Latest / Bills Mafia Carolina TAKEOVER / Bills Preseason Week 1: Josh Allen, New Defense & INSANE Roster Depth
Transcript
- Owen Wilson: Bills Mafia. Are you ready? From North Carolina to Buffalo. The Mafia is united. This is your home for the passion, the power, and the pride of the Buffalo Bills. Welcome to Bill's Mafia Carolina Takeover. Bill's Mafia, welcome back to another episode. We took a week off last week just to get prepared as the preseason is upon us. The games have started, and so we are full go. From this point going forward. So super excited. Preseason game number one was in the books and a lot of encouraging signs. It was the first time we got to sol the defense. So really excited to talk a little bit about that this week. And to kick things off, we are gonna start with a little mafia male. The family has. All right. So I got a lot of great e emails over the last couple weeks here. And I got an email from Lacey in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. So headed out in the Midwest. Appreciate you watching the show and ⁓ tuning in. And I wanted to start off with the mafia mail first, because this is gonna lead right into what we're gonna talk about today. So here's Lacey's email. Owen watching the Bills against Carolina, the thing that surprised me the most. was how good the second and third units looked, especially the offensive line. It seems like Buffalo might have have some tough decisions when they when they cut this roster down to 53. You're right about that. Do you think that this is the deepest roster we've seen in Josh Allen's air? And if you had to pick one position group where Buffalo could afford to lose a starter for a few weeks and still be okay, which would it be? Love the show. Go Bills. Yeah. So thank you for the question, Lacey from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Appreciate that. So it seems like Bustle might actually have some tough decisions when they cut the 53-man roster, you said. And and the short answer is yes, but I think every team has a tough task ahead of them at the fifty-three-man roster. Remember, you only get forty-six jerseys on game day. So even if you make the fifty-three, it doesn't quite necessarily mean that you're gonna actually get a jersey. So I think the biggest thing to answer your question here. I think the biggest decision by the Bills is not necessarily the 53 man roster, but it's going to come the game day roster, especially if you end up carrying wide receivers, you know, Keon and all them. Because then then you got to decide Skylar Bell, I know he's hurt, but if he gets if he's healthy and he's able to get out there ⁓ and show that he can really belong here, which I I think Skylar Bell is is going to be a huge asset for the Bills. I've said it all year, but the forty the the game day roster is really where it's going to be more difficult. Lacey for the Bills, and that's figuring out who gets a jersey. Your other question here about the the ⁓ deepest roster that Josh Allen has ever had here. If you go back and look, listen to the few of the first episodes this year, I mentioned that this is the biggest and deepest roster for Josh Allen, not because of the offense, but because what is about to take place on the defense. So, yes, I do think that this is going to be Josh Allen's best roster, possibly best year ⁓ on both sides of the ball. To be able to get this done. Lacey, I appreciate your question from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It's always awesome to hear from people all across the country. If you'd like to get in on the mafia mail, just hit me up at billsmafiac-to- at gmail.com and maybe your email get read next time on Mafia Mail. That's a All right. Thank you again, Lacey from Cedars Rapids, Iowa, for reaching out. Really do appreciate that. And let's get into this preseason game number one. Wrote down some notes here. ⁓ overall takeaway, the team looks deep. That's what I see there. I mean, ⁓ both sides of the ball looks deep. Brandon Bean, since he's been here, has always talked about roster depth, competition on the roster depth. I think that that is the biggest takeaway that I see. It's noticeable across all the roster. Now, look, ⁓ I'm not a big Pre-season guy, you know, I mean, you could go through the years, even when the Bills were shitty. You can go through the years and say, you know, this guy was was good against this team in the preseason. This guy was good against this guy, you know, so forth and so on. It's preseason, right? Like I mentioned earlier, it's the forty six. It's who's gonna get the game day roster. But with that being said, it does look like that the Bills have a really deep roster here. And one thing that Lacey had mentioned in her email, which I didn't ⁓ I didn't mention was if one of the position groups goes down, you know, is there enough backup there? So it really obviously it really depends. I mean, obviously if Josh Allen goes down, that's gonna be about game game over, depending on how long he's he's out for. If it's a week or two, you know, you're fine. You've got enough weapons and James Cook and you know, you've got some backup quarterbacks that's been in there. But if Josh Allen's gonna be out for an extended period of time, it's gonna be really tough. Now, with that being said. The Bills defense, like I mentioned earlier in a f few of the earlier earlier podcasts here, the Bills defense i is not good. It it will win win games for Buffalo. So if if someone like Josh Allen goes out, ⁓ it's definitely dire straights for sure. But the Bills could get a few, maybe sneak a few wins here and there. But really the position groups, you know, preseason, ⁓ just looking back the last couple