Overcoming Struggles, Unlocking Potential of Bills in 2025 | Film Room - The Film Room - Bills Breakdowns and Analysis

Episode Transcript
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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
we continue our musical chairs of when we drop the
episode like sometimes live, sometimes record it Monday afternoon, Wednesday afternoon.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Here we are.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Getting a little bit closer to our in season type
of feel and vibe, but nonetheless we are here to
break down some tape talk about some guys in twenty
twenty five that may be a bit overlooked or overshadowed
for a variety of reasons right now, and an exciting
piece to lead off the show with.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
But before we get into that, how you doing. How
you feeling?

Speaker 3 (01:12):
How's it going good?

Speaker 4 (01:13):
Yeah, like you said, we're on recording on a Wednesday
for the first time in a very long time.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Feels weird.

Speaker 4 (01:19):
It does feel weird, and you know it's usually I
have Sunday Mondays off, so you know, you do a
great job of adjusting your schedule to kind of work
around my free Mondays and it allows me to you know,
do some of the film on Sundays, but then obviously
bring it to the film room on Mondays. And a
little teaser. Next Monday, we're gonna be recording with Duane
Carter defensive tackle for the Bill. So keep an eye

(01:40):
on that. If you miss any of those other player episodes,
go back and watch that. Now's a really good time
to kind of get caught up on that type of
content and learn, you know, the R and D phase
of the oftense off season as I like to put it.
But yeah, as you said, man, we're recording on a Wednesday,
but there was some interesting news that just broke before
we went live, isn't that right?

Speaker 1 (01:59):
In Yeah, the man, it's a I kind of read
it and was like, oh cool, and now I'm just
kind of like really taking it in. The Buffalo Bills
will be featured on Hard Knocks this upcoming season. So
and then they break it down like an in season
grouping and then the off season training camp type of deal.
The Bills will beyond the training camp type of deal,

(02:20):
kind of how Hard Knocks started. The in season episodes
will focus on the NFC East as a whole, as
the entire division but I think this is I don't
know how certain people feel. I think this is pretty
cool and just another I mean, they're gonna be giving
away a lot of secrets, a lot of secrets we're
not going to blame, which is just pretty nice this

(02:40):
time around, but.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Sobody secrets. Uh, it's I think it's cool.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
It's just another I don't know, like flag planted of
the further they get away from the drought era and
the more they get towards being a prominent team in
the league.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Like it's still you.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Know, five division championships straight and multiple you know AFC
championship appearances and favorites to win the Super Bowl, so
on and so forth the last several years. But it's
still like shocks me that, like, oh, look at all
these primetime games and like, oh, they're the feature on
Hard Knocks, Like, I think that's pretty cool, and just
again another example of really how far this team and
this organization has come from a time that we never

(03:21):
thought they would escape.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
Just absolute terribleness.

Speaker 4 (03:25):
You know, I'm I'm excited about it. There's some you know,
cool narratives that will come out of camp and we'll
get to see some some cool access you know, behind
the scenes stuff, and they do a great job HBO.
Anything they touch is gold and and they do a
great job of storytelling and filming things. So that'll be exciting.
Any any type of film or content that we can get,

(03:47):
especially during the you know, the dog days of camp,
that'll be fun to kind of dig into and analyze,
which I'm sure we'll have several episodes where we're going
to be analyzing some of the stuff that we see,
which is always you know, fun from as well, and
again a good time to be doing that type of
stuff during training camp. I'm sure what's also gonna be
cool about that is we do tend attend several of

(04:09):
the practices during training camp, so we'll have some some
comments and analysis and opinions being you know, on the
ground the boots on the ground at the time, but
also comparing it and contrasting it with what they captured
on film. Eventually, will be cool to do it, and
I'm happy it's a training camp edition, not inside the

(04:29):
season type of episode for Hard Knocks.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
That'll be cool too. Yeah, I didn't even think of that.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
We will probably see the camera crews and everything kind
of working there. Like I've never been to a training
camp where a team has been featured on Hard Knocks,
so that's kind of interesting.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
And yeah, I guess.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
I guess again, it shouldn't be surprising given where the
team is currently within the landscape of the NFL and
having the current MVP and Josh Allen. But I was
just like, wow, the Bills really And then I'm like, oh,
that makes sense. And now as we like, right before
we went live, is the intro was starting, it kind
of like hit me. I was like, this is pretty
cool because I know that the news dropped maybe like
a half hour or forty some minutes ago, but I

(05:06):
just saw it as we went live and I said
it to you.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
I was like, oh, this and you were like yeah.

Speaker 4 (05:11):
As I pulled in, I'm like, oh, oh that's cool.
That'll be interesting to talk about.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
I didn't see anything until we went Yeah, we got
in the room here, which yeah, pretty cool. Nice piece
to see for the Buffalo Bills continuing on this upwards
trajectory as a team and as a franchise in terms
of national recognition and appreciation, and you know, maybe some
more Bills fans get born out of this type of access,
which is a cool thing to see and like you said,
HBO does such a great job, so very excited to

(05:36):
see that coming down the pike.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
Eric the focus of this episode.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
And we titled it Overcoming Struggles Unlocking Potential of Bills
in twenty twenty five. We wanted to focus this episode
on several players that we thought were potentially due for
a bounce back or a breakout or a revival in
twenty twenty five. We did somewhat of a similar episode

(06:02):
last offseason. One of the big guys. Not to put
ourselves on the back, but one of the guys we
talked about a lot was Christian Menberd.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
He obviously had a good season. Yeah, there are.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
Several guys on this team who I guess I just
find this the polarizing nature of them a little surprising recently,
Like several of these guys were gonna cover. Seems like
they've just been completely written off by the fan base
in a lot of ways, almost to the point of
like get rid of them, we don't need them, or

(06:29):
bear them on the depth chart, or they're useless. And
then some other guys that you know, maybe just aren't
being talked about enough. It's I think It's a very
interesting mix of the guys who are going to be
covering in this episode, given kind of where they are
in the landscape of the team amongst fans and in
the conversation and what they mean to this team if
they do have a revival or a breakout, and what
that could do going forward.

Speaker 4 (06:51):
And the first guy I think we both agreed on
was wide receiver Curtis Samuel. And obviously he is a
veteran and you know, he's been in the league since
twenty seventeen, so I don't think I didn't want to
call him a breakout candidate, more of like a breakthrough candidate,
but mainly because of his role in usage in the
Bills team health. You know, as long as his health

(07:12):
is straight, If his health is straight, then I think
he could be one of those guys that could break
through for the Bills offense. I think he's a guy
that towards the end of last season you started to
see his role start to start to form, you know,
back half of season and into the playoffs, and I
just think the Bills only have a handful of guys,
maybe even a couple guys that offer the skill set

(07:33):
that he has. When we're talking you know, usage, alignment, versatility,
his usage whether he's outside or inside, his ability to
get vertical with his speed, but also take those passes
and screens behind the line of scrimmage. He's very dynamic
when he's healthy. Again when he is healthy, and I
think that he is a guy that I could see

(07:54):
being a breakthrough type player in the Bills offense in
year two.

Speaker 1 (07:57):
In this offense, yeah, he like you mentioned, he was
at the top of both of our lists, and for me,
it was really going back to training camp last year.
He was one of the major takeaways, like right from
the jump of camp, how.

Speaker 2 (08:10):
He was being used.

Speaker 1 (08:11):
He was the adjuster almost every time he was out there.
He was being used to create horizontal leverage, you know,
vertical stretch.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
He was getting the ball.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
He was the vocal point in terms of route concepts
and the distribution. And I was like, okay, you know
this makes sense. Brady had success with him before. He
probably had a key hand and being like I want
this guy in on the offense.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
This all tracks.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
And then he gets that toe injury that he tried
to play through lingered for a majority of the year,
and I think that significantly hindered his play style, his usage,
and I think that's a big reason he kind of
got put on the back burner for a lot of fans.
But we saw as the year went on and he
got a little healthier and a little healthier the impact
that he was able to have down the stretch. I mean,

(08:55):
you're seeing the big plays downfield against Denver, but that
you're also seeing some of the bubbles and the underneath stuff,
and he's able to shift and break a tackle and
get forward and create yards after catch. And his skill set,
like you said, is important because it's not one that's
just prevalent across the board. He's a different type of
receiver than Keyan Coleman is, and a different type of

(09:16):
receiver than Josh Palmer is, and a different type of
receiver than Collier Sekire is. And what he offers and
how you can use him, and given how he started
to improve a little bit getting healthier down the stretch,
I think that's something that a lot of folks kind
of either forgot or really haven't shined enough light upon,
especially when you consider how he was used early on
in camp coming out last.

Speaker 4 (09:35):
Year, and when you take his skills and traits and
you mix it with the scheming of Joe Brady. I
do like you know where they could go now in
year two of him, because Brady does a great job
with his formations and specifically the alignment and spacing of
the receivers, whether it's a boundary receiver or a slot receiver.
He does a great job of keeping guys like Kurtis

(09:57):
Samuel off the line of scrimmage, away from press. So yeah,
maybe he is the furthest receiver outside and on the
line of scrimmage, but maybe because of a condensed set
or a tight split, that corner has to play off
coverage or has to play softer because they want to
maintain their spacing on the defensive side of the ball.
So I think Brady does a great job with his

(10:18):
formations and alignment of guys that are of the smaller stature,
guys like Shakir and like Samuel and even Elijah Moore,
who will talk about here in a second, of getting
those guys in positions where they don't have to see
press all that often a press jam at the line
of scrimmage, and they can get those free releases and
use their speed to get into those routes, and I

(10:39):
think that's why I love Brandon being hedging his bet
with you know, Okay, Curtis Samuel has had health issues
over the years. Well guess what we're gonna bring in
Elijah Moore. We can do a lot of the same
things that that Curtis Samuel can do, that Khalil Shakir
can do, and so he kind of hedges bets. And
I love that when you can stack guys like that

(11:00):
that have that versatility, because you'll see a lot of
film on Elijah Moore where he's a you know, the
boundary receiver on the line of scrimmage, but he has
a tight set or a tight alignment and the guy
can't press and now they're running shot calls on the
outside to him. So getting these wide receivers typically of
the smaller stature, maybe more slot guys, but running them

(11:22):
from tight splits to almost play from a quasi slot alignment.

