GunnerBill

Yea I think people presume Gabe has regressed. He hasn't. He is having a career year in every category except catch % which is down 1% on last year but as you say has been broadly consistent his three years in the league. What I think people were hoping for was more of a jump from Gabe as the full time #2 into the sort of Tee Higgins type #1B. That hasn't happened. But he is still a serviceable #2. He has more yards and more touchdowns than Adam Thielen and Mike Williams just for two examples. Think people would be pretty happy with those guys as their #2 options. The Eagles, Dolphins and Bengals are probably the exceptions at the moment because in Tee, Waddle and Devonta Smith they have highly drafted guys (basically all 1st rounders... Tee was #33) on rookie deals as their #1Bs who were all the #1 on their team their rookie year before another guy arrived. It is legit to say I am slightly disappointed in Gabe myself this year I was hoping for more of a step too and I think now I'd rather let someone else pay him after next year because I think serviceable #2 probably is his ceiling. But we still found a serviceable #2 NFL receiver in round 4 of the draft. That's a good outcome.

Exactly. The kick was so short that even if Bass slips a bit the chances are it is still good. I don't think it is debateable at all. There was a very clear optimum way to play it. The Bills executed that way perfectly.

I⁸I said it before the season the decision to franchise tag Gesicki was a mistake by Miami. He is a tight end in name and number only. Last season be played fewer than 100 snaps at tight end. The tight end is a critical piece in the stretch zone blocking scheme. It is okay saying "Gesicki is a good player coaches should design the scheme around their talent" but that would literally mean Mike McDaniel junking the entire offensive philosophy he has come up with - which is the reason Miami hired him. Mike Gesicki can not block. He cannot play the role that a tight end plays in this scheme and that is why he is being taken off the field for Durham Smythe. And it isn't as thought McDaniel hasn't tried to make make it work. He has doubled Gesicki's tight end snaps this year to about 180.... but he has seen it with his own eyes. Gesicki can't block. AT ALL. Mike Gesicki is a big slot with good hands. In a spread style offense or one that incorporates lots of spread concepts (Miami has basically run the Chan Gailey spread the past two years with Gailey and then with two of their position coaches after Gailey) he can and has had success (700 yards receiving each of the last two years). But he is VERY scheme specific. Miami paying him long term to play in this scheme would be worse than when Washington paid one of the best zone corners in the NFL Josh Norman a ton of money and then asked him to play man coverage for the next 3 years. I think he'd be great in Kansas City. Even better with the Chargers. The Giants is another landing spot that makes sense. The Raiders would be too if they didn't already have Waller. His problem is the Shanahan offense is in vogue at the moment in the league and lots of teams are running varients thereof. Limits the market for guys like Ertz and Gesicki who are only tight ends accoring to the number on their back.

He really is. Al sounds like he realises he made a mistake to me.

Yea the bit about zone v man is just plain wrong. Elam played a lot of press man at Florida the adjustment for him is to play zone. The rest is just a BN fluff piece.

Teams go for it more against the Bills because they know you have to score. Punts hurt and 3s are no good.

Phillips was not my guy. Not by any stretch.

Meh. I don't wanna sound like I am banging on Greg. I liked the pick I like the player and I think he is trending towards elite. I do still think Phillips goes first though. And that might be partly how he looks doing it. He has the most prototypical skill set GMs look for. Greg is more of a unicorn. He has flashed some rush skills definitely. 5.5 sacks as a rotational backup is no mean feat. He is still inconsistent down in and down out though and he does freaking infuriate me at times losing contain. Probably his best year as a pro, but @JohnNord is right - this is his 3rd year and he has flashed in a backup role. That is still poor ROI from a 2nd rounder. As for Boogie... maybe I am not the best judge because I never liked him really as a prospect. He was an older prospect at or close to his physical ceiling coming into the league without the refined skillset to win. That to me is still the case.

Yea I don't think that play was every designed to go to Singletary either. I think it is a designed play to Morris. I thought it was actually quite a nice design compared to some of what we have seen in the redzone at points this season.

Nah, it'd be Phillips. Greg would go higher than he did, he'd be DE2 but the reasons Phillips was the first off the board still apply, he has demonstrated the production and the thing that stopped him being a top 10 type prospect - the various flags Badol referred to above - have proven not to hold him back. I do think Greg is probably the best all around defensive end out of the class. But when it comes to the draft team prioritise pass rush and it would be Phillips first.

I'm sorry I can't get myself to a place where that makes any sense at all. There has to be more to it.

Yea, that's totally fair but I wasn't saying here is every single bit of data - it is a fair point to say "how many snaps are guys playing" but there will be lots of different reasons guys play fewer snaps. Rousseau plays fewer snaps because while a starter since day 1 the Bills are a heavy rotation team up front. Someone like Oweh has more snaps but isn't a starter and is used mainly as a situational rusher. Of course there is nuance about usage with all of those players. They are not playing in the exact same scheme, or on the field the same amount. I wasn't saying it was a complete picture. I was just saying there are some conclusions you can draw from the data presented. You can't know everything because team, talent around them, scheme.... it all factors in. And the post he replied to wasn't about that anyway. It was about the Bills struggles with contain vs the Dolphins. I am a big Rousseau fan, but even he had some issues against the run on Saturday, even though overall he has been one of the NFL's premier edge defenders vs the run.

