Latest / Disguised Coverage / How Far are the Buffalo Bills from Dethroning the Chiefs? |DC
Transcript
- 0:00It's thirty eight. All bills can win In here, Wake puts it down.
- 0:03The kick is on the way and dock m the bell good one?
- 0:07How the hell that one home? How one? They were a party one
- 0:14not party way? Incredible? Why not combat by my bell? Jacksonville's perfect
- 0:21record on the line right here, quick kicking, look excited. Touchdown Kyle
- 0:43Williams touchdound amazing, unbelievable. They puttied william who's hats to full back and
- 0:56he scores a touchdown. It's wealthier to face tackle. What's good? Folks,
- 1:17family friends, loved one's enemies. Friend of me is Wizards, which
- 1:19is Muggles, mud bloods, people of Middle Earth. To another episode of
- 1:23disguise coverage. The only podcast in existence that gives you an equal amount of
- 1:26blueberries in each muffin, and that is presented by the best Pizza in Buffalo,
- 1:30New York, and that is one PI Pizza. Find the online menu
- 1:33in the episode show notes, whether here on YouTube and or whichever podcasting app
- 1:36or platform you are listening to this show on. I'm your host, Anthony.
- 1:40Find me on Twitter at pro Underscore underscore and that's pro two underscores a
- 1:44n t In tonight's episode, r J sums us up pretty well, saying
- 1:49the villain won. The entire planet outside of cheese, fans are sad and
- 1:52we are living in the worst timeline right now. That's actually just I should
- 1:55have just led with that. I should have just copied. I should use
- 1:57this to the episode description. Everything well, said our J in tonight's episode
- 2:01titled how far are the Buffalo Bills from Dethroning the Chiefs? And the graphic
- 2:07you know, showing chasing the Chiefs, it's a little focused on the Chiefs,
- 2:09but in the larger picture and grand scheme of things for tonight's episode,
- 2:14where we're going to dive into just how far off or how close are the
- 2:19Buffalo Bills from really getting over that hump in twenty twenty four, it seems
- 2:24once you get to a spot where success is expected and success is relative,
- 2:30but when championships are expected, and if you're defining success by championships, once
- 2:35you get to that point when you're not winning championships and they're expected, it
- 2:40gets to be a pain point for your fan base. It's a natural progression,
- 2:46and it's hard in football and sports in general, but especially in the
- 2:51NFL, where the odds of your one team winning it versus the other thirty
- 2:54one teams are are small, unless sure, the Kings City Chiefs and you
- 2:58win like every frigid year, but whatever. So you're always looking at fighting
- 3:01an uphill battle because of going up against the entire field, and then you
- 3:05have the variables of single elimination and individual playoff pieces and matchups and all that
- 3:09kind of stuff and everything they can go into it. And this episode kind
- 3:14of came about organically. It wasn't originally my plan for tonight's episode. Kind
- 3:19of came about last night and into today. But you know, I've seen
- 3:24some talk in my real life and then on social media and different pieces in
- 3:30terms of kind of chasing the Chiefs, and not only chasing the Chiefs if
- 3:34you're the Bills, but chasing that larger picture and piece of the pie of
- 3:38finally getting out of the AFC and being able to potentially get yourself to a
- 3:45championship spot. And it's something that again is a pain point for Bills fans.
- 3:50And we're going to talk in tonight's episode again within reference to the Kansas
- 3:53City Chiefs, but just kind of with that bigger picture and the larger landscape
- 4:00of it for this episode in the show, sorry, I was sending a
- 4:08text message to my wife a little peak behind the show notes there. I'll
- 4:15grab some comments as we started to go through here, Oh kay and Moorey
- 4:17coming in saying, with some bright news, the Savers are up five.
- 4:20I mean, it's always fun when the Sabers score goals and don't give up
- 4:25goals. Comment here from Mark saying I hope Bean has more than a few
- 4:28tricks up his sleeve. He'll need to this offseason with the cap space that
- 4:31is not available but could be available. What the free agent landscape looks like
- 4:36at positions of need. And then the draft with them already having nine picks,
- 4:43probably having a tenth, not even probably most likely having a tenth inform
- 4:46of the comp pick for Tremaine Edmunds, that pick most likely being a third
- 4:49round pick, So, you know, seeing what they could do. They
- 4:51have a bunch of Day three picks. Do they stay on pat at Day
- 4:56three and you know, look to continue to build upon their Day three success
- 5:00in rounds you know, four, five, six, and seven, or
- 5:01do they try to package some of those picks, and you know, we
- 5:05talked in the last week's episode about the need for them to get better at
- 5:09specific position groupings and how this off season really needs to click given Josh Allen's
- 5:15contract situation really starting to kick in from a cap hit perspective now going forward.
- 5:19So yeah, being needs to uh, he needs to have another you
- 5:23know being after dark magic being type of off season for this Buffalo Bills team.
- 5:29This is funny from JG saying doesn't matter who wins the super Bowl if
- 5:30it's not the Bills are very fair, very fair. Yeah, Oh what's
- 5:34up, Joe? Joe says, I show neighbor. Sorry if my music
- 5:38is too loud. Sad music is how I forget about my football team.
- 5:42Yeah, sports are paying. Sports are misery. I say that for everything,
- 5:46and it's with every sport right like, but I think football is just
- 5:48so so much more difficult because of the single elimination fashion. There is no
- 5:54like baseball bengaling with the major sports Baseball, basketball, hockey. Even if
- 5:59like you're a you know, soccer guy, and you know which I am,
- 6:00Like, if you're big into the Champions League, at least you've got
- 6:02like two legs to try and do something like there's more of an opportunity for
- 6:06you to kind of, you know, collect yourself and course correct a little
- 6:11bit in the other major sports and turn it around and figure something out.
- 6:15But football, if you have one bad day, you're done, even if
- 6:16you're the better team, even if you're the best team, If you have
- 6:19one bad day, or somebody important gets hurt in practice that week, or
- 6:25the weather's really bad, or you have one bad matchup, anything, you
- 6:28lose, and you're done. And that's what makes winning a Super Bowl so
- 6:30hard. And that's why it makes it even more frustrating to see the teams
- 6:34who were able to consistently do it and find different ways to win and get
- 6:39those games together and just consistently pull it in, you know, year after
- 6:44year after year. Roy, We're taking care of this. Right now,
- 6:47Roy says, has the little tree been bad? He's not getting as good
- 6:50of a screen showing as his big brother. That's perfect. Shout out to
- 6:54my wife who managed to come in and push the little tree back into frame
- 6:57for being off screen. No, that's just my fault. I moved it
- 6:59over to do some dusting and cleaning in the office and I didn't put it
- 7:02back in frame. That's on me. Great job, It's perfect. Thank
- 7:04you so much. Shout out to the wife. Fantastic and thank you Roy
- 7:09for calling that out. I one hundred percent saw this comment from Roy and
- 7:12texted my wife and she came in like the true hero that she is,
- 7:19coach b ball or nine point forty two coming and saying the offense has to
- 7:23execute in machine like efficiency to win the Super Bowl, and defense has to
- 7:27be able to play man and pressure the quarterback. Very fair, very fair,
- 7:30some of those pieces that we're gonna get into tonight. While well,
- 7:33the Sabers are up seven nothing. Man, I need to oh after being
- 7:36up six nothing. Obviously, after being up six to nothing, but when
- 7:39I still update there, I just go back to not watching the Sabers.
- 7:41Maybe that's the key to getting them to finally win, because they have been
- 7:46very very frustrating, very frustrating. This is a good thought here from RJ
- 7:49saying, unsurprisingly, Kansas City was the luckiest team of all time, or
- 7:51at least since twenty twenty seven fumbles and they recovered six of them. I
- 7:56think not this exact point, but it ties into something I think is very
- 8:00frustrating when it comes to watching the Kansas City Chiefs. And I don't mean
- 8:03this as a knock against the Chiefs, because they obviously are a very good
- 8:05football team. They're tremendously well coached. They have two of the greatest coaches
- 8:09on individual sides of the ball of all time, and Andy Reed and Steve
- 8:11Spagnolo. They've got Mahomes, They've got Kelsey, they got it. Like,
- 8:13I don't want to get into how good of a team they are while
- 8:16coach. They are schematically and talent wise and all that stuff, But it
- 8:20just seems like even when they're not the best team, even when they don't
- 8:26execute the right way, they just find ways to win. You know,
- 8:30the lagarious need making the tackle on Zay Flowers and then punching the ball out
- 8:33from them at the goal line. Even in this game against the forty nine
- 8:37ers, like Drake Greenlaw popping his achilles just going on to the field,
- 8:43and the fumble on the punt return that you know, Ray Ray McCloud tried
- 8:46to pick it up because it dropped from the sky and hit dude on the
- 8:50back of his heel. Like all these little pieces that just kind of add
- 8:54up to the Chiefs finding a way to win even when they're not. Maybe
- 8:58they don't even when they don't have the most talent, or they don't have
- 9:00the best day, or they don't bring their best game, they just consistently
- 9:01find a way to win. And that's wrapped up in a bit of the
- 9:05conversation for the Bills as well, in terms of how can they finally get
- 9:09past that team and slay that dragon, even if it's not the Chiefs,
- 9:11just get out of the AFC as a whole, because I think with this
- 9:16Chiefs when a lot of people are gonna forget how good the Cincinnati Bengals are,
- 9:20and I know they have to fix some issues with their team, but
- 9:24you know, the Burrow injury, I think kind of put them on the
- 9:26back burner. I don't think the Ravens are going anywhere. I know how
- 9:28much Bills fans dislike that and the Lamar Jackson conversation and dialogue and all that
- 9:35kind of stuff, but the Ravens are a really good squad. The Bengals
- 9:37are a really good squad. There's some problematic teams in the AFC, and
- 9:41so the Bills have to do their due diligence that they want to get over
- 9:43that hump and that is where we're going to dive into this conversation before we
- 9:48get into the crux and meat of this episode. As always, sponsored by
- 9:52Onepie Pizza, this guy's coverage is I don't know why I spoke like Yoda
- 9:54there, but hey, you know why not? Online menu, like I
- 9:56mentioned in the intro, can be found in the episode show and that's what
- 9:58they're here in on YouTube and or whichever podcasting the Apple platform you're listening to
- 10:01this show on. Tremendous Sweet Sauce, pie cup and char Pepperoni. They
- 10:07do pizza right, and they're really good people. They give back to the
- 10:09community. They partner with Roswell and the SPCA and the Alzheimer's Foundation and Toys
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- 10:18large. And even if they didn't do that, they're making the best pizza
- 10:20buffalo. So go try Someone Pie Pizza. Mention this guy's coverage and cover
- 10:24one cent you and maybe you'll get a potential a little treat. And again,
- 10:26their information can be found in the episode show and that's what they're here
- 10:28on YouTube and or whichever podcasting Apple platform you're listening to this show on.
- 10:33If you folks have not already dropped alike on this video, please please please,
- 10:35and thenk you drop a lke on this video. It goes a sincerely
- 10:37long way to telling myself and the entire team to track and trend in front
- 10:41of more eyes and ears. And as I mentioned earlier, especially with an
- 10:45episode like this, and I know emotions are probably riding high, especially after
- 10:48the Chiefs one again and everybody hates the Chiefs. Any thoughts, questions,
- 10:52comments, concerns, anything and everything you got throwed up into the chat.
- 10:54I would like to make the show as interactive and as engaging as possible,
- 10:58especially in the offseason, where again emotions can ride high and there is more
- 11:03open dialogue and discussion and things that can happen. As always, Super Jess
- 11:05get priority mainly because they attract my eyes and immediately draw me to the color
- 11:11and I pull it up. And I also respect the monetary donation. But
- 11:13yeah, fun, fun, fun piece. Bob says it right here.
- 11:18Yes, Spags makes my jaw drop. When the game is on the line,
- 11:22there's a conversation to be made. And I forgot who tweeted this,
- 11:26but you know, going back to him being the defensive coordinator for the Giants
- 11:28team that you know, stopped that Patriots juggernaut in their undefeated regular season.
- 11:35There is a case to be made for Steves Bagnolo being like arguably the greatest
- 11:39defensive coordinator of all time. And I'm gonna get into get me into it
- 11:43later with one of my points here, but it's also just extremely advantageous for
- 11:48the Chiefs that you have a a offensive minded head coach who is one of
- 11:52the greatest offensive minded, you know coaches in NFL history, one of the
- 11:56greatest quarterbacks already of all time, definitely a hands down the best quarterback in
- 12:00the game right now, and they can do their thing offensively and not have
- 12:03to worry about Andy, like what's going on on the defense. Like Andy
- 12:07Reid, all he has to do is like just walk down the hall during
- 12:09the week and knock on the door and poke his head into Spags and be
- 12:13like everything good this week? Yeah, okay cool, and then walk out
- 12:16and then he could just check off the box on his checklist of being like,
- 12:20okay cool, I checked in with the defense because Spags can just run
- 12:22everything. I've talked about it a bunch on this show. Similar with how
- 12:26the Bengals operate with Zach Taylor and Luann Rumo. Like Taylor can just sit
- 12:28and do his thing offensively because he has a guy on the defensive side of
- 12:33the ball who can just run everything holistically and also probably doesn't want anybody poking
- 12:37their nose into what he's doing. Like and it's just so nice when you
- 12:41are that level of a coach on one side of the ball and you can
- 12:46be a head coach and still do that and not have to worry about the
- 12:48other side of the ball like Andy Reid does because he because he has Steve
- 12:52Spagnolos. So that's a huge point. And again we are going to be
- 12:56talking about that. Grab some more comments here. As we start to go
- 13:03through here, Joker says, what do you think of that safety from Utah
- 13:05on the draft? Which one saoy Vaki or cold Bishop actually out? His
- 13:09answered boll, I've watched a little tape of both. Didn't love either at
- 13:15the Senior Bowl too much, although Vaki was pretty cool on the second day
- 13:18working with like slot receivers and running backs and getting some work there. He
- 13:22was a bit of like a slash type of player in high school and even
- 13:24a little at Utah as well in terms of oh, I see account that
- 13:26their joker Bishop. Yeah, so Vaki does some cool things. I'd like
- 13:31cool Bishop. I don't know how successful he'll be the further you get him
- 13:35away from the line of scrimmage, but I think he's very much a process
- 13:39ye type of guy, you know, who just does his job, does
- 13:43the whole one eleventh thing. If you know he was going to be a
- 13:45bill you know you're looking at Sean McDermott, you know you cold Bishop,
- 13:48you know he does his one eleventh. I just think he's assignment sound,
- 13:50he's responsible. Don't think he's like the best athlete or the plus dude,
- 13:54but he's physical, he plays fast, he plays under control. At the
- 13:56same time he plays aggressive. So there's stuff to like on tape from both
- 14:01of those dudes. I've seen a little bit. I'm not completely done with
- 14:05my evaluation for either, and have some senior both senior bowld notes for them
- 14:09as well. But yeah, there's some things to like there. Uh yeah,
- 14:13exactly right. As Kao Morey says, can An NFC team police fire
- 14:15and aroumo ins bags, that's even more of it too, Like I don't
- 14:18know I assume just neither wants to be a head coach, or maybe it's
- 14:22because they're older and teams don't want Teams don't want to hire a defensive minded
- 14:26head coach, and they also don't want to hire an older, defensive minded
- 14:30head coach. But it's just nice that they just year after year just get
- 14:33to stay where they are, and stay where they are, and stay where
- 14:35they are. Great comment here from Pete saying, must reload the defensive line.
- 14:37Retaining Daque is the tip of the iceberg. Yep. I said it
- 14:41last week. It was my biggest point in terms of off season priorities.
- 14:43This defensive line is gonna need a lot of attention, going to need a
- 14:48lot of focus, and gonna need a lot of retooling, and Bean and
- 14:50co Are going to have to get creative in terms of how they do that
- 14:54and what they do. I appreciate the kind of words Taylor saying, like
- 14:58the stream for the great camp off Bills coverage the pro and I appreciate that.
- 15:01Thank you very much, Thank you very much. Daniel Aurie looking forward
- 15:05to the Obviouselyason saying to get past case, the Bills need a good wide
- 15:09receiver number two, get healthy on defense, get more from the D line,
- 15:13O line, stay healthy, Milano healthy, and he we are there.
- 15:16That's fair. That's a fair point. So actually that tis in well
- 15:20with my first point here, you know, kind of chasing the Chiefs,
- 15:22but also just getting over the hump in twenty twenty four. So you know,
- 15:28before we get into as we start to get into the individual topics,
- 15:31I should say I do think the Bills are close, and not just with
- 15:35regard to surpassing the Chiefs, but also just in terms of reaching the Super
- 15:39Bowl and getting out of the AFC in general. And I say that knowing
- 15:43how they've lost to Kansas City in the playoffs, especially the most recent two
- 15:46times, I know the loss to the Bengals the year before, but I
- 15:50don't think they're far off. And like I mentioned earlier, when you get
- 15:54to the playoffs or when you play good teams in general. I've said so
- 15:56much on the show, but margin for air is extremely small. Anywhere from
- 16:00two to five plays can decide the game. And it even happens in the
- 16:03regular season two but especially in the playoffs. Every play, every penalty,
- 16:08every turnover, every drop, every missed assignment or well executed play or poorly
- 16:15executed play, everything is put under a magnifying glass and amplified, and it
- 16:19just happens to be unfortunately that the Bills have been on the wrong side of
- 16:23those two to five plays against the Kansas City Chiefs. And again, it's
- 16:27single elimination. So if you lose, you're done. There's nothing left to
- 16:30it. No, like, you know, hey, it's game one.
