Buffalo Bills Main Issues and What Needs to Change | UR - Under Review

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Well, that sucked, and this team is in a weird
spot right now, and we're going to talk about it
on tonight's episode. And if you're watching, I appreciate the
heck out of you. Thank you so much for tuning
into this week's episode of Under Review. It's a bit
more morbid of an intro this week, because that game
was pretty morbid and there's a lot that I think
the Bills need to course correct going forward. But I
think some good news for all of you is there

(00:31):
are ways that they can do it, and it's not
a super unrealistic premise. Rather things that this team could
tweak on the offense and defense, as well as some
health that could probably bring them back to their winning ways.
So we'll talk about all of that tonight, But first
we got to let that intro, because why would we not.
So the host is going to be quiet, he'll roll
the intro and we'll get this episode going. By the way,

(00:51):
tonight's tagline is Joe is afraid. You see bo is afraid.
It's because that movie is absolute chaos and bo is
pretty afraid in it, and Joe's pretty afraid of how
insane this Bill season seems to be. And will continue
to be. So let's have some fun tonight, everybody. Let's
go previous play, We'll go under Review. Citizens of Earth,

(01:38):
lend me your ears, and once again, thank you so
much for tuning into this week's episode of Under Review.
My name is Joe DeRosa. You can find me on Twitter,
slash x app show Underscore de Rosa. Assuming I didn't
take a break from the madness, which I did a
few weeks ago, but I am back to bless your
timelines with non stop shit posting. And again, everybody, it's
been a very odd time in the Bill season, and

(01:59):
it unfortunately is eerily reminiscent of seasons past, where it
seems like every odd year for the Buffalo Bills is
just met with pure chaos and entropy. And of course
when the Bills have a bad loss or there is
something significant enough to make the point of an episode
of State of the Bills, you know, I gotta do
it here, but I gotta do it with the guests,
and I'm excited. This is the first time that I

(02:20):
have had this guest on the show. Now he comes
from the same network as someone you all may know,
Mike Bunt, But I promise you just because they work
for train Wreck does not mean that they are train wrecks.
This person seems like the furthest thing from a train wreck.
Great Lakes, Jake, Welcome to the show, Jake. I appreciate
the heck out of you. Man. How you doing and
how you feeling after this week?

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Hey, thanks for having me, Joe. This is a pleasure.
It's an honor to be here. First time on Under Review,
first time on Cover one. Actually, I've I've had some
guests from Cover one a couple of times on my show.
I'd pay the bills on a train rec sports. But
it's a great time to be a guest here. Well,
I guess not. I mean this is we were talking
about a little before, like it's not the best we

(03:00):
to like talk about it.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
You know what.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Here's the thing though about this, right, because I've I've
grown up. I'm turning twenty nine next week. Actually, so
my whole yeah, birth, thank you appreciate it. So my
whole life is basically the drought bills, That's all I know.
So putting a loss like that was like putting on
like just a nice warm blanket, like out your comfy
with it, like it did. I was not mad, like

(03:23):
I was mad, like internalizing mad, but like really I
was just like, yeah, this feels right, Like this is
my this is the Bills experience I'm used to, you know,
Like this is y this is what life used to
be like.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
So it wasn't like a.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
Shock to the system as much as it was a
disappointment for things.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
But I'm excited to break it all down.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Like you said in the intro there, I do think
there is some I hope that after this conversation we
come out of it with some optimism for people, with
some things that hopefully we see to fix. But we
got to commiserate first and complain, because that's that's how
this process goes.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
Right.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
Of course, it's the most natural order when after a
game you just find the most immediate thing to complain about.
But I like that, and I think that's a great
tone center for this show tonight. Because I'm an optimist
by nature. I do try to see the bigger picture,
and when certain things are not great, I won't try
to pretend they're great, because that's not genuine. That's not

(04:15):
fair to the people that watch. But not saying you're
doing that either. He seems like we're pretty, like I said,
aligned on a lot of things here, but rather that
the things that could be modified for this Bills team,
they're not unrealistic. Right The trade deadline has come to pass,
so we're not expecting any one significant to get cut.
We're not expecting any massive wave of like an elite

(04:36):
player to just walk through those doors tomorrow. But what
we can see are certain subtle tweaks to the defense,
certain subtle tweaks of the offense, certain things just like
player health that automatically can be an improvement for this
team and get them back into the win column but
also keep them sustained for a potential playoff run. And
I just want to start now to just kind of
point out some of the pain points really from this team.

(04:57):
And it starts out with this past week in my
but really stems from the past few weeks, and it's
been the offense and the inconsistency of the offense and Jake,
as I alluded to when the intro rolled, seems like
every off year, every odd year for the Buffalo Bills
is met with like this same exact problem. Like you
can go back to twenty twenty one where even though

(05:17):
the Bills went into Kansas City that year, and that's
the thirteen seconds year. For a very large stretch of
the year, there were people calling for Brian Dables' job,
and you know, the nine to six game in Jacksonville,
the wind game against New England on Monday Night, Like,
there were so many roles that led to people really
complaining and being upset with the offense and needing a
new direction. Then you get to twenty twenty three Ken

(05:39):
Dorsey and the passing offense that looked really freaking good
on paper, but off paper was not really good. In fact,
they had a myriad of execution errors installed drives. And
here we are in twenty twenty five, an odd year
and kind of the same conversation, kind of the same problem.
So I want to start this episode off with Joe Brady.

(06:01):
I think that is the most hot button topic, and Jake,
I want to turn it back to you to just
ask for your unfiltered, honest thoughts about the Bills offensive
play caller and really, where are you at with him
for the rest of the year, really next week, immedia
and going forward?

Speaker 2 (06:17):
So this year, I mean, it's obviously been disappointing, right
to see what we've gotten from Joe Brady, and I
think there's a lot of things that like there's simple
fixes that he can do. I don't know if he's
willing to do them. I don't know if he's ever
been shown that he's been willing to do them. I
think it's something I noticed watching back games early in
this year. It was a lack of creativity, specifically in

(06:38):
the passing scheme, and a lot of lack of or
or you know, unpredictability, a lack of unpredictability. He has
become very predictable in you know, the formations in when
they were going to and especially like when they're going
to run in certain situations, when they're going to pass
in certain situations. We've seen that now develop over the year,
Like that was just an inclination early in the year,

(06:59):
and now we've seen that bor out were they're now
running on first down more than they ever have. I
think that's my biggest one of my biggest issues is
just the predictability of the offense. But also it comes
down to this and this might just be me as
my football philosophy and things that I believe that football
team should do too, But I think an offensive coordinator,

(07:20):
the best offensive coordinator's best defensive coordinators too, will fit
fit the scheme to what their players do best and
what their best players do best. Right, And Josh Allen
is the best player on this offense. And it feels
like they have tried to fit a square peg into
a round hole with Josh Allen the last two years.

Speaker 3 (07:38):
And last year it worked.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
It worked right, like they had him be you know,
protected the ball more than he ever had. The offense
was more efficient. I called it an efficiency monster last year,
like to get rid of the explosive they they traded
explosiveness for efficiency and it worked all year long. But
to just assume that that would happen again, and when

(08:00):
teams have a whole year of tape on you and
you're basically run and then there it looks like he's
running a lot of the similar concepts, the same things
over and over again. And then even in game, I
feel like that's a big complaint I have about him too,
is in game the adjust Like in the second half
of Miami last week, I'm like, all right, man, maybe
he's gonna come out and try to do something different here.

(08:21):
Maybe we go up tempo, Maybe we spread it out
for the whole time, and the first drive in the
second half, it's like, now we're just gonna we're gonna
do our stuff and we're gonna beat you over the
head with our stuff and hope that it works out.
And that's just it's just against my football philosophy because
I think what Joe Brady wants to do offensively and
what Josh Allen does great and what Josh Allen wants

(08:42):
to do kind of butt heads with each other. And
last year he was able to convince Josh and get
him to kind of buy in and be more conservative,
be more that this. I know this is a term
that is gonna, you know, trigger some Bills fans, be
more of a game manager in a lot of these situations.
And at the start of this year he was doing
that too, like right right, like the first couple of

(09:03):
weeks when this offense was on fire, Josh was taking
everything that was available to him. He was taking profit
right like that, like what you hear Peyton Manning always
talking about, like just take the profit, take the easy button,
take whatever it is. Somewhere along the line, Allen has
become more impatient. He hasn't been trusting what he's seeing
now is that because of the scheme, Is it because
of the weapons, whatever it may be.

Speaker 3 (09:23):
I think it's all.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
It all is connected in a big, you know, disgusting
web of off a passing offense sometime. But it's the
predictability and it's fitting the square peg into a round
hole with Josh Allen because they wanted to eliminate variance
on him, right, like they wanted to eliminate the turnovers
they did. They hated the turnovers. They wanted to be
more complimentary. And by doing that over the last you know,

(09:47):
almost two years now, since Brady took over in that
twenty twenty three season for Dorsey, like you said, they've
gone so far the other way that it's like now
it's harder to even get back to, you know, a
man passing offense. Like they're an elite rushing team. And
that's a great thing. And I love watching James I
love I'm a running back defender, love seeing running basket paid,

(10:08):
love seeing James Cook do what he does. But it's
not to the strength of this team when you have
Josh Allen. So I think that's my biggest thing is
just the scheme does not fit the quarterback, one of
the best quarterbacks of a generation's strength, and that's doing
him a disservice and this team a disservice.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
I really like your points, and I do agree with
most of it. I think the only contention I would
have is for me, this is kind of the offense
and this when I say this, I'm not referring to
what you just saw in Miami. Rather, in concept, this
is what I wanted for Josh Allen, mainly because when
you watched him in his mid to early twenties, what
you saw was truly just like an alpha trailbazing athletic

(10:47):
freak who yes had the arm, had the all level
throwing ability, but would also run you over. But you
and me both know at some point those hits add up.
The injuries become a little more frequent, and they last
a little bit longer, and they affect the play, and
you need to create something sustainable. So the concept of
trying to kind of reel him into a point where
the offense has a balance of running and being able

(11:09):
to rely on it but also go through the air.
That much of it I'm totally fine with and I
support and would like to continue doing. But what I
think and where I do definitely agree with you, is
how far into it they got. And really I think
that kind of goes both into Joe Brady and his
philosophy and kind of the tendency of really trying to
run this ball in a powered way but ultimately doing

