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Skurski: Star Lotulelei's Fine With Bearing Brunt of Criticism For Bills Struggles Against Run


Thurman#1

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20 minutes ago, Don Otreply said:

Getting paid has only to do with negotiating skills, and leveraging those traits that can be leveraged. On top of which his wages do not effect the teams ability to spend. It’s a weak argument you are continuing on with.  Star is good at what he does as compared in his market place. 

No one gets perfect in return of wages, it just does not, and has not ever happened. The team one day in the future will cut him, be happy with that thought.

 

Go Bills!!!

 

 

 

 

Star isn't doing good at what he does, that's why he is being called out. You don't have to understand much about football to watch an All-22, see him getting pushed around by single blockers or never even get in the way of a running back.

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18 minutes ago, Rock'em Sock'em said:

I don't think that's a fair assessment of Star.  I watched several quarters with an eye on him.  Although he does not get off blocks and finish plays, he tends to hold his ground against mostly double team blocks.  I'd characterize him as a role player, not a play maker.

The issue is that fans expect Star to perform in a manner similar to other NTs in that salary range; many of whom make more splash plays. Unfortunately, that comes with neglecting several details... most notably when Star was signed he was one of the best NTs on the market, and they needed a plug and play NT. Beane & Co can definitely upgrade the position, but it will likely be a phase out as they develop younger players to take over the role. 

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9 minutes ago, Buffalo Junction said:

The issue is that fans expect Star to perform in a manner similar to other NTs in that salary range; many of whom make more splash plays. Unfortunately, that comes with neglecting several details... most notably when Star was signed he was one of the best NTs on the market, and they needed a plug and play NT. Beane & Co can definitely upgrade the position, but it will likely be a phase out as they develop younger players to take over the role. 

I don't care about splashy plays, I just don't want to be last in the league in interior rush yards allowed. Star is supposed to stop that from happening, that's why Star is getting called out

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16 minutes ago, uticaclub said:

Star isn't doing good at what he does, that's why he is being called out. You don't have to understand much about football to watch an All-22, see him getting pushed around by single blockers or never even get in the way of a running back.

You don’t get perfect in return of wages, never ever happens.

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4 hours ago, Buffalo Barbarian said:

We dont expect him to make tackles but getting moved all over is not what you want from him or his position.

 

 

 

 

Agreed. But I don't think that happens nearly as often as many on here say it does. If it did, he would have been off the team before the season. As the article says, the Bills are happy with his preformance. Teerlinck says he's been their most consistent player.

 

That is what you want from him and his position.

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5 minutes ago, uticaclub said:

I don't care about splashy plays, I just don't want to be last in the league in interior rush yards allowed. Star is supposed to stop that from happening, that's why Star is getting called out

It’s almost unavoidable when the player rotating with Star is on IR. We currently have a 350 pound man playing more than he should which is going to lead to mistakes. Let’s also keep in mind that Edmunds is making the calls. In most systems the MLB is responsible for adjusting gap assignments on the fly. 

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3 hours ago, Locomark said:

Star’s whipping boy problem has to do with his paycheck. Space eaters still need to make the occasional splash play in the backfield, push the pile back, get the ugly turnover. Think old players of Adams or Washington eating space BUT making plays too. That is what we want for a highly compensated guy. Otherwise let’s just get some sumo guy if the expectation is to hold 2 guys up and never make any plays. 

 

 

That may be what YOU want from someone with his paycheck. But not so much McDermott and Beane.

 

There are several big space eaters up that high in the average salary rankings. So several teams that value that skill set enough to pay a guy enough to very clearly show they disagree with you. And McDermott is one. They knew what they were getting with Star. McDermott had coached him for several years and obviously wanted him here and didn't have a problem with the salary. So yeah, the whipping boy problem does indeed have to do with fans having different priorities than the coaching staff does.

