PFF's Bills Starting Lineup Analysis

[BarleyNY]

https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2014/02/13/projected-lineups-buffalo-bills/

 

I'm finding it difficult to disagree with much here. Obviously tagging Byrd would either fill the free safety hole or give the Bills some draft ammo to fill it (or other holes). The biggest needs are clearly on the offense line and TE. WR could use a boost as well and with this draft that shouldn't be hard to do.

[NoSaint]

Thread on it a week or so ago, just FYI

 

Generally I don't think there's much disagreement on the overall strengths and weaknesses of the roster currently

[TPS]

That is a decent analysis. One change would be to flip what they gave for bradham and Williams at SS. I also would've included moeaki over smith and given him a red color.

[mrags]

Mario Williams is only a "Solid Starter"??? And Craig Urbik is better than Eric Wood???? Really?

 

After I saw that I stopped reading.

[BarleyNY]

Thread on it a week or so ago, just FYI

 

Generally I don't think there's much disagreement on the overall strengths and weaknesses of the roster currently

 

Didn't look that far back. My bad.

[NoSaint]

 

 

Didn't look that far back. My bad.

 

No prob - you'll probably get merged but i was mostly letting you know so you could check out the opinions if you were interested.

[HamSandwhich]

That was a horrible article. Kyle Williams, IMO, is an elite DT, and should at least be higher than Marcel. Mario IS an elite player, Eric wood is just an adequate starter? This thing is a joke!!

 

It's like they saw it was the Bills and decided, 'we can't give them a very high grade because as a whole they aren't that good'. As a team we may not be playing very well, but we have individual monsters on the team for sure. Any knowledgeable football fan could see this that, even ones that root for other teams.

[Kellyto83TD]

That was a horrible article. Kyle Williams, IMO, is an elite DT, and should at least be higher than Marcel. Mario IS an elite player, Eric wood is just an adequate starter? This thing is a joke!!

 

It's like they saw it was the Bills and decided, 'we can't give them a very high grade because as a whole they aren't that good'. As a team we may not be playing very well, but we have individual monsters on the team for sure. Any knowledgeable football fan could see this that, even ones that root for other teams.

Its funny how Buffalo fans have always thought higher of the talent then they actually were. The guy is spot on with the exception of Kyle Williams which I agree is a top 5 DT right now. This team hasn't had players in 'Blue' according to his chart in a LOOOOOONG time. and for those still griping about his evaluation, we are STILL an under .550 team with all that talent buffalo fans think so highly of

Edited March 1, 2014 by Kellyto83TD

[HamSandwhich]

Its funny how Buffalo fans have always thought higher of the talent then they actually were. The guy is spot on with the exception of Kyle Williams which I agree is a top 5 DT right now. This team hasn't had players in 'Blue' according to his chart in a LOOOOOONG time. and for those still griping about his evaluation, we are STILL an under .550 team with all that talent buffalo fans think so highly of

 

I knew someone would try and refute me by implying I'm a, regular, garden variety, over valuing, Bills homer,but based on the body of work, most of these players are undervalued. Mario Williams is much more than last season. ERIC WOOD is not a yellow player, he's a beast, and he's shown that consistently over his career when healthy.

 

No where in the article does it say how these charts were rated. Sorry if I missed it. Are they trying to base it on how they played just last year, are they doing it based on the career, their age, and their projected abilities, are they basing it on statistics alone? What is the basis of these ratings? These charts are garbage unless they reveal their process. I stand by my origional statement. They way undervalue too many of our players.

[billybrew1]

Eric Wood is a quality center. Too many times Eric Wood is found as the guy who made the key or extra block on a rewind.

Aaron Williams was a main cog of our defense. Aaron Williams is also an obvious choice of a player that should be even better this year.

Nigel and Urbik are probably overrated here.

It's funny, but profootball focus was one of the sources that was talking up McKelvin towards the end of last year if I remember correctly.

Clearly the Bills are not that overly talented, the record speaks for itself. However, poor QB play makes us look worse than we are on both sides of the ball.