- 16:33Will course correct and we'll figure out a way to win this best of seven
- 16:34or best of five series. No, if you don't bring your best,
- 16:37then the other team does, or you get a bad matchup, you're done.
- 16:40It's over, and you're sent packing and looking towards next year. And
- 16:42I also want to again I mentioned the Bengals the loss even more so than
- 16:47this most recent win against the Chiefs, even the thirteen seconds one. The
- 16:49loss that still bothers me the most is the Bengals one, with how poorly
- 16:53they showed up. But even that one is a game that had a lot
- 16:56of extraneous variables that it's annoying to even talk about an unpack. So there's
- 17:02just always all these little things that seem to just get in the Bills way.
- 17:04Somehow, Someway. So again, this episode's going to look at several
- 17:08points related to how far off or how close the Bills are in terms of
- 17:12getting past Case in the postseason and everyone else in the AFC to finally reach
- 17:17the Super Bowl under Sean McDermott. And the first point I wanted to bring
- 17:22up and great point here from Royan to ties in exactly well with my first
- 17:26point, exactly well, ties In, I don't know whatever, I'm tired.
- 17:30Being healthy going into the postseason is also important. That's what roy says.
- 17:33And that's my first point here, and I hate mentioning it because I
- 17:37don't want it to be like a caveat type of point. But again,
- 17:41with this loss this year to Kansas City Chiefs, the Bills lost twenty seven
- 17:44to twenty four to the Chiefs in a game that also, keep in mind,
- 17:48should have at least been twenty seven to twenty seven. Bess makes that
- 17:52kick and then you're sitting there making Mahomes have to go do something. Now,
- 17:56I didn't have much faith in the defense getting a stop, but regardless
- 18:02of that, it should have at the very least been twenty seven to twenty
- 18:03seven. Who knows, maybe the Chiefs drive down and win at thirty to
- 18:06twenty seven. Maybe they go down and score a touchdown and the final score
- 18:08is different. Regardless, the Bills in that game were severely and significantly banged
- 18:15up, and they went toe to toll with the eventual Super Bowl winners,
- 18:18who were largely healthy and unscathed from an injury perspective. Now, I am
- 18:25not here advocating for a silver lining or any type of moral victory. Well,
- 18:30I'm not ugh, wow, wow, horrible Tuesday. I'm slurm speech.
- 18:33It's crazy. I am not here advocating for any type of silver lining
- 18:37or a moral victory or anything like that. But I'm fine with the people
- 18:41who believe that if the Bills were healthy in that game, they win that
- 18:45game. The only reason I don't just completely subscribe to it is because if
- 18:48you replace players with other players, even if you're replacing poor players with better
- 18:52players, there's so many variables in different offshoots at avenues. It's like the
- 18:56Butterfly effect that movie with Ashton Kutcher, where anytime he changed is anything,
- 19:00it drastically changes everything going forward. So it's not a like for like replacement,
- 19:06but I think it's a fair point and a fair conversation to have that
- 19:10if the Bills are healthier on that defensive side, and I'm not talking about
- 19:14Milano and the injuries that happened earlier in the year like with Tray mllana.
- 19:17I'm talking just immediacy to that game. If for Swull Douglas isn't playing on
- 19:21one leg, if Terrell Bernard plays, if Christian Benford plays, it's just
- 19:25a drastically different game on that side of the ball. And even the injury
- 19:29to the Tyrrell Dodson, who I know is a bit of a polarizing figure
- 19:32still among Bills mafia, even though he played better this year, just so
- 19:36many injuries on that side of the ball. And if the Bills win that
- 19:38game against Kansas City, even if they lose to the Ravens the AFC Championship,
- 19:41if the Bills beat the Chiefs in the Divisional round this year in the
- 19:45playoffs, this conversation isn't happening. This episode isn't happening any of that.
- 19:48So that's the starting point for everything for me in terms of how close the
- 19:52Bills are. A multitude of injuries going back to the beginning of the year,
- 19:56right when Milano first went down and then went down and rwell, Trey
- 20:00went down, first, Trey going down, Belano going down, Day Kuon
- 20:04going down, and then everything that happened going into that into the playoff run
- 20:08and in that Steelers game with Benford and Bernard and Douglas and well Douglas happened
- 20:14in the week before anything and everything that really impacted them from an injury standpoint,
- 20:18And they went toe to toe with the Chiefs again. They didn't fare
- 20:22great. They got picked a part defensively, especially at that linebacker spot,
- 20:26especially at the second level, like their vulnerabilities were exposed. But they went
- 20:30toe to toe and punch for punch with the eventual Super Bowl winners and the
- 20:34Kings of the AFC and Kings of the NFL again and the Kansas City Chiefs.
- 20:37So using that as the starting point in terms of man and I know,
- 20:41this Bills team in twenty twenty four isn't going to be the exact same
- 20:44team as it was in twenty twenty three from a coaching standpoint, from a
- 20:47player standpoint, roster makeup and construction, all that kind of stuff. The
- 20:52Bills barely losing in that game right there, just that's where you have to
- 20:57start. And I know it might feel like, well, no, because
- 21:00I never thought they were going to win that game. And at the end
- 21:03of the day, it doesn't matter if they lose by three or they lose
- 21:04by thirty a loss. As a loss, they can't get past them.
- 21:07I still feel far off, and that's fair to think that, and I
- 21:10understand it. But just using that as the barometer, they're not too far
- 21:15off, and that brings me that conversation starter. And using this most recent
- 21:19game against the Chiefs in the divisional round brings me to my first point,
- 21:22and it's one that is hard to control and it's one too correct for.
- 21:26And again, like I said, Roy mentioned it a bit earlier in the
- 21:32chat here when he said being healthy into the postseason is also important. And
- 21:36that's my first point in terms of getting over the hump. You got to
- 21:40be healthy down the stretch. And granted this ties into depth and roster construction
- 21:45a little bit, but the last several years or the Bills have just been
- 21:48rough from an injury standpoint, this year more so than the rest the Bills.
- 21:53And we've talked about a bunch on the show. Everybody and their mothers
- 21:56talked about it. This year. The bill has just lost such a significant
- 21:59amount of reps in terms of both quantity and quality. You lose Malone for
- 22:03the year, you use Dakwon Jones for most of the year, Trey White
- 22:06for the year, Bernard in the playoffs. Greg Russeau was playing with a
- 22:10banged up foot from majority of the middle of the year. He was laboring
- 22:14at different times where Suell Douglas banged up in the playoffs again, that Chiefs
- 22:18game, You're watching him trying to run down dudes. He's playing on one
- 22:19leg. He's not one hundred percent. He's trying to gut it through.
- 22:22And I also recognize that everybody towards the end of the season and come playoff
- 22:26time is hurt or banged up in some way. But there's a difference between
- 22:30playing hurt and playing injured. Douglas is playing injured in that game. Benford
- 22:33is out in that playoff game against the chief Gabe Davis, I know,
- 22:36juxta polarizing player as well. Gabe Davis is out. Dawson Knox getting hurt
- 22:40during the year, Jordan Phillips missing the back end of the year again,
- 22:44having some vulnerabilities there, but was a good rotational player for them, especially
- 22:47in a game where you need that defensive line help. With what the Chiefs
- 22:49did and with what you were having at the second level, this year for
- 22:52the Bills was wild for injuries, unlike any other that the Bills have really
- 22:56had the past several years, and even really you know under McDermott and Bean,
- 23:02but even if you don't, you know, look back at the past
- 23:03this year, when you go back last year. Last year it was Von
- 23:07Miller and Micah Hyde and then Daikon in the playoff game missing against Cincinnati.
- 23:11The year before that, it was Tredavious White. It just seems like they
- 23:14get hit with these It's not oh, you know this depth guy or this
- 23:18third wide receiver or their second string tight end or a starter who's good or
- 23:23okay, but you know, isn't that important. No, they keep getting
- 23:26hit at integral points schematically on this team. They are getting hurt at primary
- 23:33positions. And not only are getting hurt at primary positions, but the dudes
- 23:36that are getting hurt at those primary positions are really good football players that are
- 23:40really good for the Bills and also play very important roles for the team overall,
- 23:45and again, the fact that they continue to happen on defense is just
- 23:48a little bit ironic. It's hard to win when you have injuries, and
- 23:52yes, they're part of the game, but it's hard to win when you
- 23:56have injuries. It's even harder when you lose your top guys. It's even
- 23:59harder when you you lose your top guys and important positions. And then it's
- 24:03even harder when you lose your top guys at important positions and you also lose
- 24:07the guys that are behind them. And you always hear that old adage come
- 24:11playoff time that usually the best teams at the end of the year are the
- 24:14ones that are healthiest. And there's a reason that's a proverbial statement. There's
- 24:18a reason that's an old adage, and it makes a lot of sense,
- 24:22like sometimes being the best team in January isn't necessarily about being the best team.
- 24:27Sometimes it's just about being the healthiest team and having more of your starters
- 24:32than the opponent does. And again, I hate to lead off with that,
- 24:36but it's so important for the whole sake and crux of this conversation,
- 24:40because if the Bills beat the Chiefs, in the divisional round last month.
- 24:44Again, this episode isn't happening. This conversation isn't happening, regardless of if
- 24:48the Bills lose to the Ravens or not. In the AFC Championship, you
- 24:52slayed the dragon. You got past the Chiefs. Now it's like, okay,
- 24:56how do we get past Baltimore? Is Baltimore here to stay? YadA
- 24:59YadA, so on and so four. It's a different conversation piece if the
- 25:02Bills beat the Chiefs. And part of the reason why the Bills didn't is
- 25:04because they were playing with a mass unit on that defensive side of the ball.
- 25:08Now, like I mentioned earlier, the Bills currently have nine picks in
- 25:11the twenty twenty four draft. Should have ten. With the Tremaine Edmunds compick
- 25:15that should be coming. It should be a third round pick that brings you
- 25:18the opportunity to secure depth in a multitude of positions. Or again, like
- 25:22I said earlier, package some of the picks together to secure a higher valued
- 25:26pick and with the Bills propensity for finding value on Day three, finding guys
- 25:30like Taron Johnson in the fourth round, finding guys like Gave Davis in the
- 25:33fourth round Dane Jackson in the seventh round. Even if they just stam pat
- 25:38with what their picks are and where they are, it gives them the chance
- 25:41to help themselves. But they is so much of it again, and like
- 25:48I mentioned earlier in leading off with this point, like some of this is
- 25:51tied to depth and roster construction and everything, but at a certain point,
- 25:53it's just like bad luck. Like the amount of you know, does third
- 26:00teen seconds happen if Trey White is healthy? You know, with how they
- 26:03roll coverage in that situation. What does this team look like if Von doesn't
- 26:07go down last year? Because again I know what Von Miller was this year
- 26:10and what the conversation and worry is for him in twenty twenty four. But
- 26:14Von was playing like a stud to start twenty twenty three. He looked every
- 26:18bit like the guy that they paid him to beat. And I know everybody's
- 26:22you know, kind of using hindsight and looking back and being like, man,
- 26:26what a horrible contract. Can't believe they signed Von to that money that
- 26:30wasn't happened. At the beginning of twenty twenty three, Vaughn was cooking,
- 26:33and he looked every He looked like he was earning every single shekel that Brandon
- 26:37Bean gave him, and then he gets hurt and he goes down, and
- 26:41then Daikwon's down here already missing Micah Hyde again, all these injuries that they
- 26:44continue to have, and I know the Chiefs had Joe Tuney out, so
- 26:48that's that's a big loss to them in the AFC Championship and in the super
- 26:51Bowl. But having all these injuries just pile up, that's a huge piece
- 26:56in getting over the hump in twenty twenty four. This Bill's team is a
- 27:00good football team. They are well coached, and yes, I know they
- 27:03haven't gotten the job done in the playoffs and they keep losing these big games.
- 27:06But the healthier you are, the more talent you have on the field.
- 27:11I know that's a stupid ad, and this may be an obvious answer
- 27:12to some they'd be like, I can't believe this is the first point,
- 27:15but I think it's a basic one that changes so much. And again,
- 27:18it changes so much because I'm in that boat with I'm not guaranteeing victory against
- 27:22the Chiefs in the Divisional round if the Bills again, not everybody, I'm
- 27:26not talking about Milano and Trey and all that. But if Bernard is healthy
- 27:30in that game, and Benford is healthy and Rasseull Douglas is healthy, I
- 27:33think it's a different Bills game against the Chiefs in that divisional round. It
- 27:37was just and there's a JG saying we're also missing the backups to the talent.
- 27:41Again, Yeah, that's the huge piece. Like think about that.
- 27:45You like, we're sitting here being like, man, I wish Terrell Dodson
- 27:48wasn't banged up and Terrell Dodson was banged up because Milana was already out.
- 27:52Like the fact that they had a J. Klein leaving family vacation or whatever
- 27:56to come start for them in the NFL playoffs is why. Like, that's
- 28:00how much you were being tested, even with Benford, Right, Benford had
- 28:03a really good year, but technically he's like what CB three on the team
- 28:08if Trey is healthy, so he's down, So you're playing with CB four
- 28:14in that game because Benford's out and Trey is out, and then Rasul Douglas
- 28:17is also banged up, So your own your healthiest corner is CB four for
- 28:22you. And it's just all of these pieces that continue to mount and again
- 28:26it adds up with what's happened in the past several years. That's a huge
- 28:29starting point. And again it was a great comment from Roy, almost like
- 28:33you were peeking into my notes before the show started. But you know,
- 28:37and and I don't My first point, my main point with this first topic
- 28:41is you know, and I don't want to make it seem like you know,
- 28:45I'm giving them points or kudos for losing close games. But again,
- 28:48the Bills lost this divisional round game by three to the super Bowl champs,
- 28:52and again should have tied the game with a chance to potentially win after Now,
- 28:57do I think the Bills if the Bill tie at twenty seven to twenty
- 29:00seven, do I think that the defense prevents them from prevents the Chiefs offense
- 29:04from driving down and winning the game. No, I really don't. But
- 29:07who knows. Maybe Mahomes fumbles the snap, Maybe it's an errant snap in
- 29:11there in shotgun, Maybe there's a couple drops that happen, Maybe someone else
- 29:15fumbles or anything and everything, and Oliver finally wins a rep and we get
- 29:18a strip sack, Like, who knows, There's a multitude of things that
- 29:21could have happened. I'm not guaranteeing it either way, but they lost by
- 29:26three to the eventual Super Bowl champs and should have had it tied late despite
- 29:30being played with injuries in that game. It doesn't make the loss better.
- 29:33It actually might make the loss even more frustrating. But they were extremely close
- 29:37already despite being a mash unit defensively. That's why it's my first point,
- 29:42because if they don't lose this game to the Chiefs, this episode, this
- 29:45conversation, this entire offseason narrative that will rise and ebb and flow at certain
- 29:52points of can the Bills get past the Chiefs? What do you have to
- 29:55do to get past the Chiefs? Is this team built for the playoffs?
- 29:57Is Sean McDermott a choke artist? What all the different narratives and forms and
- 30:02fashions that this loss to the Chiefs will spark and create offshoots? For none
- 30:07of it happens if the Bills obviously win this game, and a significant part
- 30:11of why they lost that game was because of the injuries. And that's why
- 30:15my first point for getting over the hump in twenty twenty four is staying healthy
- 30:21again. And it's just so hard to control, like, especially with like
- 30:22random ones like Matt mlonald breaking his leg, Like, dude, just there's
- 30:26something to be said for dudes who like always have like soft tissue injuries,
- 30:30or you know, this guy pulls his hammy every year. It's just how
- 30:32he's built, or his diet and workout regimen, so on and so forth.
- 30:34But when you have dudes, like when you have like a Tank Dell
- 30:37type of injury or a Matt mlonal type of injury where somebody falls into a
- 30:40certain way and breaks your leg, it's just man like just makes you feel
- 30:45kind of cursed a little bit. Oh, I forgot even this point from
- 30:48from John saying, yeah, if Diggs doesn't drop that pass, who knows,
- 30:52because you know, if the Bills go down right, if the Bills
- 30:53go down there, if he makes that catch, even if they miss the
- 30:56field goal there, there's what two or three more minutes left on the clock,
- 31:00and all of a sudden, it's not a if Casey gets one first
- 31:03down, the game is over type of thing. So it's a different type
- 31:07of conversation there. Yeah. Yeah, And Taylor said this is a good
- 31:10comment here from Taylor saying thirty one teams lose every year one out of thirty
- 31:12two odds to when the Super Bowl is tough Man absolutely absolutely ooh like this
- 31:18comment here. Since we'll never be picking in the top ten or fifteen of
- 31:22the draft, never say never, no Jinx, but could being give up
- 31:26assets to go up and get a wide receiver like Romo duns Josh needs weapons.
