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Inside the Charge: A.J. Epenesa Talks Getting Interceptions, Anime And More! · Inside the Charge

0:08
Speaker 1: Welcome into another episode of Inside the Charge. I'm Maddie
0:11
Speaker 1: glab with Lockdown cornerback Trewe Davius.
0:14
Speaker 2: What how you do?
0:16
Speaker 1: How you doing? You're locking it down? Man?
0:19
Speaker 2: Oh man, you put the lockdown in front of my
0:21
Speaker 2: ned lockdown. Okay, okay, I like that. Let's let's keep
0:25
Speaker 2: that energy. Let's keep that.
0:27
Speaker 1: The people are wondering, are you cold? You're in a jacket.
0:31
Speaker 3: I mean the temperature here has been crazy the last
0:35
Speaker 3: few weeks, so you never know what you're gonna get
0:37
Speaker 3: in this.
0:37
Speaker 1: You never know if you're gonna get a little little
0:39
Speaker 1: little breeze in the facility.
0:41
Speaker 3: The people on the airplane, you know, they always joke
0:43
Speaker 3: with me because I wear a puffer everywhere we go,
0:47
Speaker 3: Like we going to Miami, I have a puffer on.
0:49
Speaker 2: We're going.
0:51
Speaker 3: You know, even the people don't that run the plane too,
0:54
Speaker 3: Like the people that help us on the plane, they
0:55
Speaker 3: know what I'm coming with a puffer jacket. But I'm
0:58
Speaker 3: gonna have my toes out. But with Buffalo, you never
1:02
Speaker 3: know what you gonna get. You can leave it could
1:04
Speaker 3: be fifty and you could come back.
1:05
Speaker 1: In the tree. It could be You're just seventeen, smart, smart, decisions.
1:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I just feel like, and I I've been
1:11
Speaker 3: in Buffalo long enough to know you never know what
1:14
Speaker 3: you gonna get, so I always leave with a jacket
1:17
Speaker 3: and come back with a jacket, so cause I never know.
1:20
Speaker 1: Okay, against the Patriots, Trey, you were fierce and interception,
1:25
Speaker 1: two passes defensed, a tackle for loss. M How were
1:29
Speaker 1: you able to grab hold of what the Patriots were
1:31
Speaker 1: trying to do.
1:33
Speaker 3: I just think we you know, especially in the second half.
1:36
Speaker 3: But I just feel like we had a great like beat,
1:40
Speaker 3: like as far as film study goes, I just feel
1:43
Speaker 3: like we was able to get 'em behind behind schedule
1:48
Speaker 3: on first and second down tackles for loss like you said,
1:52
Speaker 3: but I'm just saying we were able to get 'em
1:54
Speaker 3: the quarterback in the red, you know, but not to
1:57
Speaker 3: starting off. But I just feel like it was a
2:00
Speaker 3: mixture of just you know, we had a great pass rush.
2:03
Speaker 3: You know, a lot of guys getting around the quarterback,
2:06
Speaker 3: pressure on the quarterback, and you know when that when
2:08
Speaker 3: those like things like that happened, it makes it make
2:11
Speaker 3: covering receivers just pretty much easier than what it is
2:14
Speaker 3: because I just feel like, you know, when you got
2:16
Speaker 3: the Russian coverage piece working together.
2:18
Speaker 2: They is just make it hard for the quarterback. And
2:20
Speaker 2: you all.
2:21
Speaker 1: Just a couple of weeks ago, we were talking about
2:22
Speaker 1: Christian Benford having a couple weeks interceptions touchdowns, and you said,
2:29
Speaker 1: I need some of that juice from Christian Benford. Well,
2:32
Speaker 1: Benford's out for a game. Trey White steps up to
2:36
Speaker 1: the plate and smacks a home run. You had an
2:39
Speaker 1: interception against the Patriots during a drive where the Bills
2:44
Speaker 1: had to do something on defense. It was third and
2:46
Speaker 1: twenty five, third quarter, May drops back and throws one
2:51
Speaker 1: up deep. You run stride for stride with Mac Collins
2:55
Speaker 1: and have to adjust your body to the sidelines to
2:58
Speaker 1: grab the interception. How did you know, Oh, I got
3:00
Speaker 1: a chance at this thing.
3:02
Speaker 3: First of all, you know third and twenty five, so
3:05
Speaker 3: you're thinking, you know, obviously offense May they might run
3:08
Speaker 3: a draw or a stream something to just get half
3:11
Speaker 3: of the artists back, just to at least try to
3:13
Speaker 3: get a field goal range, or at least try to
3:17
Speaker 3: you know, pin us deeper and try to get us
3:19
Speaker 3: inside the reson I mean inside backed up as far
3:22
Speaker 3: as our offense to punt. But they took a shot
3:25
Speaker 3: and I was just playing zone covers where I just
3:29
Speaker 3: don't let the guy get on top of me. But
3:32
Speaker 3: I was able to just get in phase, was able
3:35
Speaker 3: to look back and track the ball, and I was
3:38
Speaker 3: just able to make a great catch. I mean, we
3:40
Speaker 3: talk about practicing, taking the practice to the field. I
3:45
Speaker 3: mean this, that's something that we always practice each and
3:47
Speaker 3: every day, you know, and practice the deep ball.
3:49
Speaker 2: The d ball is the most important thing.
3:51
Speaker 3: If you can take the ball away and be able
3:53
Speaker 3: to track the ball and catch it as far and
3:55
Speaker 3: cover your receiver. I just feel like, you know, those
3:58
Speaker 3: was one of those players where you know, it was
4:00
Speaker 3: just wasn't something that I just so happened, happened to do.
4:04
Speaker 3: I just feel like, you know, when you practice things,
4:06
Speaker 3: you know, they seem to, you know, come to fruition.
4:08
Speaker 3: So I'm just happy that it really came because I
4:11
Speaker 3: have been waiting on, Madie.
4:12
Speaker 2: I've been waiting on. It's been a long time.
4:14
Speaker 1: Where you going week fifteen, you made it happen.
4:18
Speaker 2: I had a goose egg on the board.
4:20
Speaker 1: Not anymore.
4:21
Speaker 2: That's not a good look more, that's not a good look.
4:23
Speaker 2: So I've been waiting.
4:23
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter how you started it matters how you finished.
4:26
Speaker 2: Okay, we're not done yet.
4:27
Speaker 1: You're not done yet.
4:28
Speaker 2: You got three more weeks, three weeks in the regular.
4:31
Speaker 3: Take it a week at a time. So let's let's
4:34
Speaker 3: just hope, you know, we go into Cleveland. Great things
4:37
Speaker 3: have happened. Yeah, great things happened.
4:39
Speaker 1: A lot happens in the few seconds that you have
4:42
Speaker 1: to figure out I can make this interception and I'm
4:46
Speaker 1: going to make sure I stay in bounce because you
4:49
Speaker 1: were right near the sidelines. What's the process in those
4:52
Speaker 1: few seconds to make sure it's gonna happen for me?
4:56
Speaker 3: I think the most important thing is catching the ball.
4:59
Speaker 3: Like the ball, it's the most important thing because if
5:02
Speaker 3: you don't catch the bout another of you know, the
5:05
Speaker 3: body standing bounced, none of that matters. But so I
5:08
Speaker 3: feel like catching the ball and tracking the ball is
5:10
Speaker 3: the most important thing. But I just feel like if
5:12
Speaker 3: you can get a piece of your body down in bounce,
5:15
Speaker 3: you know, I think that counts for two feet. So
5:18
Speaker 3: I was just so happy, you know, to track the ball,
5:20
Speaker 3: catch it and have enough room to you know, get
5:24
Speaker 3: my arms down. So but at first I didn't think
5:26
Speaker 3: they gave me the catch. But when I got once
5:28
Speaker 3: I got up and I realized that. When I realized
5:30
Speaker 3: the ref had a signette the other way, that's why
5:33
Speaker 3: I kind of dropped the ball. If you could see
5:35
Speaker 3: on I dropped the ball, so I didn't know. But
5:38
Speaker 3: when I saw that, he gave me an inception.
5:40
Speaker 1: Matic look you were celebrating.
5:42
Speaker 3: Oh oh, I was. I was turned up, the complete
5:48
Speaker 3: the complete opposite of what our boy c B would do.
5:51
Speaker 3: I'ma turn it up man. I told you, if I
5:53
Speaker 3: get in exception, I'm turning it up.
5:55
Speaker 2: It's been a long time. I'm you don't know what
5:59
Speaker 2: I was saying.
6:00
Speaker 3: The little Chris Brown, Little Chris Brown.
6:06
Speaker 2: I know somebody got it somewhere, but.
6:08
Speaker 1: I actually did find it.
6:09
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure I like messed it all up. But yeah,
6:12
Speaker 2: it was fun.
6:13
Speaker 1: You can run it, run it.
6:16
Speaker 3: If anybody's been at Chris Brown Tour, you know the dance.