[cdubya]

 

Its funny how Buffalo fans have always thought higher of the talent then they actually were. The guy is spot on with the exception of Kyle Williams which I agree is a top 5 DT right now. This team hasn't had players in 'Blue' according to his chart in a LOOOOOONG time. and for those still griping about his evaluation, we are STILL an under .550 team with all that talent buffalo fans think so highly of

[artmalibu]

Kiko not a high quality starter?????? BS

Edited March 1, 2014 by artmalibu

[cdubya]

I think it's natural for a fan of every team to overrate the talent they have. It's who you see play the most, and see make the most plays. This same site did rate CJ Spiller in the blue after the 2012 season. Mario Williams is certainly not the most consistent performer, but when he is on his game he is undoubtedly a "blue" player as well.

[beckenbauer]

Kyle Williams is certainly a blue chip player.

[YoloinOhio]

Its funny how Buffalo fans have always thought higher of the talent then they actually were. The guy is spot on with the exception of Kyle Williams which I agree is a top 5 DT right now. This team hasn't had players in 'Blue' according to his chart in a LOOOOOONG time. and for those still griping about his evaluation, we are STILL an under .550 team with all that talent buffalo fans think so highly of

I respectfully disagree, It is because in that time, the Bills have not had a player approaching even "light green" in the most important position, QB (arguably Blesdoe was there early on). If you have one dark green or blue, many other players can be average and the team always has a chance to win. If you have one yellow or lower, the other positions can be dark green or blue and you will find yourself out of the playoffs. Edited March 2, 2014 by YoloinOhio

[Ronin]

Its funny how Buffalo fans have always thought higher of the talent then they actually were. The guy is spot on with the exception of Kyle Williams which I agree is a top 5 DT right now. This team hasn't had players in 'Blue' according to his chart in a LOOOOOONG time. and for those still griping about his evaluation, we are STILL an under .550 team with all that talent buffalo fans think so highly of

 

It's always a gas reading stuff like this. As you say, if the roster were really as good as the opiners say, then we'd have made the playoffs at minimum.

 

Also, so little of these analyses consider the offenses or defenses being run. This season the team poured all of its resources into generating a pass rush and more specifically sacks. Well, they got their wish, 2nd in the league for sacks, nearly 1st, but what did it net us and at what cost?

 

It netted us the same overall 6-10 we got last year. Strangely tho, we also allowed 3 more passing TDs than we did last year. Yet, strangely, or perhaps not so strangely, no one seems to bother to ask why.

 

In the meanwhile, "at what cost," at the cost of not being able to stop even the most pedestrian rushing games. We allowed 120 or more rushing yards in 11 of our 16 games and over 150 in 7 (nearly half) of our games. We faced hardly any of the top RBs in the league either. Of the top 14 RBs, (15/16 were ours), we faced exactly 1 of them.

 

Those disagreeing w/ PFF's assessment of Mario clearly fail to realize that besides being massively overrated not to mention overcompensated, he's a one-trick pony. He managed the sacks that he did this year because of the defensive system and for no other reason. He's only fair, on a good day, against the run, but they didn't sign him to play the run, they signed him to log the far more "sexy" sacks. Well he, and the team, finally did that, so maybe, just maybe, although no one should count on it, someone with an IQ above 100 that works with the coaching staff, probably a very short list, should start asking the tough questions that I've touched on above, starting with, OK, we got our gazillion sacks, but still allowed 3 more passing TDs than we did last season, couldn't stop even the most unnoted RBs from logging bookoo yards against us to dominate games, still couldn't translate those sacks into limited offensive performances of our opponents (See the Atlanta and NO games in particular), and then synergize all that info and make some real corrections.

 

That won't happen of course because that actually requires thought and well, we just don't think well at OBD.

 

Other things to consider, why is McKelvin all of a sudden a "solid starter" when he's absolutely sucked for five prior seasons as a CB as someone whose only utility had been returns, and even then only to top levels in two seasons of six. Why wasn't the D system more responsible for this seeming "increase in ability?" Because it was. We'll all see that next season.

