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Can someone explain the Tyler Kroft love to me?


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6 hours ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

Why not? All 3 of our young TES have shown promise, don't forget Croom. There is no reason to spend a lot at TE. Develop your own. 

 

Knox had a very good year by rookie TE standards. He reminds me a lot of young George Kittle. 

 

 

 

 

Those TE's, apart from Croom, were a big part of why we were second in the league in dropped passes. I would have no problem adding a guy like Cole Kmet in the draft rather than hoping, like we did with Zay Jones, that experience will cure our butter-fingered TE's. I think Knox might be the only one of them that might develop into a good pass catcher as he had some great catches to offset his drops.

 

 

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14 minutes ago, Mickey said:

 

Those TE's, apart from Croom, were a big part of why we were second in the league in dropped passes. I would have no problem adding a guy like Cole Kmet in the draft rather than hoping, like we did with Zay Jones, that experience will cure our butter-fingered TE's. I think Knox might be the only one of them that might develop into a good pass catcher as he had some great catches to offset his drops.

 

 

I don't hate the idea of drafting a TE. I hate the idea of spending big money on a TE in free agency.

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7 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

I see people assuming we’ll keep him and that we’re kind of set at TE.

 

I’d like to understand the Tyler Kroft love - what do people see in him that’s promising?

 

He kind of had an uninspiring college career at Rutgers.  He backed up Tyler Eifert with the Bengals, did some good stuff in 2017 after Eifert got hurt, then broke his own foot in 2018 and again in 2019 off-season.

 

So he kind of had one good year in 2017.  When given a chance to “show out” this season, he’s seeemd decidedly “meh” to me.

 

What am I missing?  Explain the Kroft love to me.

 

It must be those bottles of Josh wine you keep drinking 

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I haven't seen much Tyler Kroft love on this board.  Most consider him very replaceable.

People seem to be more excited about our younger guys with Dawson Knox and Tommy Sweeney.

 

The problem with Tight End this year, is that replacement options look pretty weak.  The highest ranked draft options are considered late Day 2 picks.  The position is not strong or deep this year.  Hunter Henry and Austin Hooper are the best Free Agent options on the market.  Henry has been very good at times, but has even more injury questions than Kroft.  The more I think about it, Hooper would be nice to pair with Knox.  But there is a good chance Atlanta doesn't let him even hit the market.

 

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Last season we didn't have any tight ends other than croom as we approached free agency.. so they signed him here.  Added some more in draft. He broke his foot and was largely a miss here. 

 

However when healthy he's probably either the best or 2nd best TE on the roster.  Don't cut him and replace with smith/Sweeney, that's just creating cap space to create cap space.

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There’s little love for him now, but some were excited when he signed here (benefit of doubt to org, I get that).  I was not a fan.  It was baffling why the Bills (or anyone else) would overpay him that much.  He’s done so little in his career.  I know we were in a tight spot at TE, but WOW.  We massively overpaid for a backup level TE.  Here’s hoping we move on by the time his roster bonus is due in March. 

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Knox, Sweeney, Croom, and who, do we need four TEs? I would think the coach and GM see these three as the TE room. With Kroft and Smith we have Five total to choose from, minimum two gotta find a new home. 

 

Go Bills!!!

