BuffaloBill Posted January 13, 2009 Share Posted January 13, 2009 I know this may be heretical to some of you but I wonder if the Bills put too much emphasis on special teams play at the expense of offense and defense. Let’s look at it this way: Arguably the following players are on the roster only for ST’s play – Brian Moorman, Ryan Neil, Rian lindell John Wendling, John Corto, Roscoe Parrish and Blake Costanzo. You can drop the punter and kicker because you have to have them but the remainder makes up roughly 10% of the roster. Perhaps these roster spots should be reduced to one or two. Now for the tricky part, how much does playing other key starters hurt their performance on offense or defense? There is also a question about how much time is devoted to special teams in practice and film study. Arguably the Bills do more of this than other teams. Is this at the expense of other facets of the game? I’m not taking a position on this issue but I wonder what others think. One could argue that the Bills would suck even more without stellar special teams play. You can also speculate that they would be better off focusing more on their core defense and offense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tortured Soul Posted January 13, 2009 Share Posted January 13, 2009 On the surface, I'd agree with you. I have no idea how much time they devote to special teams, so I can't say it's too much compared to other teams. As for roster spots, I think Moorman, Lindell and Neill are a given. Roscoe does bring something to the offense, so you couldn't count him as strictly a special teamer. As for Corto and Costanzo, it's hard to say if they would have even been on the roster had Crowell, Digiorgio and Bowen stayed healthy for the year. So, that leaves Wendling. According to todays Buffalo News, he was the highest-rated ST player, so maybe it's okay to keep one person strictly for special teams. But it would be nice if there was some possibility of him seeing the field on defense. I guess you could even add Jenkins to the list as a strictly STer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buftex Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 Think about it... it is much less expensive to build great special teams than it is to build a front tier offense or defense...and if the special teams are really good, they can help out both the offense and defense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billsfreak Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 Pay less attention to Special Teams? The few games we have won over the last 4 or 5 years, were mainly because of big ST plays for the most part. ST has been the only facet of the Bills game that has been respectable with any consistency. Every team in the NFL has players on their roster mainly for Special Teams. Seems like the Bills had one in the 90's too, what was his name? Oh yea, Tasker. What else would the punter, kicker and the Long Snapper be on the roster for, if not for Special Teams? I would venture to guess, that a good majority of close games are decided by turnovers and field position, and Special Teams normally dictate field position. I think we can improve on Offense and Defense without taking away from Special Teams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magox Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 Absolutely not!!! it is one of our strong points and has helped put us in a better position to win football games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spartacus Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 I know this may be heretical to some of you but I wonder if the Bills put too much emphasis on special teams play at the expense of offense and defense. Let’s look at it this way: Arguably the following players are on the roster only for ST’s play – Brian Moorman, Ryan Neil, Rian lindell John Wendling, John Corto, Roscoe Parrish and Blake Costanzo. You can drop the punter and kicker because you have to have them but the remainder makes up roughly 10% of the roster. Perhaps these roster spots should be reduced to one or two. Now for the tricky part, how much does playing other key starters hurt their performance on offense or defense? There is also a question about how much time is devoted to special teams in practice and film study. Arguably the Bills do more of this than other teams. Is this at the expense of other facets of the game? I’m not taking a position on this issue but I wonder what others think. One could argue that the Bills would suck even more without stellar special teams play. You can also speculate that they would be better off focusing more on their core defense and offense. The biggest impact is on how the Bills use their non-premium draft picks. Generally they are spending those picks based on less skilled players will be good special teams players instead of drafting players who have skills that would enable them to actually compete for a starting job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rico Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 Keep the emphasis on ST but spend more $ on quality O & D depth that can also play ST, and get rid of some of the garbage ST-only players they've got now. That's what a real team would do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloBill Posted January 14, 2009 Author Share Posted January 14, 2009 Pay less attention to Special Teams? The few games we have won over the last 4 or 5 years, were mainly because of big ST plays for the most part. ST has been the only facet of the Bills game that has been respectable with any consistency. Every team in the NFL has players on their roster mainly for Special Teams. Seems like the Bills had one in the 90's too, what was his name? Oh yea, Tasker. What else would the punter, kicker and the Long Snapper be on the roster for, if not for Special Teams? I would venture to guess, that a good majority of close games are decided by turnovers and field position, and Special Teams normally dictate field position. I think we can improve on Offense and Defense without taking away from Special Teams. Billsfreak you miss the point of the questions in the post. I am very familiar with the 90s teams. I was at three of the four superbowls proudl supporting my team. You maight want to note that the game has changed since then. Therefore it is not inappropriate to ask if the emphasis on ST's is a holdover from that period that causes problems elesewhere. If this team is going to improve every assumption and standard practice needs to e questioned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flbillsfan#1 Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 I know Tampa spends a lot of time on special teams & has players on the team for their special teams play. Look at the playoffs on Sunday you will see some BIG plays on special teams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloBill Posted January 14, 2009 Author Share Posted January 14, 2009 I know Tampa spends a lot of time on special teams & has players on the team for their special teams play. Look at the playoffs on Sunday you will see some BIG plays on special teams. Tampa?