dave mcbride Posted July 6, 2005 Posted July 6, 2005 i just read this piece, and it made remember once again how important a good tight end is to a great offense. the bills, unfortunately, don't have a good tight end, and the two they have are coming off serious injuries suffered in *late* 04. a good tight end opens so much up, both in terms of the overall passing game and establishing a chain-moving, true ball control offense. http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/stor..._len&id=2100665 most good offenses on playoff teams feature productive tight end play. when's the last time the bills had a really good one? mckeller, i'd say, and he was injured too much. metzelaars caught a solid number of balls, but was always too slow to really be a threat. a good but certainly not great player nonetheless. now that i think about it, except for mckeller, they haven't had a standout tight end in ages. this year is certain to be no better. too bad about everitt, of course ...
MadBuffaloDisease Posted July 6, 2005 Posted July 6, 2005 i just read this piece, and it made remember once again how important a good tight end is to a great offense. the bills, unfortunately, don't have a good tight end, and the two they have are coming off serious injuries suffered in *late* 04. a good tight end opens so much up, both in terms of the overall passing game and establishing a chain-moving, true ball control offense. http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/stor..._len&id=2100665 most good offenses on playoff teams feature productive tight end play. when's the last time the bills had a really good one? mckeller, i'd say, and he was injured too much. metzelaars caught a solid number of balls, but was always too slow to really be a threat. a good but certainly not great player nonetheless. now that i think about it, except for mckeller, they haven't had a standout tight end in ages. this year is certain to be no better. too bad about everitt, of course ... Yeah, they tried to address it with Everett, but what can you do?
col_forbin Posted July 6, 2005 Posted July 6, 2005 i just read this piece, and it made remember once again how important a good tight end is to a great offense. the bills, unfortunately, don't have a good tight end, and the two they have are coming off serious injuries suffered in *late* 04. a good tight end opens so much up, both in terms of the overall passing game and establishing a chain-moving, true ball control offense. http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/stor..._len&id=2100665 most good offenses on playoff teams feature productive tight end play. when's the last time the bills had a really good one? mckeller, i'd say, and he was injured too much. metzelaars caught a solid number of balls, but was always too slow to really be a threat. a good but certainly not great player nonetheless. now that i think about it, except for mckeller, they haven't had a standout tight end in ages. this year is certain to be no better. too bad about everitt, of course ... 375269[/snapback] You and me both brother
MrLocke Posted July 6, 2005 Posted July 6, 2005 Reimersma was decent. Really good in 1999 and 2001. I was hoping Donahoe would have signed someone like Marcus Pollrad, but oh well. Euhus was pretty good lets hope he turns it up this season. Also Mularkey being a former Tight-End the Tight-Ends on this roster should get some terrific coaching.
Fake-Fat Sunny Posted July 6, 2005 Posted July 6, 2005 Don;t forget however, that MM was a former TE and I think this is significant for two reasons: 1. He actually does place a lot of importance in the position rather than thinking of it as an afterthought. I think the Bills have shown signs under his tenure of him wanting to utilize the position and spend resources on it to make it work (this in part is why I think we used a first-day draft choice on Everett). 2. Though he views the position as important he does seem to feel he can work personally to improve a player we might judge as inadequate into a player. Maybe so but maybe not. If he makes it work fine, if not then he pays with his customers ire. Overall, i think the TE question is unsettled but we seem to have enough options it doesn't concern me. It would be nice to have Ben Coates or Tony Gonzales but there are rare birds. However, choices must be made because draft choices and the salary cap have limitations. If I had to choose between overspending on Spikes or overspending on an FA TE I would overspend on Spikes. If it cost a 1st or 2nd to get a good TE, I'd pick Evans or Losman instead. I think one canno fault the Bills braintrust for not having a playmaking TD because as pointed out above they tried with Everett but had some bad luck with injuries. As far as assessing our current TE talent as mediocre, this is true if you use the Old English definition of mediocre as meaning medium, but I disagree if by mediocre you mean the modern usage of mediocre as uinadequate or lower than average. In general I think I would call our TEs "serviceable" but certainly not great (except for occaisional games like the one where Campbell caught 3 TD passes. My sense is: 1. Campbell- was a steal by TD who got him for a conditional pick (I think it ended up being a 6th for a right away starter as we simply sucked at TE when we upgraded to a serviceable player. He was interesting in that he had a rep as a solid blocker who didn't catch a lot of passes. Yet, not only did he bust out with his 3 TD game but his 5 tied him for 2nd on the team with Moulds in 4 fewer games and he caught one for his career best in yardage. Its too bad he was hurt and since he is almost 30 if the injury requires the year+ before he gets back to his old form (as it did with E. James) he is probably done but I will let realtiy write the obituary for his playing career rather than make my own fact-free stone cold declaration. 