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Buffalo Bills 2024 Defensive Questions, Superlatives, & Expectations | DC · Disguised Coverage

• 0:00
  It's thirty eight. All bills can win In here, Wake puts it down.
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  The kick is on the way and dock m the bell good one?
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  How the hell that one home? How one? They were a party one
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  not party way? Incredible? Why not combat by my bell? Jacksonville's perfect
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  record on the line right here, quick kicking, look excited. Touchdown Kyle
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  Williams touchdound amazing, unbelievable. They puttied william who's hats to full back and
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  he scores a touchdown. It's wealthier to face tackle. What's good? Folks,
• 1:17
  Family Friends, loved ones, Enemies for Enemies, Wizards which is Muggles,
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  mud Bloods, people of Middle Earth. To another episode of disguise Coverage.
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  The only podcast that gives you an equal amount of blueberries in each muffin
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  and is presented by the best Pizza in Buffalo, New York, and that
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  is one PI Pizza. You can find me online menu in the episode show
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  notes, whether here on YouTube or whichever podcasting app or platform you're listening to
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  this show on. I'm your host, Anthony Prohaska. Find me on Twitter
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  at pro Underscore Underscore and that's pro two Underscores A n T in tonight's episode
• 1:46
  of Disguise Coverage, we will be diving into some specific questions about the Buffalo
• 1:51
  Bills twenty twenty four defense and also handing out slash placing some superlatives on certain
• 1:57
  position groups, certain players, certain peace, certain aspects, diving into a
• 2:01
  lot of aspects on that side of the ball where I think there's a fair
• 2:07
  amount of questions, and I think most people think there are a fair amount
• 2:08
  of questions given just the dialogue, it seems to be surrounding the defense with
• 2:13
  all the on the field and off the field changes that we are seeing.
• 2:15
  So there should be some differences in this upcoming season that are significant versus years
• 2:23
  past. From an overall schematic standpoint coaching, standpoint player standpoint, maybe rotations,
• 2:27
  usage rates, coverages, a whole bunch of things. We're going to
• 2:30
  dive into some of those aspects tonight in this episode. And when I say
• 2:34
  we, that is because I am not alone. I am joined by one
• 2:37
  of my favorite guests, and that is mister Bruce Nolan. Bruce, I
• 2:42
  appreciate you taking the time to join me. You're fantastic, welcome to the
• 2:45
  show. Thank you for having me once again. I feel like I've been
• 2:49
  like an honorary co host the last couple of months. I've been on a
• 2:53
  couple of times the last couple of months. I will say, you put
• 2:58
  me after Mena times and the knee like you know, I think the last
• 3:02
  time I fail. I think the last time I had you on after Dan
• 3:06
  Brugler, Yes you did. I think it was Dane and then Bruce and
• 3:09
  then Mina and then Bruce. So you know this is not a this is
• 3:14
  not a very nice way to treat your honor at co host. I gotta
• 3:15
  be honest, I'm sorry. You know. It's funny as I knew so
• 3:20
  one I like to take advantage of. You know you are currently a free
• 3:24
  agent, and as you make your decision on your podcasting future, while you
• 3:29
  have the time, I'm purely just soaking up every free minute that you have
• 3:32
  because I know, and for those who don't know, behind the scenes Tuesday
• 3:37
  nights, there's usually Bruce has to make the time to be able to join
• 3:40
  me on the show because of his previous recording schedule and just general things in
• 3:46
  life. So now that I know you have a brief opening for a small
• 3:49
  semblance of time, I'm trying to take advantage of that in every way that
• 3:52
  I can by getting you on the show as much as I can. But
• 3:54
  it's pure it's purely ironic and coincidental that I've had you are on after two
• 4:00
  big guest. But as when I asked you and you said yes, like
• 4:03
  the day after, I was like, oh crapy, I guarantee he says
• 4:06
  something because he's after Mina, just like he was after Bruce. So that
• 4:10
  was not that was not on purpose. I apologize. I'm not offended.
• 4:12
  I don't have to listen. Anyone who's listened to my content for any meaningful
• 4:15
  time. They know what they're getting at this point. I don't think anybody
• 4:18
  is surprised by anything they get from Bruce at this point. I don't think
• 4:23
  I'm throwing anybody into curveballs. So whether I come after Mina, whether I
• 4:28
  come after Dane, whether I come before somebody who's never podcasted before in their
• 4:31
  entire life, I think either way, the expectations are going to be pretty
• 4:36
  well set. That's fair. You're a known quantity at this point. I
• 4:41
  think you have a high floor, also a pretty high ceiling. I think
• 4:43
  the trajectory is still there. I'm gritty, try hard, first guy in
• 4:46
  the locker room, you know, last first guy in the building, last
• 4:48
  guy out. The Quicker than fast is what I think. Quicker than fast,
• 4:54
  great attitude. You're a lead, the guy you wanted that you want
• 4:59
  to like marry your dog type of guy like that, super heavy, heady
• 5:01
  player. Well done. I like it. Well done, Bruce. As
• 5:09
  we start to dive into some of the specifics of this episode with the specific
• 5:13
  questions and the superlatives we will be handing out overall high level Bill's defense in
• 5:19
  twenty twenty four, I alluded to it briefly in the intro. You and
• 5:24
  I talked about it in the multiple episodes we did leading up up to the
• 5:27
  NFL Draft and then coming out of the draft, and we talked about,
• 5:30
  you know, how this team takes shape after the Bills had their draft class
• 5:32
  come in and kind of made everything finalized. We're you at on this defense
• 5:35
  from a high level standpoint or is there any one thing that's on your mind
• 5:41
  or one player? Do you have an overarching thought or anything that you're wondering
• 5:45
  like when you think about this Bill's twenty twenty four defense. You know,
• 5:47
  as we start to head into this where's your head at just the right level
• 5:54
  of newness, That's what I think. That's where I'm at. I'm excited
• 5:59
  for the Buffalo Bill's defense. I'm excited for a different play caller. Oh
• 6:01
  though Sean mcdermoty did a good job last year. I'm excited about some newer,
• 6:05
  younger players. I am excited about something a little bit different. I
• 6:11
  don't think you ever won an overhaul. But you want a dash of something
• 6:15
  new, a dash of a revamp. Your dash of a revamp. You
• 6:18
  don't wanna You don't want to rebuild. You want to reload, right,
• 6:21
  you want to tweak. You want Defense two point zero. You want the
• 6:27
  remastered version of the Defense, the definitive edition. Right, It's it's you
• 6:32
  continue back. This is Skyrim getting milked for everything it possibly can by Todd
• 6:38
  Howard eleven years after it released. Right, that's the reason why it happened
• 6:42
  in twenty twenty two. They're all like, no, no, no,
• 6:44
  no, this is the definitive version of Skyrim. Right, you're just lesper
• 6:47
  rating on the same things over and over and over again. So for me,
• 6:51
  it's just the right level of newness. It's enough newness for me.
• 6:55
  To be excited, but not so much newness that I think that the floor
• 6:59
  is going to drop out. And so for me, that's the nice that's
• 7:01
  a nice balance, because if it's the same thing over and over again,
• 7:05
  you go back to the whole Einstein thing, right, definition of insanity,
• 7:09
  repeating the same action over and over again, expecting different results. Right,
• 7:12
  same input, same outfit, same output. Right, trash data in trash
• 7:16
  data out right. So I'm not saying the Buffalo Bills defense was trash,
• 7:20
  but I think that we've gone on record as saying they've underperformed the playoffs relative
• 7:26
  to the way they performed in the regular season. And if you just roll
• 7:30
  back the exact same thing, I think that there wouldn't be a lot of
• 7:33
  reason for optimism because at that point you'd be going the entire season going,
• 7:39
  well, yeah, they're playing well, but let's wait for the defense to
• 7:43
  show up in the playoffs. That's what you would be saying. But this
• 7:46
  year, if they perform well in the regular season, then it's yes,
• 7:49
  they're performing well in the regular season, but they're doing it with different players,
• 7:53
  they're doing it with a different play caller. It gives you excitement that
• 7:56
  they could do it in the playoffs. So that's exactly what I mean where
• 7:59
  I say just enough newness within that, just you know, enough for just
• 8:05
  that right amount of newness. If you do have any trepidation, where does
• 8:09
  that trepidation lie? And if answering that spoils one of your answers later,
• 8:15
  feel free to say it's a spoiler. So I'm not gonna answer it's a
• 8:18
  spoiler for question number five. Okay, that's what I figured, and that's
• 8:20
  mombo number five, So I can't spool that. Not Maroon five, not
• 8:26
  Maroon five. I'm more of a lou Beg a guy. Okay, you
• 8:28
  know, then what's the lead singer of Maroon five? Adam something, Adam
• 8:33
  Levine, Adam Levine. Yes, yes, yes, he's a he's at
• 8:37
  a payphone trying to call home. Yes exactly, I understand. But he's
• 8:39
  at a payphone trying to spoil number five, and lou Beg is like,
• 8:43
  not gonna have it right? So so well did? All right, We're
• 8:50
  gonna jump right into it for the first question that we will uh first question
• 8:58
  segment that we will be tackling in this episode is who will be the most
• 9:03
  important player for the Buffalo Bills Defense in twenty twenty four, And Bruce,
• 9:07
  one of the reasons I really like to have you on the show is when
• 9:11
  you answer things, you define them in a specific way that I think is
• 9:16
  usually very helpful towards a lot of people because I think it puts questions and
• 9:20
  labels into perspective for people. And with a superlative like this and a label
• 9:24
  like this most important player for the Bills defense in twenty twenty four, before
• 9:28
  you give your answer on who that player is, how did you define important
• 9:33
  or most important? What were your criteria? What were your anchor points or
• 9:37
  pieces you were hanging your head on for this answer. So, in typical
• 9:39
  Bruce fashion, my definition for important was exactly the same as it was when
• 9:45
  you and I did the project with Joe Marino for Locked on Bills where we
• 9:48
  defined the top ten most important players for the Buffalo Bills. The difference is
• 9:54
  the word future was not in this prompt, but it was in Joe Marino's
• 9:58
  prompt. But the the definition of important remains the same. So the way
• 10:01
  that I define important is this, I take the gap between the best case
• 10:07
  scenario and the worst case scenario for that individual player then I say, okay,
• 10:13
  how much is that swing one way or another going to affect the team.
• 10:18
  So if they were to swing from their worst case to their best case,
• 10:22
  how does that affect the team in this case the defense. And if
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  they were to swing from the best case to the worst case, how does
• 10:28
  that affect the team? In this case the defense. So my number four
• 10:33
  and number five players on Joe Marino's top ten most important players the future of
• 10:37
  the Buffalo Bills were Gregor Russo and at Oliver in that order, four and
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  five, neck and neck. And here's the reason why. At Oliver,
• 10:46
  to Ryan's point in the comments, is already awesome. That's not the question.
