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Clearly, Kroft should start at tight end now


Mister Defense

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For the first time in a very long time a Bills tight end looked disciplined, showed superb hands, got open consistently, and blocked effectively.

 

We are told how much more athletic Knox is and how much more upside he has than Kroft.  But our eyes did not deceive us yesterday--in all phases of his position Kroft is superior to Knox. Knox has never looked like that, although he has played well at times and made some big plays.  He is not a consistently reliable starting tight end yet.

 

Dawson Knox may well become the starting tight end a few years down the road, but if yesterday was an indication, he does not play the position well enough (yet) to be the starter. Knox will continue to make some big plays, but not in a starting role.

 

Kroft played an integral role in the victory yesterday and should be the starter going forward.

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Neither is an exciting option but they will do for now. We have plenty of weapons. 

 

We definitely need to upgrade the position next off-season. Lot of good options in the draft, I am all for taking one early and finally having a playmaker at the position. 

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3 minutes ago, Process said:

Neither is an exciting option but they will do for now. We have plenty of weapons. 

 

We definitely need to upgrade the position next off-season. Lot of good options in the draft, I am all for taking one early and finally having a playmaker at the position. 

 

Okay, but Kroft sure did look good yesterday, consistently. 

 

He is 27 year old. 

 

If he plays like he did yesterday throughout this year, I believe the Bills will not be looking too hard for a new tight end next year,

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12 minutes ago, Process said:

Neither is an exciting option but they will do for now. We have plenty of weapons. 

 

We definitely need to upgrade the position next off-season. Lot of good options in the draft, I am all for taking one early and finally having a playmaker at the position. 

How many highly drafted tight ends are actually game changers? Starters? Productive in the pass game? 
Tight ends have to be developed, so you’re looking at trade or free agent if you expect production beyond what we have 

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3 minutes ago, ganesh said:

Kroft played very well. But Knox is consistently a mismatch on the field.  His ability to get up field on those seam routes or sideline routes are tremendous,  The Biills will continue to groom Knox,

 

I agree, but from yesterday's game, Kroft is clearly the more polished, consistent tight end now.  Knox will learn from him as Kroft now starts--I believe.

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6 minutes ago, Rc2catch said:

How many highly drafted tight ends are actually game changers? Starters? Productive in the pass game? 
Tight ends have to be developed, so you’re looking at trade or free agent if you expect production beyond what we have 

Just throwing it out there, TJ hockenson seems to be having a bigger impact right now compared to Ed Oliver. Noah Fant isn’t doing bad either for Denver. Adding a playmaker at TE next year would be a huge bonus. Knox has a lot of work to do  to get to a solid reliable TE.

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19 minutes ago, Mister Defense said:

 

Okay, but Kroft sure did look good yesterday, consistently. 

 

He is 27 year old. 

 

If he plays like he did yesterday throughout this year, I believe the Bills will not be looking too hard for a new tight end next year,

Dudes problem is availability 

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nice Kroft shows up for sure.
 Maybe he is truly healthy ?
Knox is going to be part of this Team for at least this season. Lets cheer for the Kid. he i a  Beast and has not hit his potential by any means.
 But if he does not fix the pass catching this season ? like Kroft has flipped his switch to ON ? He may not survive next years cut downs.

Edited by 3rdand12
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24 minutes ago, Lieutenant Aldo Raine said:

Maybe this will light a fire and motivate him

 

I feel like Knox is plenty motivated, but he needs more consistency catching the ball and maintaining possession after that.

 

He could be quite a weapon down the road because he does have some wheels and gets up field in a hurry, but all that means nothing if you are not securing the catch first. After that, it is just the same thing they are preaching to Allen about ball security. 5-point hold on the ball and two hands on the ball when in traffic or being tackled, etc...

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2 minutes ago, TFBillsfan said:

Just throwing it out there, TJ hockenson seems to be having a bigger impact right now compared to Ed Oliver. Noah Fant isn’t doing bad either for Denver. Adding a playmaker at TE next year would be a huge bonus. Knox has a lot of work to do  to get to a solid reliable TE.

Hockensons stats were almost identical to Knox last year???? I haven’t watched Fant much though. The odds of a first round tight end making any kind of impact next season are very low. 

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Blocking ability is debatable, and hopefully, Knox would continue to improve in that category. Kroft's hands are certainly more reliable-- that's inarguable. But, equally inarguable is that Knox's YAC is superior to Kroft's. Be that as it may, Kroft would seem to be the better all-around TE at this moment. But, I'm not giving up on Knox's potential. If he gets the drops under control, he could develop into a top-tier TE, IMO.

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2 minutes ago, Rocky Landing said:

Blocking ability is debatable, and hopefully, Knox would continue to improve in that category. Kroft's hands are certainly more reliable-- that's inarguable. But, equally inarguable is that Knox's YAC is superior to Kroft's. Be that as it may, Kroft would seem to be the better all-around TE at this moment. But, I'm not giving up on Knox's potential. If he gets the drops under control, he could develop into a top-tier TE, IMO.

Krofts hands?
can you back that up   :)

 we know about Knox's sufferingly painful drops

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18 minutes ago, Rc2catch said:

Hockensons stats were almost identical to Knox last year???? I haven’t watched Fant much though. The odds of a first round tight end making any kind of impact next season are very low. 

 

Still like Hock, but he is on a bad team with a QB who struggles spreading the ball around. I liked the guy the Jags picked as well so I am going to take a peek to see how he is doing. OK, yikes - the Bills dodged a bullet on that one as the Jags traded ahead of us to pick up Josh Oiiver who had some of the best hands out of the bunch, but is on his second straight IR season. Tore hamstring year one and broke a bone in his foot this year during practice.

 

Tough breaks and not uncommon for TEs to get dinged as we have experienced on the Bills. They are big guys that move and cut like WRs have to block in a scrum of bodies, and defensive players almost always cut them at or below the knees to make stops because they are big dudes. Hock was injured pretty early last year so who's to say whether either is a bad pick or what they could have done on this Bills team.

 

Fant has looked good too, was not a bad year for TEs, so I can understand Beane's philosophy of waiting for gems to fall as he did this year with a draft deep in WRs and grabbing Davis. That being said, as we saw in the Rams game and have seen from NE over the decades, having quality TEs who can get open and catch changes the math.

 

Look no further than Allen 3 TDs to TEs this past game (2 to Kroft and one to Smith). Scoring TEs have been the missing ingredient in Bills offenses for far too long.

Edited by WideNine
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