Meredith Vs Scott

Here are Meredith's grades for the past two games with his overall grade as well:

...................Run...............................Pass

Jets............73.5.............................72.94871795

Panthers...73.33333333............72.03703704

Overall......73.4375.......................72.57575758

Here are Scott's grades for his four (more like 3 and 2/3 since he came in for Butler in the Bucs contest) games (MIami's was at LT) with his overall grade:

...................Run...............................Pass

Bucs...........77.35294118............74.13043478

Saints........73................................73.0952381

Dolphins....75...............................70.75757576

Browns......72.33333333............75

Total...........74.4285714..............72.93103448

As you can see, Meredith and Scott are each below average in the run game. Scott is a full percentage point closer to average than Meredith but they're both on the wrong side of 75. In the pass game they grade out fairly evenly. However, if you throw out the Dolphins game--in which Scott was simply terrible but also terribly miscast as a left tackle--Scott averages about 74ish while Meredith is in the mid 72 range.

Further, Scott killed 1 run play in his almost four games, including his misadventure at left tackle in Miami. He killed 6 pass plays and has given up 3.5 sacks. Take the Miami game out of the equation to keep it an apples-to-apples comparison and Scott has killed 2 pass plays and given up 1.5 sacks. Meredith has killed no run plays (though a few missed tackles saved his bacon), 1 pass play and given up no sacks.

While it shakes out in the overall grades it’s worth it to take a look at the number of good and bad plays each has had in limited action.

Meredith

Good run …6

Bad run ….11

Good pass ..0

Bad pass ….8

Scott (without Miami game)

Good run …7

Bad run ….10

Good pass ..1

Bad pass ….6

To break it down even further you can look at what you’d expect to see per game if the averages hold. (The averages, in theory, shouldn’t hold as players gain experience and benefit from more coaching. They should improve.)

Meredith

Good run …2

Bad run ….5.5

Good pass ..0

Bad pass ….4

Scott (without Miami game)

Good run …2

Bad run ….2.9

Good pass ..0.3

Bad pass ….1.7

As you can see, there is a moderate advantage to having Scott in the lineup based on the good play/bad play averages. The wrench in the works is that Scott has tended to screw up more badly than Meredith when he has made mistakes. With the limited samples available it's tough to say that Buffalo should give Scott the nod over Meredith. I don't know that we can say that neither will work out in the long run. However, it would behoove the Bills to pick one of them and ride him through this season to see if he can develop into at least a backup caliber RT.