Bills OL Alec Anderson Breaks Down Winning Techniques and Game Prep | Film Room - The Film Room - Bills Breakdowns and Analysis

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Speaker 1 (00:30):
What's good, folks, Welcome to another edition of the Cover
one Film Room, the show that gives you the hows
and the whys behind both the good and the bad
of the Buffalo Bills. I'm one of your two hosts,
Anthony Prohaska, joined as always by Eric Turner and Eric.
The heater that we are on this offseason leading up
to the draft continues, The focus on the trenches continues.

(00:52):
We are very very excited to not be alone in
this episode in the film room. Yeah, Eric, you know,
normally it's just you and then we very guests from
time to time, but with this heater Bill's players joining us,
who we have today in the film you.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Know, we have another guy as you said that it
plays in the trenches.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
This side.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
We're on the offensive side of the ball and a
player that and I quote says that just beating ass
with good.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
Technique is what I strive to do every day.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
This week, we are joined in the film room by
offensive lineman Alec Anderson. Alec, thank you for coming onto
the show to break down some film with us.

Speaker 4 (01:26):
Hey, guys, thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Super
excited to be here and dig into some.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
Film you know your film is it's fun.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
And I said when I was trying to get you
on that essentially it can be a hit reel at times.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
And I think that's why.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
You know, one of the things that fans kind of
gravitate towards when they watch you is that you know,
you have that nasty demeanor and and it's awesome to
have on the Bills offense because, as expected this past year,
you played a lot of snaps as that six offensive lineman.
Last year, the Bills played one hundred and eighty six
plays with six offensive linemen on the field.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
The second most was eighty two.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Alex, you guys scored seventy eight points with six offensive
linemen on the field, and five point four percent of
the plays went for twenty yards or more. So, talk
to us about the overall strategy about bringing the actra
offensive lineman, bringing yourself into the offensive lineup week in
and week out.

Speaker 4 (02:20):
You know, I think it started with Ryan Bates, who
was here a couple of years ago. He kind of
laid the groundwork, I'd say, at least to my knowledge,
my rookie year he was starting right guard. But before that,
like talking to me as another undrafted free agent guy.
He was like, you know, the more you can do, like,
the longer you'll stick around for these teams. So he said,
just figure out what you.

Speaker 5 (02:40):
Can do and stick to it. And so seeing like.

Speaker 4 (02:43):
The advice he gave me from when he was a
Jembo tight end and then kind of how it transitioned
into him being a starting guard and then the same
for David Edwards as well. Kind of same story for him.
He put his time in and kind of helped the
team out at Jembo tight end and now he's there
starting guard right now. And so it's kind of giving
me a sense of honor and pride to kind of

(03:05):
hold with me every time, like they're like, hey, this week,
this is what.

Speaker 5 (03:09):
We're putting in and you're like, wow, all right, we
got a lot of jumbo stuff for this week.

Speaker 4 (03:12):
It's you know, it gets you fired up at the
beginning of the week because you're like, they put the
trust into me, and so I want to reciprocate that
when I'm out on the field. And so it was
very i guess, you know, pride oriented for me kind
of every each week, just knowing they're going to want
you to run the ball or not run the ball
towards your side or pass block for Josh and you got.

Speaker 5 (03:32):
To you know, put your nuts out and do it.
Manh Yeah, that's great to say it.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
You know, you your your versatility, not just even you
know as the six offensive lineman, but the snaps you've seen,
you know, since you came into the league, along all
the different spots on the offensive lineman, your positional versatility
and then now getting into that six offensive lineman role.
You know you mentioned it some of it now we're
talking to you offline about it, like the way you
get you Sometimes you're an in line tight end, like

(04:00):
line right up next to another tackle or sometimes it's
you know, Dawson Knox it in line tight end, you're
hipped off of him. Sometimes they're putting you in motion,
they're sending you in different directions kind of how they
utilize you. What does your preparation look like during the
week considering all that, you know, what meeting rooms are
you in, You know what percentages are you kind of
playing at each positions? Where do you feel like you're

(04:21):
best utilized? How does that all work for you? Considering
get used in a multitude of alignments and a multitude
of schemes and concepts.

Speaker 5 (04:28):
Yeah, that's a good question.

Speaker 4 (04:29):
I think that it's a shout out straight away to
Rob Boris, our tight ends coach.

Speaker 5 (04:34):
He is a very he has his way of.

Speaker 4 (04:38):
Doing stuff and he finds success in it, and so
it is super helpful with you know, the extra emails
and kind of the powerpoints that he sends us that
we get the beginning of the week. It's super helpful,
Like it shows you exactly where you're at, and he
even has it down to the point of like if
it's third and five, like expect to it. Yeah, expect

(05:01):
to get this exact person to play.

Speaker 5 (05:03):
You in the wing.

Speaker 4 (05:04):
You're like, oh, all right, and then you get out
there and it's exactly how it is. And so that
makes the week easy easier honestly for preparation, you know,
mentally wise, because as you said, sometimes I'm the in
line tied end and other times I'm in the hip,
and then sometimes they have me in motion and then
who knows, maybe I'll play guard, left guard, right guard,
or center or even tackle like I did in the

(05:25):
Arizona game. And so it makes it that for me
easier for them or when they do do that stuff
of sending us those extra emails, and I think throughout
the week kind of bouncing around from the offensive line
room and you know, putting my center hat on and
learning the center my points this week if we have
changed some stuff, you know, just window dressing a little

(05:46):
bit of different plays and then you know, having to
switch and put your left guard hat on because it's
different than your right hat guard. And so that's how
I basically have formatted it in my brain as you know,
which hat do I need to put on? And within
that I know my mental is I can go dig
into different techniques. And you know, coach Kromer has made
it simple too with the whole fact of you know,

(06:07):
don't over complicate it. If it's mid zone left and
you're working with Spencer, think of it. He's as he's
the guard and you're the center. You know, get over there,
throw your hat, throw your body and just do the
same technique. Don't overthink it, and you know, freak yourself
out because I feel like a lot of guys could
have the possibility to be doing that.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
So so during the week, if you had to put
a number on, like what positions you probably practice the most.
Something we asked Ryan Bates should he was. He surprised us,
surprised us a few years ago because he was taking
most of his snaps as the at center and he
ended up playing a lot of guards. So what would
you say the percentages of what positions that you practiced
during the week once you're out on the field.

Speaker 5 (06:48):
Ooh on the fielder in practice? Dude, I probably.

Speaker 4 (06:53):
I think eight or nine maybe eight to ten positions.

Speaker 5 (06:56):
I could. I could go through a practice.

Speaker 4 (06:57):
My goodness of just you know, different stuff, and it's
it's fun really like as stressful as it can be
when you know, you look at it from a broad specter,
like you're just like wow, like you have to know
what the why the f you're you're doing all these
different positions? You know, it's it's it is hard, but
Joe Brady has made it as well relatively simple as

(07:19):
you know, all right, guys, like we're gonna run duo,
and we ran the ship out of du like yeah, yeah,
Like I don't know which game it was, but I
remember just going back out there and right again and
Josh is like, yeah, fourteen times in a row, and
I was like, oh, well, like this this is what
we're doing it for us.

Speaker 5 (07:36):
Yes, I don't know. It's just stuff like that too,
you know, not trying to do too much. I feel
like helps as well.

Speaker 4 (07:42):
You know, we know what works and what might as well.
We put on the side burner for this week, and
I think we do that perfectly with Joe and the
whole offensive staff. Just come up with game plans each
week that just really you're beneficial to everybody and kind
of play to our strengths.

Speaker 1 (07:59):
Yeah, we noted that a lot during the season that
you mentioned a couple of concepts like mid the mid
zone runs, the duo runs. Like you guys had your
core concepts you were able to lean on. And if
it's not broke, don't fix it, especially in those games
where it's really cooking. If you feel like you got
your foot on the throat with somebody, just keep it
down until they get it off.

