Unlocking the Edge: Bills' Michael Hoecht on Creativity, Coverage, and Defensive Pressure | Film Room - The Film Room - Bills Breakdowns and Analysis

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:30):
What's good, folks, walking 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 am one of your two hosts,
Anthony Prohaska, joined as always by Eric Turner. Eric, this
is a fun episode because normally it's me and you.
From time to time we have different guests, you know,
people who cover different things, and then sometimes we get

(00:52):
some players in the film room with us.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
We do all Today is a special episode. How you
feeling great?

Speaker 3 (00:57):
I'm excited We're gonna talk ball with a professional Bills player,
Like why would I not be excited? And it's someone
that we hyped up for the last couple of weeks
when we're talking free agency and this offseason, and so yeah,
I'm excited tops Emballman.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yes, we spent a good chunk of our Buffalo Bills
defensive free agent Targets episode talking about this person, his
skill set, his traits, his play style, what he could
bring to the Bills defense individually, but also what that
could potentially do from an unlocking standpoint for them schematically.
So with that being said, we are very very very
excited to welcome to the Cover One Film Room, mister

(01:34):
Michael Hoyt, formerly of the Los Angeles Rams and now
of the Buffalo Bills. Mike, we appreciate you taking the time,
Thanks for hopping.

Speaker 4 (01:40):
On, Thanks for having me. Also, Toronto Native coming home.
This is like the perfect situation. I'm going to have
about one hundred and fifty Canadians from Toronto a crossing
the border every home game.

Speaker 5 (01:51):
So I'm pumped. That's awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yeah, we love to hear that. And so you know,
also a kind of alluding to perfect situations, You're in
a pretty cool situation right now where you are physically.
You know where you're at right now, what you're doing.

Speaker 4 (02:02):
So I'm actually in Maui. The NFLPA has their summit
every year. And interesting story getting here is NFL Free
Agency opened up at noon Eastern on Monday for.

Speaker 5 (02:15):
You know free agents.

Speaker 4 (02:16):
You know, you can start the tampering windowhere, your agents
can negotiate. I take off nine Pacific, which is new
in Eastern I'm in contact with my agent for about
the first hour of the flight and then all of
a sudden Wi Fi cuts out and I specifically had checked.
I was like Hey, you know, is there gonna be
Wi Fi on this plane? Like it's very important to me.
If there wasn't going to be, I would have gotten

(02:38):
like a starlink or something that was going to connect me. Yeah,
and wi Fi cuts out and I asked the flight attendant.
I was like, hey, you know, wifi's out? Is it
gonna be back on? She's like, yeah, no more WiFi
until we get there. So I'm three and a half
hours just in the sky, no idea, what's going to happen.
My agents are talking to people, they're taking phone calls,
and then land and Maui. In between the time that

(03:01):
I landed at the airport and arrived at the hotel,
I became a Buffalo Bill.

Speaker 5 (03:05):
So awesome.

Speaker 4 (03:07):
It was stressful three hours, but mad uh made the
arrival to the hotel pretty sweet.

Speaker 3 (03:13):
So that's got to be super exciting. You're going back
basically going back home. You have all your friends and
family come into all the games. I'm sure they're they're
super excited for you. Were you were you a Bills
fan growing up?

Speaker 5 (03:24):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (03:24):
I mean all my uh, all my family definitely are
and you know, just growing up in Canada too, Like
I was a die hard maple Lea's fan.

Speaker 5 (03:31):
It was kind of a hockey first.

Speaker 4 (03:33):
And then we moved down to uh, we moved down
to Ohio, so then I was sort of in the
Cincinnati world a little bit, but Buffalo was always there,
just because anytime you want to go to a NFL game,
like you're going to Bill's Mafia and you're you're, you know,
crossing the border right there and going. So, you know,

(03:53):
they they've always had like a special place my heart
and they've been a big part of my football history
as a fan, you know, growing up.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
Oh yeah, that's awesome to hear here. Yeah, so kind
of a little bit of a homecoming for you a
little bit coming to Buffalo.

Speaker 4 (04:05):
Definitely, definitely, and I know, uh, you know, I know,
my family's all really excited. It's it's awesome just to
be able to literally the closest possible team that they're
now driving to games rather than hopping on a six
hour flight.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
Yeah, that's a significant difference having to go all the
way to the West Coast versus being, yeah, hop skipping
a jump to Buffalo. You know, you kind of went
through your you know, your background a little bit there.
A couple of questions that we have for you. You know,
your journey coming out of college and coming to the league.
Playing weight has been a question that you know, different
things are listed on different sites.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
And ten yeah, seven, it's like the range Mike.

Speaker 5 (04:43):
Yes, Yeah, I'm I'm two hundred and sixty seven pounds. Uh.

Speaker 4 (04:47):
You know, for you know, for those who don't know,
I came into the league as a three technique and
that's what I played at Brown. That's what I pretty
much played my entire life.

Speaker 5 (04:56):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (04:57):
And so I was around the three hundre mark, maybe
like two ninety five coming out, and you know, sort
of how the evolution went was got into the league
and you know, my first year spent the year on
practice squad, was playing with guys like Aaron Donald, Michael Brockers,
Ashaan Robinson, Morgan Fox and Bash and Joseph Day, like,

(05:18):
you know, guys that are really really athletically talented and
I learned a ton from. But that's also an absolutely
loaded defensive line room. Uh So you know, I knew
that my best chance to get on the field and
get on the fifty three was going to be special teams.

Speaker 5 (05:32):
And so you know, it's.

Speaker 4 (05:34):
It's a little hard to run down on the old
kickoff rules at two ninety five. So you know, I
slowly started coming down and wait, and you know, uh,
you know, I kind of got the okay that from
the coaching staff, and you know, they're like, you, look,
whatever you need to do to get on the field,
go do it.

Speaker 5 (05:52):
So started going.

Speaker 4 (05:53):
Down and wait, and then you know, around get down
to maybe two eighty, and start really carving out a
special teams role, you know, playing a ton having a
great time, and then you know, then you're into the
two seventy five because you're like, well, if I could
run that fast at two eighty, like wait, do you
see me at two seventy And I was just having
a blast to do it. I was just you know,

(06:13):
taking every opportunity that would that I was given and
making sure that I was prepared for the role that
was gonna put me in. And then once I was
in the two seventy range, they were kind of looking
around and we had some injuries at outside linebacker, and
you know, I sat down with the outside linebacker coach
at the time and he was like, do you want
to start learning how to like cover.

Speaker 5 (06:34):
People and play outside linebacker?

Speaker 4 (06:36):
And so I was like absolutely, like more playtime on
the field, Like, sign me up. And we go into
play Kansas City.

