HappyDays

Not sure that missed TD was 100% on DiNucci. He led it a bit too far but Shavers had so much space he easily should have tracked it and caught it. He slowed up and didn't get to the ball.

At least DiNucci is giving his guys a chance. Ball placement is all over the place but he is pulling the trigger.

Ingram is looking better than Elam out there

Just watching Andreessen there, he gave his man zero room to run through him and looked ready to shed off him if Bryce Young tried to turn the corner. Good physicality and awareness.

Really nice start for Andreessen. Had good pass coverage on the previous play and then made a run tackle that could have gone the distance if he didn't stop it.

Steve Tasker reporting Joe Andreessen will get the start again today. Not really a surprise but shows you his spot on the depth chart is pretty firm.

Word for word this would be true of almost any rookie prospect that wasn't a blue chip, no? Did anyone really expect Coleman to refine his game by the end of August in his rookie season? You take a prospect like him because you believe that his flaws are fixable, but not overnight. Separating/creating leverage in tight coverage from NFL boundary CBs is an art as much as it is a science and it's going to take him time to learn how to use his pure physical gifts to master that part of the game. Fans are of course right to have concerns about the WR room as a whole and about Coleman potentially getting more volume than he can handle right now, but having concerns about Coleman in general at this infant stage of his NFL career really isn't reasonable IMO.

Unfortunately Kirby, this regime clearly didn't see a high end WR as a desperate need. If they did and expected Coleman to immediately step in and be that guy, that is even worse. I don't see Coleman vs Hollins as the battle. If anything it was Coleman vs Hollins vs MVS for two spots, and MVS has emerged as the clear loser. I expect Coleman's usage to ramp up as the season goes along, which is the expectation for a 2nd round talent. Rashee Rice last year averaged just 34.6 YPG in his first 5 games, but 69.5 YPG in his final 11. Look for progress in October, not in August.

I don't think it has much to do with Coleman himself. It's been known since the draft that Hollins would get a significant amount of playing time. Until MVS was signed out of desperation, Hollins was the only player on the roster to have received a majority of his snaps outside in the NFL. I don't know if he is ahead of Coleman in the coaching staff's mind or vice versa, but both are going to get a lot of playing time outside because they are the only real options we have there. And yes it represents a massive failure of this regime to have a 2nd round rookie and a journeyman JAG as the primary outside receiving options in the prime of Allen's career. Much like this regime did when they drafted Allen, they have drafted a raw physical talent that was known to need a development track and are instead throwing him into the deep end of the pool because they've left themselves no other options. If Hollins ends up in front of Coleman on the opening depth chart, that isn't any more concerning than Nate Peterman opening the season ahead of Allen on the depth chart in 2018.

This is one thing I will disagree with. The staff has a much higher opinion of Mack Hollins than they should based on how they talk about him and how he has gotten nothing but 1st team reps since day one. When we signed him I remarked that it was a Trent Sherfield caliber signing but the team apparently brought him in to play a major role in the offense, for reasons that elude me. Having their rookie WR battle an established veteran was always the plan IMO, as it almost always has under this regime. I think it is to Keon's credit that he was able to work his way onto the starting offense from day one of OTAs. That is better than almost every 1st rounder we've drafted in the McBeane era. It sucks that he is being thrust into a larger role than his raw skillset says he should. I just hope the fanbase can be patient. Don't blame Keon for the failings of the front office if/when he doesn't immediately hit the ground running. He was always going to need time to refine his game. Of all the other WRs drafted this year, only the top 2 are expected to step in as basically their team's #1 outside WR from day one. Everyone else has established talent in front of them and will have time to develop their skills. For some reason this staff is treating Keon like Nabers and MHJ with the laughable competition they have on the roster, and that's not fair to him or to Allen for that matter.

More positive injury news:

Samuel's skill set is unique anyways, I don't agree that Dotson would be redundant. Samuel is going to be a gadget/weapon in our offense. I don't think we really have a traditional Z on our roster unless that's what we're calling Keon.

That's not true, I really liked the Curtis Samuel signing. He was one of the WRs I advocated for even before free agency started. But I still think we are thin at the position and would love to add good depth with upside if nothing else.

So that is fair. I see him as a Z, not just a strict slot, and to me he would be a possible upgrade at that position on our roster, and at the very least give us upside there. That being said I admit this all comes out of a sense of desperation about the position.