Speaker 5 (08:15):
Until they get it off or they die. I wanted to.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
So one of the big talking points right now this
time with the owners meetings that everything is the touch push.
Sean McDermott is very very vocal where he stands on
it when it comes from a safety perspective. Now, you
guys run the second most, I'd say touch push variations
of you know, behind the Eagles, where do you stand
on that play? And talk to us, Talk to us

(08:39):
from a player's perspective about the good and bad of it,
because from all things we hear from players like you know,
Jason Kelsey and whatnot, there's some some some negative sides
to that, whether it's during the actual play and being
at the bottom of the pile or even just after
the game and what happens at the bottom of those piles.

Speaker 4 (08:56):
Oh yeah, dude, it's like there's a colts came when
I recover that fumble and that was the bottom of
that pile. Is crazy, just putting aside what people are
trying to do to get the ball as crazy as
like the stories have been, like people snapping fingers, like poking,
punching in the ball bag. You know, it's crazy I
ever eat there. And so also just the amount of

(09:21):
weight that is on top of you during during those piles.

Speaker 3 (09:24):
Is that's what they're saying. It's difficult to breathe.

Speaker 4 (09:27):
It's extremely difficult to breathe at times. You know, you
have somewhat close to a thousand pounds on you, if
not more. Just from the other four offensive alignment and
the four defense alignment, maybe the five defensive linement if
they're in those heavy packages, and so if you're the center,
the quarterback, really any small person even just alignment as well,
Like it gets hard to breathe under there. So I

(09:49):
think the league will probably come up with some rule
to fix it. And so kind of where I stand
on it is, if you know, they leave it in bucket,
we ball man, let's go out.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
It is what it is, right, yeah, And then if.

Speaker 4 (10:04):
They take it out, then just like people before the
Toush push was you come up with a way that
somebody has to come up with a scheme to stop it,
and if they can't, hip it parade for us.

Speaker 5 (10:15):
You know, it's great.

Speaker 6 (10:17):
Oh, I love that.

Speaker 5 (10:19):
I that's really good.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
We talked to you about some of your special team
stuff before we went online here and wanted to circle
back on some of it here. One hundred and fifty
special teams reps for you, fifty of them on kick
return but no kick return snaps from Week eighteen through
the rest of the year. What was the I guess
the strategy of you being on kick returns in the season,
and then was there any particular reason why you didn't

(10:43):
have any kick return reps from week eighteen on your.

Speaker 4 (10:46):
Guests is as good as mine, man, I don't know.
I think it's just each week was different. I would
play different positions on kickoff return each week. I don't
think there is one week that I played the same
position and so.

Speaker 5 (11:03):
And so.

Speaker 4 (11:03):
I think it was just more of a like personnel thing.
If they had faster guys on kickoff maybe they just wanted,
you know, people who were able to get one on
one blocks a little bit better or something. But there
was never really conversations of like, hey, you're in this
week because.

Speaker 5 (11:19):
Of X, Y and Z, and you're out because X
Y and Z.

Speaker 4 (11:22):
Was more mainly just like I would look at the
depth chart, I me either I'm on it or I'm not.
And like, even during practice when I wasn't playing kickoff return,
I would go out there and I would get like
reps during practice against the scout team at each of
the positions just in case, like somebody goes down or
somebody needs to come out. So it was it was
always practice, but never during the game. I would go

(11:43):
out there.

Speaker 3 (11:45):
So that that leads me into my next question.

Speaker 5 (11:47):
Here.

Speaker 2 (11:47):
Why do you hate Duke Riley of the Miami Dolphins
so much? Because I was watching all of your teams film,
especially on the kick return. For some reason, you were
talking a lot of smack to him, which again that's
kind of part of your forte, especially being the youngest
in your family.

Speaker 3 (12:03):
You said, gat, yeah, but I was what was.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
Going on between you two guys and every single kick return.
I mean, I know what he probably was, you're man,
but it seemed like you were just consistently giving him
shit on every single kick return.

Speaker 5 (12:17):
During the week.

Speaker 4 (12:17):
It was emphasized that we had to block him, and
so the whole week I just was thinking, you know,
I'm gonna try to break this guy's clavicle. And so
when we were able to go out there and it's
live and he comes running down the field, I to
be honest, this is like the first time I actually
played kickoff returns since like pee wee football like, and

(12:40):
so I was just out there like, I'm not gonna
look backwards because these guys are fast and can make
sharp returns in me, so I was like, I'm gonna
just look at him and when they start running and
I can periff like next to me when I see
other people like Buffalo Joe's takes off. Yeah, I know
that dude's out to hit somebody. So I'm like, all right,
once he's rocking, like, I'm ready to rock right behind him,
so let's just keep it going. And so this dude,
it's just you know, squish the fish man. Let's let's

(13:02):
get after him.

Speaker 2 (13:04):
I just found it funny, like this first rep right here,
like you go after him and he's like, he's like
you caught him off guard, and he's like bling in
to the ref immediately kind of set the tone on
that play, and then like from every rep on after that,
it was almost like he was just straight trying to
avoid you, and you just like, you know, consistently tried
getting under his skin out. So I was just it
was so funny to see this because I watched again

(13:25):
all your your kick return rep. So I was like,
he must really not like Duke Riley, But it makes
sense now that he was kind of like targeted that.

Speaker 3 (13:32):
You went after him.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
And then of course it's perfect from the Bills perspective
because not only you know, are you a bigger guy
than him, but you also like to talk a little
smack to get under his skin.

Speaker 5 (13:40):
Oh and I can.

Speaker 4 (13:41):
I can move a little bit. I'm I'm like, I'm
like a Toyota Tacoma. I can haul some shit, but
you know I'm not a semi to where I can
you know, eighteen hundred pounds, So you know I need
to make a quick little move.

Speaker 5 (13:53):
I'll get to him.

Speaker 6 (13:55):
That's the pro bow for this episode. You compare yourself.

Speaker 1 (13:58):
I like that these are My favorite one is the
second one because that first one, Eric that you showed
like Alec hits him right away and it's you could
see Riley like look to the raft like, oh what
the hell. But that second one from the beginning, is
you Alex just walking up to him. Yeah, and the
little like yeah, just that like the little whisper that
you're just kind of like let him know what's good?
Or did you see the way Riley's body language turns like.

Speaker 3 (14:21):
The yeah, just right to see.

Speaker 1 (14:25):
It's those little things. It's the little things bad. You
gotta do what you gotta do. Theydeat Everything from there
is just like.

Speaker 4 (14:30):
And it's fun because then yeah, you get a feel
for it too. It's like, all right, this dude just
booted the ball. So it's like at some point we're
taught to like look and then you're like, okay, I
can turn my head back because you know the ball's dropping,
and so you get a feel for it. At some
point you're just like, all right, I'm gonna just mess
with this dude. Like I'm gonna just talk some crap
the entire time, just to amuse yourself, you know, just.

Speaker 5 (14:51):
Keep it going. It's a fun time. And I don't
even know who the guy is.

Speaker 6 (14:55):
You're just doing your job, man, it makes sense.

Speaker 5 (14:57):
I like it, just out there balling, man. I like it.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
One of the things that we appreciate about you on film.

Speaker 6 (15:03):
And you know, the word arounds.

Speaker 1 (15:05):
Out a little bit, Yeah, how well you're known?

Speaker 6 (15:09):
How well?

Speaker 1 (15:10):
Yeah, how you're well known for your pancakes. Just talk
about being able to pancake some dude, whether it was
at the high school level or at U C. L
A and College and we're here in the NFL. Just
how rewarding is that for you to just go through
a dude and like put him.

Speaker 4 (15:24):
Into the era. It's it's extremely rewarding. And this is
against Summit Well Battle of the Baseline. The last time
you watched this film, I couldn't tell you, dude, Honestly,
this is this is a blast from the past.