6:18
Speaker 3: I'm talking like it's a challenge job. But just to
6:23
Speaker 3: get one, Maddy, oh my felt great.
6:28
Speaker 1: They say a wise man named Trdavia is white. One said,
6:33
Speaker 1: they come.
6:34
Speaker 2: In, so keep coming, keep them coming. Let's just hope
6:38
Speaker 2: they just keep.
6:39
Speaker 3: Falling out of the Sky's falling out of the sky.
6:43
Speaker 2: I need.
6:44
Speaker 1: Ray Davis was a big factor in the game for Buffalo.
6:48
Speaker 1: You're playing against the best special teams unit in the
6:50
Speaker 1: league and the Patriots, and Ray Davis says, you know what,
6:54
Speaker 1: I'm gonna show up and have a great game. Fifty
6:55
Speaker 1: eight yard kick return to start off the second half.
6:58
Speaker 1: The Bills score on that drive and then they keep scoring.
7:02
Speaker 1: Davis was a big momentum giver to the team. How
7:05
Speaker 1: do you believe momentum works for a team.
7:08
Speaker 2: It's huge.
7:09
Speaker 1: Yeah.
7:09
Speaker 3: I mean, as you can see from our game last
7:13
Speaker 3: week against the Bengals, pick six by CB then another
7:19
Speaker 3: pick on it completely changed the game.
7:21
Speaker 2: So it's I mean, momentum is big.
7:24
Speaker 3: I mean, once the team get the momentum, then the
7:25
Speaker 3: players get the confidence and then no matter what the
7:28
Speaker 3: play calls, we're just going out there flying around because
7:30
Speaker 3: we just feel confident in everything that's going on in
7:33
Speaker 3: the floor of the game. I just feel like you
7:35
Speaker 3: have that confident piece. I mean, the momentum just flows in.
7:38
Speaker 3: And that's what happened with us. You know, we got
7:40
Speaker 3: on a row five straight TV drives.
7:42
Speaker 2: I mean that's momentum.
7:44
Speaker 1: Yeah.
7:44
Speaker 3: I mean, then with the defense getting three and outs,
7:48
Speaker 3: Ray Davis, Like you said, great.
7:51
Speaker 2: Field position from you know, a special team. I didn't
7:54
Speaker 2: even know the.
7:57
Speaker 1: Two touchdowns. They have a really good return unit.
8:00
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, for sure. Twenty five the returner Jones. Oh
8:04
Speaker 3: he's dynamic. He's good at what he does on the
8:07
Speaker 3: defensive side. About but once you get the ball in him,
8:09
Speaker 3: he's pretty special.
8:10
Speaker 2: So you know, oh, I know, we.
8:11
Speaker 1: Gotta we gotta show up in a game like it's
8:13
Speaker 1: on special teams.
8:14
Speaker 3: That's Sam Franklin. Oh yeah, yeah, you know what, what's crazy?
8:19
Speaker 3: So I'm watching film like I just so happen to
8:22
Speaker 3: flick on on a special scene inside of I'm just.
8:25
Speaker 2: Like, Salem is next to me, he's next to me.
8:29
Speaker 2: The team.
8:31
Speaker 3: Let me see what Sam be talking about out there,
8:32
Speaker 3: because every time he comes to sideline, like he's throwing
8:35
Speaker 3: like six or seven cuss words. Every time you walk
8:38
Speaker 3: out the field, Sam Franklin's cursed about something because they
8:42
Speaker 3: can't do nothing to contain him.
8:44
Speaker 2: They hold him, they trip be to So I was like,
8:46
Speaker 2: let me let me flick this on. Let me see
8:48
Speaker 2: what so team saying, okay, let me go on kickoff.
8:54
Speaker 3: So that's where you go down, you go, That's where
8:56
Speaker 3: he's most aggressive, go down a positive him, Maddie, I.
9:03
Speaker 2: Kid you not. It was three people three people block.
9:09
Speaker 2: He was getting triple team, triple team.
9:12
Speaker 1: That's how good he is, this guy.
9:15
Speaker 2: So I see what. I was like, Okay, so what
9:17
Speaker 2: we getting to me?
9:18
Speaker 3: And I'm gonna tell him, like, I see why you
9:21
Speaker 3: come over there cursing, Like this guy he's a dog.
9:24
Speaker 3: He's a dog the Special Teams. But man, yeah, yeah,
9:30
Speaker 3: I just.
9:30
Speaker 1: Want to know. I like that. That's a great story
9:32
Speaker 1: your storytelling right now. Sam Franklin is one of those
9:35
Speaker 1: guys where he comes to Buffalo, you get to know him.
9:37
Speaker 1: I'm not in the meeting, so I don't get to
9:39
Speaker 1: know him as quick as you guys do. But it
9:42
Speaker 1: was pretty easy to tell, Like this guy just fits
9:45
Speaker 1: in Buffalo. He's a funny character. He really loves his teammates.
9:48
Speaker 1: Seems like a culture guy. And it's players like that
9:52
Speaker 1: where you're like, I hope he stays here for a
9:55
Speaker 1: few years.
9:55
Speaker 3: Man, I would want him on my side. Yeah at
9:58
Speaker 3: all times. A person, person that's gonna go out there
10:01
Speaker 3: with that energy each and every day, like he comes
10:03
Speaker 3: with it each and every Sunday. But like that's just
10:07
Speaker 3: a story that I had to tell. But but also
10:10
Speaker 3: Ray's leading the NFL and.
10:14
Speaker 1: Kick return your statistician.
10:17
Speaker 2: I know my status now, I know my teammates.
10:18
Speaker 3: Now, like you asked me some teammates, I'm going I'm
10:22
Speaker 3: in a list. I'm going to know. You asked me
10:24
Speaker 3: anything about my guys. I'm going to know. Me and
10:27
Speaker 3: Ray Davis we steam room brothers. You didn't know that.
10:31
Speaker 3: So that in the mornings for the last two or
10:34
Speaker 3: three weeks, getting the steaming room, me and Ray Davis
10:38
Speaker 3: in there together.
10:38
Speaker 2: For like chopping it up six or seven minutes.
10:43
Speaker 3: Six Oh, I did six or seven minutes. I mean
10:49
Speaker 3: we're in there. We crossed path in the morning. Like
10:51
Speaker 3: his routine and my routine. It's just so so happened to,
10:55
Speaker 3: you know, combined together. But yeah, how cool than.
11:00
Speaker 1: A guy like him who last year he had I
11:04
Speaker 1: think it was upwards of six touchdowns in his rookie year,
11:07
Speaker 1: being used in the run game a lot. This year,
11:09
Speaker 1: not as much because of the flow of the game,
11:10
Speaker 1: the flow of the season, but you find a new
11:14
Speaker 1: role for him as a returner, and Sean McDermott spoke
11:16
Speaker 1: about it this week, said his mindset has been phenomenal.
11:20
Speaker 1: He probably didn't think this is what was going to
11:22
Speaker 1: be my calling card this year, but what he's done
11:25
Speaker 1: with the opportunity and found a new home in addition
11:29
Speaker 1: to his role as a running back, Like, wow, I
11:32
Speaker 1: can be a difference maker in this area.
11:34
Speaker 2: I mean those are game changing plays.
11:36
Speaker 3: To get the ball at the forty five, fifty yard
11:40
Speaker 3: or even cross the logo like that's huge, Like this
11:43
Speaker 3: first two first downs and you're in the residence. So
11:45
Speaker 3: when you have an offense like we have, I mean,
11:48
Speaker 3: having somebody to get you the ball in plus territory
11:51
Speaker 3: or at the forty or the forty five, that's huge.
11:53
Speaker 3: That's huge for offense. Like the confidence level I mean
11:57
Speaker 3: goes up. You in four down territory. You got four
11:59
Speaker 3: downs that you're working with cause you know you're in proximity,
12:02
Speaker 3: cause you know we have a great kicker. You know
12:04
Speaker 3: you know you get it one first down, you got points.
12:07
Speaker 3: So for a guy like Ray Davis to be able
12:09
Speaker 3: to get us in positions like that like that's huge.
12:12
Speaker 3: I mean, cause it's just lessen the load off Josh
12:15
Speaker 3: and the offense to you know, getting getting points or
12:18
Speaker 3: drawing up huge plays where you know the f the
12:20
Speaker 3: fields kind of shrink down already, so we already in
12:23
Speaker 3: the green area. So I just think that it's huge.
12:26
Speaker 3: I mean, and then you know how hard it is
12:29
Speaker 3: to drive to drive the field, like on a great defense, like.
12:34
Speaker 2: Five plays, five another.
12:36
Speaker 3: Five play, like ten twelve plays, Like you know how
12:40
Speaker 3: hard it is for a offense to do that, Like
12:42
Speaker 3: you can practice so much, but like yes, like like
12:48
Speaker 3: the attention of detail to be able to sustain that
12:50
Speaker 3: and do that like gaming and game out and drive
12:53
Speaker 3: in and drive out.
