Shaw66

Crazy idea ... Bills coaches probably already asked themselves this question. There's a reason Groy doesn't start. It's the same reason anyone else doesn't start - he isn't performing as well as the guy who does start.

I thought the same thing. It's interesting how guys just run out of gas like that.

There's defenitely a lot of planning that goes into decisions like this. One other thing: I'm starting to think that deep speed is overrated. Now, if you have a Tyreek Hill, that's different, because he's a threat all over the field. But there's only one of him. If you think about it, it's much important to be able to stop the other team from hurting you with deep speed than having it yourself. Someone will say year, but deep speed makes you commit a safety to the guy. I"d say that isn't always true - deep speed doesn't always get doubled. All you need is a #3 who can get deep, and he can put the pressure on the defense to keep them honest. Obviously, you'd always rather have a good receiver who's fast than one who's not, but I think you can have a pretty formidable attack with Ben and Matt.

I think it's an audition in a broad sense. The coaches are going to be looking at the offense with the two of them on the field, and with Tyrod throwing. Beane and McD will have to decide whether that's the core passing personnel they want going forward. If they think they're going to replace Tyrod with a rookie or other inexperienced QB, they may very well want to keep both receivers, because they are excellent security blankets for a young guy - good route runners, dependable, etc. If they want to keep Tyrod, then they have to decide whether they think they can compete in the NFL without a serious deep threat in the passing lineup. Maybe they think it's good enough to have the speed guy be the number 3 man, and the number 4. Since neither Benjamin nor Matthews is a premier number 1 guy, they probably won't need to pay franchise type money to either to keep them. Mid to high number 1 money and high number 2 money may not be too much to spend on the position.

No, but only because I'm not good at imagining things. And I haven't seen Kamara. To Brown's credit, he's coachable, and the team gets him prepared every week. That limits the damage that gets done in the middle. He was drafted where he was because he didn't have good speed for the position. We're seeing it now.

I might agree with your point, but not your examples. Flacco's had one good year since 2010. Eli's had 3. They just haven't been very good for several years. There might be a tier between the elites and the decent QBs, but Flacco and Manning are no longer in it.

Yeah, I agree with this completely. McD knows he isn't likely to get another Keuchly, but he needs someone who moves better than Brown. That position is almost as important to his defense as QB is to the offense. I know absolutely nothing about Conor McDermott - don't even recognize the name, but you make a good point. I think Glenn and Wood will stay, and probably Richie. Th right side of the line will be changing.

Personally, I think that's an overdone concept. I don't think his height is much of a disadvantage. If, and I think it's a big IF, he knows where his receivers are going and who should be open, he should be able to slide to find a sight line to the receiver or spot he's interested in. I still can't argue with people who say he doesn't make those decisions fast enough. I can't argue because I just don't know if he's slow or not. The reason I question whether he's slow is that when he's completing 65-75% of his passes, he's being as efficient as the other good QBs in the league. If he really was so slow at scanning the field and making decision, he'd be nearer 50%. And that argument goes to the height issue, too. If he can't see, how come he's completing all those passes? How many passes a game is he missing because he can't see? Two? Three? I doubt it's five. What about the sacks? Most of the sacks Thursday were on the d-line. How many could he have avoided by throwing it away or completing a pass if he were four inches taller? One? Two? And the most important question, for the long term, is if you have a QB who's doing all the things right that he's doing, are you going to burn a bunch of draft picks on a rookie who's taller, who doesn't run as well and may never learn to be a quality starter? People have their list of flaws for Taylor: Height, slow decision maker, lousy footwork, doesn't scan the field, probably a few others. But when you look at the CAREER passer rating list, the leaders in order are Rodgers, Wilson, Brady, Romo, Young, Brees, Manning, Cousins, Rivers, Warner, Roethlisberger, Ryan. If Taylor had enough attempts, he'd be next on that list. I just have to keep asking, myself and everyone else, if he's passing that well, how real, or how important, can those flaws be?

Anomaly, yes, but I think there's more to it than that. Maybe Hughes's complaint was correct, and they just had a lot of trouble preparing on a short week. Whatever, a lot of things were uncharacteristic. But I also think the Bills' talent on the offensive and defensive lines is below average and susceptible to getting pushed around. We haven't seen that exploited until the Jets game, and I think we will see more of it. It makes sense that one guy or another might not be mentally prepared, but for both lines to get manhandled like that suggests that talent has something to do with it.

I agree. Halfway through I'm thinking the Bills are an average to slightly above average team. They play hard, they're well prepared, which allows them to compete every week. But you can say that about a lot of teams. I'm thinking that the problem with the Bills is that they're a little short of talent, which results from two things: Players on board don't fit the schemes (the typical problem when you change coaches) (I think Preston Brown is one of those) and players McDermott and Beane unload who didn't have the attitude they wanted (Watkins, Dareus, maybe one or two more). McD and Beane undertand this - that's why they loaded up on picks for 2018, and traded one of those picks for Benjamin. Bottom line, I'm not prepared to finish 8-8. I'm not predicting that, but if they go 8-8 I'm okay. I think next year's Bills will have 4 or 5 starters who fit the system better, and 100% of the team will be on board with the process. That's when I expect 10 wins or more. Ten this season would be a nice surprise.

