Controversial opinion: Elam was pretty solid

[DabillsDaBillsDaBills]

22 hours ago, BuffaloBill said:

The second call was not tight.  Say what you want but he does not play consistently well.  He plays well sometimes and is out of position on others. Benford is simply a better player. 

 

Elam was in classic DPI positioning for the 2nd call (didn't even attempt to turn his head and was between the WR and the throw). 

 

However, it was a terrible throw and I don't think their was enough contact by Elam on the WR to say that Elam materially restricted the WR chance to catch the ball. The WR jumps as he's moving towards the back of the endzone and his own momentum is taking him away from the ball. Elam barely contacts him.

 

If the WR had stopped and jumped towards the ball (into Elam) then it's 100% a DPI. 

[Kelly to Allen]

Elam is fine. He's cb2 next year regardless of the weird opinions on him. I still think we'll obviously draft a cb maybe 2 tho in the draft 

[Simon]

3 minutes ago, DabillsDaBillsDaBills said:

However, it was a terrible throw and I don't think their was enough contact by Elam on the WR to say that Elam materially restricted the WR chance to catch the ball. The WR jumps as he's moving towards the back of the endzone and his own momentum is taking him away from the ball. Elam barely contacts him.

 

I got the exact same feeling on that one but they never showed a replay from a good angle to confirm it.

The shot from teh endzone pylon would have shown us I think, but they never queued it up.

[Magox]

On 12/22/2024 at 8:00 PM, Success said:

I thought the PI's on him were fairly questionable.  One thing he didn't do - lose his guy.  

 

He was no deer in the headlights out there. Too handsy?  You can make the case on that - but I thought the refs called it more than tight.

 

Sort of reminds me of McKelvin, he was always right there step for step but he was never looking back at the ball so even though he was in the near vicinity he rarely was able to make a play on the ball or bat it down.

 

He is a bit too handsy and lacks the proper technique to be in a position to both stay with the receiver and to be able to look back at the ball.

 

If you can’t look back at the ball as often as he does then he will continue to get penalties called against him.

[Charles Romes]

After watching the D get gashed by the Rams fully healthy, then the lions and pats, it’s we need to take risks and put as much high end talent on the field. Elam has a higher ceiling than anyone in the CB room and should play to give the team a chance.  

[bigduke6]

unfortunately Elam already has the stink of PI/being "handsy" all over him.  something hes going to struggle against mightily with the refs until he puts out a season of not being handsy.  sucks.   the woman ref was calling everything vs the Pats,  even the stuff that wasnt there.

[The Frankish Reich]

FWIW, PFF has Elam at a perfectly respectable 68 rating.

 

Handsy and caught doing it? Sure. But a penalty is often no worse than a catch allowed. And sometimes a whole lot better: a penalty in the end zone that prevents a score is a lot better than giving up a TD catch.

[notpolian]

40 minutes ago, Kelly to Allen said:

Elam is fine. He's cb2 next year regardless of the weird opinions on him. I still think we'll obviously draft a cb maybe 2 tho in the draft 

I sorta doubt this will happen, but we'll see.  IMO, if he was going to be the future CB2, he would have been active for all games this year.  When everyone is healthy, he often gets scratched.  Maybe the coaches just don't want him on special teams if he is a backup CB, but it's still weird to me.

 

He's a really good athlete but he just doesn't get his head around consistently when the ball is in the air.  Ball awareness is a good term I suppose.  There are many people playing college football that are just like this.  Elam seems to not be able to make that step. If you don't, you can't play in the NFL.

[Kelly to Allen]

22 minutes ago, notpolian said:

I sorta doubt this will happen, but we'll see.  IMO, if he was going to be the future CB2, he would have been active for all games this year.  When everyone is healthy, he often gets scratched.  Maybe the coaches just don't want him on special teams if he is a backup CB, but it's still weird to me.

 

He's a really good athlete but he just doesn't get his head around consistently when the ball is in the air.  Ball awareness is a good term I suppose.  There are many people playing college football that are just like this.  Elam seems to not be able to make that step. If you don't, you can't play in the NFL.

He's been number 2 this year when Douglas or Benford were out. 

 

I'm a Elam truther and think he's a legitimate starting cb

[BigDingus]

13 minutes ago, Kelly to Allen said:

He's been number 2 this year when Douglas or Benford were out. 

 

I'm a Elam truther and think he's a legitimate starting cb

 

I'm a real Elam truther, dating back to training camp his rookie year. And the truth is Elam is not good. He is will never be a long term starter on this team. He's the biggest bust of the Beane/McDermott era, and when he's in the game, you know something went horribly wrong.

[BananaB]

1 hour ago, DabillsDaBillsDaBills said:

 

Elam was in classic DPI positioning for the 2nd call (didn't even attempt to turn his head and was between the WR and the throw). 

 

However, it was a terrible throw and I don't think their was enough contact by Elam on the WR to say that Elam materially restricted the WR chance to catch the ball. The WR jumps as he's moving towards the back of the endzone and his own momentum is taking him away from the ball. Elam barely contacts him.

 

If the WR had stopped and jumped towards the ball (into Elam) then it's 100% a DPI. 

I absolutely hate the pass interference call on underthrown balls. Poor pass shouldn’t give the WR an advantage and it totally does in that situation. Bills got one in Rams game I think and it’s a ***** call. DB has no chance recover there if he’s trailing. I do think where that was a short throw to the endzone that Elam gotta react better. 

Edited 11 hours ago by BananaB

[Sierra Foothills]

23 hours ago, Sierra Foothills said:

If I was training them my criteria for a foul would be:

 

1) How egregious is the foul?

2) Did it have any bearing on the outcome of the play?

 

Based on a summation of those two considerations a flag would be thrown or not.

 

It seems increasingly like NFL officials just can't resist the temptation to throw a flag, no matter how marginal the infraction is.

 

 

As a corollary to the above and specifically regarding DPI, I've seen way too many plays where the receiver was simply not open and in fact was dominated in coverage by the defender, but a flag was thrown because the receiver was partitioned from the ball by the defender and was unable to work back towards the ball. This happens a lot in trail coverage.

 

In these cases a DPI penalty should almost never be called... a receiver should not be rewarded for having been dominated by the defender. Additionally it's completely unfair for a defender to be expected to somehow "get out of the way" from between the receiver and the ball.

 

If the coverage is excellent and the defender ends up between the receiver and the ball, a flag should almost NEVER be thrown.

 

To be clear this includes many plays that are underthrown balls and I'm NOT talking about plays where the defender is oblivious to the ball and simply runs over the receiver awaiting the ball. In these cases it is obviously DPI. But otherwise in cases where a ball hits the back of a defender it should NEVER be DPI.

 

 

[Kelly to Allen]

1 hour ago, BigDingus said:

 

I'm a real Elam truther, dating back to training camp his rookie year. And the truth is Elam is not good. He is will never be a long term starter on this team. He's the biggest bust of the Beane/McDermott era, and when he's in the game, you know something went horribly wrong.

 

All the data and eye test says he is good. Idk what to tell you. 

[RiotAct]

1 hour ago, Kelly to Allen said:

He's been number 2 this year when Douglas or Benford were out. 

 

I'm a Elam truther and think he's a legitimate starting cb

likely on another team.