WhitewalkerInPhilly

Before the draft I kept thinking, "Wow, between Gilmore, McKelvin, Robey and Graham we have a very solid group at CB. I just hope that if they move someone over to FS that they get another guy who can play outside if Gilmore or McKelvin go down." And then they took Cockrell, who might be a perfect fit at safety, and if not gives room to move Graham over there.

Pretty much what other have said, with some caveats. Robey is really, really good at defending short routes. I see him as the anti-Amendola/Welker, which is good when you play them three games this year. But I believe the Saints wound up pairing Jimmy Graham on him.

Admittedly, I have not watched a ton on film on C. Williams. To be fair, he has not graded out all that well, but that was A) while being the most reliable member of a bad line, which can affect even good players and B) He did is playing three of the best defenses in the league twice a year (Seahawks, Nineers, Cards) I can see C. Williams starting this year, letting Richardson come along. I have also heard rumors that Cockrell is Henderson's new project. He might be moving to safety, or his presence may let Corey Graham move over.

2-3 wins? In a season? Hell, even at my most pessimistic I don't expect to be that bad.

To all those worried about Golisano being too cheap, doesn't the NFL have minimums of their cap that teams have to spend?

One of the reasons that I wanted Evans was his history of really reaching out to snag a lot of ball on high and late throws. (Sound familiar?) Williams shows a knack for it too, and with Sammy snagging almost every ball coming his way on a number of errant throws, we might finally be cooking!

This is the line I liked best from Marrone:

I've never understood the idea that people thought that he wouldn't make the team. During draft time, people kept talking about Woods being paired with Sammy and I kept fighting the urge to blow up and tell them that Mike Williams will be the #2. Before we took Sammy, I was pretty sure that he could have beat out Stevie at #1. Looking at his draft measurables, he looks shockingly like Sammy Watkins (which is why I thought the Bills wouldn't draft him), Mike Williams is 6'2 to Sammy's 6'1, has ten pounds on Sammy, is 0.1 seconds slower in his 40 time, has a higher vertical than Sammy, and has four years of league experience to get him up to speed with the game. And, of course, he had ELEVEN touchdowns as a rookie. I know that some of that is an aberration, like how Byrd racked up a ton of interceptions his rookie year and then slid but the man has talent. Barring arrest, the man should be on the field. Considering that we kept saying that Woods looks like Stevie, I really see him in the slot. What do you guys think of a 3 WR set with Sammy and Mike on the outside and Woods running a slant over the middle?

I have to agree with you CBF. 9-7 is fighting for the playoffs. Even if you don't make it, with the schedule they face this year, it means that EJ is at least as good as Andy Dalton and you have a extremely talented group of young guys, most of whom are locked up for next year. If they go 7-9 or worse, I would seriously be concerned.

that is true. one of the question marks that was brought up was whether he could beat press coverage . everyone played off to beat him at the line. look, i'm a watkins skeptic, but percy harvin gets production. we already have outside wr's in williams and woods, so i see him as a moveable chess piece

The part of the article I liked best: Now let's keep it that way!

14...let's hope that uniform Fitz

While I tend not to pimp my own threads, this directly applies to your question. http://forums.twobillsdrive.com/topic/167718-how-do-we-use-our-wrs-this-year/ Last year, Hackett ran a lot of snag routes, which are useful for giving EJ quick progressions. The general idea is that if they roll double coverage over on Sammy, they leave the other edge receiver in single coverage, who would then run a go route (likely Goodwin or M. Williams) while providing a dump off option to CJ in the flat if the CB plays off.

Our most experienced Wide Receiver is Mike Williams, a man who put up 11 touchdowns in his rookie season, as compared to 3 in two years by Graham. I agree with most of what you said though. I will say that Hackett impressed me at times. The playcalling he did in the two minute drill comeback against Carolina was inspired. He, for the most part, did a great job in prepping a third stringer to face a very tough defense (at that point) against the chiefs...right until Tuel blew it with, compounded with a horrible play call. Hackett read Jets defense (one of the best in the league, remember) well in their second meeting, and he read the teams's emotions when they got pissed off at Rex Ryan's challenge.One play later, EJ hits Goodwin on the most beautiful pass I saw from him all season for a touchdown. Of course, Hackett sputtered a lot too. He a rookie OC, and on top of that, he was the QB coach for a rookie QB. This year, there's a division of labor so I hope that a year of seasoning and less on his plate shows some impact.

They definitely are run heavy teams. But with CJ, Freddy, AND Brown, with what looks like one of the heaviest run blocking lines in the league we might beat them.

i would be thrilled. if he can start at fs, i love our db situation.

here's hoping he's not there when we play the browns

I would care about this, if I thought that Kiper's opinion equaled or exceeded that of the fortune cookie I got on Friday. Fortunately, I don't trust him beyond being a spokesman for Chia Pet.

