Bills Sign Ivory

[Cash]

Just now, thebandit27 said:

 

I agree with most of that; I doubt that they'll go into the season without a younger back in whom they have faith.

 

At the very least, they'll try to!  I agree; I don't think training camp will be just Shady, Ivory, and 4 UDFA/Joe Banyard types.  Only thing I disagree with is the "younger" part - if they don't get a guy in the draft, I think they'll look to the "bargain bin" FA market, and youth will take a backseat to other qualities.

[BobbyC81]

5 hours ago, YoloinOhio said:

 

 

Lot of money for an aging backup

[jimmy10]

So, 12 pages in... Looks like the consensus is muted outrage?

[Guest K-GunJimKelly12]

3 minutes ago, LittleJoeCartwright said:

 

Lot of money for an aging backup

But it's only two years.  This signing will by no means prevent us from signing any future players.

[billsredneck1]

i don't get it. what does he bring to the table besides age....too much money and as close to a tolbert skillset as you can get. i just don't get it. we probably could get twice as much out of cadet or murphy. i'm lost on this one. i've never thought much of this guy.....for instance, if shady tweeks a hammy....we got ivory....ooooohhhh good move. thumbs(both) down on this move.

 

what's next? a 5th rd. qb pick to compete with nate for no. 2 and  josh mc cown starting?

[Kmart128]

4 hours ago, Utah John said:

If we were getting the Chris Ivory who was with the Jets, I'd be delighted. He was always one of my favorite non-Bills.  Hard runner, great effort.  Reminded me of Fred Jackson.

 

His production fell sharply after he left the Jets.  Not sure if it was a scheme problem, a personnel problem, or something else. 

 

Let's hope he has a lot left in the tank.

 

Well that fact that the Jaguars "star" RB Fournette  only ran for 3.9 yards a carry tells me that it has to do with the Jags oline and scheme.

[ColoradoBills]

29 minutes ago, jimmy10 said:

So, 12 pages in... Looks like the consensus is muted outrage?

 

I was hoping we could squeeze in another wildcard spot this year.

This signing has me adjusting that to 3-13.

[LABILLBACKER]

21 minutes ago, Kmart128 said:

 

Well that fact that the Jaguars "star" RB Fournette  only ran for 3.9 yards a carry tells me that it has to do with the Jags oline and scheme.

Has to do with Bortles sucks and no RB with the Jags was going to tear it up with 8-9 in the box.

[LeGOATski]

6 hours ago, billspro said:

It is awesome having a competent GM

True, but this particular signing isn't any different than the typical FA signings Whaley made. Finding FAs and trades in their prime years (mid -late 20s) seemed to be his strength.

[OldTimeAFLGuy]

3 hours ago, thebandit27 said:

 

Ivory and Fournette faced 8+ in the box 51% and 48.5% of the time, respectively.

 

McCoy faced 8+ in the box ~36% of the time.

..do you see any type of pattern here with how McBeane does his FA (or pre) shopping?......neither this or Davis hardly break the bank.......I think same could be said for Hyde and Poyer.....

[Lurker]

6 hours ago, 26CornerBlitz said:

Barnwell No Likey!  Regardless, he's a good 2nd option who doesn't factor into the comp pick formula for 2019. 

 

 

I no likey Barnwell.   He's just another ESPN fanboy with a crush on the same-old, same-old.     Not much there, there...

[PromoTheRobot]

6 minutes ago, Lurker said:

 

I no likey Barnwell.   He's just another ESPN fanboy with a crush on the same-old, same-old.     Not much there, there...

 

and a Patriot load swallower.

[GreggTX]

6 hours ago, whatdrought said:

I wonder if this means we won't draft someone to be the future. 

That could be, but I'm OK with it foir now because we have so many other holes to fill in the front 7, CB, OL and WR. Oh yeah, and QB!!!

[Lurker]

4 hours ago, thebandit27 said:

 

Note that Ivory's low YPC could have something to do with the fact that he faced 8 or more in the box almost 51% of the time--3rd highest for any RB in the NFL.

 

https://nextgenstats.nfl.com/stats/rushing#percent-eight-defenders

 

That's a really interesting chart!   

 

I was surprised to see Shady faced eight-in-the-box fronts just 36% of the time...it seemed higher to me for some reason.