(11:32):
it to a fault where it's very predictable and they
aren't layering enough off of it, And because I think
that they aren't doing it frequently enough, like a great
point that gets brought up all the time and a
stat that is objectively just like I can't believe it's
like this is how often they're electing to run on
first down versus pass, where I believe it's at a
seventy first An tech like that ratio is too skewed.
And it's one thing to have a balanced offense, and

(11:54):
it's one thing to have the philosophy of preventing Josh
from facing variants, as you alluded to, But it's enough
thing when you kind of just strip it all down
too much. And what it kind of proves in concept
for anything is that it is a constant balancing act.
It is the best of both worlds. This offense can
function it can thrive, but you do have to be

(12:14):
able to lean on one or the other to some
degree in certain moments. And I think where the Bills
struggle right now is they are a team that is
so built to play ahead, and Joe Brady does such
a great job when the script works and they can
get down the field and have that methodical drive and
punch it in. But when they face adversity, I think
that they tend to overreact, they tend to over pursue,

(12:37):
they tend to try to overcorrect. And what you have
when you have the current structure of your offense and
the receiving corps that is very reliant on concaid in
very niche situations, or dependent on a project receiver that
hasn't paid his debidends yet or a player that got
hurt like Josh Palmer, You're going to see them struggle.
You're going to see them try to overcorrect, but they

(12:58):
don't have the bandwidth to do so. So now they're
boxed into their running game. And all this to say,
it can still work, but you have to be unpredictable
if you don't have the guys to help you out.
And I just personally don't think that this season we've
seen Joe Brady capitalize on what they built last year,
because last year's offense was really fun. It was again

(13:20):
a ground and pound, successful rushing attack, and Josh Allen
was feeding off that momentum. They were generating early first
down opportunities, but they were throwing a little bit more
on first down than they were this year, and you
saw just control, you saw methodical, the philosophy was working.
I think this year he didn't take the leap at
least as much of a leap as we would have

(13:41):
liked to see. One thing we complained about all the time,
I'm sure you feel similarly, is the amount of play
action that they kind of leave on the table that
they should be ramping up in a game. We won't
stop talking about it, but it's literally one of the
easiest fixes because of how much deception you can have
and how much that plays into your biggest strength, which
is the run game, and how hesitant that can make people,

(14:01):
and how good Josh Allen is off that like the
fact that that rate is it is growing, but it
hasn't gotten to like upper echelon of the NFL yet
where it easily could be, and some of the best
offense in the NFL are doing that, and they're also
running thirteen personnel, which you are running. That to me
is like one of the things I do complain about

(14:22):
with the offensive coordinator. We can get there and it's
not this insurmountable task. So I want to know why
things like first down passing, which you did see a
little bit of in Miami. It might be the start
of that swing back into that tendency being broken a
little bit and they're beginning to do so, But why
that and things like play action and things like again
predictability the fourth and one. You sell exactly what you're

(14:46):
going to do to a defense and then they call
a time out. Why are we going back to the
exact same the exact same thing. To me, that's hubris
to a fault. And one thing that Joe Brady has
said that you have heard that we have all heard.
I'm to keep doing it until it doesn't work. That's great,
but that can get you into trouble because at the
same time, that can definitely allow a team to take

(15:07):
control if they know exactly what you're gonna run, because
you don't offer enough variants out of the look to
be unpredictable, and therefore, once it gets taken away, you
kind of panic and you don't really have something to
lean on because there isn't really much of an identity
there at least within the game. So that's where I'm
having a lot of struggle with Joe Brady is in
certain moments. You could point to the Atlanta game where
they got away from the run way too early when

(15:29):
they did it need to and it was actually working
in certain drives. Points to this Miami game, even certain
things in Carolina. Granted they didn't really need to throw
that much in Carolina because the run was absolutely working.
And I agree with you. I think that the predictable
nature of Joe Brady's play calling mixed with against some
of the inability to really have guys that could just
individually uplift the scheme. You know, your Stefan Diggs, who

(15:53):
when he was here, despite the struggles, was still a
productive receiver that can move the chains. I think that
there's a few factors that go beyond Joe Brady, but
ultimately I think he does need to just again offer
some wrinkles, offer something new. When it comes to Josh Allen,
maybe encourage him to go up Temple like you suggested.
I think that's when Josh Allen plays some of his

(16:13):
best football. And in the Miami game, they move the
ball the second they were getting away from the huddle
and just getting to the line of scrimmage. Like these
are things that I think are correctible issues and we
just need to see it. And this Sunday is one
of the biggest tests for them because that is a
defense that is going to blitz the hell out of you.
They're going to mix up those blitz looks. They have
the interior defensive line to generate central pressure, something that

(16:36):
Josh Allen really needs to be cognitive of, cognizant of
because of how much he's been struggling with pressure over
the past few weeks. It's a big test. So this
is the opportunity for Joe Brady to write a lot
of the wrongs, answer some questions, and give people something
to feel good about again. But right now, I definitely
think it's fair to say that you can question the
methodology of the offensive coordinator. You could question why these

(16:58):
things aren't being called upon more. It's not that you
don't see them at all. But again, like that the
play action thing to me is the most like it's there,
it's it's a layup, it's been used in this offense,
and like even thirteen personnel in the Miami game, like
where was the lean on that? You don't have to
get away from it and sell out for eleven personnel
just because you fall to a big league that's the

(17:19):
strength of your team. So these are things that I
just want to see more of from him, And I
think you're perfectly fair in saying that, and I want
to turn it back to you any other thoughts on
Joe Brady before we move on to our next topic.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
Well, you made and I agree with a lot of
the points you just made, and specifically the stat of
the first down pass the first down run flip, because
I remember like years ago when we're you know, we're
at the peak of you know, Allen and Diggs in
the passing offense being elite and everything else like the
Bills on those I think it was Mike Sando who
always put the Cook chart up on all of his

(17:52):
on his articles, the Cook Index of quarterbacks passing on
early downs, and the Bills were always near the top.

Speaker 3 (17:58):
Of that list.

Speaker 2 (17:59):
So this see them not even in the middle of
that list anymore, but at the bottom of the league
in that rate is just jarring to see. And it
doesn't it doesn't make sense to with the with the personnel.
With the personnel you have, I understand, because they and
what they want to do, and trusting James Cook. Like
James Cook's averaging five yards of carry, So you want
five yards on first down, sure, then you're gonna be

(18:20):
in a good spot. You take a second and manageable.
Of course that's going to be like every every offensive
coordinator is going to say, we're going to you know,
we have three downs to get a first down, right,
Like that's that's an old adage, so you don't need
to get it all on one play. But it's just
it's it's just when you have a quarterback like this
and he can put pressure on defenses just by being

(18:42):
that a little bit of unpredictability, it can do wonders
for this offense when it's struggling and going through these
ruts and going through this time. But the issue that
I had with it, you know, you brought up the
they spread out and they throw on first down the
first play of the game, right. I think some of
the predictability is in the formations too, and there was
I saw a couple of people posting pictures of stuff

(19:03):
from the game and everything else, like they came out,
you want to throw the ball in first down, that's great,
but you're in you're you know, you're four wide outspread
and you're in shotgun like Miami's probably thinking you're you're
throwing the ball right like you and so you you
you go under center all the time. You run thirteen
personnel a the time, throw out of those run out
of your spread, like like there are other ways to

(19:24):
be unpredictable too, and still do run the offense you
want to run. And that was something that I think
Brady did amazing last year, like using the formations to his.

Speaker 3 (19:32):
Advantage to kind of hide what they were doing.

Speaker 2 (19:35):
And it feels like this year they've kind of, whether
it's on purpose or just something that he's slipping up on,
kind of gotten away from using those formations too in
his manage. And you mentioned thirteen personnel, and I love
the effectingness they have in thirteen and the other team
that runs thirteen in this league is more than that
and more than them.

Speaker 3 (19:53):
As the Rams to the great effectiveness. Right.

Speaker 2 (19:55):
The issue with that is that the Rams have Pookinaku
or DeVante Adams as that one.

Speaker 1 (20:00):
Yeah, that definitely helps, and.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
That that definitely helps them become more explosive, especially in
the passing game there. But it doesn't mean you shouldn't try.
It doesn't mean that you can't run your under center
play action and just and take those shots on first
and second down like and that was you know, we've
talked probably way too much at this point about the
two catches that Josh Palmer had in the Atlanta game.

Speaker 3 (20:22):
Becausedn't see what could have been before he got hurt.

Speaker 2 (20:25):
But that first play, that's exactly what it was, right,
the forty seven yard shot down the field is under centered,
play action shot play to Josh Palmer, and you get
that big game and it's just maybe maybe they don't
trust anybody else but Palmer in those situations. But if
that's the case, then that's a failure, you know, beyond
Joe Brady and beyond what they're using obviously, or or

(20:46):
Brady needs to Brady and Allen need to trust. Just
have some trust and have somebody else in that position
to do it. I think the biggest thing too with
with Brady and Allen specifically, and it's kind of a
combo of both of them, is an And this goes
back to the variance and and wanting to eliminate the turnovers,
which you're right, like the they needed to calm down

(21:07):
Josh Allen.

Speaker 3 (21:07):
Like he can't.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
He couldn't have another seventeen eighteen pick year again in
his career. That was never gonna fly, and it was
never gonna fly. Sean McDermott would have I don't know,
like his head would have just exploded if that would
have ever to happen again. So I understand that they
wouldn't do that, but I think that Allen's risk profile
on some of these throws has gone down a ton
this year, where he's not willing to put it into
these windows, like tighter windows a lot, or when guys

(21:30):
aren't fully wide open, he's not trusting it and going
to them. And maybe that's the personnel or maybe that's
a confidence thing, maybe it's what they're telling him to do.
I don't know, I don't have those answers and that,
but that's just like something that he was more willing
to do, and I think that's one of those things
that's gone a little too far where it's like when
you're that you're this great of a quarterback and you

(21:50):
have the arm that you have, you're gonna you have
to throw. You have to throw some picks down the
field or at least try to put the ball up
in there.

Speaker 3 (21:57):
To a test the defense.

Speaker 2 (21:59):
But also so just to give, like he said, he
even said it on Sunday, to give your guys a
chance to and I feel like he isn't giving, even
though I don't know if he should, Like I don't
know if you can trust the personnel as much as
you as you would want to. When you're a quarterback
in this situation, you still have to try to go
and do it. Just with the pressure on the defense.

