June 30, 2024 • 18 mins
Ryan Talbot Joins Zach & Zack to discuss life after Diggs, is this team addition by subtraction, why Kincaid should be a big fantasy target, and whether the new Bills stadium should have a retractable roof.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
The Bills make me want to throwyour hand something brow your hand. Come
on now, the Bills. I'mmaking it happen now. It may barely
be July, but it is nevertoo early to talk football, because football
is king. Yes, this isthe Lavak and Guys Show, but if
(00:22):
you're just tuning in, this isZach and Zach Jr. And we are
happy to bring on with us RyanTalbot, who covers the Bills for New
York Upstate also co host of theBills podcast Shout Ryan. Thanks for joining
us. The first question I knowyou know where I'm going was their tension
between Josh Allen and Stefan Diggs thatultimately led to his departure. Jefon Diggs
(00:49):
was very complimentary of Josh Allen athis introductory press conference, and Josh Allen
said all the right things about Diggsand so did you know, Brandon Bean,
Sean McDermott. But it was kindof clear that this the way that
they were doing things offensively, itjust wasn't working well enough for this team
to win a championship. And Iknow that Diggs's production went down significantly in
(01:11):
the second half of last season,but he was still getting targeted a lot.
Teams are kind of phasing him andtaking him out of the game,
sometimes with double team. Sometimes therewere quarnerbacks just good enough in one on
one to kind of phase him out. And for the Bills, you know,
they could see that he was notcontent or happy in this role at
times, the way that he wouldleave after certain playoff losses, the interactions
(01:34):
on the sideline. So for Buffalo, it was probably a case of let's
take on this dead cap for oneyear, put ourselves in a much better
place cap wise in the future,and kind of go with what Joe Brady
was doing as the interim offensive coordinator, which was spreading the ball around and
making it more complex for defenses tofigure out who the ball was going to.
(01:56):
So Ryan, this is Zach alsoknown as Junior here as well.
Just wanted to clarify a little biton that too. So do you think
it was mainly a decision of notwanting to deal with the dissatisfied Digs and
wanting to focus more on bringing ina younger receiving core to kind of fill
out more or do you think itwas this is something that we can do
(02:19):
to kind of set ourselves up forthe following season. Yeah, you know,
this is just my gut feeling,but I feel like Stefan Diggs and
his agent went to the Bills andsaid that they would like to see him
get moved, and once that happened, the Bill said, you know,
we don't want to have to dealwith an unhappy player on our roster,
and they probably thought we could getyounger at the position, we could bring
(02:40):
in some guys that we think aregoing to help this offense move further.
And you know, if you lookat the revamped room, there's reason to
think that this could be a prettydecent wide receiver room going forward. Kalol
Shakir obviously is the only returning facethat had high production with the Bills last
season, but he should be betterin year three, and he earned more
(03:00):
targets down the stretch. Keon Coleman, you know, rookies are hard to
figure out, but I would anticipatethat he will at least be a big
target or weapon in the red zonefor this team. One player that I
think people are sleeping on is CurtisSamuel, a receiver that's played for Joe
Brady, thrived with Joe Brady andCarolina head over a thousand total yards one
(03:22):
year with him, and this isthe guy that's played with bad quarterbacks for
the majority of his career. Nowhe gets Josh Allen. Don't be surprised
if he has one of the mostproductive, if not the most productive season
of his career in twenty twenty four. And then obviously you know MVS comes
in from the Chiefs. I thinkhe's more of a downfield threat at times.
(03:42):
They have some unknowns on the backend of this roster. kJ Hamler
had a really nice spring so far. We'll see you and carry that over
to the summer. But it's amuch different wide receiver room, and I
think with those pieces, you're throwingthe tight ends that they have and even
a pass catching back like James Cook, and there's a lot of you know,
stress that's going to be put onopposing defenses. Now, this is
(04:03):
no disrespect to any of the widereceivers that you name, because if you
watch football, you understand that theseare really solid guys. So when I
asked this question, just keep thatin mind. Do you think Josh Allen
will take that next step like aPatrick Mahomes when he lost Tyreek Hill where
now he has a abundance of receiversthat are solid enough to get the job
(04:27):
done, and now he can wingames by spreading the ball around. I
think there is a possibility. IJohnathan almost feel pressured, and no matter
who the offensive corner has been thelast few years, I almost feel like
they felt pressure to get the ballto step on Dicks. And when you
have a number one receiver. TomBrady actually talked about this this offseason.