12:54
Speaker 2: It's so hard.
12:54
Speaker 3: That's why offenses need chunk plays, like they need huge
12:58
Speaker 3: play explosive plays, and you know when office is able
13:01
Speaker 3: to get those like those, what like the points come
13:04
Speaker 3: at Like that's where you know points go up, you know.
13:08
Speaker 3: So I just feel like as a defensive player, like
13:11
Speaker 3: you always want to try to limit the big plays,
13:13
Speaker 3: and if you can do that and force the offense
13:16
Speaker 3: to just drive the ball ten twelve plays each and
13:19
Speaker 3: every series, that's that's hard to do. And if an
13:22
Speaker 3: offense does do that, like you gotta kind of to
13:25
Speaker 3: on that on that Sunday. You know, It's it's hard,
13:28
Speaker 3: but it's tough to do. Like to try to be
13:30
Speaker 3: you know, mistake free, penalty free, each and every drive,
13:34
Speaker 3: like you gotta have a little look. So it's it's
13:38
Speaker 3: a lot that goes into it. So I just feel
13:40
Speaker 3: like that's that's that's something that's definitely difficult to do,
13:43
Speaker 3: especially in this league.
13:45
Speaker 1: Thank you Ray Davis for what you've done so far
13:48
Speaker 1: for this offense in the second half of the season.
13:50
Speaker 1: Our interview this week is with defensive end aj Abanessa.
13:55
Speaker 1: You got a good Aja story.
13:57
Speaker 2: That's my guy, that's your guy, that's my guy. Have it.
14:00
Speaker 3: Okay, I got a story, and so okay, we drafted
14:04
Speaker 3: AJ twenty twenty.
14:05
Speaker 1: Right, yeah, it's during COVID.
14:07
Speaker 3: Okay, we dropped a J twenty. So like me just
14:10
Speaker 3: being I'm like, said, who is hour? I text Michael,
14:14
Speaker 3: I like, who who is from? Iour we get we're
14:18
Speaker 3: getting somebody from Iowa.
14:19
Speaker 2: I'm like okay.
14:20
Speaker 3: Michael's like, okay, if he's coming from ale, I know tough,
14:24
Speaker 3: you know, grint.
14:25
Speaker 2: Okay. So I look at a video like you know,
14:28
Speaker 2: I'm like, I was like, oh, he's huge, like a
14:29
Speaker 2: big dude, like he got here. Man. It was like
14:33
Speaker 2: the complete opposite, like you.
14:35
Speaker 3: Know, like how when people go into retirement, like the
14:38
Speaker 3: offensive lineman go in retirement, or the D lineman get
14:41
Speaker 3: real small like he came.
14:43
Speaker 2: He came in as small like I was, Like I
14:46
Speaker 2: thought he was a d tackle.
14:48
Speaker 3: Like he came in like literally thirty pounds less than
14:51
Speaker 3: like what the.
14:52
Speaker 1: Training he did during the off season man, the COVID
14:55
Speaker 1: and all of that, so he trained.
14:57
Speaker 2: He won't get no food. I know they got food.
15:00
Speaker 1: Food, the type of training, the cardio those things.
15:04
Speaker 2: He look he came. I feel like that is great.
15:08
Speaker 2: That was great for him.
15:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know what people could say, it's not great.
15:12
Speaker 1: Why do you think it was great?
15:14
Speaker 2: Look what aj doing right now? He got more interceptions
15:19
Speaker 2: than I was.
15:20
Speaker 3: I was actually joking with him about that on Friday
15:24
Speaker 3: in hot To, like you really like taking the ball away, dude,
15:28
Speaker 3: Like but then like stop the run, get after the
15:33
Speaker 3: quarterback interceptions Like I mean, I'm pretty sure if you
15:39
Speaker 3: put a j Epenes's at free set, like he's fast too, Like.
15:42
Speaker 2: He's fast too.
15:43
Speaker 3: Did you see him when he get the ball, Like
15:45
Speaker 3: he had loosive Like he's not like bording with the ball,
15:48
Speaker 3: like once he get it, like he kind of entertained
15:50
Speaker 3: with it.
15:50
Speaker 2: He can do some stuff with it, so I feel
15:52
Speaker 2: like a J A J balling. AJ.
15:55
Speaker 3: You're gonna enjoy it. I'm going tune into this interview
15:58
Speaker 3: this week. WHOA my guy. I love Vanessa for show.
16:03
Speaker 1: I love it. Well, enjoy the interview with AJ and
16:05
Speaker 1: we'll be back after AJ. Thanks for coming on inside
16:08
Speaker 1: the Charge hanging out last time we had you with
16:11
Speaker 1: Greg in this time, which has got you so thanks man.
16:13
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, thanks for having me.
16:15
Speaker 1: The takeaways have come in bunches for the defense as
16:18
Speaker 1: of like when the aggressive meter is turned up a notch.
16:21
Speaker 1: Why have you guys been able to answer?
16:23
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's just something we practice all the time. I mean,
16:26
Speaker 5: we need take away circuit, tackle circuit. But the most
16:29
Speaker 5: important thing on the field is the ball, right, so
16:31
Speaker 5: if we can get that back give it to our offense,
16:33
Speaker 5: that'll give us a chance to win.
16:34
Speaker 1: Every time you had a takeaway off of a tipped
16:38
Speaker 1: pass against Cincinnati, how did you make sure you were
16:41
Speaker 1: in the right place to grab the interception?
16:43
Speaker 4: Yeah?
16:44
Speaker 5: No, I give all the credit to Phil. You know,
16:46
Speaker 5: he'd tipped the ball probably three or four times. At
16:49
Speaker 5: practice we had guys intercepting screens. It's you know, some
16:53
Speaker 5: that we practice all the time to where when he
16:55
Speaker 5: tipped it, you know, it's almost like I knew he
16:57
Speaker 5: was gonna tip it because that's what we've been practicing.
16:59
Speaker 5: He's been he's been hammering that detail so many times,
17:02
Speaker 5: and he's been doing it every day that it's not
17:04
Speaker 5: a surprise when it happens in the game.
17:06
Speaker 1: There are a lot of tipped balls at practice and
17:08
Speaker 1: interceptions at practice. How often does it happen where in
17:12
Speaker 1: a week leading up to a game, you got a
17:14
Speaker 1: lot of interceptions in practice, and in the game you
17:17
Speaker 1: see it happen as well.
17:18
Speaker 4: Yeah.
17:18
Speaker 5: No, that might be the most gratifying feeling is it's
17:20
Speaker 5: something that you've worked on all week, you've had some
17:22
Speaker 5: success at it all week, and you've really felt it,
17:25
Speaker 5: and then when you go out into the big day,
17:27
Speaker 5: the big game, when it's time to execute and you
17:28
Speaker 5: really do it one hundred percent make the play, that
17:31
Speaker 5: might be one of the best feelings in the world.
17:33
Speaker 1: After you grab that interception, you post on social media
17:36
Speaker 1: all the wonderful pictures of it and the caption is blessed.
17:39
Speaker 1: What are you most blessed by?
17:43
Speaker 5: That's funny, I said, I was thinking about that. I
17:45
Speaker 5: was just thinking about how you know, I am blessed
17:47
Speaker 5: to be here. I'm blessed to have the teammates that
17:49
Speaker 5: I have and just a blessed to be where my
17:52
Speaker 5: feet are today. And I try to never take.
17:53
Speaker 4: That for granted.
17:55
Speaker 1: You now have four career interceptions, just the second defensive lineman.
18:00
Speaker 1: That's a buffalo bill to make that happen. How have
18:03
Speaker 1: you been around the football so much?
18:07
Speaker 4: You know?
18:07
Speaker 5: I sometimes you're in the right place at the right time,
18:09
Speaker 5: and sometimes you can really practice it. But you know,
18:13
Speaker 5: I give a lot of credit to my teammates for
18:14
Speaker 5: helping me out. And this is going to be a
18:17
Speaker 5: little weird, and I say this. You know Micah Hyde.
18:19
Speaker 5: He he has this thing, I'm sure you've heard about
18:21
Speaker 5: it where he sniffs the ball. And the whole idea
18:24
Speaker 5: of is you have a nose for the ball, You'll
18:27
Speaker 5: find it. You have a nose for it, I'm on
18:28
Speaker 5: the scent and the ball's going to find you. And
18:31
Speaker 5: I mean twice this year, the two times that I've
18:33
Speaker 5: really thought about Micah did the act of smelling the ball.
18:38
Speaker 4: It's a little on the crazy side, but you actually
18:39
Speaker 4: did it.
18:40
Speaker 5: Those are the two games I was able to have
18:41
Speaker 5: my takeaways, and it's just kind of funny when things
18:44
Speaker 5: like that happen. It's almost like did it happen because
18:46
Speaker 5: of that or did you have a nose for the ball.
