GASabresIUFan

‘You don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit into the wind, you don’t pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger and you don’t mess around with”..Pat!

Everyone should just be thankful that we have 3 good backs and good OL that creates holes for them to run through. I do wish we’d find a way to get Cook into space on the outside more consistently.

Besides a great pedigree and good play each time he has entered a game? Nothing!

1st half vs 2nd half 1st half - bad game plan 2nd half - good adjustments

Considering he is the backup and McGovern is the starter who remains healthy, what did you expect?

Besides entering the game today in the 4th qtr and helping the Bills roll right down the field for the final TD?

Everybody eats isn't a failure. We simply had to the wrong mix of players to execute it well. Injuries haven't helped. GB has 2 good pass catching TEs and 5 good catching WRs. Love always has someone open. We don't have that right now, but we are getting closer to that goal with the addition of Cooper. His presence should help Coleman and Samuel. The best news is that Hollins is now the No. 5 WR and Samuel down to 4. What I'd like to see Brady do is Cooper on one boundary, Coleman on the other, Shakir in the slot and Samuel being used for everything but with more of an emphasis on deep pattern to better use his speed. Complete a few 30 yard passes to Samuel and Cooper and all of the sudden everything else opens up. Yes, I know Samuel hasn't been used much as a deep target over his career. Maybe it's time to try something different with him.

We need to acquire Josh Allen from the Jags so that we have a Josh Allen on both sides of the ball.

I don't think we are giving the Bills team enough credit for the victory over the Jets. The team had to overcome a Jets team at home, playing for a share of the division lead, playing hard for a new coach, terrible refs, a two game losing streak, Bass' kicking, McD's continued terrible end of half/game decisions, a deficient defense, and missing their top RB to win and take a 2 games lead in the East. It's really quite an accomplishment when you think about it.

Hey Bass was the key to the victory over the Jets. He was -4 pts to Zuerlein’s -6 pts.

The most important reason Cooper is here is to provide a good outside receiving threat. I believe Beane's initial idea was to move Shakir outside (given his nearly identical physical traits to Diggs) and give Samuel the slot job. However, Samuel's toe injury scuttled those plans. The second plan was to hope that Hollins and/or MVS could provide an outside threat. Both plans were to give Coleman time to get up to speed and become a second outside threat as the season progresses. Obviously neither of these plans worked as Hollins is inconsistent, Coleman is still working up to speed, Samuel is clearly slowed by his injury, Shakir also got hurt and MVS was a complete no show. Given that backdrop, the move to acquire Cooper was necessary. Now the question is how quickly can Cooper get up to speed. I expect that Brady/McD and company know what Cooper does best and will work that in the play calling this week. Another change I'd like to see is Samuel sent down the field on deep patterns. Assuming he's healthy, his speed would help stretch the field and considering his contract we need to get some kind of production from him.

What will his role be? Does he instantly become Josh's No.2 WR target after Shakir and primary outside threat? What happens to Samuel? Is he now just the backup slot and occasional gadget receiver? He is 6'1 211 with 4.42 speed. Is this fast enough to be a deep threat?

He should have never been signed. (and I wrote that during camp).

Those investments needed to be done regardless of the OC. We simply couldn’t continue to sign FAs to fill those rolls for cap and talent reasons. This move is to address a short coming in the offense for a team on it’s way back to the playoffs in a piss poor division. This was Beane saying he believes in this team and wants to give them the weapons it needs to succeed. This is also Beane trying to fix his offseason WR FA mistakes in Samuel and MVS.

Salary and cap hit play a huge part of NFL trade compensation. Take two similar players, the one with the cheaper cap hit will always get the higher trade value.

Don't be so sure.

Even Rodgers admitted it was a BS call.

LOL, 1/2 a good pick for a 4th rd pick who gave us 2730 receiving yards in 4 seasons with 27 TDs. You do realize he is 8th in his receiver class in yards and 3rd in TDs. Not bad for the 17th receiver taken in his draft class. McCloud was also a very good pick. He was the 22nd WR chosen overall. He is 8th in game played in his WR draft class and 16th in yards. The truth is we could use him here right now, but he is currently playing well for Atlanta. Right now I'd take him over Hollins and MVS. So that's 3 hits at WR out of 7 late round WR draft picks. That's an excellent draft record for late round picks. Hodgins isn't a bad pick either. https://www.ncaa.com/news/football/article/2022-04-21/nfl-draft-picks-career-games-played-average-position The average career of a 4th rd WR is 34.3 games - Davis is at 69 and counting. The average career of a 5th rd WR is 40.89 games - Shakir is in his 3rd season and is already at 35 games and counting. The average career of a 6th rd WR is 24.04 games - McCloud is at 82 and counting; Hodgins is at 29 games and counting. I honestly think Shakir is on his way to being a star in the NFL, but Davis, McCloud and even Hodgins are good to excellent picks given their draft status. I get that you and nearly everyone else (including me) thinks he should have investment more draft capital, especially early in the draft, on WR and other weapons for Josh. I agree, but it's not accurate to say he has drafted poorly on WRs. That simply isn't true.