(04:49):
When you have a number one,there's this need to get the ball in
their hands early and often, andsometimes that really takes away some of the
creativity and some of the game planningthat you can use against teams. What
we saw last season when Joe Bradybecame the interrom offensive coordinator is some game
plans He went in and said,we're going to spread the ball around.
(05:11):
Some game plans. He said,we're going to focus on running the ball
that Dallas game, for instance.And he did come out and say after
the game it wasn't their intention torun as many times as they did,
but when something was working, theywent with it. They stuck with it.
And in the passing game, yousaw Khalil Shakir getting open time and
time again, they started going tohim more. Dalton Kincaid becoming more of
(05:32):
a weapon in this offense down thestretch and ending up with franchise records as
a rookie for this team in termsof the production at that tight end position.
So I really do think that spreadingthe ball around is going to make
things more interesting. Now. Iwill say that Stefan Diggs. Generally,
if you had a team that hada number one cornerback that you would move
(05:54):
would be on Diggs. And thisyear there's going to be games where I
think some of these receivers are goingto get phased out because none of them
are at the caliber of Diggs's ability, or maybe even just in terms of
recognition or name value at this pointin time. But the fact that they
can spread this ball around at timesand they don't have to get it to
Diggs. I think it's going tohelp Josh Allen. It's gonna possibly lower
(06:15):
his interception tolls because teams would probablycheat over to the side of Diggs and
try to take away certain players,and now it's going to be more challenging
for them to figure out what thatgame plan is on a given week.
Absolutely get that opening up his optionsa big given some more versatility. So
you mentioned a player that also giveshim that, and I kind of want
to know from your perspective how muchof an increased role he's going to have
(06:38):
in this new offense we're going tobe seeing from the Bills. Dalton Kincaid,
is he going to have, youknow, this this outbreaking season where
he is going to be that maintarget at least seemingly off the rip for
the Bills and for Josh Allen specifically. I think he's in for a monster
season. Anyone that does fantasy football, I would try to get King Kaid
(06:59):
is you know, either your startingtight end or if you feel like you
can get him even you know asyour backup, get him because he's someone
that's going to absorb a lot ofthe targets lost with Stefan Diggs and gave
Davis Gone. It's a player thatwas doing a lot of more challenging things
than people realize for a rookie player. They had him running these intermediate and
(07:23):
deep routes versus man. They hadhim doing a lot of different routes that
you don't typically put on a rookietight end. To do, and he
was actually succeeding as the season wenton in that role. He improved as
a blocker, and obviously Dawson Knoxis still by far their best blocking tight
end. But if you have reasonto keep him on the field and you
(07:44):
can trust him enough to block,that's going to lead to more snaps,
more opportunities for him in the passinggame as well. So I think Dalankin
Kid is definitely in line for amonster season. That would not be surprised
if he finishes the year either leadingthis team in receptions or receiving yards.
You know, I hope none ofmy fantasy buddies are listening, because I
am always that guy that takes aguy one year or too early. When
(08:07):
it came to draft last year,I actually took Dalton Kincaid, and then
for my backup tight end, Itook Sam Laporta. To the point where
I was so sure Dalton Kincaid wasgoing to break out towards the end of
the season, I actually traded SamLaporta. Yes, you can go ahead
and make fun of me for that. I had Laporta in my dynasty league
last year. I took him asa rookie, and this year I took
(08:30):
Brock Bauers, you know, tobe my second one on that team.
So I'm pretty happy with my tightends. But I think anyone that has
Dalon Kincaid is gonna be very happyfor years to come as well. Absolutely,
So that's one of the guys thatI look forward to. Defensively,
it feels like this Bill's team isgetting a lot of disrespect, whether it's
Pro Football Focus or this or that. How are you feeling about what the
(08:54):
way that they're talking about this Bill'sdefense. Yeah, I think that they're
going to say prize a lot ofpeople this season. I mean, if
you start up Frontvn Miller recently cameout and said he probably shouldn't have been
playing last year. And you know, I'm guessing he's saying that after seeing
how much he struggled on the field. He probably thought at the time he
could play, but he could notreally move with that brace on his knee.