Speaker 1 (11:27):
Yeah, And I'm kind of low key excited for what
Elijah Moore can do because he's got some he's got
some good deception at times in his stam and some
of the things that he can do. It's fun piece,
but that's a good call with kind of you know,
being hedging his bets when it comes to that position group.
And I also think it kind of emphasizes maybe a
little bit, the that type of skill set or that

(11:48):
type of role and how important they think it might
be to this team. And Samuel, you know, to kind
of piggyback onto that as we start to load up
the film for him. He just fits so much of
the pre snap motion things and the leverage things and
what you can do, like his skill set and how
he operates as such a prime candidate for that type

(12:11):
of pre snap action. But then like you said, the
ability to work on that behind the line of scrimmage
or at the line of scrimmage stuff, but also vertically.
But none you can't do any of that if you
got a busted wheel and he had a significantly busted
wheel for the majority of the year. And you know,
this first one is that we have qued up here
is against the Chiefs towards you know, the later part
of the season, and this I think is one of

(12:32):
the games where he really started to get going, started
to feel a little healthier, and you started to see
what he could do if the wheels started to get
a little cleaner for him.

Speaker 4 (12:40):
Right and to the top of the screen you're seeing
Khalils Shakir and he again it's kind of that that
Trip's bunch set with a tight end. Dawston Knox as well.
Curtis Samuel's in the slot, and so again you have essentially,
like I said, Kurtis, Samuel is probably best as a
slot guy. You know, more of a vertical stretch type
of guy from the slot. But look at Shakier, he's
a boundary receiver. But then you see that little switch

(13:00):
right at the snap in the outside corner follows Shakir
and so now you have a safety and a dB
Banjo wing. So they're switching based on the release a
tight end and then Samuel and so you see some
space created for Samuel. If you give that guy's space again,
then with the ball in his hands, he can do
things like this to get yards after the catch.

Speaker 1 (13:21):
This is one of the first players that's stuck in
my mind of like Man when he started to get
a little healthier, we started to see what he can do.
And you hit it right there, like once he gets
the ball in his hands, how natural he goes from
making that catch, the planning and then just shaking guys
and adding some of that elusiveness to this offense once
he gets the ball in his hands, and one of

(13:42):
the few guys on the team who can really do that.
And I like the design, like you highlight I remember
when we talked about this. After this game, you have
that look, you get that pre snap motion from Shakir,
and now Knox becomes the one. Shakira is briefly the two,
but then you get the little switch between Shakir and
sam So now Shakira is the three, Samuel's the two,

(14:03):
Knox is the one, and look what it does to
the Chiefs. Second area is they're trying to match. Justin
Reid was initially kind of on Samuel a bit number
twenty there, but he's out leveraged, so he tries to
work to Knox, which leaves Nazi Johnson out there number thirteen,
who you have highlighted responsible for Samuel. But just look
at all the separation, look at all the space, and

(14:23):
then again at this point in the year, this was
week eleven, he started to get a little healthier. Now
he's in a spot to take advantage of that space,
take advantage of that leverage and he made a nice
play and I.

Speaker 4 (14:36):
Just love his ability because of his speed and change
the direction and just kind of that dynamic playmaker trait
that he has. And we saw this late in the
year where the Bills are in that four by one set,
so you got four eligibles to the bombed screen, but
they isolated Samuel to the top of the screen and
what I believe is third down here, and I just
love this route. They ran it a couple of times
towards the back end of this year, so he makes

(14:58):
it look like he's going to run that mesh that crossed,
but you see him pop back out and return back
out to the boundary. Very good route separation and of
course a first down there for Curtis Samuel.

Speaker 1 (15:08):
We saw this route incorporated a decent amount throughout the
season for the Bills. They would usually kind of instead
of using it like a traditional hitch on a smash concept,
they'd use this like little whip and like stop him
underneath and pair that with a corner. But what was
really interesting with Samuel is earlier in the year this
route there was less hip sink and less kind of

(15:29):
planting and pushing off again not to keep banging this drum,
but probably because you got turf toe and your foot
is killing you and you can't really plant. Look at
the difference here, like the how little or how minimal
the steps are the sink he's able to push plant,
his feet almost stick right in the turf, and you
see the corner he almost kind of has to like
hitch his feet a little bit to catch his balance, Samuel,

(15:51):
his feet are almost glued into that turf. You just
see the stop, bang, the plant and the pop back outside.

Speaker 2 (15:56):
That's a night.

Speaker 1 (15:57):
That's a nice shiftiness and suddenness for a guy who's
operating out of that spot against the guy who's trying
to stay close. You can shift and switch suddenly and
then get open.

Speaker 4 (16:06):
Yeah, and again against man coverage. He's gonna help in
the man coverage beaters, you know category. When it comes
to Joe Brady's play sheets, the same play from the
Ravens playoff game, once again making it look like he's
run that crosser. Then you see him slip a little bit,
you know, because of the field conditions, but come out
of it on third down once again going to him
versus man coverage with this you know whip or return

(16:26):
route to the boundary at the bottom of the screen.

Speaker 1 (16:29):
Yeah, this time he's against Wiggans for the Ravens, who
backs a little polished as a corner, but a lot
of juice, super fast And again the track in the
field will influence this a little bit. But Samuel able
to keep his feet and also show how he can
beat guys with his speed and with his ability who
also have speed. It's not like, okay, well he can

(16:49):
cook a corner for the Pats, who might be a
little slower, might not be up to snuff because they
have injuries at that spot.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
This is a first round pick for the Ravens last year.

Speaker 1 (16:57):
This is a guy who plays with speed, who plays
with a lot of jews, who has closing ability. Samuel
speed can be real enough to get him in and
out of these breaks and win on these type of
leverage creating routes. Provided again, he can stay healthy and
if he's not, like we talked about, the Bills will
kind of hedge their bets a little bit with this
type of role.

Speaker 4 (17:15):
Yeah, here's Joe Brady once again, you know, putting his
offense and his players in positions.

Speaker 1 (17:20):
I feel so bad for Stan on this one because
he just ages Hesus lost, which I mean.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
It was just crazy because he's so good.

Speaker 4 (17:26):
He's so good, but again, even the best are going
to have trouble adjusting if you're pattern matching versus this
dirty bunch is for eligible receiver or a quad set
to the top of the screen. You see the releases
change and you don't know who's who. You don't know
who's two, who's three, who's four. Next thing you know,
you have Curtis Samuel getting down the field for an
explosive play.

Speaker 3 (17:46):
And this is where I.

Speaker 4 (17:47):
Think the Bills need to see more from guys with
speed like Curtis Samuel. You know, especially when we're talking
as good as the Bills run game is when they
get these single high looks, the Bills gotta have plays,
They gotta have formations. They got to have calls that
can stretch the defense, stretch that post safety. Especially you're
talking going across the field on those deep overs, those

(18:08):
deep crossing routes, and you can only do that if
you have speed, and Critis Samuel has it in abundance,
which is why you see him create an explosive on
this play.

Speaker 1 (18:16):
Yeah, you're spot on with that type of need for
this offense. We expect another year where the run is
going to be a foundational aspect of this offense, and
the Bills will be able to mash teams. But if
they can have that explosive ability, and if they can
gain yards and chunks on these deep overs and you know,
even just connect in the intermediate for a twenty to
twenty five yard gain, or connect in the intermediate and

(18:39):
then have somebody take advantage of the space after like
Samuel does here, that just adds another element. If they
compair that fully, you know, run through your face type
of aspect they have with the run game, but then
also create explosives downfield, it becomes even harder to stop
this offense, and in an offense that was already very
hard to stop last year.

Speaker 2 (18:59):
And the after the catch stuff here is what matters
so much.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
It's not only the speed that allows him to separate
a little bit, and Brady's design, like he talked about
that helped create that miscommunication early on.

Speaker 2 (19:09):
But he beats two defenders. He beats her Tan who's
chasing him. He beats PJ.

Speaker 1 (19:14):
Locke, who is that single high safety over the top,
just puts his feat in the ground, cuts back on
both of them breaks a tackle from a defender underneath
and then houses it like that is low effort for
Josh Allen because of how open the receiver is, but
then also because of what the receiver does with the
ball in his hands after the catch, and anything you
can do to make Josh Allen's life easier and the

(19:34):
run games life easier is going to pay huge dividends
considering how this offense is built.

Speaker 4 (19:39):
So we both hope that Samuel can break through for
the Bills offense. I think they're going to lean on
him a little more than they had to last year,
so hopefully his health is up the snuff and up
the par because I do think he could have a
breakthrough season in the Bills offense under Joe Brady in
year two. Another guy that you did and Kendall did

(20:01):
a little film room session on last week, I believe
who is very polarizing, very very polarizing. Of course, you
brought some film, you brought the advanced analytics, you brought,
you brought the big guns in Kendall Mursky. It was
a great episode tight end dunkin kid, and it's an
interesting player to pick as a breakthrough or revival type player.

(20:23):
But I think that's because of the expectations that Bill's analysts, fans,
fantasy everyone, everyone expected him to be the go to guy,
and as we saw early in the season last year,
I think opposing defensive coordinators did as well, and he
had certain amount of gravity to open up things for others. Obviously,
some injuries kind of slowed his season down. There's a

(20:46):
multitude reasons that we're gonna get into. So dun Kin kid,
he's a guy that we believe could have not a
necessarily breakthrough season, because I think that first season was
kind of breakout ish, you know, for especially for talking
statistically for Bill's tight ends and Bills players historically, and
maybe not overall tight ends. But I think I had
a great first year, kind of a disappointing second season,

(21:09):
but a guy we could see having again a big
role for the Bills offense in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2 (21:15):
Yeah, and I agree with all that.

Speaker 1 (21:17):
I think the first season really was a success, especially
when you're talking a coordinator change midseason. You still have
a target monster in Stefan Diggs getting a lot of
work and so the productivity that Kin Kate had thought
pointing to a really strong rookie year, which is why
so many people expected so much from him going into
year two.

Speaker 2 (21:35):
Us included.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
We talked about him kind of being the focal point
of the tip of the spear in.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
The passing attack.

Speaker 1 (21:40):
We talked about what we wanted to see from him
and from Brady in terms of his usage, and yeah,
early on he got a lot of attention, got some gravity,
created some opportunities for others, but then bangs his shoulder
up or his collar bone, bangs the knee up, plays
through both of those things. Between that and some of
the other pieces we'll get into, we just didn't see
the level of production or effectiveness that I think we

(22:03):
wanted to see from him, and that the fan base
wanted to see from him.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
And yeah, he I think he might be the.

Speaker 1 (22:08):
Most polarizing player on the Bills, maybe like he's nowhere
near tremain Edmund's territory. But you know, you mentioned the
episode I did last week, and you and I were
talking offline. The whole reason I just did that episode
was because a couple of weeks before, I tweeted something
about him being an important part of the passing game
and so much of the conversation is like, oh, the
Bills didn't get enough receivers. They didn't draft a receiver

(22:28):
for Allan, the weapons for Allan, the weapons for Alan.
And I felt like a lot of the conversation was
forgetting about the Bills taking a pass catching tight end
in the first round a couple of years ago and
how good he was and what that meant, and the
conversation was just it just went one of two ways.
Everybody either said, oh, well, he got injured last year,
he'll be fine, and everybody else said, no, he's awful.