• 10:52
  The question is not the best player. It's the most important. And
• 10:56
  I'm going to tell you why I picked Groot over at Oliver. It's due
• 11:00
  to the swing. Gregor Rousseau was off to a really good start in twenty
• 11:05
  twenty three, and he fought through an injury and I just think he kind
• 11:09
  of leveled out a little bit. I don't think we got a chance to
• 11:11
  really see the ascension the way that we thought we were going to direct.
• 11:15
  Now he doesn't have a ten sack guy on the opposite side for him in
• 11:20
  Floyd, and I think that the pass rushing, specifically off the end,
• 11:26
  is a question for this Buffalo Bills team. A lot of us thought that
• 11:28
  they could potentially invest a Day two pick in a pass rusher, and they
• 11:33
  didn't. Javon Salivan round five, that's what you get. So for me,
• 11:39
  it's a if gregor Rousseau hits the ceiling, which I am projecting at
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  where he was trending toward in twenty twenty three before the injury, which is
• 11:50
  probably an eight to nine sack guy, I think that makes a really big
• 11:54
  difference for the Buffalo Bills because he's already an elite run defender, yes right
• 11:58
  Nowtely, he was the lead run of vendor as a rookie. He was
• 12:01
  one of the best, I think in terms of stops and stop percentage,
• 12:05
  like right out of the bat as a rookie, and aspect that I was
• 12:07
  the show. Yes, I walked in and I wasn't expecting that like that
• 12:09
  level of top tier run defense play right out of the gate, And you
• 12:13
  hope you're going to get that with the length, right, that's what you
• 12:16
  hope you're going to get from from group. But you also hope that you're
• 12:18
  going to get disengagement pass rushing moves, and a lot of people when he
• 12:22
  was coming out, they were like, Okay, what do you do with
• 12:24
  him? Do you make him like a five tech and turn him into like
• 12:26
  an Eric Armstead sort of a player. And that's what I kind of thought
• 12:31
  maybe a team might do with him when they drafted him. But then the
• 12:35
  Bills drafted him as a four to three defensive end and played him on the
• 12:37
  edge, and he has not reduced down inside the way that I thought he
• 12:41
  was going to to the level that I thought he was going to. And
• 12:43
  so now you have even less of a depth on the edge, which means
• 12:48
  you're probably not going to get that, which means the development's going to have
• 12:52
  to come in traditional pass rush moves on the outside, and you're not going
• 12:56
  to have Letard Floyd on the other side. So, in his best case
• 12:58
  scenari this whole defensive line gets a lift on a pass rush standpoint, in
• 13:03
  his worst case scenario, the Bills don't get a lot of rush on the
• 13:07
  outside. Yes, and then you have to hope that Ajppenessa's efficiency holds up
• 13:13
  in much greater In much greater volume, and you just can't count on that.
• 13:16
  I would love if aj Appenes's efficiency picked up. I mean, if
• 13:20
  you have six and a half snaps on six and a half sacks on the
• 13:22
  amount of snaps that he gets, and then he gets a full time load,
• 13:26
  all of a sudden, he's a ten sac guy. But that's not
• 13:28
  how that works. You don't just take the fractions and multiply him out.
• 13:31
  So for me, that's the reason why I went with Crew instead of at
• 13:35
  Oliver. And I'll tell you why I had to draw the line. If
• 13:39
  worst case scenario free at Oliver, we still have Daikwon Jones, who was
• 13:43
  playing out of his marbles at the beginning of twenty twenty three. And I
• 13:48
  don't have the same concern about Daikwon Jones and the age that other people do,
• 13:52
  not only because it's a position that has historically aged really well into your
• 13:56
  mid thirties, but also we don't have to do that whole He come back
• 14:00
  from the peck injury. We saw him after the back. He came back
• 14:01
  and he was playing well, so I don't need to pull that hole.
• 14:05
  Well. I sure hope he recovers. You know, the way he was
• 14:07
  looking before No, he was playing well when he came back, and so
• 14:13
  I think Daikwon Jones was playing at a higher level than Ajmpanessa was. So
• 14:16
  it's kind of like, I'm making this determination based on my confidence level in
• 14:22
  their running mate, and my confidence level in their running mate matters a lot
• 14:24
  more in worst case scenarios. So that's how I defined important. That's the
• 14:28
  reason why I went with Gregor Russo. That is how I drew the line
• 14:31
  between him and at Oliver. Did you struggle with this answer at all in
• 14:37
  terms of like figuring out who made the cut or once you defined it like
• 14:41
  landing on groot, Like was there any type of consternation for you? And
• 14:46
  I went back and forth because at Oliver has hit a level that Gregor Russo,
• 14:52
  in my opinion, hasn't hit yet. So for me that was the
• 14:56
  struggle. But I have to play the best case incenario definitions versus the worst
• 15:01
  case scenario definitions. So let's put money, let's put numbers on it for
• 15:03
  a second. Okay, Let's say, for example, that everybody's worst case
• 15:09
  scenario is a zero. Okay, everybody's worst case scenario is zero because you
• 15:13
  uh suffer a career ending injury the first day of training camp. That's your
• 15:16
  worst case scenario. Okay, the best case scenario for at Oliver, We've
• 15:22
  already seen a really really good player. It's like an eight out of ten.
• 15:24
  Right. The best case scenario for like a Groot right might be a
• 15:31
  seven out of ten. Right, Well, that's fine. Now the question
• 15:33
  is right now you think, okay, at Oliver's got a bigger swing,
• 15:37
  Right, That's what I had initially went to. There's eight points there,
• 15:41
  and there's seven points difference for gregor Rousso then you say, okay, how
• 15:46
  many of those points get made up by your running mate? What's that difference?
• 15:50
  Go? Okay? Right? And I felt more comfortable in saying Daikwon
• 15:54
  Jones can pick up a lot. I also feel much more comfortable with the
• 15:56
  defensive tackle depth this year than I did last year. Jordan Phillips and Tim
• 16:02
  Settle, I think both got upgraded from this offseason, and I feel less
• 16:07
  confident in the defensive end depth, especially since you didn't draft one in day
• 16:14
  On Day two, you signed Casey two Hill, you drafted Javon Solomon.
• 16:18
  You know, let's you signed Ajpanessa and you said, okay, let's go
• 16:22
  so for me, that's the reason why I had to draw that line,
• 16:27
  and that's how I did it. I like it. I like your definition
• 16:30
  of it. I like how you came to your answer. I asked them
• 16:34
  about if there was any consternation for you, because I legitimately struggled with this
• 16:38
  question after posing it to you and really settling out my answers. And I
• 16:44
  define it similarly to how you do in terms of like most important player,
• 16:47
  like what is like the best case scenario for like that player and also that
• 16:51
  particular position, and what's the worst case scenario for that player and for that
• 16:56
  particular position, So like ceilings and floors and realistic experts combined with what that
• 17:00
  position and or position group looks like as well. In previous years, I
• 17:07
  probably would have said Taron Johnson just because of how good I think he is,
• 17:11
  how tremendously difficult the slot and the apex is in football today. It
• 17:17
  just with what you have to do. I really, and I say this
• 17:19
  every off season. I wish slock corners and apex players in general got more
• 17:23
  shine and more importance on them in terms of discussion because of how much of
• 17:29
  a premium position and for me, personally, I think that position is but
• 17:32
  I think some more people are starting to come around to that notion and the
• 17:34
  idea. And in previous years I really did not like what was behind Taron
• 17:40
  Johnson, and I was very I found it very worrisome. I still don't
• 17:42
  love what's behind Taron Johnson right now. But and this is maybe me probably
• 17:48
  forecasting or wish casting a little bit. Though Cole Bishop is a safety,
• 17:53
  I still think he's best suited anywhere near and in and around the line of
• 17:57
  scrimmage. Like we talked about, I think he's best suit as like a
• 18:00
  monster man Apex big Nickel, slot hybrid type of dude. If something were
• 18:06
  to happen to Taron Johnson, I feel a little more comfortable knowing they do
• 18:10
  have kind of a break glass in case of emergency option, potentially putting Cole
• 18:12
  Bishop there. Now. I don't know if that's in the cards for them,
• 18:15
  or if they even see him as that, or they purely see him
• 18:18
  as a deep safety and as a buzz safety robber type of guy, and
• 18:22
  slot Apex big Nickel is out of the question for them, But in my
• 18:26
  mind I see him as being kind of like a safety net a piece,
• 18:30
  and I like that much better than I do Cam Lewis or sarn Neil or
• 18:33
  anybody who's been an option for Taron Johnson in the past. So Tarran was
• 18:38
  gonna be my answer, and then I backed off him a little bit,
• 18:41
  and then I went to the defensive line. Who is the defensive line is
• 18:45
  the engine for this team? And I started playing all the games in my
• 18:48
  head, similar to kind of what you did to break it all down.
• 18:52
  I ended up moving off a defensive line. I went back to the second
• 18:53
  level. And so after Tarn I was surprisingly thinking of Bernard and Milano,
• 18:59
  but I ended up only on that Milano and it really because of that.
• 19:03
  And it's funny because I feel better about the linebacker group this year. I
• 19:07
  don't love the depth behind Milano and Bernard, but you know, having Moro
• 19:11
  as somebody who's seen all these snaps and seeing all these looks with Philly,
• 19:14
  and even though he's not great, knowing you have some semblance of a known
• 19:17
  quantity and floor there. And maybe Dorian Williams has an uptick inspector does some
• 19:22
  nice things at times. YadA, YadA. I don't love everybody from a
• 19:25
  depth standpoint, but you have functional depth behind Milano and Bernard, which I
• 19:29
  do like, but the high level and the ceiling for what man Milano is
• 19:33
  is an All Pro player and we've seen him at that spot, and I
• 19:37
  just think he moves the defense to a tier above than what it is without
• 19:42
  him. If you have a good defense, he makes you a great defense.
• 19:45
  If you have a great defense, he can take your defense to top
• 19:48
  five type of category and regularity. And I found myself like because the positional
• 19:55
  value at linebacker isn't necessarily their lead wide and especially considering it's a position that
• 20:03
  is pretty dependent on what happens in front of you. If you don't get
• 20:07
  good defensive line play and you don't get dudes that can kind of help you
• 20:11
  from a functional standpoint, you're not necessarily a sit and duck at the linebacker
• 20:15
  spot, but you will struggle. We saw it in You know, ray
• 20:18
  Lewis is a Hall of Fame linebacker, arguably the greatest linebacker of all time.