Speaker 5 (06:44):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (06:44):
It was either a Sunday or Monday night game, and
they're like, all right, you know, we're gonna throw you
in for maybe five ten snaps at Arrowhead and I
was like, great, you know, I'm gonna get my feet
wet in this. And then the Terrell Lewis he had
a back injury and so end up playing fifty five
straight snaps, not one hundred percent sure what I was

(07:05):
doing at all the time. Yeah, and I'm like lined
up in the slot and I have I've never covered
anybody in the let alone Pop Warner or like college.

Speaker 5 (07:15):
Like, I've never been in coverage.

Speaker 4 (07:17):
And I'm lined up with Kelsey in the slot and
just like all right, like we're just gonna have to
figure this out on the fly.

Speaker 5 (07:22):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (07:22):
And I just have like a very clear uh like
image and hearing mahomes of the white eighty white eighty
snaps the ball. Uh and you know it, actually, you know,
it taught me a lot we had to learn by fire.
I would come back to the bench pretty much after
every series, coach is pulling up the iPad and they're
teaching me things and they're drawn up and they're talking terminology.
And Leonard Floyd, who was playing opposite me during that period,

(07:46):
and you know, he helped me a ton.

Speaker 5 (07:47):
He taught me a lot of the terminology.

Speaker 4 (07:49):
When we were out there, you know, if the snap's imminent,
I would look at him and I was like, hey,
I don't know what I'm supposed to do here. He would,
you know, get me right. But it was trial by
far and was really fun. So that was the long
winded answer to say I'm two hundred and sixty seven pounds.

Speaker 3 (08:03):
To sixty seven. No, I we appreciate that. That refresher
and update and the story. The thing that really uh
stuck with me is you paid your dues on special
teams obviously coming up, you know, through your journey and
you've blocked you blocked what three kicks last year? Is
there something that you pick up on or you study
leading into the game when it comes to allow you
to block these kicks. Is there some kind of tendency

(08:25):
you're looking for? Is there something you're doing prior to
the snap that allows you to again affect the kicking game?

Speaker 5 (08:32):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (08:32):
I think you know, those three, they're all a little
bit different, and I think we you know, we schemed
them up earlier in the week, the first one against Seattle. Uh,
you know, we had a good plan that their tackles
were you know, heavy leaners, because especially in field goal protection,
you really just have to like not give up any
movement for about two seconds and you know, then it's

(08:53):
the kicker's job to knock it through.

Speaker 5 (08:56):
And but we knew that they were leaning.

Speaker 4 (08:58):
So we almost had fisk uh you know, pull back
and that uh with the tackle leaning down, you know,
that opened up the gap and then humbles on the
other side to my left there and you know he's
pulling that tight end away and it just kind of
opens that gap up. And the hardest part there is
a lot of times players you know, are able to
get through that crease, but you have to get that

(09:21):
tight end's leg back and you have to you it's
almost it's a timing between getting both my feet in
the ground while still moving forward. And then it's similar
to a shot clock where once your second foot hits
the ground, it's time to go up because you no
longer have time to keep going forward. So at that point,
you know, shot clocks off in your head that I'm

(09:41):
through the line, which you know you have to rush
hard every single time you go because even if you
don't rush, or if you rush hard every time, you're
not guaranteed to block it. But if you don't rush hard,
there's about a zero percent chance you're gonna block it.
So you know, it's almost one of those you know,
you do it the same every single time, most of
them don't end up being successful. And then the one

(10:01):
time you're through, can't miss your layups, so the shot
cock has to go up, you have to get tall
knock it down and uh yeah, and then then we
got to pick the ball up and we got to score.

Speaker 1 (10:12):
What's that rank? You know obviously you're you're like a
full time defensive guy now too, where you're still working the.

Speaker 5 (10:18):
Special team stuff.

Speaker 1 (10:19):
Where does blocking a kick rank up there as far
as like getting a sack or doing something sweet defensively,
Because I from like a unique perspective, like I feel
like it's harder or is it harder to block a
kick versus getting a sack for me? I feel like
the answer is yes, because it's you don't see a
lot of block kicks.

Speaker 5 (10:36):
So I mean it's it's more rare.

Speaker 4 (10:39):
I think you know, a sack is obviously uh, you know,
that's the money stat that's uh, you know, very much
affecting quarterbacks and you know, but there's I know it's
with punt that blocking a punt, you're about eighty percent
chance to win the game. Same thing with scoring on
special teams. So you know, they're they're just very different plays.
I'm not gonna I'm not gonna pretend that at you know,

(11:01):
having you know, twenty sacks versus blocking five kicks, I'd
still probably take the twenty sacks. But you know, this
is blocking kicks, especially pat's and extra points that is
absolutely points off the board. And you know, a stack
on second down, you know a team has third down
that they could potentially you know, uh negated and still
convert versus this is you are actively taking points off

(11:23):
the game. And back to that Arizona clip that blocked
kick there. You know, the way that game shook out
is Arizona now on the final drive of the game, Uh,
they're in the red zone, but they're down by four,
so they're no longer kicking and going into overtime, and
so they're now they now have to press in order
to get in the end zone. We picked the ball
off and that ended up clinching our playoff berth, which

(11:46):
gave us a Week eight team buy.

Speaker 3 (11:48):
That's awesome stuff, man, It's something that you know, having
we've had players on in the film room and we've
we've talked about you know, holders when it comes to kicking.
So to have the other side about blocking kicks, that's awesome.
So we're gonna talk a lot about your versatility. We're
gonna break down some film showing your versatility. But what
I find interesting, of course, this is the film room

(12:09):
is during the week when you guys are getting that
game plan and you're you're you're going through and you
know you're getting the playbooks or whatever you guys are
working on.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
What meeting room are you in.

Speaker 5 (12:18):
Mike, That's a great question.

Speaker 4 (12:21):
Uh, you know, the vast majority of my time is
going to be outside linebacker, and you know it's you know,
we're gonna have lots of conversations, uh, with Buffalo being
able to figure out and how creative we're going to
be able to tie in the front end of the
back end and non known rushers and you know, everything
that goes into playing defense and changing up pictures for quarterbacks,

(12:44):
unregulated fronts, you know, making sure that we know what
protections we're getting, all the things that go into like
good defense on third down.

Speaker 5 (12:54):
You know.

Speaker 4 (12:54):
But so and obviously I haven't gotten to Buffalo yet,
so we're not not a under percent sure, you know,
schedule of meetings. Uh, you know, I'm gonna call Taylor
Rapp and Dave Edwards, both former Rams that I you know,
was on the Super Bowl team with and know pretty well,
and so I'll get a lay of the land there.
But you know, it's gonna be a combination of everything
because you know, when you play in that spinner role

(13:17):
that I was on for a lot of our third
down package last year with the Rams, you end up,
you know, sometimes you're the middle linebackers, sometimes you're a
three tech, sometimes you're an outside linebacker, and so you
kind of need to know a lot of the different spots.
And you know, for me and my like story, arc,
that's the perfect role for me because I've played three tech,

(13:38):
I've been a shade, I've played outside linebacker and even
last year, now I'm you know, dropping into Tampa two
and you know, shaving cover.

