Inside The Bills

Byrd, McKelvin, Spiller make All-Pro PFF team

The film reviewers and analytic stat crunchers at Pro Football Focus have put out their 2012 All-Pro team and three Bills make an appearance.

Jairus Byrd earned 1st team free safety honors, while Leodis McKelvin earned a second team nod as a return man and C.J. Spiller earned a second team naming at RB. Here’s what was written about all three Bills players.

Free Safety: Jairus Byrd (BUF)
There isn’t a better deep safety in football than Byrd who picked up five interceptions and only allowed 16 catches all year into his coverage. Byrd has rare range and ability and it’s always on display.

Returner: Second team – Leodis McKelvin (BUF)
While he was just picked over Marcus Thigpen here, before missing time, McKelvin had a very real shot at first team honors.

Running back: Second Team - C.J. Spiller (BUF)
In the end Spiller received the nod over Marshawn Lynch and Alfred Morris with the only negative being in how poorly he was used.

Breakdown of Stevie’s game last week

The folks at Pro Football Focus made Stevie Johnson the focus of their individual game breakdown series this week after his eight-catch 115-yard performance against Seattle. They do a good job of illustrating Johnson’s freedom in Chan Gailey’s offense to just get to a certain spot on time, while also outlining some of the risks involved as it pertains to the read demands put on Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Though Seahawks CB Richard Sherman is not a household name, he’s widely seen as one of the best young cornerbacks in the league, with some even referring to him as the next Revis. But Johnson treated Sherman, much the way he treats Revis Sunday.

You can also watch a breakdown of Stevie’s game in this week’s episode on Bills All Access with Steve Tasker at 11 am on WKBW TV Channel 7 in Buffalo.

K. Williams in top 3 among DT pass rushers

Bills DT Kyle Williams, not surprisingly ranked high when it came to Pro Football Focus’ pass rush productivity for interior defensive linemen.

Pro Football Focus had Williams ranked third in the league behind only Houston’s J.J. Watt and Cincinnati’s Geno Atkins. Here’s the top 10 on PFF’s top 20.

3 Bills LBs among most efficient tacklers

The film reviewers and stat crunchers at Pro Football Focus have put together their top 20 most efficient tacklers at linebacker in the NFL. Three Bills linebackers made the list.

Bryan Scott and Kelvin Sheppard were in a tie for 18th, with Nick Barnett right behind at 20th. Here’s the full list.

Tackling efficiency is determined by – (Tackles + assists + missed tackles) / Missed tackles.

Why throwing quick helps Fitz

Chan Gailey’s passing attack is predicated on timing and getting the ball out quick. With the quick thinking Ryan Fitzpatrick this often leads to a high completion percentage. That hasn’t happened collectively over the course of the season, but last week Fitz was 16-26 passing (61.5%), which isn’t great, but an improvement over his season completion percentage to date (58.3%). The stat crunchers and film reviewers at Pro Football Focus revealed an interesting statistic concerning Fitzpatrick and the timing passing game.

PFF found through film review that Fitzpatrick has an Accuracy Percentage of 72.0% when he holds onto the ball for 2.5 seconds or less. When he holds it for 2.6 seconds or more, it drops to 56.7%. The 15.3% difference is the third highest in the league.

PFF did not break down the number of plays in which he holds onto the ball for more or less than 2.5 seconds, and it’s unclear whether or not defenses have been more effective in taking away his first read this season. But the difference is noteworthy and speaks to the importance of the timing of Buffalo’s passing game, knowing his current completion percentage for the season (58.3%) is closer to the latter figure provided by PFF.

Cincinnati’s Andy Dalton is the quickest at getting the ball out of his hand in the league right now per PFF taking an average of 2.3 seconds between his snap and his pass release.

Levitre a top 10 pass block guard

The film reviewers and stat crunchers at Pro Football Focus are at it again this time assessing which NFL guards had the best pass blocking efficiency and Buffalo’s Andy Levitre cracked the top 10.

Levitre was ranked ninth in the league over the past three seasons (2009-2011) with a PBE of 97.4 (the closer to 100 the better). PFF takes total pressures allowed and weighs it against total number of snaps that player spends in pass protection, then with a few other calculations [(.75 x # of sacks and hurries + sacks) /(# of pass blocking snaps) x 100] - 100 = PBE. 

Here’s the top 10.

Levitre called ‘star on the rise’

Bills guard Andy Levitre got a very glowing write up from the stat crunchers and film reviewers at Pro Football Focus.

Levitre, who graded out extremely well in the eyes of PFF, had a full write up done on him. Here’s some of the better excerpts from the post.

On rushes off left guard in 2011, only one team (Miami) earned a higher Yards Per Carry average than the Bills’ 6.0 on 42 carries off Levitre’s outside shoulder.

On top of those stats to Levitre’s outside, he is also proved essential to the Bills as a blocker in space, showing real quality while pulling. At 305 pounds, Levitre isn’t necessarily the ideal size to be a dominant, road-grading run blocker, but he augments his solid in-line play with some quality efforts on the move; a job that leaves many other offensive linemen looking lost.

In the Bills’ Week 15 loss to the Dolphins, he exhibited this quality by getting the upper hand on Karlos Dansby–one of the league’s better inside linebackers–in space. He got off to a fast start pulling right and neutralizing Dansby as the linebacker attempted to fill the gap off right guard. The block served to spring C.J. Spiller through the line on a 24-yard touchdown. Levitre also pulled off  a pair of cut blocks on Dansby while getting downfield on screen plays, helping to finish first down runs by Spiller and Tashard Choice.

Levitre’s ability in pass protection at both guard and tackle cannot be questioned. Over the last two seasons whether you look at our grades (+15.1) or the stats (35 total pressures allowed), he is amongst the elite pass protectors at guard. Combined with clear improvements in his in-line run blocking, and his consistent quality blocking in space, Levitre is ready to use the 2012 season to break into the NFL’s upper echelon of guards.

Fred tops in RB pass blocking

The film reviewers and stat crunchers at Pro Football Focus took on the task of determining the most efficient pass blocking backs in the league from 2011. Buffalo’s Fred Jackson was on the list. Check out where he ranked.

Fred was ranked first in the league in 2011 in pass blocking efficiency. In 83 pass blocking snaps, Jackson did not give up a single sacks, QB hit or hurry giving him a 100 rating. Scroll down to see the pass blocking efficiency list’s top 10 from 2011.