• 20:21
  There's a big difference in ray Lewis play when he in between like the
• 20:26
  Sam Adams years and the Halodi Natty years, those dark years when he didn't
• 20:30
  have that kind of protection in front of him on the defensive line, there
• 20:33
  was a difference in his play in terms of how hard he had to work
• 20:36
  and how much he was kind of handcuffed or limited because he didn't have the
• 20:38
  freedom to work. Despite that being said, my answer here is Matt Malone,
• 20:44
  you know, being the most important player for the Bill's defense in twenty
• 20:47
  twenty four. And some of it really starts to come back into like the
• 20:49
  league wide trends that we're seeing with running the football kind of coming back in
• 20:55
  vogue and into fashion. I think second level defenders are are going to be
• 21:00
  of even more importance now because you already had to be athletic enough to play
• 21:04
  the pass, but if you weren't physical or violent enough to play the run,
• 21:08
  you could kind of get away with that because top tier offenses were probably
• 21:12
  just going to be passing offenses. Teams weren't really running the ball the time.
• 21:15
  If they were, they were probably running zone, so you really just
• 21:18
  needed an athletic linebacker to flow sideline to sideline. Now you're getting more downhill
• 21:23
  runs, you're getting more gap runs. Teams are running duo, teams are
• 21:26
  running inside zone, powers coming back gt counter, and teams are running quarterbacks
• 21:30
  are running read option and the QB bash and all this kind of stuff.
• 21:33
  So second level defenders are of even more importance now to be athletic enough to
• 21:37
  play the pass and simultaneously physical and violent enough to play the run. Then
• 21:44
  you take everything Matt Molonald can do in coverage, spot drop, match man
• 21:48
  coverages he can blitz. I think he adds another layer creeper and simulated pressures
• 21:52
  and the Bills five man pressure packages which were tremendous, all three of those
• 21:56
  creeper sims and five man pressure packages and six man pressure stuff even though they
• 22:00
  didn't want a ton of it. To start the year with Milana was on
• 22:02
  fire, and he adds another level of that because of his anticipation, his
• 22:07
  quickness, his ability to shoot gaps, but also playing coverage in a variety
• 22:11
  of ways. And this is the guy who his last fully healthy season,
• 22:14
  which was in twenty twenty two, so his most recent full season and in
• 22:17
  all pro season, he had the lowest quarterback rating when targeted amongst eighty qualifying
• 22:22
  linebackers. If you add corners to that mix, he had the lowest QB
• 22:26
  rating. He had the eighteenth lowest QB rating when targeted out of two hundred
• 22:30
  qualifying players, and he was the only linebacker in the top twenty five and
• 22:33
  out of one hundred and sixty five players of any position. Defensively, he
• 22:37
  had the fifth lowest EPA per target allowed in twenty twenty two and the lowest
• 22:41
  amongst linebackers, and also the ninth lowest total EPA overall and the lowest for
• 22:48
  linebackers. I just think he makes he moves that needle so significantly. And
• 22:55
  I briefly thought of Bernard because of the air traffic controller role that he play
• 23:00
  last year and the bridge that he was for the defense in general, especially
• 23:03
  between the back end and the defensive line, merging the back end and the
• 23:07
  front. How smart he is, his football IQ, his functional football intelligence,
• 23:11
  and even his quick trigger and how he sees the game and what he
• 23:15
  can do versus the run in the past. But just seeing I just think
• 23:18
  Milano is the better player. And I know Bernard Bernard I think is a
• 23:22
  force multiplier mentally, but I think Milano has shades of that as well that
• 23:27
  he doesn't get credit for. And then the force multiplier that he is from
• 23:32
  a physical standpoint versus the pass and versus the run. I think he elevates
• 23:36
  everyone's game. That was a big component for this answer for me as well,
• 23:40
  like how much of a force multiplier are you? How difficult is your
• 23:45
  position? How important is your position overall? Specifically in this defense, what
• 23:48
  does the rest of the position group look like? And so Tarn was in
• 23:52
  that conversation. Then I went to the d line that I went back to
• 23:55
  the second level because of the reasons that I said, and so Bernard was
• 23:57
  in that conversation. For me, I settled on Milano just because I think
• 24:02
  he significantly moves that needle more given what his high level is. And granted
• 24:07
  we don't know what Bernard's ceiling is because he hasn't hit it yet. His
• 24:10
  ceiling could be equal to Milanal's, maybe potentially even better. But to your
• 24:15
  point, I think expecting that or expecting that kind of jump or that type
• 24:18
  of trajectory isn't a guarantee. So I'm not betting on that. I'm betting
• 24:23
  on the known quantity. And we've seen Matt Malona play tremendous football, and
• 24:27
  you know he's been playing at an all pro level for years, even if
• 24:30
  he hasn't officially been declared that more than one season. And so my answer
• 24:33
  is, Matt Milana. I thought about Milano. I went with the same
• 24:37
  logic. I have more faith in the running mate. I have more faith
• 24:41
  in Bernard being able to hold down, you know, the second level if
• 24:45
  Milano were to get hurt, because of course we've seen that. Yeah,
• 24:49
  we've seen Sean McDermott, you know, until the playoffs anyway, be able
• 24:56
  to keep a second level together with duct tape and Bailey wire. And so
• 25:00
  for me that I went the exact same logic. I thought about Milana long
• 25:03
  and long and hard, and I was like, you know what I I
• 25:07
  I'm gonna use consistent logic, which is why I went back around and see
• 25:11
  that's that was in my head too. I was like, well, we've
• 25:12
  seen the defense with a Milano and they were able to hold their own,
• 25:15
  which but it's not the same. Because they held their own doesn't mean they
• 25:19
  were great. Yes, it doesn't mean to have a lot of exactly,
• 25:22
  And today's defense it's about getting explosive plays on offense and getting explosive plays on
• 25:29
  defense and stopping explosive plays on defense. And Mount Milano is an explosive play
• 25:33
  walking around. You know, he'll just go get you a bucket on defense
• 25:37
  and those kind of defenders, people who can make impact plays that canstall drives,
• 25:41
  turn the ball over. You know you need that in today's NFL.
• 25:47
  So you know that just way it works. Yeah, Well, I'm glad
• 25:51
  you maybe made a consideration for you and it's it's a fun conversation, I
• 25:53
  think because I think you, I legitimately think you could ask like ten people
• 25:56
  for their answer and you could get ten different answers and ten to combinations,
• 26:00
  especially if you're just focusing on twenty twenty four and you're not talking about future.
• 26:03
  You're talking about just this one individual season in and of itself. Anything
• 26:08
  else on this topic before we move on, No, because it's nine thirty
• 26:12
  and we're through one question. But honestly, we're pretty good. We did.
• 26:18
  We stalled a little bit because you had computer updates, so I think
• 26:21
  from on airtime we're not great, but we're doing decent. But we didn't
• 26:25
  have that delay in the beginning. But I feel you, and we'll move
• 26:26
  on. Next. Superlative question label, however you want to phrase it,
• 26:32
  the defensive player that will exceed expectations the most in twenty twenty four for the
• 26:37
  Buffalo Bills. Who do you got for this one? It's Gregor Ussau again.
• 26:41
  And the reason that is is because I think expectations are understandably lower because
• 26:45
  of last year, and I don't think enough people are taking into consideration the
• 26:48
  injuries that he was fighting through last year because it really wasn't a super public
• 26:52
  thing, and so I think that the expectations has been set low enough for
• 26:56
  Gregory Russau that just staying healthy, I think people will be impressed with what
• 27:02
  they get from Gregor Russou. So it's about expectations minus reality equals disappointment.
• 27:07
  And I think the expectations for him are low, and so the reason why
• 27:10
  I feel comfortable saying he'll exceed them is because if I get the same level
• 27:15
  of play from Gregor Russou that I got the beginning of twenty twenty three over
• 27:18
  the course of an entire year relative to expectations, you know, publicly,
• 27:22
  I think that's gonna that's gonna be meaningful, and so other people, you
• 27:26
  know, you get hype around rookies, so those things you can't really I
• 27:30
  can't really use them because I need something where the difference between expectation and reality
• 27:33
  would be significant. So for me, I'm going gregor Usso again, I'm
• 27:40
  with the edge grouping like you are Gruso or Grouso. I can't I guess
• 27:45
  that kind of works Greg Russo. I can just combine it and say Gruso
• 27:47
  like Grussou. Absolutely, I might just try and make that we are Grouso.
• 27:52
  I like it. I like that VPG. See you get it,
• 27:55
  You're right here. I thought about Groot for me really and obviously with the
• 28:00
  question. For me, it really was that expectation level in terms of the
• 28:06
  expectation I have for a player, the expectations that I think a lot of
• 28:10
  people have for a player, like what the consensus expectation level is relative to
• 28:15
  who they are. I'm gonna go with aj Panessa just because, And again
• 28:19
  for me, it's more of the expectation level, Like I think the expectation
• 28:22
  level for Epinessa is lower than what Groots is, and I think how far
• 28:29
  Apanessa could exceed those expectations is larger than what group can. Granted, I
• 28:33
  think Groot is a better player and will be a better player and more important
• 28:37
  player for this defense in twenty twenty four, but I feel like that's not
• 28:40
  the prompt. What do you mean that what you say? You know,
• 28:42
  I think I think it's a better players, but that's not the prompt.
• 28:45
  So you're making a really good range point here, and that's exactly what it
• 28:49
  is for me. Like I think Groot is going to end up up here
• 28:52
  and aj Panessa will be here, but I think groops expectations are like here
• 28:57
  and Epanessa's are more down. Think Abnessa's are a bit lower. But I
• 29:00
  just wanted to keep this other hand on camera. But that's samply what it
• 29:03
  is. Like. I just think he's and understandably I feel like he's a
• 29:07
  bit of an afterthought within the defense. So again this answer comes down to
• 29:12
  know how little he's spoken of versus how well I think he can do.
• 29:15
  And you mentioned some of his stats and some of the pieces. So in
• 29:18
  twenty twenty three, amongst one hundred and eighteen qualifying edges, he was tied
• 29:22
  for twenty seventh in pass rush productivity. Pass rus productivity is a formula that
• 29:27
  combined sacks, hits, and hurries relative to how many times a player rushes
• 29:32
  the passer. He was only three spots behind Greg Russo and only two tenths
• 29:37
  of a point behind him in overall PRP score. He was also tied for
• 29:41
  first imbedded passes and something that he showed a legitimate knack for. It was
• 29:45
  not accidental. He's deflecting passes, he's knocking him down, he's popping them
• 29:48
  up into the air. His ability to drop off into coverage the pick six
• 29:52
  touchdown against Washington wasn't accidental. The way he plays the route in front of
• 29:59
  him and the out behind him, and how he spaces Sam Howell scrambling and
• 30:03
  running towards him like he makes a very good football play and puts the onus
• 30:07
  onto Sam Howell to make that play. Howell tries to make a play,
• 30:11
  and then Epinessa uses his size and length and frame to jump up and snatch
• 30:15
  the ballt of the air and then house it. Just what he showed in
• 30:18
  that regard taking his game to another level. I thought his run defense also
• 30:22
  improved, even at the back end of twenty twenty two, really starting with
• 30:26
  the Bears game. Granted, he was pretty poor and run defense before that,
• 30:30
  so it was kind of one of those like nowhere really to go but
• 30:32
  up from here, But he improved that aspect in twenty twenty three, and
• 30:36
  I think overall, by year's end, we could see aj Apanessa creep up
• 30:41
  into a low end Edge two type of role. So again, somebody who's
• 30:45
  not the sexiest and he's not this to use that phrasing again, I don't
• 30:48
  think he's going to be a guy that can go and get you a bucket.