18:48
Speaker 5: And it's just I think it boils down to belief.
18:50
Speaker 5: You have to believe it's going to happen.
18:52
Speaker 2: I like it.
18:52
Speaker 1: You have to believe it's going to happen. When do
18:55
Speaker 1: you sniff the ball to start that beliefs.
18:58
Speaker 5: It could be any point of the week leading to
19:00
Speaker 5: the game. It could be Monday, it could be Sunday, Sunday,
19:02
Speaker 5: right before kickoff. As long as you find that scent,
19:05
Speaker 5: you'll find the ball.
19:07
Speaker 1: I love that. Thank you, Michael, We love you man.
19:12
Speaker 1: You said it's also a credit to teammates for pressuring
19:16
Speaker 1: the quarterback allowing a throw to go off that's interceptible.
19:21
Speaker 1: How has that unit as a whole really elevated your
19:24
Speaker 1: play in your six seasons here?
19:26
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's I mean, you've seen it.
19:28
Speaker 5: We've had people come in and come out, and just
19:30
Speaker 5: the adjustments and adaptability it takes for each season.
19:33
Speaker 4: But just also the difficulty it takes to.
19:36
Speaker 5: Be in a people person and gelling with new teammates
19:40
Speaker 5: every year. And the ability to do that, to create
19:42
Speaker 5: that that mesh and that flow for the room. You know,
19:44
Speaker 5: it just makes it that much easier to come into
19:46
Speaker 5: the building and to just enjoy going to work every day.
19:50
Speaker 1: You guys have been sending a lot of corner blitzes
19:53
Speaker 1: lately to pressure the quarterback when that hits. What's the
19:57
Speaker 1: best part.
19:59
Speaker 5: I actually had a great view of it this weekend
20:01
Speaker 5: when CB had his sack. It was nice and snowy
20:05
Speaker 5: out there, you know, And it's just like I said,
20:08
Speaker 5: those are things we really harp on in practice, and
20:10
Speaker 5: those are timing things. Those are things that it takes
20:14
Speaker 5: more than just physical ability to do. It takes more
20:16
Speaker 5: than just I'm bigger and faster and stronger than you are.
20:19
Speaker 5: It takes some mental mental toughness and awareness. And like
20:23
Speaker 5: I said earlier, like whenever those things hit and it's
20:25
Speaker 5: a little schemy, it's a little tricky, and those hit,
20:27
Speaker 5: I mean, it's like I said, it's the best feeling
20:29
Speaker 5: in the world.
20:29
Speaker 1: A corner blitz isn't just we're gonna send a corner
20:32
Speaker 1: at the quarterback. When the ball snapped. It's easy, there's disguise.
20:36
Speaker 1: You have to time it up. How hard is it
20:39
Speaker 1: to successfully do that?
20:41
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's like I was saying, it's not easy. It's
20:43
Speaker 5: a it's a feel thing. And we have great guys
20:46
Speaker 5: out there. And I mean obviously Christian Benford on his
20:48
Speaker 5: multiple plays he made this week.
20:49
Speaker 1: And send him on corner blitzes all the time.
20:52
Speaker 5: But those are all feel I mean, he could feel
20:54
Speaker 5: the timing of the snap, he got the sack, he
20:56
Speaker 5: could feel that the screen was about to be thrown.
20:58
Speaker 5: He just jumps up and snacked it out there are
21:00
Speaker 5: it's you know, a lot of that is is the
21:03
Speaker 5: mental side of just being prepared when it's time to
21:05
Speaker 5: go and then letting your God given talents take over
21:08
Speaker 5: from there.
21:08
Speaker 1: Aj, this is your sixth year with the Buffalo Bills,
21:11
Speaker 1: sixth year in the NFL. What's different about you this season?
21:15
Speaker 5: You know, other than the fact of being a little older,
21:19
Speaker 5: you know, I try to bring energy and juice every day,
21:22
Speaker 5: especially to game day, and just you know, I'd like
21:26
Speaker 5: to think not much is different other than I've maybe
21:27
Speaker 5: grown a little bit matured and I just try to
21:31
Speaker 5: be the best teammate I could be. And I think
21:33
Speaker 5: that's some of the things that.
21:33
Speaker 1: Helped me get what area do you think you've grown
21:36
Speaker 1: the most.
21:38
Speaker 5: I think a a big part of it is just
21:40
Speaker 5: being able to be myself and opening up. I think
21:42
Speaker 5: football is football, and I think the sport is consistent
21:45
Speaker 5: throughout your whole life. Obviously there's levels to it, but
21:48
Speaker 5: I mean the friendships and the relationships you have, and
21:51
Speaker 5: the and the the time you put in the building
21:53
Speaker 5: is different everywhere, and so being able to be open
21:55
Speaker 5: and be yourself, I think is something that can truly
21:57
Speaker 5: open your game to be.
21:59
Speaker 4: The best you can be.
22:00
Speaker 1: You look around the defensive line room, there's younger guys.
22:02
Speaker 1: Now there's two rookies in the room, three rookies in
22:06
Speaker 1: the room that have been a part of the mix
22:08
Speaker 1: this season. How have you elevated those leadership skills?
22:12
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's it's actually funny. I coming into this year,
22:16
Speaker 5: this is the first time we've had so many guys
22:17
Speaker 5: that are actually younger than me, versus me being the
22:20
Speaker 5: younger guy and being the sponge and asking questions and
22:22
Speaker 5: things like that. But uh, you know, I feel blessed
22:26
Speaker 5: and lucky to have such good rookies that care about
22:28
Speaker 5: the game and care about learning that they make it
22:30
Speaker 5: easy to be a VET because they're all sponges. They
22:32
Speaker 5: all want to hear what you have to say, and
22:35
Speaker 5: they all are I mean, they all respect you in
22:38
Speaker 5: your game, and and all the older guys because it's
22:41
Speaker 5: just they're just really good people and they're good rookies
22:43
Speaker 5: and they're nice to have around.
22:45
Speaker 1: Speaking of learning from different players in the defensive line room,
22:48
Speaker 1: Joey Bosa is in his tenth year, has averaged more
22:51
Speaker 1: than seven sacks a season. What's the most unique thing
22:55
Speaker 1: you've learned from Bosa?
22:56
Speaker 5: From Joey, you know, he's a pretty interesting guy.
23:02
Speaker 4: You know, me and him are a lot, a lot,
23:03
Speaker 4: a lot more alike.
23:04
Speaker 5: Than I initially anticipated. But I guess I would say
23:07
Speaker 5: he's pretty chill like. That's probably what most surprised me
23:10
Speaker 5: was how chill he was and how kind of I
23:13
Speaker 5: guess mellow is probably the better term for it. He's
23:15
Speaker 5: a pretty calm going guy. You don't really see him
23:18
Speaker 5: riled up too much. But he has that switch to
23:21
Speaker 5: where when it's time to it's game time, like, he
23:23
Speaker 5: flips that switch. And when it's time to work on details,
23:26
Speaker 5: he's he's detail oriented, he works hard.
23:28
Speaker 4: He's a true pro. I mean, the cool thing.
23:30
Speaker 5: About it is he has all the success that he's had,
23:34
Speaker 5: but he's probably the last person to leave the building
23:36
Speaker 5: every day. He he gets, he gets every lift in,
23:39
Speaker 5: whether his body's hurting, whether his body is aching. Like
23:42
Speaker 5: it's it's fun to it's fun to see and it's
23:44
Speaker 5: cool to have him as a teammate.
23:46
Speaker 1: I've been walking past here like six o'clock at night.
23:49
Speaker 1: Who's in the weight room? It's it's just Joe, are
23:52
Speaker 1: you getting in your fifth lift today?
23:54
Speaker 4: Like?
23:54
Speaker 5: Are you okay in here? And he's probably in there,
23:57
Speaker 5: not saying a word to anybody, but he's he's working
24:00
Speaker 5: hard and he's getting himself right for Sunday.
24:02
Speaker 1: When it's go time, When it's game time. How do
24:04
Speaker 1: you flip that switch?
24:09
Speaker 4: I don't know.
24:10
Speaker 5: I've always I've always enjoyed game day and I've always
24:14
Speaker 5: enjoyed being able to just kind of let it all
24:19
Speaker 5: out on game day. I think that's something that I've
24:22
Speaker 5: I've always done and I it's kind of funny to
24:25
Speaker 5: see some people's reactions sometimes like HEJ, you're kind of
24:28
Speaker 5: you look kind of angry at the game day and
24:30
Speaker 5: this and that.
24:30
Speaker 4: I'm like, Eh, it's just it's just Sunday, Like.
24:35
Speaker 5: Because I try to carry myself as a calm and
24:38
Speaker 5: respectful and just calm chill guy when I'm out.
24:41
Speaker 1: But when it's right now, a calm.
24:44
Speaker 5: Chill But on Sunday, it's time to turn it up.
