Grading the Bills’ Offense Through 9 Games This Season
By Ryan Brennan
Robert Woods has slowly started to gain more chemistry with Tyrod Taylor, but is set to become a free agent at the end of the season.
- What I Like: route-running ability, ability to extend a route if Tyrod needs more time, can play all over the field, shows signs of a WR1 presence at times, can have as big of a game as any other WR in the league, confidence continues to increase, knows this team well, playing for a bigger contract, third-down conversions.
- What I Don’t Like: one of the main things he has lacked is consistency, hasn’t met expectations with Watkins out, needs to be more vocal in this offense, needs to find the endzone more.
- 2016 Receiving Statistics: 39 receptions, 56 targets, 452 yards, 11.6 average, one TD, 25 first downs, 7 catches 20+ yards.
- 2016 Fantasy Points:
With Sammy Watkins missing all but two games this season and Robert Woods playing in his contract year, we expected Woods to be more reliable and consistent this season. He hasn’t had a bad season at all, but he had a chance to go overdrive these past seven games and only did so once.
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In 8 games this season — he missed Week 7 vs. the Miami Dolphins — Woods has only really had three bad games (4 catches for 20 yards Week 1 vs. Baltimore, one catch for 2 yards Week 2 vs. Jets and 2 catches for 26 yards Week 5 vs. Rams). In those three games, he was targeted 13 times (7 catches).
For the other five games, Woods was either spectacular or at-least productive. His two big games were Week 4 vs. the Patriots (7 catches, 10 targets, 89 yards) and Week 9 vs. the Seahawks (10 receptions, 13 targets, 162 yards). His 10 catches and 162 yards were career-highs for Woods.
His only touchdown came in Week 6 vs. the 49ers, adding 5 catches, 6 targets and 44 yards.
During his 162-yard performance vs. Seattle, one thing I noticed over everything else was his ability to keep drives going on third-down. You could tell every third-down the Bills had, Tyrod was searching for one man and that was Robert Woods.
Overall, he has been productive most of the time, but not as productive as we’ve needed. He’s consistently been targeted as Tyrod’s favorite receiver out there. If his chemistry with Taylor continues to improve, these two can be lethal next season.
Of course, in his contract year, no one really knows where he’ll be playing next season. Personally, I really hope Woods returns with the Buffalo Bills next year.