years, maybe secondary is probably the one area that You know, we don't really know about the secondary right now under Jim Leonard here. So that would be my cautious concern if that somebody in the secondary goes out. What does that look like? Because that hurt us not only last year, but the previous years before that. So I would definitely take a look at that. As far as the depth though, I mean, running back looks deep. I mean, Frank Gore is still there. He's not gonna make the, you know, he's not gonna make the game day roster. He'll he'll be a practice squad guy again. But you look, you got James Cook. You've got Ray Davis, you know, Ty Johnson, depending on his healthy, there. Those those three are going to start there. But the one position group that I was really impressed by and that really jumped off the television was the offensive line. Both the starters and the backups looked great. Now, obviously Tom McGovernor's out here with an injury. He's supposed to be ready to go ⁓ for in the for the week one. So that's gonna be interesting. And, you know, am I ⁓ concerned about that? Certainly, but I d I Like I said, definitely based on the the depth of the offensive line, I think that's the biggest thing that I saw where I feel comfortable enough that somebody's got to be plug and play for a few weeks that that the offense could will continue to go. So look, I mean, the overall big takeaway here the Bills look deep. They look like a deep football team. And ⁓ the offensive line right now is one of the the clearest examples of that, you know, going into preseason week one. Josh Allen looks good. Josh Allen's never not looked good in preseason. Interesting to see what Joe Brady's mindset is when it comes to preseason, if if if he's going to give Josh a little bit more leeway to play in these preseasons. But he looks sharp, right? I mean, he looked sharp, ⁓ look confident, you know, obviously running the offense. Like, you know, and we don't have to harp too much on Josh Allen. He, you know, his head coaches is offensive coordinator. So really all of that is gonna be You know, I mean, a lot of that is not going to be a huge difference there. We talked a lot about the transition isn't going to be a huge deal just based on Joe Brady being the ⁓ head coach there. You know, one of the things that I observed I had to pick something out here, I I believe it was ⁓ around six minutes left in the first. I'm reading my notes here. I think Buffalo was third and fifteen, I think. And ⁓ Josh had a wide open check down on the right hand side, but instead of taking that, you know, Josh being Josh, he looked downfield, try make a bigger play, get it preseason, not a big deal. But, you know, th those are decision makers, right? Those are things that we that, you know, fans have talked about since Josh Allen has been here. Take the check down, right? When it's there. I'm not saying he's gotta be checked down, you know, check down guy, but you know, that third and fifteen there with six minutes to go in the first quarter, you know, that would have been an easy check down and you know, you may be walking away. But, you know, let it behold, ⁓ Carolina gives him fifteen yards on a face mask, then the next play he finds DJ Moore, a strike to Moore, and then the next play is a touchdown. To Keon Coleman. So, yeah, sugar high Josh. That's the type of Josh you're gonna get. We're you know, we're gonna live and die with that Josh, but you know, I I mean, really, overall, Josh Allen just looks like Josh Allen. Okay, the defense, major takeaway, this defense looks as advertised and possibly even better, if that's even possible. Preseason again, ⁓ the first line unit looks nasty. You know, we spent. You know, we spent a lot of time wondering what this defense could be, how this defense could be could look, what is a 3-4 look. And right now it is aggressive, attacking, disruptive. Really, all of the things that everyone has been saying since Jim Leonard's been on here. That is what the defense looks like. TJ Parker, for example, is an absolute menace. He will be an absolute menace. ⁓ the guy Absolutely as advertised, he is disruptive, he's fast for his builds, and he's able to find ways to get into the backfield. And that's one of the things that I think the Bills defense has been lacking is getting the pressure in there. So TJ Parker has looks like an absolute unit. And so I am really excited about TJ Parker and what that looks like. All right, now to flip it back on from TJ Parker to the offensive line, who's got to practice against TJ Parker every every week here. Look, we talked a little bit about it earlier in the show. Offensive line possibly right now may look like the best depth ⁓ position for the Bills. And that's kind of shocking to say, really, when you think about an offensive line. Now, obviously the five starters are legit. They're gonna be there, all pros, you know. But if something were to happen, it does to me right now, it doesn't seem like it's gonna miss a beat. And since Brandon Bean has been here with the Bills and Josh Allen's been the quarterback, that's kind of been the s the MO. I mean, we've filtered in guys here and there during, you know, certain times of the season and it really hasn't skipped a beat. But that offensive line definitely is overall the the deepest roster position that could really Plug and play. The second unit, now again, preseason, ⁓ you know, but the second unit, when they came on the field against Carolina, didn't skip a beat. I felt like played really well, ran the ball extremely well. And that is very encouraging when you're talking about an offensive line. So that's a huge deal for Buffalo. If they're able to find Two guys