24:46
Speaker 5: And that's kind of the mindset I think I take
24:48
Speaker 5: to it. And you know, we play a very violent,
24:52
Speaker 5: very physical game, and I think there's a certain mindset
24:54
Speaker 5: that comes with it, in a certain level of intensity
24:57
Speaker 5: that that comes along with it, and I think I
25:00
Speaker 5: found a good happy medium for me.
25:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, is there something you have to do when you
25:04
Speaker 1: wake up on Sunday or do you just wake up
25:08
Speaker 1: and you're in the mood.
25:09
Speaker 5: It's it's definitely a mindset thing' I love how the
25:13
Speaker 5: brain works and how how you know, people trick their
25:16
Speaker 5: brain into certain things, Like you know, there's the term
25:18
Speaker 5: faking it till you make it, but then there's other
25:19
Speaker 5: like you know, you have to mentally prepare yourself for
25:22
Speaker 5: the battle that's to come, and I think for me,
25:25
Speaker 5: it's kind of the whole day leading up to it,
25:27
Speaker 5: the night before kind of just taking a step back.
25:31
Speaker 4: Visualization.
25:31
Speaker 5: I'm a huge visualization guy, but you know, if you
25:35
Speaker 5: can see it before it happens, like who's going to
25:37
Speaker 5: see it? Who else will see it if you don't
25:39
Speaker 5: see it, And that's kind of the mindset I take
25:40
Speaker 5: to it.
25:40
Speaker 1: If I don't believe it, why would they using visualization
25:44
Speaker 1: to picture what's going to happen on a game day?
25:47
Speaker 1: How does that work for you?
25:49
Speaker 5: I think it's different for everybody, and for me, I
25:52
Speaker 5: like to take it to the little details, to the
25:54
Speaker 5: big things, to the making splash plays. But it always
25:57
Speaker 5: starts out with you know, I see myself, I've done
26:00
Speaker 5: these I've done this play a million times. I can
26:02
Speaker 5: see in my head, I'm in my stance, I can
26:05
Speaker 5: see the alignment in front of me, and I can
26:07
Speaker 5: see how he's how his footwork's going about, and how
26:10
Speaker 5: his blocks are going, and how my hands and feet
26:12
Speaker 5: are working, and the success that I'm having that I'm
26:15
Speaker 5: visualizing of me having, you know, And whenever you're able
26:19
Speaker 5: to do that and have so many details in there,
26:21
Speaker 5: and then when it happens, it's almost like I saw
26:24
Speaker 5: that before it happen, and it's kind of an incredible feeling. Yeah,
26:27
Speaker 5: it's a little bit like that, but it's happened enough
26:30
Speaker 5: times to where I'm a true believer to where I'm
26:31
Speaker 5: gonna think about it. I'm going to visualize all these
26:35
Speaker 5: things that I know I have the capability of doing,
26:37
Speaker 5: and then when it happens, it'll be no surprise.
26:40
Speaker 1: The Bills have been so good in December. You guys
26:43
Speaker 1: are nineteen at three at this point in the season
26:45
Speaker 1: in December since twenty twenty. What's the reason behind that?
26:52
Speaker 5: You know, I'd like to think, you know, we have
26:54
Speaker 5: a lot of tough guys on our team, a lot
26:55
Speaker 5: of guys that work hard, and you know this this
26:58
Speaker 5: is the dog days. You know when they say dog
26:59
Speaker 5: days of you know, we're in the back end of
27:01
Speaker 5: the season. Guys that played a lot of football. Bodies
27:03
Speaker 5: are hurting, and this is just you know, this is
27:06
Speaker 5: the part of the season where it truly shows like
27:09
Speaker 5: this is where we push, this is where it means
27:11
Speaker 5: the most. This is this and that, and it's you know,
27:14
Speaker 5: I think when you have a group of guys like
27:16
Speaker 5: we have, that's what makes it easy, is that everybody's
27:18
Speaker 5: so looking forward to the opportunities that it is easy
27:21
Speaker 5: to to finish it out.
27:23
Speaker 1: You guys have played for a long time. Now, it's
27:26
Speaker 1: it's December. The body is never one hundred percent at
27:29
Speaker 1: this point in the season. Since you've been in the
27:32
Speaker 1: NFL for six years, now, what have you learned about
27:36
Speaker 1: what you need to do to push for the final
27:38
Speaker 1: five weeks.
27:39
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, it's a marathon, not a sprint. Obviously,
27:43
Speaker 5: each Sunday is different. Each Sunday you have different levels
27:48
Speaker 5: of exhaustion, different levels of soreness, on that, on that
27:51
Speaker 5: following Monday and everything like that. But it's all about uh,
27:54
Speaker 5: you know, recovery, taking care of your body. I mean,
27:57
Speaker 5: that's the thing you'll hear from everybody. They're going to
27:59
Speaker 5: tell you and that. But you know, I will say
28:03
Speaker 5: this year, more than any other year, we've had the
28:06
Speaker 5: most we call them pow wows in the D line
28:08
Speaker 5: kind of joking with our coach and everything. But this
28:11
Speaker 5: is the most we've ever been together off the field,
28:15
Speaker 5: outside the facility. And you know, as much as the
28:18
Speaker 5: game is physical, I'm a believer, it is mental. And
28:22
Speaker 5: you have to mentally be here just as much as
28:24
Speaker 5: you are physically here. And if you're thinking about something else,
28:27
Speaker 5: then it's it's almost as if you're not here, if that,
28:30
Speaker 5: you know, if that makes any sense. But when you
28:32
Speaker 5: can have those pow wows, those get togethers and things
28:35
Speaker 5: like that. You know, we I have a good feeling
28:37
Speaker 5: that a lot of our people on our d line
28:40
Speaker 5: truly love each other and view each other as brothers.
28:44
Speaker 5: And you know, when you can make that happen, that
28:45
Speaker 5: that's that. I mean, it makes mentals so much easier,
28:49
Speaker 5: It makes everything so much cheesy because you genuinely care
28:51
Speaker 5: about what I'm going to do for you as a teammate.
28:54
Speaker 1: You know who loves you guys a lot and loves
28:56
Speaker 1: the Bills, loves Bill's Mafia. Jordan Phillips the ultimate hype man.
29:03
Speaker 1: You watch him during a game. What is he doing
29:05
Speaker 1: before a huddle? He's hyping up the crowd. When you
29:09
Speaker 1: look over and he's doing that, what's going through your mind?
29:12
Speaker 5: In my head, I'm just like, that's him there, he is,
29:15
Speaker 5: like we need that. And it's incredible because I think
29:18
Speaker 5: when he first started doing it, people were kind of like, oh,
29:20
Speaker 5: it's just one of the guys trying to get the
29:22
Speaker 5: crowd hype. But if you've ever heard the crowd before
29:25
Speaker 5: and after Phil did that or does his action of
29:29
Speaker 5: getting everybody into it, you know, the roar whenever he
29:32
Speaker 5: gets the people. It's incredible. And then and they feed
29:35
Speaker 5: off of Phil. The people feed off of Phil, and
29:39
Speaker 5: us as players feed off of Phil, and so it's, uh,
29:43
Speaker 5: it's pretty cool.
29:43
Speaker 4: To see him go.
29:44
Speaker 1: Does he say anything to you guys when he's doing
29:47
Speaker 1: that before or after?
29:49
Speaker 5: Nope, It just those those bear paus just go up
29:52
Speaker 5: and and the people get louder. You know, it's just
29:55
Speaker 5: kind of I think they're looking for it now, like
29:57
Speaker 5: they just are looking for Phil, and once they see it.
29:59
Speaker 1: They know they know he is so good at that,
30:02
Speaker 1: also so good at rocking the puffer jacket at practices.
30:06
Speaker 1: Have you ever thought maybe maybe I should try one day.
30:09
Speaker 4: I've it's crossed my mind.
30:11
Speaker 5: You know, my jersey's already tight enough as it is,
30:13
Speaker 5: so I've kind of sacrifice.
30:14
Speaker 4: I've thought I'm not gonna do that. I'll just I'll
30:16
Speaker 4: leave that to Phil, leave it to the Milt, I'll
30:19
Speaker 4: leave it to Phil.
30:20
Speaker 1: How much joy does he bring the defensive line room
30:23
Speaker 1: and the team?
30:24
Speaker 4: He I mean, he's just he's just the best.
30:27
Speaker 5: I mean, you talk about energy, and you talk about
30:30
Speaker 5: personality and just kind of I mean a person that
30:34
Speaker 5: you would also want to strive to be like one
30:35
Speaker 5: day when you talk about just being a genuinely good person,
30:38
Speaker 5: and like you said, he cares about each and every
30:40
Speaker 5: person on this team, and he tries, he tries to
30:42
Speaker 5: find ways to make your day easier just by being
30:46
Speaker 5: who he is, Like he just wants to he wants
30:48
Speaker 5: everybody to have a smile on their face, and he
30:50
Speaker 5: wants everybody to enjoy being here.