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Listening to Sal Capaccio this morning, he says the staff is still high on Kroft and the TE group as a whole. Chalking this up to the injury and not having a training camp to get accustomed to Allen. I agree with Beane and staff. Kroft played in 11 games and seems to be over the foot issue. Having him come in and have a complete training camp will help him and Allen get on the same page. The year before his foot injury, he had a pretty decent year. Of his 42 receptions, he had 7 td's. More important and why I think he was signed is that 23 of those receptions resulted in 1st downs. We actually have a solid group of TE's. Lee had a 2-3 game streak of penalties, but straightened that out. I really like Knox if he concentrates more on catching the ball before trying to run with it. Knox will be really improved next year. Sweeney is going to be Lee's replacement after next season. He lacks any kind of speed(he's turtle slow), but runs pretty good routes, and has really good hands. He's a pretty good blocker too. Back to Kroft. I think he can be a really solid player and target for Allen. Kroft and Knox on the field together is really intriguing to me. We've seen Knox make some great catches, but drop some easy one's. He'll clean that up. Kroft just needs a healthy off season and training camp and he'll work out really well with Allen. The fact that he played in those 11 games without any setbacks shows he is healthy now. Maybe he came back too soon after the 1st foot injury. Think AJ Green on foot injuries and coming back too soon. I did like the signing, a lot. Still do. If I had to make the decision, Kroft gets 1 more year. Beane is handling the cap really well, so the $ argument doesn't fly with me. Give me 1 or 2 wr's, 2 rbs and an o-line man and I think we'll see a better offense.

wow_rtf.thumb.jpg.69dbd4410b40a9ad96e5bff0b1788415.jpg

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8 hours ago, QB Bills said:

Has anyone said they love Tyler Kroft? From anything I've read about him, people think he's a waste of money. Where are you getting this from?

 

“Love” is probably too strong a word.  People seem to assume we’re set at TE and talk about how Daboll should use him next season.

 

It seems to me that we could badly use a TE who could fill the role of Kittle, Kelce, Andrews, Hurst etc.  Since Sweeney looked kind of lost when he played earlier in the season, looked better in the Jets game but still not “all that”, and since Knox led the league in drops and his blocking has resulted in QB pulverization at key points (he may improve, I hope he does, he may not), it seems to me if we don’t love Kroft we had best be looking for That Guy.

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11 minutes ago, Dopey said:

Listening to Sal Capaccio this morning, he says the staff is still high on Kroft and the TE group as a whole. Chalking this up to the injury and not having a training camp to get accustomed to Allen. I agree with Beane and staff. Kroft played in 11 games and seems to be over the foot issue. Having him come in and have a complete training camp will help him and Allen get on the same page. The year before his foot injury, he had a pretty decent year. Of his 42 receptions, he had 7 td's. More important and why I think he was signed is that 23 of those receptions resulted in 1st downs. We actually have a solid group of TE's. Lee had a 2-3 game streak of penalties, but straightened that out. I really like Knox if he concentrates more on catching the ball before trying to run with it. Knox will be really improved next year. Sweeney is going to be Lee's replacement after next season. He lacks any kind of speed(he's turtle slow), but runs pretty good routes, and has really good hands. He's a pretty good blocker too. Back to Kroft. I think he can be a really solid player and target for Allen. Kroft and Knox on the field together is really intriguing to me. We've seen Knox make some great catches, but drop some easy one's. He'll clean that up. Kroft just needs a healthy off season and training camp and he'll work out really well with Allen. The fact that he played in those 11 games without any setbacks shows he is healthy now. Maybe he came back too soon after the 1st foot injury. Think AJ Green on foot injuries and coming back too soon. I did like the signing, a lot. Still do. If I had to make the decision, Kroft gets 1 more year. Beane is handling the cap really well, so the $ argument doesn't fly with me. Give me 1 or 2 wr's, 2 rbs and an o-line man and I think we'll see a better offense.

wow_rtf.thumb.jpg.69dbd4410b40a9ad96e5bff0b1788415.jpg

 

This is what I mean by “love”.  OK, Kroft played 11 games.  What did he do in those games that leads you to believe he’ll be a factor next season? 

 

It may be true that he came back too soon from his injuries.

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8 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

I see people assuming we’ll keep him and that we’re kind of set at TE.

 

I’d like to understand the Tyler Kroft love - what do people see in him that’s promising?

 

He kind of had an uninspiring college career at Rutgers.  He backed up Tyler Eifert with the Bengals, did some good stuff in 2017 after Eifert got hurt, then broke his own foot in 2018 and again in 2019 off-season.

 

So he kind of had one good year in 2017.  When given a chance to “show out” this season, he’s seeemd decidedly “meh” to me.

 

What am I missing?  Explain the Kroft love to me.


