Safety play: Actually pretty good?

[TheyCallMeAndy]

There seems to have been a narrative that our safety play has been pretty poor this season. While Hamlin, Rapp, and Bishop have had moments of struggles this season, some of the numbers are actually surprising. 
 

I’ll start off by saying our worst defender, by far, has been Cam Lewis. I’m not sure if he counts as a safety or not, he seems to be filling in at NCB for Johnson. Possibly rotating with Ingram, or is Ingram mainly been the dime DB? All I know is the QB stat line while targeting Cam is this:

 

22 of 29 (76%)

216 yards 

1 TD

7 missed tackles (20%)

 

Love our UB guys, as a UB guy myself, but he needs the bench, and he needs it badly.

 

Now for the other guys

 

Damar Hamlin - Hasn’t been perfect, probably isn’t a full time starter, but I don’t think any of us predicted this:

7-15 (46%) - Phenomenal 

83 yards 0 TDs 

1 INT 3 PBUs - Very good

1 missed tackle (4%) - Great

 

Cole Bishop - Very limited playing time thus far, but should have career start #1 next week. Still only given up 2-4 for 17 yards. Has 1 PBU, but also has one missed tackle. 
 

Taylor Rapp - There is a chance that Taylor Rapp has actually been silently outstanding this season so far. He’s only been targeted 4 times all season, Miami and Baltimore didn’t target him at all (granted he played 9 snaps vs Balt). The result  has been 1 catch (25%) for 12 yards. He has 1 PBU and 1 tackle for loss, with only 1 missed tackle so far. 
 

Thoughts? Observations? 
 

🦬

[strive_for_five_guy]

We need Taron back at NCB as soon as he is healthy.  In regards to the safety play, I’m hoping Bishop is ready to step in and run with one of the safety jobs sooner than later.  Even if the coverage has been decent from Rapp and/or Hamlin, both guys are limited in their athletic ability and Rapp is frequently a danger to himself and others on the field.  Meanwhile, Hamlin and Lewis both demonstrated their limited speed on the Henry run amongst other plays.  Once Bishop has a decent understanding of this defense, he should be an upgrade over either Rapp or Hamlin at one of the safety positions.

[Brand J]

22 minutes ago, TheyCallMeAndy said:

There seems to have been a narrative that our safety play has been pretty poor this season. While Hamlin, Rapp, and Bishop have had moments of struggles this season, some of the numbers are actually surprising. 
 

I’ll start off by saying our worst defender, by far, has been Cam Lewis. I’m not sure if he counts as a safety or not, he seems to be filling in at NCB for Johnson. Possibly rotating with Ingram, or is Ingram mainly been the dime DB? All I know is the QB stat line while targeting Cam is this:

 

22 of 29 (76%)

216 yards 

1 TD

7 missed tackles (20%)

 

Love our UB guys, as a UB guy myself, but he needs the bench, and he needs it badly.

 

Now for the other guys

 

Damar Hamlin - Hasn’t been perfect, probably isn’t a full time starter, but I don’t think any of us predicted this:

7-15 (46%) - Phenomenal 

83 yards 0 TDs 

1 INT 3 PBUs - Very good

1 missed tackle (4%) - Great

 

Cole Bishop - Very limited playing time thus far, but should have career start #1 next week. Still only given up 2-4 for 17 yards. Has 1 PBU, but also has one missed tackle. 
 

Taylor Rapp - There is a chance that Taylor Rapp has actually been silently outstanding this season so far. He’s only been targeted 4 times all season, Miami and Baltimore didn’t target him at all (granted he played 9 snaps vs Balt). The result  has been 1 catch (25%) for 12 yards. He has 1 PBU and 1 tackle for loss, with only 1 missed tackle so far. 
 

Thoughts? Observations? 
 

🦬

I’d bet most of our guys in the secondary have good numbers because from halftime of the Cardinals game and up until Baltimore, the DL had been winning their battles up front. They battered Murray in the 2nd half, Tua, and Lawrence. Numbers on the backend are beneficiaries of rushed, pressured, or inaccurate throws. Hamlin’s only interception of his career wasn’t a phenomenal play by him, just an overthrow by Lawrence for example.
 

If the DL doesn’t pressure the passer going forward, the numbers for everyone in the secondary will start to look far worse. As far as Cam Lewis, I don’t think he should be on the field for meaningful snaps, so I’m not surprised his defense leaves a lot to be desired.

[JohnBonhamRocks]

This made me think how this morning I saw a fantasy chart that projects Cam Lewis to cover Diggs… any news on Taron?

[The Jokeman]

4 minutes ago, JohnBonhamRocks said:

This made me think how this morning I saw a fantasy chart that projects Cam Lewis to cover Diggs… any news on Taron?

“TB is improving, both are improving,” McDermott said. “TB probably more so at this point. We’ll see how the week flows for both of them, I do expect TB to be practicing at some point during the week. Taron, a little bit more of a question mark, at this point. We’ll see how it goes.”

 

https://www.si.com/nfl/bills/news/buffalo-bills-terrel-bernard-taron-johnson-updates-week-5

[MJS]

I think Hamlin has filled in admirably. But he isn't an impact starter. We are used to having impact starters at safety. Rapp is kind of the same way. He does well, but doesn't make a big impact positively or negatively.

 

Cam Lewis is a backup, and he has done as well as you can hope for a backup. He makes some plays and he misses some plays. I think he is quality depth, but it sure would be better to have Taron Johnson in there.

 

At linebacker, Dorian Williams is actually making impact plays. I'm excited for the future with him. Spector is another guy filling in who just isn't an impact starter. He makes some plays but isn't dynamic like Bernard or Milano.