(09:18):
He looked like a shell of hisformer self this spring, and again
they weren't in pads, but hewas not wearing that brace, and he
looked more like the player we sawpre injury than I've ever seen from him,
the way that he could move,the way he could get around the
edge of the pass rush movements,the speed, so I think you're gonna
get more out of him, firstand foremost off the edge. I think
(09:39):
Greg Russo it's gonna come down tohim staying healthy. He's played through these
nagging injuries foot ankle type deals inhis career that's hampered him. But when
he's been healthy, he's been someonethat's been pretty promising as a pass rusher.
He's been outstanding against the run,So you have a good one two
punch there, and then I likesome of the depth options they have as
(10:01):
well coming off of the edge.Internally, I love the defensive tackle rotation.
Obviously starting upfront with that olifd dKwan Jones, I like that they
bring in a Dwayne Carter Austin Johnson, so I feel like up front they
have the potential to be just asgood as they were last year. I
know they lost Leonard Floyd who putup double digit sacks, but throwing a
(10:26):
guy like Ajffanessa two who got injuredwith the rib injury against the Chiefs and
was never quite the same. It'llcome down to staying healthy. Linebackers.
I find it hard to think ofa better linebacker duo than that Milano and
Trell. Bernard once again plays therole in that Milano missed most of last
season. There was a lot ofquestions about the injury that he suffered in
(10:48):
the rehab process, but getting himback out there on the field in the
spring, seeing him do some ofthe drills was encouraging because we were left
with a lot of question marks abouthow long it would take for him to
come back. But I love thatunit. They have some depth there as
well. And then on the backend, I think cornerback they have a
really strong starting three. Russell Douglaskind of admitted that he was kind of,
(11:09):
you know, playing by the seatof his pants last year, and
all he was doing was listening towhat Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde were telling
him to do pre snap. Heplayed very well doing that. Now he
has a whole year of learning thisplaybook that should benefit him. Christian Benford
has really emerged as a great cornerback, and then Tarren Johnson is in my
opinion, the best nickel cornerback infootball. So it comes down to depth
(11:33):
of that position. Ken Kyer Elambe the type of player of the Bills
envision when they drafted him the firstround and provide that solid depth on the
outside. I think that he's lookedreally good in the spring. New defensive
backs coach is probably very good forhim despite all the good things that John
Butler did with his secondary. Andthen at safety, that's the biggest question
mark to me, what are yougoing to get out of the safety play.
(11:56):
Jordan Ployer's gone, Mike High doesn'tknow if he's going to reach,
but you know or two of thesystem. He played very well down the
stretch for this team. I thoughtthat he struggled early on but played very
well late in the season. MikeEdwards is a veteran with a lot of
experience, and you go out andyou draft the safety in round two that
you have a lot of faith in. So between those three guys, I
(12:18):
really do think that that can bea very good position. But time will
tell. One of the guys thatyou were talking about that it took a
while to get there, but careerElam that is a guy that coming out
I thought with him in tradevious Whitenow obviously Trdavius White's gone. Kier AMLM.
Is he going to take the nextstep? How much pressure is on
(12:39):
this kid to perform, because therewas a lot of expectation, especially being
a first round pick, and itjust feels like he hasn't quite yet hammered
it out in the NFL. Yeah, and I feel bad for Elam to
a certain extent. This was aplayer that played mostly man defense at Florida
and he gets drafted by a teamthat plays mostly his zone. So it's
(13:03):
someone that was not used to playingthat sort of defense, and you knew
there was going to be a learningcurve. I don't think if I thought
it was going to take this longnecessarily. But his biggest flaw to date
has been being overly physical, andI think he's had a lean on that
because he was not comfortable in azone defense, so he would grab,
(13:24):
he would hold, he'd get penalizedwith the reps a training camp. There
was a point during his rookie seasonwhere they literally put boxing gloves on the
guy so he couldn't hold on toplayers. And I'm sure in their minds
it was to benefit Kyrie Eland,but I would also think that man,
and it's kind of embarrassing in frontof crowds of people doing that to your
rookie at that time. I wantto see what this defense looks like this
(13:48):
year. That again just a gutfeeling, nothing based on what we've seen.