• 30:51
  But I think right now he's very much in a conversation of like,
• 30:55
  okay, you know he's a high end Edge four or a good or solid
• 31:00
  like Edge three. I think is the kind of the consensus or the expectation
• 31:03
  level for him. I think the plays that he can make this year and
• 31:06
  where he can get his game too, I think will be a low end
• 31:10
  Edge two if all things go right. And then Groot was in. You
• 31:12
  know, I'm not going to hammer home too much on it because you spoke
• 31:15
  so well about him, but Groot, for me, I think is in
• 31:18
  a similar situation where I think he's an Edge one against the run, one
• 31:23
  of the best in the league. I think he's more of an Edge two,
• 31:26
  mid tier to low in terms of overall like ability into the quarterback consistently,
• 31:30
  though his metrics aren't bad. If he hits, I think he could
• 31:34
  be an overall complete edge one. I just don't think that jump is as
• 31:38
  great as the jump that Epanessa can be made relative to where he is now
• 31:42
  and what those expectations are. Anything else on this piece before we move forward.
• 31:48
  No, let's do it. I like it. I like it all
• 31:51
  right. Next segment label superlative question the individual starting defensive player that you are
• 31:59
  most concerned about or wary of in twenty twenty four, Assuming Taylor rap as
• 32:06
  a starter, It's Taylor Rapp. Okay, I was in the bucket of
• 32:08
  people who I don't think Taylor Rapp played all that well last year. And
• 32:13
  when the Bills resigned him and he was like, Hey, you know,
• 32:15
  I'm gonna come here and I'm gonna compete for a starting job, I was
• 32:17
  like, really, so are we Are we sure about it? Like?
• 32:22
  Are we just gonna like we're not gonna talk about this, We're not No
• 32:27
  one's gonna fight him or anything like that. We're just letting us happen,
• 32:30
  like this was just what we're doing. I was just looking around, like,
• 32:31
  am I taking crazy bills here? And it feels to me like the
• 32:35
  only thing people remember about Taylor Rapp last year was the interception against Tua tonguama
• 32:39
  Loa to help seal the Bill's AFC East crown. And I'm like, well,
• 32:44
  he played four hundred and twenty other snaps and we do we watch the
• 32:50
  rest of them because I didn't think he played all that well last year.
• 32:52
  Now there's the whole well, you know, second season in the system and
• 32:55
  things like that, and well he was he was playing a little bit more
• 32:59
  out of position, and I was, okay, you know all the built
• 33:02
  in stuff, but if you just project out the way that he played before
• 33:09
  and the way he played now, and then you look at the remainder of
• 33:13
  the defense, right known quantity, Right, Gregor Russo we've already talked about
• 33:17
  today. Even I think injured last year was still a perfectly solid player,
• 33:23
  right, Yes, AJPNSA. You're projecting out a little bit, but you're
• 33:27
  hoping for efficiency to stay with increased volume. But even if efficiency doesn't say,
• 33:34
  but just general talent level does, then you're like, Okay, you
• 33:37
  can still rotate in and you're fine. At Oliver and Daquon Jones not an
• 33:39
  issue. Taren Johnson not an issue. Matt Milano not an issue. I
• 33:45
  mean, okay, Christian Benford I think is really good. So I don't
• 33:51
  know why we don't talk about I mean, I I thought about him here
• 33:54
  just because of like being injured in back to back seasons and that potentially worrying
• 33:59
  me. But if we're talking about just like as a player, no,
• 34:01
  I'm not concerned or I think he's Christian Benford at the end of this year
• 34:05
  could be a legitimate high end CB two or potentially a low tier CB one
• 34:08
  with how his trajectory has been. He's very, very good, and he
• 34:12
  might be one of the best kept secrets in the NFL. And it feels
• 34:14
  like the Bills specialize in players like that for a long time. Of course,
• 34:17
  it was Kyle Williams and Matt Mulano and you know, now apparently it's
• 34:22
  Terrell Bernard based on some comments on social media. Nobody knows actually how good
• 34:24
  he is and Christian Benford, Khalil Shakiir and you know, so it's got
• 34:30
  to be a safety, right Like, Based on that, I think it's
• 34:34
  got to be a safety. And I don't know if you can really use
• 34:37
  Cole Bishop, assuming he becomes a starter, you can't really use him because
• 34:39
  you don't really know anything. Is the second round pick, you don't wan
• 34:44
  so almost by default, it becomes Taylor Rapp if he's one of the starter
• 34:50
  safeties. The other option is it's Mike Edwards and Cole Bishop are the starting
• 34:55
  safeties and Taylor Rap's not the guy. He's the third guy. But I'm
• 35:00
  operating the assumption Cold Bishop's not gonna roll out there week one is a starting
• 35:04
  safety. So for me, if it's Mike Edwards and Taylor Rap, I'm
• 35:07
  going with Taylor Rapp. I came close to giving Rap, actually he was.
• 35:13
  I was super torn. It could have been a toss up between both
• 35:15
  of these guys. One is gonna be kind of a surprise, But the
• 35:16
  way I define it I think will hopefully make a bit more sense. Rap
• 35:20
  was in this boat for me. The safety group as a whole is very
• 35:22
  interesting. We talked about it when I had you on the show to kind
• 35:25
  of recap the draft in terms of going forward and what it means for position
• 35:29
  groups. Yeah, I don't know what the safety group is gonna look like.
• 35:32
  Is it wrapping Edwards, is it wrapping Bishop? Is it Edwards and
• 35:36
  Bishop? I like Cole Bishop in terms of again, like I talked about
• 35:39
  more of like an apex monster man, I liked him more in like a
• 35:43
  Patriots defense or Ravens defense than I do him as either hide or a ployer.
• 35:49
  Like I think the farther he gets away from the line of scrimmage,
• 35:52
  the worse he gets. Not that he's terrible like by or any stretch of
• 35:54
  the imagination, just that he's better coming forward and better the closer he is
• 35:59
  in an around on the line of scrimmage. And so yeah, if it's
• 36:02
  rap, if we're just talking about an individual overall player standpoint, it's rap.
• 36:07
  Edwards doesn't move the needle for me. But I think like if you
• 36:12
  look at Mike Edwards's game overall, like it pretty much everything, he's like
• 36:15
  a six and a half, which isn't great and isn't sexy, especially compared
• 36:19
  to what the Bills have had its safety in prior years. But I don't
• 36:22
  think there's any one area where he's super deficient. Like I think he's a
• 36:24
  reliable dude, good head on his shoulders, part of multiple Super Bowl winning
• 36:29
  defenses, Like those little pieces kind of balance out a lot and mitigate some
• 36:35
  things for me, And again, I don't think he's the overly deficient in
• 36:37
  any one area. I thought Rap showed some deficiencies at times last year.
• 36:40
  Bishop to your point, we can't make any any estimation or analysis on what
• 36:45
  he is because there is no known quantity of him at the NFL level.
• 36:49
  So Rap was gonna be my answer, just again kind of like buy,
• 36:52
  you know, default, because if we're looking at the other starters everywhere,
• 36:54
  the camera's out of focus and driving me nuts. There we go like Benford
• 36:58
  no, Russell Douglas no, Bernardo Milano no, Taron Johnson no. And
• 37:02
  the defensive line starters not really, but one. I have one kind of
• 37:07
  dark horse answer, and I'll give it since you talked about Rap, and
• 37:09
  I don't want to double up. But this might seem ridiculous because he's one
• 37:15
  of the best players on the defense and had an absolutely phenomenal year last year.
• 37:19
  But I'm a bit concerned about slash wary of Ed Oliver when it comes
• 37:24
  to these big time playoff moments and these big time playoff games. And I
• 37:30
  don't the Cincinnati game was an ideal for him or anyone on that defense.
• 37:34
  But I don't rake him over the Coals too much because how much quick passing
• 37:37
  the Bengals had in that game, And there actually were times where Ed Oliver
• 37:40
  won up front, but the ball got out in like one point nine seconds,
• 37:44
  and it just wasn't humanly possible through physics for anybody to get to Burrow
• 37:47
  and make anything happen. Like the the lack of marriage between the front and
• 37:52
  coverage in that game against Cincinnati was overwhelmingly terrible and guys didn't really have a
• 37:59
  chance to get home up front. Did you scream at the All twenty two?
• 38:00
  Because I did. Oh, it was just it. It was one
• 38:05
  of those games I don't have a lot of I'm obviously a Bills fan,
• 38:07
  but I'm more of a football fan than I am a Bills fan. So
• 38:10
  even in the losses, they suck to go back and watch on tape,
• 38:14
  but I'll watch it and still find some things that I like or even have
• 38:17
  an appreciation for the other team or the other players. That game was a
• 38:21
  game where I just did not want to watch the Bills defense like the All
• 38:23
  twenty two, and I felt like every play I wanted to claw my eyes
• 38:27
  out. It was just so and still with right now, with that game
• 38:31
  against the Bengals. I don't get obviously, I'm not an NFL coach,
• 38:36
  like you're not an NFL coach, like Leslie Fraser and Sean McDermott will have
• 38:38
  forgotten more about football than you or I will ever know about football. But
• 38:44
  I really just think like we could have had a better game plan than what
• 38:46
  they had in that game, And like it's still mind boggling to me,
• 38:51
  like going back and thinking about it and watching it, and everybody holistically struggled
• 38:54
  from the game plan to the execution on the field at Alvert didn't have an
• 38:59
  impact in that game, but no one really did. Again, I think
• 39:00
  a lot of that was comatic and game plan pieces. The big one that
• 39:04
  really worried me was just seeing how much he got erased by Joe Tooney in
• 39:07
  that game against Kansas City, And I know they were banged up on defense
• 39:14
  significantly, and so a lot of his support pieces, his anchor players on
• 39:17
  that side of the ball that could have made a difference, those different difference
• 39:21
  makers and impact makers weren't necessarily there. So there was more of a focus
• 39:24
  on him. But without Milano, with Alt Bernard, with Leonard Floyd,
• 39:29
  maybe kind of being banged up, with Rasul Douglass being banged up, with
• 39:32
  Christian Benford being out, with Daikwon Jones being in there, but maybe not
• 39:37
  one hundred percent, with Greg Russeau kind of getting healthier, but not necessarily
• 39:40
  himself. For a guy that's supposed to be an impact player and who had
• 39:45
  a tremendous twenty twenty three, you needed him to make more of an impact
• 39:49
  than ever. And I say that to put into perspective. His twenty twenty
• 39:52
  three was phenomenal amongst one hundred and twenty nine qualifying defensive tackles. Last year,
• 39:57
  he was fourth in total pressures, tied for in pass rush productivity,
• 40:00
  fourth and hurries, and fourth in sacks. Like he had a monster of
• 40:06
  a year. He registered at least two pressures in every single game last year.