Speaker 2 (22:48):
It was a horrible pick.

Speaker 1 (22:49):
He's done, Trade him, get rid of him. Put you know,
Jackson Hawes, Oh, I said Jackson instead of Spencer.

Speaker 3 (22:55):
Yeah, you got it.

Speaker 2 (22:57):
Put Jackson Hawes ahead of him, or give Reggie more snaps.

Speaker 1 (23:01):
And I think that's why he cracks this list in
this episode as well, in terms of like a revival,
not necessarily a breakout because of what we thought his
rookie year was, but it really does seem like he's
getting forgotten about or written off by a lot of
the fan base because of the year he had last year.
And granted there were some things that you know are

(23:22):
tied to him and where he's limitating what he can
and can't do. But there are some other things that
we're going to break down. The show is just kind
of where some of those disconnects were and why he
is such candidate for a breakout or revival. However, we
want to verbalize it this year in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 4 (23:36):
And I will say I I think he got a
fair amount of looks last year. So listen to some
of these stats courtesy of True Media. Team target percentage,
so just on the bills it was at fourteen point
seven percent. That was second on the team, fifteenth overall
for tight ends, target percentage overall was twenty five percent,
So that's like the target percentage is targets per route.

(23:57):
That was fifth for tight ends. Twenty five percent is
fifth for tight ends, second on the team. McBride, who
you've also been breaking down a bunch of recently, is
first at twenty seven point five percent. Bowers at twenty
five point nine percent. Bowers is third. So Kinkaid was
getting looks when he was running routes. They were looking
at him. He was getting the targets and looks that
you want to see from a first round tight end

(24:19):
he was ninth and first re percentage for tight ends
at twenty point nine percent, and he had the seventh
overall separation score for tight end's courtesy of the Fantasy
Points Data suite. So he got looks last year Anthony.
Now again, I do think the injury played a part,
especially when he came back. Obviously, the volume of targets
kind of went down and the type of targets weren't

(24:41):
again with that injury to his leg, they weren't as
dynamic as the first half of the year before.

Speaker 3 (24:48):
Was it week ten.

Speaker 4 (24:49):
I think he got it hurt, but he got his
looks in year two in the Bills offense.

Speaker 2 (24:54):
He was also you know some fun facts with that.

Speaker 1 (24:57):
He was first in deep targets amongst tight end which
are are of twenty or more are yards.

Speaker 2 (25:01):
He was first in that category with thirteen.

Speaker 1 (25:04):
He was also eighth in targets at or behind the
line of scrimmage. I feel like that makes sense for
a lot of fans. He got a lot of those
past tag looks like Shakir did, where Alan's just checking
numbers and he's spitting the ball out fast to Kincaid.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
But the deep ones I think were.

Speaker 1 (25:18):
Really indicative of the disconnect between him and Alan at times.
You know, you you also talked about in breakers and
things that we're going to talk about in this episode,
but that was a significant part as well, Like there
was just this disconnect between him and Alan, and sometimes
it was on him, sometimes it was on Alan.

Speaker 2 (25:36):
Sometimes it was.

Speaker 1 (25:37):
A little bit of both and their wires getting crossed
a little bit. And maybe literally if like I feel like,
if it's like the Stefan Digg's conversation with a couple
years ago, like if four or five of these connect
maybe we're not even having this conversation at all. But
it's funny to just think of how he was used
and where he was used and just how slightly off
they were, and him playing through the injuries and the

(26:00):
target share and all these pieces that speak to why
he could have a bounce back, but it's just not
really getting talked about.

Speaker 4 (26:06):
So you said it, man, the I think it's the rapport.
I think even the most casual fan could see that
in the broadcast footage. In you know, some of the replays,
there was some kind of you know, rapport, lack of chemistry,
but also it led to the lack of quality targets,
you know, and they're both the blame, Josh Allen and

(26:27):
Dunk Kinkaid. I mean, everyone talks about the reception percentage,
and again, we don't like to use this stat unless
we're backing it up, which we're going to back it
up with film and show you the why behind it,
because there's a lot to be desired when it talk
when you talk reception percentage, because a lot of these
passes are seen as uncatchable, but they still count against
dunt Kinkaid. So his reception percentage was sixty one point

(26:48):
seven percent. That was forty fourth out of forty five
tight ends last year. On passes eleven plus yards down
the field, he had twenty four targets, eleven were catchable.
Twenty four targets eleven and we're catchable.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
That's terrible in case to get home.

Speaker 4 (27:03):
Yeah, that's not good. Seven receptions on the eleven catchable
targets and two drops. So we're gonna show you some
of these plays down the field again eleven plus yards
ten eleven yards down the field and show you the why.
And some of them are gonna debatable. Some of you
guys are gonna say he should have caught that. Some
of you are gonna say, hey, Josh, that was an
inaccurate pass, but both are to blame, and I think

(27:25):
Josh took accountability for that at the end of the season,
saying he's got to do a better drive a job
of placing passes to Don kin Kid. And again, we're
gonna show you that in film, but it was obvious
there was some type of struggle with chemistry and rapport
which led to some bad quality, uncatchable type plays down
the field for Don kin K.

Speaker 1 (27:46):
And it was so frustrating to see that between Alan
and a guy like Kincaid, who who is so good
at finding space and leveraging routes and having a field
for zone and knowing where to go and where to
and where to stop it, it just seemed like so
much of it was Alan thought he was going to
keep going and Kinkaid was like, no, I should sit

(28:07):
right here. And then the next time Kinkaid was like, Okay,
I'll sit right here, and Alan was like, Nope, he's.

Speaker 2 (28:10):
Going to keep going. And and then.

Speaker 1 (28:13):
Some of the deeper routes like they can talk about
and we're going to show like those eleven plus routes
it was just like, did Allen expect him to cut
at a different angle? Did he expect him to be
a little sharper, or if he's running a corner route,
did he expect it a little flattered? Did he expected
him a little more on a forty five degree angle?
Because even some of the catches that Kincaid made deep,
he's still having to adjust. And it just seemed like

(28:35):
a lack of even when things were working, there was
a lack of cleanliness to their connection. And it showed
up big time obviously in just the uncatchable balls and
some of the poor placement. And when you have it
happened that much and you're not seeing it happen with
other guys, it comes down to the rapport in chemistry,
like you said, between both guys.

Speaker 4 (28:55):
So let's talk, you know, through some of these plays
and I tweet about it yesterday and how it mainly
happened on like these crossing routes. So these dig routes,
these deep overs, these crossing routes, you're gonna see it
sometimes in structure, sometimes out of structure. So let's take
a look. This is from the Dolphins game. He's in
the slot top of the screen does great job of
working through the rub and then you see him get

(29:18):
over the top. Over the middle here comes Jordan Ployer,
so he's sitting right there. So either he's gonna go
right here, right in the traffic, you see a guy
down right here in Dawson Knox. So Kinky says, you
know what, I'm gonna take it over the top. Not
a bad decision, right, not a bad decision.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
I love how he id's it too. He sees and
it's like, oh, let me find space.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
Yep.

Speaker 4 (29:34):
So he goes over the top of Poyer and it
looks you'll see it from the en zone angle. His
eyes are up looking at Josh, but it kind of
looks body wise like he kind of lightens up. So
I assumed he was probably gonna take it further down
the field. But Josh throws it differently, throws more of
a bullet, and Kinkay's not able to reel it in
on the back end. So this pass again down the
field goes incomplete.

Speaker 1 (29:55):
Yeah, this is a great example to lead off with
with some of the conversation that we're having here. One
of the things I just mentioned like and you hit
it on the head, So I don't have too much
to add bank the body language right there is Kinkaid
is looking at Alan. You can see exactly the angle
that he's looking to take where his numbers are pointed.
He's looking to take it more like closer to a
forty five degree angle, like let me continue up field

(30:17):
to the twenty, maybe a little past it. Alan throws
him more on a flat line, kind of directly across
the twenty, where Kinkaid looked like he was trying to
work past it and make a catch towards the sideline.

Speaker 2 (30:31):
Tap the feet, try and work up the sideline.

Speaker 1 (30:33):
Alan threw him a bit flatter, and it goes from
a spot where Kinkaid worked a space, found an opening.
But now he's got to try and make this catch
and scrape it off the turf downfield. Probably still should
have caught it, but that's a hard catch. It's not
a great ball from Alan. Again, a great one to
lead off with. Where there's a disconnect, it's muddy. Who's
to blame a little bit of both. Here's what we

(30:54):
think should have happened.

Speaker 4 (30:55):
Yeah, it's tough man, because again it looked like he
was trying to take it to the corner. At more
to the boundary and Josh Row's at flat. It's a bullet,
it's low, and you got to think about, you know,
the tracking right here. He's probably losing the ball at
some point, you know, with Poyer kind of in the
peripheral there, and now he's trying to track it at
that speed. And that throw on the line from Josh

(31:17):
Allen again tough throw. Probably could have caught it, but
that's still a tough or tough catch, I should say, yeah,
And it just it harkens back to the lack of chemistry,
lack of report, and just there are struggles of reading
each other.

Speaker 3 (31:29):
You know.

Speaker 4 (31:30):
Sometimes it's funny, I said in the discord. It's so
interesting to me because when you talk about don k
k And and his route running and his movement skills,
they're smooth, they're fluid. But to me, he's not the
fastest guy. So to me, it's like, I wonder if
Josh has has issues or struggles kind of reading the
body language of adult kin Kate, if it almost works

(31:53):
against him, because if you threw Emmanuel Sanders or Cole
Beasley out there, you know, smaller guys and stature but quick,
you know, in and out of breaks. He they do
a great job of letting the quarterback know when they're
going in and out of these breaks and when they're where.

Speaker 3 (32:07):
They're gonna break.

Speaker 4 (32:08):
I feel like that suddenness and quickness at the top
of the route and the top of a break maybe
is better for Josh. But the fluidity and the smoothness
of King Kaid is great for getting separation seventh and
separations for last year. But I feel at times Josh
struggles to read the body language of Kink And we talk.