Speaker 5 (15:39):
This is so funny though, but.

Speaker 4 (15:41):
No, honestly, it's it's a great it's a great feeling.
You know, if you watched Pumping Iron and Arnold gives
his collaborations kind of like that and if you haven't,
go look it up. It's it's very fun you know,
it's I don't know. My my coach in high school,
coach Houston, shout out to him. He really kind of

(16:05):
showed me what it took to be that violent and
that angry, and not that he was you know, crazy
or abusive or anything like that.

Speaker 5 (16:11):
He was a great human being. But just he like
would show me tape of.

Speaker 4 (16:14):
Like Larry Allen, Joe Thomas and just showing them like
you see, like their technique and how they're sinking into
the ground and powerful.

Speaker 5 (16:21):
He's like, that's what you need to be like.

Speaker 4 (16:22):
And so the workouts that I would do is he
would have me in like the the weight room doing
all these like jam presses and like full body explosion workouts,
and he's like, when you're in a block, that's what
you want to do is engage and you know, drive
through the person, and so I always kind of wanted
to keep that with me. And then just that competitive
spirit of wanting to just drive.

Speaker 5 (16:42):
Through motherfucker's face is just.

Speaker 4 (16:44):
Something that you you gotta have. You can't really just
be taught it. It's something that you're either you got
or you get bullied into getting that.

Speaker 5 (16:54):
I don't know what way it comes about.

Speaker 1 (16:57):
Yeah, talk about you know, weave every time we've kind
of had anybody in here from the trenches offensively defensively,
I wills trying to ask something related to what I'm
about to ask you from a run from a run
game standpoint, but obviously you know you being an offensive guy,
talk about what that does to a defense when you can,
like you said, like when you can run through a

(17:17):
motherfucker's face, like when you are just grinding through it.
We give the example right duo downhill, you're just pushing
guys off the ball, just playing the vertically.

Speaker 6 (17:27):
What does that do for you or or the offense?

Speaker 1 (17:30):
And then conversely, what does that do for the defense
when you know, like we can just run through someone
and then defensively they know that you are running through them.
Just talk about that mental side of it and what
it does for you on offense, but also what it
does the defense where you're just taking their soul play
after play.

Speaker 4 (17:46):
Yeah, it's for us offensive wise, it's fun. You know,
running fourteen times in a row. That's how you know,
like you have a team beat that you can just
do whatever you want. And to me, I feel like
an offensive lineman takes more pride into it when you're
beating a team's ass.

Speaker 5 (18:04):
Putting belt to ass.

Speaker 4 (18:05):
And instead of the offensive coordinator saying, hey, let's just
keep airing it out and just let the skill guys
kind of have their glory. I love when they're like,
you know what, let's run the ball, because that's really
more de morelizing. I feel when a defense is like dang,
like they look up, there's ten minutes left on the clock,
there's twelve minutes left on the clock, and they're just
going to continuously run the ball like that sucks. And

(18:28):
I think for us as an offense, it's just it
gets you amped. Man, it's it's it's it's amazing. It's
a great feeling. And I think for defenses it's you know,
bump it sucks for.

Speaker 3 (18:38):
Them is a little violin for them, right, it's.

Speaker 5 (18:42):
A little violin for them while they get on the.

Speaker 4 (18:45):
Bus and go home and then get cussed out by
their DC the next day.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
Now, it's something that like you know, advanced stats, true
mediaff they track a lot of things, even for offensive
lineman when it comes to stats. But it doesn't seem
like these companies are are tracking pancakes. And I feel
like they I would advocate and I'm sure you would
that they start doing that.

Speaker 3 (19:06):
You know, that is.

Speaker 2 (19:09):
You know, and is that something that maybe you guys
in the offensive line room maybe with Chromer and whatnot.
Do they do any type of track and does the
analytics branch do any type of tracking for you guys
to kind of give you again all the context to
your play.

Speaker 5 (19:24):
And I think yes they do.

Speaker 4 (19:25):
We have these like GPS monitors in the back of
your shoulder pads that everybody's using, and I know that
they can track when like you hit your top speed,
when you exerted the most amount of like force into
the ground. And I know for the offensive line, Chromer
started working on something where it was that they're trying
to equate like okay, so on this play or in

(19:48):
this data, you hit fifteen on the power or something whatever,
and then they'll equate that to finding it in the
play and watching it on the footage and seeing like, okay,
we're he hips it underneath you were you driving through
the person or where you like bent over? Why were
you not? You know, and it's it's really cool that
we have those analytics and kind of the science to

(20:10):
help us also off the field, to show you like, hey,
you know, this is how you should help your body
kind of rest and recover. But also here's some of
the stats to help you watch your play and see
where you're you know, striving and where you know you
need a little bit of help.

Speaker 2 (20:25):
That's amazing, That's that's awesome to know because again analytics
have taken over, you know the last few years, and
you know it's not just you know, talking game situation
scenario stuff. It's stuff like that that now the coaches
can use analytics, you know, you know again within the
pads or whatnot to analyze you know, what they're asking

(20:46):
of you. And it makes them, i'm sure, become better coaches.
It makes them be able to scheme better things and
teach better techniques or you know, eliminate some techniques that
aren't good and I aren't, as you know, beneficial, so
that is interesting to hear about that.

Speaker 4 (20:59):
Yeah, it's cool. All the new helmets too that they
have coming out as well. So I think some of
them have like little sensors in there that have an
impact rate on it, and so if you take an
impact on it, they'll like pull you into that blue
tent and.

Speaker 5 (21:09):
Check up on you and see, you know amazing, you
know what day of the month is it or whatever?
You know something that's.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
Yeah, all that tracking data and technology and let's say,
you can just so much now, like people still talk
like forty times and combine times, but it's like, no,
you can just get like the miles per hour that
somebody's running because there's actual like GPS track or attached
to them.

Speaker 6 (21:30):
Like that stuff is so cool.

Speaker 1 (21:31):
But to have it how you laid it out now,
like the added layers to it at DEBT that was
super lightning.

Speaker 5 (21:36):
Thank you for that.

Speaker 6 (21:36):
That was good.

Speaker 4 (21:37):
Yeah, No, Rea, and I think Dionna touched on it
in one of his recent interviews or something as well,
you know, given the Best Offensive Linement Award or something
like that. Yeah, kind of given more glory and shine
to the men than the trenches. It be, it would
be cool or something. You know, whoever has the most
clean pancake dumps and all that, I think that'd be awesome.

Speaker 5 (21:58):
Put that on the PFF.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
Seriously, they could definitely expand their advanced metrics when it
comes offensive line, they're not doing enough. We do agree
with Dion and yourself on that. So with that said,
we just talked about your pancakes from high school. We're
going to start off with one here against the Texans.
It's a concept we talked about from the top of
the show. It's when we break down every week. This
is what we assume is duo and you driving the

(22:23):
guy into the ground against the Texans. Yeah, so again, scheme, technique, assignment.
Walk us through this play what you executed specifically. Also,
I want you to touch upon, you know, how you
have your guys are on the road, how you have
your left arm on Knox's leg. What's the purpose behind
that that a lot of fans will be that'll be
of interest to them. And again your job hand placement

(22:45):
and torque on this play against the Texans.

Speaker 4 (22:47):
You know, I think the thing that gives me the
most stress about the week is when it's away and
I have to have my hand out like that because
it's so hard when you're like, all right, is that
a twitch?

Speaker 5 (22:59):
Do that? Do move? Like if he sneeze? What the
fuck's going on?

Speaker 4 (23:02):
Like you know, like you're trying to like figure it out,
but like you get a steady rhythm throughout the game.
But so were right here, we have duo and it's
you know, micing that left side linebacker.

Speaker 5 (23:12):
Over Dion in the kind of uh yeah, right there,
and Dave and.