Speaker 1 (22:18):
You can't play scared when this is the hand you've
been del And while yes, it is a trust based system,
and I do understand hesitancy because you might not feel
like these guys in your receiving corps separating or getting
into the spot you really want them to. You don't
have the rapport and haven't thrown at them consistently. You're
not going to go and sign someone mid game. You
know you're not going to go change the personnel mid game.

(22:40):
This is who you have to work with, and you
have to play a little looser. And what really gets
me about the Miami game is that I thought that
they were going to bypass that. I really thought that
they were going to overcome it even without Josh Palmer.
As long as they had Kincaid on the field, they
could pivot to that thirteen P and they can make
it work. And really like Josh wa play fearlessly because
he played fearlessly with that same cash just a weak

(23:01):
prior against the Chiefs. So you're thinking, like this, this
is it. They haven't They'll be all right. They could
sustain Josh Palmer will come back, we'll ramp up the
thirteen PM. We'll have our guy there, but we can
go back to eleven. But now it's you see that
game and you get so defeated because it's like, man,
he just played. And credit to Miami. You know, Miami
deserves the credit for mixing up their defensive coverages and

(23:22):
really confusing him because I don't know if Josh Allen
was expecting as much zone coverage as he got. But
I mean, at the same time, why should they have
to play man until you prove that you could pick
apart the zone, which you didn't at all during the game.
That's what gets me is just like they played a
really nice game, but with the matchups you had and
the bodies you had that you still could have thrown to,
and the things that Josh Allen bypassed and the lack

(23:44):
of polish in his game, it was just really strange
and it was really unfortunate. And I do think there
is something to be said about well. For as much
as we're talking about Joe Brady, and this is the
next topic I want to go to, Jake, I gotta
say something about Josh Allen. And I'm sorry because I

(24:05):
he hasn't been good. He hasn't been good and we
need to be honest and and where I want to
go with this, I want to preface this doesn't mean
I think Josh Allen sucks. This doesn't mean I don't
think he's a top five quarterback. Like you have to
make this disclaimer every time, Jake, because people will come
after you if you point out anything. I think Josh
Allen is a top quarterback in the NFL. I have

(24:25):
believed that do. I think he is the best no,
I've said on this show, I will always think it's Mahomes.
I'm sorry, because Mahomes has won it and you've seen
him come through when he needs to come through. I
think Josh Allen has, but also there have been lapses
in high pressure moments. That's a whole separate conversation that's
probably gonna get me crucified in itself, but I'm still
I'm still a believer Josh Allen is the top five
quarterback in the year.

Speaker 2 (24:44):
I'll do it with you. I'll as your guest here.
And that you said you think we align on things.
That's where I've always been to where it's it's Mahomes
world until proven otherwise.

Speaker 1 (24:55):
You have to beat the best, you know, That's just
what it is. I mean, like before Mahomes got into
the league, like it was Brady And I hate to
say that too because that's that's statementing people, but that's
the god's honest truth. And for Josh Allen, I think
he is an elite player. I think he is immenseally
talented again all world throwing ability, at scrambling ability. But
where I have an issue is how rattled he's getting

(25:17):
and the fact that there are options for him to
take in this offense now that he's not taking, and
that is holding them back. I mean, I hate to
say this too, but it's just they easily could have
had thirty points in this game, easily could have finished
three drives. And James Cook is a culprit of won
but so many times it's just Josh Allen, like over correcting,

(25:40):
taking the kill shot when he hasn't earned the right
to take the kill shot, and being an actorate down
the field, you know, missing Keon Coleman on what could
have been a boundary catch but instead he threw it
too far to his back shoulder and it goes out
of bounds. And on first and ten, you know, bypassing
the wide open Kalosia gear that gets you about four
or five yards up to the boundary, maybe even more
if he makes the defender miss, and trying to go
for that kill shot to Keon Coleman down twenty yards

(26:03):
that ultimately made it second and ten and made you
play from behind. It's just really wonky play from Josh Allen.
And I know that he's done this before in his career.
I've called him out for the same thing in twenty
twenty three when he had a stretch of rough games.
But he's better than this, and last season he was
better than this. And Joe Britty again for everything we
just said, has a hand, in my opinion, with the
predictability and maybe the fact that defenses feel more comfortable

(26:25):
constricting things when you're talking about too high defenses and
how much death they have to play with because they
don't think people are getting by them. I totally understand that,
But that doesn't mean these throws aren't there at all. Ever.
They are, And like when you're talking about a first
down checkdown, when you're talking about your third down read
and someone who has the opportunity to get clear of
the sticks, like that's there for you, why are you

(26:46):
not taking it? And I guess the complaint I have
is kind of like what we're talking about when it's
the let it rip conversation, Well, what you got, this
is who you got, this is the hand you've been dealt,
this is the offense you're working with. Yes, you know
you could any fan could argue about Brandon Bean in
the roster construction and everything, and that's a totally separate
conversation and a valid one at that but this quarterback

(27:06):
still has to do it. This quarterback still has to
make the plays. I've seen quarterbacks with bad casts still
elevate them. If he is this elite guy, which I
know he is and you know he is, I need
to see elevation within the scheme. And yes, he ran
around for his life and made a couple of really
insane z axis Josh Allen throws. That's good and great,
but those situations in certain throws didn't have to get

(27:28):
there like they could have been more contained, consolidated to
an efficient play that didn't put you in hell earlier
in the down. So that's where I'm coming from with
this and why I need to just say it, because
I think this team is only going to ever go
as far as Josh Allen goes. We've seen it time
and time and time again. Sometimes Josh Allen goes far
and they still don't win. And that's a separate conversation.

(27:50):
But he is the person that with the way the
offense is constructed right now and the injuries they are
now facing to what I would debate is their best
receiver in Dalton Kincaid. Ironically, they need him to elevate
his play and It starts with just controlling his game
and making things easier for him, but him in turn
taking the easier options when they are presented to him.
And it's been frustrated to watch. And Jake, I'm turning

(28:12):
it back to you. What do you think about Josh
Allen's play, I mean the season, you know, over the
past few weeks. Do you agree? Do you not agree?
I want to hear everything he gotta say.

Speaker 2 (28:21):
I guess we're gonna We're just gonna tempt fate with
with Bill's fans today because I'm sorry, No, that's that's okay,
because it's something I've been I've been talking about and
toying with and trying to assess all year long. It
started really noticing it in that Miami game, and it
really started showing itself in the New Orleans game. Everything
you just said, I said it, I put a It

(28:42):
was a couple of plays from that New Orleans game
a couple of weeks ago that I when I was
watching all twenty two and I posted and I was like,
hey man, this is this is impatient Josh Allen rear
in his head. I'm not saying that it's it's gonna
happen all year. I'm not saying that it's like, you know,
he's gonna just you know, turn into this turnover monster
or anything, but the starting to show up, and it
was a couple of routes underneath that he passed over

(29:03):
for some deep shots that weren't really there. I was like, oh,
just just noticing whatever. And then that has been the
kind of just been what has gone on the rest
of the season. And I think that everything you said
is right. Like he is, he's all world. We know
that he's a top five talent in the league, and
we know that it's probably frustrating when they're running a

(29:24):
you know, they're running certain scheme, running certain plays, running
a certain scheme and hoping a guy breaks open on
his first read and it's just not there, and and
the frustration that he can get you know, up for
the deep shot or something like that. Because we know
he wants to make plays down the field, he wants
to push the ball down the field, he wants to
make explosive plays. But at a certain point, like you said,

(29:45):
you have to deal with the hand, your dealt and
you have to play within the scheme. And it's the
quarterback's job to execute the scheme that he works on
all week with the offensive coordinator to the best of
his ability. And it seems like they come into the
game with a plan. And this is where you have
to give Joe Brady a little leniency because they clearly
come into the game with a plan where he has
options underneath, where they have options to move the ball.

Speaker 3 (30:07):
Through the air, whether it be by you.

Speaker 2 (30:09):
Know, five yards six yards of pop at a time,
and then there are options and then they set up
their shots right like they're all they they love their
deep crossers this year as much as anything else. There
are opportunities there. You're like, yeah, they love the deep crossers.
They they are opportunities when you watch back down the
field that he.

Speaker 3 (30:28):
Could take, but he's not.

Speaker 2 (30:31):
He's not getting to it in the rhythm of the
offense that it that it should be enough of this time.

Speaker 3 (30:36):
And it's I understand.

Speaker 2 (30:39):
Like I keep trying to say, I understand the frustration
because I don't think the personnel is up to snuff.
I think that that if we wanted to have a
Brandon Being conversation too, Like there's a conversation that we
had there, my you brought you mentioned my co host
Mike Mike Bunt says, it's simply a key On Coleman problem,
and that is a thing too, like it is just
there is a lot that's just a key On Coleman
problem here.

Speaker 3 (31:00):
But to that end, you can't change. There's nothing they
can do.

Speaker 2 (31:04):
At this point. Like you said, we're pass the trade deadline.
I mean, Gabe Davis coming in, that might help out
a little bit in the intermediate Josh Palmer getting healthy
might help out in the intermediate areas a little bit.
But this is what he's got, and this is the scheme.
The first three weeks when he was running it, when
he was running it the way that it should be,
they looked unstoppable, right that he was getting to take

(31:26):
his shots when he wanted to. But he was he
was taking everything easy. And you know what helps you know,
what would might help the pass rate on first down
more if you take the four yard pass on first
down that turns into city, you know, maybe six seven
yards and the little button hooks and the little swings
and everything else. And he's passing those up way too much.
And he's not just passing up the first option. He's

(31:47):
passing up the first the second option and then going
to a worse third option because he's looking and waiting
for something else to develop down the field. And that's
the impatience that he had in twenty nineteen that he
had in twenty twenty. That was it was like, man,
if he can just reel that in and kind of
become more of the game manager, become more of the

(32:07):
Aaron Rodgers, become more of the Tom Brady esque guy
to just takes the profit and then pull out the
superhero stuff when he needs to. He's gonna be unstoppable.
And it felt like he figured that out for a
couple of weeks and then something changed in the way
Miami defended him that first time, and then New Orleans
really hammered in on it, and it hasn't ever been

(32:28):
the same since. And he just and I think his
comp the thing about Josh two and I'm not gonna
go full psychoanalyzation of Josh Allen right now, but he
is one of the streakiest players in all of football,
like and akin to like he's he's as much like
a three point shooter in basketball as anybody else where.