Dotson has more receiving yards over the past 2 seasons than anyone on our roster other than Samuel... Beggers can't be choosers.

I absolutely would have been in on that trade. It's crazy to me how little urgency we are showing at the WR position. The Eagles have a top 3 WR duo and they're willing to make this trade with their division rival. I really don't get it. Maybe the plan is to wait until the trade deadline and see if there's a legit #1 or #2 WR getting shipped out. Hopefully that's the plan.

Great news, especially on Samuel. The turf toe must not be too serious.

Bills specific: -No single player over 1,000 receiving yards -Coleman to lead the team in receiving yards and TDs -Solomon with more sacks than Epenesa League-wide: -Rams win the NFCW -Bears are the annual divisional 4th place to 1st place, winning the NFCN -Conference championships Texans at Chiefs, Lions at Packers

This is a five alarm fire. Our kicker is 8 of 14 in practice this week. I don't know the path forward from here but being less than 50% from 40+ yards puts us at a HUGE disadvantage, if that needs to be said. On top of the other issues we're likely to have this year, Bass might be the difference in us missing the playoffs entirely.

I understand being less optimistic but I'll never be less interested. I was interested when EJ Manuel was battling Kyle Orton for the starting job. Why wouldn't I be interested now? All the discussion here is fun but ultimately no one knows how the season will turn out. Surprises happen constantly in the NFL. Maybe Coleman becomes a superstar. Maybe Babich and Brady are wunderkinds. I may not have the highest expectations but I'm excited as hell to see how it all comes together.

Yeah he didn't track the trajectory of the ball right. I get why a lot of people think he turtled up/short armed it, but that's not my interpretation of it. Looks to me like it does to you, he expected it to be thrown into his body and didn't adjust to the poor throw fast enough so he only got fingertips on it. Kid just turned 21 and only started focusing on football a couple years ago. I'll give him some time to ramp up and adjust to the speed of the game. I'm not remotely concerned about his toughness or willingness to absorb contact.

I don't think he turtled up at all. Keon isn't afraid of contact, that's his whole game. The pass itself was just awkward. It's a wobbly almost knuckle ball, almost looks like it got tipped when you watch it in slow motion. He never get his hands on it cleanly. It's a little disappointing but I'm less discouraged by the failed catch than I am encouraged that he made a move to get open in the endzone off his release. That's the progress we wanted to see from week 1. One awkward throw dropping to the turf doesn't bother me. Here you go: You can see on the first angle he isn't hearing footsteps, he just doesn't expect the ball to end up that far in front of him and he doesn't make a clean attempt at the catch.

We just don't know that. What we do know is that besides Coleman (and Shakir to a certain extent) we have exactly zero upside waiting in the wings. So when an injury inevitably happens, we have no one that can even possibly step into the role and produce at an above average level. If say Burton or McMillan were on the team this year, the fanbase would be disappointed in Samuel's injury but excited to see our other rookie get a shot. And if we're counting this as a retooling season which I am fine with, getting young WR talent in the room now also would have set us up better for 2025. Instead we have exactly one prospect that we're banking on for the future. Like I said before there is no spin that can excuse the lack of investment. It was a known problem months ago and the spotlight has only gotten bigger in the wake of Samuel's injury.

The Chiefs scored 3 points in the 1st half and then Mahomes threw a terrible INT coming out of halftime that gave the 49ers the ball at the 50. It's nice that they were able to beat an elite team with that game script but no chance we could replicate that IMO. For a myriad of reasons we shouldn't be using the Chiefs' season last year as any kind of barometer for the type of team we need to win a championship. Pointing to the quality of their WRs is just a last-ditch bad-faith effort some make to excuse how little our regime has invested into the position.

You could play this game with our picks too. Cole Bishop - Was firmly playing a backup role before suffering an injury and now his path onto the field is questionable in his rookie season. DeWayne Carter - Firmly entrenched as a backup/rotational DT and has not shown any real flashes so far. Ray Davis - Backup at the least important position on the offense. And other than Javon Baker, every one of these WRs is playing behind a better set of pass catchers than what we're trotting out this year. Jermaine Burton isn't going to beat out Tee Higgins, but beating out Mack Hollins? Yeah I would rather have that chance over any of the 3 picks we made after Coleman.