2. Euhus- is a player with some potential to eventually become a good TE though I doubt he will be the kind of talent this thread talks about. Besides potential just means you haven't done anything yet. Add to that Neufeld is recoverijg from an ACL tear. However, he is a younger player and the tear was slight enough that until the swelling went down they were not even sure it was a tear. I don't believe it when they say Campbell is back to his old level, however, I do believe this regarding Neufeld. If he is back he is serviceable with some potential to one day be a threat at TE. 3. Neufeld- I think he is around because of injuries and because he can play H-Back. I'm glad to have him around if the the top 2 are injured because he strikes me as a marginally adequate talent at TE, but it will be good news for the Bills if other rehab enough for him to be cut. 4. Trafford- He is odd man out at almost any scenario at TE, I like him as a player bu he simply does not have the talent or upside of the competion. 5. Everett- It sounds like he may be ready to play this year, but as a rookie it would really be to help him learn rather than for the benefit of the team. Even if he is ready to play this year I say sit him and wait. 6. Peters- He still is a TE in my book because it simply makes no sense to me to take the ball out of his hands, If he is so dimwitted he cannot even be adequate at TE then I find it hard to trust him to guard JP's blindside. If he can produce a couple of TDs on ST with a full year of playing like he did last year he will be worth keeping on the roster. I feel like we can find three among these 6 although it is wait until next year to see how Everett recovers or Peters learns the game to get the Coates/Gonzales this thread started with.
jarthur31 Posted July 6, 2005 Posted July 6, 2005 i just read this piece, and it made remember once again how important a good tight end is to a great offense. the bills, unfortunately, don't have a good tight end, and the two they have are coming off serious injuries suffered in *late* 04. a good tight end opens so much up, both in terms of the overall passing game and establishing a chain-moving, true ball control offense. http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/stor..._len&id=2100665 most good offenses on playoff teams feature productive tight end play. when's the last time the bills had a really good one? mckeller, i'd say, and he was injured too much. metzelaars caught a solid number of balls, but was always too slow to really be a threat. a good but certainly not great player nonetheless. now that i think about it, except for mckeller, they haven't had a standout tight end in ages. this year is certain to be no better. too bad about everitt, of course ... 375269[/snapback] Makes you wonder why we released Mike Gomez who was also a longsnapper.
Bill from NYC Posted July 6, 2005 Posted July 6, 2005 i just read this piece, and it made remember once again how important a good tight end is to a great offense. the bills, unfortunately, don't have a good tight end, and the two they have are coming off serious injuries suffered in *late* 04. a good tight end opens so much up, both in terms of the overall passing game and establishing a chain-moving, true ball control offense. http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/stor..._len&id=2100665 most good offenses on playoff teams feature productive tight end play. when's the last time the bills had a really good one? mckeller, i'd say, and he was injured too much. metzelaars caught a solid number of balls, but was always too slow to really be a threat. a good but certainly not great player nonetheless. now that i think about it, except for mckeller, they haven't had a standout tight end in ages. this year is certain to be no better. too bad about everitt, of course ... 375269[/snapback] Although you make clear that he was "good," imo you drastically under rate what Pete Metz did for the Bills offense. PM could block like few other TEs, and was a great target in the endzone for Kelly. I can remember him running over the middle of the endzone, and merely turning around. He was so big and wide, Kelly would throw to the middle of his body and it was tough to defend. I am sure that if a young PM was on the current Bills, JP would have a good target and more time to throw. Willis could count on more room to run as well. The above is not to refer to Metz as an all-time great, but he was an extremely good player who the Bills have not been able to replace......not even close.
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