(32:48):
He's gonna shoot to stay hot, right, and so when
his confidence is shook. You can tell when he's flowing
and feeling good. You can tell like he can't he
didn't he wears his where's the part of his sleeve?
He where's the motion on his face?

Speaker 1 (33:02):
And you can not even just can tell. And I'm sorry,
and I'm so sorry, not even like I just can tell.
It's like the the confident Josh Allen is the best
version of him, like or not even version of him.
It is the best player in the league. But like
when I say what I said before, like Mahomes, you know,
when we were talking about that, I feel like the

(33:23):
highs and lows don't go to that degree, which is
why I've always said probably a tier above or like
a tier above, you know, slightly above. For Josh, it's
when he's in that groove. He is the best player
in the NFL. And there's no defending him because it's
not even just the physical athletic traits. It's the processing.
It's the real time processing and accuracy that he has.
But again, and I'll let you continue, I'm so sorry.

(33:46):
It's more just like that that confidence and whack thereof
is on his sleeve and you can see it and
feel it when you watch it, and it's so hard
to watch when he's not a confident player.

Speaker 2 (33:56):
And I think that was the biggest thing this week
in the like because how do you get from how
do you get from playing almost a perfect game against
Kansas City to what we saw from this week?

Speaker 3 (34:06):
Right?

Speaker 2 (34:07):
And I think they, as much as it sounds like
an excuse, they told us what it was. They took
this game lightly. Like they talked about it in the
press conference, Miami wanted it more right, there was the
leaders in the locker room talked about it after the game.
The team wanted it more than us today. They came
out and played harder than us. But why is that?
Who's the leader of this team? Who do they always say?

(34:28):
You know when who goes, we go, it's seventeen. And
so if seventeen came into the week and was like, hey, man,
like we're's gonna be able to do our thing and
get a win this week, that's going to permeate throughout
the team. And I think he exactly what you said,
Like Mahomes, that's the thing that Mahomes has as an
edge on him. Is Mahomes this competitive edge and where

(34:49):
his level is at is always it's the same, every
single snap, every single game, Like that dude's a psycho
and that's what he is. And Josh can be a psycho.
But sometimes Josh is just is happy, go lucky. Sometimes
Josh is downtrotten. Like Josh's emotions range way way more
than you would see from these elite quarterbacks. And that's

(35:09):
the roller coaster that we've we've seen that like for
now for seven years, like we've ridden that roller coaster,
the riding of the rider of Josh Allen where like
you said, when he was at his most confident is
when he is the best player in the world. But
that confidence can get shaken so quickly sometimes and you're
just like, man, like this doesn't need to be happening

(35:31):
right now. Like if you just if you just like
calm down, reassess a little bit, you can get back
into the groove of this thing. And he can't seem
to shake himself out of it in these games. And
that's what the And so going back to the Brady
thing a little bit, the last thing I want to
touch on Joe Brady that I think has hurt Josh
Allen too this year is that they don't. Like I said,
they try to smash you over the head with what

(35:52):
they do well, and you said that too, like Gray said,
if they're if whatever works, we're gonna keep running until
they stop it. But when Alan isn't going and you're
not adjusting to get him going, halftime, mid game, whatever else,
he can't pull himself out of that, as much as
the offensive coordinates to be able to pull himself out
of that. I think Brian Dable was great at that,
was finding ways to shake Josh up and get him

(36:16):
go where if he's struggling in the first half, you
could expect them to come out in the second half
and do different things, and he looked like a different quarterback.
It doesn't happen nearly as often with Joe Brady, and
I think that's just the difference in their relationship. But
so having him on script and doing the right things
is so much more important because they don't have that

(36:39):
same ability to kind of assess during the game how
defenses are attacking them and alter it on that. But
really I just think it comes down to as much
of what he's seeing and how he's when he's confident
he's going and when he's not confident he's It permeates
throughout the whole team and is a detriment to them.

Speaker 1 (36:56):
And that's who he is, right, We're talking about year
rate of Josh All, and that's who he is, so
we know it. It just it's frustrating that at this
stage of his career, those highs and lows are so visible,
but to a point where there's such a stark contrast
from each other where when you get to the lows,
it's just really ugly football. And it's not just ugly
football in the sense that, oh, like he missed the

(37:16):
throw here and there. No, it's like reads are consistently
being bypassed his pocket evasion or his pocket awareness, and
like how he's feeling pressure, it's magnified. He's bailing out
on clean pockets times where he doesn't even need to.
It's the inability to kind of read coverages or feel
comfortable what he's got in front of him. And I
feel like we see that not every year, but there's

(37:38):
just stretches of certain seasons where it happens. And look,
it's a cat and mouse league the NFL, and defenses
are gonna read what you're doing and they're not gonna
let it sustain. At some point they'll put the clams
down and they'll try to figure out a different way
for you to beat them, or you'll try to figure
out a different way to beat them. And in this
point of the season, that's kind of where they're at,
Joe Brady and Josh Allen and the lean on their
run game and the way defenses are now selling out

(38:00):
to stop the run game because they don't think that
your boundary guys are going to get by them. And
I feel like, you know, talking about again, like the
secret sauce to this really is Josh Palmer. It is,
in my opinion, like one receiver that could easily help
them and was proving to help them and it just
didn't work out because he got hurt. So now he's
coming back, And what does that look like for Josh

(38:22):
Allen's confidence? Does that help him knowing that he has
a guy that he was building a rapport with and
that he's capable of kind of leaning on in those
third down situations and being the separator that they want.
But even if that's the case, it can't also just
be one guy. Like for Josh Allen, we saw moments
in this game where he had a read that was

(38:42):
open for him if he wanted to take it. And
one that I got to look at is the interception
at the goal line to Dawson Knox where Keon Colpman,
if that is his primary read on that play, it
is a touchdown. He separates against his man on a
crossing pattern that would have worked and Tyrrel shavers. Yes,
he was open, but that's the last part of that
that you got to be throwing to there. And the

(39:03):
fact that you put yourself into conflict. Yes, you got
heated up from pressure. It didn't even need to get there.
If you're looking at the man situation, the one on one,
that's where Keyon Coleman typically has won in his career
in the goal on Like why are we not looking
that way? Like these are the things I'm talking about.
It's the finer details that get missed to me that
I think is another part for why this offense is struggling.

(39:23):
But we said we want to be optimistic. The good
news is that is correctable because Josh Allen in every
time this has happened in his career, has gotten himself
out of it. Calling him streaky is and calling him
like a three point shooter, or like or like a
home run hitter, like a John Carlos stand. I don't know.
I don't know if you're a Blue Jay van or
Yankee fan, because I know you're in that region. Who

(39:43):
is your baseball team? You have a baseball team?

Speaker 3 (39:45):
Well, I live in Chicago now, actually, so.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
I've adopted the Cubs now.

Speaker 1 (39:51):
Actually that's fine.

Speaker 2 (39:53):
Formerly a Mets fan, still love the Mets, but adopted this.

Speaker 1 (39:58):
All right, Well, I will say this, I do really
like the Cubs. As a Yankee fan, I have no
beef with them, So I'm gonna pretend you didn't say Mets,
but kind of going to like a like a baseball analogy,
like a pure home run hitter. That's kind of what
he is.

Speaker 3 (40:10):
Like.

Speaker 1 (40:10):
He is that super streaky. When it's good, it's great,
it's not great. It's really hard to watch at times.
But why I kind of dislike the fact that we're
still at this point is because he just had his
MVP season where he struck the balance between that where
the low's never sustained, like even in ugly games, they
were like really really like I guess the Baltimore game. Yeah,

(40:32):
he had a couple of really good moments, and I
never put that game on him. I thought he was
fine in that game. The Houston game was the only
one last season where I was like, this is a
genuinely bad Josh Allen performance, And that was one game,
and then the rest of the season he sustained a
really nice balance level of play, and the offense had
a lot to do with that too. This year, it's like,
if the offense and the scheme isn't exactly going the
same way because maybe it didn't evolve enough and you're

(40:54):
worried about it, we need you to get out of
the streaky cycle. We need you to get out of
this point and trust what you're seeing and fire if
you got it, Like if the matchup's favorable, just rip it,
don't pump, fake and hold that ball. It's not helping anybody,
it's not helping you. The more you do it, the
more the offensive struggle because the less confident you're gonna
be and what you see. So I just had to
get that rant and bring that up on the show

(41:15):
because I feel like it's not being discussed enough, and
I feel like it comes from a place of people
are worried that if you critique Josh Allen, it's admitting
defeat or waving a white flag and that, oh my god,
all these quarterbacks are better. No, Like we just we
know what he's capable of, and he could get back
to that. That's a reasonable thing to expect, is that
they could course correct. It could even be the Sunday
for all we know. But he's got to get back

(41:37):
there because the past few weeks outside of Kansas City
completely separate. The Kansas City game was great, but the
Miami game, the Carolina game, the Atlanta game, even parts
of the New England game was not good enough and
it needs to be better from Josh Allen for the
rest of the season. Jake, any more thoughts on Josh
Joe Brady before we get into the next part of
this conversation.

