WR room and again have invested in it.

DET has St. Brown and Williams (recent 1st round pick) and some decent role guys. Again not a weak room and have invested heavily.

 

BUF in comparison has shelled out middling free agent $ and until a 2nd rounder this year, low level draft picks. 

Buffalo had a superstar receiver in Diggs and a guy they really liked in Gabe Davis. They believed Davis would develop, but he never really did. Still, he left and signed a pretty big contract in free agency. And Diggs fell off a cliff in the middle of last year.

 

The Bills signed Curtis Samuel and drafted a receiver with their first pick this year. That is good investment this year. And previous years it was not as much of a need because of what they had in Diggs and Davis. Plus they had Shakir and drafted Kincaid in the first round last year to be a weapon for the passing game.

 

For KC and Baltimore it has been a huge, glaring need for them. That is why they invested so much recently. The Bills weren't in that position.

Edited May 2 by MJS

[Mr. WEO]

6 hours ago, SoonerBillsFan said:

Yes, it is possible.  Shakir and Samuel are fast as well.

Our WR room is better than many fans think.  

 

Based on what?

[Logic]

I really WANT to like Hamler and be excited about him.

He was a 2nd round pick, and he posted 900 yards and 8 touchdowns as a freshman at Penn State. He's got great speed and quicks.

The issue is that he just CANNOT stay healthy. He's about as snake-bitten health wise as any player I've ever seen in the NFL. I don't have the laundry list of injuries here in front of me, but it's not pretty. There's a reason that the team that drafted him finally said "enough is enough". After a slightly promising rookie year, he played just 10 games across the next two years combined, during which he posted just 12 total receptions. Then last season it was discovered that he has pericarditis. So he has a chronic condition AND an injury history.

I'd love him to be past his injury woes as much as the next guy, but to expect him to suddenly break out and be any kind of consistently healthy and consistently productive receiving threat four years after he left college seems ill advised.

I'll consider him to be in the same boat as Andy Isabella until further notice: A fast guy to compete in training camp, but the odds of him making the 53-man roster and producing seem very low.



 

4 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

Based on what?

Wishful thinking and "potential" only, as far as I can see.

As BADOL pointed out recently (God, what has my Bills fandom come to when I'm quoting BADOL?!), we don't have a receiver on our roster who has ever posted a 1,000 yard receiving season.

People feel like Samuel has the potential to do it, but even in his best season under our current OC, he didn't crack 875. 
People feel like Coleman has the potential to do it, but he's a 20 year old rookie.
People feel like Shakir will take a big step forward and year three and may be able to do it, but he has yet to prove that he actually can.

If everyone's most optimistic outlook for our WR corps comes to pass, then the "underrated WRs" take will be true. But how often does the entirety of the most optimistic outlook come to fruition?

Hope is not a strategy, unless you're the 2024 Buffalo Bills offense, apparently.

Edited May 2 by Logic