transplantbillsfan

Kurt Warner

I dunno, if Brian Daboll is the creative genius we all hope he is, I think he might find a way to utilize Duke in the offense. After all, his excitement appears to be escalating... and does anyone notice who throws Duke the ball here?

So annoying these "well he was passed up" and "skill sets" arguments: Wes Welker Jason Peters Priest Holmes James Harrison Rod Smith Tony Romo Kurt Warner John Randle Warren Moon All undrafted. All viewed by 32 NFL teams to be not worthy. All went onto Pro Bowl or NFL HOF careers. Again, NFL teams and GMs are often stupid.

That doesn't mean his skill set isn't valuable, though.

Oh holy hell. I guess I would have kept this thread alive if I read a stupid post like this. You know nothing about what type of player he is in the NFL because he hasn't played a single regular season snap yet. NFL teams and GMs are often incredibly stupid, let's be honest. I'm not going to point out examples because if you aren't smart enough to find all this historically great NFL players passed over by all 32 teams multiple times in drafts or not picked up on waivers or... well then you need help no one here can provide. Duke likely gets his chance... I think you were right about that in your previous post. And if he keeps practicing the way he did this week and the way he played in the preseason, then it's probably sooner rather than later. And then we see if he's the below average player you claim he is. Yeah, but he catches EVERYTHING, including contested balls with guys draped on him.

I'm good. I pretty much put the Duke issue aside once we brought him to the Practice Squad. As the OP said, I just wanted him to remain a Bill. What seems to have kept the thread alive is Duke's continued strong showings in practice this week along with Allen's comments in his presser. I hope Zay lights it up this year. I really do. But no matter what he does moving forward, his first 2 years were massively disappointing and certainly didn't warrant the automatic roster spot you seem to believe he earned.

be shocked

I understand why you would interpret it that way, but that statement was lumped in context with the previous 3 lines. And it was intended to be lumped with those lines in the context of my statement about style. Didn't feel I needed to specify, but I apologize, next time I'll try to specify so there are no misunderstandings. No, because we'd have to cut or IR someone.

Now you know what I'm thinking? What number am I guessing? When I even brought up Hines Ward in the first place, this is exactly what I said: Let him be Hines Ward then. We all saw the Cover_1 analysis of his run blocking in the preseason. Start there. If you can't see in there that I'm clearly talking about style, then let me reassure you, I was talking about style. Again, not diving into the weeds here. I did not mean "but he'll probably put up better numbers than Hines Ward" when I said that. If that's what you thought I meant, I hope I've now eased your mind. It would be silly to say Duke will be a better receiver than Hines. I didn't say that he would be. If you and the other fanboys want to keep bickering, I'll be happy to do it one on one via PM.

Of course you need to prove it on the field. I'm not going to dive into the weeds over semantics or the connotations of words. I did not say and did not mean that Duke Williams will be a better WR than Hines Ward. I was using Hines Ward's style of play as WR, which I think you would agree is distinctly different from other WRs, as a model for Duke Williams especially when he first gets on the field.

When I said "receiving threat" I didn't mean that Williams would be a better WR than Ward, I'm talking more about they style of the player. Part of that is the QB throwing to him. Ward had a 1st ballot HOFer throwing to him much of his career. As much as I like Allen... can't say that that's what he'll be, even though I think he's going to drastically improve this year. I brought up Ward for the sake of style of play, which is as a physical blocker. He got his receptions and his yards, but he wasn't exactly the guy other teams schemed against as a WR. That was Plaxico Burress in the beginning of his career and then Mike Wallace at the end. And he spend the middle of his career with Big Ben developing chemistry together.

