[closed]Evaluating Players - in context

[OldTimer1960]

With the Bills for all practical matters out of playoff contention, the remainder of this season is focused on player growth and evaluation (as it really was from the beginning). As we watch and discuss the players throughout this, I hope that people will notice that no player's performance is divorced from those who are playing with him and those playing against him.

 

RBs depend on their OL to open holes for them, but those holes are much more difficult to open if the passing game doesn't provide a credible threat. Likewise, the passing game is affected if the running game isn't working well. The passing game is dependent on the QB making good decisions and passing accurately, the receivers getting open and making catches and none of that happens unless the OL provides enough time for the pass routes to develop and the QB to make his reads and get accurate passes off.

 

Further, the quality of the opposition certainly has an impact on the success of the offense. Coaching schemes, penalties, game situations, turnovers etc, all have effects on how well an individual player appears to perform.

 

The above can also be turned around and is true for the defense and the individual players on that side of the ball.

 

One other consideration is that very few players come into the NFL as rookies ready to excel immediately. It is easy to get frustrated as fans watching young players who are "trying to figure it out", but those players need to learn by experience.

 

Of course, that isn't to say that you can't get a sense for whether a given player will grow into a good player or not, but it isn't always obvious who will and who won't.

 

At any rate, as we watch the remainder of the season and focus on EJ Manuel's (and other's) play, try to consider that he is a rookie who missed a significant amount of training camp with injury, missed 4 regular season games with injury has only 1 experienced good (not great) veteran WR, an solid but not spectacular TE and a decent to above average OL that he is playing with.

[Beerball]

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