30:52
Speaker 1: Quick going around the defensive line room, who's somebody who
30:55
Speaker 1: always has something to say?
31:00
Speaker 4: Kwon Jones?
31:03
Speaker 1: Who's the closest thing to being a wizard in the
31:06
Speaker 1: defensive line room, I'm thinking, like, you know the game better.
31:10
Speaker 4: Than most a wizard like at football? Yeah, oh, I
31:15
Speaker 4: think we have a lot of wizards at football. A
31:17
Speaker 4: lot of guys here are pretty good. Uh.
31:20
Speaker 5: I'd probably have to go DQ at that as well,
31:21
Speaker 5: because he's a nerd. Like he's really good at watching
31:24
Speaker 5: film and dissecting everything in one.
31:27
Speaker 4: Watch, like he saw it all and just one Yeah,
31:29
Speaker 4: it's pretty.
31:29
Speaker 1: Cool And you're like, whoa Q, how did you do?
31:31
Speaker 4: That's the name of that play? Again?
31:33
Speaker 1: Teach me your way. Who's the best dressed?
31:36
Speaker 4: Oh we have Yeah, this might be big. Phil's up there.
31:43
Speaker 4: DQ's definitely up there. As well.
31:45
Speaker 5: He's a repeat name. I'll probably go Big Phil. I
31:51
Speaker 5: think Big feels consistently the best dressed. Yeah, consistency.
31:54
Speaker 1: And in your eyes, who's grown the most this year?
31:57
Speaker 1: In the defensive, yes, grown the most?
32:00
Speaker 5: Your own the most? I would like to say TJ
32:03
Speaker 5: or Dione Walker. Those young guys have taken some huge
32:07
Speaker 5: steps forward and they've done some pretty good things for us.
32:10
Speaker 1: How fun is it to watch a rookie grow up
32:12
Speaker 1: before your eyes in their first year?
32:14
Speaker 4: I will say it is fun.
32:15
Speaker 5: It's fun having the young guys and watching their success
32:17
Speaker 5: and being able to be truly happy for it, and seeing,
32:20
Speaker 5: like we're talking about, watching them put in those hours
32:23
Speaker 5: of practice and then them make that specific play that
32:26
Speaker 5: they practice so hard. I mean we're cheering for them
32:28
Speaker 5: like we were out there making play. This's pretty cool.
32:30
Speaker 1: I know you're an anime guy. What anime are we
32:33
Speaker 1: watching right now?
32:34
Speaker 4: Right now?
32:35
Speaker 5: I actually just started the cyberpunk anime on Netflix, recommended
32:40
Speaker 5: by Joey, and I've been watching Gotcha. This is a
32:43
Speaker 5: weird name. It's called Gotchya Kuda. I've been watching that
32:46
Speaker 5: for some time. It was pretty good, so I stopped
32:49
Speaker 5: so I can Binge the last I think seven eight episodes,
32:52
Speaker 5: so I've got two right now that I'm on a.
32:54
Speaker 1: Right recommend it to the people.
32:56
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, cyberpunk and got ya kuda awesome.
33:00
Speaker 1: Thanks for the time. Always appreciate talking to you.
33:02
Speaker 4: Thank you for having me.
33:04
Speaker 1: All Right, we're back. We hope you enjoyed that interview
33:06
Speaker 1: with defensive end aj Epanessa. We're kicking this off with
33:10
Speaker 1: the Dog of the week. But first, before you say anything, Tray,
33:14
Speaker 1: I got a little I got a little surprise. Let's
33:16
Speaker 1: see if I can catch this.
33:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, we got Oh it's here, dog, it's here.
33:26
Speaker 1: Now let me tell you the backstory. I go on
33:28
Speaker 1: Amazon to order this thing and I see it, says
33:30
Speaker 1: top Dog. I'm like, okay, this is great. I knew
33:33
Speaker 1: it was gonna be small, but Trey, I didn't know
33:35
Speaker 1: what was gonna be like the size of my palm.
33:38
Speaker 1: Like that's itdy bitty. So I was like, well, Trey,
33:41
Speaker 1: love this or do we need to return it and
33:43
Speaker 1: get a bigger award.
33:46
Speaker 2: First of all, great job by you.
33:49
Speaker 1: Hold on, you are my top dog this week. You
33:52
Speaker 1: are the dog of the week for getting an interception.
33:55
Speaker 3: Come on, give me you see this it's gonna happy too.
33:59
Speaker 3: I thought it was like, but this is brilliant by you.
34:03
Speaker 3: But this I loved it. I don't think we should
34:06
Speaker 3: send it back. I think this is great.
34:08
Speaker 2: Like somebody get a whoever gets dogged.
34:11
Speaker 1: A week so everybody can see nobody can lose that.
34:16
Speaker 2: We got to open locker room too.
34:17
Speaker 3: So like everybody going, you gave me Dog of the week.
34:23
Speaker 1: Know only this week, because I knew you weren't going
34:26
Speaker 1: to give it to yourself.
34:27
Speaker 2: Oh no, but I know who's okay?
34:31
Speaker 1: Who are you?
34:34
Speaker 2: This guy?
34:37
Speaker 3: A lot going on in the week, you know, I
34:40
Speaker 3: mean dealing with you know, the body, the aches and
34:44
Speaker 3: pains of just the season.
34:45
Speaker 2: You know.
34:45
Speaker 3: Then we practice on this turf. I know this guy
34:48
Speaker 3: hates practicing on the turf. He's an avid no practice,
34:52
Speaker 3: he's as he's a grass lover for sure, grounding flat foot,
34:58
Speaker 3: you know whatever it is.
35:01
Speaker 2: New baby this week.
35:03
Speaker 1: Hmmm.
35:06
Speaker 3: Bill's record for the tight ends, you know, the most
35:09
Speaker 3: passing touchdowns and tight ends and Bill's history huge.
35:14
Speaker 2: Eighty eight.
35:16
Speaker 1: Dawson not Dawson, not give it up, give it up.
35:20
Speaker 3: He's the dog of the week. You don't know this yet,
35:23
Speaker 3: but this is gonna be sitting in his locker. Should
35:25
Speaker 3: we present it to him at it or you should?
35:27
Speaker 3: I just put it in put.
35:30
Speaker 2: It in his locker, and he's like, good question, and
35:32
Speaker 2: we should get like, you know what, record him.
35:35
Speaker 1: True, but some of these guys, their locker rooms are
35:37
Speaker 1: all but on tidy for lockers. I should say, so
35:41
Speaker 1: would something? Would some even notice it in there? That's
35:44
Speaker 1: what I'm trying.
35:46
Speaker 2: He's one of those guys that got two lockers.
35:47
Speaker 1: You know, when you're breaking out, when you're breaking Bill's
35:52
Speaker 1: records for most receiving touchdowns by a tight end.
35:55
Speaker 3: He's one of the few guys I got two lockers.
35:57
Speaker 3: He got two lockers, So I don't know if he was.
36:00
Speaker 1: It's kind of I think I like. I like the
36:03
Speaker 1: presentation that you give them, you know, you like, get
36:07
Speaker 1: the dog of the week man, whatever you want to say.
36:09
Speaker 3: I think I'm gonna catch him after practice this week
36:11
Speaker 3: one day and I'm just gonna present it.
36:13
Speaker 2: I think that'll be good.
36:14
Speaker 1: I think that'll be good because that adds to it.
36:17
Speaker 3: Yes, but this dude is an absolute dog like the
36:22
Speaker 3: way that I just see him battle like the tight
36:24
Speaker 3: ends with you know, with our offense.
36:27
Speaker 2: X him to do dirty work, a.
36:30
Speaker 3: Lot of dirty word crack like black d ns like
36:34
Speaker 3: you know, catch out, you know, catch out, the you
36:36
Speaker 3: know whatever.
36:37
Speaker 2: He goes out for the routes. You know.
36:39
Speaker 3: I just think this guy's a great, great, great tight
36:43
Speaker 3: end like he can do. He does it all. He
36:44
Speaker 3: can run routes, he blocks like like we said, but
36:47
Speaker 3: great hands, catch can test the catches like dirty word,
36:52
Speaker 3: you know, just doing it all.
36:53
Speaker 2: And he's been doing it for a long time.
36:55
Speaker 3: Seventh season, seventh season, he's been doing it for a
36:59
Speaker 3: while too.
36:59
Speaker 2: He's a big VET.
37:01
Speaker 1: When when does somebody start to be a VET?
37:04
Speaker 2: A big vet? It's a vet and then.
37:06
Speaker 1: A year what year? In your mind?
37:09
Speaker 2: I think he just hit it, like around at six
37:11
Speaker 2: seven is.
37:13
Speaker 1: He said six to seven?
37:14
Speaker 2: Again, I didn't even try to do that. I mean, yeah,
37:17
Speaker 2: but and you're doing this, yeah, not even trying.