Speaker 2 (41:56):
Well, and the last thing I want to say is
as much as the Atlanta game was, you know, bad
all around for a lot of different reasons for the
whole team. But we talked about this Miami game. They
had two opportunities in the two drives get into the
red zone, two turnovers, the Cook fumble and then the
Allen pick that you mentioned, and we talked about the
New England game, whether that they lose that one and
it's allan turnover in the red zone, he's he's keyed

(42:19):
on to Khalil Sekir the whole time, telegraphs that throw
throws into double coverage. And if they have three turnovers
in both these division games, and that's what's killed them
as much as anything else too, Like if they don't
if they play clean football and win the turnover battles
like they were doing, and I know last year was
it's an anomaly, right that you're not going to win
the turnover battle at the rate that they were doing it,

(42:41):
But simply cleaning up and cleaning up the turnovers could
just be in those key situations, especially in the red area.
Is the difference between a win and loss against the
New England Patriots could have been the difference between a
win and loss in in this game or at least
having a chance to win this game against Miami. So
it is like there's just little things. He's not he's

(43:04):
not we're not saying like you said, We're not saying
he's all of a sudden, you know, the eleventh best
quarterback in the league, and that we've we've seen the
best of Josh Allen and he's never gonna get back
to that again. But it's because it's just little tweaks
that he needs to make to his game that can
put him back into that you know, top tier of quarterback,
back into that MVP conversation this year and put the

(43:27):
Bills back onto the hierarchy of these teams. We're now,
you know, the whole league is like what's going on?
Like all this week, I've just it's so many pundits
just being like, what's wrong with the Bills Josh Allen
is and like it's only it's on him, Like he
he he carries the weight, and I'm sure that that
is a lot to handle for this offense and for
this team right now, but he's capable of cleaning it

(43:50):
up and like you said, he's done it in the
past and going on a run for the last couple
of weeks of this season and really putting them into
a position where you feel good about this team heading
into the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (44:00):
Yeah, and this conversation is not like absolving anything we've
said about Joe Brady or anything of the of the
roster construction. I am very well aware that it's kind
of a chicken and egg situation. Right, Sometimes when Josh
is feeling good about what he's got in his room,
he will play better. But when he's not feeling good,
it can stem into his play. I just think that
as a franchise, as a franchise guy, as a franchise quarterback,

(44:23):
you have to be the one to stop that. And
I know that sounds so reductive and simple, But like again,
when you go back and watch so many of the
players in this Miami game, especially coming off how good
that Kansas City game was, like debatably the best Josh
Allen performance of the year. I would call it the
best Josh Allen performance of the year. It was masterful. Like,
your expectations are so high that you don't think a

(44:44):
game like this is gonna happen, So why are we
bypassing it? I understand the defense gets paid to. I
understand that these coverages mix up and they'll drop into quarters,
or they'll pivot to a too high, or they'll pivot
to a one, and they'll just man up your guys,
And it can make you hold the ball and it
can make you guess. But like even the protection issues
and the lack of like proper setting of your line

(45:04):
and letting free rushers get to you and heat you up,
or thinking that you could just debate them, but they
have a backup plan if that free rusher gets home
where they contain you, like, you've gotta just we got
to be better at the line of scrimmage. We got
to be better at taking the profit. Yes that's scheme,
and yes that's roster construction, but that is also on Josh,
so it just had to be brought up. But roster construction,

(45:25):
let's put up the banner because this is the conversation
that everyone has been having mercilessly this week, and Jake,
we messaged each other, We talked about this on Twitter briefly.
I took the cheese. We took the cheese. We thought
that I was in support of how they constructed the
roster because last season I saw what it was that

(45:49):
philosophy realized. It was an MVP caliber season from Josh Allen.
It was the or at least the second most efficient
offense in football. It was masterful, and it was on
where their best receiver was Khalil Scare and they had
a banged up injured Dalton Kincaid, and they didn't have
Jackson Halls on the roster yet where they could pivot

(46:10):
to thirty p and they did the six ol packages
and that was a bit of gadgety thing, but it
worked and they could run the ball and all that
personel was coming back. So to me, it was like,
we don't really need like, yeah, we would have taken
you know, let's just say Chris a lot they got
traded in the offseason, or like one of those guys.
We would have taken that in the heartbeat. No one
is denying that at all. But we also saw that

(46:31):
they were able to elevate themselves even without having that guy.
So while they didn't get that guy, and let's be
honest to draft class that that guy wasn't really available
to them at pretty much any point in the draft
because a lot of those receivers got poached when they
were picking. I felt good about like the same crew
coming back, and even without Matt Collins, maybe all setting
that with more of a role for Keyon Coleman in

(46:52):
year two and Josh Palmer to beat the man. I
was okay with it, but I do think it didn't
age well. It did didn't age the way we had
hoped it would. It definitely didn't age the way Brandon
Bean hoped it would, or he wouldn't have offered a
twenty twenty seven first round pick to go get Jalen Waddle.
The philosophy again one I agree with, but I think
they really expected the personnel they brought in to just

(47:15):
keep the momentum going. But again, between tendencies predictability from
Joe Brady and the lack of individual winners plus injury,
it's really exposed the faults in the roster construction. And
I think I have to be honest and say I
do criticize and have questions for Brandon Bean about this
offseason and going forward about what he plans to do

(47:36):
for this room, because I think this season is proving
that that philosophy did work. But it worked to an
extent and its course has possibly because we do have
the season to go, maybe things get better. But even
if it does, that philosophy could still run into trouble
and get you into detrimental situations within your own division
now where you lost a couple games and now you're
looking at New England potentially taking it it. It does

(47:59):
raise concerns and it raises questions about what you intend
to do next and how you plan to fix it.
And I do think they need to get again that
guy that X that can offset the burden from other
guys or just more individual winners. Jake, turn it back
to you, your thoughts on the roster construction for Brandon
Bean and what you think needs to happen next from him.

Speaker 3 (48:19):
Yeah, see, you said perfectly.

Speaker 2 (48:20):
I took the cheese too, and I was like, all right, listen, like,
this isn't my this isn't And to be honest, it's
not what I would have wanted to go into last
year with, not what I would have wanted to come
into this year with. But I'm like, hey, I'm a
guy on the internet talking about football. Brandon Being gets
paid a lot of money to do this, Joe Brady
gets paid a lot of money to this. Sean mcderry
gets paid a lot of money to do this, So
I'm gonna trust them.

Speaker 3 (48:41):
It worked. Josh Allen was MVP. Great. But you can
go back and find.

Speaker 2 (48:46):
Tweets, blogs, whatever else of me going back even into
twenty twenty, twenty twenty one saying hey, you know what
I would like to I would like for them to
draft a wide receiver in the first round because Stefan
Diggs ain't gonna be here forever, and you could have
the opportunity to build rapport with a guy with Josh
Allen and to keep that that's something that they said,
keep adding to his fastball, Like your fastball is Josh

(49:08):
Allen's arm, So keep that thing hot is keep it
at ninety nine, keep it at one hundred as long
as you can. And they just didn't didn't do that right,
and then they got rid of digs and it's like, okay,
you know, and here's the thing. And this is where
again I got to bring up, is this just a
key on Coleman problem? Because that's where they did address
it with it with it and it's not a first
round pick, but it's still a premium asset and a

(49:29):
high second round pick, and a guy that had has
a lot of expectations, and especially coming into this year,
right like getting signing Curtis Samuel last year, signing Josh
Palmer this year, nice moves like you would have at the.

Speaker 3 (49:41):
Time, was happy with them.

Speaker 2 (49:43):
But those are complimentary pieces and you're paying them to
be complimentary pieces. Josh Palmer is getting paid thirty million
dollars a year, right leg he's getting paid what I
think nine million, this nine million for over three years,
I think three for.

Speaker 3 (49:53):
Twenty seven something like that.

Speaker 2 (49:54):
You're paying him to be a complimentary piece. So yeah,
as much as you can say that they've addressed the
room and that they tried to add and they tried
to make it, you know, embrace everybody eats and give
a lot of good options without having an elite option
like they used to have in Stefan Diggs. To just
bank that on Keon Coleman developing into a star is

(50:15):
just malpractice in my opinion like that, and that puts
a lot of pressure on a Keon Coleman too, no
matter who that receiver is, whether it was anybody, And
I'm not going to get into the guys that I
would have wanted them to draft or whatever else. But
if it was Xavier Worthy, or if it was lad mcconkiy,
or it was any of the other guys, or last year,
if they trade up to get a Mecca Booka or
like something like that, like in any of these years,

(50:36):
it's still a lot of pressure to put on any
young receiver in the first two years to be now
you're the go to target for Josh Allen who just
won MVP, or Josh Allen, who is one of the
best quarterbacks in the league. And so I think that
that's where the hubrisk that we talked about comes in,
because it was just like, well, this is what I've
been doing offensively the last couple of years. And the

(50:59):
way that's the end the Stefan Diggs thing. Who knows
exactly what happened. It didn't it didn't end well, and
it clearly left a bad taste in their mouth. But
I think they took the wrong lessons from it where
they thought, you know, now, we don't need we don't
need we don't need an elite guy to work with
Josh after what we saw of it last year. But
also we don't want that guy. We don't want a
guy like they wanted to avoid a situation that you

(51:21):
see the Eagles right now, like aj Brown is on
Twitch complaining about about his targeting office, yeah and stuff
like that, Like the Bills would not want to deal
with that at all. But that's kind of the trade
off you have to do to have one of those
guys in the room. And if that makes your quarterback
more comfortable, like, yes, maybe he's gonna aim and force
it to that guy a little bit more and more

(51:42):
than you wanted to. And maybe that guy's gonna complain
a little bit and want and ask for the ball
and demand the ball and meetings and such and that.
But that's the trade off you get for the production.
That's the trade off you get what it comes down
to as much. For me, And this is not an
ex's and os thing. This is not like a smart
football thing for me to say, but I've been going
back to it a lot with this, and especially with
how the whole construction of this roster out offensive and

(52:05):
defensive side. At some point in all sports, and especially
in football, you just need a dog, like you just
need you need a guy to go out and be
able to just go make a play. And who are
those guys on the Bills roster right now? It's Josh Allen,
It's James Cook, and then it's really not a lot
of other guys, right yeah, Jackson Hawes, there we go.

(52:28):
I like that.

Speaker 1 (52:28):
You know, I'm kill those Truther.

Speaker 3 (52:34):
Hey, I'm with that.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
I was just well, I was just gonna say, if
you're Jim Harball you say offensive linemen are a weapon,
so Spencer Brown and Dawkins they could go there too,
and I appreciate that. And that's one thing that doesn't
get talked about enough is that the Bills have had
a great offensive line these last couple of years and
invested a lot into that, and that takes away from
your ability to end and their want to spend on
a on a premium offensive weapon. But at some point

(52:58):
in all in these games, especially when you're talking about
a playoff game, someone just go make a play, whether
that be defensively or offensively. You just need someone to
play outside of themselves, outside of the scheme and do
something spectacular. We posted the highlight today, and because we
post all good and bad highlights or throwbacks, like the
Justin Jefferson played from three years ago, Like that's not

(53:20):
something that Josh Palmer's gonna do on Sunday, I'm sorry,
Like a fourth and eighteen one handed grab when you
need it to happen, like it's just those those guys.
The guy who can do that on this team is
Josh Allen with his legs or extending a player doing
something like that. And so that's my biggest issue with it,
and I go back and forth all the time. I

(53:41):
was so hard to like, it's so hard to wrap
my head around because it did work. And I don't
think you need like to always have Alpha number one
wide receiver to be successful. We've seen teams be successful
without it. But I think Josh Allen benefits from it.
I think him, I think with it, the way he is,
the way he's emotional, and the trust he needs to
put in his receivers for it to work, I think

(54:04):
it just benefits them. And I think just assuming that
it could work, like because like I said, I've been
saying this for quite a long time. When Stephan Diggs
on this roster, add to the fastball, have a guy ready,
have a continuous line of these guys ready to go,
And now we're seeing what happens when those guys go
down and when you have some injuries.