I wouldn't be shocked if the Billsweren't as zone heavy, if they
mixed in man demand a little bitmore more at times, and that's where
I think Kyrie Elam is going tohave a chance to shine. That is
his specialty, that's where his athleticismreally comes out. So I do think
(14:09):
that at least in the current rolethat they have him at, and that'd
be like that top guy potentially offthe bench as an outside corner, he's
going to have a chance to performwell. But where they drafted him,
I still say Trent McDuffie was theirtarget. Chiefs jumped over him in the
drafted him and then locked the Billswith, well, what other cornerbacks we
have a high grade on? Andit was Elam And although he didn't fit
(14:31):
scheme wise, they were hoping thathe could kind of convert at maybe a
little bit faster ever rate, Iunderstand that, Yeah, he had a
lot of talent coming out. Onething I did want to talk about and
my buddy would kill me if Ididn't talk about this. Do you think
the Bills are making a mistake bynot putting a retractable roof on his new
stadium, because if you take alook at what they did against the Bengals
(14:54):
in the postseason. Now, Iknow football is supposed to be cold weather,
but they have a track team,they have a offensive firepower for the
first time, and how many yearsdon't you think that they should kind of
lean that way and get a retractableroof on their stadium. Yeah, I've
been team retractable roof for as longas I can remember. When they announced
(15:15):
this new stadium, I'm against,you know, the open air for multiple
reasons. First and foremost, you'retaking money out of Orchard Park in this
new stadium by not making a retractableroof. If you have a roof on
this place, you can use thatyear round for concerts, for you know,
different whatever you want. It couldbe like a comic content you it
(15:35):
could be for different events. Iknow they do certain things in different parts
of govels, but you're closing itoff for that. But in terms of
football and purely football, Yeah,why not let that work to your advantage.
I love what Indianapolis does where theyannounced like the day before the game,
roofs open, roofs closed or not. Because if you're going in a
matchup against a team that you know, let's just pretend that are coming late
(16:00):
in the season and the Bills werein their new stadium, well, I'd
want the stadium open in that game, make them cold, make them uncomfortable,
make them throw into that win whereyou do have Josh Allen who can
throw in the elements and and thingslike that. But when you're going against
your right in these matchups where youhave Josh Allen and you had these guys
that could beach down the fields,has been what has hurt late in the
(16:23):
season or in the postseason as well, where they weren't built to be that
physical team. So yeah, Idefinitely think that there was a missed opportunity
to not have a roof on thisnew stadium opening up in a few years.
We're speaking with Ryan Talbot, cohost of the Bill's podcast Shout Now,
to back up on that question.Do you think they're leaving the roof
open to keep Sean McDermott's see fromburning up? You know, possibly,
(16:49):
I don't know how hot of aseat he's on. I think that when
when Terry Pagoula looks at this team, he says, this was a team
that had this really long drought beforehe kind of came along, and they've
won the AFCs year after year.They've had some terrible breaks in the postseason.
Obviously the thirteen seconds comes to mind, but if you just even look
(17:11):
at last season, Stefan Diggs droppinga deep ball and I know there was
plenty of time left on the clockin that game, but he catches that.
Maybe the Bills go ahead late inthe fourth and it changes the whole
outcome later in the matchup. They'vehad some bad luck go their way,
and how much of that can youpin on McDermott. Now, the one
thing I'll say is the defense isoften collapse more than the offense in the
(17:34):
postseason, and that's supposed to beBuffalo's specialties. So I think there is
a little bit of heat on hisseat in terms of maybe this is the
year that he turns over play callingduties to Bobby Babbage, who they were
able to retain and keep and putin move into that defensive coordinator role.
But at the same time, whenyou look at the overall success, I'm
(17:55):
not sure that there's much heat onthat seat. Maybe it's just like the
heated seat in a car where it'scomfortable right now, but it's not burning
up by any means. So beforeI let you go, I have to
ask you this last question, andmy co host is afraid to ask you.
So we're going through your Twitter.Are you going to be buying chicken
wing hair products? Maybe for mybeard if it gets long enough, But
(18:22):
with this shaved head, it seemslike a not a very good investment on
my part. Maybe for the wifeand my daughter, they could definitely use
it. Yeah. I had someridiculous complaints in it on that comment too.