Speaker 5 (13:46):
Two, you know, sidelines.

Speaker 4 (13:48):
So there's there's just a lot of versatility and a
lot of the skills that I end up using are
kind of position ambiguous. And uh so that's where where
you know, I'm an outside linebacker, I'm a defensive end.

Speaker 5 (14:03):
I'm gonna be working primarily.

Speaker 4 (14:04):
With defensive end and like the defensive line to be
able to rush and do you know our front's there
shut down the run game. And then when it comes
time for third down, when it's money down, that's when
we get creative. That's when we give you know, are
loaded outside linebacker and defensive line group, that's when we
start teeing off.

Speaker 1 (14:25):
Yeah. Absolutely, that spinner role you know that you play
with La you just mentioned, you know, you alluded to it,
like all the kind of different hats that you were wearing,
responsibilities that you had. What is for you, like it
individually preparing each week? What does that look like for
you knowing that you're going to be used in a
multitude of ways, impacting the game potentially in a multitude

(14:46):
a way. So and are there any like certain things
that you found work for you from a film study standpoint,
or do you have a certain rhythm or routine going
about like how you prepare your week knowing that you
are a versatile player who occupies multiple spaces.

Speaker 5 (15:00):
Yeah, I mean last year.

Speaker 4 (15:01):
Last year was a ton of fun because I got
to play a lot of different positions. Uh, and I
you know, it was out of we had to learn
them fast. So, you know, throughout throughout the normal rhythm
routine of the day, you know, I'm with the outside linebackers.
You know, we're you're we're going through the plan and
then uh, you know, we would meet as a rush

(15:21):
group with the outside linebackers and the defensive line and
then we would go through everything. And then usually around lunch,
I would pop in with Joe Coniglio or outside linebackers coach,
and then we would go over all the spinner stuff
because I was kind of the only guy that was
really needed to know.

Speaker 5 (15:39):
That side of it.

Speaker 4 (15:40):
And it was a ton of responsibility because not only
do you have to know you know the full level
of detail of outside linebacker and everything that goes into
first and second down, your base stuff, how we're knocking
out the run, how we're fitting gap scheme this week, tendencies,
all the stuff that you know players need when they're
game planning. But then and and you need to know

(16:01):
you know, your nickel and dime, your normal restaurant, you're
two minute, uh, your short yardage. Uh, you know all
the situational football. And then you have on top of this,
I also need to know the spinner stuff. And you know,
I need to know where I'm you know, drawing the
eyes of the guard. You know where my hands are going,
where my feet are going.

Speaker 5 (16:20):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (16:20):
For a lot of the a lot of the season
last year and especially when we first installed it, uh,
we didn't have a green bottom the field when we
would call this package. So I was in charge of
having the wristband and getting the coverage out to the dbs,
making the empty checks, any motion checks, two displaced week,
you know, all the all the different checks that you
need to make, as well as getting everybody lined up,

(16:41):
you know, making sure that uh, you know, I'm setting
up you know, if I'm the drop guy, making sure
I'm setting up the rushers, if I'm the rush guy,
making sure my droppers are in the right place, making
sure the communications right across the board. And then on
top of that, getting all that information and bringing it
back to the coaches on the sideline and relaying what
they're seeing, what they're feeling, like, how the cat is going,
you know, all the information. So you know, that job

(17:04):
for me is processing as much information as possible and
being able to digest it and communicate it effectively coach
a player, player to coach, and then player to player.

Speaker 3 (17:14):
So it sounds like you had a lot on your plate.
And this is exciting for us because last year the
Bills had Dwayne Smoot and he was a guy who
was a big edge, you know, a big edge, but
in those passing downs he would bump inside. And one
thing we picked up on from watching film was it
seems like he had a hand in some of those
you know, pass rush calls or checks that you kind
of alluded to. So when last year it sounds like

(17:37):
you had a hand on that stuff at the line
of scrimmage, whether it's calling out checks or say, hey,
they're running this protection and this is the stunt that
we wanted to run versus that is that Is that
fair to say that you had responsibility on the field
when it comes to that.

Speaker 4 (17:50):
Then yeah, absolutely, And you know it was my responsibility
to make sure that we're communicated and lined up correctly.
And you know, I took it as my own personal
mission that you know, if something went wrong, we weren't
aligned correctly, a stunt was ran wrong, communication isn't right.
That you know, it's my responsibility to make sure everybody's

(18:11):
on the same page. And so I have to know this,
you know, without blinking. I have to just be It's
got to be in my DNA. I have to know
it better than everybody such that you know, on the
fly when people ask questions, I already know what they're
thinking and the part of the call that they're not.

Speaker 5 (18:28):
Thinking about, and how to be able to communicate.

Speaker 4 (18:31):
And sometimes you know, it's super subtle as just like
a you know, a little finger or you know, some
little check because you know, sometimes you can like look
at the teammate's eyes and you you sort of get
like a feeling is like I know you're missing something here,
and you just have to like give a subtle reminder.

Speaker 5 (18:47):
Or a clue and you know as soon as you
do that.

Speaker 4 (18:50):
And that's the stuff you work on all week during
practice too, and during walkthroughs, and you know, make sure
that you know, especially in practice and a walk through,
like you know, it's not always going to be perfect,
but you've got to be able to fix your mistakes
on the fly and be able to communicate effectively when
things are going on, you know, when the music's loud
and you're emulating crowd noise, and you've got to be
able to nonverbally communicate and you know, get information out

(19:14):
and be make sure that everybody's on the same page.
Because it's why football is the greatest sport in the
world is you could have ten guys that win their
matchups and are perfect. One guy doesn't, and you know,
that could be a touchdown, it could be a game
or a season over.

Speaker 5 (19:28):
So you know, at the end of the day, like
you just have to.

Speaker 4 (19:31):
Make sure that everybody is tied in and glueden and
all of that's communication. And you know, I'm honestly so
excited to you know, get with this new front and
be able to learn how to communicate, learn you know,
body languages of guys and be able to you know,
talk you know, nonverbally or just verbal checks and you know, disguise.
Things get like a whole new terminology. I'm sure there's

(19:52):
going to be a whole Buffalo defensive line dictionary that
I'm just gonna have to learn every single thing for.
But this is I love like it's it's this is football,
this is the game we play, It's the game we love.
It's why we do it, and it's really really fun.

Speaker 3 (20:07):
Yeah, it's and it's why we do this. We love
to bring on, you know, guys like yourself that can
slow the game down for fans and really translate it
and so that the average fan can understand it. And
so we're gonna transition to some of this film where
we get to all geek out, especially you kind of
explain it to us, walk us through the scheme, walk
us through the techniques and assignments, anything that comes to mind.

