What’s up with the bills usage of Kincaid?

[Ballhawk]

This is my concern with the Bills approach on offense. If you are going to spread the ball around and take what the opponent gives you week to week then does it not follow that the defense will dictate where you go. To a point that seems smart, in the extreme it feels like DCs will scheme our best offensive weapons out of the game. 

That system seems predicated on not having superstars, which it will be hard for Kincaid to develop into with this approach.

 

[sven233]

It is still way early to tell what this offense is.  2 out of the first 4 games we blew a team out so bad that started running the clock out in the 3rd quarter.  So, you can't really glean anything from those.  Against Arizona, we got down early but ended up scoring over 30, so you can't really complain there either.  And the Ravens game was a butt whipping from the start.  For the first time all season, our offensive line got manhandled and Allen had someone in his face on virtually every snap.  And, getting behind so early obviously caused some changes to how we were going to have to play the game.

 

Look.....I am a huge fan of Kincaid.  I think he can truly be the next great one.  But, where he excels is down the field.  He is a mismatch in the seams and on deep crossers.  Unfortunately, we haven't seen much of that yet this season.  Some of that has been due to score effects and the way these games have played out.  Some I am sure have to do with the design of the offense.  But, I think the biggest reason he is not getting the ball is the lack of a true WR1.  Say what you want about Diggs.  He wasn't a perfect player.  But, when he was on the field, teams always shaded coverage his way which opened up opportunities for Kincaid.  Right now, teams know we have nobody that will beat them on the outside consistently.  In fact, teams know that Kincaid is probably our best offensive pass catcher.  So, what does that do?  You guessed it.......it puts a lot more attention on Kincaid than he would have if you have a WR1.

 

The "Everybody Eats" mentality is all fine and well when you are playing against the average NFL defenses.  When you are playing good teams, though, you can't underestimate what having that WR1 does for your team.  Even if he has a down game, he is still drawing that extra attention away from other parts of the field.  You need that and we will be looking for that guy this off season as well.  We have to. 

 

Regardless, though, I am not sure these first 4 games have given us a true chance to judge his usage with the way they have played out.  We need more from him and he should be the focal part of our offense.  But so far, he either hasn't had that chance due to circumstances in game and sometimes, a lack of focus on him in the game plan by Brady.  We need to get him more involved, though.  He's too talented to not be getting 70+ yards a game.

[Ethan in Cleveland]

10 minutes ago, Bleeding Bills Blue said:

 

He still can do this, and has done it.  But if teams are playing off coverage on a bunch, you have leverage - its basically like an outside run.  I don't need to diagnose man vs. zone, 2 high vs. 1 high, pressure, whatever.  I just call an alert and throw it over to the bunch and its 2 blocking 2 and kincaid has the ball to create some YAC.  

 

Teams will start trying to find ways to stop this, but if you can get 5-10 yards basically on a handoff to shakir or kincaid, why wouldn't you?  

I'm not saying we shouldn't do that. Pretty sure Kelce gets one or two of those passes a game. But he also gets some explosive plays in the deep middle. That is what Josh excels at. Kincaid and Knox should be able to exploit that. They can use MVS to run the safety off deep and Knkx or Kimcaid can trail him and check up in the deep middle. 

[Buffalo Boy]

4 hours ago, Ethan in Cleveland said:

I mean how hard can it be? Any low level internet could go watch film of Kelce, Gronk, Kittle,  and a host of other great TEs and design 10-15 plays that exploit the defense.

 

This board was happy to see Diggs gone thinking this would open up opportunities for others.  Just the opposite so far. Maybe just maybe Diggs did draw extra attention late last year opening up opportunities for Shakir and Kincaid to make plays. 

[Sestak4ever]

When they used Kincaid, the few times in the Miami and Jacksonville games, it was generally on first down and each time he broke tackles and always made 8 - 9 yards making it second down and short yardage to go. I thought that was very successful when they did it. Why they went away from that I have no idea.

[JerseyBills]

4 hours ago, The Frankish Reich said:

Well, you did mention it.

4 games. Averaging about 50% of snaps.

5 targets. 3 catches. 30 yards.

Awful signing.

What about his impact in the run game? 

Don't Knox the guy so quickly

 

 

Agreed about contract but Knox isn't no bum

 

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

The Bills coaches read all the posts here at TSW celebrating the success that Knox and Kincaid were destined to have.  The coaches are just confounding the opponents, and sticking it to TSW members.

😁

[Logic]

Opposing defenses are thus far mostly concentrating their efforts on stopping Kincaid and Shakir, and are content to give up outside stuff and force the Bills' other receivers to beat them.

In the most recent game, in particular, the Ravens mostly put Kyle Hamilton on Kincaid and Marlon Humphrey on Shakir, and said "we dare you to beat us with other guys", and the Bills couldn't.

Unless and until the Bills start getting some more meaningful production from their outside WRs, defenses will continue to sell out to clog the middle of the field.

This is where a genuine outside threat would be useful. This is why I wanted Brian Thomas or Xavier Worthy (or Troy Franklin, who has been a zero so far, and I'm an idiot): To force defenses to respect them deep and to open things up over the middle. Maybe Coleman becomes the guy. Maybe Samuel gets healthy and becomes the guy. Maybe the trade for someone. They need to be able to do SOMETHING outside, or Kincaid and Shakir will increasingly be blanked. 

