While his Buffalo Bills teammates practiced indoors Thursday, kicker Tyler Bass booted field goals and kickoffs into the swirling wind at Highmark Stadium.
Lake-effect snow could blanket the venue for the Bills’ prime-time showdown against the New England Patriots on Monday Night Football, which would make for great television, but treacherous playing conditions.
Bills special teams coach Heath Farwell knows one play by his unit could mean the difference between winning and losing the game, which will have a significant impact on whether they repeat as AFC East champions.
“When there's two good football teams that are very evenly matched, a lot of times it comes down to field position,” Farwell said, “and special teams is a big part of that.”
The Bills have enjoyed excellent field position after kickoffs this season.
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The Bills rank fifth in the league on opponents’ average drive starts (23.5-yard line) after kickoffs, a product of Bass’ hangtime and excellent play by the coverage units, which coach Sean McDermott gushed about after the Thanksgiving night victory in New Orleans.
PlayAction is new to The Buffalo News' extensive NFL coverage. Each week, Mark Gaughan, who has covered the league throughout his 38 years at The News, distills X's and O's and strategy relating to how the Bills match up with their next opponent. All in about two minutes.
Bass has 36 touchbacks on 68 kickoffs this season, tied for fourth most in the NFL.
The second-year pro, a sixth-round draft pick out of Georgia Southern in 2020, has developed into one of the most automatic kickers in the league.
Bass has made 20 of 23 field goals through 11 games, with a long of 57 yards, making him the third-highest scoring kicker in the league.
Two of his misses have been from beyond 50 yards, but he’s drilled all 15 of his attempts from inside 40 yards, including 10 from inside 30 yards, the most in the league. He’s perfect on 34 extra points.
Farwell spoke to The News about a range of special teams topics this week, including Bass, the return game, kick and punt coverage units and more heading into one of the most important games of the season. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
Buffalo News: Why has Tyler Bass developed into such a tremendous a weapon on field goals and kickoffs?
Heath Farwell: He's an elite, talented kicker. One of the top players in the league. His mindset, his approach to the game, he's so super competitive. And he's ultra-talented. But he works at it. Nobody works harder at his craft. And the guys love him. He's had an exceptional year. His kickoffs are elite. It's a super advantage for us to be able to hang those kicks up against good returners and those hang times, you don't see those across the league and just the placement and all that stuff.
The guy’s confidence never wavers, and we rely on him so much. There are even times where it's past his max line, but I say, ‘Coach, I'll send him out there. Let's see what he can do.’ And he never bats an eye. He doesn't look twice. He doesn't turn down kicks. I have to kind of pull him back sometimes because he’ll take every opportunity to kick it. And he nails them, too.
BN: What's an example this year when the kick was farther than his pregame “max,” but he really wanted to do it anyway, and he went out there and did?
HF: We've had a bunch of those.
BN: He hit 16 in a row at one point, and then missed two in the last home game against the Colts. What went wrong?
HF: Those were super long and into the open end. Those are kicks that are tough to make and it's one of those things where maybe that's my fault for putting him out there too much. But he has the ability to make those.
BN: How do you choose between Isaiah McKenzie and Marquez “Speedy” Stevenson as kick returners?
HF: I'm very lucky to have two really good returners. Isaiah is a guy that's worked at it so much since he's been here and starting in the offseason, he's worked his butt off on JUGS (machines) and everything else. And nobody supported “Speedy” more than him on the sideline. He was helping coach him up. He's just on everything. He's professional. I told him, “Stay ready. You don't know when this could be the week. You never know when your opportunity's going to come.” So, he gets another opportunity, I'm sure he'll take full advantage of it.
Speedy, since we got him here, he's worked his butt off. He came into training camp and had some injuries to kind of work through, but once he got going, he's always catching JUGS and he's always trying to get better and he's improved tremendously. He's got great speed. He's just got tremendous upside. And he's kind of the same as Bass as far as he's a competitor. He wants to do it. He's eager.
Even when he was injured, he was coming to my office all the time. “Hey, let's watch tape together.” He's over there taking notes on other returners across the league and watching Andre Roberts. He's a guy that's eager and hungry and competitive. He'll stop at nothing to be great at it.
BN: Why has punter Matt Haack struggled with his consistency this season?
HF: He's coming on nicely, as far as punting. He's been unbelievable for Bass. He is the best caddie, as I call him, in the league as far as he's an elite holder. That helps Bass be who he is. He's a big brother to him. And he's coaching him up and helping him out. He has a great feel for everything. We just love him in the room. I can't say enough good things about him. He's coming along great. I like where he's headed. The last two games have been his best two games. So we're going in the right direction.
We had some bad weather games early on. In the first eight games, we had six bad weather games where there's rain or wind that to the average fan, that doesn't mean anything, but to a special teams guy, that's a big deal. It kind of got off the wrong foot. He was a little inconsistent. But we didn't ever waver. He knows I got his back. He knows I believe in him.
BN: Why has the team’s kickoff and punt coverage been exceptional?
HF: We’ve got great players. Between our two gunners outside, Siran Neal and Taiwan Jones, those guys are unbelievable. If Taiwan's not making tackles, he's drawing penalties. Nobody's drawn more penalties on kickoffs in the league. He's just a force. You got to double team and he's just always a factor, disruptive. And then Siran is just super disruptive and productive tackling.
Those guys control the outside and then Tyler Matakevich, he controls the inside and is just a factor every single time down the field. He's just a missile down the field and just finds a way to get to the ball. It’s something you can't teach.
Jake Kumerow has been great for us. Reggie Gilliam and Jaquan Johnson have been really good. I have great players across the board.
BN: How does winning a Super Bowl as a player with Seattle help you when it comes to coaching?
HF: Playing as long as I did, I have a good understanding of what the guys go through on an everyday basis, the highs and lows and family and off the field stuff. I’ve got a bunch of guys everyday come into my office, and it's not just about football. A lot of times it's about life, because a lot of times I've been through some of these things. I've been on some good teams, I've been on some bad teams, so I’ve got a good understanding of what it's like for these guys to go through the highs and lows of the NFL. And what a good team looks like. How do they act? What do they see? What do they do? So all that is valuable stuff that I can use now to help mentor and teach these kids. They’re grown men. But to me they're like my little brothers. I want to look after them and help them as much as I can. They know that I have their back and they trust me and they play their butts off for me.
BN: NFL.com recently came out with a list of future head coaches who are under the age of 40. Are you interested in being a head coach?
HF: I'm turning 40 here in the next few weeks! I think that's really cool. I'd love to be a head coach in the future. It's something I look forward to doing one day. I've learned so much from all the coaches I've been with and I've been with some great head coaches, playing for Pete Carroll and Leslie Frazier and of course working with Ron Rivera and Sean McDermott. So I've been under great head coaches and taken a lot from each one of them. Right now, I'm dialed in on special teams, but someday I'd love to get an opportunity to do it.