(20:30):
It seemed like last year, especially, a lot of your
production came on early downs, first and second down. Fifty
one out of your sixty one tackles came on those
early downs. Twenty four out of thirty of your pressures
came on those early downs. Three out of your three
and a half sex came on those early downs as well.
And so we're gonna take a look at an early
downplay where you're rushing the passers. So I want you

(20:50):
to again walk us through this scheme. The technique, the assignment,
anything that comes to mind on this play.

Speaker 4 (20:56):
Yeah, I mean this this play is actually a unique
and kind of a funny one to bring up first.
So this is in our rush package where we had
you know, our five known rushers. I'm essentially in that
spinner position, which is you know, usually just a bigger
body edge position playing middle linebacker. And we had called
this a lot in this game. Uh, and so the

(21:16):
Patriots were now searching for different answers to try and
get us out of this front. So this is, uh,
you know, an overloaded front, meaning Kobe and Fisk and
b Why are over there to the right of the screen,
and you know, there's three guys there and then me
and Verse are to the left, three guys right, two
guys left. They're going to slide the protection to the overload,

(21:37):
ideally giving me and Verse over there on the left
one on ones with the garden the tackle there, which
is yeah, which is you know, great for running games.
What is so interesting about this play is we're in
they're in twelve personnel right now, and they're under center,
which is not typically a third down you know, known
passing formation or situation where we're going to be calling this,

(22:01):
and so my guess is that earlier in the game
there was going to be a snap where they went
under center and we would have checked out of our
overload front because I mean, if if they just you know,
run the ball right there in the a gap, like,
there's a good amount of space there, and so you
don't necessarily want to be on this and under center
if they're going to be running the ball. Uh. The
But I think what happened in this game is, you know,

(22:22):
we were winning in the game. You know, they're starting
to having to go fast. So I think we made
the sideline adjustment that if they come out of under center,
they're just trying to get us out of our you know,
rush situation here.

Speaker 5 (22:33):
So usually we.

Speaker 4 (22:34):
Would get out of it, but we're we kind of
just said, you know, screw it, we're staying in it
and we're just gonna run it. And so, you know,
and this is the perfect situation to be Like across
the board, we know that we if it came out
under center, we would get out of it, but we
all across the boarders like, nope, just do it anyways. Yeah,
And so you know, specifically on my end here, Jared
and I we have you know, the man's side over there,

(22:57):
and uh, you know we're running stune. If if you run,
I'm basically that guard has to protect inside. He can't
get beat inside first. That's number one responsibility. So I
know if I go right now and Jared goes right now,
that tackle is gonna kick.

Speaker 5 (23:10):
Opening up his inside shoulder.

Speaker 4 (23:12):
My thought process as I like capturing underneath that armpit
or underneath that elbow, something that I can get leverage
and lift, and we're hopefully putting that tackle or that
guard in no man's land where he either has to
come off on Jared or if he doesn't, Jared's gonna
get a sack, or he's got to stay on me,
in which case I can buy that inside like the

(23:33):
nine of fifty nine there and you know, start making
my way through the B gap. Now, if that tackle
slams down, I do still have contained, So I'm responsible
there if the quarterback spins out, but I know that
I can capture, capture contained through that B gap, and
that's you're putting that guard in a bond. And this

(23:54):
is you know what we would call, you know, one
of our games. And you know, if you have it
to the man's side and it's run well. But the
key to this too is Jared has to have unbelievable
get off here, because if that tackle doesn't kick, it's
going to be impossible for me to capture that inside arm.
So Jared's off the ball, He's got to be flying.
He's honestly such an important piece to this game. And
then he and I have to work together in.

Speaker 5 (24:15):
Order to do this. So that's something I'm excited to.

Speaker 4 (24:19):
You know, work with you know, the bills on and
you know, you have to get have like a timing
and a tempo of the guys that you're running games with,
and you get really used to like when I'm in
last year when I was rushing with b Y, when
I was rushing with Fisk or Kobe or Verse, like
I know exactly wherever they're going to be, and I
know what the timing and tempo is and you just

(24:39):
get really really used to it. So that's what OTA's
are for, that's what training camps for, and then you know,
we go put it on tape on Sundays.

Speaker 1 (24:47):
We had Greg Russau on the show a couple of
seasons ago. We were talking about this offline with you.
But you know the point you just mentioned, one of
the points in the episode he talks about, you know,
if he's running opposite, if he's running game opposite of
Dake Jones, it's different if he's running it opposite of
Bett Oliver, Like their get offs are different. That he
knows their plans are different, so he tries to pattern
his get off to match what they're trying to do.

(25:09):
Get your angles right, get your timing right. Is that
something you know from because you know, especially with what
you guys did in LA, like in this past year
in twenty twenty four, like all the activity, the games
up front, the stunts talk about, just like you know
how much plan, stunts and games you guys had up front,
but then how you coordinated so well with one another

(25:29):
because you really there really was a lot of nasty
activity for you guys in LA in twenty twenty four.

Speaker 5 (25:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (25:34):
And I think the biggest part too, is the coaches
gave us a lot of autonomy to you know, call
our own stuff.

Speaker 5 (25:41):
So uh.

Speaker 4 (25:42):
In this clip here, Kobe Fisk and b Why are
kind of working together, and then me and Fisk are
working together now. I think b Why's dropping here. So
Jared and I in this we're able to call kind
of our own stunt. And you know, I, you know,
throughout practice and everything, I loved this game with Jared
just because Jared's got to lead get off that tackle
is going to kick. That tackle is worried about his

(26:02):
speed and if he's not, he definitely should be. And
so I knew that that crease was going to open up.
And you know, so how the progression of like rushing
is going to go is you know, you're gonna come
into a game and you're gonna know, like, all right,
our first stunt, this is kind of what we want
to do.

Speaker 5 (26:21):
And then you know there's counters off of it too.

Speaker 4 (26:23):
Uh, but that could also change where you know, let's
say early in the game, Jared takes a quick inside
move and you know, goes and gets a sack. Well,
we're gonna you know, we're gonna know that that tackle
is now going to be extra cognizant to protect his inside.
So maybe this game isn't probably the next one we
go to because if that tackles leaning inside worrying about

(26:44):
the counter, then Jared should just go speed and I'll
go work an inside game as well, or you know,
I'll cover him up if he takes inside and we
can swap contain responsibilities. So you know, you come into
a game with a plan of like, here's the two
or three games in kind of the order that we
probably want to call them. But then as the game
progresses and things happen, you do need to make tweaks
and adjustments, knowing that you know, you're not just calling

(27:06):
it for the sake of calling it.

Speaker 5 (27:07):
You're calling it for a reason.