Speaker 3 (54:24):
When you have a unit that is, you know, at
best case, middle of the.

Speaker 2 (54:28):
Pack, and you have an injury to a Josh Palmer
and you have an injury to adult In Kincaid, you're
seeing what can happen in those scenarios when you don't
have elite not even elite death, but good death behind
those like I like Tyrrel Shavers, but the amount of
snaps he's getting this year is beyond belief for what
I thought was gonna happen this year. It's just those
kind of situations I think is a little bit of

(54:50):
a it's it's not a malpractice is too far, but
I think it put it's put them in this situation
where it's it's hard to like we talked about with
Joe Brady, it's hard to pivot away from that heavy
run game because they don't trust the guys enough to
pivot into this you know, passing, heavier attack that they

(55:10):
could have been in the past at least.

Speaker 1 (55:13):
Yeah, and again because it's so tricky of a conversation
because I think the first thing that kind of gets
brought up is like draft misses. But I do think
this draft was objectively successful when you look at some
of the contributions they're getting and who they're getting them from.

(55:34):
And I think Brandon Bean is a perfectly good drafter.
I think he's just not an elite drafter like you've
seen some other gms have successful like less Need like
to me when it comes to individual pound for pound,
like organic homegrown players contribute to your roster, but at
a high enough level to a point where it's like
blue chip talent. I think less Need and I think
Howie Roseman are the two best in the business of that.

(55:55):
I would also say Ravens GM, who I don't know
how I just flatline on the name DaCosta. I think
he is also one of the best at that. I
think Brandon Bean is good at it because I do
think Brandon Bean is a track record in later rounds
where he's been able to find success on the defensive
side of the ball and the offensive side of the ball,
but like those big swings have yet to truly take flight.

(56:16):
I think Dalton gin Kaid was starting to get there
this year, and now the injury is going to obviously
interrupt it again. But that is something that is concerning
at this point to me. I feel like to why
I'm bringing this all up is because I don't think
that Brandon Bean is a bad evaluator of talent. I
don't think that Brandon Bean is a bad GM. I
think Brandon bean strength lies in how he's able to

(56:36):
retain his players. I think the extensions, even with the
winter El Bernard and Christo Bedford have played over the
past few weeks, really all season for Bernard, I still
am totally fine with those extensions because I have long
term faith in those players. I think that he's a
good GM. But when you talk about what this team
keeps running into, it's great teams, and I think that
they're a team that has an elite quarterback with a

(56:57):
couple of really great players, but not enough great on
their roster, like not enough great in their wide receiver room,
not enough great in the depth of their defensive line,
which is horrendously banged up again, and that's just unfortunate.
There's a squeaker toy going off in the background. That's
that's our dog who just found the toy. So you're
gonna hear that going because he's very excited. We actually

(57:19):
got him a Bill's Hedgehog when we went to Buffalo
from I think the store is called David Adams. I'm
trying to remember. Yeah, we went there. That place was
cool and they had a Bill's Hedgehog, so we bought
it for him. And now he's squeaking it and he's
having a great time, but like sorry, so and you
can see him make a cameo appearance. So I think

(57:43):
that he has an eye for talent, and I think
that his philosophy going into the build of this roster
made fundamental sense. We just talked about Josh Palmer and
his contributions. We just talked about drafting Jackson Hawes and
having daltonka Kid be free to be used as more
of a receiver. All that made sense in theory. But
I think what what's happening now is because of these
injuries and because of the situations they're facing with how

(58:04):
defenses are defending them, you do need to have more
individual talent and quote unquote bucket getters, as you've heard
people in our networks say, the film room guys say
it all the time, bucket getters as much as you
need to have good scheme in place, because the marriage
of the two is how you're going to have indefensible football.
And when you look around the league, you know the Eagles,
their offensive scheme is struggling mightily right now, but they

(58:27):
have bucket guys like Saequon Barkley, who's was still one
of the best running backs of football, Devonte Smith, who
even for as much as they struggle, can still go
get you a forty seven yard downfield pass in the
blank of an eye, and you have to respect it
all game. I feel like what we're dealing with right now,
because of the injuries, sustain is more of an emphasis
on a room that simply doesn't have proper depth to

(58:48):
bail you out. And yes, death is death. It's not
supposed to be your blue chip talent. But it is
nice to know that you can sustain as an offense
even without these guys. I mean, I look at Tampa
Bay and yes, they have a Buka and a book
a rookie. We didn't really know what we were getting
with him going into the year without Goblin and Evans,
and they didn't miss a beat. They haven't had Bucky
Irving in weeks, and they're using Rashad White and there's

(59:08):
still a very potent offense. Granted last week sixteen points
wasn't great. I think that this team just we got
to do a better job of not just balancing out
the offense, but finding guys with pure skill sets that
are capable of helping Josh Allen get out of troublesome situations.
And I think that I can't criticize Brandon be now
looking at this roster because while I did support the efforts,

(59:28):
while I did support the philosophy, while we have talked
about how they had the MVP quarterback and it worked
and we were cool with it, it's evidently showing that they
do need a little bit more now if they want
to make this thing sustained, even with their offensive line healthy,
even with James Cook healthy, even with a lot of
their tight ends, Like really, Josh Palmer, I like Josh Palmer.
I support Josh Palmer. That shouldn't be the straw that

(59:50):
breaks the camel's back for this offense is standing productivity,
Like it can't be, you know what I mean. That's
crazy to me, And yes I'm speaking in a spoil perspective.
They put up forty points to get Caroline. I know
they beat the Chiefs, but I'm worried about the long term,
especially when you have games like you just saw where
they played an inferior team and got boat race, And
it feels like now the jury might be out on
them as they go into a very difficult stretch of

(01:00:12):
games against Tampa Bay and Houston and eventually New England
again and Philadelphia down the road, and what might be
a division defining or even playoff defining matchup, like we
got to see more from this offense. And I do
think that the reason a big part of them being
in this position is the failure to address adequate death

(01:00:32):
And yes, cap constraints matter. We haven't talked about it much,
but how do you get to those cap constraints? Well,
you know, contracts that didn't pay out. And while I
do support the extensions he's given, and I have wanted
Brandon Bean for his I for talent and homegrown extensions,
the Curtis Samuel contract didn't age well. Bypassing giving Mac
Collins the money when he was a contributor to this

(01:00:53):
seam and had a very defined role, is biting him
in the butt right now. It's just I feel like
sometimes they end up in the situation where in concept
it works, but how much does it really work throughout
the course of the year if there's too much positional redundancy.
I was optimistic about Curtis Samuel. I defended Curtis Samuel
going into this year. It's clear that they're just not

(01:01:14):
calling upon him as much as they should be for
the money he's getting paid, and it's biting them in
the butt, and I think that is a critique that
you can give to the GM. So I don't want
people to walk away from this saying I think the
man should be fired. It's not that more just I
agreed with the sentiment and it just didn't pay off.
And here you are in a situation where you're at
a crossroads for what you do this upcoming offseason, no
matter what happens this year. And I think it's fair

(01:01:36):
for fans who you know, were on the receiver train
and saw the whole WGR snippet and we're on his ass.
I think they feel pretty justified right now. And I
won't lie. I can't. I can't defend it because the
man played his cards when he went and tried to
offer a first for Chris olave A BTJ or Jayalen Watto,
like he recognizes they're in a bind. And I think ultimately,
while he probably wouldn't admit it publicly, especially on that show,

(01:01:59):
he might have made amy and it's unfortunate, but that's
where we're at right now. I think it's fair to
criticize the GM. I don't think it means he's bad,
but I think they are in a bit of a
crossroads and this is a very pivotal offseason and subsequent
series of events for them to write the ship and
Jake any more thoughts on Brandon being any more thoughts
on the roster constructed something you want to get to
before we move over to defense and then cap off

(01:02:19):
the night.

Speaker 2 (01:02:21):
I think we touched on a lot of it with
Bean and I think it's just like you said, like
I agree with I agreed with the construction to get
a lot of really good players and kind of thread
that needle to be good, feel like you're good across
the board, right, Like they wanted a roster where they
felt comfortable at every position group. But when you when
you have some injuries, when you have a guy slip

(01:02:42):
and play you know, five percent, ten percent, like it
just meant it just means so much more on the
margins when you don't have elite play at other levels.
And then let's let's be honestly and if we let's
get and we can get into the defensive talk, because
there's guys on the defensive side of the ball that
you expected to probably take a step up this year
or at least maintain play this year that haven't and

(01:03:02):
that's part of this too, and that's part of how
the offense has been run this year has been to
hide the defense and keep them. Like Sean said it
on Sunday, like we need our office to stayed drives
to keep our defense off the field, Like that's a
that's a crazy statement to say, but you can tell
by that.

Speaker 3 (01:03:17):
So I think being like.

Speaker 2 (01:03:19):
Like you said, I don't think he's I don't think
that he's I'm not calling for him to get fired.
I don't think he's all of a sudden, like a
bottom tier GM in the league.

Speaker 3 (01:03:27):
I think he's a really good GM.

Speaker 2 (01:03:29):
But I think they had some hubris in the way
that they looked at this team in this offseason and
where they were at. When you're that close, when you're
when you're three points away in the AFC Championship game,
and you decide let's go with the status quo instead
of let's take a leap and try to, you know,
get a game changer in here, or get a guy

(01:03:49):
who can really push us over the edge. I think
that's some hubris to imagine that you're just going to
be back in the same situation and now they're not.
Now they're not in the same situation, especially just in
this conference where the floor has been raised across the board.
They're not in their own tier with Kansas City and
Baltimore anymore. Not saying that New England, Denver and Indya
are ahead of them in a tier. I just think

(01:04:10):
there's a bunch of really good teams in the AFC now,
and that's the reality we got to live in.