- 31:30It could. I don't know if the draft calculation of picks would have
- 31:37to be, but you could move from twenty eight into the top twenty or
- 31:41top fifteen to secure like one of those. If Neighbors falls, or if
- 31:44a Dunsa falls, or if you feel particular about Brian Thomas or something.
- 31:47I do not, but some people do, you could move up. My
- 31:51only concern with that is with what their cap situation is like this year and
- 31:56going forward it changes a little bit, But you need to start to hit
- 31:59on cost effective talent, and with the multitude of picks they have in this
- 32:04draft, I would like to take as many swings as I could, especially
- 32:07considering how deep this draft class is as a whole and what it looks like
- 32:10at the positions of need for the Buffalo Bills. So you could, you
- 32:14know, sacrifice some of those picks and try and get a high value,
- 32:17high leverage target in a Romo Dunze or someone, but then you're potentially sacrificing
- 32:22some of the opportunities for you to build that cost effective talent across the board.
- 32:27But it's possible, and we'll see how far Dunze falls. Picking in
- 32:30the top ten would be rough though, or like moving up to that top
- 32:32ten, which is round where I think Odunza is going to go. But
- 32:37we'll see, we'll see, We'll see Pete saying this is the draft,
- 32:42it's just take two wide receivers rather than mortgage more picks to moving up.
- 32:45That's the trade off in the conversation that everyone is going to be having all
- 32:49year. And you know it correlates well with a comment I just pulled up,
- 32:52like, this wide receiver class in this draft tremendous top tier talent and
- 32:58also a very deep wide receiver class. So do you want to secure the
- 33:01top talent? Is it better to go after the top talent or is it
- 33:05better to just stand pat and take as many swings at the well as you
- 33:08can because it is such a deep class. That's my thinking conversation as a
- 33:13whole, and we're going to get more into it as we go forward in
- 33:15the offseason. But I've said it a bunch on the show already, like
- 33:16if a specific defensive lineman, then I'm targeting or safety fall to twenty eight,
- 33:23or any other position to need. But if again just making up,
- 33:27but if Byron Murphy or Cam Kitchens or Tyler Numan are there at twenty eight,
- 33:30I'm pulling the trigger on any one of those three dudes, especially Byron
- 33:34Murphy. Byron Murphy is my dream target defensive tackle from Texas at the end
- 33:38of the first round at pick twenty eight. If he's there, I'm pulling
- 33:40that trigger, no questions asked, and everyone's going to say, no,
- 33:44you need to take a receiver, you need to take a receiver. You
- 33:46don't because the drop off from the receiver that you are getting at the end
- 33:51of round one to who you're getting in round two isn't as significant as the
- 33:54drop off from Murphy to whoever the defensive tackle you're gonna be able to get
- 33:59a round two or three or whatever. The drop off at wide receiver is
- 34:01far less severe than it is that these other positions in need. But again
- 34:06to other people's points, Yeah, but if this draft class is so good
- 34:09and so deep at wide receiver, then that means the top tier talent is
- 34:12even better, so you should go out and try and secure it. We're
- 34:15gonna do this is a Batman in Joker scenario at the end of the dark
- 34:17night where we're destined to do this dance for forever. You're gonna get people
- 34:22on both sides of it. It's gonna be a conversation that and talking about
- 34:24being able to get past the Chiefs is gonna be a conversation that dominates the
- 34:30entire offseason. JGS saying, do we ask Trey to take a pay cut
- 34:32or just cut him this off season. I'm not cutting Tray White. I
- 34:36know it's gonna be a hard road back coming from that Achilles injury, but
- 34:39for me, you can just never have enough corner back depth and talent.
- 34:44So having a top three of Benford, Rausseul Douglas and Trey White whenever he
- 34:47does come back, I love that. And then having Kyrie Elam will see
- 34:52what he does. You know under a die is that new secondary's coach and
- 34:57what they do with more man coverage stuff, We'll see. I Kyrie Elm
- 35:00can take a turn a little bit and become a legitimate rotational piece. But
- 35:02I don't think you can ever have enough cornerbacks and never have enough offensive lineman.
- 35:07I would like Trey to take a pay cut or potentially restructure him in
- 35:10another way, which we're gonna get into in the salary cap Extravaganza this Thursday
- 35:14at nine pm. But I'm not cutting trade for me. I just what
- 35:19he means to the team, even just that aside from a leadership perspective and
- 35:22am a rale perspective, but just you can never have enough good corners on
- 35:25your team. Could coming here from Pete Sand the offense was a foot away
- 35:31from putting up thirty one on a defense that held three other teams to seven,
- 35:35ten and nineteen and their other playoff games and regulation. Yeah, man,
- 35:38if if Allen connects on that second down throw to Shakir, that's also
- 35:45a huge piece too. I didn't want to get into all the rabbit holes
- 35:46and avenues of that game against the Chiefs. Yeah, but if Allen connects
- 35:49with that who knows man, all of a sudden, it's thirty one twenty
- 35:52seven, or at least thirty to twenty seven. We'll see if back Bass
- 35:55makes the extra point, or even if he makes a better decision on the
- 35:58third down, that's the one that bothers me more. Should have had the
- 36:01opportunity to make about fourth and one, or if Kinkaid breaks a tackle,
- 36:05maybe it's a first down and a new set of sticks. Yeah, they
- 36:08they very easily could have had twenty seven or thirty plus on the Chiefs in
- 36:14that game. And yeah, it's frustrating. And again the defense was was
- 36:19a SIV and leaky throughout the entire game. But considering what they were playing
- 36:22with, it's unfortunate John saying, why did we trade a first round in
- 36:31the deepest wide receiver class in history? There were four wide receivers to be
- 36:36had in twenty twenty for a starting wide receiver at the Bills pick. We
- 36:38gave it away for Diggs. I'll say those So this is a conversation.
- 36:43I've had a bunch you could have had one of those receivers, and you
- 36:45could have stood pat and just taken justin Jefferson there. But here's the crux
- 36:50of the conversation. It's the same with the Patrick Mahomes conversation and the Wyatt
- 36:52Teller conversation. For me, if you take a player out of one team
- 36:58or from one team and drop them into another, there is literally no guarantee
- 37:01that they become the exact same player for that other team. Nature is very
- 37:07important, but nurture is also very important, and team environments and coaching staffs
- 37:13and surroundings go a very very very very very long way in terms of how
- 37:17a player develops and how their career trajectory turns out. I do not think
- 37:23if Patrick Mahomes comes to Buffalo that year and as the Buffalo bill starting quarterback,
- 37:29I don't think he necessarily develops the same way. Everybody forgets about how
- 37:31we got to sit that first year and learn from Alex Smith. And then
- 37:35again he's working with Andy Reid and b Enemy and Naggy and the players that
- 37:39he's playing with and so on and so forth. It's just a completely different
- 37:43situation. And the dig situation, because I've heard this a bunch of maybe
- 37:47you're not necessarily referring to Justin Jefferson, But you know, I've heard all
- 37:51the time we could have just stood pat and taken Justin Jefferson. How do
- 37:53we know that Adam Thielen wasn't integral to Justin Jefferson's development and his career trajectory.
- 38:00Even aside from that and the other examples we can give for how Jefferson
- 38:02developed in Minnesota, the Bills needed a true presence right then and there in
- 38:08that season. Josh Allen needed an established, bona fide number one. They
- 38:14needed somebody from a leadership perspective, from a work ethic perspective, and from
- 38:17a proven on field production and execution perspective. Stefan Diggs gave them everything they
- 38:22needed. He helped that offense to ascend, he helped Josh Allen to ascend,
- 38:28and also within that was still one of the best receivers in the NFL.
- 38:30So, yes, you could have stood pat and potentially taken another one,
- 38:35but there's no guarantee that that player comes to the Bills and produces it
- 38:39the same way he does for another team. And the same thing with the
- 38:42Wyatt Teller aspect. Every says all the Bills could have kept Teller and had
- 38:45this all pro guard. Wyatt Teller went to Cleveland and got coached by Bill
- 38:49Callahan, who's one of the best offensive line coaches in the NFL and in
- 38:52the history of the NFL. So it's also not a like for like that
- 38:55Teller stays in Buffalo and becomes an all pro. I just don't think it's
- 39:00you know, you pick up this guy out of this team and drop him
- 39:02into another situation in scenario and he becomes the same player. You don't know
- 39:07if you're gonna have that success rate. Not to mention, I think Diggs
- 39:08gave them everything they wanted from that position in terms of production, and more
- 39:14so from a leadership and kind of bringing that team up and galvanizing everything from
- 39:20an on field and execution perspective. John also mentioned the yeah he traded away
- 39:23the Mahomes pick. I don't think Patrick Mahomes becomes Patrick Mahomes if he's in
- 39:27Buffalo. The Bills were not set up to bring in a franchise quarterback right
- 39:34then and there and just right the ship and stem the tide. Like they
- 39:37were not built for them. Even look at what Allen was like his rookie
- 39:40year the year after that, Like it just wasn't That's not how they were
- 39:45built. It was a very different situation that Patrick Mahomes went into in Kansas
- 39:47City versus the situation he was going to be going into with Buffalo. Oh
- 39:53jokers saying I want Troy Franklin. I really like franklin speed. He runs
- 39:57like a gazelle. It's super enticing. I don't think he's a very good
- 40:02or clean route runner right now, and I think there's something wet, something
- 40:07to you know, be desired in terms of how he plays from a physicality
- 40:12standpoint. But the speed is very enticing, and I think he opens up
- 40:15a lot for any offense. I would not be opposed to him coming to
- 40:17the Bills at all or any team. You know, if you want somebody
- 40:20who can stretch the defense, win downfield, he's your guy. He know,
- 40:23he can pull coverage, he can be guys off the line, just
- 40:27because of that speed. And then you're banking on the fact that you can
- 40:30polish him up. You can build more in his route stem and build more
- 40:32in his releases and deception and all that kind of stuff. I do think
- 40:36he's more of a one trick pony right now than a complete wide receiver.
- 40:40But that one trick is a tremendous trick and it's very useful. And then
- 40:45you know you draft him for that, and then have the faith and belief
- 40:49in your coaching staff to coach up the rest of the pieces to make him
- 40:52a complete wide receiver. So I understand the love for Troy Franklin. There
- 41:00oh boomoo, saying hopefully a wide receiver run. Let's get all the good
- 41:02d lineman to follow the buffalo. Yeah, give me a run on wide
- 41:07receivers, Give me a run on quarterbacks. Give me as many quarterbacks in
- 41:10that first round as possible, give me the Big Three with Kayleb Williams and
- 41:15Drake May and Jayden Daniels, and throw JJ McCarthy in there, and hopefully
- 41:22somebody wants to take Pennix or bow Knicks in the first round or in the
- 41:24first half of the second round. Like, throw as many quarterbacks into that
- 41:30first round as possible, and even wide receivers. But yeah, give me,
- 41:34give me that big time quarterback run in the first please, please,
- 41:37please, please, and thank you. What other comments, Right saying rabbit
- 41:45holes are like conspiracy theories. You can get really lost, absolutely absolutely absolutely,
- 41:53John saying z A. Jones had his best year with US, Right,
- 41:55I think his best year statistically may have come with Jacksonville last year two
- 42:00years. And I also think you're making a lot of assumptions, saying every
- 42:02wide receiver here succeeds usually. I don't think that's necessarily a case. I
- 42:07mean, Kelvin Benjamin didn't. I mean, that's kind of like a one
- 42:09off, outlier situation in scenario. But I just think it's a lot to
- 42:13guarantee, Like, man, if the Bills had drafted this guy, he
- 42:15would have performed just as good and been the same player. And I think
- 42:19that's the same for everyone, right, Like, I don't think if the
- 42:22Jets take Josh Allen instead of Sarrum Sam Darnold, or the Browns take Josh
- 42:29Allen instead of Baker Mayfield, I don't think he necessarily becomes Josh Allen there.
- 42:32That becomes the same Josh Allen with those teams as he is with the
- 42:36Buffalo Bills. And you hear it all the time, like, oh,
- 42:38what's the draft adage that teams fail players more than players fail teams. That's
- 42:45a conversation that's had every draft cycle, every draft season. And the reason
- 42:50that is is because of how important the whole nurture aspect is. Environment,
- 42:53coaching, staff, rapport, chemistry, your teammates on the field, off
- 42:58the field, everything that goes into becoming part of a franchise. It is
- 43:02not the same from team to team across the other thirty one teams that a
- 43:07player can play for, So there is no guarantee that if you pluck a
- 43:09player out from one team and drop them into any other. Even if you're
- 43:14taking him from a horrible team and dropping them into a great team, it
- 43:16doesn't necessarily mean that player is going to be on that same career trajectory.
- 43:21They could be better, they could be the same, they could be worse.
- 43:22You have no idea, it's such. There are far too many variables
- 43:27to just sit and expect the same, like for like production and trajectory.
- 43:31By grabbing a player from one team and then dropping them into another, what
- 43:38else? What else? What else? Okay, what we are saying we
- 43:45could have, would have, should have. Got to work with what we
- 43:46have. Oh, I'm just gonna grab this real quick from one on the
- 43:51next point, zen Clover saying Franklin isn't strong enough, I think for a
- 43:52speed guy like Worthy from Texas, I love Xavier Worthy. He is my
- 43:57wide receiver four after Harrison and Neighbors and o'doonza, Xavier Worthy is my wide
- 44:04receiver for my only concern and not necessarily concern is he is more of like
- 44:09a Stefan Diggs type of replacement. You're looking at Xavier Worthy to be more
- 44:14of like a slot wide receiver and a ze wide receiver. That guy you
- 44:16can put in motion, that guy you can move. I would like them
- 44:19to get more of a true X receiver. And I do have some concern
- 44:23about Xavier Worthies drops, But man, I would not be opposed if I'm
- 44:27sitting there at twenty eight. Even though I really like Franklin's fit and what
- 44:31he is from a speed perspective, I think Worthy can also offer you that
- 44:37while being a more complete route runner, just how he operates in the stems,
- 44:40he can get in and out of his breaks at full speed, he
- 44:44can accelerate and decelerate to create deception at the break point and in his stems
- 44:49just everything. He does have some drop issues, and with his size,
- 44:52height and frame and weight, you know you're gonna wonder about fifty to fifty
- 44:55balls and contested catches, and he consistently is going to have to separate to
- 45:00make plays because he has had some drops issues and contest to catch pieces.
- 45:02But man, I wait, Xavier Worthy is such a really fun wide receiver
- 45:07to me, and if I if I had to, like, if I'm
- 45:08ranking them, Worthy is ahead, I'm moving too much and making a camera
- 45:13got to focus. That's a Xavier Worthy does to me, if I had
- 45:15to, you know, from a ranking perspective, Worthy is definitely a head
- 45:19of Franklin for me. Franklin's usage and role in skill set fit into the
- 45:23Bills offense. That versus worthies is a very interesting conversation from a fit perspective.
- 45:31And that's what's so intriguing about Troy Franklin to me, to the Buffalo
- 45:35Bills. But if I had to look at him like like for like and
- 45:37wide receiver for wide receiver, I'm taking the Xavier Worthy ten out of ten,
- 45:42and I'm taking him every single day of the week, twice on Sunday
- 45:45type of deal. Like, I think Worthy is a better wide receiver than
- 45:46Franklin right now overall from a complete perspective, And I also like how that
- 45:52sets him up for success going forward. Could comment, Pete, we should
- 45:59all I think we all agree we should have drafted pookin Nakula. Bean stinks.
- 46:02One of my greatest, not greatest regrets, but a big regret that
- 46:06I have. I was pumped to watch Pookin Nakula at the Senior Bowl last
- 46:09year. I was watching Boise State defense tape going into the Senior Bowl last
- 46:15year, I was starting with Jail Skinner sermon stage and I didn't like what
- 46:20I saw in the first game I watched. It was Boise Date versus BYU,
- 46:22and Nicula made like two or three catches in that game that I was
- 46:25like, well, I don't like Skinner's tape, but Nikua is fun.
- 46:29And so I watched more BYU tape and I liked what I saw from Nakula.
- 46:31And he was at the Senior Bowl and on day two he either either
- 46:37got knocked on day one or I think he was sick or something, but
- 46:40he came out of the locker room on day two just in like in street
- 46:44coats. He was wearing like shorts and a shirt. And I was so
- 46:46disappointed that he wasn't going to practice on day two, and he was just
- 46:50kind of in the back of my mind. I didn't tweet about it or
- 46:52you know, make any prophetic statements about him, but I thought he was
- 46:55going to be like a dude to watch in the draft. And when he
- 46:59went to the rams like, Oh, that's a really cool fit. I
- 47:01didn't think he was gonna blow up like he did his rookie I don't think
- 47:04anybody did. But man, yeah, he was a dude who I was
- 47:07really excited to watch at the Senior Bowl. And I think he was sick.
