Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
5 takeaways from the #Bills’ 16-15 preseason win vs. the #Lions:
The Buffalo Bills won their preseason opener against the Detroit Lions on Friday, 16-15.
As it usually is with the preseason, the final score does not matter much at all, it’s all about reading between the lines.
With that, here are five Bills takeaways from the first exhibition game of 2021:
Davis Webb started ahead of Patrick Mahomes at Texas Tech
Talk about trading places.
The year was 2014 and Patrick Mahomes was on campus in Lubbock, Tx, with Texas Tech.
However, the quarterback who was to become an NFL and Super Bowl MVP was not deemed worthy of the starting position by coach Kliff Kingsbury.
The Red Raiders went 4-8 that season and it took a while for Kingsbury to replace Davis Webb as his starter with Mahomes. The battled for the position spilled into 2015, too.
When Mahomes took over, he did throw for 1,547 of his 11,252 yards in three college seasons.
Fast forward to 2021 and Mahomes and Davis Webb are on teams that will vie for the AFC Championship on Sunday. Kind of.
While the sports world — okay, the whole wagering world — awaits news on whether Mahomes will clear concussion protocol and face the Bills, Webb is in a different space and place.
Webb is on the Bills’ practice squad. He has made his tour of “New York” teams, drafted in the third round by the Giants in 2017, with the Jets in 2018 and with the Bills’ practice squad since last season.
Mahomes has thrown for 14,152 yards and 114 yards as a pro. Webb? He is still looking for his first NFL stat.
ESPN compared the two before the 2015 season:
With the help of ESPN Stats and Information, here’s a closer look at the 2014 season for Webb and Mahomes:
- The importance of the Red Raider running game is underscored by the play action numbers of both quarterbacks. Webb was 60-of-89 for 901 yards, 10.1 yards per attempt, 10 touchdowns and four interception on play action plays. Mahomes was 37-of-58 for 586 yards, 10.1 yards per attempt, eight touchdowns and one interception. Takeaway: It’s a good thing the Red Raiders have one of the best groups of running backs in the Big 12 because the running game clearly takes pressure off of both signal-callers and makes the offense more explosive with both averaging 10.1 yard per attempt on play action plays.
Takeaways from Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott following roster cuts.
Team personnel is more the forte of Bills general manager Brandon Beane. Following roster cuts over the weekend, Beane broke down the series of roster transactions the Bills went through over the past few days himself, but Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott gave some insight onto things from a coaching perspective as well,
Here are three things we learned from McDermott following roster cuts:
Across the NFL this week, teams have already started to release their depth charts ahead of the season-opening weekend en route. Heck, Buffalo’s first opponent, the Jets, dropped theirs already. Throughout training camp, McDermott & the Bills have been on top of reports coming out of training camp. We didn’t see the reporting we are used to. In particular, mentions of the depth chart, we put on lock down.
Evidently there’s a Wednesday deadline for teams to release their depth charts.
For the Bills, the biggest question marks on their roster sit along the offensive line. Who’s playing where without Jon Feliciano in the lineup? We can speculate that Cody Ford will move from right tackle to fill in at guard, but then on the outside it could be a few different options such as Ty Nsekhe and Daryl Williams. We’ll find out the answers on Wednesday, it appears. When asked if the O-line depth chart has been settled, McDermott said he’s going to take this one to the finish line.
“I think we’ll know a bit more after practice today… I’ll get that to you guys on Wednesday,” McDermott said. “I’ll get that to you guys as soon as I can on Wednesday.”
But no worries, guys (and the Jets). We’re almost there.
A list of the Buffalo Bills’ most spurring moves made over the roster cut-down weekend.
Over this past weekend, the NFL and Bills made a lot of decisions. Plenty of tough ones, too. The objective was to get down to 53 players on team rosters ahead of the 2020 regular season. Just last week, most teams in the league had near 80 players, and each team had to fill out a practice squad as well.