They weren't sauced up. You know, anyone can go to the dollar
store and buy an orange sharpie andcolor it in if they really want to
be that invested in it. Ohmy gosh. I appreciate the time as
(18:47):
always, Thank you very much andlook forward to talking to you down the
road. Yeah, thanks guys,I had a great time. Thanks Ron
The Bills make me want to throwyour hand something brow your hand. Come
on now, the Bills. I'mmaking it happen now. It may barely
be July, but it is nevertoo early to talk football, because football
is king. Yes, this isthe Lavak and Guys Show, but if
(00:22):
you're just tuning in, this isZach and Zach Jr. And we are
happy to bring on with us RyanTalbot, who covers the Bills for New
York Upstate also co host of theBills podcast Shout Ryan. Thanks for joining
us. The first question I knowyou know where I'm going was their tension
between Josh Allen and Stefan Diggs thatultimately led to his departure. Jefon Diggs
(00:49):
was very complimentary of Josh Allen athis introductory press conference, and Josh Allen
said all the right things about Diggsand so did you know, Brandon Bean,
Sean McDermott. But it was kindof clear that this the way that
they were doing things offensively, itjust wasn't working well enough for this team
to win a championship. And Iknow that Diggs's production went down significantly in
(01:11):
the second half of last season,but he was still getting targeted a lot.
Teams are kind of phasing him andtaking him out of the game,
sometimes with double team. Sometimes therewere quarnerbacks just good enough in one on
one to kind of phase him out. And for the Bills, you know,
they could see that he was notcontent or happy in this role at
times, the way that he wouldleave after certain playoff losses, the interactions
(01:34):
on the sideline. So for Buffalo, it was probably a case of let's
take on this dead cap for oneyear, put ourselves in a much better
place cap wise in the future,and kind of go with what Joe Brady
was doing as the interim offensive coordinator, which was spreading the ball around and
making it more complex for defenses tofigure out who the ball was going to.
(01:56):
So Ryan, this is Zach alsoknown as Junior here as well.
Just wanted to clarify a little biton that too. So do you think
it was mainly a decision of notwanting to deal with the dissatisfied Digs and
wanting to focus more on bringing ina younger receiving core to kind of fill
out more or do you think itwas this is something that we can do
(02:19):
to kind of set ourselves up forthe following season. Yeah, you know,
this is just my gut feeling,but I feel like Stefan Diggs and
his agent went to the Bills andsaid that they would like to see him
get moved, and once that happened, the Bill said, you know,
we don't want to have to dealwith an unhappy player on our roster,
and they probably thought we could getyounger at the position, we could bring
(02:40):
in some guys that we think aregoing to help this offense move further.
And you know, if you lookat the revamped room, there's reason to
think that this could be a prettydecent wide receiver room going forward. Kalol
Shakir obviously is the only returning facethat had high production with the Bills last
season, but he should be betterin year three, and he earned more
(03:00):
targets down the stretch. Keon Coleman, you know, rookies are hard to
figure out, but I would anticipatethat he will at least be a big
target or weapon in the red zonefor this team. One player that I
think people are sleeping on is CurtisSamuel, a receiver that's played for Joe
Brady, thrived with Joe Brady andCarolina head over a thousand total yards one
(03:22):
year with him, and this isthe guy that's played with bad quarterbacks for
the majority of his career. Nowhe gets Josh Allen. Don't be surprised
if he has one of the mostproductive, if not the most productive season
of his career in twenty twenty four. And then obviously you know MVS comes
in from the Chiefs. I thinkhe's more of a downfield threat at times.
(03:42):
They have some unknowns on the backend of this roster. kJ Hamler
had a really nice spring so far. We'll see you and carry that over
to the summer. But it's amuch different wide receiver room, and I
think with those pieces, you're throwingthe tight ends that they have and even
a pass catching back like James Cook, and there's a lot of you know,
stress that's going to be put onopposing defenses. Now, this is
(04:03):
no disrespect to any of the widereceivers that you name, because if you
watch football, you understand that theseare really solid guys. So when I
asked this question, just keep thatin mind. Do you think Josh Allen
will take that next step like aPatrick Mahomes when he lost Tyreek Hill where
now he has a abundance of receiversthat are solid enough to get the job
(04:27):
done, and now he can wingames by spreading the ball around. I
think there is a possibility. IJohnathan almost feel pressured, and no matter
who the offensive corner has been thelast few years, I almost feel like
they felt pressure to get the ballto step on Dicks. And when you
have a number one receiver. TomBrady actually talked about this this offseason.