• 40:10
  In twenty twenty three, in the wildcard round against Pittsburgh, he had
• 40:14
  seven pressures. In that game against Kansas City, he had no pressures,
• 40:17
  one tackle, zero stops, and a lot of what was happening in that
• 40:22
  game was Joe Tooney just beating the hell out of him left and right and
• 40:25
  just not allowing him to get any semblance of a win. And I take
• 40:30
  that game, and I think of him against more elite competition and what that
• 40:35
  potentially looks like. And on the whole, I think at Olow's is a
• 40:38
  very good player and he's a very important player for this Bill's team. The
• 40:43
  only reason I throw him out as like concerned about or wary of is if
• 40:46
  the Bills get to the playoffs and they play a team with like elite interior
• 40:51
  play going into that week, in the back of my mind, is going
• 40:53
  to be is ed gonna get erased in this game? Or how much of
• 40:57
  an impact can he make? And that's the only reason I put him kind
• 41:00
  of into this conversation. That's fair. I think part of the joy of
• 41:05
  questions like this is seeing the methodology differences between the way you approach him,
• 41:08
  and you say, okay, well I define it this way, so I
• 41:12
  came up with this, Well I define it this way, so I came
• 41:14
  up with this. It's a little bit like It's a little bit like when
• 41:19
  you sit with your wife and you're watching television and you pause it for a
• 41:22
  second, you turn the person, they go, hey, do you think
• 41:24
  that guy's hot? Do you think you think that you think that girl's hot?
• 41:29
  And then then there comes this whole thing where you're like, well,
• 41:30
  it's define hot, right, and it turns into an episode of the Office
• 41:35
  where it's like, you know, the question was is she hot? Not?
• 41:38
  What do her? And who is it? Who are they asking about?
• 41:43
  It's what's you're facing? A million dollar baby? Right, a million
• 41:45
  dollar baby? And from karate kid three? Oh what's her name? All
• 41:50
  right? Hold on, hold on here, it's gonna Hillary. Thank you?
• 41:58
  Okay, sorry, I continue. That was gonna drive me now.
• 42:00
  Yeah, And so that's that's the difference. The difference is that different methodologies
• 42:04
  need you do on different paths, and how you define hot, or how
• 42:07
  you define concerned or how you define wary, right, change is the trajectory
• 42:12
  of the question. So I think that's part of the part of the joy
• 42:14
  of the questions like this. Yeah, that's why it's a fun exercise and
• 42:16
  why I wanted to do this exercise in this episode with you. But if
• 42:20
  we had to throw it out there to if what we anticipate the starting lineups
• 42:24
  to be, my answer is Taylor rap. But this is just one little
• 42:29
  like nugget that sticks in the back of my mind. And also too,
• 42:31
  because you said rap, I was like, well, I don't want this
• 42:34
  segment to just be like ten seconds long, so before anything else, before
• 42:37
  we move on to the next one. All right, So the next question
• 42:42
  label superlative. The position group that you feel most confident in on the Bills
• 42:47
  defense in twenty twenty four is it's the linebackers. And I'm gonna go ahead
• 42:52
  and count. I'm gonna cheat. I am going to say second level defenders
• 42:57
  in Nickel and I'm gonna include Taron John. I think you have three legitimate
• 43:01
  all pro level players. Oh wow, Okay, Soar is in that conversation
• 43:07
  for you. Bernard was so good last year. Bernard was so good last
• 43:10
  year. I was. I was legitimately floored because we had like, you
• 43:14
  know, seven snaps and we were all analyzing the exact same seven snaps Jets
• 43:20
  right the game against the Jets. The entire twenty twenty three offseason was just
• 43:23
  us watching the Jets game on rapeat and going, well, you know,
• 43:27
  there's something there, or there's not anything there. I don't know what there
• 43:29
  is that there. And I'm messaging Eric back and forth like hey, did
• 43:30
  you watch the Jets game? Hey? Yeah? How many times? Twenty
• 43:32
  twenty four yeah, okay, And so I think that for me, that's
• 43:38
  the most talented position group if you count Taron Johnson, which he's a linebacker,
• 43:44
  in basically in this scenario, the most talented position group on the team.
• 43:51
  And I think you've backfilled a lot of depth. I feel better about
• 43:53
  linebacker depth this year than I did last year. I don't think you're gonna
• 43:57
  be calling aj Klein off the couch when he's got to go on vacation,
• 44:00
  and that's good, you know, knock on wood. So for me,
• 44:04
  it's it's the linebackers. I'm gonna talk a little bit like both sides of
• 44:08
  my mouth here and go. I'm gonna go with a different one because you
• 44:10
  said linebackers. Linebacker was here for me, which is also what made me
• 44:15
  feel conflicted about saying like Matt Milano was the most important player of the defense.
• 44:17
  But that's just how highly I view Matt Milano is that even in a
• 44:21
  position group that I'm confident in holistically, he's such a difference maker and moves
• 44:25
  the needle for me schematically so far that that's why he ended up being my
• 44:30
  answer for the first one for our first one in terms of the most important
• 44:32
  player. I am confident the linebackers though, like we said, like again,
• 44:36
  I don't think Nicholas Morrow is the sexiest like linebacker three if he is
• 44:39
  the one who wins linebacker three. But I'm cool having a dude who just
• 44:44
  started the handful and significant majority of games for a team that was viewed as
• 44:49
  one of the best teams in the NFL last year in the Philadelphia Eagles until
• 44:52
  they really fell apart, especially defensively kind of midway towards the end of the
• 44:54
  year playoff experience. He was a dude that was on the Bills radar several
• 44:58
  years ago. Again, You're never gonna get to a spot where like your
• 45:01
  third string guy is like this all pro waiting in the wings. Like there's
• 45:06
  very few I don't know, like San Francisco forty nine, or scenarios where
• 45:09
  it's like, oh, if Warner or dream Law go out, they have
• 45:12
  like, uh, what's what's what's his face? Who went to the Titans
• 45:15
  last year on a free agent Al Shy here like all these dudes where it
• 45:20
  just seems like whoever they plug in, or it's like, oh man,
• 45:22
  they Dray Greenlaw went down, Like what are they gonna do? And then
• 45:24
  Burke steps in and is nasty like, there's very few teams that are just
• 45:28
  loaded at these spots or have these guys that are kind of, you know,
• 45:31
  unfound or unheard of gems. So I think Moro again being like a
• 45:35
  linebacker three. Who knows, maybe Deane Jones still has something in the tank.
• 45:37
  And then again you've got Spector, You've got Dorny and Williams. I
• 45:40
  think overall, the functionality and the depth of that spot is good. So
• 45:45
  linebacker was in this one. For me, I was torn between it,
• 45:47
  but when you spoke on it, I'm gonna go with my other one.
• 45:50
  And this is where I really kind of speak out of both sides of my
• 45:52
  mouth a little bit with the line with the linebacker spot Malano. But I'm
• 45:58
  gonna say edge but for a very very very specific reason, and I want
• 46:00
  to clarify it because I don't love the edge grouping and I'm very, very
• 46:05
  very concerned about where their top tier production is going to come from from a
• 46:10
  pass rush standpoint. Yeah, we already talked about what Greg Russo is.
• 46:14
  Gregrusso is edge one on this team. He's not an edge one from a
• 46:17
  pass rush standpoint. Right now. He very well could be if especially if
• 46:22
  he can stay healthy this year. But given what I expect from von Miller,
• 46:27
  which we're gonna get into in a bit in this episode, I think
• 46:30
  you have a bunch of B level players at edge, which gives you a
• 46:34
  solid rotation, albeit in lieu of having multiple A level players or a dude
• 46:38
  who can get you a bucket at any point and win in io ball Greg
• 46:42
  Russo, Ajpanessa, Von Miller, Duan Smoot, which I think is an
• 46:45
  underrated signing Casey two Hill, Javon, Solomon, Kingsley, Jonathan. Whatever
• 46:50
  four or five man combo you have from that, I think gives you a
• 46:52
  fine like NFL caliber floor from anywhere to like up to like kind of six
• 46:59
  five and a half maybe, Guys, the problem is the ceiling is limited.
• 47:01
  I think you can schematically generate pressure while having a group of edges that
• 47:07
  offer athleticism and run defense. And again the problem with that is you're just
• 47:13
  missing that do that can straight up get you a bucket versus the pass.
• 47:15
  Again, Groot is the closest to that, but he isn't a surefire thing,
• 47:20
  so you need you need to schematically generate pressure because you don't have any
• 47:23
  one guy who can win in any moment and or you don't have like multiple
• 47:27
  high level pass rushers. So the edge grouping. I didn't expect this for
• 47:30
  like to be my answer here because I'm it's such a concern point for me
• 47:35
  because I don't know, like, who is edge two on this team from
• 47:38
  a pass rush standpoint? Is it Von Miller? Is it Aja Panessa?
• 47:42
  Is it someone else? Is Groot still just gonna be an edge two from
• 47:45
  a past rus standpoint? Can he take that step and be an edge one
• 47:49
  from a pass rus standpoint and be more of a complete player when you factor
• 47:52
  in what he is against the path or against the run. I have so
• 47:54
  many questions about the edge grouping from a top tier stepoint in terms of like,
• 48:01
  okay, can anybody be like a B plus or an A minus or
• 48:05
  an A guy. But when you look at it, although it isn't sexy
• 48:07
  and it's not fun, and there is more onus on the coordinator and the
• 48:14
  coaching staff to kind of scheme things up, I think having a bunch of
• 48:16
  B B minus level dudes who can all rotate in and give you high effort
• 48:22
  athleticism and nastiness from you know, a run defense standpoint, with some schematic
• 48:28
  generation possibility baked in there, it could be worse. Although I don't love
• 48:32
  the top tier aspects, so linebacker is that answer for me. But edge
• 48:37
  was a sneaky one that I didn't see myself leaning into. But when I
• 48:39
  looked at it holistically, as much as I'm underwhelmed by that group from a
• 48:44
  top end, top shelf standpoint, I think from a depth standpoint and just
• 48:47
  solid rotation, having a bunch of B level dudes isn't a horrible thing these
• 48:53
  degrees do we go there? I was waiting. I was like, I
• 48:58
  wonder if he's gonna have something like to go. I like that, I'd
• 49:01
  like it. I like that. Yeah, spoiler, I did anything on
• 49:07
  that before we move on to our next one. No, all right,
• 49:09
  flip side of that position group you are most concerned about and or wary of
• 49:15
  on defense in twenty twenty four, it's safety. Oh, it's safety,
• 49:20
  and it's right behind defensive end for me. So as far as the positional
• 49:24
  groups go, it goes linebackers, corner, defensive tackle, defensive end,
• 49:30
  safety, Okay, in that order. And it's not because we lost Micah
• 49:37
  Hyde and Jordan Poyer. Michael Hyde and Jordan Poyer, I think this was
• 49:40
  quite frankly the perfect time to move off both those players. They lost a
• 49:45
  step. They weren't the hide and Ployer that we put our faith in and
• 49:47
  nicknamed ourselves after. Yes, absolutely I do. Do we determine what we
• 49:52
  are anymore? Because we were the Jordan Poyer and Michah Hyde of Bill's Mafia
• 49:55
  content creation, and now now I don't know what we are. Are we
• 49:59
  the Oliver and Dakwon Jones. I'd rather be the Matt Milano and Terrel Bernard.