In breaking things down and allowing the dust to settle, the Bills certainly did make a few surprising decisions. To catch you up, we’ll go through some of those now:
Perhaps the biggest debate out of training camp was what the Bills will do with their quarterback situation and as it turns out, they did the smart, sensible thing: Kept four of them. This was the suggested scenario we made prior to roster cut-down day as well.
While reports out of training camp were few and far between, none of them had something good to say about rookie quarterback Jake Fromm. Some speculated that the fifth-round pick was outplayed by Davis Webb and the veteran backup was actually going to be the third quarterback behind Josh Allen and Matt Barkley.
But nope, instead, it’s Fromm over Webb, who eventually made his way to the practice squad. What Sean McDermott & Co. were thinking seems to be pretty clear now.
Cut Fromm? As a rookie and a very well-known college quarterback, he was going to get claimed by someone. Webb? He’s been on and off practice squads in his career and with the Bills specifically, no one has signed him of their practice squad in recent seasons. So putting Webb out on the wavier wire was much smarter and if anything, it could just be a formality.
If Webb did outplay Fromm in camp? It would be interesting to see what the Bills do if Allen or Barkley go down. Could Webb be ahead of Fromm on the depth chart even though he’s on the practice squad? That’s speculation, but certainly a scenario most would prefer not to find out.
2020 Buffalo Bills training camp preview for Josh Allen, Jake Fromm, quarterback position.
The Buffalo Bills are a few short weeks away from arriving for training camp in Western New York. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the preseason festivities will be diminished; the team will not hold their sessions at St. John Fisher College, their training camp location since 2000.
Nevertheless, the aim of the training camp remains the same. The organization must prepare players for the preseason, which depth players will compete in their final battle for a roster spot.
Training camp could hold greater importance this year, as the trimmed down preseason slate leaves fewer opportunities for players to impress the coaching staff.
The Bills Wire will complete a position-by-position analysis of each group on the Bills roster. This edition will focus on the quarterback position:
Josh Allen did exactly what the Bills hoped for him to do last year: Make improvements to his all-around game. Allen, for the most part, made better decisions than his rookie year. The arm strength and athleticism were on display, still, but Allen improved his touchdown to interception ratio (10:12 in 2018 to 20:9 in 2019) his passing yards per game improved by 20 yards per game, and Allen’s completion percentage also trended in the right direction, improving by six percent from his rookie season. Add in nine rushing touchdowns, and Allen was the most essential cog in the Bills offense last year.
Even with the improvements, everything was not completely rosy last year. His 58.8 percent completion percentage was still well below the league average. Allen’s bad throw percentage was 20.3 percent, the fifth-highest in the league, as per Pro Football Reference. He also struggled mightily in completing deep passes, which should be a strength considering his arm power.
Allen had several highlight moments throughout the year as he guided the offense to its second playoff appearance in three years. The Wild Card game started out as a dream for the Bills. Unfortunately, the lasting impression of Allen trying to make things happen at the end of the game is what many in the nation will remember.
Still, it’s the progress that makes Buffalo happy. Allen improved with a new cast of talent at skill positions, and it benefited the second-year pro. In addition to Allen, Matt Barkley played in the Bills’ season-ending, meaningless contest against the Jets.
Now here’s a rundown of storylines to follow in this position group:
Make no mistake: this year is all about Josh Allen. The team has rebuilt the roster over the past three seasons to position itself in the best vision that head coach Sean McDermott and general manager Brandon Beane could imagine. The team has several reliable and explosive receiving and rushing options.
Now, it’s up to Allen to make it all come together.
Allen is a bit of a complex individual for defenses to figure out. His unpredictability has led to many highlight-reel plays. In the same regard, this has led to some chaos.
Allen has fit the ball into tight spaces. His arm strength is exceptional, which is nothing new. The gradual increase in his accuracy still has some distance to improve. It’s more about developing a bit more consistency with Allen. Offensive coordinator Brian Daboll has done a great job at focusing on what Allen does well, Allen just needs to do more well, like the deep ball.