If you want to criticize Beane for not using premium picks on WRs, I’m in full agreement, but he has drafted WRs and has found capable players like Davis and Shakir. He has made 7 WR picks before Coleman, all in the 4-7 rounds. He took Davis in the 4th, Shakir in the 5th, and Ray-Ray McLoud and Hodgins in the 6th. That’s actually very good late round WR drafting. He also brought in Diggs, Brown, Beasley and Sanders. Like I’ve said, much more good than bad. I’m sorry but your argument about WR evaluation doesn’t hold up. The best that can be said is that he hasn’t invested enough in WR through his tenure and that’s an argument I can accept and agree with. When you have Josh why did it take so long to use a top 2 round pick on a WR (he’d argue he spent a 1st on Diggs)? I honestly don’t understand it either.

Beane is fine. Other than Polian he is by far the best GM we have had. His drafting is fine. It’s BS that he doesn’t draft offense or weapons for Josh. Since he has been in Buffalo he has drafted 28 players for the offense but only 25 for the defense. His premium picks (rounds 1-3) are nearly evenly split with 10 on O and 11 on D. In the last 3 years he has used 1st and 2nd rd picks on Kincaid, Coleman and Cook. In fact of his last 6 1st and 2nd rd picks 4 have been on offense. If you want criticize his drafting, he used, in his early drafts, many premium picks along the DL with some bad misses like Boogie Basham and even Epenesa. He also recently missed on Elam in the first. Of his 21 top 3 round picks only Ford and Basham are true busts with Elam trending in that direction. However he has made up for it with Davis, Shakir, Benford, Taron Johnson among others. Does Beane make other mistakes? Absolutely. His cap management hasn’t been great. Some of his FA signings have been questionable. However he also has some huge wins in trade and FAs. Guys like Diggs, Morse, Beasley, Douglas, Hyde and Poyer come to mind. Overall he’s done a very good to excellent job and our W/L records is the proof.

Besides trading for Adams or Hopkins etc…., what adjustments can Brady to make the offense more affective until Shakir returns? The obvious answer is Curtis Samuel needs to step up. That said, the best depth we have is the RB room. All 3 RBs can run and catch. Maybe the solution starts there. So what about more two back sets? Put Davis/Johnson and Cook in the backfield and then split one out as a receiver. UGA did this often with Cook. I’d even go big and utilize Gilliam as a fullback to add more power running behind Gilliam and Alec Anderson/Knox. This also would force teams into single coverage and you might be able to hit some passes to Coleman and even MVS. Sometimes old school works. Other ideas?

I hate to dump our issues on offense on one player, but Samuel being MIA has been a major issue for the offense. I wasn’t expecting much from Hollins or MVS, but Samuel was the big offseason signing. He had experience with Brady and excellent speed. I gave him a pass for the 1st 3 weeks because of the turf toe, but this was his week to shine especially with Shakir out. So where is he? Does he lack chemistry with Josh? Are Brady’s plays for him not working? Can he not get open for the 1st time in his career? For this offense to work we need about 5 good targets. Cook and Shakir are doing their jobs. Keon is doing the rookie thing, sometimes great sometimes not so great. Kincaid has disappointed so far, but has shown sign of life. Now the question is who will be that 5th target? Samuel was hired to be that guy. The guy we moved around the formation who could go from safety valve on certain plays, to ball carrier on others to the occasional deep threat. I was expecting 2-5 catches a game with around 30-50 yards and an occasional big play. At this point we are getting nothing from Curtis. Without Shakir, DC’s only have to game plan for Cook and Kincaid. That’s not enough to make the offense go.

That was fun.

I learned a long time ago that college football tends to chaos except the top few teams and sometimes even them.

One thing about the transfer portal it is creating opportunity for new schools to make a dent in college football. TCU used the portal to build a team that got to the CFP final. The portal has (& good coaches) have turned around teams like GA Tech, Indiana and even Vandy. It has hurt the depth of the monster teams like GA, Bama and Clemson (who for reasons unknown does bring kids in from the portal). More parity in the Power 5? I’m also not sure what it’s doing to FCS schools. Their stars are moving up, but Power 5 kids searching for PT are moving down.