The Bills made a move that kills the “they’re tanking/re-tanking” narrative I bought into dead with the acquisition of Kelvin Benjamin from the Carolina Panthers. I have a Q n A that’s up now with Brian Beversluis of Cat Scratch Reader that talks about Benjamin from a Panthers point of view, so I wanted to provide insight from my end as to how I see this deal and its ramifications.
Here’s some stat tweets courtesy my partner in crime Joe:
Benjamin stats:
2014- 73 catches on 146 targets/1008, 9TDs
2015- hurt
2016- 63 on 118 targets/941/7TDs
2017-32 on 51 targets/475/2TDs— Joe (@BuffaloWins) October 31, 2017
Benjamin, at 6’5 and nearly 240 pounds is that Buddy Nix (Unc!) “open when he’s covered” receiver. I also said he’s an “eyes” type of receiver, which plays well with Tyrod Taylor’s skillset. What I mean by that is, Kelvin Benjamin is a receiver whose best traits – jump balls, contested catches, and his size – allow him to be easily open to Tyrod in congested parts of the field.
Malcolm Butler is all over him, yet KB still makes the grab! #Bills pic.twitter.com/FyqfyBvk4n
— Jett Bosnak (@JettBosnak) October 31, 2017
and
https://twitter.com/LWOSJohnBava/status/918648808019582976
also
https://twitter.com/DTang0426/status/914570695421685760
Think back to the Andre Holmes touchdown. In the post-game, Tyrod said the following:
Andre was definitely pumped up for this one, playing against his former team. As far as the touchdown pass, remember him when we broke the huddle that he told me if I don’t have Shady cause Shady is first on that play. He told me if I don’t have him that he’ll be working in the back of the end zone. I was able to buy some time and he is one of our taller receivers so he is definitely one I can find when I am moving around. He did a great job. Focused, being able to keep two feet in and securing the catch to the ground.
https://twitter.com/NFL_DovKleiman/status/924697234561748994
In my opinion, Beane is sticking true to winning now and in the future. You’ve given Tyrod Taylor a weapon that compliments him to a ‘T’ – and should they move on from Tyrod at some point, Benjamin is a welcome security blanket to any quarterback down the road. I cannot understate how well I think Benjamin will work with Tyrod – his ability to show his hands/eyes to the QB on his routes make any throw to him easier. Benjamin to me makes sense in a basketball on grass sort of way – if you say that Tyrod is the A.I. type point guard, you just gave him a power forward that can put his back to the basket in the low post. Or in soccer, he’s your target man that can hold up the ball – or in football, the big dude that can big boy little dudes. Sometimes, you just let God-given talent do what it does – let the big tall guy be big and tall!
Couple that with his sheer size and ability to create a bigger catching radius and you have a Taylor-made receiver.
See what I did there?
(ok, I’m deleting, I’m deleting)
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