The next step for Allen is to further eliminate poor plays. He’s on the right trajectory if he continues his development from last year. With wide receiver Stefon Diggs in the fold, there will most likely be more space for Allen to find receivers in the passing game. It’s up to him to consistently make the right reads and allow his playmakers to excel. If he does this, the stats will go up, the wins will come, and the critics will get a little less loud.
Buffalo Bills pre-training camp cut candidates in 2020.
A series of big blows were dealt to bubble players and some fresh faces in the Buffalo Bills locker room this week.
First, the NFL and NFLPA jointly decided to cancel the 2020 preseason. While many hope in the future there are less preseason games, at least one or two could go a long way for such players to prove to a coaching staff they are worthy of a roster or practice squad spot.
Then things got even worse. Typically a team carries 90 players into training camp. In an effort to promote social distancing, teams will now carry only 80 when training camp gets started next week.
Most camps in the league are slated to begin next Tuesday, and just about every roster has more than 80 players on it currently. Among that faction is the Bills, who have 88. Buffalo general manager Brandon Beane and head coach Sean McDermott have some roster trimming to do.
So with that, which eight Bills players are most likely to be cut ahead of camp? Here’s our best 10 guesses at those spots:
You’ll notice a trend we’ll point out right away here with Ike Brown: This 80-man roster news is bad for undrafted rookie free agents. That’s what Brown was out of FIU. Brown has some desirable size at 6-foot tall, but he’s in a crowded cornerback room with EJ Gaines, Levi Wallace and Josh Norman already battling for a No. 2 job next to Tre’Davious White.
Former Georgia football QB and 2020 NFL Draft pick Jake Fromm signed his rookie contract with the Buffalo Bills. Here are the details…
Former Georgia quarterback Jake Fromm signed his rookie deal on Friday with the Buffalo Bills.
According to Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle, it’s a four-year contract worth $3.7 million total, $899,490 guaranteed with a $302,960 signing bonus.
A pedestrian combine performance reportedly caused Fromm to slip to the fifth-round of the 2020 NFL Draft where the Buffalo Bills felt fortunate to select him with the No. 167 overall pick.
General manager Brandon Beane said that drafting Fromm was not meant to send a message to Bills starter Josh Allen, but rather to fill a “premium position” with a talented player.
Fromm will have an opportunity to compete for the backup position this off-season with fellow Bills quarterbacks Davis Webb and Matt Barkley. And as Georgia fans know well, don’t count Fromm out in a quarterback competition. He has beaten out a couple of 5-stars before and won a few games in between…
Bills' deal for fifth-rounder Jake Fromm: $3.771 million total, $899,490 guaranteed, $302,960 signing bonus
— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) May 8, 2020
Josh Allen, Dawson Knox, and Buffalo Bills teammates at the Buffalo Sabres game vs. Toronto Maple Leafs.
On Sunday, the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres topped the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-2. It looks like Josh Allen and some of his Bills teammates are back in Buffalo.
Allen and a small group, including backup QB Davis Webb, and tight ends Dawson Knox and Tommy Sweeney were among them:
The boys are back in town.
Let’s go @BuffaloSabres! 🤙 #OneBuffalo pic.twitter.com/Ol77DSMJcP
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) February 17, 2020
Aside from that team-produced photo, one fan caught and even better one from the game’s television broadcast. The “boys” were having a well-deserved offseason night off, checking out the Sabres’ win and stacking some beers along the way:
That beer tower in Allen’s suite tho 🤣🤣 @JoshAllenQB THATS MY QB pic.twitter.com/rr3U9f1gSc
— Theresa (@mrscole_22) February 17, 2020
Perhaps a winning formula for the hockey team? Might have the run this idea one more time, fellas.
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The Senior Bowl has been a quarterback factory for the New York Giants, but chances are that’s going to change in 2020.