Speaker 4 (23:16):
Connor are going to have a combo block or they
might you know, send Dave through to the linebacker to
get yep to the backside linebacker, and then Spencer and
Osiris will have what we call like a doom block
or whatever combo block to the place side linebacker right
there or that middle linebacker.

Speaker 5 (23:36):
Ye.

Speaker 4 (23:37):
And then so how it's supposed to work out is
Dawson and I would have a combo block up to
the guy who has pointed on him, but since the
Texans played him as a point and we kind of
treat it as just three man blocks now essentially with
Mac behind us. And so I'm on the defensive end
in the and the and the bus nine, and so

(23:58):
Dawson is going to go up on his and I
just knew I had to threaten his inside on a
timing two thousand and one, and so kind of how
I always thought was if I can just how Chromer
likes to teach his technique is you play long, you
play with your hands outside of your body, and like
you know you don't want to. He calls it head

(24:18):
smashing and hitting your head upon guys. And so I
knew if I could somehow figure out just from the
silent count just sticking my hands straight up like a
javelin or a joust we call it, then I knew
I could press his inside and play along like that.
And so once I had his inside thread like that,
I was just like, all right, I can I know

(24:38):
he's pressing inside on my hands, so now I can
just drive through with my backside hip.

Speaker 3 (24:44):
His gap, right, that's take him where he wants to go.
But at the same.

Speaker 4 (24:49):
Time, yes, exactly, and so just driving through his crotch
and through him, I think, as that's how I got
to do that, and it felt great.

Speaker 6 (24:59):
These dual blocks.

Speaker 1 (25:00):
You know, again we've talked to how you've been used
motion different multitude of schemes and all that, but these
dual blocks just your ability to be there on the
line and they have the hand placement, the pop, the
torque you feel like how you know, how you're built
or how you play the offensive line position. Really, I
guess just talk about how it lends itself to this

(25:22):
specific type of concept, which is, you know more even
though it's a gap run, technically is more of a
downhill just vertical displacement type of run.

Speaker 4 (25:29):
Yeah, So for us, we do a lot of practice
of this technique. I think Cromer is awesome with how
he you know, teaches the technique and how he wants
to present it to us each week and we go
back and we watch kind of through the opposing defense
and like what they're seeing, what our our ailments are,

(25:49):
and what we need to fix from the previous week
because we know we're going to run duo or we're
going to keep doing our back pocket. So why is
it that we should let stuff go untouched, you know,
let bad technique show up, because bad techniques on all
of us. And so with Chromer, he's very big on technique,
and I think everybody across the board takes pride in
our technique and really his bottom end the Chromer's technique.

(26:11):
And I think each week we kind of focus more
on our technique rather than our like being physical and
you know, smashing each week at practice, and so he
really pays off like this.

Speaker 5 (26:24):
I think it helps.

Speaker 4 (26:25):
Out a lot, being able to lean more on your
technique when you get tired, rather than just like all right,
I just got to blow through the D gap because
I have it, and he goes around whatever like just
something like that.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
So yeah, and that makes sense because you know, an
old clinic I watched of Aaron Kromer years ago when
he was first with the Bills or the last time
he was with the Bills. It was him talking about
just working on air and how that he you can
get more out of that than just you know, going
head to head at practice, you know, getting all physical
at practice because you know he can teach better, he

(26:57):
can work on those techniques and that on those techniques
is it takes time because he treats every player differently
and what he's teaching them because they are different, you know,
different builds and makeups and so uh, it makes sense
that you know he focuses on self correction, self scouting. Well,
you guys are necessarily you know, maybe are doing wrong
during the week and how to correct that and to

(27:18):
move forward. It makes a lot of sense given his
track record, and we.

Speaker 3 (27:22):
Love Chrome on this show.

Speaker 2 (27:24):
We're big, we're big on him when it comes to
when it comes to technique, and honestly, this is one
of those plays where you talked about, you know, playing long.
You had great hand placement torque here and you used
your hand from Chromer's clinic as I just hands hand hand.

Speaker 3 (27:45):
That is something we use each and every week here.

Speaker 2 (27:47):
In the film room when we're talking the offensive line,
but really good play against the Texans pancake and him
to the ground. We're not gonna get far from duo though.
We're gonna work on this play next from the Niners game.
So you talk, he kind of touched upon running duo
and how much time you spent you know, at practice
and what you worked on. But I want you to

(28:08):
get a little more specific on like are there segments
in practice where you're working on combination blocks with the
tackles or combination blocks with just the tight ends on
these type of plays. Then also I want you to
kind of add about the motion of Holland's in and
why you guys do that because that is actually important
when we're talking box numbers as well.

Speaker 4 (28:27):
Yes, so we'll start with Mac. It starts off with him.
So if we have the free safety down to the
back side, then we know them we're going to have
to get him out of there because it's probably man.
And so if we pulling Mac over, it's stretching out
the numbers. And if the zone that guy's going to
rock back and they're going to bring free safety down

(28:47):
or suck it as we call it safety up, and
so bringing Mac over it kind of does that. And
so on the line.

Speaker 5 (28:55):
Over here we have what's like a call it a
fan call.

Speaker 4 (28:58):
And so we do work in practice each week or
whenever we are running the duo, we have the combos
like the garden, the tackle are comboing the center and
the guard a comboing and then while they're doing that
right the tight ends, so whoever's at the tight end
me and then if it was double tight ends to

(29:19):
the right, then during the week Dawson and I, Dalton
and I whoever you know, Q even we'd all just
be comboing block and then we'd switch to if I'm
running as the Y and somebody else is at the
f we'd flip flop. They'd do it at the point
because you do have to step a little different. But
it's the same technique as Chrome always says. And so
pulling Mac over and now we have the numbers sorted

(29:41):
out to where we went. And the guy that I
started hitting was the dude I'm supposed to block, but
since it was snowing so bad, you couldn't get good
fit like footing. And so what Max's job is to
do is like, hop, hop, let me start engaging in
block my dude. Yeah, and then fit off based off

(30:03):
with that, yes, based off where number seven plays. If
he feels inside, then Max's gonna feel inside. Jimbo's gonna
bounce that sucker outside like he does. And then if
he feels outside, Mac feels outside, Jimbo goes inside.

Speaker 2 (30:17):
And so you were communicating to Hollands here, you're gonna
climb to number seven because that kind of looks like
you point it up towards seven.

Speaker 5 (30:23):
Dude, No, honestly, no, not. I hit this guy and that's.

Speaker 3 (30:27):
Yeah, yeah, Eric, Yeah, that's it.

Speaker 5 (30:29):
Yeah, he's like playing the point on me.

Speaker 4 (30:31):
And I hit him and I'm like, oh crap, my
hand just came off, and I'm like, well, I'm gonna
just keep going that way. And so like I could,
you couldn't make any like sharp ninety degree turns on
the snow, and I wasn't going to try to like
wheel back and slip. Now you got a three hundred
pound slug in the hole, Like that's gonna suck. It's
gonna be a real positive play. And so it was

(30:51):
just one of those things where you know, when life
gives you lemons, kind of lemonade. So it's kind of
worked out.

Speaker 1 (31:00):
Talk about the you know, double team blocks and just
the combination blocks, whatever concept scheme. Just talk about the
chemistry it takes, the feel that it takes, and how
much work you know, you even alluded to it a
bit like talking about the combo blocks. You guys are
working in practice and how you how you rep it,
talk about the time on task that it takes in
practice to really start to build that rapport and that relationship,

(31:23):
and even I guess like trust overall, because sometimes again
things play out like this where you've got to be
able to play off on one another.

Speaker 4 (31:30):
I'll understand and so at practice it's nice because we'll
do we start everything on air, as Chromer says, as
much as you know you can get that work. He
loves to get the work and so on air because
you don't beat yourself up, but you can still get
great technique and time out of it.