(04:49):
When you have a number one,there's this need to get the ball in
their hands early and often, andsometimes that really takes away some of the
creativity and some of the game planningthat you can use against teams. What
we saw last season when Joe Bradybecame the interrom offensive coordinator is some game
plans He went in and said,we're going to spread the ball around.
(05:11):
Some game plans. He said,we're going to focus on running the ball
that Dallas game, for instance.And he did come out and say after
the game it wasn't their intention torun as many times as they did,
but when something was working, theywent with it. They stuck with it.
And in the passing game, yousaw Khalil Shakir getting open time and
time again, they started going tohim more. Dalton Kincaid becoming more of
(05:32):
a weapon in this offense down thestretch and ending up with franchise records as
a rookie for this team in termsof the production at that tight end position.
So I really do think that spreadingthe ball around is going to make
things more interesting. Now. Iwill say that Stefan Diggs. Generally,
if you had a team that hada number one cornerback that you would move
(05:54):
would be on Diggs. And thisyear there's going to be games where I
think some of these receivers are goingto get phased out because none of them
are at the caliber of Diggs's ability, or maybe even just in terms of
recognition or name value at this pointin time. But the fact that they
can spread this ball around at timesand they don't have to get it to
Diggs. I think it's going tohelp Josh Allen. It's gonna possibly lower
(06:15):
his interception tolls because teams would probablycheat over to the side of Diggs and
try to take away certain players,and now it's going to be more challenging
for them to figure out what thatgame plan is on a given week.
Absolutely get that opening up his optionsa big given some more versatility. So
you mentioned a player that also giveshim that, and I kind of want
to know from your perspective how muchof an increased role he's going to have
(06:38):
in this new offense we're going tobe seeing from the Bills. Dalton Kincaid,
is he going to have, youknow, this this outbreaking season where
he is going to be that maintarget at least seemingly off the rip for
the Bills and for Josh Allen specifically. I think he's in for a monster
season. Anyone that does fantasy football, I would try to get King Kaid
(06:59):
is you know, either your startingtight end or if you feel like you
can get him even you know asyour backup, get him because he's someone
that's going to absorb a lot ofthe targets lost with Stefan Diggs and gave
Davis Gone. It's a player thatwas doing a lot of more challenging things
than people realize for a rookie player. They had him running these intermediate and
(07:23):
deep routes versus man. They hadhim doing a lot of different routes that
you don't typically put on a rookietight end. To do, and he
was actually succeeding as the season wenton in that role. He improved as
a blocker, and obviously Dawson Knoxis still by far their best blocking tight
end. But if you have reasonto keep him on the field and you
(07:44):
can trust him enough to block,that's going to lead to more snaps,
more opportunities for him in the passinggame as well. So I think Dalankin
Kid is definitely in line for amonster season. That would not be surprised
if he finishes the year either leadingthis team in receptions or receiving yards.
You know, I hope none ofmy fantasy buddies are listening, because I
am always that guy that takes aguy one year or too early. When
(08:07):
it came to draft last year,I actually took Dalton Kincaid, and then
for my backup tight end, Itook Sam Laporta. To the point where
I was so sure Dalton Kincaid wasgoing to break out towards the end of
the season, I actually traded SamLaporta. Yes, you can go ahead
and make fun of me for that. I had Laporta in my dynasty league
last year. I took him asa rookie, and this year I took
(08:30):
Brock Bauers, you know, tobe my second one on that team.
So I'm pretty happy with my tightends. But I think anyone that has
Dalon Kincaid is gonna be very happyfor years to come as well. Absolutely,
So that's one of the guys thatI look forward to. Defensively,
it feels like this Bill's team isgetting a lot of disrespect, whether it's
Pro Football Focus or this or that. How are you feeling about what the
(08:54):
way that they're talking about this Bill'sdefense. Yeah, I think that they're
going to say prize a lot ofpeople this season. I mean, if
you start up Frontvn Miller recently cameout and said he probably shouldn't have been
playing last year. And you know, I'm guessing he's saying that after seeing
how much he struggled on the field. He probably thought at the time he
could play, but he could notreally move with that brace on his knee.
