Maine-iac

I can see why people are taking the under. I think we are going to be running more and I think until we bring in a 230lb back Josh is going to be the guy when we need a TD. Teams spread out in the red zone to cover Kincaid and Shakir and Josh is going to dive in the end zone. I wish Harris didn't get hurt last year I thought he might be the guy to get those tough yards but until I see someone moving piles and running over guys who isn't named Josh Allen I'm going to think our short yardage back is still our QB.

Somehow production always gets attributed to yardage. 300 yard passing games, 100 yard receiving games ect ect. If we run the ball more all season, pass for a few less yards, still score the same amount of TD's I could care less if we don't have a 1,200 or 1,300 yard receiver. I'd also like to see a back (or our offense in general) gain the ability to run for short yardage and score on the goal line. You want Josh to run less? Get us someone who can gain those 1st downs and TD's so Josh isn't QB and FB. I don't think we need huge passing yardage numbers to still have a productive offense. Can we score points and get 1st downs? That what I care about. For the sake of addressing the original topic. All complete guessing. Name Catches Yards TDs Kincaid 85 950 8 Shakir 64 990 6 Samuel 53 630 4 Knox 35 380 6 Cook 45 450 2 Coleman 45 560 4 I think MVS, Hollin, and possibly Claypool all muddle up the numbers. One of them will get a few catches. I think MVS is the veteran, Hollins is the special teamer, and Claypool is the flyer on the chance he shows something. I don't know if any of them see the field much. I have to turn off the part of my brain that hopes Claypool makes something of himself because while it would be nice you don't build around that.

I can see Kincaid catching 70 to 80 and Knox catching 30 to 40 which puts them right at the mark. I'm hoping Kincaid comes out and looks like he could catch 100.

I live and work in NE so not exactly Bill's country. I manage all the vendor deliveries for a large store so it's all truck drivers and delivery drivers all day long. Every now and then someone will pop in with a Bill's hat or some gear and we'll talk some football for a minute or two. Little known fact, or so I've been told, but the Giants were the original NE team before the Patriots existed. Many of the older folks up here are Giants fans.

I am optimistic on our outside rushers so I'll guess over. I think AJE goes over ten this year. Hopefully he sees more snaps. Groot is a solid pass rusher and if he's healthy he should be good for another 7 or 8 sacks. I'd really love to see Miller be the rotational guy and spell both of those guys, stay healthy, and hopefully still provide 6 to 10 sacks and hopefully consistent pressure. Part of all of this I don't see mentioned a lot is also on the DT's. I really think for our ends to do as well as I hope we need our interior line rushers to stay healthy. If Jones and Oliver are both healthy they are far more likely to get the QB off his spot and the DE's can get more clean up sacks.

My daughter and I watching Allen squish the fish.

but has he lost his helmet ...................

I'll put on my flame suit and say two words Devin Singletary .............. the guy never got 200 carries in a season. We gave Cook 237 last year. I'm not saying Singletary is better than Cook but more that people never gave Singletary much credit for being a decent back. Still don't.

Again we used a first on Kincaid and Coleman was literally one pick after Worthy. Used a first on Diggs and in general have more production from the picks we have used then KC regardless of the round they were picked in. Fixed it.

4 vs 4 and which group do you think puts up better numbers this season?

That's not true. We draft as many WR's as the Chiefs. Last SB the Eagles won thier best pass catcher was (you guessed it) a TE. They didn't have a WR with over 800 yards. If we're not counting the 1st for Diggs or TE's as pass catchers like Kincaid or the obvious which is Coleman this year.

Right because they have to be high draft picks like Kelce, or Kupp, or Nacua?

Best teams like the Chiefs or formerly the Pats?

I do actually agree with everything you are saying but I also feel like people just love passing stats. If we don't have a WR with big numbers they lose their minds. Just like every time we lose in the playoffs they want to invest more in the offense to "outscore" every body. There is not really a pick in this years draft I have major problems with.

