GunnerBill

Wilkerson has won a PS job I think. He will be their next Shavers esque project.

It's not true. I haven't heard McDs presser, so not sure if he said it but if he did he might well have meant our 2s "on the night". But even our starting lineup had guys like Gouriage, Feeney and Codrington out there who are not even in our twos. They are threes. And they started the game for us.

I really don't. I know what Damar Hamlin is. But someone has to beat him out. That is what has not happened. Bishop is still making major game breaking mistakes when he is out there. I am like everyone else I WANTED Bishop to have a great spring and summer, take that job and never look back. But he still looks worse than Hamlin out there. That is the reality. I think they are going to start Bishop because they know if he can't beat out Hamlin by year 2 he is veering towards bust territory..... but he is going to be on a short leash. If the mental mistakes continue he will be off the field within 4 or 5 weeks and he will basically be done as a Bill. Hancock is a slightly different case. There have been some flashes from him through two games. But they haven't been really committing to him learning the safety spot for most of the summer. I think they might now switch his focus that way... but probably not in time to start him week 1.

Shenault is a terrible receiver though.

That isn't relevant to the point I was making, but sure.

Yea, I think that is what it is. That isn't toughness, but it is a more cerebral way of playing defense than old timers remember.

I understand that but in order to get the time he has to stop making big back breaking coverage errors. I can live with dialling down what we are asking him to do.... but at the moment I just don't trust him at all not to give up a touchdown play a game in coverage. If I was the coach he wouldn't be out there until I at least didn't think that. I think they are going to start him but he won't have a 9 to 10 week leash. I think it is more like week 5. If he is still making these errors then he will be benched and I think he can have zero complaints.

Yea I don't know where the "not tough" stuff comes from.

He had an awful mistake in the first half of the AFCCG that gave up a chunk play (think to JuJu) and there was one in one of those last 4 or 5 games as well..... maybe it was New England and didn't matter. Can't recall off top of my head.

But there is one of these major mental breakdowns in coverage every time he is on the field it seems. And yes, Hamlin is a very slow professional athlete.

No I think he was. My bad. Regardless he didn't lose on the play because he just got out "athleticismed" he got beat mentally before he got beat physically.

No I think you are right it was man. I take it back. In my defense it was 1.30am here 😅

He wasn't in man. The receiver was his guy within the zone but he got beat because he got his spacing wrong to start with, read the play late and reacted late. Sure the WR then ran away from him because that's a hard match up.... but if he gets his fundamentals right he is in position make the tackle there for a 4-6 yard gain. EDIT: correction, he was in man. But he still made the mental errors before the athleticism even became a factor.

He was strong safety last night. Damar was playing the free. He still sucked. He had one excellent play in Houston and people presume that indicative of his overall performance. It wasn't.

No. He challenged a Bears "catch" and won the challenge it was incomplete

At a team level I totally agree. The individual evaluations do matter though.

Lundt was okay. Not as good as last week, had a couple of shaky pass pro reps when inside at LG - one of which led to sack of Mike White (but after he held the ball for freaking ever). Interesting that they looked at Lundt at guard. He was there with the "starting" unit then stayed out there and played RT with the second line through. Hancock had a couple of nice reps and a couple of really poor ones. Which is sorta par for the course right now for a 5th round rook.

I only do five of each.... there was lots of competition for bad last night.

Exactly how I feel. Word for word. Hamlin is a back of a 53 player. But he is our second best safety. I feel like others want to run with the unknown in the hope they are more than a back of a 53 player.... and I get that... but when they look so awful on the field and are making as you say - the fatal mistake - it gets hard to support that.

The kicker they signed... think he is also name Davis but not Ray.... Still no Bass.

This is absolutely right IMO. He is the 2nd best safety on the roster and yet we all know he isn't good enough.

It was the one positive of the focus on DL in this draft. Hopefully it stops Beano throwing all our spare FA dollars there on mid range FAs year after year.

Codrington is definitely a returner only.... but I'm not persuaded Shenault is more than that. I think I saw him get literally 2 snaps on offense. That's the interesting thing about that battle.

But it was never an equal fight at any point. Literally the only time all night that it became even was the final Bills drive when Buechele went it and at that point the Bears did give the very bottom of their defensive roster a drive. All night they were playing a team up. That isn't to excuse the Bills - that was lousy - but it was never even 2s v 2s or 3s v 3s. By the time the Bears went to the 2s the Bills 3s were in and by the time the Bears went to their 3s the Bills were down to as many future shelf stackers as they could find.