37:21
Speaker 3: But I just feel like around that six seven eight
37:24
Speaker 3: year mark, you get the big VET. I mean, once
37:27
Speaker 3: you pass that five that nickel, I just feel like,
37:32
Speaker 3: I think, I mean, you got a lot of strikes.
37:35
Speaker 1: To be on a team in today's day and age
37:37
Speaker 1: for seven years says a lot about you too.
37:40
Speaker 2: And that's a rarity.
37:41
Speaker 3: You know because in his business year a year, like
37:44
Speaker 3: we always say, but to be trusted by you know,
37:47
Speaker 3: organization for seven years, drafted here, multiple extensions, a baby,
37:53
Speaker 3: a baby, touchdown, touchdowns, passing the record. I mean, like,
37:58
Speaker 3: what more could you ask exactly? And you know what,
38:02
Speaker 3: I got a story.
38:03
Speaker 1: For about our top dogar love a story.
38:06
Speaker 2: So we after the wind, we're driving home on inter
38:08
Speaker 2: State and you know, I get it. I understand like
38:15
Speaker 2: he's trying to get home to the baby.
38:17
Speaker 1: So can you go for us here?
38:19
Speaker 2: Not to his only one? Man? I know my teammate
38:24
Speaker 2: he was on.
38:25
Speaker 3: He wasn't going crazy, It wasn't crazy, but I felt
38:29
Speaker 3: I know why he was doing what he was doing.
38:31
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, for sure. He was touchdown too, you know,
38:35
Speaker 3: game ball want to get home. He did the baby
38:39
Speaker 3: he was trying to. You know, we sit by each
38:42
Speaker 3: other on the plane too. The only thing he's looking
38:45
Speaker 3: at pictures of his baby girl. You know, after the
38:48
Speaker 3: game he just broke he just broke the record, but
38:50
Speaker 3: he's just looking at pictures of his baby girl. So
38:52
Speaker 3: that I get it. Yeah, you've been there, dog of
38:56
Speaker 3: the week. That's not great guy like I I also.
39:00
Speaker 1: Here, he's such a great leader and a great teammate
39:03
Speaker 1: like Josh Allen has shouted him out for like being
39:05
Speaker 1: an unsung hero in the locker room.
39:07
Speaker 3: Oh for sure, like like positive, always positive, no matter what.
39:12
Speaker 3: A guy that's been through a lot, you know, for himself,
39:15
Speaker 3: definitely positive. I've been here for you know, six of
39:20
Speaker 3: the seven years. But great teammate even coming in like
39:25
Speaker 3: a guy that never scored a touchdown in college. Yes,
39:30
Speaker 3: you know, I know you're with the stats today to
39:34
Speaker 3: be able to come from that. Yeah, but it also
39:39
Speaker 3: comes to the top tight end touchdown get it in
39:44
Speaker 3: such a short span, like that's huge, and it just
39:46
Speaker 3: shows like the work that he puts in and like
39:50
Speaker 3: we each and every week we talk about it like
39:53
Speaker 3: it's just not a surprise.
39:54
Speaker 2: Like these guys are these guys are are you know,
39:57
Speaker 2: having success?
39:58
Speaker 3: Like when you put it in like it's a good guy,
40:01
Speaker 3: it's gonna come back. And then you have the faith
40:04
Speaker 3: aspect that with Dawson, great great guy. So top dog
40:09
Speaker 3: of the week, great guy, Great team Dawson. Dawson is
40:12
Speaker 3: the dog of the week, Top dog of the week,
40:15
Speaker 3: Top Dad of the week, Top.
40:16
Speaker 1: Dad of the week, I mean first touchdown score of
40:19
Speaker 1: the week, to two.
40:21
Speaker 3: Of them in a big time game. Yeah, that second
40:24
Speaker 3: one on third down. This guy, I mean, he's a
40:30
Speaker 3: bill through and through.
40:32
Speaker 1: He's a great way to put him. All right. I
40:34
Speaker 1: can't wait for Dawson to get I feel.
40:37
Speaker 2: Like you did a great job.
40:39
Speaker 1: I did.
40:39
Speaker 3: Oh no, I didn't want to. This is what I
40:46
Speaker 3: had in mind, like something that the guys look at
40:49
Speaker 3: me like, yeah, so yeah, I think.
40:52
Speaker 1: It's okay, good, all right. We got a couple of
40:54
Speaker 1: fan questions to wrap us up here. Richard wants to
40:58
Speaker 1: know what's the biggest difference between man and zone. Hmm,
41:04
Speaker 1: I mean take us to school, tray.
41:05
Speaker 3: Okay, obviously you know man and man like, you're locked
41:10
Speaker 3: on your man like, but you have certain you know,
41:13
Speaker 3: aspects where two receivers can be in proximity, where I
41:17
Speaker 3: can work with my nickel or my other cornerback or
41:21
Speaker 3: my safety depending on what man and man car we're
41:25
Speaker 3: in and where our help is and what leverage we
41:27
Speaker 3: should be. Is dog man where you don't want to
41:30
Speaker 3: let the guy get inside across your face, or it's
41:33
Speaker 3: you know, cover one man where you have somebody inside,
41:36
Speaker 3: where you have a lurker inside, where somebody inside that
41:38
Speaker 3: can help you on inbreaks.
41:39
Speaker 2: So it just depends on you know, what man you're in.
41:44
Speaker 3: But I mean, obviously though, that's how you do the
41:47
Speaker 3: man and man defense, but in zone it's more of
41:50
Speaker 3: a field base where kind of you know, hovering over
41:54
Speaker 3: a guy, not really.
41:57
Speaker 2: Hugging over the whole time. But I just feel like
42:01
Speaker 2: zone is more matchy.
42:04
Speaker 3: But I just feel like now in today's game, is
42:07
Speaker 3: all zones turning to man.
42:09
Speaker 1: I know, it's like zone with matchup concepts for.
42:11
Speaker 3: Sure, because if you just gonna run and be five
42:15
Speaker 3: yards from a guy and never connect to him, like
42:18
Speaker 3: you might as well just play let him play seven
42:19
Speaker 3: on seven. Yeah, so now more zone is man is
42:24
Speaker 3: in every aspect now. So I just think when you
42:28
Speaker 3: obviously are in man, the man covers, you know, you're
42:31
Speaker 3: down in the person's face, and you you up and
42:34
Speaker 3: challenging and make it harder trying to throw off the timing.
42:37
Speaker 3: But with zones you more softer you're back. You know,
42:40
Speaker 3: you just don't want the offense to go over your head.
42:43
Speaker 3: You don't want to give up deep balls. So so yeah,
42:46
Speaker 3: I think, but in today's NFL it's just so hard
42:50
Speaker 3: like zones can look like man and man can look
42:53
Speaker 3: like zone too. So it's just however, however that defense
42:59
Speaker 3: you know, looks at the offense that they're going against,
43:02
Speaker 3: because I just feel like going into each and every week,
43:06
Speaker 3: defenses don't use the same principles each and every week
43:09
Speaker 3: going against how dynamic offenses are today. So looking at
43:14
Speaker 3: it from a player point of view, I mean so
43:18
Speaker 3: many ways you can put it. It's it's so much
43:22
Speaker 3: deeper than it's complicated to me. But I just think
43:29
Speaker 3: that you know, however you you look at the game,
43:33
Speaker 3: or like, however you look at a certain formation, because
43:36
Speaker 3: guys look at defense differently. That's why they have so
43:39
Speaker 3: many different schemes in itself. So but yeah, just simply
43:46
Speaker 3: put man and man. You locked up on the guy
43:49
Speaker 3: and those zone eyes. Don't look at the quarterback. Keep
43:51
Speaker 3: your eyes on your man in his own coverage. You
43:54
Speaker 3: could look at the quarterback while looking at a man. Also,
43:57
Speaker 3: you know, by having a certain area that you.
43:59
Speaker 2: Have to come.
44:00
Speaker 1: You hear also a lot from defensive players secondary who
44:05
Speaker 1: are getting drafted into the NFL. They play a lot
44:08
Speaker 1: of man in college, and it takes some time to
44:11
Speaker 1: get that feel for how to be a good zone
44:14
Speaker 1: defender at the NFL level.
44:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean for sure a guy has, you know,
44:21
Speaker 3: in myself coming from LSU, like that's all we did,
44:24
Speaker 3: press man man a man all day, first, second, third,
44:28
Speaker 3: fourth down, It didn't matter like we were playing man man.
44:31
Speaker 3: But getting drafted here more zone base, you know, zone scheme,
44:35
Speaker 3: cover fos, you know, so you know.
44:38
Speaker 2: Too high safety.
44:39
Speaker 3: But I just feel like if you're a guy that
44:41
Speaker 3: could do both, like that's great And I feel like
44:46
Speaker 3: with me that helped me in my career to be
44:48
Speaker 3: able to be a guy come from a man and
44:50
Speaker 3: man background and come to his own base scheme and
44:53
Speaker 3: be able to sail and excel in that. But also
44:56
Speaker 3: like as a corner, like that helps you out too.