They keep saying that, but the last three Super Bowl winners have had stout run games that started clicking around playoff time: Bradshaw and Jacobs for the Giants in 2011, Ray Rice for the Ravens in 2012 and Marshawn Lynch (where do I know that name?) for the Seahawks in 2013. We just need the passing game to get us there.

I do think that Woods would be better in the slot, but he could be a good #2. That said, Williams has put up a lot of production. If he is going into the slot, I would imagine that it's because his size and jump ball ability would make him win most matchups against a safety or NB.

CJ had his best year when we ran out of the spread. With our new draft picks, he should have improved run blocking too. Am I crazy, or might we have a pretty damn good offense this year?

Interesting to hear. From what I hear, he could play either SLB, where we currently have Rivers or MLB, where we have Spikes. He seems to fit the mold of run thumping SLB and MLBs that I'm guessing Schwartz wants.

Considering the very real changes to our WR group this offseason, and especially over the past three days, I've been thinking about how we indeed to use our new lineup. Rob Quinn is a writer who I really like, because he is good with X's and O's and breaking down concepts. Going off of the scheme's that we started with last year, and looking at our current group, here's a guess of some of the things we might do. So, who do we have as our top 5 WR: Sammy Watkins: our new WR, he has great speed, shiftiness and versatility but should be expected to make some rookie mistakes.Can play outside or in the slot. Mike Williams: Our new acquisition from Tampa, most of what I have seen from him has been as an outside WR. He's a little slower than Watkins, but is a bit heaver, taller and has a truly impressive vertical (36.5") and has a knack for coming down with jump balls that should have been INT's. I project him being our #2. Robert Woods: Woods is the guy with whom EJ had the best chemistry with last year. His play is most similar to Stevie Johnson and I think he was the real reason the Bills considered Stevie expendable. He’s a great route running, and can be #2 receiver if necessary, but I wouldn’t be surprised if his true calling was the slot. Marquise Goodwin: The man is an absolute burner (4.27s 40 time). He has great speed to take the top off a defense, but he also has skills to work with cushion when CB’s play off when they worry about his speed. He also has been used as a gadget player and a kickoff returner. TJ Graham: Even faster than Goodwin, he can take the top off a defense on deep routes. 11 Personnel (3 WR, 1 TE,1RB) The idea is to create routes that let EJ do a quick progression on whether the outside CB plays close, or players off. If the CB plays close, it opens up a deep corner route for the TE (or the slot WR as the case may be). If the CB plays off, it opens a snag route for the outside WR. In this case, the slot WR runs a slant while the other outside WR runs a go route while the RB is a check down. According to Quinn, this is a "triangle", and you can have an incredible number of variations. In this case, if the defense rolls over extra defenders, it should create man to man coverage for the outside receiver. So, how might this shake out with our people? TE and RB are pretty close guesses. Moeaki, if healthy, sounds like a good option for the deep downfield pass but Chandler could likely do it as well. CJ is best in space and with a WR to block for him there's a good chance he gets a head of steam. Stevie was the slot receiver in this diagram up above. With him gone, I can easily see Robert Woods, EJ's favorite target from last year running the slant. Watkins, with his speed and shiftiness is great with yards after catch, so I could see him running the snag route. On the outside, you could put Goodwin to take the top of the defense, or use Mike Williams if you think that you can win a jump ball on a deep route in 1 on 1 coverage. 4 WR, 1 RB Keeping with the concept of the snag route, and integrating it into a 4 WR vertical base, Quinn drew up something like this: Goodwin and Williams could be the best choices on the outside. Goodwin is capable of taking the top off the defense, forcing them to roll over a deep safety to support or leaving him in man-to-man. Watkins would be lining up against a team’s NB, a matchup he is very likely to win. Woods, if ignored, can probably win is matchup as well while Spiller or Freddy gets the ball in space. These are good articles to check out and I would love to hear about other ideas that fans would have: http://forgedinbuffa...s-passing-game/ http://forgedinbuffa...passing-attack/

Oh, I fully agree. I just don't think the model of QB stability that we should be basing ourselves around should be the Jets, as the previous poster had. In fact, they are a case study of reactionary QB acquisition. Sanchez took them to two AFC championship games, but was very clearly not taking them over the hump. So in 2012, they brought in Tim Tebow. Tebow got relegated to a Wildcat QB. In 2013 Tebow was gone. They took Geno in the second round and danced around the issue of who would start through the entire training camp, even as it looked obvious to outsiders that even though Sanchez actually looked decent, Geno was the starter in the mind of the staff. Geno went on to have a turbulent year, at times looking really, really good...and at times he got absolutely mauled and was repeatedly benched. Now, in 2014, Geno has been named the starter...while they brought in Mike Vick, who the Eagles offloaded to prevent a QB controversy of their own. Vick has a history of looking just good enough to think he can do something special, and then becoming a turnover machine right before he gets injured. While things might play out well...I personally doubt it. They've been trying slot machine a starting QB, and now in their third year I don't think anyone is saying that they are particularly better off at QB.

I think most fans are too. Weren't people on this board screaming last season that Thad was the better QB and should have been the starter?