- 47:08I don't think he was hurt. I think he had like the flu
- 47:10or something, and he didn't practice on day two and didn't really perform,
- 47:14and I was so disappointed, disappointed, disappointed. What a lot the chatter
- 47:19is really blowing up? Joey Kamp says, do you think Jackson powers Johnson
- 47:23makes any sense for us? If the Bills cut Mitch Morse, which they
- 47:27potentially can, because cutting him saves like eight point five million, it only
- 47:32has like a three million dead cap hit. If they decided to cut Mitch
- 47:36Morris and move on from him, then I think you could see that move.
- 47:40And especially because he has that center guard versatility, that's an awesome thing
- 47:45to have, and I know Kromer likes that. Chromer likes to have all
- 47:47of his offensive lineman be versatile and trained in everything, so he wants his
- 47:50tackles to be able to play left and right He wants guards to be able
- 47:53to play both guard spot and have a little center flax of centers to be
- 47:55able to move to guard a little bit like he tries everybody out at every
- 48:00at every position and gets them work at every position so they're comfortable within that.
- 48:04I think with Jackson powers, Johnson's size, mental aspect, his football
- 48:09IQ, and his athleticism at the size that he's at at three hundred and
- 48:13thirty pounds, yeah, I think he would make sense. But only if
- 48:15Mitch Morse, you know, goes then I could spententually see him creeping up
- 48:20into that that first round piece, aren't you saying? Xavier Worthy would be
- 48:24incredible with that speed. Get him in a big wide receiver that plays big
- 48:28in this draft. That's the other piece, right, If I'm taking Xavier
- 48:30Worthy then or you know, maybe I address that bigger type of receiver in
- 48:34free agency. Maybe it's a one year deal for Van Jefferson or DeMarcus Robinson
- 48:39or some you know kind of one year, three four million dollar type of
- 48:44wide receiver that gives you that X body type physical stature, so that you
- 48:49could get an Exavier Worthy who would also long term be a good replacement for
- 48:52Stefan Diggs, or yeah, maybe you do get that big receiver at another
- 48:54point of the draft or big body piece something like that. Joe come in
- 48:59and saying, what if the ANTS wide receiver isn't so much a big body,
- 49:00conventional boundary guy, but rather a nice lad from the south. Nice
- 49:05play there for Lad McConkie. I like where you Headzay. I really do
- 49:07like Lad McConkey, and he has inside outside versatility. He's arguably the best
- 49:13route runner in this whole class. Dude just separates. He's a real technician.
- 49:15He's a professional route runner. Really high floor. That would be very
- 49:19interesting. M hmmmm. Wow. I love all the arguments in the chat
- 49:25about wide receivers and all these different pieces. Yeah, funny, funny.
- 49:30I'm gonna pull up this common from Zen and then we're gonna move on to
- 49:32the next topic. But Zen Clover says, well said Anthony, which I
- 49:36appreciate, But I agree we need a bigger wide receiver as well for contesta
- 49:39catches and outside stuff. So I'm in a similar boat. But my thought
- 49:44that I always push back against myself with is Josh Allen prefers receivers that separate.
- 49:51He's not a big anticipatory thrower, and he likes to see guys break
- 49:57open and then throw it to them. Every once in a while, hill
- 49:59On cork a three with really good timing or anticipation, But usually it's like
- 50:01the digs or somebody that he knows is going to be at that spot and
- 50:05so he throws it to that spot networks. Usually he likes to see guys
- 50:08that separate. Usually bigger bodied receivers are not those big separation type of guys
- 50:14like Keon Coleman, for example, receiver from Florida State, big athletic.
- 50:17Let's see how we test. But you know he's got punp returnability, so
- 50:21he's got speed, he's got athleticism again, the height, the contested catchability,
- 50:24the ability to go up, climb the ladder, get it, pluck
- 50:27the ball like he wins those fifty to fifty balls. He wins contested catches.
- 50:31I like that. I want that for this offense because it really hasn't
- 50:36been present. This offense is all the receivers have always been kind of like
- 50:38smurfs. They've been smaller type of dudes. Gave Davis was that bigger bodied
- 50:42receiver. But he wasn't this athletic, go up, climb the ladder type
- 50:45of guy. I would like that piece in the Bills offense. I don't
- 50:49know if Josh Allen wants that type of piece, because again, usually those
- 50:52guys don't win in the ways that he prefers his receivers to win. Which
- 50:59is an interesting point there, but I second that notion. Where elsewhere else?
- 51:07Okay? All right? Oh? John coming back like last week saying
- 51:13the Oregon wide receiver no matter what. John's son is a big Oregon fan
- 51:16and he swears by Troy Franklin, and so John is all aboard the Troy
- 51:20Franklin bote. I remember this from last week's episode. I like it.
- 51:22I like it. I like it. I like it. I like it.
- 51:27Also just kind of like wrap on the little receiver piece for the draft.
- 51:30And we're gonna get into this so much on the show as we go
- 51:31forward in this offseason. But I think this draft class is going to be
- 51:35similar to whatever year the Bills took Cody Ford. And I don't say that
- 51:39have to like throw shade at being because the Bills needed offensive lineman at that
- 51:42point. But whatever year the Bills took Cody Ford. That was the draft
- 51:45with where like McLaurin, Deebo Metcalf, and I think one other receiver went
- 51:52in the second round where you had a whole bunch of really good like round
- 51:54two wide receivers. I think this draft is going to be solid where you
- 51:57are going to get twenty nineteen draft. Yeah, twenty nineteen draft. Thank
- 52:01you, Sech I think you appreciate you. Yeah yeah. And Ralph says
- 52:06the Washington receivers are all good. Curtis Samuel is also another intriguing piece.
- 52:09I would like to see into Bill's uniform, but I think he might be
- 52:12too expensive. Ah Aj Brown went in that draft, Thank you, Kim
- 52:15warrit Man. That second round was loaded with wide receivers. I think you'll
- 52:21get a similar contribution of from the second round wide receivers in this draft class
- 52:25and maybe even going into the third like Jaylen McMillan from Washington as a dude
- 52:29who I like he could go in the second. I think he might even
- 52:31fall to the third. Like this draft class is going to be very productive,
- 52:35first round, second round, and third again, productive being relative,
- 52:39But that's my reason why I'm not full bore wide receiver in round one type
- 52:45of deal, because I think you can get a very good player still in
- 52:51round two and or even round three. Again, my dream scenario is Byron
- 52:53Murphy defensive tackle from Texas in round one and then Javon Baker wide receiver from
- 52:59UCF in round two. But you know, we'll see, We'll see,
- 53:02he will see. Oh. I love this comment. Let's go get the
- 53:07other Josh Allen. We need defensivelyman, man, I would love to get
- 53:09the other Josh Allen from Jacksonville. I just it's gonna be tough, all
- 53:15right. I answered this last question, and then we're going for Zach says,
- 53:16what about Malachi Corley. I've heard some buzz about him. Big yards
- 53:21after catch, dude, good frame, thick, jacked, fast, athletics,
- 53:25showed well at the Senior Bowl. Better release package than I thought.
- 53:31I like a lot of the pieces that he's that he showed at the Senior
- 53:35Bowl. He doesn't have a ton of tape out that I've seen thus far,
- 53:37and what I've seen has been kind of men. But I like what
- 53:44he brings from an athleticism standpoint, in the yards at the catch standpoint.
- 53:46I have to get more into him from like a tape study standpoint. And
- 53:51I know a lot of people are like lauding over him now because they're just
- 53:52watching his highlights, and his highlights are very impressive. But I want to
- 53:58see, you know, what he uh, what he brings, what he
- 54:00brings from an All twenty two standpoint, But we'll see. Oh, Ralph
- 54:04says he was talking about the Huskies with this common earlier, the Washington receivers.
- 54:07Actually, that's mad funny that both Washington's receivers are good. The Washington
- 54:10Huskies with O'doonzay Polk and McMillan, and then the Commanders with McLaurin and Johan
- 54:19Dotson and Curtis Sanbell even like Diane Brown is kind of sweet. Like the
- 54:22Washington's are loaded with wide receivers. Yeah, fairpoint, Ralph. Yeah,
- 54:27the Huskies have even Jack westover their tight end. I like what I've seen
- 54:31from him on tape. Him and Ben Sinnett, the tight end from Kansas
- 54:37State, are two dudes that I like. Ooh, I like this com
- 54:39from Black Panther saying, I like Malachi Corley here reminds me of Parrott Pierre
- 54:44Garson. Ooh, ooh, that's pretty cool. That's pretty cool, Steve
- 54:51said, great minds, which means I have to oh nice, Steve.
- 54:53Steve said Byron Murphy round one, wide receiver, round two. In light
- 54:57of the depth, this would be the best value you a mere right here.
- 55:00Great minds, great minds. All right, let's go. Actually,
- 55:01let me put this comment from David before I go to the next Yes,
- 55:04hit that like button everyone. If you folks have not already hit the like
- 55:07please, please, please and thank you. Drop Ake on this video.
- 55:09If you love the Buffalo Bills, drop Alke on this video. If you
- 55:13love this content, drop alike on this video. If you hate the Kansas
- 55:15City Chiefs, then you think sports are filled with misery and nothing but sad,
- 55:17and drop alike on this video. It goes a long way. Please,
- 55:21please, please, and thank you. This is a fun conversation.
- 55:22I'm excited as always to get I'm excited for every episode on the show,
- 55:27but to get more into the draft cycle and free agency cycle going forward.
- 55:30Because even just again, like we've gotten sidetracked here in a fun way with
- 55:35the chat, but just with how engaging this draft class is, given how
- 55:39it stacks up, and given what the Bill's needs are it's gonna be a
- 55:45real lot of engaging and fun conversations to be had. Oh, Elvis KUSCHNAULTZ.
- 55:52I don't really know what happened to him since he left Jacksonville and went
- 55:55to Carolina. I haven't watched a bunch of him. I was intrigued when
- 56:01he came out of college, but I haven't really kept up on him enough,
- 56:05and I haven't watched tape yet on it. But you know, I'm
- 56:07open to kicking the tires on a lot of dudes. But I don't think
- 56:12I'm too keen right now, but we'll see. I like this, so
- 56:15I want to hear more about one Pie pizza. Oh it's the best pizza
- 56:17in Buffalo, and the online menu can be found in the episode show notes
- 56:20here on YouTube and or whichever podcasting app platform you're listening to. Rat Cheese,
- 56:23sausce, ratio cup, and char Pepperoni to make their own homemade blue
- 56:27cheese. I like Zach saying this we love the tree Beanies' just like,
- 56:31oh, this is the tree beating because imagine the tree. I like it.
- 56:35I like it. I like it all right. Last one here,
- 56:36Jordan says Cam Kitchens to Andandre Sweat, Keon Coleman, Troy Franklin are still
- 56:40on the board. Who do we go get if it's in the first round?
- 56:44Oh? This, Cam Kitchens is my one, Franklin is my two,
- 56:52Caw Coleman is my three, Sweat is my four. I could reverse
- 56:57Coleman and Sweat, but Cam is my hard one, and then Franklin is
- 57:00my hard too. That's a conversation. All right, I gotta stop there.
- 57:04We're gonna go forward next piece. So getting over the hump in twenty
- 57:07twenty four. First one I mentioned again, which is hard to control getting
- 57:10healthy at the right time, staying healthy at the right time. And again
- 57:13it's not just holistically across the team. It doesn't mean like everybody has to
- 57:17be healthy. But the Bills just need a season where they go into the
- 57:22playoffs and their core players or premium position players are not banged up. Just
- 57:29give me a postseason where edge one isn't out for the year, or or
- 57:34corner one isn't out for the year, or your All Pro linebacker isn't done
- 57:37for the year, or you're potentially All Pro defensive tackle. Yes, I
- 57:40think Daikwon Jones would have made the All Pro team had he stayed healthy this
- 57:45year based on how he was playing, isn't lost for the year. Give
- 57:47me a season where your most important players are not hurt. I understand injuries
- 57:53will happen, and that's fine. Let them happen to some of the deaf
- 57:57guys or a special teamer. No disrespect, and I'm not wishing in upon
- 58:00anyone. But step one is getting healthy at the right time, staying healthy
- 58:04at the right time. As Pete says here, the Bills just need guys
- 58:07to play through broken legs and torn packs. Is that too much to ask?
- 58:09I don't get it, just like I don't know, Duck, take
- 58:13your legs. Stop being a quitter, right, you know? I just
- 58:15don't understand. Although actually no, it was a UCL. The Ala Gretti,
- 58:19the guard for Kansas City that was filming for Joe Toney, was playing
- 58:22through a torn UCL in the Super Bowl, which I thought was pretty cool.
- 58:23Shout out to him from oh I like this comment here from Maria real
- 58:30quick. Is it just me or did you get NBA vibes from the Chiefs
- 58:31like just play good enough to get into the playoff and then turn it on.
- 58:34This may be a way to keep guys healthy. I have compared the
- 58:37Chiefs to those Warriors teams when they had KD and Staph and Clay and Draymond,
- 58:42where it just seemed like they were dog walking teams in the regular season,
- 58:45but it felt very much like they were just like, dude, whatever,
- 58:47get to the playoffs and then they get there and bang they turn it
- 58:51on. It also helps that they have one of the best defensive coordinators in
- 58:52big game Hunters in terms of Steve Bagnola on defense. But yeah, man,
- 58:59yeah, the comments from Joshua and Carl just rub some turn out it.
- 59:00You'll be fine that I like that a lot, all right. Now,
- 59:06next point here, this is a little tied to the injury piece that
- 59:08we talked about. So there were so many injuries that affected this Bill's team
- 59:15this year, majority of them coming on defense. Starters, important starters,
- 59:20backups, backups to the backups, all going down with significant injuries at seemingly
- 59:24the worst time as possible. But one unit that was pretty unscathed as far
- 59:28as injuries was the Buffalo Bills offensive line. And I think that's one of
- 59:32the most important pieces to talk about when you talk about getting over the hump
- 59:37in twenty twenty four in a good way. And it's the continuity that the
- 59:39Bills have on the offensive line, which is something they have not had in
- 59:44recent years. They're even going back as far as last year they signed Connor
- 59:46McGovern, But it's like, Okay, what does McGovern look like, and
- 59:50does Spencer Brown take a jump in his game to just be more consistent or
- 59:54average and not be such a roller coaster And we got a good season from
- 59:58McGovern. We got a on roller coaster season from Spencer Brown and the Bills
- 1:00:02offensive line in twenty twenty three finished fifth in pass blocking efficiency, which is
- 1:00:07wild. They also had one of the best rushing attacks and run games in
- 1:00:09twenty twenty three. Offensive lines and good offensive lines and continuity on the offensive
- 1:00:15line is a very important team building and team success piece to have in general.
- 1:00:22So this is huge for the Buffalo Bill's going forward in twenty twenty four.
- 1:00:23They have a good offensive line in terms of pass protection and run blocking.
- 1:00:28They have a good offensive line coach with Aaron Kromer. They also have
- 1:00:30a very strong depth piece in Ryan Bates. The offensive line is set up
- 1:00:34for success now. As I mentioned earlier with that question about JPJ. We'll
- 1:00:38see what happens with Mitch Morse. Again. He could be cut to save
- 1:00:42eight point five million dollars and a dead cap hit up three. I would
- 1:00:45like him to stay. I love what he does from a leadership perspective,
- 1:00:50from a chemistry and continuity perspective upfront, and then just his athleticism, the
- 1:00:55technicality that he possesses. I know he's not the biggest dude and he will
- 1:00:59struggle at time versus some dudes with size, and know the concussion history is
- 1:01:02there, but he's one of the best movement centers and dudes out in space.
- 1:01:06He's like Jason Kelce light and I mean that as a compliment. So
- 1:01:10again, we'll see what happens with Morse. But the Bills have the opportunity
- 1:01:15to basically run it back in twenty twenty four with a strong offensive line that
- 1:01:19they had in twenty twenty three, and that is extremely important when you already
- 1:01:22have a franchise quarterback and emerging running back, one of the best wide receivers
- 1:01:27in football, a dynamic young tight end going into your second year, and
- 1:01:30then you're also looking to add more weapons in the offseason, having to do
- 1:01:34work on the periphery of your team, at the quote unquote skill positions,
- 1:01:37at the weaponry spots. It's easier to do that when you already have the
- 1:01:42offensive line in place, which the Buffalo Bills do. Now, there were
- 1:01:46some concerns down the stretch, especially for me. You know, I think
- 1:01:50the right side of the offensive line, Spencer Brown and Cyrus Torrence got tested
- 1:01:53more as the season went on. They got worked a bit by two man
- 1:01:58games. Some stunts and twists and things caused some problems on the right side.
- 1:02:01And again I do think Spencer Brown had a better year. He showed
- 1:02:05more consistency in his game overall, but there were times where he got waxed
- 1:02:09brutally on that right side. But you know, Josh was able to evade
- 1:02:13or it came into Bill's win and so it didn't get talked about too much.
- 1:02:15But you saw improvement from Spencer Brown. Also, nice to see him
- 1:02:19that or see for him that he was relatively healthy. Funny how I when
- 1:02:22to DoD is healthier, they tend to play better and not be awful.
- 1:02:23So you know, kudos to him for that. And Ocirus Torrance showed a
- 1:02:27lot of promise as a rookie I still think he's gonna have to continue to
- 1:02:30work against speed dudes and guys with juice and good get off on the interior.