• 50:04
  But I really like defensive backs more than linebackers. So I don't know
• 50:07
  what to do. It's tough. We'll figure it out. It'll it'll come
• 50:10
  to us in a in a stroke of lightning. We will have a we
• 50:14
  will have an apostrophe instead of an epiphany. Have you seen Hook? Yes?
• 50:19
  Okay, so he gets the joke that So for those of you listening
• 50:21
  who don't know what you know what I'm talking about. So Bob Hoskins plays
• 50:23
  Shmi in the movie Hook, which is a great movie from the early nineties.
• 50:29
  I think about Peter Pan and Robin Williams plays Peter Banning, who is
• 50:35
  a lawyer in uh in England, I think, and uh. He realizes
• 50:43
  that he's actually Peter Pan and he had just forgotten and they go back and
• 50:46
  well Bob Hoskins plays Shmi and he goes he's talking to Captain Hook and he
• 50:52
  says, I just had an upholstrophe. And he says, I think you
• 50:55
  mean an epiphany. He goes, Lightning has just struck Momber and then he
• 51:00
  goes on about the whole idea that he just had about turning Peter kids against
• 51:06
  him. But that's a great that's a great movie. It is a great
• 51:08
  movie. I watched it the other day and I thought to myself, you
• 51:10
  know, they don't make movies like this anymore. The Cole swashbuckling adventure like
• 51:15
  the Goonies and Hook and things like that. Those types of movies don't exist
• 51:19
  anymore. They don't do that. I always found the lore of like Peter
• 51:22
  Pan, and specifically that movie where like he leaves and then comes back and
• 51:30
  is Peter Pan but can't remember and then he figures, like even just that
• 51:34
  whole scene of when things finally click and the table fills up with food because
• 51:37
  everything comes back to him and like he remembers, he imagines it, he
• 51:43
  imagines it, so it shows up, yes, and it just and like
• 51:45
  when he remembers how to crow and the whole banger ring piece. I'm also
• 51:49
  Peter Pan is also one, Like there's very few things that I've wanted,
• 51:52
  not from just a violent standpoint, but I think deserve like more of an
• 51:55
  R rated type of movie and the whole concept of like basically these like child
• 52:00
  soldiers fighting all these grown men pirates and dueling them to the death. Like
• 52:04
  there's something people we talk about that that we don't talk about direct. The
• 52:07
  same same thing with like Power Rangers, they're basically elite super soldiers that are
• 52:12
  getting like shot up and having PTSD and all this crazy stuff. And then
• 52:15
  the other one teenage mutant ninja Turtles. They're walking, They're walking ninjas with
• 52:20
  blades, Like all of their weapons are blades. Well, Michael angels nunchucks,
• 52:24
  yep, and Donna Tello is the bow staff. But like Raphael and
• 52:28
  Leonardle should be slicing dudes up, and like don Tello and Michelangelo should be
• 52:32
  causing like bone breaks and blood and like shredder in the foot are just like
• 52:36
  nasty like that, you know, so it's all fine, yeah, but
• 52:38
  yeah they're teenagers and pizza and they're led by rats, so ha ha ha
• 52:42
  all jokes, but like, no, we need an R rated like Logan
• 52:45
  style type of teenage mutant ninja turtles because at the end of the day,
• 52:49
  they're turtles, but their assassins. We got a rufio from the comments section.
• 52:55
  The one thing I always say, well, last night, I always
• 52:58
  if anybody tries the like with me and my friend group, if anybody tries
• 53:01
  to like take something from someone or like leave someone behind, we always give
• 53:06
  the rufio line of like I got pans sword on the pan now, and
• 53:09
  it's just just that's just the one thing I was like, Okay, I'm
• 53:13
  down. I'm down for it. So for me, it's safety anyway.
• 53:16
  The original prompt in case we forgot the group that you're most concerned or worried
• 53:22
  about, it's safety. And it's not because we lost Jordan Poyer and like
• 53:25
  a high it's because the best, most reliable, most sure thing you have
• 53:32
  back there at this point is Mike Edwards. M Fair. That's why so
• 53:39
  damar Hamlin at absolute peak. Damar Hamlin was a lot of fun to watch
• 53:45
  come downhill against the run, and I thought he struggled in coverage. Cole
• 53:50
  Bishop is a rookie and has we have no idea what we're going to get
• 53:52
  there. We've already mentioned Taylor rap and so for me, you gotta go,
• 53:57
  you know, four men deep, and then all this sudden you're like,
• 54:00
  I still don't feel great, And so for me it's safety. I
• 54:05
  am the most concerned about it. However, I want to caveat it with
• 54:09
  this. Oh, Sean McDermott has earned trust on defensive backs. The man
• 54:17
  can turn a back seven full of insurance agents and garbage collectors into a competent
• 54:24
  secondary using duct tape, bailing wire, smoking mirrors. Right, He's done
• 54:30
  it over and over and over again the Panthers and again with the Bills and
• 54:36
  over just you just lose really talented players all the time, and just oh,
• 54:40
  what's that? Levi Wallace becomes a completely reasonable starter for multiple years on
• 54:45
  a really good defense. Sure you know, Dane Jackson, plug him in,
• 54:49
  let's go. And so for me, that's the way that I feel
• 54:52
  about the safeties. Yes, I'm concerned about the talent level, but that
• 54:58
  concern is still pretty high floor or because of who we're dealing with. I
• 55:01
  like the way you phrase that because I echo a lot of the same sentiments
• 55:07
  here real quick. For Steve Yes, Justin Simmons is still out there,
• 55:10
  so is Quandre Diggs, who I like a little bit more than Simmons,
• 55:15
  mainly just because of cost and the type of game that he plays. But
• 55:17
  yeah, there's some good safety they're still out there on that market. Safety
• 55:22
  is up there for me as well, for all the reasons that you've said,
• 55:23
  So I'm not going to dwell on it too much. I just worry
• 55:27
  about how schematically limited the defense may be because of the skill sets and body
• 55:34
  types you have back there at safety. But then on the flip side of
• 55:37
  it again, you have this coach and Sean McDermott, who has just again
• 55:42
  your metaphor analogy aspect of what he's been able to do and what he's been
• 55:45
  able to get out of dudes is spot on. So I'm not even gonna
• 55:47
  try to make one like he just gets the most blood out of that stone.
• 55:51
  I just don't know how much blood there is in the safety stone with
• 55:54
  what's back there, And again Cole Bishop is a huge part of that conversation,
• 55:58
  but it's still very much TBD and we don't know anything on him right
• 56:02
  now from an NFL known quantity standpoint, So safety is up there for me.
• 56:08
  Sneaky one for me is corner not because of the starters. If you
• 56:14
  told me for the entire year that it was going to be Rasul Douglas and
• 56:17
  Christian Benford, I am not worrying about anything with the cornerback grouping. I
• 56:22
  think Rasoul Douglas played like a CB one last year. I hate that he
• 56:25
  got hurt going into that Kansas City game because I feel like, also what
• 56:29
  I'm about to say could be said of like seven different Bills players. But
• 56:32
  if Rasoul Douglas was healthy going into that game against Kansas City, I think
• 56:36
  there's a different kind of defensive performance in that game. But you could just
• 56:37
  see him trying to chase down dudes, like his lower body he just not
• 56:42
  had did not have it with how he was banged up going into that game.
• 56:45
  So Douglas and Benford, I am very very very happy with kyri Elam.
• 56:51
  I want to believe in kyri Elam kind of like Robin Williams, you
• 56:53
  don't wanted to believe, but he just could, and then eventually he did.
• 56:57
  I want to believe in Kyrie Elam, I just don't right now.
• 57:00
  And he's cornerback three. And with how corners get banged up in general,
• 57:04
  let alone with Christian Benfer getting banged up both points or in both seasons thus
• 57:07
  far in his career, kyri Eland is probably gonna see time in twenty twenty
• 57:12
  four and things could one hundred percent work out and Kyrie Elm could become the
• 57:16
  prince that was promised. I'm not writing him off in any way, shape
• 57:20
  or form. I'm not ready to close the door or close the book on
• 57:22
  him at all. I'm just not confident in him seeing regular starter reps.
• 57:27
  And I hope the coaching change works out with the Die being back there instead
• 57:30
  of Butler. I hope there's some sort of new defensive direction that unlocks things
• 57:35
  for him mentally or physically. But Elm being your three and then JaMarcus Ingram
• 57:39
  being your four, who I like but more in the slot, that just
• 57:44
  has me wary a little bit. And again just specifically with Elom, for
• 57:47
  me, it's it's it's just the way he panics at the top of routes,
• 57:50
  like he'll be in good positions but or in good position, but at
• 57:53
  the top of routes or at the route breaks, he panics. He gets
• 57:57
  grabby. Because of that panic, along with poor at work, he reaches,
• 58:00
  he lunges, he grabs back to back seasons in camp, they've had
• 58:04
  to construct special like gloves and circumstances for him because he gets so grabby and
• 58:07
  drills and one on one and we've seen it show its ugly head at multiple
• 58:14
  points throughout his rookie year and throughout year two. So again I'm not closing
• 58:19
  the door on him. I'm not writing him off and saying that they should
• 58:22
  trade him or be done with him. I just don't believe in Kyri Elam.
• 58:24
  And I feel great about the starters Douglas and Benford, but it's so
• 58:30
  rare for both of your corners to just last an entire season. So you're
• 58:34
  gonna corner Corner three is gonna see action, Corner four is probably going to
• 58:37
  see action. And I don't feel great about Kyrie Elam, I don't feel
• 58:40
  great about JaMarcus Ingram, And then also again talking about both sides of my
• 58:45
  mouth the specific aspect that I am very wary of, and if we're just
• 58:50
  talking about one isolated skill set piece, I might be the most concerned about
• 58:55
  pass rush off the edge just because I don't like I talked about it again.
