DrFishfinder Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 What about the other WR's standing running wide open that Trent doesnt see because he checks down as his read progression is still pretty poor? Our WR's seem worse because Trent has yet to develop enough to utilize them...so unless we bring in a Boldin, TJ, etc type player, our WR core is fine...Tight End is a bigger need, especially given Trents comfort in looking in the shorter zones... They may have been open at times, but I didn't see anyone open deep. Just Evans, sandwiched between defenders. I agree that Trent needs to do a better job in finding receivers when they are open and a bona fide pass catching TE would give Edwards a fairly quick check down. Theoretically, ahem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atlbillsfan1975 Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 Knox you hit the nail on the head. All that is out there are some mediocre TEs available. Spend the money on center and D in FA and pick up one of the good TEs in the first 60 picks. I fo rone don't see a TE comming off the board untile late first early second round. WR is not a need for the Bills. Upgrading the O and D lines is. Also a lb or two. At WR you got Lee Evans who is a legit #1. Go ahead and say he is not, but he is one of the top 15 wrs in the league. With 32 teams that means he is one of the best. You have a posession guy in Reed. You just have to hope that Johnson or Hardy steps up to become that solid #2 like Peerless Price was for Moulds. A good TE in the first 2 rounds ( round 2 i hope)and a quality center will make this offense look really good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrFishfinder Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 Lee Evans was able to get open deep against the Cardinals for some reason. He was also open against Seattle and other teams early in the season before Trent went into this funk. Not buying it that guys can't get open. Cardinals D was not very good early in the season. Ditto for Seattle. I don't believe that receivers "can't" get open either. I do suspect however, that all too often, in the last half of the season, they were not getting open. This could very well be a case where things just snowball. Receivers get open, the QB, for whatever reason(s) doesn't get the ball to them and at some point the receivers start pulling up on deeper routes because they feel they're not going to get the ball anyway. Early in the season, TE was getting blasted by blitzes until the OL started doing a better job picking them up in the 2nd half of the season. The puzzling part is that TE had better ratings when he was under more pressure. It almost seemed that the more time he had to throw, the more hesitant he became to throw downfield. I hate to even bring this up, but when JP (whose strength is going deep) came in, I didn't see much out of Evans other than 1 (beautiful) bomb that I remember. And Evans was a huge supporter of JP for just that reason, the ability to go deep. But enough of that.... This question will rage on without any definitive answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrFishfinder Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 When you listen to the radio, Kelso is constantly saying "Nobody was open downfield." Constantly. Both JP and Trent were handicapped by this. A great deal. With WR, there's good reason to hope that a good #2 receiver is already on the roster, in the persons of Hardy and Stevie Johnson. The odds of a rookie WR doing well as a first-year man are somewhere around 10 - 20 %, but they go up quite a bit in the second year and a great deal more in the third. Thank you for the Kelso info. Confirms my suspicions, at least partially. At this point, it seems that Hardy has earned a question mark by his name. Dropped too many balls and routes not good enough in year one. Add to that, the injury and high probability of missing some games at the beginning of year two, and it doesn't look as though he is even capable of making any impact until the last half of year two. Johnson was a surprise to me, only because he was way underneath my radar. So Hardy is unlikely to become the real #2 until mid season at the earliest, and Johnson would still qualify as a surprise. A pleasant surprise, but a surprise nonetheless. The Bills still need someone to pull the consistent double coverage off of Evans. He isn't Larry Fitzgerald who can go up and out muscle practically every DB in the NFL. At this point, there isn't another WR with enough of a deep threat to do it and deep backs aren't going to come up to cover a TE. So even though Buffalo really needs a bona fide pass catching TE (as opposed to Royal who is good for about 50% dropped passes), they still need a deep decoy at least. There isn't anyone other than Evans who represents a deep threat and the other teams know it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atlbillsfan1975 Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 Evans is the deep threat. What the Bills need is the guy that can pull double teams off him. The safety is able to play over the top and the cb can run underneath. Reed is your 5-8 yd posession guy. The Bills need Johnson or Hardy to step up and become the guy that can make the safety play honest. Right now opposing Ds know that the saftey can help the corner on Evans, and the LB can help on Reed. And they can let another corner be on an island with the other reciever. If the Bills develope Johnson or Hardy it makes the free safety and lbs have to keep an eye on him as well. or a true pass catching TE will also serve the same purpose. But the deep threat is not what the Bills need. I believe atleast up until last year no wrs has more 40+ receptions over a three year period then Evans. 2004-2007. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silvermike Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 When the Bills make a serious playoff run, they'll be stronger at the #2 WR position than they are now. However, Josh Reed is at least an average #2 right now, and we're not going to improve on him by playing musical chairs with the Hackett/Bryant Johnson/Jerry Porter set. The best way this problem gets solved is if Johnson or Hardy steps up next year. Otherwise, eventually, we will probably need to sink a first round pick into the position in 2010, or pick up a mid-round steal in 2009. Tight end is more urgent, since we have virtually no talent at the position, and an offense that could really use a reliable option at the position. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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