 

 

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1 hour ago, uticaclub said:

His job is like an offensive lineman; your name doesn’t get mentioned when you do good, only when you do bad. Star's name is getting mentioned because he is doing poorly. He admitted to screwing up and being responsible for two big runs, sure we all make mistakes, but he is being paid a lot of money to not make mistakes like that. I saw one play last week were half a guy turned him around, blocker was engaged with another DL, got one hand on Star and turned him around. If Vincent Taylor improves at all & Corey Liuget has anything left, don’t be surprised to see Star has a healthy scratch. This article was worthless, of course his teammates & coaches are standing up for him, this isn't a team to throw guys under the bus, but the reason his play is being called in question, is because he's getting paid $10M to play at less than replacement level

 

 

You're close but not right.

 

Do your job on the interior and the announcers won't mention your name much. Fans often do. Analysts do. And the desperate searchers for scapegoats do.

 

Star gets mentioned almost never by the game commentators. And lots by those who need a whipping boy. That doesn't mean he's not doing well.

 

And the idea that you can't take anything positive said by teammates and coaches seriously is absolute nonsense. In fact, when you see that line of argument from a fan, you're generally looking at someone with a pitchfork and a torch. If a guy isn't doing his job, teammates don't come out and say great things about him. There's a ton of ways of commenting on a guy who's not getting it done without lying or throwing him under the bus. When a guy is getting beaten, teammates who don't want to throw him under the bus say things like, "Hey, we're in this as a team, this is everyone's fault," or "He gives 110%," or "He's a team guy, a good guy," or "He puts picks up his lunchpail and comes every day." There are a million of them.

 

And those aren't the kinds of things they're saying about Lotulelei. They're very specifically saying he's playing well, he's doing his job, he's doing what the coaches want done and that his job is low on glory and fans don't understand or appreciate it. They're saying he earns his salary despite many fans not understanding that.

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6 hours ago, Thurman#1 said:

Speaking for myself, I tried to do too much,” [Lotulelei] said. 'There were two big runs that were on me, where I tried to do too much. I'll peak into a different gap when that's not my gap. We're supposed to be a gap-sound defense and everybody is supposed to do their job. It's just a matter of everybody trusting each other and then being disciplined. They were both huge runs, and I take full responsibility for those. It's just a matter of trusting the guy next to you and being disciplined.

I love his part. Accountability. I was critical of Star a few weeks back when he seemed dismissive to the media in answering for the bad run defense against the Eagles. After seeing this, I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that they may have caught him with the competitive juices still flowing. 

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1 hour ago, uticaclub said:

I don't care about splashy plays, I just don't want to be last in the league in interior rush yards allowed. Star is supposed to stop that from happening, that's why Star is getting called out

 

 

Again, nonsense.

 

Star isn't supposed to stop that. The whole run defense is. Star is supposed to do his part in stopping that. Each of them is. The fact that you want to put all of that on Star says more about you than it does about him.

 

And I'm unconvinced about that number as well. "Interior rush yards"? Willing to be convinced if you can show the source with a link. Seems doubtful to me, as Football Outsiders has the Bills giving up fewer yards per play than the NFL average on runs to the "MID/GUARD" area. They have us 12th best at that.

 

https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/dl/2019

Edited by Thurman#1
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56 minutes ago, Lurker said:

It's the nature of the position. 

 

Even though he was a better player than Star, Ted Washington had the same problem.   Big contract, outsized expectations...


unfortunately star is compensated in a way that as a gap filler you shouldn’t be starting many comparisons with “even though he was a better player than star....”

 

Generally speaking the guys paid more are the disruptive penetrating players. 
 

there must be at least some concern that the center of our defense had one of the top paid pluggers and a top 10 pick at DT and a very high pick at MLB and run stuffing is considered a weak point at the moment. Hopefully the kids keep growing and elevating their play 

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44 minutes ago, uticaclub said:

Star isn't doing good at what he does, that's why he is being called out. You don't have to understand much about football to watch an All-22, see him getting pushed around by single blockers or never even get in the way of a running back.

 

 

I certainly don't watch every play from all the games on All-22. Too much time. I didn't watch more than a few from last week for instance.

 

But when we started hearing about this, I did watch every one of his snaps from two games in a row, the Dolphins and the Eagles. And he was mostly holding his ground and doing a fine job against double-teams. There just wasn't much of what we hear about from you guys. A play here and there? Yes. But few and far between.

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