Speaker 4 (27:09):
And in the situation here, you know it was Jared's
about to, you know, give every impression that he's just
about to speed rush and run around him. That tackle kicks,
and you know it ends up being the perfect game.

Speaker 3 (27:21):
And what's so exciting about even just a simple game
and stunt like this is the guy at comp you too,
was Lorenzo Alexander that when the Bills this regime, Brandon
Bean and Sean McDermott first came to Buffalo, they had
Lorenzo and he was kind of in the same mold
as you. He played offensive line, he played D line,
I played d tackle. Then he lost a bunch of
weight played off the ball for the Bills, and they

(27:41):
use him very creatively, and that's why we were happy
to get, you know, for the Bills to sign you.
And they used to run these type of games and
stunts between Zoe and Kyle Williams. And Kyle Williams was
the key to the entire pass rush and stunt game
because he would call, like you said, he would call
a lot of these type of stunts and when to
use him in those high, high leverage situations. So it's

(28:02):
good to hear that you have. Obviously we talked about
your processing and what you have to do during the
week to to really you know, get to this point,
but the fact that it goes from the meeting room
to the field, that's exciting to hear. And we're talking
the Bills pass rush plan because it's something that Anthony
and I have been critical of over the last year
because we haven't seen the same creativity that we saw

(28:23):
early on with this regime.

Speaker 4 (28:25):
If you go back to that clip too, I do
for the ball lovers out there, Yeah, you know, I'm
obviously the one that like comes through here and you know,
I'm forcing the pressure and you know, you know that.

Speaker 5 (28:37):
That's great, that's awesome.

Speaker 4 (28:38):
The key to this play and this is what you know.
I think the biggest difference between watching the play and
like no in ball and not. The key to this
play is two guys. Well, it's b Why and it's
Fisk here. So if you go from the start, there
be wise body posture and you know, as we're lined
up in this front, he has to make that right tackle,

(28:59):
believe that he's rushing even though that he's dropping. And
you know that's tricky to do because when you're dropping,
you almost want like your weight back because you have
to go cover guys and you have you know you're
going the other direction, but everything, your body language, your demeanor,
you have to like make it that I'm a known rusher,
so that that tackle kicks, and that gives Fisk just

(29:19):
enough time because Fisk is ultimately responsible for Kintain on
that side, and he's doing it through the B gap.
So if that tackle doesn't respect b Why as a
rush threat, if he knows B Why's dropping, he's gonna
slam down on Fisk and it's going to be a
lot harder because Fisk is the one that ends up
getting the sack here or like making the tackle, and
that doesn't happen without the body language and demeanor of

(29:41):
b Why And it doesn't happen with Fisk knowing that
he has a nanosecond to get off where that tackle
is kicking to b Why and he has to be
able to go contain through it before he gets slammed down.
On other important important piece of this, you look at
Kobe Turner. He knows he's got the tough down, he's
got the double team, so he's you know, occupying both
the g in the center helping out Fisk, helping out me,

(30:03):
and then knowing that he's got to cover up where
if that quarter if you know, the quarterback scram was
at wherever he goes through and you know, Josh does
this all the time. When people don't do it right,
is uh you know, and that's demoralizing because you have
a great rush and Kobe Turner's kind of the security
blanket in this to make sure that you know everything.
If the quarterback tries to scramble, he's now responsible for

(30:25):
recontaining and recovering and you can see him start to
work there and it's kind of a vice tackle between
the two.

Speaker 2 (30:31):
Love it, Oh my god.

Speaker 1 (30:33):
Yeah, that's I love that. You're like, well, put the
ball doers out there, wait, wait to set that up.
Well done, very well done.

Speaker 3 (30:39):
All right, So we're gonna go on to the next
clip here, Mike. Now, this is a third down situations,
those pass Russ situations. I talked about your early production.
We talked about that already, but I love the creativity
again when it comes to these five man surfaces, these
you know plays that you have, you know, five six

(30:59):
men on a line of streamage, but in the end
you don't know how many your coming post snaps. So
I want you to walk us through this sack against Arizona,
kind of an overload situation again to the left of
the screen once again similar you know, defensive front. Walk
us through what's happening prior to this snap and then postnap.

Speaker 4 (31:16):
Yeah, so this play similar to the last one where
we're in this overload and this was kind of our
bread and butter on third down was me and Verse,
you know, together hopefully drawing the man's side and then
Kobe fiskn b Y over there working against the slide.
And how this, how this came about is running back

(31:37):
in the backfield. We have one play called as soon
as they motion to empty, we have a check in
adjustment that we need to get out and that was
a game plan specific for the Cardinals, which you know,
I'm obviously glad we made because we played them in
week two and they beat our brakes off of us
and thankfully got the job done in week seventeen. But
so this is a check I'm making sure that they're aware.

(31:58):
You know, they've got their hands in the dirt. It's
you know, it can be hard for them to you know,
see that, and uh, you know, especially this is a
game at home and uh, you know, so it's obviously
loud when the defense is out. There are places and
I'm I can't wait to hear Bill's Mafia.

Speaker 5 (32:14):
The level of noise that's you know, I can't wait,
you know.

Speaker 4 (32:18):
So I'm clapping, trying to make sure that they're aware,
and you know, they should know, and you know they
I you know, the guys, everybody almost always knows. But
you know, I'm making sure, like I said earlier, that
if it's messed up, it's my responsibility. So I'm just
going to make sure I over communicate and get to
check out and just try and be as loud as

(32:38):
possible so everybody knows. Because also in that situation, guys
are handing their dirt and they're loading up and they're
ready to go attack. So there they might miss, you know,
shorter running back to getting another backfield. So then here
same type of attack blend. So me and Verse were
taking the man's side and Fisk and Kobe.

Speaker 5 (32:57):
Are running a game here.

Speaker 4 (32:59):
And I believe this is going to be Fisk looping
around if you let it run for a second, if
you can. But my like, I'm responsible for buying that guard.
Oh so no, this is just a straight rush. So
I'm buying that guards, buying his guards's his presence.

Speaker 5 (33:14):
It's five.

Speaker 4 (33:15):
Oh, we have five rushers, you know, they're responsible, uh,
one on one for each of us. And the way
that we kind of got to is to occupy him.

Speaker 5 (33:24):
Make it.

Speaker 4 (33:24):
You have to give that same demeanor that I was
talking about would be why that you are a rusher
in this and so you know your first two steps,
you know, there should be absolutely no difference between when
you're rushing and when you're dropping. And that occupies him
just long enough so that Kobe now has the space
and the timing where you know, Kobe just has to
cross the center's face balance up the rush and that

(33:46):
gives him so much more space. And from that point,
from that moment, as soon as the guard Usually how
the timing works is as soon as the guard's eventually
going to realize you're a dropper, his eyes are going
to snap, You're gone, You're out of there. And so
I'm basically insulating the inside receiver there, dropping back visual
off of Kyler and just reading quarterbacks eyes don't get beat.