Speaker 5 (31:45):
And so during practice we'll you.

Speaker 4 (31:47):
Go through like our pass pro drills on air, and
then we'll go into the run drills and you'll do
it by yourself and really just kind of what Chromer
really emphasizes on is like, all right, as your weight
in your hips and does it feel like you're good
in your position? Like you guys touched on earlier. He's
big on you know, everybody having the same technique, but
he'll coach you different based on how your body type

(32:08):
is and how your body type moves, and so with
this it's all about.

Speaker 5 (32:12):
Just making sure your hips are in place. Because with Dion,
you can.

Speaker 4 (32:15):
See it in his past sets, he's able to kind
of like lean forward over himself and still be perfectly balanced.
But Spencer has like a good tall long set and
it's different, but they all do that same long technique.

Speaker 2 (32:28):
Yeah, yeah, that's it's usually like in Dion's like a
lot of offensive. You know, line coaches say, hey, you
don't want you don't want to be bending over, you
want to be a hip bender because it can throw
off your balance. But that's like you said, Dion is
very good at having maintaining his balance the center of gravity,
even though he does bend his hips a little bit.

Speaker 4 (32:45):
And so that starts off with us, you know, every
day doing our sets on air and then going into
the path or the run on air, and we do
the same thing. And then we go from running on
air two we come together and we'll just have a
little pad and we'll do just the first step of
our duo steps and just like boom, make sure make
sure your hands are long, make sure your hips are
underneath you. Make sure your second step is in the

(33:07):
ground and hitting you know, the floor, but your hands
are hitting at the same time as your second step.
And so we've just repeat that over and over and
then once Chrumb's like all right, you guys are warm
and it's looking good, then we go on to the
second part of the block is which is when you
have to hit it and we stop and then we
re engage your hips and roll through the block three
tips and you know, kind of drive the guy up

(33:29):
through his through his chest. And so that's kind of
how our technique with duo is.

Speaker 3 (33:35):
Awesome.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
So we're going that you know, kind of talks about
r pos so and this is more of like a
run with a pass tag and how this affects you
as an offensive linement. In years past, you guys used
to run a lot of the like the shotgun post
snap reading and trying to get a conflict defender throwing
it running it. This was more of like maybe there's

(33:57):
a run call. Sometimes there's a tag added to it
so you can throw the slant or the goal ball
on the backside of the key on. So now on
display from the Titans game, you guys do throw it.
But I want you to talk about the mindset that
you guys as offensive linemen have to have going into
these type of plays. If you hear that there is
that pass tag and then kind of give fans an
idea and what the rule is on what are your

(34:18):
restrictions as the offensive lineman about blocking downfield.

Speaker 4 (34:23):
Yeah, so for the the technical part, the rule is
in the NFL, you get one yard from the line
of scrimmage and so from where that ball is or
the blue line on the TV is, you have one
yard from that spot, and if you're more than one yard,
then it's a legal lineman downfield and that's a loss
of downs.

Speaker 5 (34:43):
It sucks. And so we on our RPO plays.

Speaker 4 (34:49):
We kind of think, really don't change anything too much
in our mind. We think, just kind of run the play,
and it kind of is a new style from coll
And so it's cool in the offensive line room. You know,
we're all grown men, we're all professionals, including Chrome, and
so it's nice being able to talk like grown men
and be like, hey, I think we should try to

(35:11):
maybe move the d lineman a little bit longer instead
of just hit and go with the linebacker, you know,
give time for the ball to be able to get
out and then if you do see it's a pass,
you're still within.

Speaker 5 (35:21):
That one yard. But if we do run it, we.

Speaker 4 (35:24):
Are still engaged on the lineman because first rule of
the run is you want to move the down lineman.

Speaker 5 (35:28):
Because he's the first biggest threat.

Speaker 4 (35:30):
And so with the ability to kind of do both
at the same time, it's able to kind of put
the linebackers in a sticky situation, I feel like of going, oh,
is it an RPO or is it a play action
or is it an actual run?

Speaker 5 (35:43):
And they have to defend all three and kind of.

Speaker 4 (35:46):
How Joe Brady puts it, they have to defend all
fifty three and a third of the football field from
end zone earth from sideline to sideline.

Speaker 1 (35:54):
When when it comes to the runs that have a
pass tag, when you're leaving the huddle, you know, are
they There are times where you know after leaving the
huddle that there's like that pass tag tight like attached
to it and tied to that play.

Speaker 4 (36:06):
Yeah, so everybody listens to the whole play call. It
could be ten thousand words, there could be you know,
just like a little hurry upward that everybody hears on
TV that just gets the line. And when we do
hear that stuff, it's automatic, like all right, like we
know the pass is available. And so when you get
up to the line, you watch enough tape, you look
at it. You know what's kind of the key of

(36:28):
all right, if this guy steps out, his alignment's kind
of tight, so you know he's not going to be
able to play.

Speaker 5 (36:33):
The pass as fast.

Speaker 4 (36:34):
So you're thinking, all right, let me really think we
might run this, or if the linebackers are a little
bossed over and they're towards the strength of the past
and you're like, hmm, maybe we're going to pass it,
So let's kind of think something else and you can
see the result of here kind of huge game for Keyon.

Speaker 2 (36:51):
Now, did you guys notice that when you talked about
the back half of the twenty twenty three season with
Brady as EOC and then obviously he took over the
entire year last year, did you notice there was kind
of a shift because again, you guys used to be
top five in actual true post snap RBO conflict type plays.
Did you notice that that was kind of scaled back

(37:13):
this year in this year's offense, because again, it does
change your mindset, like especially even just as simple as
that being in that shotgun and reading post snap who
they're going to be throwing off of versus something like
this where you know it's more of a run but
there is a possibility of a pass. It's a little
different percentage wise, this type of play versus the one
I just alluded to.

Speaker 4 (37:34):
I think the key factor in it from last year
and then when Joe kind of took over and then
into this year was the whole honestly was as corny
as it sounds. Was like everybody eats and so instead
of kind of just relying on you know, Josh or
just one player trying to push the team or drive

(37:54):
the team to get yards and make big plays. Not
every play can has to be a huge like the
one we just saw, you know, a good three yard
four yard play, Like you keep chiseling away like we
did with the run game, and then you go big top,
like you make huge plays over the top. You cut
the defense. You make them really think of dying. All right,
We got to defend the run of especially if it's

(38:16):
looking like a run and then they have a gembo
guy and then we drop it into a pass like
I think, kind of confusing the defense and playing into
our strengths of we know, like Matt Collins, that.

Speaker 5 (38:26):
Dude is a freak just because he's he's crazy.

Speaker 4 (38:29):
He was crazy, he was crazy and so being able
to run as far as he did, and he had
awesome conditioning, I feel like just being able to use
him in the past game and then also the blockame
blocking game. Yeah yeah, and you make those cornerbacks and
the safeties come into the box and want to tackle,
and it's they they want to make three, four to

(38:49):
five tackles. But once you repetitively keep going at him,
they they start missing tackles.

Speaker 5 (38:53):
You know, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (38:56):
Yeah, all right, so the final play of this breakdown,
we're gonna give you his own run.

Speaker 3 (38:59):
We did do a couple of times. We can do
a zone run here.

Speaker 2 (39:02):
So on display against the Cardinals, you're a backside almost
like a cutoff block here you chop him down. Talk
about the concept, your job, the hand usage, of course,
in the technique you used from Aaron Kromer on display.

Speaker 4 (39:15):
Oh yeah, so the technique is always the same. Get
your just get your first step out of the way.
You know, we're not we're not into taking steps, and
you know, get your foot over the board.

Speaker 5 (39:26):
And you know he.

Speaker 3 (39:27):
Hates at this bucket drop step.