Speaker 1 (32:25):
You know what's funny is we talked about it a
bit when they drafted Coleman. We talked about the archetype
that Josh found a lot of success with and success with,
And it goes with what you were just saying. We
talked about declarative separators, guys that got open early, consistently,
but in a way that was QB friendly, Like here
I am, throw it at my numbers, I'm right here,

(32:46):
you see me, I see you bang and yeah that
you know, that's actually a really good point, Like just
kind of the idea of King Kid almost plays at
his own space, as he died at his own pace,
I should say, is he like diagnoses and finds opening
and again he's been doing it since Utah. But maybe
that's contributing to the disconnect that we're seeing, and that
makes a lot of sense, especially on these inbreaking routes

(33:08):
where he's trying to fit in between windows as defenders
are moving, Alan is reading those defenders. He's also letting
the route distribution develop, and he's got to fit all
that within the timing. If you can't get that body
language down and you don't know where a guy is
gonna sit, especially to maybe if he's not practicing a
lot during the week because he's got injuries and he's
banged up a bit, and he's moving at different paces,

(33:30):
that could contribute a lot.

Speaker 4 (33:32):
And here's this one's kind of outside of structure initial
read here, So he's running a route over the middle
and you see him boom. He sits in that zone
right there, but for whatever reason, Josh doesn't throw it
in between these two defenders and the safety's driving on it.
He doesn't throw it, So then you see kinks start
to slide right here. But again this is kind of
that secondary route. He's sliding this space and then Josh

(33:54):
eventually throws it and kink drops it, so they're not
on the same page. I want you to see it
from the end zone angle because it's not as easy
as it looks, although they're paid millions to do this.

Speaker 3 (34:03):
Watch House. Kinkaid slides into that window. Boom.

Speaker 4 (34:05):
He could have threw it right there, but he doesn't
it right, So Kincaid slides and then now again all
these guys are backing and compressing the pocket. You have
this guy in the frame reminds me of the Broncos game.
I think it was either last year or the year before,
where Kinkaid should have caught a ball over the mill
in this same exact area. Now all these bodies are
up in the in the face of Josh, and now

(34:26):
Kinkaid's trying to find where Josh is gonna throw it.
He's trying to get a gauge of Okay, Jos's gonna
try to, you know, layer it up over the top
of the linebacker, or he's gonna throw it out in front,
and you see he's kind of caught in between and
then next thing you know, it's out outside of his
frame and he drops it.

Speaker 1 (34:43):
Yeah, a good call on the It was the one
they lost to the Broncos Russell Wilson The Broncos two season.
Oh yeah, that stupid Sunday night game Door Sea's last game. Yes, yeah,
you're right right, and also shout out to Spencer Brown
with an absolutely violent and beautiful snatch trap against Doc
Way outside he feel him leaning, just chops it down.
This one, this one still infuriates me because there's so

(35:07):
many like breadcrumbs of annoyance that made this play not work,
Like it's a little too far outside of Kinkaid's frame,
but it still hits him in the hands. He still
should have caught it, but it's also a little tough
to track.

Speaker 2 (35:18):
But also we.

Speaker 1 (35:18):
Shouldn't have even gotten there, Like I don't know why
Alan doesn't hit him. Yeah, it's this is third down.
Kinkaid runs his route past the sticks, but you're right there,
fire it. I don't know if Alan senses Trenton Simpson
number twenty three coming into the frame, so he's a
little I don't know if that makes him a little
gun shy to throw it initially, Like Kinkaid sits on

(35:43):
that route, bang hit him.

Speaker 2 (35:45):
Even when he.

Speaker 1 (35:45):
Starts to drift and slide a little bit. You said
he still could have hit him, but I feel like
that shouldn't happened. Just hit him coming off the brake.
He's open, you're looking at him, you see him, and
then you know this incompletion ensues and it ends up
being you know, a punting situation after that. Again, these
are so annoying because there's so many little things that
go wrong. It's not like this one giant here's the problem.

(36:06):
It's all these little breadcrumbs.

Speaker 3 (36:08):
That's it.

Speaker 2 (36:09):
Man.

Speaker 4 (36:09):
It's such a fine line between success and failure. And
you saw a few little you know, bread crumbs as
you said there that led to that drop. And incompletion,
here's here's one that just an inbreaker that is tipped
against the Lions where the play was there but a
good play by a linebacker getting his hands on the
ball and Josh can't get it up over the top

(36:30):
of Campbell and Campbell, you know, bats to pass down.
And this is a play that maybe even Kinkaid still
could have caught. But again, these inbreaking routes for Kincaid
and Josh, they just struggled to connect. If he catches this,
there's probably a pretty big play happening. And again you
see Campbell get a piece of it and Kincaid still
gets two hands on it. But again, at that point,

(36:51):
the trackings off, the rhythms off of the play, and
the ball goes incomplete.

Speaker 1 (36:55):
Yeah, Buffalo Bill's mock draft legend Jack Campbell from a
couple of seasons ago.

Speaker 2 (37:00):
Is that crazy that just a couple of seasons ago.

Speaker 1 (37:01):
Fans are like, Bill's got to go linebacker in the
first round, and now it's like they got Bernardo Milano
and Dorian's on the come up.

Speaker 2 (37:06):
This is kind of cool.

Speaker 1 (37:08):
Yeah, that that tip, I know, it still hits him
in the hands. This ball starts helicoptering as soon as
Campbell gets a piece on it. That's such a hard
catch to make. It's wobbling, it's going end over end.
It's still a little bit off frame. Maybe if he
turns his hands the right.

Speaker 3 (37:24):
Way, which is the thing with him. It's nuts.

Speaker 4 (37:29):
Man.

Speaker 1 (37:30):
I don't get it, but you know, to each their
own whatever works for you. It got him this far,
so if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Speaker 2 (37:35):
I get it.

Speaker 1 (37:36):
But yeah, another one where it's a fine line. Alan
puts this ball on a rope kin kid probably still
has to extend a little bit even if it's not tipped,
but that ball's trajectory starts to go outside a little
bit more, even further outside of King King's Kinkaid's frame
that it was going to be. Plus it's it's a
duck and it's helicoptering. That's a hard catch to make.

(37:56):
But again another one where that's a big chunk play
in a game where he had a couple nice plays
in this one, but that's a yea margin for air
or is so small.

Speaker 4 (38:05):
Here, same game, the same type of play over the middle.
This one is uh, it's a little a little you know,
possible miscommunication. I'll talk about there in a second. But
also an off platform thrill from Josh. Look at he's
gonna run it, and then last second catches kink coming open.
Same type of play in Breaker that goes in complete,
and so watch Josh. He looks to escape of the

(38:26):
pocket and then he sees kink come open. So this
throw obviously off platform. You can see that that's not
mechanically correct. But kin Kate is wide open here and
I don't know if Josh was expecting a sit route
right here over the ball. It's a possibility they are
running match. Sometimes you have that sit. But usually when
you play single high teams, which the Lions are, instead

(38:46):
of having that sit right there keep with the post safety,
you usually have that guy doing a deep dig or
an inbreaking route. At another level, the intermediate area again
the area we're struck. We're talking about right now where
Josh Allen and kink struggled. So I don't there's a
miscom here. I assume that he's supposed to be running
a dig. Josh is off platform and he misses a
throw behind kin Kid and you can see Josh is

(39:07):
kind of upset about that. He knew he had Kinkaid
and he is not able to connect with his tight end.

Speaker 1 (39:12):
This one, in different forms and fashions, is what happens
so much this season. Like this specific type of thing
where one of them thinks, you know, okay, kin k
thinks I'm gonna continue. Alan's like, oh he's gonna sit,
or Kinkaid's like okay, I'm gonna sit. Alan thinks he's
going to continue, and they just disconnect and it.

Speaker 2 (39:32):
Doesn't it all.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
This just pisses me off because this one like is
a good representation of it. But like this is week
fifteen and what annoys me more is I guess I
would have liked this kind of converse conversation out a
little bit at this point in the year, Like, hey man,
this has happened to us like four or five times already.
I'm looking for you to sit. Oh, okay, I thought

(39:55):
you wanted me to continue. Okay, cool, we'll kind of
fix that. But it prevails throughout the year, and I
don't know why they were never able to get on
the same page. And I understand it from Kincaid's standpoint
where he wants to keep working a little bit. I
don't know if Alan in his field of vision he
sees the cloud corner to the bottom of the screen,
so he's thinking like, okay, I don't want to throw
it outside a little bit more because that guy might

(40:16):
be able to get underneath you're highlighting.

Speaker 3 (40:19):
Yeah, you see the coverage change.

Speaker 4 (40:20):
Here, right, so you see the post safety initially, but
then you're seeing that guy drop out to the deep path.
So again, maybe there was some type of coverage adjustment
where hey, if they're in single high, you're you're going across.
But if they're you know, going too high, maybe you're
sitting right there. I don't know it's a possibility, but
either way, you know, this still should have been hit.
Whether it's Josh correctly setting his feet and hitting Kincaid

(40:42):
in the with his momentum going across the field, or
again Kinkaid just sitting. Either way, it should have still
been completed. I don't regardless of there was some type
of misread of coverage there by either the quarterback or
the tight end. This one just has to be completed.
It just happened too often, and like you said it,
it would have been nice if it happened early in
the year. But we're seeing almost the same I did

(41:04):
this for a reason, guys. A lot of these are
the same place.

Speaker 2 (41:08):
It's so funny.

Speaker 1 (41:09):
Because I did so much of this for the KIK
episode last week, and so having to relive all these again,
I'm getting so pissed off.

Speaker 4 (41:15):
So you're getting that deep dig or deep crosser right
here from kin Kid, and he and Josh once again
aren't able to connect on this play. And you can argue, okay, well,
you know, maybe Josh expected Kinkaid to be flatter on
his route and Kinka carried it a little too much.
He's running away from Kyle Hamilton again, we can come
up with all these theories. I don't care. Josh has

(41:37):
to hit Kincaid here in the end. More times than not,
it's on the quarterback to hit the wide receiver the
tight end to make the adjustments and kind of erase
bad route running or misread a coverage. They have to
connect on this play, obviously in a big game.

Speaker 2 (41:53):
Yeah, I'm in the same boat.

Speaker 1 (41:54):
I still think there's an opportunity for the catch to
be made, even though it's not an easy catch to
be made whatsoever. And yeah, you know, kin Ki could
have been a little flatter as opposed to gaining more
depth out of the break. But Alan's got plenty of time.
He sees this the whole way and there's good separation
even if it's a ball, where can like if it's
if it's just floated a little bit. Yeah, yeah, Kinkaid

(42:18):
catches it and Hamilton tackles him right away. Cool, whatever,
But it's still a completion. This is one where it's
not being thrown with anticipation. It's not being thrown before
the break. There's not pressure in Alan's face. Alan is
seeing this route developed. So even if Kinkaid is gaining
depth a little bit more, and Alan thought, Okay, he's
gonna break it straight across at the thirty nine or whatever,

(42:39):
and Kincaid keeps gaining depth. Even if there is that
misunderstanding or miscommunication, there's still plenty of time for Alan
to adjust for that, correct for that, and hit him accordingly.
And that so again, could be on Kinkate, could be
on Alan. I just I'm in a similar boat like you.
You got plenty of time here, and you see it
the whole way.