What Hall of Famer are you talking about? I was talking about Hines Ward, who is not in the Hall of Fame. You're responding to a portion of the conversation that had nothing to do with Hines Ward. Yes, they're both backups. Duke also ran with the 1s in the 3rd preseason game and didn't get any passes thrown his way until Barkley came in, when he targeted him on his very first pass. I get that you're one of the handful of posters who just likes givin me a hard time, so actually responding to you is largely pointless, but QB/WR chemistry on the field is pretty critical and directly related to a WR's production. Duke, as several posters have been pointing out, isn't the type of WR who's going to get crazy separation from DBs, so establishing that trust that he's going to come down with the ball when you throw to him with a guy draped on his back is pretty important, don't you think? Wouldn't surprise me if he and Allen start working together a bit after practices with each other to see what kind of chemistry they can build.

You're saying it was ridiculous before even a regular season snap? How very dingus like.

This Is AWESOME!!! This is satire, right??? Awesome!!! If it's being serious... AWESOMER!!!!

Hines Ward made his name in the NFL for being a willing and ferocious blocker. He caught a lot of balls over his very long 14 year NFL career. But he actually started his career as a special teamer, which is probably where he got his taste for hitting. Hell part of the case being made for Ward as a HOFer right now is how much he contributed to Jerome Bettis's induction into Canton.

He was a 5 star recruit when he transferred to Auburn and the #1 JuCo recruit. The guy is immensely talented. His problem has been stuff off the football field, which he appears to have under control.

To your 1st question: Kurt Warner... and I didn't even need to think long about that. The rest of that paragraph is idiotic. You can't prove a negative here with that argument. As for the 2nd paragraph... I'm actually pretty sure since Beane got to Buffalo the McBeane regime said something about Beane being in control of the 53 man roster with McDermott in control of everything else, namely active vs inactive. Beane has come out on multiple occasions this offseason talking up Zay. You're just wrong there. I hope Beane isn't, though.

So this, I admit, is the biggest reason I don't think Duke made the roster. Fit. I wonder if Beane and McDermott want to feel out Allen's improvements, first. Because you could very well be right here. All of Duke's success catching passes were with Barkley this preseason, not Allen. Even those clips in practice today were from Barkley. I'm sure there will be a bit of a feeling out process there.

Good God. Let him be Hines Ward then. We all saw the Cover_1 analysis of his run blocking in the preseason. Start there. But he's bigger hand has better hands than Ward, so he's probably a bit more of a receiving threat. If Duke just refined his route running, he'd be even better.

That's a pathetic number, especially for a guy who was drafted essentially because he caught everything thrown at him in college.

You put strange emphasis on Zay's time as a starter as somehow being meaningful. Zay was part of 2 of the worst WR corps in the NFL over the last 2 years and wasn't even the best WR on either of those WR corps. Last year Robert Foster was the best WR in Buffalo and the previous year was Deonte Thompson. Zay is on the team because Brandon Beane loves him. And honestly, I hope the light switches on for him this year and Beane's proven correct. But guys like Zay who came out of college pretty highly regarded with pretty high expectations who utterly disappoint in year 1 and then are just "Meh..." and not even the team's best WR in year 2 get cut across the NFL all the time for unproven guys with lots of talent like Duke. I want Zay to be good finally because thus far, for a guy who had some 1st round grades and who's biggest attribute was not dropping the football, he's been a bust. And once again, Duke not getting claimed off waivers does NOT mean that he can't/won't be a very productive NFL player. There are exhaustive lists out there of guys who've been cut/released in the NFL who went on to productive or even HOF careers. Just because the Patriots didn't claim him doesn't mean Duke Williams can't/won't be a productive NFL player.

Literally said Duke might never be a solid contributor. See the post above yours. If you have a difficult time actually reading--seems you do--it's words 2-9 in the 2nd sentence. Uhhh, it was pretty clearly and obviously implicit in several posts... oye!

Gotta bode well for the scouting department that our PS is almost entirely guys we had on the roster this offseason and that 3 of the guys we cut were claimed off waivers.

31 teams missed on Robert Foster last year when he was cut from the active roster mid season.