(09:18):
He looked like a shell of hisformer self this spring, and again
they weren't in pads, but hewas not wearing that brace, and he
looked more like the player we sawpre injury than I've ever seen from him,
the way that he could move,the way he could get around the
edge of the pass rush movements,the speed, so I think you're gonna
get more out of him, firstand foremost off the edge. I think
(09:39):
Greg Russo it's gonna come down tohim staying healthy. He's played through these
nagging injuries foot ankle type deals inhis career that's hampered him. But when
he's been healthy, he's been someonethat's been pretty promising as a pass rusher.
He's been outstanding against the run,So you have a good one two
punch there, and then I likesome of the depth options they have as
(10:01):
well coming off of the edge.Internally, I love the defensive tackle rotation.
Obviously starting upfront with that olifd dKwan Jones, I like that they
bring in a Dwayne Carter Austin Johnson, so I feel like up front they
have the potential to be just asgood as they were last year. I
know they lost Leonard Floyd who putup double digit sacks, but throwing a
(10:26):
guy like Ajffanessa two who got injuredwith the rib injury against the Chiefs and
was never quite the same. It'llcome down to staying healthy. Linebackers.
I find it hard to think ofa better linebacker duo than that Milano and
Trell. Bernard once again plays therole in that Milano missed most of last
season. There was a lot ofquestions about the injury that he suffered in
(10:48):
the rehab process, but getting himback out there on the field in the
spring, seeing him do some ofthe drills was encouraging because we were left
with a lot of question marks abouthow long it would take for him to
come back. But I love thatunit. They have some depth there as
well. And then on the backend, I think cornerback they have a
really strong starting three. Russell Douglaskind of admitted that he was kind of,
(11:09):
you know, playing by the seatof his pants last year, and
all he was doing was listening towhat Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde were telling
him to do pre snap. Heplayed very well doing that. Now he
has a whole year of learning thisplaybook that should benefit him. Christian Benford
has really emerged as a great cornerback, and then Tarren Johnson is in my
opinion, the best nickel cornerback infootball. So it comes down to depth
(11:33):
of that position. Ken Kyer Elambe the type of player of the Bills
envision when they drafted him the firstround and provide that solid depth on the
outside. I think that he's lookedreally good in the spring. New defensive
backs coach is probably very good forhim despite all the good things that John
Butler did with his secondary. Andthen at safety, that's the biggest question
mark to me, what are yougoing to get out of the safety play.
(11:56):
Jordan Ployer's gone, Mike High doesn'tknow if he's going to reach,
but you know or two of thesystem. He played very well down the
stretch for this team. I thoughtthat he struggled early on but played very
well late in the season. MikeEdwards is a veteran with a lot of
experience, and you go out andyou draft the safety in round two that
you have a lot of faith in. So between those three guys, I
(12:18):
really do think that that can bea very good position. But time will
tell. One of the guys thatyou were talking about that it took a
while to get there, but careerElam that is a guy that coming out
I thought with him in tradevious Whitenow obviously Trdavius White's gone. Kier AMLM.
Is he going to take the nextstep? How much pressure is on
(12:39):
this kid to perform, because therewas a lot of expectation, especially being
a first round pick, and itjust feels like he hasn't quite yet hammered
it out in the NFL. Yeah, and I feel bad for Elam to
a certain extent. This was aplayer that played mostly man defense at Florida
and he gets drafted by a teamthat plays mostly his zone. So it's
(13:03):
someone that was not used to playingthat sort of defense, and you knew
there was going to be a learningcurve. I don't think if I thought
it was going to take this longnecessarily. But his biggest flaw to date
has been being overly physical, andI think he's had a lean on that
because he was not comfortable in azone defense, so he would grab,
(13:24):
he would hold, he'd get penalizedwith the reps a training camp. There
was a point during his rookie seasonwhere they literally put boxing gloves on the
guy so he couldn't hold on toplayers. And I'm sure in their minds
it was to benefit Kyrie Eland,but I would also think that man,
and it's kind of embarrassing in frontof crowds of people doing that to your
rookie at that time. I wantto see what this defense looks like this
(13:48):
year. That again just a gutfeeling, nothing based on what we've seen.