Speaker 1 (01:04:14):
So and maybe that instills submergency, you know, maybe that
makes him reevaluate really heavily. And that's a great point
and something I didn't even think about, but something I
did want to mention now that I'm kind of jogging
my memory. I think this is a really good lesson
for our off season discussions when we talk about roster
building and the need to be proactive versus reactive, because

(01:04:35):
I think this offseason is the best example of being
reactive and being so kind of like aware of how
successful you've been that you almost like you do have
things you want to address and you want to change,
but how hard and how far are you willing to
go to change them where you feel like it's going
to make a dramatic difference. And I think a part
of that is self evaluation, and a part of that

(01:04:58):
is looking around the league. So now with this season,
we knew that we need to be better at man coverage. Okay,
they went and got Josh Palmer. That's great, don't get
Kate is a good man beater. Do you think that
was enough or did you think there were limitations to
how kin Kid could be used? Okay, so we get
Jackson Halls. That's great, and these are the self assessment
things I want to see. But one receiver who beats
man in a room of six players where five of
them aren't consistently winning versus man, to me, is not enough.

(01:05:20):
And when Kinkaid has such a very specific role, I
don't think that's enough to beat man. So what is
your pivot? Well, then that's going to fall on Joe
Brady to figure out some man beating concepts. Have we
seen enough of that this year? I think that, like
this is where the conversation has to go in the
off season. Just have they done enough? Because one band
aid move doesn't fix everything, right, Like one Josh Palmer
signing doesn't fix their man deficiencies entirely. What else can

(01:05:43):
they do to just hammer away the issue before the
issue Lingers again in a season where we don't know
what the parody is going to look like around the league.
Our own division could get better, and last year we
did benefit from the fact that three teams within our
own division were ass just hot garbage. I'm sorry to say.
The Patriots were lowly and bad. The Jets were lowly

(01:06:04):
and bad. Even with Aaron Rodgers, they had five games
of hope and then it all fell apart. The Dolphins
were dealing with Tua injury and it completely derailed their season.
Even when he came back, they couldn't climb out of
the hole. They had the benefit of basically six free wins.
And now you're talking about like a year where your
your own AFC East is getting really tough, with another
very good team in the mix that beat you this year.

(01:06:26):
So you got punched in the mouth. What are you
prepared to do so when whatever the season unfolds, super
Bowl no super Bowl, however it may be, there is
a very serious evaluation that has to happen. And I
think as fans and as people who watch the team
closely and talk about the team closely, we need to
be more proactive in our analysis. Not you, Jake I'm
sure you're doing a great job. It's not really It's

(01:06:47):
more just like the general conversation, and I'm saying, this
is someone who needs to do it himself. I need
to be better at this because as we started this segment,
I took the cheese, You took the cheese. We got it.
We're not mice, We're not in traps like we can.
We got to see the deficiencies for what they are
and really talk about have they done enough to address them?
How can they address them? And I think if we

(01:07:07):
can go with that, the expectations change to what you
expect the team to be in a season where things
like this, if you were already on the board of
hey this Josh Palmer thinks cool, but I don't know
if it's enough. And if he gets hurt, we're in trouble,
doesn't really phase you. You're kind of like, yeah, this makes
a lot of sense. So this is more of me
talking to myself and yelling at myself because I was
so optimistic in the off season. But like, I know
a lot of people who bought into it, and it's

(01:07:28):
totally fair to I get it. But I think that
this does alter the way we got to talk about
teams future for how we set expectations, and I really
really love that point, Jake. I think that was very
well said. And this has been fun, so let's move
to defense, where it hasn't been as fun because the defense,
and I want to just make this an all encompassing conversation,
mainly because I think that we kind of have already

(01:07:50):
had our answer as to like one of the main
tweaks that can make, which was apart from Sean McDermott
taking over play calling again, you know, heavy pressure, trying
to mix up their looks, trying to get more creative
with how they're using the linebackers as rushers. Like, all
these things are things they've been actively doing. So I
don't want to dog on them a bit too much
because I do think that game that they just played
against Miami was actually better than like the score may

(01:08:13):
have showed. They just kind of the well broke after
enough resistance from a Miami offense that kept shooting itself
in the foot but kept getting chances and devon Hchen
when you're gassed out in Miami heat and trying to
maintain your gap integrity is gonna get a punch through.
He's gonna break a tackle, you're gonna miss him, and
he's gonna blow off for a big game. So I mean,

(01:08:33):
I can't dog on them too much because I do
think the defense, despite how hurt they've been since the
second half of the Atlanta game, has played a pretty
good ball. But Jacob curious, I mean, what are some
of the things immediately that you think could be adjusted,
If there's anything you're still waiting to see more of
or anything you like to see that can make the
defense even better going forward as they do it for
a really tough matchup against Tampa Bay.

Speaker 2 (01:08:55):
The defense as many tweets as we talked about the
offense can make. I don't know how many more tweaks
the defense could make to do this in the season,
because I think they put all their eggs in the basket.
And this is how if I was building a defense,
I'm you know, I'm Madden and doing doing my roster
construction everything else whatever it is, Like what I do

(01:09:16):
is would be to build through the trenches and to
try to build up on this defensive line. And they've
taken how many swings on this like it's we've had
endless conversation about the misses and the hits that they've
had on the defensive line, whether it be at edge,
whether it be at d tackle. They want to be
a team that's led by that defensive line, that's led
by the pressure that they can get and how it
helps the back and how it will help the back
end do everything else. And they've had spurts where they've

(01:09:40):
looked awesome, right like, and we've seen individuals look awesome
through spurts, like Joey Bosa has had some great pass
rushing games and had some great pass reps. They just
the health has been has just been a bad luck
for them defense, especially on that line. We've never seen
that defensive line fully intact except for like what twenty

(01:10:00):
minutes of the game in Carolina, and look, and it
was incredible for that twenty minutes with Ed Oliver and.

Speaker 3 (01:10:06):
Michael like it was.

Speaker 2 (01:10:07):
It was an awesome thing to see, But we haven't
seen that's the only time this whole season we've seen it.
And that's that's just a little bit of bad luck
and injury luck, and that's gonna happen, and it sucks,
and you can't you can't account for that going into
the year.

Speaker 3 (01:10:19):
You can't.

Speaker 2 (01:10:21):
You don't expect that to happen. But besides that, they
need improve play from these linebackers, and they need improve
play from their corners, and I think that's hurt them
a lot. And I would add I would have thrown
safety in there earlier in the year. And I'm it's
crazy that I'm about to say this. I'd never thought
I would say this when it happened. But having Jordan
Poyer on the field with Cole Bishop and just what

(01:10:43):
he's been able to do for their communication and just
getting them in the right spots and knowing where they
need to be. On the back end, you can see
the confidence that Bishop has in his play and playing
more instinctively and knowing where he needs to be. But
I feel decent about that tandem.

Speaker 1 (01:10:57):
Now.

Speaker 3 (01:10:57):
I don't love it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:58):
There's still some things that I would you know, Poyer
is just going to be limited in his age at
this point to be able to do and Bishop is
still going to have some mistakes that he makes with
his youth.

Speaker 3 (01:11:08):
But I feel better about that. But the two guys
that you got.

Speaker 2 (01:11:12):
To look at as much as anything else right now,
who you wanted you gave him money. You wanted him
to take a step up Christian Benford and Terrell Bernard,
And I think Benford for me is the biggest disappointment
as much as anything else, Like the amount he's getting
targeted based on last year and the amount that teams
are being able to throw on him compared to last

(01:11:32):
year when he was near an all pro level, Like
you wanted him. You paid him that money as a
projection to think that he could be. And I thought
this coming into the year, and I kept saying it,
like when I talked about earlier about like having dogs
like I would, I wanted to just slot Christian Benford
in as that like I thought that he was gonna
be having a year where we're talking about him with

(01:11:53):
the Patrick Certains of the world and the Quinyan Mitchell's
of the world. And it just hasn't bore out that way.
And now that's where you mentioned chicken in the egg earlier,
and there's a lot of chicken in the egg with
this team, Like has he been struggling because the rest
of that secondary to start the year was so porous
that they were asking him to do so much more.
He felt like he had to do so much more,

(01:12:14):
and and it was affecting.

Speaker 3 (01:12:15):
It that way.

Speaker 2 (01:12:16):
Maybe maybe that's a little bit of it, but I
think that his play has just been lacking and where
they were counting on him to be at.

Speaker 3 (01:12:25):
An all pro level corner.

Speaker 2 (01:12:27):
When they kind of gave him that money and put
him in this position to be across from either a
rookie cornerback in Max Harriston or a Trey White returning
and playing a lot of snaps this year, and he
just hasn't done it. And then from the Bernard side
of things, and I know that I saw Eric post
about it earlier this week about that he thinks he's

(01:12:48):
hurt and that's that's impacting a lot of what he's
doing too, and that's that's unfortunate with out of it too.
But you got two hurt small linebackers like that, it's
gonna be tough for them to make plays at the
line of scrim and make plays out in coverage in
space too. And it's it's not it's no matter what though,
it shouldn't have been a case that Shaq Thompson has

(01:13:09):
looked the best out of all the linebackers this year.
Like I thought Shack I liked I liked the idea
of Shack Thompson. I was like, man, he's you know,
he's a smart guy. He's been in this scheme before.
He's he was, you know, one of the best linebackers
in the league at his prime. So I think just
knowing where to be and making smart plays, he'll be
a benefit to this offense or defense based on who
they were running out there last year, you know. And

(01:13:30):
Dorian Williams I think has been fine. Like I think
he's he's been He's been good for what he needed
to do. But last year there were some real issues
and some real deficiencies that he showed out there, especially
in coverage. But you needed more, like you needed more
out of Bernard in Milano. You coming into the year.
It's like, man, like those guys when they're healthy, it
makes such a big difference. And them being healthy has

(01:13:52):
has been a detriment to this defense, and I think
it's been allowed teams to attack the middle of the field.
They've been able to run on this defense. And the
fact fact that the run issues have existed this hold
Sean McDermott tenure basically is I think I think that's
the frustrating thing to me, and that's nothing I can
should hold just against this team. But just like seeing
the same story of the long the long runs, like

(01:14:14):
the Bejon Robinson run, like the a Chane run a
couple last weekend. So there's a lot of issues, but
I think they put all their eggs in the D
line being able to be a dominant unit and mask
a lot of the things behind them, and it just
hasn't bore out for one reason or another, and that's
affected them a lot this year. And then having guys
that you paid money just not stepping up like they

(01:14:35):
Bernard and Benford. They really that's that's who I have
my site squared on because they need They paid those
guys and needed them to be, you know, near top
of the league level players, and that's what they were
hoping for and it just hasn't happened.