- 1:02:34So we'll see what he does in year two. But in theory,
- 1:02:37both Spencer Brown and Osirius Torrance should get better for twenty twenty four. And
- 1:02:43so one of my main concerns again for the old line in twenty twenty three
- 1:02:45was that right side, how they got worked by two man games and such,
- 1:02:50And my other little thing. I don't think any one player on the
- 1:02:52Bills old line is all pro caliber or a great individual player, which can
- 1:02:57be problematic when you're facing top your defensive lineman and games, or you're facing
- 1:03:01teams with multiple top tier defensive linemen in games. But like I said in
- 1:03:07the lead and for it, overall, this offensive line is a quality unit
- 1:03:09that's well coached. They offer versatility and they won't lose you a game their
- 1:03:15sound and pass protection. They can function in zone run schemes, they can
- 1:03:17function in gap scheme runs. You can pull dudes, you can run power,
- 1:03:22you can run counter, you can pin and pull, you can do
- 1:03:23tackle, wrap and dart, which we've talked about a ton on this show.
- 1:03:29The biggest concern for me with the offensive line, and I mentioned it
- 1:03:31earlier in regards to the injury piece. The bigger concern for me with the
- 1:03:36offensive line is again that they went largely unscathed with injury in twenty twenty three,
- 1:03:40which is pretty unheard of. They had the same starting group from start
- 1:03:45to finish, from end to end. That's gonna be hard to replicate in
- 1:03:47twenty twenty four. Offensive line typically gets banged up in some way for every
- 1:03:52team every year, and the Bills completely avoided that in twenty twenty three.
- 1:03:57And it's kind of like the football gods, you know. Maybe the cost
- 1:04:00for a healthy offensive line in twenty twenty three was the injuries that happened literally
- 1:04:04everywhere else. But that's my only cause for concern for the offensive line in
- 1:04:09twenty twenty four. Like I would like Spencer Brown to take another jump,
- 1:04:12I would like ol Cyrus Torrants to take another jump. But even if they
- 1:04:15don't, and they just play at their levels that they were at in twenty
- 1:04:17twenty three, this is the fifth best offensive line in terms of pass blocking
- 1:04:20efficiency, one of the best offensive lines with adjusted lineyards in the run game,
- 1:04:26one of the lowest stuff rates and you know, rushes for negative yards
- 1:04:30and one of the best power success teams like Eddy Metric any advanced metric by
- 1:04:34which you measure offensive line play in the past, and or the run.
- 1:04:38This Bill's offensive line was a very strong unit, top five, top ten
- 1:04:42at worst, which is awesome to have, considering you have Josh Allen and
- 1:04:45considering you're try to add to your weapons. Again, my biggest question for
- 1:04:47the offensive line in twenty twenty four is can they stay healthy and avoid injury
- 1:04:53like they did in twenty twenty three, which is going to be hard.
- 1:04:55But again, it's nice to have a good offensive line coach and Aaron Cromer
- 1:04:59to get everybody coached up, even the depth guys. It's nice to have
- 1:05:01that depth piece in Ryan Bates that gives you a lot of opportunities. So
- 1:05:05we'll see what happens there. Oh. I think it's a question here from
- 1:05:09Rev Rev saying how much of the Bills run efficiency would you attribute to the
- 1:05:13jumbo package with Edwards? Good question. I liked the addition to David Edwards
- 1:05:17even just as a depth guy before the year started. But yeah, that
- 1:05:23Jumbo twelve or the heavier, heavy personnel package, however you want to label
- 1:05:26it was a nice piece they and I think too, even just from the
- 1:05:30run aspect. Their success in it with the run, but then also how
- 1:05:33they tied the pass game and play action work off of it was very successful.
- 1:05:39I'm not going to attribute a ton of the Bills run efficiency to that
- 1:05:42jumbo package, especially because their most successful plays were you know, that tackle
- 1:05:46wrap dart play out of gun where it's just a five man surface and then
- 1:05:50they're handing off the cook or whoever, those mid zone runs that didn't necessarily
- 1:05:54have Edwards in it. But I think it was a really nice wrinkle and
- 1:05:57a really nice sub package that team had to plan for, and I think
- 1:06:01it was I think it was a kudo to kudos to Chromer and Edwards and
- 1:06:06Dorsey and Brady for using that piece, especially you know, Brady leaning into
- 1:06:11what more is the season went on. I really like that aspect of that
- 1:06:14offense. That's good. That's a good question. I like that. Let's
- 1:06:16go back see what comments yep. See, as David says here in the
- 1:06:23comments, I'm worried the old line injury luck won't replicate next year. The
- 1:06:26Bill should probably take a center or guard who can play center in the draft.
- 1:06:29Yeah, it's a little, it's a little, it's a little worrisome.
- 1:06:31It's just hard to have back to back years where your offensive line stays
- 1:06:35completely healthy, even you know, and I'll even take injury to a degree
- 1:06:39where like, oh, somebody misses one or two games, but just be
- 1:06:42in the playoffs where your starters are ready and good to go, or if
- 1:06:45you're missing one guy, I understand, But I'm just worried that the plague
- 1:06:50that the defense saw is going to move to the offensive line and they'll be
- 1:06:54out multiple starters for multiple games, or three dudes are going to go down
- 1:06:58for the most important game, or just we're just going to see this injury
- 1:07:01regression to the mean, which is a scary thing. What yep, Trek,
- 1:07:09if we were saying bring back Dave Edwards, I agree. It's also
- 1:07:11nice too that he's, uh, you know, traveled with Cromer. He's
- 1:07:15kind of a Cromer disciple. He had a good year as that sixth offensive
- 1:07:18lineman. I don't know if it was good enough to parlay into a starting
- 1:07:24role with a team somewhere else. I would assume he's looking for that.
- 1:07:28I don't know what he was told when he was signed, you know,
- 1:07:30if it was going to be a competition aspect and he lost out on that,
- 1:07:33or he knew what his assignment and role was going to be coming into
- 1:07:35the team. But I do wonder if he's looking for more of a starting
- 1:07:39role having a solid year that he did, but I would love for him
- 1:07:43to come back as that you know, quote unquote sixth offensive lineman. Having
- 1:07:45the offensive line that the Bills have with their starters again Dawkins and McGovern and
- 1:07:49Morse and Torrence and Brown, and then having David Edwards and Ryan Bates as
- 1:07:55your super subs off the bench, tremendous depth on that offensive line. Being
- 1:07:59did a great job addressing the offensive line last year, and I hope they
- 1:08:02continue to have that health and that depth on the offensive line. I'm also
- 1:08:08team draft offensive lineman every single year. Offensive lineman and corners you can never
- 1:08:12have enough. So I don't care if it's a Day one, two,
- 1:08:15three pick, whatever, I don't care if it's late rounds, early rounds,
- 1:08:17mid rounds. I'm taking offensive lineman every single year in the draft because
- 1:08:20you always need you always need offensive lineman. Guys already says the offensive line
- 1:08:27was decimated in twenty twenty two, so maybe it evens out. Yeah.
- 1:08:29I don't know, Like I don't know how the football gots decide things.
- 1:08:32I wish I did, wish I did. Yeah, Pete says Brady was
- 1:08:36spam in tackle rap. Dorsey did it a bit last year. No,
- 1:08:40yeah, in the twenty twenty two season as well. The snow game on
- 1:08:45Saturday Night against the Dolphins in twenty twenty two. That game was closed out
- 1:08:49by running tackle rap on three straight plays and four out of five with Devin
- 1:08:55Singletary. It was just literally tackle rap to the left, tackle rap to
- 1:08:58the right, and just rinse and repeat back and forth. It's been a
- 1:09:00good staple for them, and it makes sense. You know, when you've
- 1:09:02got good, physical, mobile tackles like Dion Dawkins and Spencer Brown, you
- 1:09:06lean into that aspect. So yeah, it was a piece that Brady definitely
- 1:09:13leaned into and something that Dorsey did as well. It's been a successful concept
- 1:09:15for them literally for multiple years now, so I don't expect that to change.
- 1:09:18I would like to see some things built off of it as teams really
- 1:09:21started to figure it out. Towards the end of the year, really starting
- 1:09:25with the Jets in that Week eleven game. Even though the Bills kind of
- 1:09:30boat raced them a little bit, they started crashing that front side and really
- 1:09:32kind of figuring out what was going on there. The Cowboys are really the
- 1:09:35only team that didn't adjust to it, so they're gonna need another answer built
- 1:09:39off of that, or another scheme to kind of rotate through which they had
- 1:09:42with mid zone and duo. But yeah, that tackle wrap piece was very,
- 1:09:45very very nice. Love it from Rev. We have Bates, resigned
- 1:09:49Edwards and draft a swing offensive tackle. Absolutely, you can never It's never
- 1:09:54a bad idea to invest in the offensive line, never never never never never
- 1:09:58never never never never, John saying we had decent depth on the offensive line
- 1:10:05as well. It's the least of my worries right now. Yeah, I
- 1:10:10agree. I'm just worried about that health staying, but we'll see. Yeah.
- 1:10:14So that's a good piece, right and again you juxtaposed with that injury
- 1:10:15point that we let off with the first piece. So this is a good
- 1:10:17thing to have for the start of twenty twenty four, especially too, if
- 1:10:20you're comparing it to other good teams. In the NFL, or even the
- 1:10:24Kansas City Chiefs, Like I know Tray Smith had a very up and down
- 1:10:28year or not Trey Smith. Donovan Smith had a very up and down year
- 1:10:30at left tackle for the Chiefs. He and Jawan Taylor were weak links on
- 1:10:33that Chiefs offensive line, but they were so strong on the interior with Creed
- 1:10:40Humphrey and Trey Smith and Joe Toney that it almost kind of balances out a
- 1:10:43little bit. Like usually the top tier football teams, the best football teams
- 1:10:48have good offensive lines, and the Bills are starting to trend in that direction.
- 1:10:53And if you can get another year with this group and the chemistry and
- 1:10:56report that they have in the execution, you know, it's a fun piece
- 1:11:00to have. And Joe says, I'm also worried about Brown in a contract
- 1:11:02year and him potentially playing out of the Bills price range. I'm okay with
- 1:11:05that, because cool, you can draft a tackle this year, you can
- 1:11:11draft a tackle next year. I like what Spencer Brown is and what Spencer
- 1:11:15Brown does. I'm not worried about replacing Spencer Brown. I don't think Spencer
- 1:11:18Brown is playing at a level where you're like, oh man, how are
- 1:11:21we going to replace that hit now. He is a bit of a unicorn
- 1:11:24with his athleticism, especially what he can do in the run. He is
- 1:11:26a plus blocker in the run game, and I love what he does.
- 1:11:30But overall, I think the production that he offers you you can find that
- 1:11:35in the draft or even potentially in free agency, although it tends to cost
- 1:11:40a little more in free agency. I don't think he's playing at a level
- 1:11:42where you know you're worried about, like, oh man, how do we
- 1:11:45replace that now? Depending on what he's looking for long term, you know,
- 1:11:49you see, you can try to lock him up. But if he
- 1:11:51if he's even getting to that range where he's pricing himself out like Gave Davis
- 1:11:56for example, I would love to keep Gave Davis. I think what he's
- 1:11:59gonna get on the open mark, he's pricing himself out of Buffalo easily.
- 1:12:02That's disappointing. But I also think like, okay, you can find someone
- 1:12:08else to replace that level. And you know, maybe again, if you're
- 1:12:11if you're trying to sign him because you believe he's going to continue to get
- 1:12:14better and better and better, maybe he will. That's still an if he
- 1:12:16also does have that injury history, so I'm interested to see what kind of
- 1:12:21twenty twenty four he has yet if he does price himself out potentially, But
- 1:12:25as of right now, I'm not really worried about replacing him given the level
- 1:12:30that he's currently playing at. More. If you're paying him more for the
- 1:12:33ceiling and trajectory that he could potentially hit, that's fair. But I think
- 1:12:38you could find, you know a way to kind of cobble his role together,
- 1:12:43either investing in the draft or investing in free agency. Oh I love
- 1:12:49the back to back comments that kind of go. Steve says Spencer can grow
- 1:12:53and become an even better high stealing guy. And then Roy comes in and
- 1:12:56say, why pay Brown after one good year? Ooh thoughts a little bit
- 1:13:00opposite thoughts. Oh another time here for we should pay Brown now before the
- 1:13:02price goes up, Joe saying it's more so the combination of losing him and
- 1:13:08Morson needing to plug two spots on the line simultaneously. Fair. But again,
- 1:13:12that's why you draft offensive line every single year, so you have guys
- 1:13:15waiting in the wings. So it's like, oh, hey, we have
- 1:13:17this fourth round offensive tackle that we think can replace Spencer Brown, or hey,
- 1:13:21we took a center in the fourth round or fifth round that we actually
- 1:13:25like and we think can start for Mitch Morris. Or we took another guard
- 1:13:28because we're gonna put Ryan Bates at center and he's going to be the long
- 1:13:30term guy. Like they have options. I'm much more concerned about replacing mich
- 1:13:33Morse than I am Spencer Brown, although I do like Ryan Bates and I
- 1:13:38would like to plug him in for Mitch Morris. I Morse goes away,
- 1:13:42Yeah, asked my thought, oh could come in here from Kem Morris,
- 1:13:44saying depends what Doyle and Vandermark can bring. I guess hopefully we don't get
- 1:13:46our lower picks poached Tommy Doyle even when he was healthy. I was kind
- 1:13:51of mad. Band of Mark is an interesting one, better at left tackle
- 1:13:56than right tackle if I remember correctly from the preseason. But yeah, an
- 1:14:00interesting piece as well. But again, that's why draft offensive lineman every single
- 1:14:05year, every single draft offensive lineman, it is they are worth the dart
- 1:14:10throw. You can get guys who can develop, especially with Aaron Kromer.
- 1:14:13You take somebody on the offensive line and let them sit just for a year
- 1:14:16and coach them up. That's a fourth round guy or a fifth round guy
- 1:14:18like who knows, box of chocolates. You never know what you can get,
- 1:14:23all right. So first piece getting healthy at the right time. Second
- 1:14:28piece the continuity on the offensive line. I think the third piece here and
- 1:14:32kind of talking about how far the Bills are from dethroning the Chiefs and or
- 1:14:36getting over the hump in twenty twenty four is what you're gonna get from the
- 1:14:41coordinators for the Bills in twenty twenty four. So this point, aside from
- 1:14:45the injury point, which cannot be controlled, this point, I think is
- 1:14:49one that has the greatest potential in twenty twenty four of either getting them over
- 1:14:54the hump and finally slaying the dragon or setting them back potentially. And it's
- 1:14:58mainly because of the immediacy and the impact of it. We'll start with the
- 1:15:01offensive line. Offensive line, We'll start with the offense. What we saw
- 1:15:05from Joe Brady in twenty twenty three very encouraging. The layering and the sequencing
- 1:15:11for him, those are the words I continue to use every time I talk
- 1:15:14about Joe Brady. The layering and the sequencing in particular, both very strong
- 1:15:18from him. I liked his you know, ability to incorporate the running backs
- 1:15:23more in the past games schematically by designed as either first or second reads in
- 1:15:27the progression. We saw what he was able to do with James Cook,
- 1:15:29We saw what he was able to do with Ty Johnson. Even like I
- 1:15:32still would never have had that on my Joe Brady bingleboard that Ty Johnson was
- 1:15:35going to become a factor in this offense. But you know, it was
- 1:15:38nice to see some of the things that Joe Brady did, But that came
- 1:15:42while running Ken Dorsey's offense. Again, not to say that Brady can't,
- 1:15:46but just when Brady took over. We said it on the show A whole
- 1:15:49bunch said in the film room with Eric at that point mid season new offensive
- 1:15:55coordinator, it is too late to uninstall in offense and installing new one that's
- 1:15:59not a possibility. So everything that Joe Brady was doing again it was his
- 1:16:02layering, his play calling, his sequencing and different tweaks and window dressing.
- 1:16:06But it was still Ken Dorsey's offense. So what does the twenty twenty four
- 1:16:12Bills offense look like fully under Joe Brady? What do the Bills look like
- 1:16:15in Joe Brady's system, his offense, his terminology, and a full off
- 1:16:20season of install and rapport building with him and the players in his system.
- 1:16:26Do we continue to see a commitment to the run game. How much twelve
- 1:16:29personnel do we see? Who gets phased out of the offense? What free
- 1:16:31agents are targeted and brought in? Big question, what happens to Stefan Diggs
- 1:16:35in terms of his usage and his role. What do we see from Josh
- 1:16:39Allen? A lot of this is tied to Josh Allen's production as a whole.
- 1:16:44Josh Allen needs to get back to work when it comes to his mechanics,
- 1:16:45his footwork, his arm angles, his decision making. I hope he
- 1:16:50gets back with Jordan Palmer this offseason. I hope we see more team gatherings
- 1:16:55where he's throwing the dudes and they're working on stuff. I think he's gotten
- 1:16:58away from that. These pasts are years and it's showing on the field in
- 1:17:02terms and again, you know, I know with the touchdowns and all the
- 1:17:04production that he had, but from a technical perspective in terms of playing the
- 1:17:10quarterback position, he was sloppy this year. So Allen's going to correct for
- 1:17:14so much. Right, you can have the worst offensive coordinator in the world.