Speaker 3 (42:57):
You got to make that feel I agree. I agree.
Here's a don't yell at us.

Speaker 2 (43:01):
We know he won the MVP. We know, we understand,
we got it.

Speaker 3 (43:05):
It's gonna come. I'm sure we'll hear it in the comments.

Speaker 2 (43:07):
Oh yeah, I'm sure the MVP quarterback is the one
who made the mistake. It's like, okay, this is.

Speaker 4 (43:12):
A great play by the defender of Patriots Marte Mapu
number fifteen right here. So you have Kincaid running that
deep crosser again. These deep crossers, these in breaking routes,
just not they were not on the same page last year.
So you see Mapoo does a great job breaking he
runs it flat and again, I don't know if if
Josh was expecting a different route, whether it's flatter and

(43:34):
speed across or what. But you can see on this
crossing route that Mapu was able to make a play
on the ball on the path from the pass from
Josh Allen there against Patriots.

Speaker 1 (43:46):
Yeah, I don't know if it's similar to kind of
the conversation we had where we've been having a lot
of this, like throughout this part with Kinkaid. I don't
know if there's something that scares Allan off from trying
to throw this farther tour the sideline and leading him
a little bit. Again, that's a great play by Mapu, Like,
great close, great speed, did everything but pick it off,

(44:07):
Like that's a great break on the ball. But I
feel like and also Kinkaid slows a little bit, so
maybe Alan is trying to match him with it. I
just feel like Kinkaid did not carry this route to
the sideline like he could have, and then Alan threw
it a bit more towards where he was coming from
as opposed to where he was going. Didn't really the
throw definitely helped Mapu make a play on the ball. Again,

(44:27):
credit to Mapu for the break and the play on
the ball, but this throw helped him to make a
play on that ball, and there's just more space outside
where you could have kept it away from Mapu and
maybe let Kinkaid get to it a bit more.

Speaker 4 (44:39):
Here's one Kinkaid running across her from the bottom of
the screen to the top, and another play where you
know Josh you can argue I think Josh is more
at fault on this one for the placement of it.
A really nice play from Nick Bolton, but in the
end Kinkaid was open. And if Josh once again, if
he could just lead him towards the sideline and have
you know Kinkaid run under it or across to it,

(45:02):
throw it to a spot I think these type of
players would be they would have connected on a lot more. Again,
ten eleven plus yards down the field.

Speaker 1 (45:09):
Yeah, this you could see Bolton is playing this more upfield,
like he opens up like he's going to carry this vertically,
and Kinkaid gets right across his face and there's good separation,
and then you see that separation go away because Kinkaid. Look, uh,
look at all the space to the sideline, Look at

(45:29):
where the ball is, Look where Kincaid has to reach
back for the ball and also how it allows Bolton
to make a play. Now, it would be nice if
Kincaid had a bit more strength to survive maybe you know,
the PBu attempt, and he could bring this in. He
does the diamond this time hits him right in the hands.
It'd be nice if he was able to kind of

(45:50):
corral that, bring it in, survive contact and make the catch.
So it is a bit on Kinkaid, but he gets open,
he separates. This ball has to be more towards the sideline.

Speaker 2 (45:59):
Again.

Speaker 1 (45:59):
This is another one to me where good play by Bolton,
but Alan's throw gave him gave Bolton the opportunity to
make the play on the ball. Should Kinkaid have still
caught it, Yes, but Alan made this. Alan made this
catch harder for Kinkaid than it needed to be, especially considered,
look at all that space, Look at all the space
to the sideline. Kinkai shouldn't have to reach backwards for
it while and Bolton is full extension, just able to

(46:21):
barely make a play. If that ball is just more
in the center of Kincaid's chest or a little more
out in front of him, that's an easy catch with
no PBEU attempt, no punch through the hands, no rip, nothing.

Speaker 3 (46:31):
This should not have been a contested catch. I'm sorry.

Speaker 4 (46:35):
First things first, you know, as soon as as soon
as Kincaid, you know, crosses the face right there, Josh
looks out in front right there. You see his head
kind of poke. He's looking at Bolton right now, and
then he looks out in front of him. Okay, there's
no one over there. The ball should be out. The
ball should be out now. He waits a half a second,
half a click, and and that allows Bolton to flip

(46:55):
those hips and then that is made up. You know
that extension by Bolt at the catch point allows him
to make a play on the ball. This should not
have been a contested catch against Kincaid, against Bolton. There
and now here's what you're just gonna see. I think
everyone remembers this one. This is again the same play
we've already broken down several times. And you know that

(47:17):
the deep in breaker ten plus yards down the field,
he's open. Obviously, the pressure got to Josh and he's
living outside of script here trying to make a play,
and the ball is thrown up and Kincaid isn't able
to reel it in But again, it just kind of
caps off what we saw all year between Josh Allen
and Kinkaid, the struggles with chemistry, the struggles were poor,

(47:38):
the struggles reading each other's body language on these type
of plays, specifically in breakers down the field, and we
saw it play out on the Bill's very last offensive
play of the season.

Speaker 1 (47:50):
Yeah, this was a play that was not polarizing for
anyone in any way, shape or form.

Speaker 2 (47:55):
Everybody agreed on the pre snap things and the post
snap decision and all the things.

Speaker 1 (48:01):
Yeah, this is just it's so fitting that in a
bad way that the last play of the season was
like another miss, like another disconnect and non success between
Alan and Kincaid, And again another one where like Alan
makes an unreal play. I know the ball's fluttering a
little bit and Kinkate so has to reach for it,

(48:22):
Like it's not the easiest catch in the world, but
it still should have been a Catchkincaid's got to come
down with this ball. But again it's just another where oh,
of course, like these two just aren't able to connect
when there's an opportunity for it, even though this is
a high degree of difficulty overall. But yeah, man, how
how fitting and frustrating. Uh In in a and and

(48:43):
and I hear that. So we're not saying the common
here is I've never seen a qbig. It's so much
blame for lending five defensive lineman rush free. We're not
saying that on this play at all.

Speaker 2 (48:52):
Although I was gonna say, although I.

Speaker 1 (48:55):
Was gonna talk about the pre snap. We we talked
about this going into this game. But when you're go
do it.

Speaker 4 (49:01):
Go ahead, four strong, bottom of the screen, ball on
the right hash condensed set and this is a running
back corner blitz.

Speaker 3 (49:08):
That's a cat blitz all day.

Speaker 4 (49:10):
The Ravens did it the week before, not the week
was it the week Yeah, the week before. Was it
Wiggins that came off the bottom of the screen versus
this four by one set?

Speaker 2 (49:19):
And Spags loves to do this all the time.

Speaker 4 (49:22):
He always does it. He actually did it in their
first matchup. McDuffie came off the edges. I think it
was McDuffie again, same type of thing. When the ball
is on the right hash you have a four buying
one set, especially when you have a running back as
the further most receiver to the top of the screen,
and that alignment is is nasty. They teams love sending
this cat blitz. Why because obviously this is a short

(49:43):
side of the field. Safety doesn't have to cover as
much to get over the top. So I will say,
if you want to talk about blame, Josh is heavily
to blame for not getting on the same page with
his offensive line and setting up the protection or throwing
some type of hot This was this. A lot of
the blame does lie on Josh. Now, he all, he
makes a play as he typically does in its alien nature,

(50:07):
makes a play and Kink should have still caught it.
But again this kind of these kind of things, one
of two plays, you know, half a clickoff with a
late throw, half a click off with accuracy led to
a lot of incomplete passes from Josh Allen to Deal
and kin.

Speaker 1 (50:22):
K Absolutely, yeah, this was a I don't know how
much to add this is a part of the conversation.

Speaker 2 (50:27):
I didn't think we'd have to go down again.

Speaker 1 (50:28):
But yeah, whether whether it's Alan not seeing it or
Brady or whoever on offense not having this kind of
put into his head, like going into like the from
a down and distance in a situation perspective and knowing
your opponent. I'm not trying to pat us on the
back at all. But if we're able to like know this,
we talked about it, like I was yelling at my TV,

(50:49):
like the corner blitz, corner blitz, corner blitz, Like if
we're able to diagnose that, I would like them to
be able to diagnose it. But even so, Alan does
something crazy and still makes a play and then Kincaid
still should catch.

Speaker 2 (51:02):
It even though it's hard.

Speaker 1 (51:03):
That's what makes that play so frustrating because Kansas City
like gamed them up on that play and Alan still
almost beat it, which is crazy and ah, it's just yeah,
but yeah, he does deserve some of that blame. But
that's a conversation for now, I guess, instead of another time.

Speaker 4 (51:19):
So the last part of the conversation with Kincaid, And
while we think he still could be a breakout, you know,
breakthrough type of player is the strength you know. Of
course it's been also a hot talk you know talking
point this year. He doesn't he looks skinny, doesn't look
like he's been lifting, like just give it time. But
most of the time people are thinking like, okay, they
need him to get stronger. They need him be more

(51:40):
physical to help with a run game, which is absolutely true.
We don't need him to be a world beater when
it comes to run block and you just need him
service bull serviceable. But with that strength and physicality, that
increase in those areas, to me is going to help
him just as much in the passing game. And we're
talking route running, so on this play two plays here
to in this Kincaid's segment top of the screen, he's

(52:02):
running an out route. He is the primary receiver.

Speaker 1 (52:04):
Here.

Speaker 4 (52:04):
You see Lloyd get right in it. I think that's
Lloyd number thirty three, right Devin. Lloyd gets into the
body of Kink and you see how that takes speed
off the route doesn't allow that smooth fluid break at
the top. And then you see you know, since he's
hanging on him, he loses that speed, he loses that break.
Josh is anticipating that break and you see him turn
around and Kincaid's looking and the ball is just out

(52:25):
of reach again. First and ten here right at the
marker down the field, the two Kincaid.

Speaker 2 (52:30):
Yeah, just slightly off.

Speaker 1 (52:32):
Really, you know what it looks like due to that
collision point that Lloyd creates and Kincaid's inability to get
out of that break clean, and that's such a great
call with like the size and frame. I think so
many people talk about it from a blocking standpoint, but
it also matters a lot from a stem perspective and
from a brake perspective. And he's still you know, big
enough and strong enough to kind of detach from corners.