Speaker 5 (34:08):
Across your face. And then as soon as.

Speaker 4 (34:11):
You're here in this sort of low hole area, it's
the same sort of shot clock, you know, opportunity where
if the quarterback starts to scramble, and Kyler Murray obviously
scrambles a ton, as soon as he starts to scramble,
I'm now bonus and I can go recontain it. So
you'll see me as soon as that pocket sort of
breaks down, I'm triggering to make sure that if Kyler

(34:31):
starts sprinting to the sideline, you know, it's my responsibility
to clean it up and slow them up for the
rest of the rush to continue to contain there. So
there's a lot that goes on in these types of plays.
We try to try and we try to make you know,
at least you know last year. And this is what
I think really good defenses do, and it's what good
football teams do because offense does. It is things that

(34:52):
look the same that play out different. So offense is
going to do that with motions and formations and things
that look the same but end up playing different.

Speaker 5 (35:01):
And uh, you know the same thing. On defense.

Speaker 4 (35:04):
We want things to look the same so that we
know how they're going to protect it, and then we
can drop non known rushers, we can run different stunts.

Speaker 5 (35:10):
You know.

Speaker 4 (35:10):
It allows us to sort of dictate, uh, you know,
the tempo of things and the protection of things.

Speaker 5 (35:16):
We had.

Speaker 1 (35:17):
We had follow up questions as this play. You literally
answered all of them, and that amazing.

Speaker 2 (35:21):
Great.

Speaker 5 (35:21):
Yeah, that was awesome.

Speaker 1 (35:22):
But I just wanted to piggyback on that last point
from you, you know, and you mentioned you mentioned this
a bit offline when we were talking. You mentioned again, now,
like the whole idea defensively now similar offensively, Like you
want to make at the presentation pre snap look the same,
and then you want to change that pre to post
snap picture. And this play is so great, you know,
juxtaposing it with the first play that we showed, because

(35:44):
it's that same package, you know from that first time
you and Verse trying to draw that man side you
got Fisk Turner and Byron Young on the other and
then you mentioned it too, like it's going to it's
going to create that fible protection and now you're manipulating
that guard and then you're dropping. So if you are
an offense preparing for this, or if you know you're
studying tape and you're seeing like, okay, if they get

(36:04):
into this package, we might get the game from the
man's side, or this is what they're like they like
to do. You're playing off that and Jedi mind tricking
and using your own tendencies to kind of manipulate their
thought process. And then the layering of all of it
for you individually, like the check pre snap, but then
post snap, manipulating that guard, then dropping, letting Kyler's eyes

(36:27):
guide you to where you need to be, but then
still being responsible for him if he breaks out, and
like you mentioned, how you trigger right away. It's just
such a great example of you know, defenses, you you
get into those packages, but you can manipulate an offense
based on leaning into what you do tweaking some things
here and there, but then there's multiple levels and layers

(36:47):
to the responsibilities within it. And that's what makes it
all work.

Speaker 5 (36:50):
Isn't football just the best?

Speaker 4 (36:51):
There's like I and I always think about it all
the time, Like you can nerd out on every detailed
down to you know what step and your is your
alignment two inches to the right or to the left,
And then you go into technique, and then you go
into scheme, and you can go into like and then
you go into like how do you build rosters and
how do you you know, work with the salary cap?

(37:13):
And then then you go and level further and it's like,
how does you know the Bills play in the larger
Buffalo community?

Speaker 5 (37:19):
And what's our place in the NFL?

Speaker 4 (37:20):
And then at the NFL being like, you know, the
most profitable sports league. There's just like every single detail
of this game is just so interesting. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (37:29):
Well, honestly, I didn't want to break down this entire reel,
but it's a fifty eight second reel because I love
this package that you guys use with the Rams. So again,
explain this package, this defensive front because here's here's one
from that that Patriots game. Again, this isn't a play
we weren't going to break down, but I'm going to
show it because you do a similar thing here this
time you get that twist that you were talking about
from Yes.

Speaker 4 (37:50):
Yeah, I mean same type of thing. You know, plays
that look the same but played different. And you know,
in this specific one, Kobe and Fisk are running the
stunt and uh, you know fit. You know, if if
I was not in there, or if I was a
smaller body, a normal like a middle linebacker, or if
we're a nickel or dimes something like that, a lot
of times offenses will go what's called four for three

(38:12):
where they're they're taking that backside guard and adding him
into the slide and then they'll usually chip out with
their running back on verse, so that or the whoever's
on the solo there to you know, give that tackle
a little bit of relief. And so that's what you
get a lot and that's why we love so much
having this you know five big rush group is that
you can't really do that. You can't borrow that backside

(38:34):
guard because if you do, you either have me at
two sixty seven one on one with a running back
or you're going full slide and that sort of limits
a lot of the you know, things that you can do,
and you know there's answers for that on defense, so
you know, we we try and you know, dictate what
the offense kind of has to do, and once we
sort of know how they're going to protect it, we
can make our adjustments. And yeah, I'm at this point,

(38:56):
I'm buying that guard, making sure that he doesn't have
time to snap back on Fisk doing the loop here
and Fisk and Kobe are running a very similar game
to what Versa and I ran in the first clip there,
where it's just an interior version of it where you know,
the get off at a Fisk is just as important
to pull that guard so that Kobe has enough time
to be able to buy that inside peck of the

(39:17):
guard penetrate through it. It's a very similar concept to
how it's run. And you know, the big part of
this here too is making sure that that guard believes
that I'm rushing, believes he's responsible for me, and that
way he doesn't have enough time for Fist to be
able to loop through. And then I'm pretty sure on
this play I just go glove up the running back too, yes.

Speaker 1 (39:39):
And so one of the things that we geek out about,
I mean we geek out about a lot of things
football related, but like simulated pressures and creeper pressures and
how that all ties into protection manipulation and what you
can do to force an offense to keep in a
tight end or running back thinking that, oh, they're bringing
five or six and then actually no, it's just four.
Granted you're swapping out traditional rushers for non traditional ones,

(40:00):
but I really love this one because the manipulation for
the guard, the manipulation of the protection. Ramandre Stevenson thirty
eight stays in a little bit, just hesitates briefly, so
he doesn't get out into the route distribution early, and
you almost get like a two for one because you
manipulate seventy one, which like you said, helps Fisk loop
and be able to come down the barrel right down

(40:21):
at May and then when you pop out, you're picking
up Remandre thirty eight right there, so you essentially like
kind of take out two players because Ramandre is gloved up,
like you said, seventy one is on an island not
doing anything because he had to respect your rush. Now
you've cleared a lane for fist. So it's the scheme
of it along with the individual execution and again the

(40:42):
dictation that's so important in a game now where you know,
like most of the rules favor the offense with how
football is played, so everything that you can do to
put the offense on the back foot and dictate to
them like that was just such a beautiful example from
you guys.

