Ed Oliver - what the hell?

[dave mcbride]

I felt this deserved its own thread given his draft position and his contract, but mods, if you think it should be merged with the d-line thread, that's fine.

 

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/O/OlivEd00.htm

 

Oliver has only eight tackles this season (through 13 games, although he missed two) and had 34 last season. He has one sack, two TFLs, and 8 QB hits. He had 9.5 sacks last year and 14 TFLs.  What the hell has happened to him? He's arguably the worst producer on the entire defense this season - definitely worse than Daquon Jones. 

 

And I don't buy any "he does the dirty work" sort of argument. 3-technique DTs are supposed to explode through and make actual tackles in the backfield.

 

  

Edited December 9 by dave mcbride

[H2o]

I'm not sure if it's coaching, if it's the 1-Tech beside him not producing, or if it's due to him not having Floyd beside him drawing attention. Whatever it is, it looks like he's taken a couple steps back this year. 

[ProcessImproverMan]

He got paid and then learned from the school of Albert Haynesworth. That's what happened. 

 

[Charles Romes]

Who?

[T.E.]

Just now, ProcessImproverMan said:

He got paid and then learned from the school of Albert Haynesworth. That's what happened. 

 

Exactly. And it was obvious that was going to happen.

[dave mcbride]

1 minute ago, ProcessImproverMan said:

He got paid and then learned from the school of Albert Haynesworth. That's what happened. 

 

He was good last year, and that was after the contract.

[SoCal Deek]

Oliver? No….doesn’t ring a bell. 🤷🏼‍♂️

[gonzo1105]

He’s a solid yet unspectacular player. I get why we paid him when we did but we need more. His best game was against KC but he has been non existent some weeks. We need to overhaul that entire position 

[dave mcbride]

2 minutes ago, T.E. said:

Exactly. And it was obvious that was going to happen.

Again, he was very good last season, which was post-contract.

[nucci]

7 minutes ago, Charles Romes said:

Who?

Ed Oliver.

[K-9]

5 minutes ago, dave mcbride said:

He was good last year, and that was after the contract.

If anything, he wanted to show he earned it last season, which he certainly did. But he has dropped off a cliff.

[GunnerBill]

I am the biggest Ed Oliver fan going. He has actually had 3 years of very high level performance 2021, 2022 and 2023. The flashy numbers in terms of sacks and TFLs only followed in 2023 but he was consistently a pocket mover for three years for the Bills and the underlying analytics in terms of beating double teams, run game penetrations and pass rush wins were pretty close to elite. 

 

However, this season he has been pretty terrible beyond a couple of games. The underlying data supports that, the bare "production" numbers support that and the eye test supports it too. I make no case for the defense for his performances this season. They have not been nearly good enough. 

Edited December 9 by GunnerBill

[T master]

25 minutes ago, dave mcbride said:

I felt this deserved its own thread given his draft position and his contract, but mods, if you think it should be merged with the d-line thread, that's fine.

 

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/O/OlivEd00.htm

 

Oliver has only eight tackles this season (through 13 games, although he missed two) and had 34 last season. He has one sack, two TFLs, and 8 QB hits. He had 9.5 sacks last year and 14 TFLs.  What the hell has happened to him? He's arguably the worst producer on the entire defense this season - definitely worse than Daquon Jones. 

 

And I don't buy any "he does the dirty work" sort of argument. 3-technique DTs are supposed to explode through and make actual tackles in the backfield.

 

  

 

I agree his presence (well him taking up space) hasn't been a factor at all this year for the most part . I never liked the pick i always thought he was to small for a interior D linemen going against O linemen that out weigh him by upwards of 50lbs, sure you can be strong but to do that every game for a entire season .

 

I think the Giants would give the Bills a pretty decent draft pick for him i hope they trade him this next year and get a younger, bigger, player coming out .

 

Have we ever noticed it's usually the D in these games that come up short ? Josh puts on the cape and becomes super Josh to put up points but it's usually the D that comes up short and Ed being one of the highest paid D linemen needs to earn his pay & he's not . 

Edited December 9 by T master

[Irv]

We have zero pass rush.  He's a big part of the problem.   

[Beck Water]

20 minutes ago, ProcessImproverMan said:

He got paid and then learned from the school of Albert Haynesworth. That's what happened. 

 

 

Except he got paid prior to last season and he was a terror last season. 

 

And Al Haynesworth has more to the story.  Check out his Player's Tribune article.

[FireChans]

Carter in limited time has played better than Eddy imo.

 

Ed has not looked like a $20M man this season. Maybe he has something nagging we don’t know about. 

[Brand J]

I was a fan of the Oliver extension, but he’s not earning that money this year. Far too invisible, I don’t recall him having one disruptive game all year whereas in the past you usually got at least two of those each season with more solid play.

[KOKBILLS]

He had a big year last year, teams are paying attention, the Bills and Ed have zero answer. I saw him get chipped by a back a couple times yesterday which is a little strange for a 3 tech... I did a double take the 1st time I saw it... I think teams are frustrating him big time. We all saw what the Ravens did to take advantage of his aggressive, up the field nature... Again, the Bills have little answer for it...

 

Overall, this is who Ed is IMHO... I think 2023 was the outlier... Not this year... The Bills greatly...and I do mean greatly lack talent on the D-line. And of course it's catching up to them this year. It has every year. 

 

If they don't get a monster to play next to him, and another really good DE opposite Groot, this is basically what we're going to get out of Ed when he goes up against quality Offensive systems... Or any Offensive system for that matter. It is what it is.

 

I'm so very tired of complaining about this D-line... I wrote a long post before the Cincy Playoff game about how this D-Line was going to have to step up because they constantly underachieve, and it really has not got much better since then. Sure they feed some games. But games like yesterday are just a product of this Bills and McD's system way too often. Completely shutout. Zero pressure. No one steps up. I can see it costing us a Playoff game already. 

[DCofNC]

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, he’s not a difference maker, he’s GOT to have somebody taking attention away from him or he’s a nobody.  That really means he’s a nobody.  He’s quick for his size, but he’s still not big enough nor strong enough to be an impact player on his own.  It was a wasted top 10 pick and a bad contract to extend him.   He’s a rotational player in the NFL, not more.  Even more exciting is the $21M cap hit for next year and a $26+M dead cap if you try to get rid of him.  Great use of cap for a guy that does literally nothing more than anyone else.

[RichRiderBills]

He's such a mess this year. There is film of him literally being blown off the ball 10 yds in the last game w snow.

 

I wonder if he has the same incentives this year. Last year he kept going on about them. Let's not forget he got the $ prior to last year. 

 

The easiest explanation is the loss of Eric Washington. Line in general playing poor, and we went from a top sacking team in 2023 to one of the bottom 10. 

 

Daquan is also really disappointing to me because I've felt he's been consistently a solid player. 

 

Poona Ford is nails right now in SD btw. Maybe it is coaching. 

Edited December 9 by RichRiderBills