Does the argument that you keep drafting until you get the desired level of play from that position also apply to DE? I know the board would lose it's mind if we had drafted a DE in the first. I very much feel like people love stats, especially passing stats. Over and over again teams have won SB's with WR's who names are barely remembered 2 or 3 years later. Elite QB's and TE's are a rinse and repeat recipe.

Quick question ................. when people keep saying O do they actually mean passing game? I get it that the passing game wasn't as WR centric and didn't make fantasy boys giddy but the offense wasn't worse after Dorsey it was just different. I actually think part of the "O" playing better (yes I said O and better) is that Brady limited turnovers and capitalized time of possession which in turn produced less explosive but more efficient passing. Diggs and Davis were not as focused on in an offense meant to move the chains and Diggs checked out. Shakir gets thrown higher percentage balls and catches them and makes things happen. Same with Kincaid. Cook is also seeing those types of throws he just dropped more of them. As far as big passing numbers, if Josh throws for less yards this regular season but Cook goes off for 1,400 yards I'm not going to worry about it and the message board will whine all season long. Shakir and Kincaid will still make things happen and Cook will be running all over people. We just need someone to emerge outside and they don't even have to do much more than Gave Davis type things to keep defenses honest.

I'm all for a cheap tryout to see if there's any fire left in Claypool but looking through some old threads I found this and almost died laughing.

The guy is the size of Kincaid with the speed of Diggs. I like my chances with a guy like that one on one. Hopefully he puts everything together this year.

I was more worried about MLB last year than I am WR this year. I'm probably feeling WR the way you felt MLB. I just don't think it's that vital if you look at SB winners over the last ten years it's mostly about QB's and TE's with mix and match WR's. There's maybe two outside WR's and one RB who had a big enough role you could argue they were more important than the TE on their SB winning team. The large majority of the SB winning teams were all an elite QB, a great TE/Slot WR, and the rest is supporting cast. The better the defense the better your chances. Mahommes with Tyreek Hill and a SB win. 4740 yards 38TDs 6ints Mahommes with no Tyreek Hill and a SB win. 5250 yards 41TDs 12ints Pretty sure all the WR's not named Tyreek from those two SB's can be had off the waiver wire.

Would it resemble going into the season without a star MLB? Morris (85) flashed open off the line of scrimmage for what probably would have been 8 to 10 yards. Peterson talks a lot of smack for part of a secondary that gave up 220 yards and a TD to Diggs and Davis and should have lost in regulation.

All of this is why I really hope Claypool shows something and makes the team. He does, or should I say is capable of doing, all of that stuff and he's already signed and on the roster.

I voted better. I don't think his stat line will pop compared to his usual stats. Probably similar yards and TD's. Still making plays no one else makes but I'm hoping Allen has better command this year. Less interceptions and less head scratching plays. The same level of dangerous but lower levels of foolish.

Seeing how Allen had already hit two guys dead in the hands 20 or more yards down the field he probably felt he had a good chance of hitting another guy in the hands. I'd argue he should have hit Shakir on 3rd and 9 for what would have been probably a 7 or 8 yard gain all day. Then think about going for it. On 2nd and 9 with a guy wide open in the end zone you throw him the ball.

I mean technically you are right. His completion percentage on throws like that in that game alone probably also wasn't great but that doesn't mean Josh can't make the throw. Diggs dropped his, Sherfield dropped his, and Allen got hit on the throw to Shakir. Passing chart says he made 4 throws over 20 yards and 3 of those at a minimum had nothing to do with Josh being able to make the throw.

While his arm length certainly leaves some question marks about whether he's only capable of playing slot in the NFL he must be doing something right if he's top ten in separation and leading the league in catch percentage. I'm not trying to move him outside but more suggesting he's been playing with those arms his whole career it's possible he has it figured out to some extent. It might be more of a match up based problem than an every week problem if they did want to give him snaps outside. Against certain defenses stacking Shakir and Samuels might be pretty hard to defend.