- 1:17:17If Josh Allen goes out and does Josh Allen things, then no one's
- 1:17:19going to notice or no one's going to care because Josh Allen's going to value
- 1:17:23out and do Josh Allen stuff. So so much of the same piece I
- 1:17:27said with Dorsey too, Like when the Bills offense was struggling under Dorsey,
- 1:17:30if Allen just hits like one or two more of those throwers per game,
- 1:17:33or the Bills have a couple less turnovers, a lot of these questions and
- 1:17:36worries with Dorsey are not a thing, And so similarly with Brady, his
- 1:17:41system, his offense. It might be not great, it's schematically, it
- 1:17:45might be kind of mad, but if Allen is balling out and doing Josh
- 1:17:48Allen thinks, no one's really going to notice and it's not going to impact
- 1:17:50them too much. Although again, could it show up come playoff time,
- 1:17:54Yes, absolutely so that offensive side. What does this offense fully look like
- 1:18:00under Joe Brady in twenty twenty four? Again, his offense, his verbiage,
- 1:18:03his play calling. Again, we've already seen him with layering and sequencing
- 1:18:08and what he likes to do from an attack standpoint, But what does this
- 1:18:11team look like fully enveloped in and bought into his system. On the defensive
- 1:18:15side, what does Bobby Babbage bring as first year defensive coordinator for the Bill's
- 1:18:19defense. Also tied into that too, A bit of a minor storyline,
- 1:18:25or maybe even middle level storyline is how big of a loss is John Butler
- 1:18:29to the secondary and the defense as a whole? You would you would hear
- 1:18:32multiple guys talk about it in training camp, in the offseason, in mini
- 1:18:38camps, and during the season. Rasseull Douglas talked Abottom after his multiple interception
- 1:18:43game against the Patriots. John Butler did a really good job with this Bill's
- 1:18:47secondary, and I think, you know, a good amount of the success
- 1:18:49that we've seen in the secondary and with the corners and the development and trajectory
- 1:18:54that we've seen on that back end can be attributed to him. I also
- 1:19:00won you know what was he involved with as far as game planning. Usually
- 1:19:01your position coaches handled some aspect of the daily of the weekly game planning,
- 1:19:05like red zone, third down defense, early down stuff, short yardage stuff,
- 1:19:10some kind of something. So how big of a loss is John Butler
- 1:19:14I think ties into the Bobby Babbage piece a little bit. But Babbage's track
- 1:19:18record, it's been talked about a bunch. You know, what he did
- 1:19:20with Hide and Poyer and the safety starting in twenty seventeen, and then with
- 1:19:24the linebackers starting in twenty twenty two and this year I think speaks for itself.
- 1:19:28You know, Hide and Poyer under his you know, leadership, became
- 1:19:31arguably the best safety canem in the NFL. And then with the linebackers,
- 1:19:38Tremaine Edmonds probably had his best season as a Bill in twenty twenty two.
- 1:19:41And then Milano became an All Pro in twenty twenty two, and then what
- 1:19:45Bernard did this year, what Dodson did this year, what Milana looked like
- 1:19:47before he went down. You know, Babbage's track record from a player development
- 1:19:50standpoint is high and speaks for itself and his ability to help players reach their
- 1:19:55ceilings and also raise their floors. I believe had a significant part obviously in
- 1:19:59him getting the defense W role. But what does that DC role entail?
- 1:20:03Is he calling plays? If so, what does this defense look like?
- 1:20:06What kind of sub package juice do we get? What type of personnel do
- 1:20:11we lean towards white type of tendencies do we see from him? I know
- 1:20:14for many people, Sean mcdee, Sean mcde shaw, McDermott's head could potentially
- 1:20:19be on a pike, and it's very torches in pitchforks with anything and everything
- 1:20:21that goes wrong with this team. But I liked a lot from what we
- 1:20:25saw from the Bills defense in twenty twenty three. And again, like we
- 1:20:29talked about in our first point here, that was while missing several important pieces
- 1:20:32across the board for a majority of the season, ended big moments. Mcdee
- 1:20:38getting this defense the kind of course correct itself and whether the storm after all
- 1:20:42the injuries that they had. Again, in terms of quantity and quality,
- 1:20:45I think he deserves, you know, some kudos for that. So do
- 1:20:47we see a drop off in twenty twenty four, especially considering once everything's healthy
- 1:20:51when this season starts next year? What do they look like under Babbage versus
- 1:20:56what they look like under McDermott, Because in the beginning of the year,
- 1:20:58when they were healthy, they were clicking, they were given everybody problems and
- 1:21:01just the turnovers, the how sound they were schematically, just what they look
- 1:21:06like from a mindset standpoint and a philosophical standpoint, they were a real treat
- 1:21:11to watch under McDermott. So what do they look like under Bobby Babbage.
- 1:21:15Again, that's even if Bobby Babbitte is calling plays, but knowing that they
- 1:21:18hired Al Hocme to be their linebackers coach, I would imagine that means Bobby
- 1:21:21babbageh will be calling plays as a defensive coordinator. But we'll see. So
- 1:21:26again, is there a drop off in twenty twenty four? Is their improvement?
- 1:21:29What tweaks or changes do we see and are they good or bad?
- 1:21:32This also ties into, obviously to the Bill season as a whole, right,
- 1:21:35you know, getting over the hump in twenty twenty four, your coaching
- 1:21:38staff, your player development, you're calling your layer and you're sequencing your game
- 1:21:42planning, all that kind of stuff. But this one is also huge in
- 1:21:45direct relation to going up against the Kansas City Chiefs, chasing the Kansas City
- 1:21:49Chiefs and getting past them and trying to dethrone them. As I mentioned earlier,
- 1:21:54the Chiefs have one of the greatest offensive coaches of all time and Andy
- 1:21:57Reid, and they have one of the greatest defensive coaches of all time in
- 1:22:00Steve Spagnolo and Spags being there. I cannot say this enough. Spags being
- 1:22:08there allows Andy Reid to focus more on the offense and not have to worry
- 1:22:12about the defense. There is no like, hey, let me sit in
- 1:22:15the defensive meeting room this week and help them game plan because I need to
- 1:22:17watch over my DC. No, it's just a simple knock on the door
- 1:22:19and be like, hey, Spags, everything going good, all right,
- 1:22:21cool, see you practice later. That's it. Andy Reid gets to focus
- 1:22:26on Patrick Mahomes, he gets to focus on Travis Kelcey. He gets to
- 1:22:29focus on the game planning and the game design and his scripted plays and the
- 1:22:33answers and the adjustments and the callbacks, and yes, he's got you know,
- 1:22:38he's overseeing what's happening with the team as the whole. But having Steve
- 1:22:41Spagnola on that side of the ball, he's got a guy who can completely
- 1:22:45who can completely run the defense and does not need him to do anything,
- 1:22:48which allows Andy Reid to just focus on gameplay design, game planning, play
- 1:22:55sequencing, everything. He gets to just be you know, a mad scientist
- 1:23:00offensively, because he's got a guy who can completely run the defense. Also,
- 1:23:03you know, if we're talking about their leadership, you know, shout
- 1:23:05out to their GM Brett Veach who continues to just build well for this team
- 1:23:10and free agency on the draft. I think he doesn't get talked about enough.
- 1:23:13But if you're looking at this Bill staff and you're looking at Brady and
- 1:23:17Babbage and then Sean McDermott by extension, but you know, just talking about
- 1:23:20the coordinators because they're new, first year full time coordinators with the Bills,
- 1:23:26it's Brady and Babbage, and then they're going up basically against Andy Reid and
- 1:23:30Steve Spagnoble. So you're going up against two Hall of Fame coordinators, two
- 1:23:33Hall of Fame coaches. So even if you are good, or even if
- 1:23:38you're really really good, you're still probably at a disadvantage from a coaching standpoint
- 1:23:43against the Kansas City Chiefs. And that's what it's going to be. Like,
- 1:23:45what level do these coordinators play at that you or play at or game
- 1:23:49plan design and play call at to combat those guys. So Bobby Babbage when
- 1:23:54the Bills play the Chiefs, it's Babbage versus Reid. We think could be
- 1:23:59make your still running the show and calling the plays defensively, you know who
- 1:24:01knows at this point, but it looks like it'll be Babbage. And if
- 1:24:04it is, it's Babbage versus Andy Reid. What do you get on the
- 1:24:08other side, it's Joe Brady versus Steve Spagnolo. Now we got a glimpse
- 1:24:12of Brady versus Bags from what we saw in the playoffs. And again,
- 1:24:15I know the Bills lost and there were some things that could have gone better
- 1:24:17offensively, but I like Brady's game plan. You know what he was able
- 1:24:20to do on the ground against the Chiefs. It worked well and the Bills
- 1:24:25were I don't know, like a foot or two away on that second down
- 1:24:30shot to Khalil Shakir at the end of the fourth quarter of putting up thirty
- 1:24:32plus on the Chiefs in this game, and again it should have been twenty
- 1:24:35seven to twenty seven at the very least. But we'll see ken Brady continue
- 1:24:40to do that with his offense or how much does he pull from the Dorsey
- 1:24:44offense? Right like him, and it's fine to have faith in him and
- 1:24:46think, man, I think this offense is really going to take off with
- 1:24:49Joe Brady. I'm excited to see it with Brady. I think it'll do
- 1:24:51better than under Dorsey. That's fine, But the point still stands of it
- 1:24:57is going to be a new offense for this team and new offense for him.
- 1:25:00How much again, is he putting in of his stuff? How much
- 1:25:03is he pulling from Dorsey? What verbiage? How much does he try to
- 1:25:05tie in? What does he pull together for this offense that is fully his
- 1:25:10in twenty twenty four as opposed to him taking over in the interim in twenty
- 1:25:14twenty three and still basically running Ken Dorsey's offense. And then Babbite is even
- 1:25:17more of a wildcard first time defensive coordinator. What are you getting going up
- 1:25:21against the top teams in the AFC, But especially again if we're tying it
- 1:25:27back into the Chiefs, who are the Kings of the AFC, Kings of
- 1:25:30the Conference, Kings of the NFL, that's what's always going to be tough.
- 1:25:32Like, even if you have a really great group of coordinators come playoff
- 1:25:36time, you're going up against two Hall of famers who are still performing at
- 1:25:42a Hall of Fame level. It's not like Andy Reid and Spags are Hall
- 1:25:45of famers, but they're past their prime. Their shelves of themselves. They've
- 1:25:48earned their tenure and everybody knows they should be out the door, but the
- 1:25:53organization doesn't want to do that, and they can go when they want to
- 1:25:56go. No, they're still performing at a Hall of Fame level right now.
- 1:25:59So you have to bring your a game and anything that you bring,
- 1:26:02anything that you do, they've seen it, and they've beat it on the
- 1:26:06biggest stage, on the small stages, regular season, playoffs, super Bowl,
- 1:26:12they've seen everything. They beat everything. So how do you combat that
- 1:26:15and having a first time defensive coordinator and not a first time OC in the
- 1:26:20NFL? Brady was OC with the Panthers for a bit, but having a
- 1:26:23first time OC with this team from a full time capacity, full offseason install,
- 1:26:29verbiage, rapport, chemistry aspect, I think that's a big one that
- 1:26:33isn't getting talked about enough. I know Spags and Reid receive their flowers all
- 1:26:38the time, but man, just when you're juxtaposing them with what the Bills
- 1:26:42are gonna have at the coordinator spot. And I'm not saying this means the
- 1:26:45Bills are dead in the water, the Bills are done or the Bills are
- 1:26:46screwed. But it's a huge matchupiece. That's what you're gonna have to think
- 1:26:49of going into the regular season against the Chiefs and then going into the playoffs
- 1:26:53against the Chiefs. If these teams do meet Spags versus Brady and Babbage versus
- 1:26:59read Like, it's that's a tall task for anyone, even if you're a
- 1:27:02really good DC or OC. You're going out against two of the best who
- 1:27:05have ever done it. And again, you could make the case that Spags
- 1:27:09is the best defensive coordinator of all time, which is wild. And he
- 1:27:12gets to sit on that staff and just run the defense, which gives Andy
- 1:27:15Reid one of the best offensive minds coordinators coaches, however, we want to
- 1:27:19label him of all time to just sit back and build with Patrick Mahomes and
- 1:27:26man, it gives Reading that offense such a huge advantage because of what Spags
- 1:27:29does. And the same thing for Spags, like he gets to coordinate a
- 1:27:31defense knowing what he's got on the other side of the ball with Andy Reid,
- 1:27:35Mahomes and that whole aspect schematically, So it's a tall task to beat
- 1:27:41them because of how good they are in these big game scenarios because they've seen
- 1:27:45it all, they've done it all, they beat it all. Yets o
- 1:27:47man question here from the chat, Saint Sean keeps calling plays? He was
- 1:27:53superb. Yeah, I liked what McDermott did. I don't know if he'll
- 1:27:56want to keep calling plays. I think this year was more of him doing
- 1:28:00it out of necessity. But I do think this defense was good under him.
- 1:28:02So we'll see if he wants to continue doing that, or you know,
- 1:28:06we'll see if Babbage is ready to take the reins or how involved he
- 1:28:11is. Is it what kind of you know? Is it a fifty to
- 1:28:13fifty split, what type of you know? I guess defensive relationship do they
- 1:28:16have? And we've also heard from multiple players talking about the impact Sean McDermott
- 1:28:21had on them by being in those meeting rooms and running the defense. He
- 1:28:25received, you know, high praise from a ton of players across the board,
- 1:28:30and the results showed on the field. Again. I know they had
- 1:28:31that rough stretch, especially when they were getting like outgunned in second halves and
- 1:28:35they weren't adjusting well, but he righted the ship for the most part and
- 1:28:39Again, I know the season ended not great and YadA YadA what happen against
- 1:28:44Kansas City, But I also think his hands were pretty tied given what was
- 1:28:45available due to all the injuries. But yeah, we'll see, we'll see,
- 1:28:48we'll see. M M what el going through? Comments here? Yeah,
- 1:29:01well off coming in Saron defense is very good in still the injuries absolutely
- 1:29:05absolutely, Walter're saying the Dolphins defense was injured more than our defense and played
- 1:29:11on the road in sub zero temperature and still forced more punts. No excuse
- 1:29:15for that poor defensive performance injuries or not. I guess if you're judging it
- 1:29:21by like who forced punts? Sure, but given the nature, and I
- 1:29:26also don't know how you're quantifying the Dolphins defense being more injured than the Bills.
- 1:29:30They still had Jalen Ramsey going, They had Javon Holland going, They
- 1:29:34had I know Baker was banged up, but they had Baker. They had
- 1:29:38David Long, they had Christian Wilkins, they had Sealer. They were without
- 1:29:42their big ones were Xavier Howard was out. They didn't have Jordan Phillips,
- 1:29:45they didn't have Jalen Phillips, and they didn't have Bank ankle, and they
- 1:29:49didn't have Bradley chubp So again I don't know how we're quantifying it. But
- 1:29:54again Bernard out Millana, well we want to call Malona one, but Bernard
- 1:30:00out, Benford out, Rasoul, Douglas playing but not one hundred percent,
- 1:30:04day Kuon playing but not one hundred percent. I don't know how you want
- 1:30:08to quantify it. But also to considering the Dolphins had starters out but then
- 1:30:13their backups were in. The Bills had their starters out and then had backups
- 1:30:16that were out and then had backups to the backups that were also out.
- 1:30:19So again I think it's fair if you want to go with that route,
- 1:30:24you can. I just don't know how to quantify, like their defense being
- 1:30:26more injured than the Bills relative to the quality and quantity that was out for
- 1:30:30the Bills. And not to mention too like I don't know how much was
- 1:30:33the weather really hindering what the Chiefs were able to do in that game.
- 1:30:38I think from a sub zero temperature perspective, like it hinders everybody and changes
- 1:30:43a lot. Again, they didn't force punts, Chiefs got touchdowns. Chiefs
- 1:30:46continue to get like field goals and get stopped a bit against the Niners against
- 1:30:50the Ravens, so I understand like the frustration with the Bills giving up everything
- 1:30:54they did. I also think the Bills weren't sound schematically in their run fits,
- 1:30:58which they tried to adjust and switch some roles and responsibilities in terms of
- 1:31:01who was occupying what gap and what they were doing. But the Chiefs had
- 1:31:05good answers for that. I think maybe that's part of the reason why Eric
- 1:31:08Washington kind of was gonna go anyway. The defensive line performance just was not
- 1:31:13up the snuff in that game against the Chiefs whatsoever. But you know,
- 1:31:16again, difficult situation. Yeah, Rev comment here I was. I mentioned
- 1:31:25this earlier Rev in the lead in like I always mentioned them in Lockstep,
- 1:31:29Zach Taylor and lou Ana Rumo in Cincinnati and then Spags and Reid in Kansas
- 1:31:31City. Just the fact that Taylor can sit and do what he wants with
- 1:31:35Burrow and Higgins and Chase and Boyd and mixing, and then all he has
- 1:31:40to do is just knock on the door and be like, Loo, everything
- 1:31:42good for the defense? All right? Cool, I have a good one.
