thebandit27

Any of Sutton, Cain, or Ridley would be huge for the passing game.

I expect quite a Headknocker

He was a decent player, but I'll never forget his 2011 game vs. Michael Vick and the Eagles; he was absolutely unbelievable that game.

Nah...he was a 27-year old LT that was about to hit the open market. He was going to get $12M+ AAV one way or another, so that's what they gave him. As for whether or not it was a smart deal, I'll say this: when you find a LT that can play the position to the point where you barely notice him, that's a guy that you pay money to keep. The money they paid him was a bit of a projection for the OT position, but it's certainly good market value for what he brings. He's tied for the 6th-highest paid LT in the league based on AAV.

I doubt Dennison is let go for any reason whatsoever...at least not in the next calendar year. They hired him because they're trying to build a system that's sustainable for the long-term, which is what they're implementing now. Rightly or wrongly, they're letting Taylor play himself into our out of that system. If he plays himself out of it, they'll eventually give Peterman a look-see, but I doubt that happens until late in the season (think Week 14 vs. Indy). Make no mistake, this season is an evaluation period on offense; nothing more.

I haven't dug into any Mason games from this season yet...does my Paxton Lynch comparison still hold?

If it's about speed, then those are poor choices...Taiwan Jones would be the speed guy (and he happens to be a RB)

I can probably help a bit... Here's one: https://twitter.com/YardsPerPass/status/910151119065796608 Here's (reasonably considered) another: https://twitter.com/YardsPerPass/status/910141379321454592 This one for sure: https://twitter.com/YardsPerPass/status/910140657985089537

Plenty of good ways to attack this: Zone read and spread formation have been mentioned, but '12' personnel sets are key as well--adding a TE to each end of the line keeps the EDGE defenders from being able to crash down along the line. Spacing in the blocking game is going to be key--need to make sure there are multiple gaps for Shady to pick on the stretch plays. I would also be looking to trap the living heck out of their 5-tech ends. Call a Power-G trap play or two early on and make Wolff/Gotsis think twice about knifing the B-gap.

Indeed... http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-game-highlights/0ap3000000413467/Orton-game-winning-pass-to-Watkins http://www.nfl.com/videos/buffalo-bills/0ap3000000405801/Sammy-Watkins-tips-to-himself Any other times they needed a game-winning play (or a play to set up a game-winning FG) that Sammy wasn't available? Thank goodness for hyperbole.

Sure did...about what I expected from a motivated Chris Jones. If I couldn't have Myles Jack at 19, Chris Jones was my guy. I know the numbers didn't show it last week, but Jack was everywhere against both Houston and Tennessee.

Trevor Siemien ranks 2nd in the NFL in Time-to-throw through 2 weeks, averaging 2.27 seconds from snap-to-release. https://nextgenstats.nfl.com/stats/passing#average-time-to-throw

If only I could remember which intelligent, good-looking poster on this board called Jones the 2016 draft's best down lineman...

As I keep saying: I expect this to be a much closer game than many will believe. It's tough to travel across two time zones and sustain the kind of performance they had on Sunday against Dallas, especially against a physical opponent like the Bills. I'm not saying Buffalo will win, but I expect a tight contest.

Right--nearly every team in the NFL struggles to get a hat onto Kuechly and Davis, and that's a direct result of Short and Star being able to cause problems themselves.

The only advantage to going with a different style as the temporary placeholder at QB is that it could potentially help the other parts of the offense acclimate to the system moreso than they will with Taylor at the helm. Other than that, I agree with pretty much all of what you're saying...and, as you know, Blokes and I were the proverbial engineers at the helm of the Mahomes train way back in June of 2016 (and you're all going to be at our mercy again when the Baker Mayfield train picks up its steam next year)

I absolutely agree that there's no hidden agenda, and if we're viewing Taylor as a bridge QB, then that's a fine fit. My issue is that a bridge QB only makes sense when you have your potential franchise QB already on the roster, which brings me back to questioning why they didn't take a QB in the 2017 draft. My main problem is that there's a disjointed effort between moving forward and what they're putting on the field now. Taylor isn't a fit for the type of passing offense that they seemingly want to operate, but they brought him back in what appears to be an effort to be offensively competent this season. To me, that's a silly way to move forward. If you want to operate this passing game at any level of efficiency, it would've made more sense to bring in a guy like Nick Foles or Chase Daniel that can deliver the ball quickly at the expense of athleticism and deep ball efficiency. That, to me, would've felt like they were moving forward with putting their system in to place. Just my 1 cent, of course.

Absolutely they would have paid them. You're talking about the regime that gave both Chris Kelsay and Aaron Schobel multiple monster extensions. Paying guys wasn't the issue. Paying the right guys was the issue, along with accumulating the right talent at the right positions.

I think that they tried to have it both ways (be competitive this year and start putting "the system"--the one they believe will be sustainable in the long-term--in place for the future), and the results are going to be lackluster. IMO, they should've gone full-throttle one way or the other. Either leave the pieces in place for Taylor to have success, or cut him (and everyone else) loose and start building from the ground up.

Teams that will definitely be in the market for a QB next offseason: Buffalo NYJ SF Teams that will likely be in the market for a QB next offseason: Cincinnati Jacksonville Arizona Surprise teams that could chase a QB next offseason: Miami Baltimore Indianapolis LAC Minnesota NO Washington NYG I'll assume that maybe 3 of the surprise teams chase QBs, so the total would be 9 teams in the market. Of course, you have to factor in that QBs will be available in FA as well, so you're looking at the following filling some of the above: Jimmy Garappolo AJ McCarron Alex Smith Kirk Cousins Drew Brees Sam Bradford Teddy Bridgewater

No pass indeed. They took away the pieces of the offense (Watkins, Goodwin) that allowed Tyrod to do what he does well in the passing game...and that's fine if you either (a) replace those pieces or (b) have no intention of keeping Taylor for this season. Instead, they've decided to put Taylor in position to operate a timing-based passing game without the luxury of receivers that can get open with their first step (and with whom Taylor has absolutely no level of comfort). There's zero threat of a deep passing game, and every opponent they play knows that. Completely of their own doing.

I actually think the question is: If your plan was to keep Tyrod at QB, and you wanted him to be successful, then why did you trade Sammy Watkins and get rid of Marquise Goodwin, and--as a corollary--if your plan was to operate a timing-based passing attack that did not require receivers like Watkins or a deep threat like Goodwin, why did you decide to keep Tyrod Taylor?

Again the theme emerges: if you have a QB that is limited in what he can do, and you take away the WR that he trusts the most, along with any other speed options that help him do one of the things he does really well (throw the deep ball), the entirety of the passing offense is going to suffer dramatically. When you have no threat of a downfield passing game, it's going to be really hard to run the ball

Exactly...and the pendulum swings both ways as well. We can just as easily say that if Carolina doesn't miss an easy TD the previous series, then we're down 2 scores and that play doesn't matter.

Year 1 Jauron performance isn't such a bad thing; it's if the team never takes the next step like the Jauron teams that would be the problem.