(52:55):
You'll see him do it on tape, but when he's
working on the inside like he will because I have
heavy of his snaps and targets came from the slot.
You're gonna get matched up with bigger bodies there, and
you got to have the play strength at the point
of attack or on the break or in the stem
or even on your release at times to play through
that contact and not get disrupted to this degree. And
that little bit of disruption is the reason we see

(53:16):
it in completion here.

Speaker 4 (53:17):
And we always talk about Kinkaid's were out running, his smoothness,
his fluidity, and that's kind of you know, those are
his calling cards and how he gets open. And so
when you're trying to play with instructure, when you're trying
to play with rhythm and timing, and that timing is
disrupted because of physicality from a defender on your tight end.

(53:37):
These sort of things happen where you're just half a
click off, half an inch off from completing a pass.
So the very next week, or maybe it was two
weeks later, same type of play, top of the screen
this time third down. Look what happens on this play again?
Now this is a dB gets into him. You can
see him do a good job of sticking to him,
and then he breaks. Just show the sticks there and
now as he turns, you know, the balls on him.

(54:00):
That's pretty good anticipation from Josh. And then the improper
framing in my opinion at the catch point and you
see a drop and it just it's happened too often
with him when you're talking the framing of a pass
and how you're supposed to do it where you know,
usually if the ball is above your shoulders, you're framing
like you said, a diamond.

Speaker 3 (54:20):
H you see him kind of go like the basket catch.

Speaker 4 (54:24):
Yeah, And again I think that collision point, that physicality
and disruption throughout the route stem and lack of strength
and ability to use your body and strength to create
separation get off me. I think that disrupts the rhythm
the tracking of everything that Kincaid offers as a route
runner and a catch at the catch point. When we're talking,

(54:44):
you know against this type of contact.

Speaker 1 (54:46):
Completely agree his you know, we talked about him coming
out the fluid technicality that he operates with. He's so
smooth and you know, just there's very little wasted motion
and movement in anything that he does. But if you
cause disruption, it can cause problems for him a bit.
And I think the basket catch is very relevant, especially

(55:07):
for plays like this. And this is gonna sound so dumb,
but like maybe not dumb. When you're going for that
basket catch. You can't get your hands out in front
of you to get that ball. You by default have
to let the ball.

Speaker 2 (55:16):
Get into you. You can't take your hands and go out
this way and basket catch it. It's even this.

Speaker 1 (55:20):
Feels so awkward for me doing this because I've been
so trained to do this NonStop. Like, you can't get
out in front. You have to let that ball get
into you a little bit more. It changes the opportunity
for defenders, changes the ability to catch the ball. There's
a reason why that diamond technique or getting your hands
out in front is so taught. But again, the bigger
point is this one. You know, previous play we showed

(55:41):
it against the linebacker Devin Lloyd. This is just a
straight up dB, and that dB is physical enough to
give him a problem. You'd like to see him win
with physicality against the guy that he has the size
and frame advantage against.

Speaker 3 (55:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (55:52):
So again, it was a rough segment for Kink, but
I want we wanted to show you the areas where
you know, he did struggle him and Josh did struggle.
And why we think that in year three again, healthwithstanding,
if he's healthy again, a knee injury is a pretty
big deal, you know, pcl, I believe what it was, right, it.

Speaker 1 (56:11):
Was p cl and in the Texans game, separated his
shoulder or something with the collar bone because ironically Alan
kind of overthrows him out a deep ball.

Speaker 2 (56:23):
And Kaid reaches out for it and game right, maybe.

Speaker 1 (56:29):
Reaches out for it and Jackson's shoulder off on mismeddication
to miscommunication, That's my thing.

Speaker 4 (56:35):
I honestly didn't put that one in there because it
was almost too obvious, you know. Yeah, yeah, so I
think that there is a good chance they can get
on the same page, and we showed you you know,
both sides are at fault in some of these plays,
and that that fine line between success and failure. And

(56:55):
that's why we think that very easily Kincaid could have
a breakthrough season and become again become that guy they
need him to be, because they gave him those looks
last year again, second on the team and team target percentage,
fifth overall in targets per route run for tight ends.

Speaker 3 (57:15):
He was getting looks.

Speaker 4 (57:17):
They just need to need to do a better job
at connecting and reading each other to connect, especially when
we're talking some of the players down the field, because
I think they got the underneath stuff in hand pretty well,
but the stuff ten yards or more eleven yards are
more definitely needs needs to be worked on.

Speaker 1 (57:31):
And there's some really pretty downfield connections between the two
of them. The double move against Denver, yeah, is beautiful.
The downfield ones against Tennessee.

Speaker 4 (57:40):
Yeah, a ton of corners, corner routes they they the
Lions game, the Titans game, is the Jags, maybe a
Jaggs game, yeah, I think he had one. But yeah,
the corner routes he had a ton of success.

Speaker 1 (57:52):
And it would be nice if they You know, I
said this on the show last week. I don't want
him to go away from the tight end stuff completely,
but I'm gonna say something we talked about last year.
It would be nice if he was a little bit
more of that. Quasix will take that opportunity for him
to work and a lot of those corner routes and
these successful plays that we were talking about last year
came with him as that Quasix because of the mismash potential.

(58:15):
He can create. Lengthy segment there on Dalton Kin Kaid,
but necessary given the conversation and the narrative around him
from last year. Let's move on to a player Eric
that I think there's more positives around after his rookie year,
someone than I think a lot of fans liked come
in into the team last year, and I think someone
that fans have high hopes for this year, especially considering

(58:38):
who his running mate slash player is ahead of him
on the depth chart and what that means for his future.

Speaker 4 (58:45):
Yeah, so running back Ray Davis. We believe that partly
because what you said James Cook in his future, I
personally don't believe that being's gonna pay him even if
he had a similar season and didn't surpass what he
did this in twenty twenty four, I still think that
he's essentially priced himself out from being who knows, but

(59:06):
I'd say the chances are that he's eventually gone, which
opens up obviously another running back that they picked in
the draft in Ray Davis, and I just think that
they're gonna give him opportunities this year to showcase his
his ability to.

Speaker 3 (59:22):
Be that guy.

Speaker 4 (59:23):
I think that what he did in zone runs when
we're talking Josh Allen under center on running those wide
zone runs, those mid zone runs, some of the gap
stuff they did out of Pistol three quarters way into
the year I think last year, and then the back
end that is exciting obviously because we love Pistol, but
they were running countertrey and counter you know, gap stuff

(59:45):
with Josh and Pistol, which when you look at Ray
Davis's film from college ran a lot of gap and
I think that's really really you know, where he hangs
his hat. But he did really well on outside zone,
mid zone, inside zone, but also on duo, so a
lot of stuff that you know, I think, you know,
he can't get to the corner like Cook ken on
some of those plays. It doesn't have that home run ability.

(01:00:07):
But if you're talking a workhorse type guy that can
carry the rock in the future, I think Ray Davis
will have plenty of opportunities in high leverage situations to
show the team that he can do that.

Speaker 1 (01:00:17):
Yeah, well said, I don't have too much to ad
I just like his skill set as a change up
with Cook and how it fits given their running foundation.

Speaker 2 (01:00:25):
Like his ability to get downhill.

Speaker 1 (01:00:27):
He's got good feet, he's got good contact balance, a
low center of gravity.

Speaker 2 (01:00:30):
He can run through.

Speaker 1 (01:00:31):
And finish through contact, whether it's defensive backs or linebackers.
Nice fun little stat. Seventy four point nine percent of
his total yards came after contact last year for reference,
sixty six point one percent for James Cook. So there's
a lot of tackles being broken for Ray Davis. Again,
different type of back, more physical, lower center of gravity,

(01:00:52):
but also able to.

Speaker 2 (01:00:53):
Make some plays as a pass catcher.

Speaker 1 (01:00:55):
You know that touchdown against the Dolphins where they blow
the coverage on mess rail the downfield against the Jets
in New York where he's working his way all the
way across from the top of the screen waving his
hands to get Allen's attention. Alan scrambles chucks it downfield.
You know, some nice plays as a pass catcher which
were on display at Kentucky as well.

Speaker 4 (01:01:17):
In many ways, him and Johnson were more reliable in
the passing game, whether you're talking receiving or pass blocking,
because James Cook was barely on the field for blocking reps.
But yeah, in the receiving game, you know, the year before,
Cook struggled with drops and they and they were not
afraid to put Ray Davis out there. They were not
afraid to put Johnson out there in those high leveraged
situations or in high leverage play or concepts that they

(01:01:40):
set aside. Think about the Lions game when you run
that play to Ty Johnson. You know you talked about
Ray Davis and running it earlier in the year. They
had success with him, whether it was you know, again
some pass blocking for Davis, but also those plays down
the field when they were the first or second read
in the passing game.

Speaker 1 (01:01:59):
Yeah, I think, you know, Johnson and Davis having success
on the ground and as past catchers, and even with
what Cook has done as well, speaks to another element
there of why we think Davis could be a breakout
candidate that ability from Joe Brady to maximize his running backs.
We talked about it when he took over for Dorsey
a couple of seasons ago. He's just so great at

(01:02:20):
getting the running backs involved as pass catchers by design,
scheming things up for them, making them primary reads and
options for Allen. The Meshrayl stuff is just one example.
Slither and you know, the mess running back mess traffic
stuff is a good example. And he's good at maximizing
running backs whatever level of the depth chart they are at.
And the success of all three running backs of the

(01:02:41):
Bills last year, I think is also a testament to
Brady as much it is a testament to the players.

Speaker 4 (01:02:46):
Yeah, So with that, let's move on or falling behind
here a little bit. Let's move forward to defensive tackle
at Oliver or a guy that we believe is going
to have a revival, And there's going to be a
multitude reasons that we're going to cover. But I want
to talk about some stats and stuff that we saw
from doing research and obviously watching all of the film.
But it seemed like last year in the versus the run,

(01:03:09):
those splash plays were kind of missing. His run stop percentage,
according to PFF, was five point two percent. That was
sixty six out of eighty defensive tackles with a fifty
percent as the filter, and in twenty twenty three that
was much higher, was at eight point six percent, and
that's twenty third among the defensive tackles. So some of
those flash plays, some of those plays where hey he's

(01:03:31):
stopping plays for a loss, you know the TfL or
they only got one or two yards. He struggled in
that area. You didn't see as many big plays and
blowing up plays against a run. In fact, he missed
seven tackles versus the run, which was a twenty one
point two percent misstackle rate, which whereas in twenty twenty
three that was at nine and a half percent and

(01:03:53):
four miss tackles versus run. So he missed a handful
of tackles last year, specifically against Iran. And I think
again those two things is really really highlight or low
light why at Alvret didn't stand out for some of
those splash plays that we're so used to seeing him
make in the backfield.