First of all nobody should freak out. McDermott did say before the joint practice he would decide after it how to treat this game. By all accounts the Bills showed well in practice and as such they sat a ton of guys here. The Bears were playing a team, or a team and a half above the Bills all night.... but there were some things that could be taken from it..... even if my first reaction was "Wow... gotta find five "good nights" out of that!" Anyway, glad I only stayed up for the first quarter before going to sleep. Have watched the rest of the game this morning so here goes: Good Night for... Brad Robbins - Yes, it was that kinda night.... the first place by head goes is the punter played well! But just generally through the two pre-season games so far I have been impressed with Robbins. It is worth reminding yourself that he was actually drafted in 2023 by the Bengals but lost the job after one year. I wonder if he has benefitted from the year off because his leg looks plenty strong right now and there were two well judged shorter punts downed inside the 20 too. I'll add to it the coverage units have been pretty decent through two pre-season games when traditionally it is tougher to get that right with guys cycling through. Laviska Shenault - Three solid returns averaging 28 yards and he did look decisive on them. I don't think he is separating himself from Codrington yet (he had two for 27.5 average) and the competition still rages but the fact that Curtis Samuel can't get on the field and Elijah Moore can't catch a dump off means there is a potential gap there for a shifty, gimmick style receiver - something they might think Shenault can offer in addition to his returning. Not ready to say he is making the roster right now, but I have been pretty sniffy about his chances since he signed and my position is softening somewhat. Tyrell Shavers - The reason Shenault needs one of Samuel or Moore to fall by the wayside is Shavers. He just continues to perform, is out there as a gunner on special teams, made a nice catch on a back shoulder throw from Mike White and looks like a guy who can run routes outside (as has been much discussed the Bills are overloaded with guys who prefer to play the slot). He is getting closer and closer to the 53. We have had guys like this feel like they have made it before under this regime only to end up on the cutting room floor but I think Shavers is trending towards making it. Frank Gore Jnr - Okay he had the fumble on a catch in the redzone that ended the Bills best drive in the 3rd quarter. But on a night where so many guys sucked and played at half speed Frank Gore went out there second half and played like it was the Superbowl. Ran hard, made himself available in the pass game and put his body on the line as a blocker. He ended with 81 of the Bills 180 offensive yards. He is kind of the perfect practice squad back in that he doesn't have special traits that are likely to get him poached but he is an absolute pro. If the Bills had a running back go down in year and had to call Gore up to the roster he would not let them down. Challenges - McDermott won a challenge! Hey, I was running out of positives..... Bad Night for... Cole Bishop - Can't start anywhere else. He was the one likely starter that suited up for the Bills on defense, he played one drive and ended it giving up a touchdown after being lost and late in coverage again. Yes - he ended up on a slot receiver, tough matchup. But this wasn't a guy just out doing him athletically. He was in the wrong position, slow to read it and slow to react before the athleticism even became a factor. And this was not some super complex defensive call either, it looked like pretty vanilla single high with Bishop as the box safety (which is the role he is generally more comfortable in and played more in college). I'm really worried about his coverage struggles. It looks too much for him mentally to me. Joe Andreessen - Possibly the first time since the train left the station last summer that someone has pumped the breaks but that was a rough half of football for Buffalo Joe. Again getting the start as the 2nd string MLB he struggled with Ben Johnson's play action calls - was not getting his depths right, was attacked in zone coverage and then made a mental mistake in man coverage too and dropped his guy. The suspicion has been there throughout that he is a bit more of an AJ Klein type who is a lot happier moving forwards than backwards but the Bears might be the first team to have really exposed it. Mike White - I am not here to tell you Mitch Trubisky is good, but he is better than this. White's accuracy is a total lottery ticket. I will give him his props, I like how he stands in there and is willing to take a hit to get the ball off but he just misses too many throws. He didn't get a ton of help, I admit, but 4/11 for 54 yards with the 2nd string receivers and the best collection of offensive linemen the Bills had active was not a great statement in the backup QB battle. Ryan Van Demark - It's been a good pre-season for Vandy to this point, he started camp splitting time with Tylan Grable at right tackle in Spencer Brown's absence and then has switched over to the left with Dion missing a couple of practices and he played well in pre-season game one. However, this was a poor outting. Two false starts on the first drive set the tone and it seemed to affect him because I thought he was chasing his blocks a bit after that and it affected his balance and technique. Zach Davidson - This guy is toast. The drops last week, two bad penalties that wiped out chunk plays this week. It's over. Pick the bones out of that if you dare folks.... one more to go!