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flbillsfan#1 Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 Tampa?? Yeah Tampa they have a very good special teams NOW. It sucked in the past but they had good special teams play this past year & their punter & kicker are BETTER than Moorman & Lindell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Turk Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 I disagree. The biggest determiner of how often a team will or will not get points on any given drive is their average drive start. The Bills led the NFL in average drive start by over 2 yards over second place New England because of their special teams. It cannot be overstated how important this is. Really, how much of an impact is the 5th linebacker going to have on any given team? The guy is there to play special teams, even if he sucks at them, he is gonna be on the special teams regardless. Might as well have a guy that is actually good at it versus a guy that just sucks... This would be equivalent of saying how bout we spend all our money on defensive players and pay no attention to the offensive side of the ball...it just makes no sense. These fringe players are not making much of an impact on the team other than on special teams anyways, I am not quite understanding what they are supposed to do. Teams are willing to give the Bills the ball at the 35 yard line by kicking it ridiculously short instead of kicking off to McKelvin. They are so afraid of punting to Parrish they would rather kick it out of bounds and give up some yards to do it. That is a HUGE advantage to the Bills that normally is not there for most teams. Those extra 10-15 yards of field position on every kick, add up to an advantage that far, far outweighs the potential upside of having 3rd, 4th and 5th string players who might be marginally better at playing their positions. The Bills SHOULD be able to win the field position battle virtually every game they are in. If we get good drive starts, we are punting from somewhere near the 50 yard line and we should be able to force the opposition to start inside the 10 or at least inside the 20 numerous times. In fact, in many games the Bills did get into opposition territory only to have drives stall numerous times. Somehow I am to believe if we had a more talented 4th string LB or RB on the roster this would have made a difference? I highly doubt it. I think the mistake being made is that because the Bills haven't had great success in converting their great field position into more points and their opponents poor field position into more points by forcing punts deep in their territory, somehow this is irrelevant. Its not. The Bills just need to do a better job at gaining more first downs. Their 5th LB, 6th WR, 4th C aren't really going to help them at doing that too much... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKOOBY Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 Think we'll do any better on offense starting 8 yards farther away? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Georgia Bill Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 I disagree. The biggest determiner of how often a team will or will not get points on any given drive is their average drive start. The Bills led the NFL in average drive start by over 2 yards over second place New England because of their special teams. It cannot be overstated how important this is. Really, how much of an impact is the 5th linebacker going to have on any given team? The guy is there to play special teams, even if he sucks at them, he is gonna be on the special teams regardless. Might as well have a guy that is actually good at it versus a guy that just sucks... Really, average drive start is incredibly important. I mean we led the NFL, and it really has paid off for us in the Win Loss column. I must say it is nice to have something on the team to be proud of - but I'd much rather have a seriously stout defense and offensive line... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillsPride12 Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 Thats like saying should the Ravens put less emphasis on Defense or should the Colts put less emphasis on offense? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloBill Posted January 14, 2009 Author Share Posted January 14, 2009 Thats like saying should the Ravens put less emphasis on Defense or should the Colts put less emphasis on offense? But the Ravens and the Colts both made the playoffs. This also points to why I asked the question - does the Bills emphasis on ST's detract from their ability to play the other primary facets of the game well? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillsObserver Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 But the Ravens and the Colts both made the playoffs. This also points to why I asked the question - does the Bills emphasis on ST's detract from their ability to play the other primary facets of the game well? Perhaps the fact that the Bills don't spend near the cap room they have contributes to us not making the playoffs. I have no doubt the Ravens and Colts use most of their cap space, if not all. Think about it, it's not that they are putting such a strong emphasis on acquiring Special Team players, it's more about them not going after more free agents. Ralph doesn't like to spend too much money. And if the team continues to operate the same way, it would be foolish to get away from the best thing the team has going for itself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beerball Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 I don't know the answer to this, but could it be that special teams are the only adequately coached group at OBD? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloBill Posted January 14, 2009 Author Share Posted January 14, 2009 I don't know the answer to this, but could it be that special teams are the only adequately coached group at OBD? The results suggest that the answer is yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cody Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 I think the FO and staff should put more emphasis on the O & D. What the Bills do now with ST personel is okay. It is good to make sure your back-ups are good specialteamers. I have herd that the Bills spend 1/3 of their practice time on ST. That is way to much. ST units need to practice, but the O & D make up 75-80% of the game, and practice/film time should be allocated accordingly. Fix the O & D, but do not break ST in the process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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