• 58:59
  I'm not gonna drill to home too much on it because I spoke about
• 59:01
  on the last segment, But I am concerned about who's gonna give that pass
• 59:05
  rush pop off the edge, aside from like we're hoping that it's group and
• 59:09
  he takes that jump and then someone else does in some way, shape or
• 59:14
  form, But a lot of it just seems very like hope based and like,
• 59:17
  well, if this happens, then there's a lot of ifs and hopes
• 59:21
  when it comes to the pass rush pop from the edge grouping SOULF, I'm
• 59:23
  talking about one specific aspect that's arguably the thing I'm most concerned about. But
• 59:29
  then yeah, it's safety and it's corner for me, just because I think
• 59:32
  that depth is gonna get tested at corner and I am not confident in corner
• 59:36
  three and corner four anything else on this before we move on to our next
• 59:39
  one. Fair But we also got a Brucio from the comments section, and
• 59:46
  that I'm assuming in the rhythm of Rufio and now I kind of feel like
• 59:51
  I need that, so you go with it. I feel like you need
• 59:53
  to incorporate it somehow, some way. Yeah, I'll figure out. I'll
• 59:57
  figure it out. I'll work shop it, I'll work shop it work.
• 1:00:00
  I think there's a photoshop to be done there. I think anything else before
• 1:00:05
  we move on to the next Ah, all right, mister von Miller.
• 1:00:09
  Expectations for him in twenty twenty four better than last year, not peak von
• 1:00:15
  Miller, not close to peak von Miller. I would go with a contributor
• 1:00:22
  in twenty twenty four. How do you and how do you define contributor?
• 1:00:25
  Well, last year he was not a contributor, so just better than So
• 1:00:30
  let's go with that. Better than last year. Last year it was every
• 1:00:34
  single week it was Why is von Miller on the field right now? He's
• 1:00:37
  completely ineffective. Why is he on the field right now? He's not staying
• 1:00:42
  disciplined in his rush lanes, which is to be fair, always kind of
• 1:00:45
  been a von Miller thing, you know, going way too far upfield.
• 1:00:47
  But he could get away with it because he made splash places and splash plays
• 1:00:51
  in the past game, and he wasn't aking splash plays in the past game.
• 1:00:54
  And so for me, a contributor to me is is what my exs
• 1:01:00
  are, which is a step above last year. But I don't think I
• 1:01:04
  know that Vaughn is the most positive, you know, speaking manifestation person on
• 1:01:07
  the planet. The idea that we're going to get something even close to being
• 1:01:12
  peak von Miller at this point is just I just I can't get there mentally.
• 1:01:15
  So for me, contributor is where I'm going with what do you think
• 1:01:19
  his ceiling is? Like if all things click, everything goes right, what
• 1:01:23
  is like the top level of production? However you want to quantify it?
• 1:01:28
  Hal okay, and oh man, that's fair. I'm putting it into so
• 1:01:35
  I defined it just by like kind of edge one, edge two, edge
• 1:01:38
  three type of aspect. I feel like the high end for von Miller this
• 1:01:43
  year, like if things hit is kind of in line with the six and
• 1:01:45
  a half sax piece. Like my high end for him is an edge three
• 1:01:50
  or like a low end edge two. I think realistically we're looking at him
• 1:01:54
  being like a mid or lower tier three or I defined it you defined it
• 1:01:59
  as a contributor defined it as just saw like a rotational piece, like a
• 1:02:01
  guy who gives you he's out there. Okay, maybe he makes something happen,
• 1:02:07
  maybe he does something, but basically kind of to your point, like
• 1:02:08
  he's just not a walking l or just a walking abomination where he's just completely
• 1:02:15
  ineffective and just looks so lost, not mentally but just from a physical standpoint,
• 1:02:21
  just look like a guy who did not have it. And I don't
• 1:02:23
  think either of our answers are too positive for a fan base that is clinging
• 1:02:30
  to or actually I don't even know what people are clinging to, like a
• 1:02:34
  hope of what von Miller can be. I think a lot of people have
• 1:02:36
  kind of written him off and just assumed that he's going to be nothing,
• 1:02:37
  and I understand that. I also just hate the conversation around it because everybody
• 1:02:43
  dunking on like how bad of a signing that was and how bad of a
• 1:02:45
  move that was, and it just injuries are never guaranteed with anything, and
• 1:02:50
  before he got hurt, he looked to be worth every single penny of that
• 1:02:53
  contract. In year one, he was a huge, huge difference maker for
• 1:02:58
  this Bill's team and made up everybody better buy extension. But yeah, I'm
• 1:03:02
  not holding out a ton of hope for him. And my expectation is he
• 1:03:06
  had just a solid rotational dude. And I think like from a high end
• 1:03:08
  perspective, you know, you defined it as six and a half Sacks.
• 1:03:12
  I defined it more in terms of like roll. I think high end.
• 1:03:15
  We're looking like if he if the ceiling is there for him, it's he's
• 1:03:17
  a high end Edge three or a low end Edge two, like at best,
• 1:03:22
  I think you're looking at if all things click with the edge grouping.
• 1:03:25
  And this is what scares me and what I talk about about being concerned with,
• 1:03:29
  like the top tier production coming from Edge and where does it come from.
• 1:03:34
  You talked about it with Groot, like if Groot hits, he becomes
• 1:03:37
  a complete Edge one and it's like sweet. If Ajvanessa hits like he's like
• 1:03:43
  a mid a mid two at best, probably more like a low end two.
• 1:03:45
  And then if von Miller hits realistically, he's maybe like a low end
• 1:03:51
  two or a high three. And I don't feel great with either of those
• 1:03:53
  in rotation, Like with Grew, I want give me a one in a
• 1:03:58
  solid overall too with either way. I don't think they get that, and
• 1:04:00
  I don't think von Miller is going to be that, and so just expecting
• 1:04:03
  him to be a solid rotational dude. I think it's fair, but also
• 1:04:08
  lends to the conversation we're having about why dadge grouping is kind of a worry
• 1:04:12
  sum or you know, group to be wary of. Yeah, anything else,
• 1:04:17
  I'm mister von Miller. Before we move on to our last segment,
• 1:04:20
  Nope, biggest surprise on defense for the Buffalo Bills in twenty twenty four.
• 1:04:26
  Now, this could be anything. It could be a player making the roster,
• 1:04:30
  It could be a player being cut. It could be something schematic.
• 1:04:31
  It could be something high level and you know, wide net casting. It
• 1:04:35
  could be something very niche. What do you got, brust for what you
• 1:04:39
  think there will be the biggest surprise on defense or the Bills this year.
• 1:04:42
  I'm going to predict the Bills run more man coverage than you think. Oh
• 1:04:45
  okay. I think one of the things that we talk about a lot with
• 1:04:47
  Bobby Babbage is because he's been in the Bills environment, we assume it's going
• 1:04:53
  to be very very similar to Sean mcderma's defense. And I know it's going
• 1:04:56
  to have Sean mcdermot's fingerprints on it, because it's impossible to not have Sean
• 1:04:59
  mcturermy fingerprints on it. Bobby Babbage has influences in his NFL career that I
• 1:05:05
  don't think people think about. He has influences under Ray Horton. He has
• 1:05:11
  influences under Mike Petton and Jim O'Neill, and so these are people who were
• 1:05:15
  blitz heavy man coverage defensive coordinators. I mean, Ray Horton, Mike Petten,
• 1:05:21
  right, Mike Petten brought the house all the time under Rex Ryan,
• 1:05:28
  and so for me, I don't think you could just look at the Sean
• 1:05:32
  McDermott influence as being the only influence for Bobby Babbage. I think that if
• 1:05:39
  there's any chance at salvaging Kyer Elam, I think that's one of the ways
• 1:05:43
  you do it. But I don't quite. Frankly, I don't think he's
• 1:05:45
  gonna see enough snaps for it to matter. And barring injury, I don't
• 1:05:48
  think Kyer Elam is making an impact this year. I just think hes because
• 1:05:55
  of injury, just for the remainder of his rookie contract. I am not
• 1:06:00
  holding out hope that Kyri Elam is going to break out and become a corner.
• 1:06:03
  At this point, I pretty much just crossed that off and said,
• 1:06:06
  Yep, you win some, you lose some, you move on. It
• 1:06:10
  is what it is, which I'm fine with because if we if the cost
• 1:06:14
  for if the cost to get Christian Benford was Kyer Elim, I feel fine
• 1:06:18
  with that. Now, that's probably faulty logic and not great because you want
• 1:06:21
  to hit on your first round pick. But if we just pretend that Christian
• 1:06:25
  Benford was taken in the first and Kyrie Elam was taken in the sixth,
• 1:06:28
  then it's a win win. Just so you're all aware, I am going
• 1:06:30
  to be pounding the table for the re signing of Christian Benford next offseasons,
• 1:06:33
  So I just want you to know I'm gonna be leading that charge. And
• 1:06:36
  that's also and think about that too. The memes coming that's fair with some
• 1:06:41
  Brucio stuff worked in there. That's a huge point for next year two because
• 1:06:45
  they chose not to extend Rasoul Douglas. They chose chose to just restructure his
• 1:06:49
  contract. Right now, if we're looking at twenty twenty five, Christian Benford
• 1:06:53
  is CB one on the depth chart, and if his continues on the trajectory
• 1:06:57
  he's been on his first two years, he might be a legitimate CB one.
• 1:07:01
  I'll be a low tier one, but that's still legitimate thing. He
• 1:07:04
  might be a legit CB one by the end of this year. I think
• 1:07:06
  he's most definitely in that category for resetting, especially losing Trey White and hide
• 1:07:13
  employer, you need some sort of new core on the back end of that
• 1:07:17
  defense. Taron Johnson is a piece, and if you think you have one
• 1:07:20
  in Christian Bedford, you got to lock him up, especially with how much
• 1:07:23
  of a premium position cornerback still is. I think he's CB one now.
• 1:07:30
  Oh even over Douglas. Yes, that's a hot take. Am I am?
• 1:07:33
  I am I spitting hot takes right now. I don't. I'm not
• 1:07:36
  known for hot takes. I'm known for extremely lukewarm diakes. I think if
• 1:07:40
  you watch the tape, that's fair. I think most people because of one
• 1:07:44
  how good Douglas played, because of the splash plays that Douglas brought to the
• 1:07:47
  defense. Yes, and and you mentioned it earlier, not even nationally.
• 1:07:51
  I even think amongst Bills fans, Benford is kind of like underrated or an
• 1:07:56
  afterthought or overlooked, like some kind of I'm just saying that I have.