Speaker 1 (01:04:09):
Yeah, and even some stuff from a pressure standpoint as well.

Speaker 2 (01:04:12):
Twenty twenty three had.

Speaker 1 (01:04:13):
An unreal year statistically from a volume standpoint, twenty eight
less pressures in twenty twenty four versus twenty twenty three.
Granted he played three less games, but what's very interesting
he had a similar win rate thirteen point nine percent
in twenty twenty three thirteen point two in.

Speaker 2 (01:04:29):
Twenty twenty four.

Speaker 1 (01:04:30):
So not a huge drop off there, but a three
point four percentage point dip in pressure rate, a two
point five point drop in pass rush productivity, and then
another big one that I noticed he had twenty nine
cleanup pressures in twenty twenty three. Those are pressures around
the edge of the pocket where the quarterback comes to
the rusher. Usually think, you know, somebody else gets the

(01:04:52):
quarterback off his spot. Yeah, and Ed's able to clean up.
He had twenty nine in twenty twenty three. He only
had five in twenty twenty. So I also think some
of his struggles as a pass rusher tied to who
he's playing with, who else they have on the board,
maybe speaks to a little more why they've added more
inside rush, a little more pass rush pop on the edge,
and just another reason of you know, kind of why

(01:05:13):
we expect a bit of an uptick from him.

Speaker 2 (01:05:15):
This past year.

Speaker 4 (01:05:16):
Yeah, and if you whittle a Donovan Moore when we're
talking pass rush and pressure created in high leverage situation,
so listen to some of these sets. Third down pressure
percentage in twenty twenty four, for ed was at ten
point nine percent, that was nineteenth for among all defensive tackles.
In twenty twenty three that was twenty one point two percent,
that was second for defensive tackles.

Speaker 1 (01:05:38):
So and though for they one like a full like
almost a full eleven point percentage pointing drop is huge.

Speaker 4 (01:05:44):
Yeah, So twenty one point two percent pressure percentage in
twenty twenty three on third down dropped to ten point
nine percent in twenty twenty four. That's a big drop,
as you said. And then again those tackle for losses,
those bad passes, those haven't plays, that was also drop.
In twenty twenty three, he was ranked third for defensive
tackles on havoc plays at four point six percent. Twenty

(01:06:07):
twenty four he was twenty sixth for defensive tackles at
one point two percent. So even in those high leveraged situations,
he wasn't creating the havoc in that pressure and that
he wasn't as disruptive in those third down situations when
he could. You know, typically he could pin his ears
back and just go create chaos, go create disruption. Maybe

(01:06:27):
he's not always making the plays, but he's setting up
others in those situations. But we didn't see him do
either of that really in twenty twenty four.

Speaker 1 (01:06:34):
Now, and those those metrics really align when you go
and you watch the tape, you know, just going back
and watching a lot of his paths for us snaps,
not just the pressures, but watching his passal snaps in general,
and there were I just felt like he lacked juice
in twenty twenty four, and almost like he got He
got caught playing high a bit more stalled out a
bunch that that has he rushed that we see him

(01:06:54):
go to and he'll usually like hesitate and go through somebody.
It was a hesitation and then Stall and guys were
just getting into him. He started to uptick around the
Lions game. He had ten pressures that game, a lot
of them coming against Graham Glass now at left guard.
But yeah, I was wild and he had a very
good game as a run defender and as a pass

(01:07:15):
rush against the Chiefs in the AFC Championship, and some
nice statistical performances in the playoffs against the Ravens and Broncos.
But yeah, just there wasn't that same level, like you said,
of disruption or having statistically or literally, we didn't see
that same type of force. And everybody knows what he is, right,
a bit undersize, a guy that can get displaced in
the run a little bit, but he can hold his own,
he can drop the knee, and he can penetrate and

(01:07:37):
drive guys back with the explosion he plays with. It
just felt like he wasn't unable to do that consistently
through the majority of year. And you see that on
tape and you see it even more so in the metrics.

Speaker 2 (01:07:47):
That really put it into perspective.

Speaker 4 (01:07:48):
And I love your point about you didn't see the
juice or you didn't see that heasy rush or changes
speed and him challenging the lateral agility working across the
face of a guard or tackle.

Speaker 3 (01:07:59):
You didn't that often.

Speaker 4 (01:08:00):
And you know, I was going back and watching some
of the film on Oliver and I started questioning myself.
I'm like, one thing that we saw a bunch of
twenty twenty three is Oliver in a two point stance,
you know, and we saw it in twenty twenty three,
twenty twenty two, but we didn't see it often last year.
Here's one that I said with the film. I said,
it's not planned because you see him really trying to

(01:08:22):
get Dwayne Carter lined up right here near a midfield,
but he gets caught not putting, not getting into a
three point stance. But you can see what happens when
he's able to convert speed, the power and see the
set of that offensive lineman.

Speaker 3 (01:08:34):
He jacks that guy up.

Speaker 4 (01:08:35):
Now again this is the Dolphins, but we're talking juice
to lack of juice and lack of ability to convert
versus these type of pass sets. We just didn't see
it often from Oliver. So I want to see them
actually put him in these two point stances more often
in twenty twenty five because when they did it, you know,
the couple times that he was in it last year,
one of them being in that Lions game.

Speaker 3 (01:08:56):
As you talked about.

Speaker 4 (01:08:57):
Here see him a two point stance and just he
can read the set and the drop of the quarterback.
He just takes that guy to the woodshed. And so
they ran it way more in twenty twenty three, and
it just allowed him to challenge that, you know, have
that two way go, but also read the quarterbacks drop
and so he can adjust his pass rush plan to
go and make plays like this, create that havoc again.

(01:09:17):
Four point six percent for a habit rate in twenty
twenty three, third for d tackles, And it just seemed
like anytime he was in that two point stance, he
was jacking up guards, making plays on the quarterback. Yeah,
that's really sexy, right, It's much when you think about
all the pieces they're adding on the D line and

(01:09:37):
edge and having those guys in two and three point stances,
who's rushing, who's dropping?

Speaker 3 (01:09:41):
Man, put this guy in a two point stance.

Speaker 4 (01:09:43):
It helps him process quicker in obvious pass rush sets,
and it.

Speaker 1 (01:09:47):
Also makes first and second down that much more important
for them to win on those downs and have you know,
obvious or known.

Speaker 2 (01:09:52):
Passing down in distances on third or as much as
they can.

Speaker 1 (01:09:55):
Yeah, his his size and his frame, like he's built
to just get it under guys and pry them open.
And he's got power, he's got explosion in his movements,
and you see it a lot in these two point
stance alignments, and if he can get to more of
that speed to power transition game and going through guys.

(01:10:16):
He does have quick hands and he's got good hand usage,
so we can still beat guys, but he needs to
establish that threat of I can go right through your
chest or I can pry you open like he does there.
You saw it a ton in the Detroit game. This
is a good example here. But he did it so
much for Glasgow just getting him off his feet, knocking back,
of prying open that insight shoulder with just pure power,

(01:10:39):
getting his hand right into that breastplate or right underneath
the armpit and turning and opening and forcing his way
through guy's shoulders and winning the half man relationship.

Speaker 2 (01:10:50):
And they've added so much juice inside.

Speaker 1 (01:10:53):
You know, we've talked about what it means for the
run defense and being a you know, handling double teams
and so on and so forth. But when you add
a guy like Larry Ogunjobi and TJ. Sanders, you have
committed to we're going to rush the quarterback from the inside.
And now you've got more guys who can penetrate on
the inside along with that, and.

Speaker 2 (01:11:09):
Then with what they've done.

Speaker 4 (01:11:11):
I would just say, if he bumps inside into two point,
he can drop, he can rush. He could be like
they're just with the pieces, like you said, to kind
of wrap it up, They've added so much versatility from
a personnel standpoint, and by adding that type of versatility
and pieces along the defensive line inside and outside at
edge rusher, by adding that type of versatility with the personnel,

(01:11:33):
you're adding the ability to get creative, to Greece, to
get exotic, and allow these guys that you're paying, like
Ed Oliver to go be a dynamic, impact player, to
be dynamic. He should see how depending on how they
use all these new pieces, he should see more one
on one looks, yep and pass rush situations. And that

(01:11:54):
is a scary thought if they just put them in
these positions to succeed. From what I was told they
were asking him to do some different things last year
and more of a read type rusher. Just cut this
guy loose enough with that to cut that dude loose, I'm.

Speaker 3 (01:12:10):
Done with it.

Speaker 4 (01:12:11):
He's an impact, dynamic player if you give him the
opportunity to do that. Don't make him think too much.
Go have him hunt on those third down and obvious
pass us situations, and again do that by putting him
in two point stances. And I'm sorry, it just it
helps him see things so much better. When you're talking
the complete picture of quarterbacks drop. Okay, he's at the
top of it. I need to change my rush because

(01:12:32):
now the ball's coming out. That allows him to make
impact plays. It allows him to make havoc plays for
the defense.

Speaker 1 (01:12:38):
I to that, I guess I say you would mentioned
that point because it follows with some of my notes
like schematically in things, and I mean the Cardinals game
a bit different because of how Kyler Murray is, but
there were so many rushes in that game where Ed
was almost like the low hole player or like a spy,
Like it's a contained guy against Kyler. And he did
that even against like non mobile threatening quarterbacks throughout the
rest of the year. Or they're dropping off the edge

(01:13:01):
and he's looping to the edge, but he's more of
a contained guy that he's trying to penetrate and gap
and attack. And I also think he had some times
this ties in perfectly to something we've talked about in
all offseason where he would win inside but then the
offense is going quick game and the ball comes out
right away, and so you don't get to see that
rush come to fruition. He'll win on a spin, or
he'll win with some hand usage and the ball is

(01:13:22):
out as he's beating his man in like one point
five seconds, but the ball is coming out. So hopefully
some of the coverage pieces they tweak on the back end,
we get more of a marriage up front, we get
to see some of that pastor start to pay off
a little bit because the ball isn't able to come
out as quickly. And also, like one last thing, this
is small, but there were times where he would win
and he was just getting bowled over by his own

(01:13:44):
guys in like two man games. A lot of clunkiness
and a lot of just ugliness with like timing and
synchronization upfront and move. So I'm also hoping with some
of the rush specialists they brought on this team, you
get more of a cleaner feel up front and ed
can you know, just have some better tandem work. And also,
like you said, see less double teams, because he got

(01:14:05):
a good chunk of those and it was unfortunate.

