[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbw1j59gmjw5gdj player_id=none image=https://billswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]
The Bills have been known in recent years to bring in players with certain traits in their playing background. One of those common traits among personnel is experience playing multiple positions.
The versatility of players has allowed coordinator Brian Daboll to be creative on the offensive side of the ball in how he attacks opposing defenses. Since 2018 he’s run successful trick plays using receivers like John Brown and Isaiah McKenzie for scoring tosses.
On the difference playing quarterback in high school made, wide receiver Cole Beasley was asked this week how players use that in the NFL.
“It’s just a basic understanding of coverages and then once you get that you understand how they work,” Beasley said while addressing the media. “You understand each position plays it and what their responsibilities are, so then you can learn how to use their responsibilities against them to get open.”
The receiver made a trick play this past season on a toss from Josh Allen, which he threw to Gabriel Davis for a touchdown:
This Bills trick play 😳
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) November 29, 2020
Cole Beasley throws a dime to Gabriel Davis
(via @NFL)pic.twitter.com/CYIQpmaXHy
Quarterback Josh Allen remarked that Beasley “sees things through the eyes of a quarterback,” and the slot receiver certainly sounds like he does.
“For me it goes a lot deeper than a lot of people think into,” Beasley added. “If I don’t know what coverage their in I’m not going to play as well, and I’ve gotten really good at diagnosing it and narrowing it down to one or two coverages before the snap, and then once the snap happens usually I immediately know right now what it is, and then I react off that. That not only allows me to run fast not only running routes, but then after I catch the ball I know where they should be coming from, and it helps me for after the catch as well.”
His SMU and Bills teammate Emmanuel Sanders played receiver, running back, and safety, and threw a touchdown at Bellville High School in Texas. So he too could find his way into one of Brian Daboll’s trick plays in the future.
“Daboll is probably the best in the league in putting his guys in the best position to succeed at what they do best. Guys have the flexibility to be themselves in this system and he’s constantly diversifying this offense,” said Allen. “That’s why guys play so hard, they know at any point they can get the ball.”
[lawrence-related id=84156,84148,84144,84141]