• 1:08:00
  I've never drawn a bath, poured myself a glass of wine, and watched
• 1:08:02
  Russul Douglas tape, but I have done that wow with Christian Benford, Because
• 1:08:08
  there are sometimes you just put on some jazz music, pull up your iPad
• 1:08:12
  in the All twenty two and just relax and say, you know what,
• 1:08:15
  it's been a tough day. I deserve this. I'm just letting you know
• 1:08:17
  I earned this. That's going to be a promo for this episode. I
• 1:08:21
  wrote down the timestamp so I wouldn't forget it. That's a one hundred second
• 1:08:24
  to be a promo. It's accurate. I just find me. I just
• 1:08:27
  I just find the imagery of it, all of you just drawing the bath
• 1:08:30
  and the wine, and like I picture you hitting play and then just soaking
• 1:08:33
  in and just like leaning and then Benford is just coming up, and that's
• 1:08:38
  just it's just the imagery of all of it. Yeah. Yeah, you
• 1:08:41
  know, that's one of the joys of having Bruce on your show is you
• 1:08:43
  know you're gonna get at least a couple of good sound bites. For promo
• 1:08:45
  purposes, yestely, and then I picture like your wife, like you've been
• 1:08:49
  in the bathroom like for like in the bath for like an hour, and
• 1:08:53
  she's like, are you all right in there? And you're like, oh,
• 1:08:55
  I'm watching Christian Benford. Ah, yeah I do. She's doing back
• 1:09:00
  there, so yes, for me, that's that's my interpretation of the Christian
• 1:09:05
  Benfort situation. I think he's infinitely better than people are giving him credit for.
• 1:09:11
  But my biggest surprise is going to be I think we're going to see
• 1:09:13
  an uptick in man coverage. I think youth usually brings aggression, Bobby Babbache
• 1:09:18
  brings energy. Energy usually brings AGGRESSI aggression is kind of synonymous with a little
• 1:09:23
  bit more man coverage. I do think that you're gonna see an uptick in
• 1:09:27
  that. I agree. I think they'll see an uptick in man coverage.
• 1:09:32
  I just picked a thing that I think is more of a surprise, and
• 1:09:34
  I went with an individual player piece. I think Dwan Smoot will end up
• 1:09:40
  being an impact player for the Buffalo Bills at edge I still think he's gonna
• 1:09:43
  end up being at best like Edge three, but probably like Edge four,
• 1:09:46
  maybe even five. Depending on how the rotation works out. But I don't
• 1:09:48
  think it's going to be to the level of the Leonard Floyd signing last offseason.
• 1:09:53
  And Floyd was tremendous and I'm going to continue to bang the drum that
• 1:09:56
  I think he got nicked up because you can see him laboring with his shoulder
• 1:09:59
  and he with his lower body like he was that dudes are having to pick
• 1:10:01
  him up off the ground as the season progressed, and you really saw that
• 1:10:04
  drop off in production from a statistical standpoint last year. But I don't think
• 1:10:08
  Smoot is going to be to the level of the Floyd signed last year,
• 1:10:11
  because again he was phenomenal. But I think he'll give quality reps and play
• 1:10:15
  a meaningful Edge three or Edge four who can also kick inside on passing downs.
• 1:10:19
  In twenty twenty two, before he got hurt, he played fifteen games.
• 1:10:24
  He was tied for thirty six and pass RUSS productivity out of one hundred
• 1:10:28
  and twenty six qualifying edges. And that is in that Jags defenses. Jags
• 1:10:32
  defenses that Jags defense that uses games and stunts. So he has passed rush
• 1:10:36
  reps where his job is to be a spiker and clear the way for someone
• 1:10:40
  else, which isn't necessarily the biggest opportunity to generate stats and pressures and sacks
• 1:10:45
  and all that kind of stuff. Also in twenty twenty two, he was
• 1:10:47
  tied for thirty first in win percentage amongst those one hundred and twenty six edges.
• 1:10:51
  He tore his achilles in week sixteen of the twenty twenty two season.
• 1:10:56
  Started last year on the pup, returned in October, never really got back
• 1:11:00
  to form or in shape. He did an interview in like mid November saying
• 1:11:02
  he was just starting to feel like good from a conditioning standpoint, as if
• 1:11:08
  like he would when he would get out of training camp. So last year
• 1:11:11
  just was not in the cards for him. And if you vector in just
• 1:11:15
  being a full year removed over a full year removed now from that torn achilles,
• 1:11:18
  having a normal off season, and like ACL injuries, Achilles injuries being
• 1:11:24
  ones where you don't really get back to a semblance of yourself until that second
• 1:11:28
  year back from the injury. And then pair that with his play style where
• 1:11:30
  he's physical, he's violent, he compresses the pocket. I don't think he's
• 1:11:34
  gonna set the world on fire, but if he can be what he was
• 1:11:36
  in Jacksonville or somewhat close to it. Given what the edge grouping looks like,
• 1:11:43
  I think a solid edge three or edge four, given how the depth
• 1:11:45
  chart is shaping up, would be a surprise. And again that's the reason
• 1:11:48
  I picked him is because again it's that biggest surprise if you said here right
• 1:11:51
  now and by week seven we're like, you know what, like Duan Smooth's
• 1:11:57
  been playing really good and be given some reps like, I don't think that's
• 1:11:59
  something that's really on anyone's mind at all. And so that's the reason that
• 1:12:02
  one with that, just because I think that would be a bigger surprise because
• 1:12:05
  I think right now he's seen as probably a rotation guy. Does he even
• 1:12:09
  make the roster, does he get cut? So I think that could be
• 1:12:12
  a big surprise, just given his play style and hopefully coming back from that
• 1:12:15
  killes. But again, so much of it's going to be dependent upon that
• 1:12:17
  Achilles injury and how he's coming back all right, and many thoughts, questions,
• 1:12:23
  commons, concerns on anything, cries of outrage. Now I'm good,
• 1:12:27
  beautiful, I'm gonna give you the floor, and then you know what we're
• 1:12:30
  We're not going to stay after do too much just because of how downtime in
• 1:12:34
  the off season, all that kind of stuff. So the floor is yours,
• 1:12:36
  Bruce. Anything you want to plug, anything you want to talk about,
• 1:12:40
  anything about yourself, personality, you want to show your picture, your
• 1:12:46
  address, social Security number, bank account information, if you want to get
• 1:12:50
  real intimate and personal or not. The floor is yours. Do with it
• 1:12:54
  as you wish. Yeah, we're not gonna do that. Instead, I'd
• 1:12:58
  like to share with you. I'd like to share with you. For those
• 1:13:01
  of you who know anything about me, you know that The Good Place is
• 1:13:06
  my favorite television program of all time. And I recently finished another rewatch of
• 1:13:13
  The Good Place and a specific quote stuck out to me that I wanted to
• 1:13:19
  share with you. And in this situation in The Good Place, Michael is
• 1:13:25
  attempting to explain human morality to a very disconnected, essentially judge of the universe.
• 1:13:33
  And he says what matters isn't if people are good or bad. What
• 1:13:40
  matters if they is if they are trying to be better today than they were
• 1:13:43
  yesterday. And he's basically talking about projection. He's talking about the trajectory of
• 1:13:47
  human ethics and that nobody is past saving if they're trying, and so I
• 1:13:58
  know that it's not a great time in human history to look at the news
• 1:14:03
  a lot, and it makes you feel all sorts of ways. And it's
• 1:14:08
  funny. You're simultaneously really really busy all the time and overpopulated and crowded,
• 1:14:15
  but also you feel very isolated and alone. It's a very strange time to
• 1:14:18
  exist in human culture. And I just want to share with you that I
• 1:14:25
  think that the most important thing we can be doing is trying. And I've
• 1:14:29
  been trying to reflect on that recently. I've had a little bit of time
• 1:14:34
  over the last couple of months that I don't usually have, and I've been
• 1:14:39
  trying to dwell on that. And I hope that that can be of encouragement
• 1:14:43
  to you because it's something that was an encouragement to me. Wow, that
• 1:14:47
  was really deep and poignant, well said. I wasn't I was expecting some
• 1:14:53
  kind of just witty brucisms or some kind of I will you know what it
• 1:14:57
  is funny. I was expecting some kind of plug or relation to the good
• 1:15:00
  place or some sort of show. But I like the direction you took that
• 1:15:02
  in You never know what you're gonna get with me? Never know. Mama
• 1:15:05
  always said Bruce's lock a box. I was just gonna say, you're a
• 1:15:09
  box of Chocolate's Well done, very well done. Thank you very much Bruce
• 1:15:12
  for joining me in this episode. As always, I enjoy just sitting down
• 1:15:15
  with you and chatting with you, whether it's on air or in the DMS
• 1:15:18
  and all that stuff so much so I appreciate you taking the time joining me.
• 1:15:21
  Thank you very much everyone who wrote with us live here on this episode
• 1:15:25
  of Disguised Coverage, the back and forth with each other in the chat,
• 1:15:28
  the comments to myself and Bruce, the engagement overall. Really appreciate you folks.
• 1:15:31
  Before you leave, please please please think you drop alike on this video
• 1:15:34
  if you are willing and able, if you would be so kind. Whether
• 1:15:38
  you're watching live now on YouTube when you're about to make your exit, please
• 1:15:41
  drop ake on this video, or if you're watching post live later, please
• 1:15:44
  drop alike on this video. If you're listening on one of the podcasting apps
• 1:15:46
  or platforms, that's cool too. Please rate and review and subscribe to Disguised
• 1:15:51
  Coverage on whatever audio podcasting platform you were listening to this show on if you're
• 1:15:56
  on YouTube, turn on notifications for Disguised Coverage, turn on our subscribe to
• 1:16:00
  the Cover one channel as a whole. Tell your family and friends and loved
• 1:16:03
  ones about how awesome this show is, or if you thought this show was
• 1:16:06
  terrible, tell your enemies and try and ruin their day by making them watch
• 1:16:11
  this show again. Thank you very much to you Bruce for joining me here
• 1:16:15
  in this episode. Thank you everybody who wrote with us live. Thank you
• 1:16:17
  very much for all the kind words that have been filtered in throughout the episode
• 1:16:19
  for myself and Bruce. We see them, We greatly appreciate them. Thank
• 1:16:25
  you very much, and we hope you and your family and friends and loved
• 1:16:28
  ones are all doing well and staying safe. Be kind to one another,
• 1:16:30
  take care of one another. I will see you next Tuesday, nine pm
• 1:16:33
  Eastern. For another episode of Disguised Coverage. Check out the Cover One Film
• 1:16:36
  Room with myself and Eric Turner live tomorrow night, five pm Eastern on Wednesday,
• 1:16:41
  June twelfth, and until I see in the Film Room or next week
• 1:16:44
  on Diskuy's coverage. Godspeed and as always, go Bills