 

Looking at the other end of the rankings, Frank Gore jumped out at me.   He faced 8-man fronts just 26% of the time--and was able to overpower those alignments on a regular basis.    I could see Ivory being similarly successful if Daboll can scheme the run game so teams have to respect the pass rather than load up the box.

 

The other notable was Gurley at 16.8%, Bell at 19.9% and Hunt at 23.5%.    Their success owes a tremendous amount to the threat of their passing games.   Upgrading our QB play will be like adding jet fuel to Shady's tank if he can stay healthy / effective long enough for it to kick in.

[oldmanfan]

Solid move.  If Cadet also comes back yhey have a solid group

[OldTimeAFLGuy]

1 minute ago, oldmanfan said:

Solid move.  If Cadet also comes back yhey have a solid group

 

 

...good point bud.....and maybe even the Murphy kid in TC......both did show some promise before injuries.......just wonder what the Banyard kid did wrong......showed some promise but was signed and released three times......prolly bad mouthed Castillo..............

[Turk71]

4 minutes ago, Lurker said:

I could see Ivory being similarly successful if Daboll can scheme the run game so teams have to respect the pass rather than load up the box.

Gonna need a new qb for that.

[Lurker]

1 minute ago, Turk71 said:

Gonna need a new qb for that.

 

Hence, the second part of my post...

[davspo]

I have always like Ivory'smrunning style- very physical runner.  I like it- certainly an upgrade,without commenting huge money.

[GreggTX]

Translation: We're going to fix other problems first and worry about RB when Shady's deal is up.

[BADOLBILZ]

1 hour ago, K-GunJimKelly12 said:

You aren't getting young players in their prime before free agency officially starts.  The Bills have a lot of holes and you can't fill them all in one off-season.  Signing vets to short term deals, to insulate yourself and give yourself another year to build the long term roster is the right and prudent thing to do.  It actually gives me a lot of faith in this regime that they know what they are doing.  Surprising more people don't understand this.

 

 

I don't like paying Ivory that much considering the stance they took on Gillislee last year........but like you I do like that McD and Beane seem to understand their roster limitations and (wisely, IMO) know that they don't want to take a step back now if they can avoid it.

 

Going from one of the very oldest teams in 2017 to even an "average aged" one without the benefit of all the prime-age players they let walk or traded in the "culture purge" is going to take some time and it's re-assuring that they aren't delusional about the cost of doing business this way.   Seen too many regimes go thru here that seemed clueless about what they had and/or lacked or were all too willing to fail.    

[John from Riverside]

I know this.....when its 4th and 1 I would like Ivory running that ball a heck of a lot more then Tolbert.

[Bing Bong]

National media is panning the signing. All i remember is him doing a number on the bills d backs. I like it

[ColoradoBills]

26 minutes ago, GreggTX said:

Translation: We're going to fix other problems first and worry about RB when Shady's deal is up.

 

That is how I see it.  I know it's a deep RB class so maybe they got a few guys they hope drops to Rd 5.

One thing you don't hear much about until after the draft is when there is a deep positional draft there

is going to be a lot of middle talent back-ups getting cut to make room for the rookies.

 

These pre-FA moves may help in Conditional Picks too.

[Doc]

2 minutes ago, PetermanThrew5Picks said:

National media is panning the signing. All i remember is him doing a number on the bills d backs. I like it

 

Good.  They panned all their moves last year.

[FrankoElTanko]

This is an excellent move. All things considered, we seem to be adding for next year's comp pick formula that is for sure. Realistically it was either going to be Cadet, a rookie, Tolbert, or Jonathan Stewart backing up LeSean next year. With this move we get the best combination of experience/talent/diversity/mileage out of the lot of them. Plus this is a non factor for the comp pick formula next year. Good add for sure. In regard to the money.... I am sure we can spare the $5.5mil/2yr or whatever we gave, the money we gave him is a total non-issue. 

[Punching Bag]

2 hours ago, K-GunJimKelly12 said:

I'm saying Bulldog waits for Schopp to tell Bulldog what Bulldog's opinion is.  I don't think I have ever heard him disagree with Schopp once. 

 

So you are saying Schopp is the dominant in their relationship?