Speaker 4 (39:29):
Yeah exactly, And so the quickest way to start running
is just get your foot in the ground. And so
he has this crossover technique and David Edwards used it
perfect during his time in Jimbo tight End. And so
that's what we would watch when we would have me
on these backsides of the mid zones during the week
was just David's film of like getting over and on

(39:52):
that third step chopping the arm of a reading defender,
because once a reading defender sees the tackles step away
from him and me stepped towards him, his rid key
goes from reading Spencer but now reading me. Especially since
this guy is a six technique, he's automatically raiding me
and playing the sea gap, and so I know that

(40:13):
he's keeping his body present and he has to maintain
his I guess leverage inside the sea gap to make
the tackle. And so for us, we know that he's
going to shoot his hands on us, and so if
we can throw our hat and body that way and
kind of threaten his sea gap, we know he's going
to try to sell his arms more and so you

(40:33):
chop and you get that result more often than not.

Speaker 1 (40:37):
So that chopped down was essentially premeditated, and you used
what what his technique, what you anticipated what he was
going to do from a technique standpoint, to honor his responsibility,
you use that against him and chopped.

Speaker 6 (40:49):
Him down right away. Essentially, Yes, man, That's that's awesome.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
That's awesome stuff, because like I do, remember Edward's using
that a bunch, and I love I love Chromer's teaching
again because not just the hand usage, but what you
broke down when it comes to the footwork, because for years,
I'm talking decades, offensive zone blocking had specific footwork and
like you said, by that third step, it's got to

(41:14):
be down the midline of the defender.

Speaker 3 (41:16):
YadA, YadA, YadA.

Speaker 2 (41:17):
Chromer's like, no, no, no, we're not going to focus
on you know, the old school ways of doing things.
Everyone's a little different. Just get out of the gate
and buy that third step, use your hands to chop
him down. I love these type of plays, you guys like,
especially you on the backside of these. These runs over
the last couple of years have been so much fun
to watch because of the technique that goes into it.

Speaker 3 (41:36):
And again you.

Speaker 2 (41:38):
Saw it with Edwards the year before. We see it
in your film from last year, where you guys are
so heavily schooled on this. Is this also something you
know it's a jumbo tight end type set, but obviously
we've seen it with the actual tight ends as well.
Is this something that Rob Boris works on with the
tight ends, because again, you guys are interchangeable in these
type of you know, personnel groupings.

Speaker 5 (41:57):
Yeah, so rob Boris works as well. He's he's hard
on it.

Speaker 4 (42:00):
He's more i would say, you know, vocal about it
than Chromer is a practice. He really is like, you know,
you got to chop, and his whole thing is if
you do miss, then you're chopping and you can get
back into that backside armpit. And so you're still taking
you know, your first step or not our first step.
You're getting that you know hip out of the way

(42:21):
running one, two three, you chop either get his arm
and you pull him back and let go, or you
miss and you get into his backside arm hit. And
that's when you're saying like on that third step or
whatever step, you start driving into him through his crotch.
And so it's very planned out and like super super
like ran down, like we just run that technique into

(42:42):
the ground. We need repetition on repetition. It's but it's
a very helpful and it works. I think it's a
great technique.

Speaker 1 (42:49):
Yeah, and it almost feel makes you feel like you
have like the answers to the test before you take
the test. That's got to be such a comfortable feeling
to like to get to the line and just know
that already.

Speaker 4 (42:57):
Yes, you get up and you're just like, all right,
he's here, I know he's gonna do this. Oh he's here,
I know he's doing this. If he's in some funky stance,
you know something funky's gonna come and you gotta adjust.

Speaker 2 (43:09):
And it's and it's important because you know you're playing
against completely different you know, personnel or fronts, defensive fronts
from week to week. Sometimes it's an even front, sometimes
it's a nod front. Sometimes, like you said, you referred
to him as a reed defender, and so some weeks
you have guys that are just hey, okay, he's gonna
be a sea gap player.

Speaker 3 (43:27):
I know it. They're an even front.

Speaker 2 (43:29):
They're one gap penetrating defense, kind of like what you
guys play in the defensive side of the ball. Whereas
you know, some teams are hybrid, some teams are more Hey,
the three down defensive ends, the defensive ends and d
tackles are more red defenders where they're post snap, they're
trying to get a read of the route and run blocking,
and their assignments may change. So the scouting goes into
that and scouting and that's why you know, the film

(43:50):
work and from the top down, you know, the pro
scouts or whatever. Handing all that information down to you
guys and the coaches is so important and what it
takes to execute this stuff on because what they're doing
on the defensive side of the ball as simple as hey,
what type of defender is he? Not just his size,
but what type of defender is he? And what in
what front he's in? Plays into what techniques you may

(44:11):
use on that play, which is mind blowing. And that's
that's why we love having you guys offensive Lineman in
the film room because these are things that you know,
the average fan don't that they don't quite realize. And again,
you guys don't get enough love in in the in
the limelight, so.

Speaker 5 (44:26):
We appreciate you guys highlight tho. You know, it's it's great.
I love being on here. And you know, as day
they said fat just need love to credit.

Speaker 4 (44:36):
All the all those fat boys need some love every
now and then. It's fun coming on the podcast, you
know and just talking tape and having fun.

Speaker 5 (44:44):
It's a great time.

Speaker 3 (44:45):
Well here's here's a good one. Though, we got a
couple more.

Speaker 2 (44:47):
We're gonna get you out here you talk about offensive
lineman having fun. When the hell are they going to
throw a pass to you as this extra offensive line?

Speaker 3 (44:55):
What are they gonna throw it to you?

Speaker 2 (44:56):
And when they do and if you score, do you
have a touchdown celebration dance ready to go.

Speaker 4 (45:03):
For the first part. I don't know when we'll throw
on I I was hoping it was gonna be sometime
in the postseason.

Speaker 6 (45:11):
That's what we were saying. We were galaxy bringing it,
keeping it in the holster.

Speaker 2 (45:14):
They're gonna like, hey, you guys said Ryan passes, how
come you're not sending me out on one?

Speaker 5 (45:19):
Like, hey, I am just the the worker, Okay.

Speaker 4 (45:24):
I'm just just and yeah, I report okay.

Speaker 3 (45:29):
Bragg about catching one years ago.

Speaker 4 (45:33):
No, but it was like we were like installed the
installed the pass before we installed tight end pass. I
was like, what the hell, But it's it's it's completely
fine with me.

Speaker 5 (45:44):
I'm just you're gonna have I'll probably have something and
i'll probably you know, flash my stomach or.

Speaker 3 (45:51):
Someone said, is it gonna do.

Speaker 4 (45:54):
I'll probably do the truffle shove. This generation needs to
re up on the truffle shovel.

Speaker 1 (45:59):
Do it.

Speaker 5 (46:00):
That's right.

Speaker 6 (46:01):
Nice you know this kind of related to trouble shuff
a little bit.

Speaker 1 (46:04):
Connor McGovern the pizza parties, but specifically, how good are
Connor McGovern's pizzas?

Speaker 5 (46:11):
Legit?

Speaker 4 (46:11):
The pizza the pizzas are very legit. Yeah, he has
we have a whole He has a whole thing. He
starts prepping for like five hours. Oh wow, yeah, no,
it's a whole process. We get back from my practice
and he goes home and he does his whole thing,
and we come and he's still like rolling dough, cooking,
like he makes pizza the entire time that everybody's there.

(46:32):
It's it's a great time. He makes these like they
look like muffin pizzas. It's like made in a muffin
dish and it's like the bottom parts of dough and
then the top part has like, uh.

Speaker 6 (46:45):
Like the pizza part. Oh man, that's crazy.

Speaker 5 (46:49):
That's a time.

Speaker 2 (46:50):
Yes, that sounds amazing. I'm gonna have to like search
that one and have the wife. I'm fast pasting right now,
so it's a question I should have taken it out
because now I'm starving.