Speaker 5 (40:58):
Yep and uh.

Speaker 4 (41:00):
And the other nice part too is you show five
and you end up you know, so you show five rushers,
but you end up rushing four, and so that means
you're playing with seven and coverage, which you know is
always always more helpful, so you end up getting you
get you get protections like you're rushing five, but you
get coverage like you're rushing four, which is kind of

(41:21):
the sweet spot.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
Yeah you're not.

Speaker 3 (41:24):
And that's the thing with the NFL. You're manipulating and
attacking protections with that four man rush, so you're not
having to insert that extra rusher. And it kind of
plays to this as well on this player right here
against Green Bay because this one you're definitely a man
coverage versus the running back. But my question to you
is if the running backs stayed in the block here.
Could you are you adding in as a rusher or

(41:45):
is your number one responsibility to pill off in man coverage?

Speaker 4 (41:48):
Yeah, I mean it kind of depends and a lot
of times it's not always man, but uh, basically I'm
responsible for that. And but yes, if that running back
state in and that you know they go, uh, you know,
a bigger protection, then you know I would just add on.
And that's one of those it's kind of an on
the fly judgment call where uh, you know, if you

(42:11):
if you abort your coverage uh to try and go,
uh you know, get a sack. You have better get
the sack otherwise because if they dump it off to
your coverage and you're like, well, you know, I tried,
I kind of shot my shot, Like that's you know,
that's bad ball. That's uh uh So it's one of
those judgment calls. And you know that's why you know,
you have to work on so much situational football and

(42:32):
you have to rep stuff so often because you never
really know, like exactly when things are gonna come up,
and sometimes you just gotta you know, overcome the whatever's
going on in the play. And you know, rules are
great until you know you're in a situation that they're
the rules aren't meant for so yes, the short answer
to that is, you know, I don't think if if

(42:54):
you go and get a sack, a coach is never gonna.

Speaker 5 (42:55):
Be like, don't do that. Uh, But if you.

Speaker 4 (43:00):
Leave your responsibility, you better be one hundred percent certain
and you better make the play otherwise not good.

Speaker 1 (43:08):
Is there like a kind of a point and no
return for you on this one? Like if obviously you
can I mean I'm not obviously, but you can tell
your your eyes are right on Jacobs and you can
see the body language he's starting to release, So you
peel off and you go with him. Is there a
spot where like it if he would have delayed maybe
half a click longer, are you gonna pot commit and
try and get to the QB or you as soon

(43:29):
as he flashes, you're out. You're out with him, no matter.

Speaker 5 (43:31):
What depends on the play.

Speaker 4 (43:33):
We we kind of did it both ways last year,
and that you know, the same type of thing where
you know, you try and make everything look the same
and you do you do it a couple different ways.
So there's definitely opportunities where you know you're you're in
this never ending chess match where you know you pop
out early and then you start to pop out and
readd in and then you just go right now. So

(43:54):
you know, if you just keep kind of doing the
same thing every single time, there's the same way that
every every play has an answer.

Speaker 5 (44:04):
On both sides of the ball.

Speaker 4 (44:05):
It's just who has the better answer for that particularly
one and then sometimes both people are right and it's
just who wins their matchups. So you know, you do
have to do similar things in different ways in order
to get the job done. Because like if the best
tackles in the league, like if they know you're going
to speed to power, if they know you're gonna be
a power rusher, uh, they have answers for that. You

(44:25):
know they're they get paid a lot of money too,
and you know you're not just gonna be able to
do the same thing every time. So it's it's really
about like how creative and how smart can and do
you you know, pull the right move and do the
right situation or and are your eyes in the right
place at the right time in order to sort of
attack things in different ways. And so to answer your question, uh, yes,

(44:51):
but uh you know there there's definitely a point of
no return where sometimes you just kind of have to go.
But for the most part, like you should play sound
football and just do sound football the right way and
you know, let the scheme and your teammates you know,
take care of you.

Speaker 5 (45:05):
You protect them, they protect you.

Speaker 3 (45:08):
So we study a lot of film, obviously, as do you.
I'm sure, so you play a lot of different positions.
Whose film are you studying during the year, Like, whose
film are you studying.

Speaker 2 (45:17):
In the off season?

Speaker 3 (45:18):
Are you watching line, watching the tackles, you watching the edges?
Like where do you begin your film study when you're
maybe in the off season you're trying to refine your craft.

Speaker 2 (45:26):
Who's whose film are you watching?

Speaker 5 (45:28):
Yeah, I mean I kind of watch a lot.

Speaker 4 (45:31):
You know, there was you know, there was there was
a play I think it was two years ago where
Miles Garrett was doing the basketball basketball.

Speaker 5 (45:37):
Dribble crossover over the center and you know, I love
the way that looked. Uh yeah, I mean there there's
there's always stuff you can work on.

Speaker 4 (45:46):
I think, you know, very similar is what Van Ginkle's
doing up in Minnesota. Uh, just because he does a
lot of these similar concepts where you know, a lot
of times you're you have covered responsibilities, but they're using
you all on the line of scrimmage in order to
be able to set protections.

Speaker 5 (46:03):
And so I think there's a lot of parallels there.

Speaker 4 (46:06):
And you know, just good pass rushers like just being
around guys that are super technical and there's always something
that you're picking up from somebody and then talking to
offensive linemen and talking to tackles.

Speaker 5 (46:17):
That's another great.

Speaker 4 (46:17):
Reason why this nfl PA summit trip here is great
because you know, there's some of the best players in
the league here and uh, you know we all get
to like talk ball and uh, you know, not everybody
exactly wants to talk work all the time, but you know,
I'll be a little bit of uh, the annoying guys
just like, dude, let's just go like talk some ball,
let's talk some technique, let's do something. You know, we'll

(46:38):
nerd out on it. But yeah, it's just you know,
there's there's Football is one of those games that it's
it's a never ending, constant pursuit of knowledge. Uh, and
you know, you're never the second that you think you
know something, you're just gonna you know, be hit with
a new piece of information, a new perspective on it,
a new way of coaching it, a new way of
thinking about it. You're gonna see somebody else in the

(47:00):
league do it, and it's going to open up new
doors and new pathways and new ways to be able
to think about you know how you want to eventually,
like the ultimate goal is to like not let the
offense score points. So you know, within that, that's when
you really get into the details. It's like, all right,
what is the grand plan to you know, keep points
off the board. And you know nice part two is, uh,

(47:23):
Josh is gonna throw up a ton of points.

Speaker 5 (47:25):
So you know we're gonna be awesome as a defense.