[Logic]

55 minutes ago, GreggTX said:

Translation: We're going to fix other problems first and worry about RB when Shady's deal is up.

Winner winner, chicken dinner. McCoy/Ivory is the backfield for this season and maybe even next (depending on continued production from both). During this time, the Bills will build up other positions of more immediate need. 

Once other positional groups like front seven, offensive line, WR, etc have been built up sufficiently and as McCoy/Ivory age out, the Bills will draft a few young bucks at the position.

We all may want youth added at RB, but you only have so many draft picks, you need to sign 34 more players to get to 90, and Rome wasn't built in a day. Oh, and we have some guy named Shady still producing big numbers.

Build up the team, let the offense lean on the veteran running backs while rookie QB gets up to speed, and draft RB youth in a year or 2. Simple.

[26CornerBlitz]

 

[Bag of Milk]

I have nothing against Chris Ivory, he has run hard in the past.

I am concerned about the drop in his yard per carry the last two years, that's never a good sign for RB'S around the age of 30.

 

If one wanted to picky I'd say I would have skipped the " Yeah we know his name Chris Ivory" and just signed 2 to 3 rookie free agent RB'S and let them "battle it out"

 

My guess is one of them would be better than the current incarnation of Chris Ivory at almost no cost.

Edited March 7, 2018 by Bag of Milk

[DriveFor1Outta5]

3 hours ago, Fadingpain said:

He's an improvement over Tolbert but this is kind of a "meh" signing to be honest at this point in his career.

 

 

 

 

This ^ I’m quite neutral on this, except for the part where I believe we paid way too much to sign Ivory.  I can’t justify that price tag for a 29 year old running back with fumbling issues. Limiting turnovers while allowing our defense to win games

was the key to last season. I don’t see how introducing a turnover machine to the offense is good for “the process”, but at least we won’t see more Tolbert carries. 

1 hour ago, GreggTX said:

Translation: We're going to fix other problems first and worry about RB when Shady's deal is up.

I’m still not convinced that Beane wouldn’t possibly trade McCoy to move up in the draft. 

Edited March 7, 2018 by DriveFor1Outta5

[Da webster guy]

9 hours ago, Commonsense said:

Injured riddled tank with a habit of dropping the football on the ground. I hope he is plan C at RB.

and his yp carry average has dropped to 3.4, although from what I saw, JVille's Oline wasn't very good. 

Beaner knows what he's doing, he's cheap insurance, won't hurt comp pick calculation, good pass protect guy and hits the pile harder than most. 

[JMF2006]

Nice veteran signing,he knows his role.

 

Well done Mr Beane.

[Bills Fan of St Augustine]

I'm good with this as long as he hangs onto the GDBall!

[3rdand12]

3 hours ago, jimmy10 said:

So, 12 pages in... Looks like the consensus is muted outrage?

I like the guy. Some may recall we feared him a bit when we played jets.
better than Tolbert to spell Shady. does run hard. and smart enough.

Bills are going to run the ball again.
 Hope they draft  shifty speedster in the later round who plays team well.
Is Dimarco the FB still ?

3 hours ago, Kmart128 said:

 

Well that fact that the Jaguars "star" RB Fournette  only ran for 3.9 yards a carry tells me that it has to do with the Jags oline and scheme.

so we're screwed ?

[ColoradoBills]

1 minute ago, 3rdand12 said:

I like the guy. Some may recall we feared him a bit when we played jets.
better than Tolbert to spell Shady. does run hard. and smart enough.

Bills are going to run the ball again.
 Hope they draft  shifty speedster in the later round who plays team well.
Is Dimarco the FB still ?

yes

[3rdand12]

2 hours ago, John from Riverside said:

I know this.....when its 4th and 1 I would like Ivory running that ball a heck of a lot more then Tolbert.

THIS

[racketmaster]

Love this signing

[fansince88]

Remember the day when we feared a free agent leave before we sign them? The process  has changed that.

[NewEra]

9 hours ago, TigerJ said:

Assuming the Bills did not overpay, this is a tremendous upgrade from Tolbert.

 

do you guys think we overpaid?  3 mill a year is about double what I thought it would be. Was thinking 1.5 to 2 mill a year.  Happy we have him but I’m a little miffed at the price tag.  Hopefully he can bring the thunder for 2 more years!