dave mcbride

2015: RBs had 59 catches; WRs and TEs had 234 catches. 2016: RBs had 73 catches; WRs and TEs had 213 catches. 2016: RBs have 57 catches; WRs have 102 catches. The ratio gets worse every year. I somehow don't think that Taylor got worse in this regard either. The difference? We have a new coordinator, obviously, but the replacement of Watkins, Woods, and Hogan (a FAR better player than fans here gave him credit for) in 2015 with what we have now has been a huge factor. The receiver group got worse every year, whether through departure or injury.

100 is league average. Note the adjusted yards per attempt and the adjusted net yards per attempt numbers. They have gone down, and I suspect in direct relation to the presence of Sammy Watkins.

Actually, as I mention above, he HAS changed in recent weeks to being a more dump-off oriented passer. He wasn't in the past.

Taylor is not traditionally a dump-off passer; his ypa is actually pretty good and he has pushed the ball down the field in the past. The last two games have been different, but they don't represent the norm.

? - A low number of passing attempts is not a bad stat! Re the Titans, look at the whole picture instead of cherry picking -- i.e., the whole season. Anyway, the Bills offense was not great in 1999. No one is arguing that. It was *average* on the top line stats -- 16th in yards, 11th in points. It was 7th overall in offensive DVOA, however. Irrespective of Flutie's flaws, though, there is the much bigger issue of Rob Johnson: a physically talented but terrible QB his entire post-high school career.

Who is worshipping Flutie? He was a decent QB for the Bills who had major limitations in his game but also brought some real assets to the table. Johnson, on the other hand is the most sacked QB in league history and had well over twice the sack rate of Flutie while in Buffalo playing behind the same line. He stunk, as his subsequent career proved. There is a reason he was a fourth round pick despite being one of the most gifted throwers coming out of college in the mid-1990s: he lost three times each to ND and UCLA despite playing behind Tony Boselli and throwing to three WRs who have fringe-NFL hall of fame stats: Keyshawn Johnson, Johnny Morton, and Curtis Conway. All were first rounders and all had 500+ career receptions. Yet Johnson choked six times against what at the time were inferior opponents. I lived in LA at the time, and trust me, he choked.

Yeah, he looks pretty good to me. Time will tell.

"Scoreboard" is a weak way to argue. Look at the context and consider that football is a game with 22 moving parts on any play. Flutie did enough to win against a far superior opponent than the 1999 TN D; Johnson performed horribly against a middling defense.

The 1999 Titans D was 25th in passing yards allowed, 27th in passing yards given up, and 20th in net yards/attempt allowed. They were 15th in points allowed and 17th in yards allowed. Yet Rob Johnson was 10-22 for 131 yards passing and took 6 sacks. The 1998 Miami defense was 1st in points allowed, 3rd in yards allowed, 1st in INTs, and 3rd in NY/A. Yet Flutie lit them up like an Xmas tree (21/36 for 360 yards and 4 rushes for 29 yards) and Moulds had a career day (despite fumbling a perfectly thrown bomb that he had caught and which probably cost the Bills 7 points and hence the game). Let's stick to the facts.

Look harder at what Schatz wrote and know what he's referring to.

The idea is out there - big time: https://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2017/9/16/16319028/lamar-jackson-nfl-quarterback-wide-receiver. Polian is right in the middle of it.

Don't shoot the messenger. I'm fairly certain I'm right about my interpretation.

No, he's talking about race. Trust me. I'm reasonably familiar with Schatz's work. I'm not saying he's right or wrong, so don't shoot the messenger.

Benching Flutie was the dumbest move in franchise history. I'm not saying past is prelude, however.

No. I'll be blunt: he is saying that a lot of NFL fans are straight-up racists when it comes to the QB position. I'm not going to pass judgment one way or another on his views, but that is what he is saying. It's pretty clear.

Um ... I think you're missing his point. Bear in mind that Schatz thinks Taylor is at least league average.

I'm not saying past is prelude, but the national media tends to be pretty much always right about the Bills (despite what many folks on this board think). Aaron Schatz:

The scheme is fine; no doubt about that. But the person calling the scheme matters - the sequence of plays, the level of surprise, etc. etc. It's not as if Dennison has a Payton-esque record of success either. Even if you factor out that he's basically ridden the coattails of Shanahan and Kubiak (a mountain-zone Curtis Modkins, if you will), his record is pretty middling.

Why people continue to refuse factoring in what Taylor did for the run game in the Roman scheme (I mean, it's patently obvious) is beyond me. Having said this, he's not built to succeed in this scheme.

This is a fair post. I don't think Taylor is fit for this offense, but the larger problem to me is Dennison, who doesn't strike me as a particularly bright offensive mind.

Dennison is about as vanilla an NFL OC as it gets. I wouldn't expect anything innovative.

?? - Taylor wasn't a draft pick for the Bills. He was FA signing with four years' time in the league in a good organization. This is a straw-man argument.

I'm not here to defend Taylor, who has been exposed in the last couple of games, but Dennison sucks. He is a cookie-cutter OC who doesn't have half the brains of a Roman, who is genuinely creative.

The run game production was a huge product of TT's play and the way it was designed into the scheme. That's patently obvious.

McCoy has been fine. He is simply being hit a lot sooner in a much worse offensive scheme.