They need to win more in the post-season. Sure. But Dak is 59-35. As for leadership I watched the same Hard Knocks as you. Clearly we interpreted what we saw very differently and/or have different views on what leadership means.

I disagree totally on the bolded. Have the Cowboys underachieved a bit? Yea, that is fair (not sure they should have been winning Superbowls or anything but they should probably have more than 1 playoff win). But they have also gone to the playoffs 4 times in the 6 years that Dak has been healthy. They'd been just twice in 8 years before he arrived. They have done a lot more winning with Dak than they did before him. And Romo had talented teams too. I think the Cowboys underachievement has deeper roots than the Quarterback.

What is encouraging about Elam is as I said in another thread... when they drafted that type of corner they did so with Tyreek Hill more than any other player mind. That was a really good performance against him.

It isn't that though that caused him to sit a random game mid season after being up when healthy all year. We all knew and know there remain technique issues with Elam, particularly in terms of learning to be comfortable in zone concepts - which is what this defense plays most of. His transition and his drop depth still need work. He always looked a bit mechanical in his transitions to me in college and there is still work to do to smooth that out. I actually think his tackling (which I agree was a concern in Florida) has been better than I expected in the NFL. They sat him down for that one game and went with Xavier Rhodes. That was about something other than where Elam is in his development curve. The fact he didn't get on the field on defense against the Jets, yea I'm willing to accept that was about the concerns they still have with him and the type of scheme they wanted to run that day and Dane had a good game so they left him in. That makes sense. Making him a healthy scratch in New England to play Xavier Rhodes was about something else. As for Woolen, since you raise him, I was on him really early in the last draft cycle when he was still being talked about as day 3 guy. I felt that was way too late and while he had some rawness to his game and he was a very boom or bust type selection his ability meant he should go day 2. Then there was a period where I think everyone got a bit too high on him and there was even talk of him sneaking into round 1 which I thought was too rich for someone whose floor was a bust, even though I think his ceiling is elite boundary corner. That he ended up sliding to round 5 is mystifying to me and Seattle got a bargain. He has been really good, and that is a credit to him and the Seattle staff but he has had his moments as well (again run support mainly, though he has given up a few deep balls he'd want back too).

Why add a 3rd team? I'd just have 1st and 2nd team all pro and be done with it.

Let me tell you what I am doing... I am telling you how these things work. I have never had a vote for MVP, obviously, but I did for two years have a vote for the Premier League equivalent here in the UK. People talk to one another about it and people do not wait to see 17 games completed them think "right who is my MVP?" They are thinking about it as the year goes along and particularly by halfway through the season most people have an idea in their heads. They don't come off that idea at a whim. The new voting system is interesting. Maybe that influences the way the results come out but for the most part I am telling you the majority of those 50 voters will have a clear front runner in their heads already and it takes something dramatic to change minds.

So you know people who think he is what, a top 5 QB? What is the rating they are giving him that you object to? He is talked about a lot. That is because he QBs the Cowboys. That is different to overrated.

He has ended up the best QB from his class. I don't think stayed close to his floor is fair. Unless "leading the league in passing" is his floor? I think his ceiling is lower than a lot of other top guys. But Dak is a really good Quarterback. How is he overrated? I don't know anybody who thinks he is more than a bottom end of the top 10 type QB. I think people might be getting overrated confused with getting too much attention. Nobody overrates Dak but he does get way too much air time for his actual talent and impact. But that isn't a Dak thing. It's a Dallas thing. Romo was the same.

Was a play call issue for me on that one. Came against a really poorly called blitz, which made Tre a bit cautious with no safety help and he didn't get as physical early in the route as he should have. Bad spot for Leslie to put his corners on an island. On another note - I still want to know what led to the sitting Elam for Rhodes the other week. We never got the story there. That was a breach of team rules or something.

It is the irony that often for guys like Poyer the critical acclaim (all pro) comes before the popular acclaim (pro bowl). It is a bit like how certain actors do really worthy work and get Oscars or Globes and then that notorioty gets them the big paydays in the blockbusters.

Yea communication breakdown rather than someone blowing an assignment I think. I agree they were in a cover 1 look some seemed based on the checks to come out of that and others stayed. It is an example of why Micah and Jordan as a pair are greater than the sum of their parts because in 5 years together they have probably had fewer communication breakdowns than we have had in a single season with that pairing broken up.

Narratives get set. That is the point. I think most of the 50 voters have probably already got a decision in their heads. Is there time to flip it? Sure. But it needs their guy to slip somewhere as well as someone else to flash.

3rd down has been a bit of an issue for the defense this year. Think is directly linked to the injuries and constant shuffling in the secondary. They were the best 3rd down defense in football last year and it wasn't close. They were top 10 in 2018 and 2019 too and just outside the top 10 in 2020. This is a bit of a down year but then no Hyde most of the year, no White over half of the year, shuffling guys in and out - Benford, Lewis, Hamlin, Johnson - have all played a fair number of snaps. That's three 6th rounders and an UDFA.