out of that bat out of the backup offensive line that can play multiple positions, I think that's going to be a huge impact. And also, it's also going to provide possibly down the road for Brandon Bean, a future starter at a cheap rate. So I thought the offensive line did really well on both ones and twos, but ultimately the Bills office line right now after game one appears to have the biggest depth. ⁓ in the whole roster. I wrote down here running back depth. I mean it's it's pretty clear cut and dry. I'm not gonna spend too much time on this. You know, obviously Cook, Ray Davis, and Ty Johnson. Those three stay healthy. Those are going to be your three there. Frank Gore's a nice player. You know, he did well in the preseason, did well last year in the preseason, fan favorite. I totally get that. But ⁓ Frank Gore's not going to see the fields if these three guys are healthy. ⁓ it's just a tough situation for Frank Gore here in Buffalo. Could he could he start somewhere else or be a backup? Probably in another at another team. But ⁓ here in Buffalo right now for Frank Gore, he's still probably gonna be that that fourth man out. So running back depth obviously is gonna be good. But if something were to happen to them, ⁓ any of those three guys, I think Frank Gore would come in, step in and take care of business. All right, special teams. Not a lot of special teams. Interesting to see the punter there. I'm a big special teams guy. Does everybody know? You know. I mean it's game one of basically live action. Did the the kick coverage team do well? No, I didn't think they did well at all. So it's just something to watch. Not too, you know, not too ⁓ concerned about it here after preseason game one. ⁓ certainly last year there was some issues with special teams, especially the kick coverage team. So something to keep an eye on. But yeah, I'm more interested to kind of see the punting aspect of this and see where that goes. And also, you know, Bass, for all the talk in the offseason about Bass not kicking, he missed, I think, one field goal. He seems to be right on track. So, you know, no issues there, Bill's Mafia, as far as special teams go. So my top six biggest takeaways so far after game one against Carolina Panthers. Josh Allen looks sharp, confident, j being Josh Allen, all pro hall of fame, name it what you want. DJ Moore looks absolutely as advertised for Josh Allen. So that's going to be awesome. Number two, the defense looked as advertised or even better than what I anticipated. Super excited to see what that evolves into. Number three, TJ Parker is a menace. He will be a menace for the defense. That's gonna be a huge piece for the Bills. I'm really interested to see how much that goes. Number four, so far after week one preseason game, the offensive line looks Excellent as we would expect, but not only the first stringers, the second stringers look great. There's a lot of depth there for Brand Brandon Bean. That might be a tough area for Bean right now. to Lacey's question ⁓ as far as figuring out how many he wants to keep and how many he's got to let go. Because I felt like after week one, that's the biggest depth section there. Overall, Buffalo's overall roster depth really stands out. Not only on the ro offensive line, but the running back position, like we talked about, you know, those guys, those three guys are in there. Not surprised, but even if one of them does go out, Frank Orr, I think, can step in for a little bit and take care of business. And lastly, number six, biggest takeaways after preseason week one, special teams. Didn't see the punt out there. Curious to see how much we get to see of that in next couple games. My only takeaway from special teams is the kick coverage. Wasn't great. Obviously, it's game one, so I'd want to see what what we look like against Cleveland on game two. All right, Bill's Mafia. It's preseason. We're going to s we're we're going to see some things we love. We're going to see some things that obviously drive us crazy. We still have a whole season to go. And we're probably going to be overreacting, not only during preseason, but certainly during the regular season. But that's the fun part of it, right? But we can't get caught up in that. Right. Pre-season's about finding out who belongs on this football team and about the rookies, the guys fighting for positions in those final roster spots. And from what I have seen so far, and it's early in week one of preseason, there's a lot to be excited about, right? But again, it's preseason. So let's enjoy it. Let's learn something from it. And let's save the real stress. For when the games actually count, because that's what's gonna happen throughout the season. Thanks so much for hanging out with me here at Bill's Mafia Carolina Takeover. You can reach me again at BillsMafiaCto at gmail.com. Make sure you subscribe, like, hit that bell for my new episodes. If you haven't been to our website, it's billsmafia.riverside.com. You can see all the episodes up there. Also, sign up for a newsletter. It comes out every week during a show week. And don't forget to leave comments on the on these videos here. ⁓ I enjoy reading them. I'm getting a ton of other fans interaction, which is really cool. So if you're a fan of another team and you disagree with me, drop in the comments. We'll we'll we'll talk about it. And as always, be good, do good, God bless, go Bills. That's a wrap on today's episode of Bill's Mafia Carolina Takeover. Thanks for tuning in and repping the mafia with us. Don't forget to subscribe, drop your mafia mail, and join us next time as we bring the passion, the pride, and the power of the Buffalo Bills straight from the Carolinas. Let's go, Buffalo!