Speaker 3 (47:06):
Kind of changing gears. Here a couple more for you
at practice.

Speaker 2 (47:09):
Who is the most difficult player to practice against and
who challenges to get challenges you to get better each
and every day at practice.

Speaker 5 (47:16):
That's that's that is a good question, I'd say day
Quon Jones.

Speaker 4 (47:20):
Yeah, Daykon is a very strong human being, and so
you know when you have to go against him and
he's going long arm and power, and the funny thing
is to Dayquon be like, hey, I'm working my long
arm to like this and that, or like it's the
worst one.

Speaker 5 (47:34):
He's like, hey, I'm working my bull to an inside move.
I'm like, damn all right.

Speaker 4 (47:39):
Kind of day yeah, like my head's gotta hurt after practice,
but okay, let's do it. And it's but it's it's
fun too because it's nice because after practice you can
go up to Dayquon and be like, hey, like was
that a good look?

Speaker 5 (47:51):
And he's like, actually it was.

Speaker 4 (47:52):
Good because I like how you did this a little
bit different, or he's like I like how you did
the technique that like I'm going against you's and like
you can kind of switch it up and made me
think a little bit more. He goes, maybe I might
try this movie, I might try that move or something else.
But it's it's nice because just as hard as he
goes against you, he expects the same, but he's.

Speaker 5 (48:10):
Also like, hey, this is cool.

Speaker 4 (48:12):
Why why did you do this set or why did
you come off the ball this way instead of doing
it this way the last time? So it's it's good
food for thought each time you go against take on.

Speaker 6 (48:20):
A very nice last question for you.

Speaker 1 (48:24):
This is something that we really respect about, you know,
you being open about mental health and being a mental
health advocate. Yeah, and just even you know, talking about
you know, your rookie year and the panic attacks you
had and being very open about, you know, the battle
with mental health, which you know, it's just so important
because it's not something that gets talked about enough for
for for dudes, for athletes, whatever it is. And so

(48:45):
just you know, we wanted you to speak a little
bit about that, you know, talking about your story, how
the team or support staff has helped you, you know,
sports psychology or types of things you're focused on, because
it's you know, it's an important thing and it's awesome
with you know, how you opened up a bit about Yeah.

Speaker 4 (49:00):
Yeah, you know, it's it's a hard thing to do,
I guess come to the realization you know that you
have mental health stuff that you have to take care of,
and it seems scary at the first part for me,
it did. And then you know, come into Buffalo and
seeing the support that not only just the staff gives
you with doctor Dez and kind of how she helps us,
and you know she's.

Speaker 5 (49:21):
There every day of the week.

Speaker 4 (49:22):
You have a number available twenty four to seven, and
you know that's a great resource to have. But also
on the side of just the locker room as well,
the locker room is awesome. You know, you hear guys
talk about it all the time. Buffalo is a great
locker room environment. It's really like family oriented. Will stand there,
we'll play ping pong, we have cornhole. I think who

(49:43):
was it, like aj or somebody brought in like a
little putt putt golf thing and so.

Speaker 5 (49:50):
Guys are in there doing that and it's a great time.

Speaker 4 (49:52):
It's a great vibe and it really kind of helps
you relax and you know, be able to decompress and
you know, if you need to talk to somebody, anybody
on the team's willing to talk. You know, it's it's
really cool. Taron Johnson, he's an awesome guy, like we'll
be in the hot tub and sometimes you know, you
just strike up a conversation and you just talk to
the dude and you learn something new about people every day.

(50:13):
It's it's awesome and so that has.

Speaker 5 (50:15):
Really helped me, you know, kind of cope with being
able to.

Speaker 4 (50:19):
Feel more open to talk to some dudes and you know,
having other dudes feel more open to talk to you
about it because they hear like, hey, like I heard
you talk about this, like I'm kind of feeling a.

Speaker 5 (50:29):
Certain way and you know, you're like, hey, well.

Speaker 4 (50:32):
This just worked for me, and I'm not saying it
can help you, but maybe try this that or the
other thing. And it's always just more for me. Of
you don't know what help is out there until you
start asking for it or start looking for it. And
to break this stigma, I think we just need to,
you know, preach more about men and just athletes talking

(50:52):
about you know, it is a stressful job that you do,
but it's okay to talk about it, and it's okay
to seek validation for your issues and know that you
can fix them.

Speaker 6 (51:04):
That's awesome.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
Yeah, thank you so much for sharing that, and it's
cool to hear you like chopping up stuff about it,
like it like just talking with the dude almost like
you're just talking ball, like, oh what you know, technique
works for you on this block or versus this Yeah,
and it's hard. Yeah, and yeah, breaking the stigma is
such a good way to put it. It's uh, you know,
I feel like people associate mental health with certain things,
and it's awesome to again with the type, especially with

(51:27):
the type.

Speaker 6 (51:27):
Of play style you have.

Speaker 1 (51:28):
Not only you're doing the NFL like as tough as
they come, but your playstyle like your physical and you're
mean and you're nasty, and then having that ability to
also like open up you know, about some stuff internally
and just it helps others and it's awesome and yeah,
so we wanted to end on that note, but you
know this was this was so yeah hell yeah, but
this was so awesome. You you know, one, thank you
very much for taking the time to join us today too.

(51:51):
Just how insightful everything you know you you gave to
us was. We We highlighted you a bunch on this
show throughout you know, the twenty twenty four season again
even in the seasons before, and just to watch the
growth you've had as a player, how you started to
become incorporated more into the offense, what you add and
how important the run game is in the NFL now
and to the Bills, and just again what you offer specifically,

(52:14):
we really wanted to be able to chop it up
with you because you were I think people, I think
a lot of fans started to gain more appreciation for
you as the season went on. But you were like
one of like a legitimate, like unheralded star like of
the season, Like you mattered a lot to this team,
and so it was awesome for us to have you
take the time and join us today.

Speaker 4 (52:31):
Well, I appreciate that, guys, Eric, and thank you Ball
for taking the time out and having me on the show.
It was very fun. Love to do it again so
we can get something set up. But yeah, dude, it
was great meeting y'all.

Speaker 6 (52:42):
Thanks ally, Thanks man, I have a good one.

Speaker 1 (52:44):
Enjoy the rest of the year, Enjoy the rest of
your day, your week, offseason and all that stuff, and
we'll see you and we appreciate.

Speaker 5 (52:50):
You, sera. Thank you guys.

Speaker 2 (52:51):
Yeah, just again, offensive line, they know football, man, they
know football, and you know, I love having these guys
on each and every year because they they just they
teach us something, you know. You know, we're trying to
like flesh things out for everyone else, but there are
times where we're learning stuff and when you when he

(53:13):
gives you nuggets, I'm like, this is a doom block
noted like.

Speaker 6 (53:17):
Lily wrote it down.

Speaker 3 (53:20):
I mean, like little things like that that teaches us.
That's that's stuff.

Speaker 2 (53:24):
Like when we ask these questions and we bring these
guys on, we start, you know, think about what we
can ask them. We're also trying to get things that
we want to learn, you know, because if we're learning,
we know damn well that you're learning. And then throughout
the year, say this coming season, when we see things
like that, guess who's going to be using it. We are,
so then you will under So so it's not just

(53:45):
for you, it's for us as well.

Speaker 3 (53:46):
So there is some selfishness going on.

Speaker 6 (53:48):
This guy's on right, it's not completely altruistic.

Speaker 1 (53:50):
Yeah, I didn't say thing he said that. I literally
typed in my notes. I was like dune block for
the commut like ye say, with when Bernard was dropping
like what they call the tight end alignments and the
different everything, I was.

Speaker 3 (54:01):
Like, okay, like no, yeah, yeah, highway that.