Speaker 4 (01:14:07):
And the quick game is it's something we broke down.
You know this this draft season, the quick game matters,
so the balls out, then he's obviously not gonna be
able to get home. But he was so close so
many times. He had twelve QB hits last year. Now
he didn't have many sacks, but twelve QB hits was ranked.
It was ranked ninth, and that was like, okay, that's Zach.

(01:14:29):
Allen had twenty nine, Chris Jones nineteen, Jalen Carter sixteen,
Leonard Williams fifteen, and then several guys at fourteen. Ed
was in that next tier. And again you talked about
how you know, how many games he played and everything,
but he is so close last year. And so if
they can do some things to get the quarterback to
hold on to it a little longer, because again they
were killed in the quick game. It's something we talked

(01:14:50):
about all offseason. We talked to Bernard. Pretty much everyone
we talked about in the draft had to do with
disrupting rhythm and timing of the quick game. If they
can get those guys, the quarterbacks to hold on the
all have a click longer, then you're gonna have some
plays where Ed can clean up. As you talk about
and that d line can hunt a little bit longer
without the ball getting out. So At Oliver a guy
that we do believe thanks to the personnel they've added

(01:15:13):
around him, he will get a lot more one on ones.
We expect some sort of revival with him, especially we're
talking as a pass rusher in those critical, high leverage moments.

Speaker 3 (01:15:22):
We expect it from him.

Speaker 4 (01:15:23):
But one other guy before we get out of here,
on the defensive side, who we expect to have our
hope I should I should say I hope, yes, hope
he has a revival, and that's linebacker Matt Morano. Yeah,
somebody you know you're never chexting about him.

Speaker 1 (01:15:38):
Towards the back end of last week, just started out
slow coming back from that injury, but you really saw
week over week improvement, and by the time the playoffs
came around, he was starting to legitimately show more and
more flashes of being that pre injury Matt Mulano and
with what Terrell Bernard.

Speaker 2 (01:15:57):
Has ascended to it.

Speaker 1 (01:16:00):
If you can just get any semblance of all pro
Matt Milano to play next to Terrell Bernard, and then
you also have all Pro Taron Johnson playing on that
second level, just man, Like what that does for this defense.
Milano is such a disruptor. You know, we talk about
at Oliver and the havoc plays and the splash plays.
Milano for years, when he's at his peak, is just

(01:16:22):
causing chaos and triggering and shooting gaps and blowing guys
up and making plays in the pass and the run.

Speaker 2 (01:16:27):
If he can get back to that.

Speaker 1 (01:16:29):
Especially with how Bernard triggers and his play style and
how those two can mesh, he can be just a
real force multiplier for this defense. He just again, this
is a big if at this point, Like he's just
gotta stay healthy. Yeah, but even with that, I know
it's gonna sound dumb, like I don't think he has
like he's injury prone. He keeps getting these injuries that
like could happen to anyone. It's not like, oh, he
always keeps pulling his hamstring. It's like, here's a broken leg,

(01:16:51):
here's this random arm injury. Like he keeps pulling these random,
stupid injuries out.

Speaker 2 (01:16:56):
It's so frustrating.

Speaker 3 (01:16:58):
I agree with Swinn.

Speaker 4 (01:16:59):
Milana was flying around at the end, Like even into
the playoffs, I thought he did a good job of
making some of those splash plays that.

Speaker 1 (01:17:05):
Closed down on Mahomes with the odd mirror on like
a third down and AFC Championship, I was like, Oh, he's.

Speaker 4 (01:17:12):
Back, and that's a big role for him, right as
that spy, that low hole, aggressive spy. That's something I
don't expect to go away. And I expect him to
play that role in twenty twenty five. And and we
saw as the year went on, you know, and he
got healthier, some of the diversity and versatility they could
do with him and use how they use him. And

(01:17:35):
I think with again the pieces they added at the
linebacker position and up front, I again once again hope
that that opens up things for him. Maybe they don't
have to rush him as often, maybe they don't have
to man him up in man coverage as often because
now they have guys that can rush the quarterback with
four not have to add on. And now he can

(01:17:55):
go play coverage and more of zone coverage, not necessarily
man coverage, because there are time last year, specifically like
in that Broncos game where there are a couple times
of running backs got out of the backfield and he
got toasted a little bit.

Speaker 3 (01:18:07):
But the past one and complete, so.

Speaker 4 (01:18:09):
I do think his age, and with age comes diminishing
skill set that worries me. But I do think given
his role, given his experience and understanding of this defense
and how teams attack this defense on top of the
pieces they added in front of him, I do hope
and expected that he can have a revival season in

(01:18:31):
twenty twenty five. He's been one of my favorite players
to track developmentally from college to the NFL, and I
want to see him go out with a bang. I
think this was regardless. I think this is probably his
last year in Buffalo, and I want to see him
do it with a bang in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 1 (01:18:46):
Yeah, with the contract restructuring and how that works, it
looks to be his last year. And I just want
him to be healthy, and I will feel good with
whatever happens, even if he's not the same version of himself,
or Dorrian Williams ends further and takes his spot like whatever.
I just don't want to see more injuries. I don't
want to keep playing. I don't want to do the
whole man. Imagine what they could have been if Milana

(01:19:07):
had been healthy the past three years or whatever the
hell like, and it might.

Speaker 4 (01:19:11):
Be cool too, and sorry to interrupt, when when they
go to those three linebacker sets, Initially it'll be with
Dorian Williams. It's gonna come Week one, they're gonna go
three linebacker sets. They're gonna have Dorian playing more of
the SAM, so he's gonna.

Speaker 2 (01:19:22):
Be to the Baltimore. You're gonna get a top three
linebacker look.

Speaker 4 (01:19:25):
Ye, So you're gonna have Dori into the strong side,
which opens up Milano as a will and in the
four to three overlooks when you have that SAM linebacker
being Dorian and Milano is the will that frees Milano
up to make plays, especially for talking against the run
and so those type of things. And then it'll be
Michael Hoyt, who I believe will probably play some SAM
at times, you know, in those three linebacker sets. And

(01:19:46):
so those those editions I think are gonna freeze some
things up for Milano to maybe even play some roles
that we hadn't seen with him again as more of
a will in the three linebacker set instead of at
the point of attack, which again could free him up
to make some lash plays.

Speaker 1 (01:20:00):
Yeah, with the juice that they've added and the ass
kickers that they've added and the penetration and rush piece.
There is an opportunity for him to just get back
to that trigger click and clothes clean up type of
guy where he and Bernard can just make plays on
the ball and I have to worry about, Oh, this
climbing guard is huge and he got to me and
I have to get around him where I got a

(01:20:21):
stack in shed and figure out what to do. It
would be nice to see him playing as free and
easy as possible. And yeah, I'm very excited for what
a healthy Matt Millano could be.

Speaker 2 (01:20:30):
And again, he.

Speaker 1 (01:20:32):
Was showing legitimate flashes of it as we went down
the stretch. There were multiple plays in that Chiefs game
where he was just popping dudes and you were like, oh,
and that was him coming back off and working himself
into game shape. So if he gets a full off
season just normalcy, he doesn't have to come back from
that leg injury that he was coming back from last offseason.
He's a full another year removed from that, and then

(01:20:53):
the arm injury and so on and so forth. It'd
be really awesome thing to see Matt Milonald if he
can stay healthy and what he could mean for the Bills.

Speaker 2 (01:20:59):
Here in twenty twenty.

Speaker 1 (01:21:00):
Five, Eric, any final thoughts on anything regarding any of
these players, anything in general, Bills or football related.

Speaker 2 (01:21:08):
As we start to wind down and say goodbye to
the people.

Speaker 4 (01:21:11):
Know, we appreciate everyone tuning in live with us. I
know it's kind of the end of the workday. So
you know, we talked about a lot of guys on
this team that we expect to have some type of breakthrough,
breakout season revival for the Bills in twenty twenty five.
Make sure to share your comments on who you think
are going to do the same, whether it's on the
offensive defensive side of the ball. And again, if you

(01:21:34):
missed the Kink talk and no it's a polarizing subject,
it's a polarizing player. Anthony and Kennell did a great
breakdown with some film. We obviously did one here. So
combine all of that, you know, take that content in
to kind of, you know, fuel your thoughts and to
shape your opinion. Because we do a lot of work here.
We do a lot of the advanced metrics research and

(01:21:55):
a lot of the film research, and we try to
be objective in all encompassing and sometimes you know, I
feel like fans only hear what they want to hear.
And we saw even today in the comments sections, you
know we're giving Kinkaid a first round tight end a
break and not really being harsh. No, I think we've
we're heavy handed and putting some of the blame on him,

(01:22:17):
but also heavy handed and when we're talking about Josh,
So we try to be objective, but you can guarantee
that we're showing our work and we're bringing the in
depth advanced analytics, stats and the film. So maybe you
don't agree with us, but all we can do is
show our work and show you our reasoning behind our opinions.
And I hope that you guys realize that we do

(01:22:38):
that each and every week.

Speaker 2 (01:22:40):
I don't have anything to add on that would beautifully
well said. Well done.

Speaker 1 (01:22:43):
We appreciate you folks for tuning in, especially those of
you who joined us live on this Wednesday afternoon. Thank
you very much for tuning in, whether you're watching live
now on YouTube or watching on YouTube later. Before you leave,
please please please and make you drop alike on this video.
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(01:23:05):
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(01:23:26):
also tremendously helpful for what we do here at the brand.
So if you enjoyed this episode, if you enjoyed this content,
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ones about it, if their bills fans, or if they're
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tremendously appreciated by us here on the show and on
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anything on your mind, anything we didn't get to, you know,

(01:23:47):
guys that you think are going to be breakouts, put
them in the comments on YouTube, or if you are
an insider, feel free to get at us in the discord,
or feel free to get at us on Twitter. You
can find Eric's individual count at Eric J.

Speaker 2 (01:24:01):
Turner.

Speaker 1 (01:24:01):
He also runs the Cover one handle at cover and
the Number one. We also have the Cover one Film
Room handle which is at Cover one filmom. They have
my Twitter handle there up on the screen as well
at Pro Underscore Underscore and so if you have anything
that we did not get to, or anything you want
to speak about, let us know whatever form or fashion
that you can and we will get to it as
we can. Thank you again to everyone who tuned in live,

(01:24:24):
watch later, listen later, whatever have you. We greatly appreciate it.
We're very thankful for it. We hope you and your
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and staying safe. Be kind to one another, take care
of one another. We'll see when we see you. Godspeed,
and as always, go Bills,

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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;}Overcoming Struggles, Unlocking Potential of Bills in 2025 | Film Room