I want an upgrade at the position so bad. Go get Hunter Henry or Austin Hooper. 

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9 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

I see people assuming we’ll keep him and that we’re kind of set at TE.

 

I’d like to understand the Tyler Kroft love - what do people see in him that’s promising?

 

He kind of had an uninspiring college career at Rutgers.  He backed up Tyler Eifert with the Bengals, did some good stuff in 2017 after Eifert got hurt, then broke his own foot in 2018 and again in 2019 off-season.

 

So he kind of had one good year in 2017.  When given a chance to “show out” this season, he’s seeemd decidedly “meh” to me.

 

What am I missing?  Explain the Kroft love to me.

I think a lot of people are discounting the injury time Kroft was out. Kroft doesn’t have the ceiling Knox does but he also is the best all around TE the Bills have today. Kroft missed a lot of time with Josh. 
I would like the Bills to keep Kroft, Knox, and Sweeney. Draft another developmental guy later in the draft. 
 

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33 minutes ago, Dopey said:

Listening to Sal Capaccio this morning, he says the staff is still high on Kroft and the TE group as a whole. Chalking this up to the injury and not having a training camp to get accustomed to Allen. I agree with Beane and staff. Kroft played in 11 games and seems to be over the foot issue. Having him come in and have a complete training camp will help him and Allen get on the same page. The year before his foot injury, he had a pretty decent year. Of his 42 receptions, he had 7 td's. More important and why I think he was signed is that 23 of those receptions resulted in 1st downs. We actually have a solid group of TE's. Lee had a 2-3 game streak of penalties, but straightened that out. I really like Knox if he concentrates more on catching the ball before trying to run with it. Knox will be really improved next year. Sweeney is going to be Lee's replacement after next season. He lacks any kind of speed(he's turtle slow), but runs pretty good routes, and has really good hands. He's a pretty good blocker too. Back to Kroft. I think he can be a really solid player and target for Allen. Kroft and Knox on the field together is really intriguing to me. We've seen Knox make some great catches, but drop some easy one's. He'll clean that up. Kroft just needs a healthy off season and training camp and he'll work out really well with Allen. The fact that he played in those 11 games without any setbacks shows he is healthy now. Maybe he came back too soon after the 1st foot injury. Think AJ Green on foot injuries and coming back too soon. I did like the signing, a lot. Still do. If I had to make the decision, Kroft gets 1 more year. Beane is handling the cap really well, so the $ argument doesn't fly with me. Give me 1 or 2 wr's, 2 rbs and an o-line man and I think we'll see a better offense.

wow_rtf.thumb.jpg.69dbd4410b40a9ad96e5bff0b1788415.jpg

 

Kroft hasn't been healthy for two years now. It's a gamble that he can stay healthy for any appreciable amount of time. And if the best we can say about the rest is "seems to be over his penalty streak" or "will hopefully stop dropping the ball" then I'm not impressed with the TE room. If you watched the games this weekend, you saw TE's like Kelce and Graham deliver onc clutch play after another. Maybe Knox is that guy but TE is such a key position in modern offenses that I have no problem adding a draft pick at TE. We wasted a lot of time thinking that Zay Jones would get over his inability to catch the ball consistently. I hope Knox gets over his but I would definitely like to hedge that bet.

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8 hours ago, Gambit said:

I don't think anyone honestly loves having him here. Most probably just assume the coaches aren't gonna give up on him yet. I for one would cut him and sign Hooper or Henry. 

This ridiculous organizational loyalty for certain underperforming players is getting tired. Belichick recognizes a bad player Immediately and cuts him. We do just the opposite. 

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14 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

This is what I mean by “love”.  OK, Kroft played 11 games.  What did he do in those games that leads you to believe he’ll be a factor next season? 

 

It may be true that he came back too soon from his injuries.

I hear ya. To me the games played were important to show he's over the foot injuries. Other than that, this past season was a wash. I do feel next year he'll be better and help our offense out, a lot. Just my feelings.

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