The New York Giants have an extensive scouting department that covers the country from coast to coast but there’s one place they seem to concentrate on the most, and that’s Ladd-Peeples Stadium in Mobile, Alabama.
That’s the site of the annual Senior Bowl where players who have completed their college eligibility get a chance to showcase their wares for NFL personnel people.
The Giants’ brass is usually there in numbers and put a lot of weight in the game when it comes to their draft board. They have selected the MVP of the game the past three years, all quarterbacks: Davis Webb, Cal (2017), Kyle Lauletta, Richmond (2018) and Duke’s Daniel Jones last year.
Webb and Lauletta, third- and fourth-round picks respectively, are no longer Giants, while Jones, taken sixth overall in last year’s draft, is the future of the franchise.
Usually, the general managers and scouts don’t stick around for the actual game, they just watch the practices and conduct the interviews. It’s difficult to gauge a player’s worth in an all-star game anyway.
Last year, Giants GM Dave Gettleman, still up in the air about certain quarterbacks, wanted to see them play in a live game, Jones in particularly.
So he stayed.
“Watching them on tape is one thing, seeing them in the environment is definitely, I think, very important. Saw Drew (Lock), Daniel, Jarrett Stidham, (Gardner) Minshew, (Trace) McSorley, all of these guys were at the Senior Bowl, so I decided to stay,” Gettleman told reporters last year.
“I made up my mind that I was staying for the game and, frankly, he (Jones) walked out there and I saw a professional quarterback after the three series that I watched. I saw a professional quarterback.”
The rest you know. Gettleman fell “full bloom” in love with Jones and over-drafted him. No one is complaining about that now.
What we do wonder is who Gettleman will be smitten with this year. He doesn’t need a quarterback and many of the big defensive players are underclassman, so it will be fun to watch his reaction during this game. That is, if he stays for it.
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Here is the state of the Buffalo Bills’ quarterbacks entering the 2020 offseason.
Here is Bills Wire’s position-by-position breakdown of the team’s roster, starting with quarterback, including the season that was a projecting forward:
The Bills quarterback situation is one of the most stable spots on the team’s roster. Josh Allen took some steps forward in his second season in a Buffalo uniform.
Allen started all 16 games, and it’s apparent that the Bills’ brass is all in with supporting Allen. He increased his completion percentage by six percent, doubled his passing touchdowns, decreased the number of interceptions thrown, and improved his passing yards per game by 19. He added nine rushing touchdowns as well.
There’s still some growth that needs to take place in Allen’s game. There were moments when he tried to do a bit too much when better decisions would do. However, as he finds greater consistency throughout his attack and further reduce the number of questionable decisions that occur during games, he will challenge others as a top-10 quarterback in the league.
Backup Matt Barkley played in two games last year, coming in for Allen after the Wyoming product entered concussion protocol in Week 4 against the New England Patriots. He also played the majority of the Week 17 matchup against the New York Jets, a game that reflected more a preseason tilt than anything else.
Both of Buffalo’s quarterbacks are under contract for the 2020 season. Allen’s cap hit is $5.7 million as part of his rookie contract. He won’t be an unrestricted free agent until 2022, so the Bills won’t have to mess around with price increase on their potential franchise quarterback until they revisit his contract for the fifth-year option. Barkley enters the final year of a two-year contract.
Allen is the unquestioned focal point of the Bills offense. Barkley will most likely be the team’s backup for the second-consecutive season.
The only way this situation will change is if Buffalo decides that they can find an upgrade at the position behind Allen, or if the team kept three quarterbacks on their roster moving forward. Davis Webb spent the 2019 season as Buffalo’s “third” QB, but was on the practice squad. If Allen were to miss substantial time, it’s questionable if Barkley could shoulder the load. However, with so much faith is placed in Allen’s hands, it’s not likely Buffalo would make a move to find a quarterback who has any chance of challenging Allen’s reign.
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