- 1:31:43See you later, Like see at the end of the week. See
- 1:31:45on game day whatever. Yeah, just like this comment here from Oloff saying
- 1:31:49maybe if kin Kid breaks out, the Bills offense becomes next level. It
- 1:31:54could. When you have a truly dynamic tight end, it opens up a
- 1:31:58lot for your offense. And that's just especially one who can do it in
- 1:32:05the run in the past. Like I gravitate more towards those type of dudes,
- 1:32:11So the Gronks, the Kittles, Sam Laporta. I had Sam Laporta
- 1:32:15ranked ahead of Dalton Kinkaid this past year in the draft, mainly just personal
- 1:32:19preference. I like dudes who can do it in the past and as a
- 1:32:23blocker, not thinking Kaid is a poor blocker, but I just think he
- 1:32:26thought he needed more work there and more development there, but he's a better
- 1:32:30receiver. Yeah, it just forces your hand a lot schematically. I do
- 1:32:32think he needs to continue on that trend of being good as a blocker in
- 1:32:36the run in the past to truly put defenses into binds and figuring out,
- 1:32:43Okay, what do we have to match, what personnel are we going with?
- 1:32:46Do we have to go with a subpackage? Are we going with base?
- 1:32:48How do we choose to defend Dalton kin Kaid, because then that ties
- 1:32:51into what coverages you can play, how you fit the run, so on
- 1:32:56and so forth. That's really where you take advantage of his skill set is
- 1:33:00by forcing teams into that bind. You can only force them into that bind
- 1:33:03if he's a you know, a capable blocker, which he showed in his
- 1:33:06rookie year, and I think he'll continue to get better there. If not,
- 1:33:10then you have to hope that his trajectory just follows this receiver heavy path
- 1:33:16like a Travis Kelcey, And that's just hard to do. Like there has
- 1:33:19been a tight end like Travis Kelcey who was just such a pure receiving threat
- 1:33:25that you could have him be your ex receiver assessional essentially and just went on
- 1:33:30the outside or put him in motion and do whatever the hell you want,
- 1:33:32whenever the hell you want. It's so hard to be that in that spot
- 1:33:40and not like to just expect him to hit the Travis kelce trajectory or ceiling
- 1:33:46as a pass catching tight end is hard. But I think if he continues
- 1:33:50to progress as a blocker man, you're gonna see a lot of a lot
- 1:33:55of schematic problems being caused for defenses Walter, saying, well, green to
- 1:34:00disagree, then that's fair. I think missing your top I don't know tw
- 1:34:04is or your top two pass rusher CB two and banged up LB's is more
- 1:34:09impactful than us missing our two LB's. But also too, you're not just
- 1:34:13missing the CB. Well, if you're gonna do all of the injuries,
- 1:34:15then that the Bills are missing. So the Bills are missing Trey White,
- 1:34:17the Bills are missing Christian Benford. They're playing with a shell of Rasoul Douglas.
- 1:34:21You're missing your top two linebackers. Terrell Dodson is also playing banged up.
- 1:34:28Leonard Floyd was banged up, and Daikwon Jones was not one hundred percent
- 1:34:31healthy. So that's eight then, and I don't know. So then they're
- 1:34:35two, three, four or five. I don't know. Is it like
- 1:34:40eight versus five? Is it seven versus six? I don't know how to
- 1:34:44like quantify, And I think at the very least, again, I think
- 1:34:46they're very close. And I also think the weather aspect changes a lot like
- 1:34:49it's not it's not a like for like scenario with the weather that the Bills
- 1:34:55are playing and that sub zero temperature affects both offenses significantly, and so I'm
- 1:35:00just not going to compare like for like. Again, I know dolphins,
- 1:35:03you know, if they force more punts, cool, and if that's how
- 1:35:05you're judging that success piece, But I just don't think it's a like for
- 1:35:10like giving the temperatures. And I also don't know how to quantify their injuries
- 1:35:14more than the Bills, or even the Bills more than Miami's. And the
- 1:35:18Bills are banged up at significant spots across the board. But you know,
- 1:35:23it is what it is, all right, last piece here, getting over
- 1:35:29the hump in twenty twenty four. This is a little tied to Josh Allen
- 1:35:31and also tied to the entire roster as a whole. I just titled it
- 1:35:36your top dude showing up when it matters most and or getting more top dudes.
- 1:35:43So this team, I know this gets said all the time, this
- 1:35:45team, good or bad, will go as far as Josh Allen takes them.
- 1:35:47I understand that notion. I understand that sentiment. However, for me
- 1:35:50at least, and I think it's shown in the tape, it's shown in
- 1:35:55the results. I think Josh Allen's game is too volatile to be able to
- 1:36:00just rely on him to drag you to victory in a playoff run. And
- 1:36:03I think that can really be said for most quarterbacks. It's a lot to
- 1:36:06just be like, well, we'll just put it on the shoulders of this
- 1:36:10guy and we'll see what happens. Like that's a hard thing to do in
- 1:36:14general. But what's also tough is his play style and how he swings that
- 1:36:20pendulum. It makes having to solely rely on him, or expecting him to
- 1:36:26be that sole driving factor even a little tougher. So this isn't to say
- 1:36:30you can't win with him, just that his play style makes it hard at
- 1:36:33times because of the variance he plays with, and in a single elimination playoff
- 1:36:38format, all it takes is one poor swing of the pendulum from Josh Allen
- 1:36:42and you're done, Which also ties back to point one that we talked about
- 1:36:46here, where a bunch of the Bill's best players from a quality and quantity
- 1:36:49perspective in twenty twenty three missed that playoff game against the Chiefs in that division
- 1:36:55round, or they were playing and were shells of themselves, and we're you
- 1:36:59know, playing but a man not healthy as well. I forgot about Jordan
- 1:37:01Phillips who Wilson missed that Chiefs game as well. Man, they just had
- 1:37:04so many dudes that were out for that game. There's no page there.
- 1:37:11It is so the point this point here for me. It also ties to
- 1:37:15something I talked about in an episode last offseason in regards to hitting on more
- 1:37:18of your day two picks, you know, those day two bicks being rounds
- 1:37:20two and three, in order to have more higher end talent on the roster.
- 1:37:25The Bills have hit on Day three and been relatively very successful compared to
- 1:37:30the league with what they've hit in the being era. Dane Jackson, Gabe
- 1:37:31Davis, Khalios Shakir Christian benferd Balen Spector, Tyler Bass, Taron Johnson day
- 1:37:38three guy, those are all hits in that Day three aspect given being able
- 1:37:43to make the team, fulfilling a role, becoming a low end starter,
- 1:37:45becoming a higher end all pro starter, even like Taron Johnson. But hitting
- 1:37:49on those guys is different than the Bengals, for example, hitting on their
- 1:37:56Day two guys like Logan Wilson, Jermaine Pratt, Jesse Bays, Sam Hubbard,
- 1:38:00t Higgins, especially umtaposing that with all the misses that the Bills have
- 1:38:03had on Day two. And that's just one a little example or a nice
- 1:38:08Michael cosm of the point that I'm trying to make, and that point is
- 1:38:13you either need game changing impact players or you need quality Tier two and Tier
- 1:38:18three dudes across the board as much as possible. You either need several A
- 1:38:24plus dudes, ideally at premium positions, or you need a whole bunch of
- 1:38:28bs and B pluses everywhere. Now what it means, you're twenty twenty four.
- 1:38:32It's gonna be hard to get A plus guys as rookies or in free
- 1:38:34agency this offseason given what the Bills cap situation is. So I don't know
- 1:38:39how much pendulum swinging will happen in that regard this offseason, but you know,
- 1:38:43using twenty twenty three as an example, the twenty twenty three Bills had
- 1:38:45three A plus guys going into the season for me, Josh Allen, Stefon
- 1:38:50Diggs, Matt Malano. Like I mentioned earlier, I think Daikwon Jones was
- 1:38:54on an all pro track and trajectory before he went down, So I'm gonna
- 1:38:58include him in there and say he was playing like A plus dude before he
- 1:39:00went down, So that gives you four. Two of those four went out,
- 1:39:04so while you had left with Stefan Diggs and you had Josh Allen,
- 1:39:08so two of the four A plus dudes went down for a majority of the
- 1:39:11year. And again, like I mentioned with day kuon him playing against Kansas
- 1:39:14City, I don't know how you know, quote unquote healthy he was coming
- 1:39:16back from that tour Peck then torn Peck. Then on top of that,
- 1:39:20like we've said so many times, they lost some B plus dudes and some
- 1:39:25B dudes, and suddenly you're fighting a battle against the Chiefs and against other
- 1:39:29teams with depth players and or depth players to those depth players because your second
- 1:39:35stringer goes down, your third stringer goes down, and now you're playing with
- 1:39:39you know, guys who just came off of vacation. Like aj Klein point
- 1:39:43is, I think they need more it's twofold here. They either need more
- 1:39:47top end talent to fight the Chiefs and not just the Chiefs but other top
- 1:39:51tier teams in the NFL. They need more B plus and above guys to
- 1:39:56be able to fight fire with fire versus the best teams in the league,
- 1:40:00and or swing the pendulum in their favor versus the Chiefs with Mahomes and Reed
- 1:40:04and Spags and their strong core of B plus and above guys, or the
- 1:40:08Ravens or the Bengals kind of insert any team there. But the Chiefs are
- 1:40:12the champs. They continue to be this dragon the Bills cannot vanquish. So
- 1:40:15that's why they're using this example. And then when the Bills do have that
- 1:40:19talent again, like I said, this whole topic being you know, getting
- 1:40:24more top dudes, but also your top dudes showing up when you do have
- 1:40:28that talent, that talent needs to show up, you know, just going
- 1:40:30with the low hanging fruit example, Ed Oliver was put in hell by Joe
- 1:40:35Tooney in that game against the Chiefs, and he was largely non existent.
- 1:40:39And that happening while Greg Russou also being relatively quiet is a problem. Although
- 1:40:45I did charge something very interesting after the Bills Chiefs game, like the only
- 1:40:50two of the Chiefs successful runs were run to Greg Russo's side, and when
- 1:40:57they were run to his side, they were even cut back up the middle,
- 1:41:00so I forget how many they had, but all of the Chiefs run
- 1:41:04successful runs except for two, came with Greg russo either off the field or
- 1:41:10run away from him. So the Chiefs also mitigated him a bit in terms
- 1:41:14of kind of running away from him or you know, not running into him
- 1:41:16as much. But is an interesting point as well. So when you have
- 1:41:21those top dudes, they have to show up, and I think that's been
- 1:41:24a problem for this team, tying into the injuries as well. You know
- 1:41:30you're one of your top dudes. A couple of years ago in the thirteen
- 1:41:31seconds game, is Trey White cool, he's not there. You bring in
- 1:41:33Von Miller as a top dude to try and take you over the top.
- 1:41:36He goes down. Mikel Hyde is one of your top dudes, he goes
- 1:41:39down. But when you have the talent that's there, even if other dudes
- 1:41:43around them are hurt, that talent needs to show up. And so again
- 1:41:45this Chiefs game in twenty twenty three in the division rounds a good example.
- 1:41:47You know, Ed Oliver kind of gets a race by Joe Toney and that
- 1:41:50also happens while Greg russoe is quiet. So those are two of your top
- 1:41:55dudes in that game, guys that you look to to lend support to your
- 1:42:00A plus guys and they're not having that game. And also, you know,
- 1:42:04in that game, Michae Hyde and Jordan Poyer are kind of quiet and
- 1:42:08or ineffective. Although that Poyer punch out on Mi Cole Harbon was awesome after
- 1:42:12he chased down pa check out even forced that situation. And I say it
- 1:42:15all the time on the show. You can win with talent or you can
- 1:42:17win with scheme. But for me, at least, despite being one of
- 1:42:20the best teams in the NFL the past several seasons, which the Bills have
- 1:42:24been despite you know, four straight AFC East titles to spent or just spent,
- 1:42:30despite multiple you know, Final four appearances in the AFC, I don't
- 1:42:34think the Bills have been one of the most you know, quote unquote talented
- 1:42:38teams. I think they've definitely been a quality team, but I think they've
- 1:42:41been a quality team that's been more some of its parts than individual standouts.
- 1:42:46And I think it's it's been a team, and I'm fine with this because
- 1:42:48I like building my team this way. I think they've been a team with
- 1:42:50more B pluses and A minuses more than anything else. And the years where
- 1:42:56you've had the chance for all of those parts to come together the time a
- 1:43:00been off. Trey White goes down, Micah High goes down, Jordan Poyer
- 1:43:02gets hurt and is playing banged up. Von goes down, Alan gets banged
- 1:43:06up, Milano goes down, Cole Beasley gets hurt, Daikwon Jones, all
- 1:43:11of these pieces, it seems like that timeline kind of never never meshes well
- 1:43:15with what they have. But that's been a huge piece that prevents this team
- 1:43:21from not getting over the hump. If you look at the Kansas City Chiefs,
- 1:43:26right so, you know they're big three Mahomes, Kelsey Jones. They
- 1:43:30show up every single game pretty much no matter what the Bills have games where
- 1:43:36Alan sometimes doesn't show up, Digs sometimes doesn't show up. And then even
- 1:43:41aside from that, right because those are the Chiefs, you know, three
- 1:43:43top tier dudes, and the Bill's top tier dudes are Alan and Diggs.
- 1:43:46But then if you go across from that, like Lugarius Needs showed up each
- 1:43:50game, McDuffie showed up each game, Justin Reid shows up more often than
- 1:43:56not. Mike Edwards is doing his thing, Kamari Connor is a rookie doing
- 1:44:00his thing. Drew Tranquill is doing this thing, Carl Loftis will play well.
- 1:44:02And if Carloftis isn't having a game, Charles and Menahue was having a
- 1:44:06game. If Tranquill's not doing anything, Nick Bolton is making a play.
- 1:44:10If Bolton wasn't making a play, Willie Gay is going to make a play.
- 1:44:12Like they have this. They have their guys who usually step up,
- 1:44:16and if one of them doesn't, someone else does. And the Bills have
- 1:44:20not gotten into that sweet spot and not gotten in that rhythm of their core
- 1:44:28guys or they're needed guys, their top guys. They haven't gotten into that
- 1:44:31rhythm where their top guys show up or if they don't, someone else steps
- 1:44:36up for them. They haven't had that game where you know Ed Oliver doesn't
- 1:44:40have it today, but you know Tim Settle, he went off today and
- 1:44:44had a great game. You know Greg Russo didn't show up today. But
- 1:44:46aj Avanessa had three sacks and kind of balled out and had all these pressures
- 1:44:49so on and so forth. Or when they do have them, they're not
- 1:44:51coming in these big moments. They're not coming in these playoff games, or
- 1:44:56at least coming against the Chiefs, like you're having that lack of top dudes
- 1:45:00showing up and it's impacting this team. And I think largely some of that
- 1:45:04is just bad luck, right, Like sometimes dudes have bad games. Sometimes
- 1:45:08it's a bad matchup. And again in the case of d Oliver going up
- 1:45:11against the Chiefs, he was up against Joe Toney, all pro left guard,
- 1:45:15one of the best guards in the entire NFL, and Tony got the
- 1:45:17better of them. Ed gave Tony some problems in the previous two matchups when
- 1:45:21they played against the Chiefs, but Tony just got him on the stage and
- 1:45:24absolutely dominated him. Sometimes you get got but then if Ed's getting got,
- 1:45:29okay, someone else has to win. Maybe Jordan Phillips would have helped if
- 1:45:31he was in there. Maybe if Daikwan's one hundred percent, you know,
- 1:45:34we see a different effort at that spot on the interior. But I think
- 1:45:40that's what that piece is, is just not having too many guys not step
- 1:45:47up together and having too many guys go absent. And usually it's those top
- 1:45:51tier dudes that are going absent. But then also no one else is stepping
- 1:45:55up and kind of making a play for them or doing something for them to
- 1:45:58kind of mitigate that lack of that top tier dude stepping up, and that's
- 1:46:01our hard thing to correct for, because how do you correct for that?
- 1:46:03Do you go out and you get better players? Is it a coaching piece?
- 1:46:06Is it the player piece? Is it? Are they banged up or
- 1:46:10they're hurt and we don't really know about it. Are they too worn down
- 1:46:13from the season? Is it a workload issue. There's a multiple reasons or
- 1:46:15multiple variables and reasons as to what as to why we're seeing that and in
- 1:46:20terms of like what we're seeing and why that's manifesting on the field. But
- 1:46:25at the end of the day, the Bills have just had too many losses
- 1:46:28where you are wondering, oh, hey, like where were so and so
- 1:46:33today, or how come we didn't see more from this guy today? And
- 1:46:38it's just been unfortunate and for a team that isn't laiden with top tier talent.
- 1:46:44And I th again, I think the Bills are a very good team.
- 1:46:45I don't want to make it seem like they're not, but they're not
- 1:46:47this team that's loaded with all pro dudes and loaded with these household names.