 

And that's really the issue. Replacing all of our impact starters with guys who are fine, but don't make the impact plays, takes all the upside out of the defense.

[Captain Hindsight]

Hamlin and Rapp have been fine. We have been spoiled by such elite safety play the last 7 years, but in reality, Hamlin and Rapp have been good. I'd love to see more impact plays, but the bigger issue has been backups at LB 

[US Egg]

Hope these guys can run track.

[TheyCallMeAndy]

32 minutes ago, JohnBonhamRocks said:

This made me think how this morning I saw a fantasy chart that projects Cam Lewis to cover Diggs… any news on Taron?

Rapp is out, so Taron should be safe to return 😅

[GoBills808]

1 hour ago, TheyCallMeAndy said:

There seems to have been a narrative that our safety play has been pretty poor this season. While Hamlin, Rapp, and Bishop have had moments of struggles this season, some of the numbers are actually surprising. 
 

I’ll start off by saying our worst defender, by far, has been Cam Lewis. I’m not sure if he counts as a safety or not, he seems to be filling in at NCB for Johnson. Possibly rotating with Ingram, or is Ingram mainly been the dime DB? All I know is the QB stat line while targeting Cam is this:

 

22 of 29 (76%)

216 yards 

1 TD

7 missed tackles (20%)

 

Love our UB guys, as a UB guy myself, but he needs the bench, and he needs it badly.

 

Now for the other guys

 

Damar Hamlin - Hasn’t been perfect, probably isn’t a full time starter, but I don’t think any of us predicted this:

7-15 (46%) - Phenomenal 

83 yards 0 TDs 

1 INT 3 PBUs - Very good

1 missed tackle (4%) - Great

 

Cole Bishop - Very limited playing time thus far, but should have career start #1 next week. Still only given up 2-4 for 17 yards. Has 1 PBU, but also has one missed tackle. 
 

Taylor Rapp - There is a chance that Taylor Rapp has actually been silently outstanding this season so far. He’s only been targeted 4 times all season, Miami and Baltimore didn’t target him at all (granted he played 9 snaps vs Balt). The result  has been 1 catch (25%) for 12 yards. He has 1 PBU and 1 tackle for loss, with only 1 missed tackle so far. 
 

Thoughts? Observations? 
 

🦬

my thoughts honestly...we have played probably 3 of the worst teams in the league thus far

 

just saying

[colin]

i think our safeties kinda suck, they don't do well running up and tackling people under their coverage, be it shorter passes or runs.  this mcd D is totally dependent on that, which is why he kept poy and hyde around past their due dates.

 

nickle corner is really huge for the d as well.  TJ is sick, top 3 at the position, but we need him to blast forward and tackle runners, which means when you put in a really marginal nfl player like lewis, you lose out on the pass coverage and the run coverage.

 

i think our degree of difficulty is just too high.  no screens and we are predictable on O, and on D we give ourselves match up problems (unless the other team is down and has to throw the ball deep, then we are the best) when teams have a neutral game script.  dropping huge money and picks into the DL to have casey toohill play a ton of snaps for our D is also a gear grinder for me!

[LabattBlue]

Hamlin fails the eye test. I don’t care what some fancy stats say.  He sucks!

[Bruffalo]

Yeah, I'd wait until after Sunday to post something like this. We haven't played a team that is a downfield passing threat like Houston is, you could argue Miami but the pressure was getting to Tua so fast I don't think you can really count them. I've got a feeling they're going to get carved up by Collins, Dell (if healthy), and Diggs. 

 

We should want to be better at the position,  because right now this group doesn't scare anybody. 

[Brand J]

5 minutes ago, Bruffalo said:

Yeah, I'd wait until after Sunday to post something like this. We haven't played a team that is a downfield passing threat like Houston is, you could argue Miami but the pressure was getting to Tua so fast I don't think you can really count them. I've got a feeling they're going to get carved up by Collins, Dell (if healthy), and Diggs. 

 

We should want to be better at the position,  because right now this group doesn't scare anybody. 

According to Texans insiders, their OL has been a big problem for them. In their blowout loss MIN feasted and in their three wins they couldn’t run the ball to save their lives, so it’s left a lot of 2nd or 3rd and long. Bobby Slowik was on the list of many here to take over for McD, but if the Texans weren’t 3-1 his seat would be pretty warm. No excuse for the Bills DL not to get to Stroud, especially with Tunsil having injury concerns. 

[gonzo1105]

Hamlin hasn’t been fine. He is terrible in the run game. I can’t wait to get Bishop in there and Edwards needs to be starting next to him until Rapp comes back 

[Bruffalo]

3 minutes ago, Brand J said:

According to Texans insiders, their OL has been a big problem for them. In their blowout loss MIN feasted and in their three wins they couldn’t run the ball to save their lives, so it’s left a lot of 2nd or 3rd and long. Bobby Slowik was on the list of many here to take over for McD, but if the Texans weren’t 3-1 his seat would be pretty warm. No excuse for the Bills DL not to get to Stroud, especially with Tunsil having injury concerns. 

Hadn't heard that. Thanks for the info.  Hopefully we can pressure without Von effectively on those 3rd and longs. 

[stlbills13]

So much depends on the defensive line. They got annihilated by Baltimore. 

[GoBills!]

Give me Rapp and Bishop with a little bit of Ingram. 

[billykay]

1 hour ago, GoBills808 said:

my thoughts honestly...we have played probably 3 of the worst teams in the league thus far

 

just saying

Miami with Tua is very good.

[GoBills808]

2 minutes ago, billykay said:

Miami with Tua is very good.

they barely beat the jags and Tua had thrown 3picks to us before he got hurt

 

Miami is a bad team this year with Tua, w/out him they are one of if not the worst