 

Bradham, an "adequate starter?" Maybe by PFF, but in reality he's a depth player at best.

 

Why isn't Spiller's name in red for injury? I also wouldn't call him a solid starter, he's pure role player, how they use him and how many snaps he gets aside. In 6 seasons he's had 5 games in which he's had 20 or more snaps. In those five games he's averaged exactly 4.0 yards-per-carry.

 

He's had only 9 games in 4 seasons in which he's rushed 17 or more carries, he's averaged only 4.1 ypc.

 

How does that translate to being a solid starter when he cannot be relied upon to start and be the primary RB with any consistency whatsover? Short answer, it doesn't.

 

He's also supposed to be the massive "home run threat," but in four seasons he has only 17 total TDs, 12 rushing, 5 receiving, which is 1 TD every 43 touches!

 

Of Spiller's 12 rushing TDs, only two have been against teams that posted winning records, both times in blowout losses, and in the case of the one to the 9-7 2011 Titans, it was a fumble of his that he ended up recovering for a TD.

 

It's not much different for his receiving TDs, only two of his 5 receiving TDs, an average of 1/season, were in wins, both times against teams with losing records.

 

And speaking of "home runs," where are they all? Of his 12 rushing TDs, they've been 56, 54, 44, 36, 24, 17, 14, 10, 9, 5, 4, and 0 yards. But of those top four, they were against the 6-10 Jets (56), 4-12 Browns (54), 2-14 Jags (44), and 4-12 Falcons (36). Where are all of the "home runs" against average or better teams? There aren't any.

 

Talk about being overrated.

 

Branch, a solid starter? Say what!

 

Dareus above Kyle Williams? Seriously. Maybe in a few more years, but not now.

 

Goodwin the same ranking as Wood? I'll concur with the majority of comments regarding Wood, but HTF does Goodwin, with his 283 receiving yards and his 168th ranking in receiving yards in the NFL rank as a "solid starter" which is the same ranking as Robert Woods.

 

Either way, the defense was way overrated because of the overemphasis on logging sacks, which by itself clearly doesn't do anything since our record was the exact same as last season.

 

This idiotic organization can't change ownership fast enough for me.

Edited March 2, 2014 by TaskersGhost

[TPS]

The bills gave up 20 passing TDs in the first 8 games, and 8 in the last 8 games. I think your answer is the Byrd and Gilmore injuries.

[Big C]

The bills gave up 20 passing TDs in the first 8 games, and 8 in the last 8 games. I think your answer is the Byrd and Gilmore injuries.

 

Also our last 8 games included three teams drafting ahead of us and two division opponents with anemic offenses. It's also worth noting that 5 of those 20 pass TDs came in the one game against Brees. Not saying Byrd and Gilmore didn't help - surely they did - but that wasn't the only reason. Also, because it was both of them returning we can't know for sure if one of them had more of an impact over the other, but I think Gilmore would be more responsible for the turnaround than Byrd, strictly because we had Rogers playing CB who was far worse than our reserve safety corps.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

https://www.profootb...-buffalo-bills/

 

I'm finding it difficult to disagree with much here. Obviously tagging Byrd would either fill the free safety hole or give the Bills some draft ammo to fill it (or other holes). The biggest needs are clearly on the offense line and TE. WR could use a boost as well and with this draft that shouldn't be hard to do.

 

Wow, where to start?

 

Here:

Any rating system that says Kraig Urbik is better than Eric Wood and Erik Pears is the same as Doug Legursky is a bad rating system

I'm glad to read that Mario Williams is a "solid starter or valuable role player" though

 

Thread on it a week or so ago, just FYI

 

Generally I don't think there's much disagreement on the overall strengths and weaknesses of the roster currently

 

Apparently there is more than you might believe if that article describes it

[Big C]

I think Urbik had a good year. I don't know why we're all ganging up on him. Wood is a leader and a good player, but he had a down year. Lots of penalties.