- 1:46:53So the dudes that you do have, they've got to step up because when
- 1:46:58you're in the playoffs against the Chiefs or against the Bengals or against the Ravens,
- 1:47:02you're going up against teams with multiple all pros, with multiple household names.
- 1:47:06So your guys have to step up and kind of mitigate those dudes,
- 1:47:11and if they don't, someone else has to step up and mitigate those dudes.
- 1:47:14And you're just not getting You're not getting enough from the entire cast.
- 1:47:21I think it's like the best way to put it, there's too many guys
- 1:47:25going absent and not enough guys stepping up. And again, it's hard to
- 1:47:30get everybody to kind of find that sweet spot and find that rhythm where you
- 1:47:33get everybody clicking. And again, so much of it is matchup base right
- 1:47:36if you are playing if you're playing better teams with better players, that's tough.
- 1:47:44You know. Sometimes it's what's the statement, It's not X's and O's,
- 1:47:47it's the Jimmy's and Joe's. I think a lot of times, and
- 1:47:49the Bills have gone into the playoffs against the Chiefs or against the Bengals like
- 1:47:55their Jimmy's and Joe's don't necessarily stack up with the other teams, as Jimmy's
- 1:47:58and Joe's. Think if I said that correctly, and the Bills Jimmy's and
- 1:48:02the Bills Joe's have not balled out like the opponents have, or they're Jimmy's
- 1:48:06and Joe's that you want to rely on. For the Bills, they're hurt
- 1:48:10or they're injured, or they're completely out, or they're playing but they're not
- 1:48:12ready to go, and they're not they're going, but they're sixty percent,
- 1:48:15they're gutting it out. It's just been this rotating door of guys not stepping
- 1:48:21up, guys behind them not stepping up. Somebody, you know, somebody
- 1:48:27that you need to have a good game from, doesn't have a good game
- 1:48:30and nobody steps up to kind of make the difference, or there's too many
- 1:48:32injuries in that position for anyone to make a difference. Or player A has
- 1:48:35been balling out all year and now he's out and doesn't play, or he's
- 1:48:40too hurt and he's a shell himself. It just seems like all these kind
- 1:48:43of rotating door of injuries or poor play or poor execution or poor design.
- 1:48:49At the end of the day, though players are on the field, the
- 1:48:51players make the plays. If the Bills are healthier come playoff time. I
- 1:48:57think a lot of this kind of not solves itself, but it helps significantly.
- 1:49:01I don't want to sit there and say, you know, if the
- 1:49:04Bills are healthy, their top guys are automatically going to step up, you
- 1:49:08know, because again not to keep harping on them, because I think ed
- 1:49:10Oliver had a tremendous twenty twenty three, but I think ed Oliver was largely
- 1:49:14healthy going into that playoff game against Kansas City and you just didn't see what
- 1:49:18you needed to see from Ed Oliver. And again that's just one example,
- 1:49:20but I think if they are healthier as a team, then you have more
- 1:49:27of your B plus guys ready to go. You have more of your B
- 1:49:29guys and your A minus guys. And if you have that, that gives
- 1:49:31you more rotation capabilities. It gives you more of an ability to play matchups
- 1:49:35and do those types of things without having that significant drop off. But at
- 1:49:39the end of the day, the Bills dues needs to show up, and
- 1:49:45that's kind of getting them a little bit like there you just know week in
- 1:49:47and week out and come those big game moments that their dudes kind of disappear
- 1:49:55a little bit, and it's tough to just point it into one thing.
- 1:49:58Like I'm not gonna sit here and say, like, it's the players and
- 1:50:00they suck and they're not doing enough. I'm also not gonna sit here and
- 1:50:01say it's the coaches. The coaches aren't doing it, they're not putting them
- 1:50:04in positions to see. It's a combination of multiple things, which is why
- 1:50:08it's so frustrating, which is why I'm not going to sit here and say,
- 1:50:12you know, here's the one solution, because I don't think it's a
- 1:50:15one solution thing. It's a complicated issue which requires a complicated solution. But
- 1:50:19I think the easiest way to mitigate that, or try and avoid your top
- 1:50:24dudes disappearing or your top guys not stepping up, is to get more top
- 1:50:28guys, to get more B pluses or hopefully land yourself some as or A
- 1:50:33or A plus dudes, or just stay healthy. Right, if you can't
- 1:50:38make your roster better, you have to make sure your guys that are good
- 1:50:42stay healthy. And it just seems like the Bills can never get in that
- 1:50:45right rhythm in terms of their good dudes play well or their good dudes play
- 1:50:49well, and then they get hurt, or they disappear, or they're out,
- 1:50:53or they're playing banged up. There's all of these pieces that just seem
- 1:50:57to not fall in their favor. I think a lot of it, a
- 1:51:00lot of the things we talked about in this episode kind of stems into that
- 1:51:01number one point of just being healthy at the right time. If that happens,
- 1:51:06it tends to mitigate or at least give you a better floor in terms
- 1:51:11of removing variables, kind of putting you at an even position to evaluate and
- 1:51:16kind of see what's going on. But all in all, I don't think
- 1:51:23I don't think this Bills team is far off. Again. I know the
- 1:51:26loss of the Chiefs and the playoffs was ugly. I know it was less
- 1:51:28than ideal, but given what they were working with, like the fact that
- 1:51:32they lost by three and again, it shouldn't have. At the very least,
- 1:51:39we should have seen Mahomes with the ball going down to either get the
- 1:51:44Chiefs to kick a game winning field goal or have to score a touchdown to
- 1:51:46go up ahead of the Bills. So this team just so perplexing year after
- 1:51:53year. Man with the waight that with how they find ways to lose with
- 1:51:57how things fall apart at the wrong time, either execution wise or player wise,
- 1:52:00or coaching wise or health wise. Like it's so frustrating to watch them
- 1:52:05year in and year out. But I don't think I don't think this team
- 1:52:11is far off and it's just gonna come down to one of these years can
- 1:52:15they win those two to five plays that make a difference against the Chiefs or
- 1:52:19against the Ravens. But it seems like for whatever reason, they are destined
- 1:52:24to do this dance with the Chiefs every single year, and with the run
- 1:52:27that the Chiefs are on, at some point you're gonna have to face them.
- 1:52:30So if you face them in the wildcard, or you face them in
- 1:52:32the divisional round, or you face them in the AFC Championship, you're gonna
- 1:52:36have to face them. Like the AFC is going to continue to go through
- 1:52:39the Kansas City Chiefs for as long as Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid, and
- 1:52:43Steve Spagnolo are there. Maybe somebody takes them out at some point, and
- 1:52:46if you're the Bills, you go a playoff run without having to play the
- 1:52:49Chiefs, you potentially see what happens. But at some point you're going to
- 1:52:53have to go through the Kansas City Chiefs and the playoffs, which is how
- 1:52:56this continues to look. It looks like at the very least, they're making
- 1:52:59the play laffs every year. They're probably went in their division every year.
- 1:53:01Cool, can you get home field advantage? Cool? Does that even matter?
- 1:53:04Because they went on the road in Buffalo and went on the road in
- 1:53:08Baltimore and won both. They're just a good football team. And again,
- 1:53:13like I said, it's not just about Kansas City, although I know how
- 1:53:15I made the graphic and titled this episode, but I'm just using him as
- 1:53:17kind of like the torch bearer and the standard for the AFC in the NFL
- 1:53:20obviously because they won the Super Bowl. But you know, in order to
- 1:53:24get over this hump, whether it's Kansas City in particular, or it's just
- 1:53:28getting out of the AFC, or it's just getting past a healthy Bengals team
- 1:53:31or the Ravens if you play them, or I don't know what retold Miami
- 1:53:35team, or we'll see what the Houston Texans become as they get another year.
- 1:53:40What does your two Tank Dell look like? What does your two CJ.
- 1:53:43Stroud look like? What does this offense look like with Nico Collins and
- 1:53:45another year with Slowick and Will Anderson does he take a jump? And Derek
- 1:53:49Stingley, you know, getting another full year, what does he look like
- 1:53:53in year three? And they have money? And what do they do in
- 1:53:55the draft? Like getting past anybody and just getting out of the afcbviously,
- 1:54:00again using the Chiefs as that standard and that example. In order to do
- 1:54:03that, all these things do need to kind of mesh up or mesh and
- 1:54:08match up. For the Bills, you need to get healthy at the right
- 1:54:11time and be healthy come playoff time. Again, having continuity on the offensive
- 1:54:15line will put them in good position to get over the hump in twenty twenty
- 1:54:17four. What you get from the offensive and defensive coordinators, you know,
- 1:54:20new staff in this upcoming season. How much does that narrow the gap or
- 1:54:26push you over the hump or does it set this team back and not work
- 1:54:29out in the way that you wanted it to. And then at the end
- 1:54:31of the day, Yeah, your top dudes showing up and being those top
- 1:54:34dudes, and if they don't, do you have someone else who can step
- 1:54:39up? If you have a plus guys, they have to play like a
- 1:54:42plus guys come playoff time and if they don't cool, how many B pluses
- 1:54:45do you have? How many bees? How many B minuses do you have?
- 1:54:48Do your B plus dudes play like B plus dudes? If they don't,
- 1:54:51do you get a C plus guy who plays like a B plus guy?
- 1:54:55How do you plug those holes? How do you put that puzzle together
- 1:54:59in order to have the Jimmys and Joe show up and bring it when you
- 1:55:01might not necessarily have the x's and o's, or are the x's and os
- 1:55:05so brilliant and so schematically devised and well done that the Jimmies and Joe's don't
- 1:55:10matter because you have the schematic advantage at the end of the day. Oh,
- 1:55:15this is a fair coming here from artist saying I just have feeling the
- 1:55:16only way to get past Kansas City is to have Kelsey and Reid retire.
- 1:55:20I'll tell you what, I don't even think it's as much Kelsey. I
- 1:55:23mean, Kelsey's awesome, and I don't want to like put down Kelsey at
- 1:55:27all, but man, just seeing like what they are with Reid and Spags,
- 1:55:33like, it's gonna be hard to get past Kansas City knowing that they
- 1:55:36have read and Spags like, it's gonna be hard to get past that group,
- 1:55:40and you know who knows. We'll see what Baltimore is now now that
- 1:55:43McDonald has gone. We'll see what ohays Ralph says here. You know what
- 1:55:46do Jim Harbaugh's Chargers, what are they gonna look like coming out of the
- 1:55:49AFC West, Like, I don't know, maybe Antonio Pears unlocks something in
- 1:55:54the Raiders and the Raiders that have always played the chief stuff. I don't
- 1:55:57know, maybe the Raiders suddenly become a player in the AFC, or I
- 1:56:00don't know. There's a multitude of things that can go wrong if you are
- 1:56:03a Bills fan in this Bills team, but they're close. They are still
- 1:56:09one of the best teams in the NFL. The cap situation can be managed
- 1:56:12to bit this offseason. It's not gonna be sunshiny rainbows. They're not going
- 1:56:15out and training for Josh Allen and signing Mike Evans and doing all these crazy
- 1:56:19things. Watch. They probably will do that now and then I'm gonna look
- 1:56:21like a fool. But it's gonna be tough for them to make a big,
- 1:56:24huge splash and free agency. They're gonna have to be smart they're gonna
- 1:56:27have to get good value. They're gonna have to find scheme fits at a
- 1:56:30good cost. They're gonna have to nail this draft. But there are things
- 1:56:33to like with this team, and as they get healthier and come back next
- 1:56:35year, you're still looking at Josh Allen and Stefan Diggs and a year two
- 1:56:39Dalton Kincaid and a year three James Cook and a very good offensive line,
- 1:56:44and another year with group, another year with Ed Oliver and Bernard and Milano
- 1:56:47coming back and becoming maybe one of the best linebacker tandems in the NFL.
- 1:56:51Benford and Russell Douglas. We'll see what you get from Trey White. You
- 1:56:56have an all Pro Nickel and Tarren Johnson. We'll see what happens at safety.
- 1:57:00There is work to be done for this team, but they're close.
- 1:57:02And even with a mass unit of a defense in the Divisional round, man
- 1:57:09that ending of the game, still the Bills should have been in position to
- 1:57:13make the Chiefs have to go down and put points up on the board to
- 1:57:15win that game of the Divisional round. Now, I didn't have a ton
- 1:57:18of faith that the defense is gonna be able to stop them, but still
- 1:57:20you never know. It's just a wild situation for this team to be and
- 1:57:25year after year where it constantly seems like the pieces are there, they just
- 1:57:29don't click. The pieces are there, they just don't click. And I
- 1:57:30don't think that necessarily can be blamed on any one person or any one thing.
- 1:57:33I think a lot of it is just chalked up to the nature of
- 1:57:36football and how hard it is to win a Super Bowl and all the pieces
- 1:57:40that need to align for you to win a championship in the NFL. But
- 1:57:44then also looking inward on this team, yeah, where they have to be
- 1:57:45better as a coaching staff, and be better as a roster and from an
- 1:57:48execution player standpoint, from the players, from the coaches, anything and everything.
- 1:57:53But they're not far off. It's closer than it may seem. So
- 1:57:59you know, how far are the buff Bills from dethroning the Chiefs. I
- 1:58:00don't think they're very far. Again, I know the regular season is different
- 1:58:03from the playoffs, with the Bills continuing to beat the Chiefs in the regular
- 1:58:06season definitely says something. They just got to figure out a way to do
- 1:58:10it in the playoffs, And I don't think it's as far off as it
- 1:58:13may seem, even though it's very demoralizing to continue to lose to this team,
- 1:58:16but we'll see what happens as they go forward. That'll do it for
- 1:58:20us. Here on this episode of Disguised Coverage, from a throw up the
- 1:58:24banner, this says toodles folks. If you have not already, please please
- 1:58:27please and think you drop ake on this video. It goes a sincerely long
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- 1:59:11If you can show some support to the brand, if you care to
- 1:59:14do so and are kind enough to do so. Appreciate all the kind words
- 1:59:17coming through in the chat. Thank you very much. I don't really pull
- 1:59:20them up at the end because I feel corny pulling up kind stuff for myself,
- 1:59:26but I see all the kind words in the comment and I appreciate that.
- 1:59:28Thank you very much. Got yourself some one Pi Pizza. If you
- 1:59:30live in Buffalo or in the Western New York area, or if you're anywhere
- 1:59:33in New York State, make the pilgrimage to Buffalo and get yourself some one
- 1:59:36by Pizza again. Their information can be found in the episode show notes,
- 1:59:39whether here on YouTube or whichever podcasting appor platform you're listening to this show on.
- 1:59:44I'll be live with mister Eric Turner tomorrow night, Wednesday, seven pm
- 1:59:47Eastern for anotherisode of the Cover one Film Room, looking at the bills offensive
- 1:59:54side of the ball, like we did last week for defense, looking at
- 1:59:57traits and skill sets that the Bills will need to replace on the offensive side
- 2:00:00of the ball. All they can find them what they look like, breaking
- 2:00:02it down with film and advanced metrics and all that stuff. So hope see
- 2:00:05you tomorrow night for another episode of the Film Room. If not, I
- 2:00:08will see you next Tuesday, February twentieth, nine pm Eastern for another episode
- 2:00:14of Disguis Coverage again every week live every Tuesday, Disguised Coverage nine pm Eastern,
- 2:00:18and I am one of the co hosts of the Cover one Film Room
- 2:00:21Live every Wednesday, seven pm Eastern. Oh that's awesome, Carl, Thank
- 2:00:25you so much. Carl says, thanks, and as always, use a
- 2:00:28couple of dollars for you. I appreciate the hell out of you, Carl.
- 2:00:30You are You're here every week on Disguys Coverage. I'll see in the
- 2:00:33Film Room a ton as well, like and I just appreciate you being here
- 2:00:36and the comments and the engagement. But thank you for the kind words and
- 2:00:41for the super chat. That's awesome, man, Thank you so much.
- 2:00:43I really appreciate that. That's super cool. I appreciate that. I almost
- 2:00:45go to break it. I also just saw this comment from you saying homes
- 2:00:48can win eight rings and take over the title of the goat from Tom Brady.
- 2:00:51That's fine, but I would like to see the Bills have some luck
- 2:00:55and win one or two Super Bowl rings during that time we have. Josh
- 2:00:57Allen. I brought this comment up because I'm same boat. I don't need
- 2:01:00I would love the Bills to have a dynasty in this huge run. I
- 2:01:03don't need that. Give me just one. I just want one super Bowl.
- 2:01:09That's it. Just give me one. If I got two, if
- 2:01:12the Bills got two, I'm over the moon. But yeah, just give
- 2:01:14me at least one. Man, that would be That would be some kind
- 2:01:16of something. But I appreciate that comment, and again, Carl, thank
- 2:01:19you for the super chat. And I appreciate everyone else with the kind words
- 2:01:23as well. Thank you very much. I hope you and your family and
- 2:01:25friends and loved ones are all doing well and staying safe. Be kind to
- 2:01:28one another, take care of one another. I will see you next Tuesday
- 2:01:30nine pm Eastern for another episode of Disguise coverage or Wednesday seven pm Eastern for
- 2:01:35another episode to recover one film room. Until then, godspeed and as always,
- 2:01:41go Bills.