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4 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

Di Marco? Yea. He is a really good special teams player. 

We can agree to disagree on this one. It was backed up this week on a special teams pod cast for Locked on Bills. I trust the host, Joe Moreno,  and my eyes. The host was answering a question about Gilliam and could he replace DiMarco. Gilliam has a ton on special team experience at Toledo. Joe made the comment that Pat didn’t grade out well at special teams. What are you basing you assertion that Pat was good at special teams? 
 

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51 minutes ago, atlbillsfan1975 said:

We can agree to disagree on this one. It was backed up this week on a special teams pod cast for Locked on Bills. I trust the host, Joe Moreno,  and my eyes. The host was answering a question about Gilliam and could he replace DiMarco. Gilliam has a ton on special team experience at Toledo. Joe made the comment that Pat didn’t grade out well at special teams. What are you basing you assertion that Pat was good at special teams? 
 

 

I disagree completely. I don't think a lot of people understand his role on special teams. My assertion is based on having watched the all 22 every week. People don't understand what they are looking at and I hear stuff like "oh he doesn't make many special teams tackles." That isn't his job. Certainly on punt formation they used him as the wing (normally the left wing). A lot of people tried to put the Patriots punt block on him but it wasn't. He motioned several times that he had two guys and the personal protector who was Kurt Coleman should have slid over, but didn't. If Joe actually got into detailed breakdown of where and when he thought DiMarco underperformed on STs last year then I will listen to his podcast and go back and re-look at those instances but if it was just a general "he graded out poorly" then I will stick with my own assessment.

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I go back and forth on this, but I now think DiMarco sticks as this is the last year on his contract and he provides that veteran leadership McD loves.  Gilliam goes to the PS and we hope he doesn’t get poached.

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2 hours ago, atlbillsfan1975 said:

We can agree to disagree on this one. It was backed up this week on a special teams pod cast for Locked on Bills. I trust the host, Joe Moreno,  and my eyes. The host was answering a question about Gilliam and could he replace DiMarco. Gilliam has a ton on special team experience at Toledo. Joe made the comment that Pat didn’t grade out well at special teams. What are you basing you assertion that Pat was good at special teams? 
 

 

 I thought the ST podcast was one of Marino's best recently. He had some very interesting comments on personnel turnover (it's high in ST) and how it affects bubble players when the roster is set.

  Di Marco was a key player in ST last year in percentage of snaps played and one of McD preferred veterans. That said how much drop off will there really be? I have no comment on his effectiveness one way or the other, but I thought that Marino mentioning that Gilliam excels at blocking punts and was a core college ST player shows us that that is likely to be his path to the roster if he has one. With the cap going down and upcoming contracts as well as Star's deferred contract it's smart to look for young guys who can be cheap and do the job.

For cap reasons and making the team younger give me Bass>Haushcka and Gilliam>Di Marco.

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1 hour ago, eball said:

I go back and forth on this, but I now think DiMarco sticks as this is the last year on his contract and he provides that veteran leadership McD loves.  Gilliam goes to the PS and we hope he doesn’t get poached.

We already know that the pats****** will grab Gilliam and he will turnout to be a HOF’er 

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2 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

I disagree completely. I don't think a lot of people understand his role on special teams. My assertion is based on having watched the all 22 every week. People don't understand what they are looking at and I hear stuff like "oh he doesn't make many special teams tackles." That isn't his job. Certainly on punt formation they used him as the wing (normally the left wing). A lot of people tried to put the Patriots punt block on him but it wasn't. He motioned several times that he had two guys and the personal protector who was Kurt Coleman should have slid over, but didn't. If Joe actually got into detailed breakdown of where and when he thought DiMarco underperformed on STs last year then I will listen to his podcast and go back and re-look at those instances but if it was just a general "he graded out poorly" then I will stick with my own assessment.

 

  Not trying to knock Di Marco at all, but would you say he is so good that he's irreplaceable? It seems to me that he might be the safe option for now but he is older, more expensive and average. Farewell recruited, Matakevich, Klein and Taiwan Jones who all have made noticeable ST contributions over the years. In a numbers game would you choose Di Marco over these guys?

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41 minutes ago, YoloinOhio said:

 

 

24 minutes ago, DJB said:

Anyone else have no idea what Tre said? Lol 


Are you talking about this? 

 

Something along the lines of "look at you always trying to record people. What do I look like, the police? "

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28 minutes ago, Seoulofstone said:

 

  Not trying to knock Di Marco at all, but would you say he is so good that he's irreplaceable? It seems to me that he might be the safe option for now but he is older, more expensive and average. Farewell recruited, Matakevich, Klein and Taiwan Jones who all have made noticeable ST contributions over the years. In a numbers game would you choose Di Marco over these guys?

 

That is kind of the point. Di Marco doesn't do the same job as Taiwan Jones or Tyler Matakevich. Jones is a gunner. Matakevich is a tackling demon. That isn't what you put a full back out there to do. He is there to engage the return teams blockers to keep them off of guys like Matakevich so that they can get down field and make tackles. Think of him as the special team equivalent of someone like Star as a defensive lineman responsible for occupying opponents rather than making loads of plays himself. On punt return DiMarco protects the punt catcher, on kick returns he plays one of what they used to call the wedge positions but they don't call them that now because the pure "wedge block" is outlawed. On Bills punts he normally plays the left wing, but I think has done some personal protector in the past.

 

Is he irreplaceable? No, he isn't. Would the rookie offer more on offense? Probably. Is he a potentially more athletic option on special teams? Yes. But some of those old veteran smarts and nuances to the position you only know you miss when they are gone. Having lost Zo who was one of their ST captains I suspect they will be loathed to lose another one in DiMarco.

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