Nine wins almost always means you're relying on tie-breakers. It also means only 4 or sometimes 5 teams win 10. It means a lot of teams have to go 8-8 and 7-9. It happens, but I think the history has been 9 wins isn't a very good way to make the playoffs or, more importantly, to win in the playoffs.

Agreeable to you! That's great! Stats then eyeballs. Four games with a passer rating over 100, six games over 90, two below 80. One might argue that's inconsistent, I think it's what you get from most QBs. Rodgers was under 80 for three games last season. QBs have bad statisctical games from time to time because (1) they have bad days and/or (2) their teams get outplayed, outplanned, outschemed. I think it's unrealistic to expect that your QB is over 90 in passer rating every game. Matt Ryan was under 80 only once last season, but he was the player of the year. He was under 80 five times in 2015. Brady was under 80 once in 12 games last season, three times in 16 games in 2015. So Taylor over 90 in 6 of 8 and under 80 in 2 of 8 isn't dramatically more inconsistent than the very best in the league. Eyeballs: He had one game this season that I saw where he missed a lot of throws. I didn't see Cincy, and he might have had that problem then, too; I don't know. But in the other games I've been struck by how consistent, how accurate he's been on his throws. My eyeballs would have agreed with you last season, but not this season. I was hoping that Taylor would take a step forward this season, and it looks to me like he has. Let's see what the second half brings.

I think it's easier than you might think when it's a guy like Benjamin. You're not necessarily throwing to Benjamin as he makes his cut. For example, end zone fade routes. It doesn't take a lot of time for the QB and a big receiver to refine this route. Line up as the left end, split out, get a release of the line, and when you cross the goal line, look for the ball up. QB watches the release of the line, determines that there's no double coverage, delivers the ball. Will they do that better after a season of practice? Sure. Can they do it well enough to have it in the game plan on Sunday? Sure. I do agree that his biggest effect on the game will be as someone who is drawing the attention of the defense. However, for that work, the Bills need to throw it to him some. The Saints won't play the entire game focused on Benjamin if he isn't catching a few balls. I say four catches for 48 yards, maybe a score.

Not wanting to get involved in another Taylor thread, at least not today, I've been ignoring this thread. Came on just now to take a look. Saw Old Time's post and just shook my head. Then I saw this. Beautifully done. I'm not a big believable in the eyeball test, but I have to say that in the past few weeks Taylor has LOOKED to me like a real NFL QB. Comfortable and in command in the pocket, delivering the ball on target with the right touch, throwing balls away. My only concern has been the sacks. Particularly against the Jets, the sacks looked not to be primarily his fault. He had nowhere to go and often no time to unload it. But I'd like to know what the coaches are telling him about those plays. Did they see something different?

I do this, too. Easy enough.

I won't remember, because I can't remember anything these days. But I would suggest to you that although stats aren't the be all and end all, to say you're concerned about Taylor's consistency but don't cite stats is to leave "consistency" un measurable. How are we supposed to have a discussion about consistency if not with stats? Am I supposed to be convinced simply because you think he's inconsistent? What does that mean?

I agree. I'm hoping Benjamin will help them adjust to what you're talking about.

Well, we don't know which coach is responsible. Early in the season McDermott said things that suggested to me that they weren't going to go away from what they want to do until they had to. That's the way the Bills seem to play. I think he's very conservative. All season long they've stuck to the run if they were within 10 points. If it were Dennison and McDermott wanted more passing, McDermott would tell him to pass more. So I don't think it's Dennison.

I agree. I wasn't arguing. No reason not to pass. But even passing might not have helped because the sacks were killing drives. Still, there was no hope running so it made sense to try something else. That isn't McDermotts philosophy.

Hard to argue with that, except the qb was getting sacked a lot.

The Jets was an uncharacteristic game for the 2017 Bills. They haven't been outplayed before, and this game looked like they weren't ready mentally. I have faith in McDermott that he will get them back on track. However, my faith has been misplaced before. It may be that all we saw last month was a hot streak and Thursday night was closer to what we'll see going forward. I don't know. We'll see.

Right And Zay doesn't get tripped there may have been a second quarter touchdown. Likenyou, I just don't see Taylor's performance contributing much at all to the loss. The lines got beat all night and that's why they lost.

This is interesting. I think in the second half of the season we will see more throwing and if so I will disagree with you. If the offense opens up successfully they'll keep Matthews AND Benjamin.

I agree with this. I don't think the point is that it's 21 or a projected 52. The u re in good shape. Getting through 2016 1nd 17 has been the cap problem and they're done with that. I also agree about the balance. I think particularly that these guys don't want to be spending their money outside the hashmarks. That's why Gilmore and Watkins are gone. Dareus is gone because he didn't fit.

I agree. I think they will replace Brown.