Speaker 4 (47:28):
You know, I think we're making I think the Bills
are making some really really good moves on the defensive
side of the ball and the offensive side of the ball.

Speaker 5 (47:35):
So it's gonna be a fun team.

Speaker 4 (47:36):
I'm I cannot wait, Like I'm just sitting around waiting
for Ota to start and we can kind of put
we can kind of get direction on how we're going
to do it and start learning all the things the
timing and the tempo and start rushing with guys and
you know, I'm excited to learn from Rousseau and excited
to learn from Bosa and.

Speaker 5 (47:54):
Excited to learn from that all like all the guy
all the rushers.

Speaker 4 (47:57):
And you know, I'm just it's it's gonna be really
really fun. There's a ton a ton of work to do.
But I'm you know, sitting on vacation was like, get
me back to work.

Speaker 5 (48:07):
I need to be there.

Speaker 4 (48:09):
And I might be the first person ever that's been
sitting in Maui and just like, get me to Buffalo.

Speaker 5 (48:13):
I have to go right now.

Speaker 1 (48:16):
Yeah, you're definitely the first person to be in Maui
to be like I gotta get Yeah, it's March, get
me to Buffalo.

Speaker 5 (48:23):
I need to be there.

Speaker 1 (48:25):
I go one one last quick question for you for myself,
you know, one of the one of the things we
noted in our tape study and some of the things
you mentioned like your versatility, the alignment, potential, size, athleticism,
all that, and then so much throughout this episode you
have just put on the full knowledge display and how
how much the mental side of football, how how important

(48:46):
it is and how strong it is in this game,
and how strong it is in you. But one of
our favorite aspects of your game, the violence that you
play with on the field, like just pulling guards, pulling
the lions, are pulling pinay sewol On like a long
trap and you're banging like the hell out of him
and then grabbing gibbs. Some of your stunts where you're

(49:07):
just absolutely annihilating guards and centers and tackles.

Speaker 2 (49:10):
The violence that you play.

Speaker 1 (49:12):
With, is it Is it just completely innate now? Is
there some of it that's like still in the forefront
of your brain where you're purposefully like, I need to
like railroad this dude right now. Or is it just
kind of like Nope, that's just how I play. It's
just second nature. As soon as the snap hits, I'm
blowing somebody up.

Speaker 5 (49:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (49:28):
I mean I take a lot of personal pride in
gap scheme runs because you know, in theory, you have
you know, three hundred plus pound guys full speed running
at you know, two hundred and sixty ish pound guys
that you know the advantage should be on the offensive.

Speaker 5 (49:44):
Side of the ball. But you know, I take a
lot of I take a lot of pride in gap scheme.

Speaker 4 (49:48):
I take a lot of pride in handling pullers, and
you know, play and you know, perfect world, I would,
you know, hit some of these plays with my hands
and be very technical, but there comes a time in
this game where you just have to go light somebody up.

Speaker 5 (50:02):
You just have to like go get in there.

Speaker 4 (50:04):
And you know in these plays too, you know, my
favorite thing about gap scheme too is you know it's
not because they're moving gaps. You can't just go one
for one. You do have to be able to like
in this play. This is a perfect example in the
divisional around here where you know you're responsible for taking
on this offensive lineman, but you're responsible for outside and inside.

(50:24):
So here in this situation, you're putting a dent in
a cap on the coverage. You're allowing the rest of
your teammates to fold all over the top. You see
Qla coming down, Omar's over there, guys are you know?
Because the offensive linemen are all already out leveraged on
our defensive line, so you have to buy some time,
makes Saquon shop his feet and then I'm responsible If
Saquon puts his foot in the ground and sprints to

(50:46):
the sideline, that's my play. And then the added bonus
And this is where good football is is you never
go eleven for eleven and so it's gap and a half.
Am I half responsibility? I take as a full responsibility,
and so you know, make sure that the edge is set,
make sure that you have a cap on everything, that
safeties and everybody walking down have space and time to

(51:06):
see and cap off. And then that's when you just
go make plays inside. And that's like gap scheme runs
like that is that's my stuff, that's my ship.

Speaker 2 (51:17):
We love it.

Speaker 3 (51:17):
Because you said gap and half, we're like, oh my gosh,
Like that is something that the Bills obviously ask a
lot of their edge guys and d Lineman because they
play a lot of those two high safety structures and
so a lot of times they have that light box
and they have their guys and their defensive front playing
that gap and a half responsibility.

Speaker 2 (51:35):
So that was awesome when you said that.

Speaker 3 (51:37):
Our eyes is lit up because it is something we've
talked about so often here in the film.

Speaker 5 (51:41):
Rooks, yep, I'm excited. I can't wait.

Speaker 4 (51:44):
And you know, and those are the plays too where
you don't really get to practice many of them in
no ta's because you don't have pads on. So those
come up the first day of pads and training camp.
You know, I think across the league, everybody's like it's
gap scheme day and that's might that might as well
be Christmas for me.

Speaker 1 (51:59):
Oh my god. This was yeah, absolutely awesome to have
you in here. The amount we we were already pumped
and and geeked up for this one. Just again, like
we talked about with having you as a target for
this team and what we thought you could do. But yeah,
just the uh, the level of knowledge you dropped here
and how technically sound you made everything. It's just it

(52:20):
really is. And when we talk about it here all
the time, like cause we're breaking down tape, but the
physical on field execution is one thing, but it's so
heavily tied to the mental side of the game and
just your ability to see it, speak it and everything. Yeah,
this was an absolute treat. We We are sincerely thankful
for you taking the time, especially while you're yeah enjoying Maui.

Speaker 5 (52:40):
And yeah, thank you guys for having me on. You know,
I feel like that was good. I needed I needed
to talk some balls somebody.

Speaker 4 (52:46):
I've been sitting for a couple of weeks, like trying
to figure out contract stuff. And you know the all
that part of it is like great agents handle that
like I want to do football, So this is great.

Speaker 5 (52:55):
I got to scratch that edge. I appreiate you guys
having me on.

Speaker 1 (52:58):
Hell yeah, Well, enjoy the rest of your time in Maui.
We're excited for you to touch down in Buffalo. Whenever
you do touchdown in Buffalo, enjoy the rest of the week.
Safe travels on flying back, good luck with move and
all that stuff. And yeah, we appreciate you taking the time.
All you folks who watched this episode, thank you very
much for tuning in. This has been a cover one

(53:19):
Film Room special edition with new Bills. I would say
edge defender, but everything defender Michael Hoytt. We appreciate you folks,
Rate review, subscribe, drop likes, godspeed. We'll see you when
we see you, and as always, go Bills,

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Unlocking the Edge: Bills' Michael Hoecht on Creativity, Coverage, and Defensive Pressure | Film Room

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Unlocking the Edge: Bills' Michael Hoecht on Creativity, Coverage, and Defensive Pressure | Film Room