[Freddie's Dead]

I'm for it.

[Mr. WEO]

20 hours ago, iwishitwerecolder said:

I love Kincaid as much as the next guy.. but can’t help but deny the lack of production so far through this season. He’s had flashes of greatness through his first two seasons, but under the Brady system sorta seems like a 1-2 yard route kinda guy instead of the “kelce find the open spot in the defense” kind of player. Just sort of feels like we could’ve traded back and gotten a guy like laporta, or maybe gone corner in the 2023 draft. Also not to mention, the year prior singing Knox to a pretty massive contract as well.

 

same as last year.

 

love how posters insinuate that a guy like this should just simply  turn into Kelce.

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

Kincaid gets a ton of defensive attention from what I’ve seen…I think we tend to underrate our players that aren’t household names yet (mostly just because they play in Buffalo 😂) but defenses certainly treat him like he’s great 

 

he is so good at catching balls in stride and turning something like a 3 yard flat route into a 7 or 8 yard gain too which nobody talks about for whatever reason but it’s huge 

1 hour ago, JerseyBills said:

What about his impact in the run game? 

Don't Knox the guy so quickly

 

 

Agreed about contract but Knox isn't no bum

 

Most fans don’t care about blocking on running plays which absolutely infuriates me lol if diggs put any effort at all into blocking maybe he’d still be here…the guy was the laziest player when he wasn’t the primary target

Edited October 1 by Generic_Bills_Fan

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

1 hour ago, Sestak4ever said:

When they used Kincaid, the few times in the Miami and Jacksonville games, it was generally on first down and each time he broke tackles and always made 8 - 9 yards making it second down and short yardage to go. I thought that was very successful when they did it. Why they went away from that I have no idea.

Idk what the heck happened in the ravens game lol Simon pointed it out that the flat routes were there at times and then I couldn’t unsee it 🤣. seems like josh/brady or maybe both panicked trying to keep pace with the ravens offense and abandoned the shorter stuff that likely would’ve worked and the ravens very much knew we would 

 

[uticaclub]

6 hours ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

Let’s be clear first, the Bills offense has been dominant minus Baltimore and a half vs Arizona. 
 

But yes, their usage of Kincaid and also Samuel is concerning. 

Kincaid was drafted to work out of the slot in a Daboll/Dorsey offense.

 

The offense didn't do that much against Miami

[henry jones]

A wideout other Shakir needs to step up.  That will help free up space over the middle for Kincaid.  Until that happens, coverages will likely continue to shift his way.

[DrDawkinstein]

I'm digging for the tweet that shows the replays from the Arizona game with THREE DEFENDERS surrounding Kincaid all the way up the field from the moment the ball is snapped.

 

The bigger question is, with so much attention going to Kincaid, why isnt anyone else feasting?

[Comebackkid]

4 hours ago, LABILLBACKER said:

This organization has got to identify future allocation better and stop with the ridiculous extensions. We extended Knox then rarely use him. We extend Bass after a mediocre season. We sign guys like Hines, Harty & Samuel only to completely ignore them.  Do they like wasting money or this this just a systematic failure in player usage?

 sounds like the person signing and the person utilizing arent on the same page.

[ScottishBills]

Mark Andrews and Kyle Pitts have caught as many balls as you and I in the last 2 games 🤷🏽‍♂️

 

Tight End is just a weird position. 

 

But have to agree with the main sentiment - would love to see him down the field, or at the very least seam catches up the sideline

Edited October 1 by ScottishBills

[JerseyBills]

3 hours ago, Generic_Bills_Fan said:

Kincaid gets a ton of defensive attention from what I’ve seen…I think we tend to underrate our players that aren’t household names yet (mostly just because they play in Buffalo 😂) but defenses certainly treat him like he’s great 

 

he is so good at catching balls in stride and turning something like a 3 yard flat route into a 7 or 8 yard gain too which nobody talks about for whatever reason but it’s huge 

Most fans don’t care about blocking on running plays which absolutely infuriates me lol if diggs put any effort at all into blocking maybe he’d still be here…the guy was the laziest player when he wasn’t the primary target

FACTS 

THANK YOU

💯💯💯💯💯💯💯

[LabattBlue]

2 hours ago, DrDawkinstein said:

I'm digging for the tweet that shows the replays from the Arizona game with THREE DEFENDERS surrounding Kincaid all the way up the field from the moment the ball is snapped.

 

The bigger question is, with so much attention going to Kincaid, why isnt anyone else feasting?

It may have been misleading(other receivers in the area??) as there is no way Kincaid is being triple teamed.  Absolutely no way. 

Edited October 1 by LabattBlue

[DrDawkinstein]

1 hour ago, LabattBlue said:

It may have been misleading(other receivers in the area??) as there is no way Kincaid is being triple teamed.  Absolutely no way. 

 

He definitely was. No one else was around.

 

Found one of them. I know there were a few examples of this.

 

 

Edited October 1 by DrDawkinstein