I wouldn't be shocked if the Billsweren't as zone heavy, if they
mixed in man demand a little bitmore more at times, and that's where
I think Kyrie Elam is going tohave a chance to shine. That is
his specialty, that's where his athleticismreally comes out. So I do think
(14:09):
that at least in the current rolethat they have him at, and that'd
be like that top guy potentially offthe bench as an outside corner, he's
going to have a chance to performwell. But where they drafted him,
I still say Trent McDuffie was theirtarget. Chiefs jumped over him in the
drafted him and then locked the Billswith, well, what other cornerbacks we
have a high grade on? Andit was Elam And although he didn't fit
(14:31):
scheme wise, they were hoping thathe could kind of convert at maybe a
little bit faster ever rate, Iunderstand that, Yeah, he had a
lot of talent coming out. Onething I did want to talk about and
my buddy would kill me if Ididn't talk about this. Do you think
the Bills are making a mistake bynot putting a retractable roof on his new
stadium, because if you take alook at what they did against the Bengals
(14:54):
in the postseason. Now, Iknow football is supposed to be cold weather,
but they have a track team,they have a offensive firepower for the
first time, and how many yearsdon't you think that they should kind of
lean that way and get a retractableroof on their stadium. Yeah, I've
been team retractable roof for as longas I can remember. When they announced
(15:15):
this new stadium, I'm against,you know, the open air for multiple
reasons. First and foremost, you'retaking money out of Orchard Park in this
new stadium by not making a retractableroof. If you have a roof on
this place, you can use thatyear round for concerts, for you know,
different whatever you want. It couldbe like a comic content you it
(15:35):
could be for different events. Iknow they do certain things in different parts
of govels, but you're closing itoff for that. But in terms of
football and purely football, Yeah,why not let that work to your advantage.
I love what Indianapolis does where theyannounced like the day before the game,
roofs open, roofs closed or not. Because if you're going in a
matchup against a team that you know, let's just pretend that are coming late
(16:00):
in the season and the Bills werein their new stadium, well, I'd
want the stadium open in that game, make them cold, make them uncomfortable,
make them throw into that win whereyou do have Josh Allen who can
throw in the elements and and thingslike that. But when you're going against
your right in these matchups where youhave Josh Allen and you had these guys
that could beach down the fields,has been what has hurt late in the
(16:23):
season or in the postseason as well, where they weren't built to be that
physical team. So yeah, Idefinitely think that there was a missed opportunity
to not have a roof on thisnew stadium opening up in a few years.
We're speaking with Ryan Talbot, cohost of the Bill's podcast Shout Now,
to back up on that question.Do you think they're leaving the roof
open to keep Sean McDermott's see fromburning up? You know, possibly,
(16:49):
I don't know how hot of aseat he's on. I think that when
when Terry Pagoula looks at this team, he says, this was a team
that had this really long drought beforehe kind of came along, and they've
won the AFCs year after year.They've had some terrible breaks in the postseason.
Obviously the thirteen seconds comes to mind, but if you just even look
(17:11):
at last season, Stefan Diggs droppinga deep ball and I know there was
plenty of time left on the clockin that game, but he catches that.
Maybe the Bills go ahead late inthe fourth and it changes the whole
outcome later in the matchup. They'vehad some bad luck go their way,
and how much of that can youpin on McDermott. Now, the one
thing I'll say is the defense isoften collapse more than the offense in the
(17:34):
postseason, and that's supposed to beBuffalo's specialties. So I think there is
a little bit of heat on hisseat in terms of maybe this is the
year that he turns over play callingduties to Bobby Babbage, who they were
able to retain and keep and putin move into that defensive coordinator role.
But at the same time, whenyou look at the overall success, I'm
(17:55):
not sure that there's much heat onthat seat. Maybe it's just like the
heated seat in a car where it'scomfortable right now, but it's not burning
up by any means. So beforeI let you go, I have to
ask you this last question, andmy co host is afraid to ask you.
So we're going through your Twitter.Are you going to be buying chicken
wing hair products? Maybe for mybeard if it gets long enough, But
(18:22):
with this shaved head, it seemslike a not a very good investment on
my part. Maybe for the wifeand my daughter, they could definitely use
it. Yeah. I had someridiculous complaints in it on that comment too.
They weren't sauced up. You know, anyone can go to the dollar
store and buy an orange sharpie andcolor it in if they really want to
be that invested in it. Ohmy gosh. I appreciate the time as
(18:47):
always, Thank you very much andlook forward to talking to you down the
road. Yeah, thanks guys,I had a great time. Thanks Ron
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!