44:59
Speaker 3: You're not straight in each and every play, Yeah, like
45:02
Speaker 3: twitching and turn it your brain on off that take,
45:06
Speaker 3: that take told on your body too, like constantly practicing
45:09
Speaker 3: that and doing that in the game constantly.
45:10
Speaker 2: Man man, that's that's a lot on the hips and
45:13
Speaker 2: in the legs too.
45:14
Speaker 3: So if you can be able to like sit back
45:16
Speaker 3: and zone and like kind of relax and look at
45:18
Speaker 3: the quarterback, give you a you know, a great, great
45:20
Speaker 3: opportunity to make pays on the ball too.
45:22
Speaker 2: When you can see the quarterback and feel for the
45:24
Speaker 2: receivers full.
45:25
Speaker 1: A little bit more. In zone too, you can disguise
45:28
Speaker 1: a little bit.
45:28
Speaker 2: More where yeah, I mean, yeah you could.
45:33
Speaker 3: I mean that's the thing you want to do, you know,
45:34
Speaker 3: with these quarterbacks in these leads, you want to kind
45:36
Speaker 3: of like disguise and trying to make it looks look
45:39
Speaker 3: like something else. But I feel like the best defense
45:43
Speaker 3: or the defenses that can be able to fool the quarterback,
45:45
Speaker 3: which is hard to do. But when you can fool
45:47
Speaker 3: the quarterback and make it make them thinking that it's
45:49
Speaker 3: something that's not, I mean, that's where you get the interceptions.
45:52
Speaker 3: And when you're in zone coverage, your eyes are back
45:54
Speaker 3: and you can see the ball coming.
45:57
Speaker 1: Just like hand scared hands hands catch, non body catch.
46:02
Speaker 3: No, we like hands, hands hands catch all day. That's
46:05
Speaker 3: all day. That's what you want to do. Get into
46:07
Speaker 3: the body like no matter. Some things can happen, you
46:10
Speaker 3: can fall and you know, you know how they are
46:12
Speaker 3: with these replays, ball move a little bit, they're not
46:15
Speaker 3: giving you the catch, but.
46:17
Speaker 1: You caught it. Intercept and portray White. Okay, last fan question.
46:21
Speaker 1: Stacey wants to know who is somebody who's turned into
46:24
Speaker 1: a bigger leader this year. And your eyes could be
46:28
Speaker 1: on offense, could be on defense. Who's grown in their leadership.
46:32
Speaker 2: Skills since I've been back. I mean hm hmm. Gauging
46:39
Speaker 2: from just the off season or just from you.
46:42
Speaker 1: Could go from off season to where coming Yeah, we're
46:46
Speaker 1: coming back now.
46:49
Speaker 2: Bigger leader, bigger leader.
46:53
Speaker 3: Who I would say, I mean, he's become more vocal
46:58
Speaker 3: then the years pass up with Taron Johnson. Yeah, great,
47:05
Speaker 3: like great, great player, great player, like can do it,
47:09
Speaker 3: does a lot for our defense, like cover tackle, he
47:13
Speaker 3: plays cornerback, nickel back, linebacker, all the safety, like does
47:19
Speaker 3: it all and you know, have to do it each
47:22
Speaker 3: and every week. And he's one eighty and he's in
47:24
Speaker 3: the box, he's tackling and he's covering the best guy too.
47:27
Speaker 3: So but he was always a guy that kind of exemplifies,
47:33
Speaker 3: just showed, you know, the result being like the work
47:37
Speaker 3: being put in, but like not just leaving by his
47:40
Speaker 3: eff and doing everything right, like great routine, take care
47:43
Speaker 3: of his body, like break's.
47:45
Speaker 2: Extremely hard even in the off slavery.
47:48
Speaker 3: Just a guy that just does everything in the right
47:50
Speaker 3: way and a guy that I'm extremely close to.
47:53
Speaker 2: One of my best friends.
47:54
Speaker 3: So I mean, I just feel like the step that
47:57
Speaker 3: he's take that's taken with you know, Michael and Porter
48:01
Speaker 3: are leaving and he had to step on up, step up,
48:03
Speaker 3: you know, with myself leaving too. But in the defensive
48:08
Speaker 3: back room holding the traditions, doing the same thing, and
48:13
Speaker 3: he's holding it down and he's he's the one that's like,
48:16
Speaker 3: we're gonna do this, We're going to do that, you know,
48:19
Speaker 3: and him exemplifying that and just him leading, leading the group.
48:23
Speaker 3: I mean, he does a great job when he talked
48:25
Speaker 3: to us too, like about like game plan.
48:28
Speaker 2: Leading, leading meetings, extra means we have, you know.
48:32
Speaker 3: I mean he's just a great, great teammate and I
48:35
Speaker 3: love to but he's a guy that I you know,
48:38
Speaker 3: that comes to mind when I think about, you know,
48:41
Speaker 3: has taken you know, took a step as far as
48:44
Speaker 3: the way he leads, and it.
48:46
Speaker 2: Also paying off.
48:47
Speaker 3: And you know, young guys looking at that, looking at
48:50
Speaker 3: him for leadership and he's doing it the right way
48:52
Speaker 3: and then leading us. You know, we're playing great ball,
48:55
Speaker 3: you know, in a second. And he's a guy that
48:57
Speaker 3: has to communicate on the field and he you know,
48:59
Speaker 3: had communicate run fits, you know, combo coverages and stuff
49:03
Speaker 3: like that.
49:03
Speaker 2: He does a lot.
49:04
Speaker 3: So I just feel like, you know, with all that
49:06
Speaker 3: stress on the field that he has to go through
49:08
Speaker 3: with and you know, the lines then off the field
49:11
Speaker 3: with him being the same guy and being that same
49:13
Speaker 3: guy consistently each and every day no matter what I mean,
49:16
Speaker 3: that's huge.
49:17
Speaker 1: Terren's awesome, big fan of Tarring Trey. You did some
49:20
Speaker 1: great storytelling today and we got to learn a lot
49:22
Speaker 1: about the guys in Blue and Red on the Buffalo those.
49:26
Speaker 2: So that's what I do.
49:27
Speaker 1: That's what you do. You get the stats and you
49:29
Speaker 1: storytell my.
49:31
Speaker 3: Stat getting this crazy put some glasses, I think, I think.
49:35
Speaker 2: I think, you know, and this is just coming off
49:39
Speaker 2: my head.
49:39
Speaker 1: You feel, yeah when you pull that Dawson Knox.
49:43
Speaker 3: But I do that because I was like, hold on,
49:46
Speaker 3: that's something that he taught and he told me, you know,
49:48
Speaker 3: years past, so you know, but I just couldn't believe that.
49:53
Speaker 1: It is crazy. I remember.
49:54
Speaker 3: That's how you just like when it comes to those
49:57
Speaker 3: things like you could get better when you get into
50:03
Speaker 3: the NFL, Like it's so many cases of guys like
50:05
Speaker 3: getting better, being better players than they were in you know,
50:10
Speaker 3: in college, I.
50:11
Speaker 1: Mean punching above their draft grade.
50:15
Speaker 2: Draft grades, draft grades. I don't like.
50:20
Speaker 1: I don't like the.
50:20
Speaker 3: Draft grade cause I just felt like my junior year,
50:24
Speaker 3: my junior year, I wanted to go in the draft,
50:26
Speaker 3: and they was like, yeah, nah, you need to go back, brother, it's.
50:29
Speaker 2: Not the time.
50:29
Speaker 1: Are you happy I did that?
50:31
Speaker 2: I am.
50:32
Speaker 3: I was able to graduate, graduated, spend more time in college.
50:36
Speaker 2: I mean, I had fun. I enjoyed it, so no,
50:40
Speaker 2: wouldn't change it. No, I wouldn't change it for sure. Nah,
50:43
Speaker 2: it was a great time. I had a great time.
50:44
Speaker 3: I was able to spend more time with my friends,
50:46
Speaker 3: who still all my closest friends today.
50:49
Speaker 2: So it was great.
50:51
Speaker 3: And then LSU, I mean had a great time, great food,
50:56
Speaker 3: great atmosphere. I mean so yeah, but that draft preade
51:01
Speaker 3: kind of that draft grade hurt my feelings.
51:03
Speaker 2: That hurt my feelings. That was that was bad.
51:05
Speaker 1: You're like, who's talking? Now? Look at me what I've done?
51:09
Speaker 2: You know, draft grades.
51:11
Speaker 3: I want to start grading now, Okay, I'm gonna start grade.
51:13
Speaker 3: All right, I'm gonna start grading the draft graders. Let's
51:18
Speaker 3: see how.
51:20
Speaker 2: I like that.
51:21
Speaker 1: All right, that's gonna do it for us. In today's
51:23
Speaker 1: episode of Inside the Charge. Make sure you stay tuned
51:26
Speaker 1: for more, and like and subscribe if you haven't yet