Speaker 1 (54:03):
Yeah, it's just yeah, it's it's so cool to get
these dudes again, the players in general, especially when you
get down into the trenches, it's it's a great juxtaposition
because again, I feel like for a lot of fans,
it's just you're getting down there and you're mashing and
big guys on big guys. You're just being physical and
they're obviously there's a lot of physicality and violence in
the trenches, but there's so much technique involved.

Speaker 6 (54:24):
There's so much football iq, so much intelligence.

Speaker 1 (54:27):
And you know, whether it was you know, Rousseau breaking
it down last week with hand placement and responsibilities and assignments,
but the offensive side, you know, like Alec demonstrated with
with the checks and the RPO stuff and the different
runs and his adjustments and playing off of one another,
and they the everything from the feet to the hips
to the hands to your body and the precision that
it takes and all of it, the preparations just to

(54:49):
awesome to be able to get take a piece, yeah,
into his mind and some more chromer nuggets for us.

Speaker 2 (54:54):
Yes, man, give him the keys of the city, Give
him a ten year contract till he retires, like, just
keep him. He just he does so much good for
the offensive line. But again we talked about with Roboris,
everything that Chromer's teaching and these hand techniques and whatnot
Roboris is teaching. So it just it reverberates, and you

(55:14):
got to keep that guy around. I don't care what
it takes. You gotta keep Chromer around because he's just
too freaking good.

Speaker 1 (55:20):
Yeah, he needs that type of like Scarnekia with the past,
the deal where he's just he's there for forever.

Speaker 6 (55:26):
Year he just produces man, and he saw that.

Speaker 1 (55:29):
I think initially that first year, I think he got
settled and since then, just you're watching floors get raised,
ceilings get raised, the uniformity and the technique and the execution,
and yeah, being able to hear it straight from the
horse's mouth from guys like Alec Anderson and just sing
his praises and what he does and what he offers. It's, uh,
it's nice because I feel like so many people like
to come it up and be like.

Speaker 6 (55:49):
You, guys, shoul Chromer was so good.

Speaker 1 (55:51):
Well listen to it to Alec Henderson and you know,
go from there exactly Eric anything else, Uh, that's on
your mind for the fine folks before we start to
wrap up and say it buy.

Speaker 5 (56:00):
On this episode.

Speaker 2 (56:01):
No, just uh, I know we've we've done a lot
of these player interviews the last few weeks, and uh,
it's it's a little different than what a lot of
people are doing. But that's also what sets us apart.
And so I know, it's draft season, it's the off season,
and you want us doing all these evaluations and we are,
we are. But when we have the opportunities like these
to bring on players each and every week to break

(56:21):
down film with us, I'm sorry, we're gonna We're gonna
go that route.

Speaker 3 (56:25):
We're still watching film.

Speaker 2 (56:26):
Check out all of our social media profiles because we're
still watching film.

Speaker 3 (56:29):
We're still grading, doing all the notes and everything.

Speaker 2 (56:32):
We're sharing stuff in the Discord channel server with all
of our insiders.

Speaker 3 (56:37):
But these I will do these all year.

Speaker 2 (56:40):
I would do these all year and and hopefully maybe
one day someone will come pick us up and be like,
you know what, you can do this all year?

Speaker 6 (56:46):
For man, this is great content. No one else is
doing it. Would you guys like to do this all
the time.

Speaker 2 (56:51):
It's so much fun, Like all the learning that goes
on here and you're you're you're learning it from players, professionals,
you know, and and there's not many people doing this,
and so I take a lot of pride in this.
I know we take a lot of pride in this,
and this is this has been always been the baby
at cover one when it comes to film, and once
the players started coming on, man, it just it's always

(57:13):
gold again, not just for fans, but also for us
junkies like Anthony myself when it comes to breaking down film,
when it comes to learning the game and adapting it.
Just I'll never pass these up, regardless of what portion
of the NFL schedule we're in.

Speaker 1 (57:28):
Absolutely, yeah, it's it's content that we fully believe in
and we think translates to a lot of you folks,
and we think like this is being great to be
able to break down tape with these guys and give
you the peak behind the curtain. And then yeah, Eric,
like you said, it's I don't know, maybe like twenty
five to thirty five percent us because we get to
learn more things and no more things and no more things,
which in turn allows us to make better content.

Speaker 6 (57:50):
For you folks and the fans and all that stuff.

Speaker 1 (57:51):
So it's this paying it forward cycle, and yeah, we
hope you folks enjoyed this episode and the series that
we've been doing. We'll see what happens in the coming weeks.
You know, I'm sure there's someone out.

Speaker 6 (58:01):
There that's like, that's fine, but can you guys do
a mock draft episode? Yeah, it's like who you want,
But we'll get we'll get to.

Speaker 2 (58:06):
The I'll apply avoid any of those. I'm not big
on mock draft.

Speaker 1 (58:11):
I'm not trying to get yelled at because I took
I didn't take the one guy that somebody wanted in
round four or whatever.

Speaker 6 (58:17):
Yeah, I'm like, yeah, but look what else I gave you? Yeah,
well PFF gave you be minus.

Speaker 1 (58:22):
So that mock sucks and I'm like, okay, cool, great, Yeah,
we'll we will get to more, you know, draft content
or evaluation content, especially as you folks know, once picks
happened in the draft, we'll be breaking down our tape
on social and official episodes asap with that turnaround time.
But yeah, this, we find tremendous value in this content
and what we've done the past several weeks, so we
hope you folks are finding that value as well, you know,

(58:42):
with Michael Hoyt and Greg Russo and Alec Anderson and
I feel like I'm even losing Rob Bernard.

Speaker 3 (58:49):
I can't. I forgot Bernard. Yeah, I was like, who's
the fourth I'm trying to play everything back in my
head for me, all right, I did you know?

Speaker 5 (58:54):
I did?

Speaker 6 (58:55):
Yeah, go with that. Yeah, we're subconscious.

Speaker 1 (58:58):
Yeah, it's uh, it's just been yeah, the heater that
we've been on again. We hope you folks enjoyed this content.
If you did, or if you do, please drop a
like here on YouTube. If you are listening on the
podcasting apps or platforms, drop a rating, drop a review
either way, YouTube or audio platform, whichever they are. Subscribe
to the Cover one film Room if you are willing
and able, turn on notifications for the film Room playlist

(59:20):
here on YouTube. Check out the rest of the entirety
of the catalog at Cover one, all the different shows.
You've got multiple types of content depending on what you're
looking for or how you're looking for in terms of
how it's presented. We have you covered here at cover one,
so give that a look.

Speaker 6 (59:35):
And yeah, word of mouth is awesome as well.

Speaker 1 (59:37):
If you folks enjoyed this again, and tell your family, friends,
loved ones and if they like the Bills, if they
like football in general. We don't think a lot of
people providing this type of content, so we hope you
folks will share that in whatever form or fashion you
are able to do so. And yeah, thank you everybody
for tuning in joining Yeah, we appreciate it tremendously. Like
we say all the time, you know, we appreciate it

(59:57):
more than you know, So thank you very much for
tuning into this episode.

Speaker 6 (01:00:00):
We hope you enjoyed it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:01):
Thank you very much again to Alec Anderson from taking
time out of his schedule to join us and chop
it up with us here in the film Room. But
until the next time we see you that I'll do
it for us here in this episode of the Film Room.
For myself, Anthony Prohaska, For the founder and godfather of
Cover One.

Speaker 6 (01:00:18):
Mister Eric Turner. This has been another episode of the
Cover One Film Room.

Speaker 1 (01:00:21):
We hope you and your family and friends and loved
ones are all doing well and staying safe. Be kind
to one another, take care of one another. We'll see
you when we see you. Godspeed, and as always go Bills.

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Bills OL Alec Anderson Breaks Down Winning Techniques and Game Prep | Film Room

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Bills OL Alec Anderson Breaks Down Winning Techniques and Game Prep | Film Room