Speaker 1 (01:14:49):
Yeah, oh you know. And this is the resk you
run into with any extension and it's so annoying because again,
the the evaluation will always be a result based evaluation.
So it's perfectly fair to have some upset or like
the snake bitten by the contract when you see the
way these guys are playing, but at the time it
made perfect sense. These guys were cornerstone players of your defense.

(01:15:10):
They were constantly complimented as wins of the Brandon Bean era.
I really think that Bernard's drop off has been a
very unfortunate surprise. I think injury is everything to do
with it. So for the long term outlook, if he
heals up, I think we'll get the Bernard we know,
And that makes me a little more optimistic because it's

(01:15:30):
very obvious how much he's dropped off, and it's not
because it's I guess a mix of things, like there
might be some struggle on the back end with communication
from the safeties that might have put him in awkward
positions and maybe made him possibly like think a bit
too much when he's dropping into coverage of where he
has to be, And those were times where you see
him essentially freezing zone coverage and someone goes open right
near him and he like reacts a bit too late,

(01:15:52):
whereas in the past these processed quickly. So I think
there is a mental side of it to his game
this year as to why he's dropped off a bit.
You know, the foot probably has a lot to do
with that. Just for his individual athleticism, and speed, So
I think there's reasons there, and I think Benford it's
a little bit of the same thing. You know, he's
been nursing that grown injury, and I think that did
play a role into some of his explosiveness and coverage.

(01:16:15):
I'm hoping that he is fully healthy now because I
haven't lost faith in Christian beffort, and I do think again,
some of the metrics are kind of reflecting not only
just him, but some of the back end communication and
very bad safety play that put him in conflict, and
maybe some of the coverage duty getting assigned to him
or cleaning up some of the issues that might have
happened over the middle of the feel from the safety
room and having to come in and try and help

(01:16:36):
or make a tackle. I think some of that might
reflect poorly on him, But individual man reps, he has
gotten burned at times, and he hasn't been as sharp
as he should be, and I definitely think we expect
more from him for the money we paid, and it
hasn't paid off that way. So it is unfortunate to
see these two have this kind of regression of sorts,
But I don't know if it's going to sustain and
I think what makes me a little more optimistic when

(01:16:56):
I talk about the defense as a whole now, it's
the health improving. I think that's just the most immediate
thing and the only thing they really need right now. Now.
You're not getting it Oliver back, You're not getting Michael
Hoye back. You have to cut your losses there. But
even getting day Quon Jones back for more snaps this
week and a full slate of practices matters going and
getting Morgan Foxes to be rotational deaf. Sure, that's fine, whatever,

(01:17:17):
But like even having Ajpanessa back this week, that could
make a big difference. Getting Shaq Thompson back. You brought
him up. Shaq Thompson has been your best linebacker, which
is really unfortunate to say because he was a one
year rental that I didn't even know if he would
have made the team in the off season. But it's
not even just a matter if he's your best because
he's there and available. He's been your best because he's

(01:17:38):
been your best in coverage and run support. He's playing really,
really well under Sean McDermott. And I think the pairing
of guys like Milano and Dorian Williams, who are both
healthy and president able to play with him if he's
able to play, is a really nice combination that can
help stabilize that front seven a little bit more, especially
when it comes to run defense and maybe trying to
clean up some of the mess that's made if some

(01:17:59):
of your interior defensive linemen are getting displaced. But I
think continued health for members of the front seven and
the secondary. When you talk about getting Denford back and
that healthy rotation of him and Dre White and Max Harriston,
I think that's really gonna lend itself well to the
Bills long term this season, and if they can just
avoid the injury bug, I think they're going to be
in a really really good position because I do think

(01:18:20):
Sean McDermott calling the plays on defense has automatically been
an improvement. And yes they do get ran on. But
to me, if you're a defense that is comfortable giving
up the run, but you're also negating the scores and putting,
you know, getting those havoc plays, getting those backfield disruption plays,
those big negatives that stymy the rhythm of a drive,
they're going to live in that world. That's what they

(01:18:40):
want to do, but it does work and it does
keep you in games. And based off last week's game script,
Miami had sixteen points in halftime, Like that's enough for
a Bill's offense you would expect to come back from
and win. In Atlanta, you know, they had I think
going in a half it was it was either seventeen
or twenty points. It was definitely a deficit, but you're
offense wasn't playing well enough. And like that sin, that's

(01:19:02):
a lead that's not insurmountable to them when they're clicking.
Like this defense, for better or for worse, whether people
want to admit it or not, it has complimented the offense. Yes,
the time they've given up is a problem. The yards
they've given up are a problem because it goes against
the core philosophy of this offense, which is sustaining drives.
If you are losing time, that's putting more pressure on

(01:19:23):
your offense, which is why you do need to have
an explosive component to this offense. But there's still preventing
points from being scored at a high tick in most cases.
That's why I'm kind of looking at this and saying
it's kind of wild that we're at a point where
even with all the injury and even with last week's game,
and yes they put up thirty points, but it was
a late thirty points and the game was out of
reach at this point with the way the offense was playing,

(01:19:43):
and the well just broke because the defense had to
keep going out. I do genuinely believe in the unit.
I do think that there is hope for them to
actually sustain for the course of a season, even starting
again this Sunday, with some of the weapons that Tampa has,
even though they're not going to have Bucky Irving and
Chris Godwin most likely even with it BUCA, even with
Tesh Johnson and Baker playing the way he's playing with
the offensive line he has. I have a lot of

(01:20:05):
faith in what they're doing, and I think healing up
and getting healthy is going to be an improvement, but
also an improvement for guys like Terrell Bernard who maybe
doesn't have to have as much task upon him if
he's not one hundred percent and can rest a little
bit more, or Christian Benford if he has to work
as the rotation for Trey White and Harriston, who did
a pretty good job last week against Miami. Yes, Hairston
had a bad rep against Jalen Waddle, but I think

(01:20:27):
he's looked really good in his first couple of games
as a rookie. Like, I'm not hopeless about this defense,
and I don't think the fan base should be hopeless
about this defense. I think again, when we talk about
construction of the defense, the intent was there to make
this pass rush fortified, and even with the injury, it
has been it's been a good unit. It's been generating pressure,
and they've been able to do a variety of looks,

(01:20:47):
and I think they're going to get back to some
of those more creative looks as they continue to heal up.
I'm cautiously optimistic because obviously, not wanting injury is everyone's
wish and it hasn't come true this season. But I think,
like looking at the practice report today and seeing how
many bodies they're probably going to get back in the
fray for a very important game, it does make me
think that a provement for this defense really just lies

(01:21:08):
in these guys getting healthy and getting snaps and they
can get back to some of the more creative looks
and pressures that they're offering. And playing productive defense again.
And I think that it really is just a defense
snake bitten by very bad luck this season. I mean,
if you're Brandon Bean, you've got to be pounding the
table and punching walls because you didn't think Michael Hoyt
was gonna blow his achilles out a game and a

(01:21:29):
half into his season. You had no idea he was
even gonna get suspended. You didn't know at Oliver was
going to get a freak injury in practice and then
tear his bicep when he came back against Carolina. Like
you don't foresee these things happening, They just happened. It's
bad luck. It's just a shame that it keeps happening
to the unit that, if it's at its full potential,
quite literally keeps his defense end team in every single game.

(01:21:50):
Like I'm not joking when I say at full health.
I really believe that this was the best pass rush
the Bills had ever had, even in the year with
Von Miller and early Daykwon Jones and Jordan Phillips, like
that half that they had against Carolina, and like what
that could have been. It really could have been something special.
And I think that in future years because we have

(01:22:12):
Ed and Hoitt returning next season and they could build
on it. I think it's going to be a really
good unit for years to come. But right now, I
don't think it's unrealistic to say that just getting healthy
is going to make it improve and will be in
a better position. And if not, then they have a
lot of work to do. You know, they got to
improve the run defense. There has to be ways to
fix that. But I feel like that's just an achilles
heal of their defense that they're never going to fully

(01:22:33):
get over. They're going to get punched in the mouth
in games. Just keep it to free, keep it to
stall drives, and I think you can still win if
your offense figures it out. So what I got on defense?
Shake back to you. Any final thoughts on this before
we sign off for the.

Speaker 3 (01:22:45):
Evening, No, man, I think that's I think that was
well said. It is.

Speaker 2 (01:22:50):
I was a complete agreement with you about the defensive line.
It felt like this was it felt like they finally
had all the pieces that they to build what they
really wanted to build, and build a mammoth like there
and just a force there and help everything else. But
I think there's signs to be encouraged about to see
the play of Maxwell Harrison for a couple of weeks
and him not looking like a fish out of water
at all, like being able to really like have really well.

(01:23:12):
But and you know what, he's gonna have some bad
rep everybody has bad reps against Jalen Waddle, Like that's
why the Bills were trying to trade a first round
pick for him, right, Like, so he's gonna have some misses,
but he's got He has had a lot of hits too,
and he's looked really.

Speaker 3 (01:23:24):
Comfortable out there, and he's only gonna get better.

Speaker 2 (01:23:26):
And also, as someone who was on Cole Bishop Island
all summer long, it's just like, hey, man, like what
if he gets better? Like can we just have to
pick start out? I was really alone on the island
to start the year. Just have to play like that,
come up and see the improvement there. It's like you
can see and we talked about earlier with the offense,
like there hasn't been enough of a evolution and changes

(01:23:48):
to the scheme within game and everything else. The Bills
have made adjustments defensively, and I feel like, like you said,
since the second half like that. They looked horrible in
that first half against Atlanta, got lucky that Drake London
stepped out of bounds have been a it could have
been a twenty eight point half. But then after that,
since then it really hasn't been all that bad. It's
actually been would I would take it, I'd be. I'm

(01:24:10):
pretty happy with the play that they've had so far,
and if the offense can can figure their issues out,
they're gonna be that word again. It's gonna be some good,
complimentary football from this team, and they're gonna be a
tough team to put out because they're gonna make plays defensively,
they're gonna be sound in their scheme, and then that's
gonna help get the offense in the you know, more

(01:24:30):
favorable position, better field position, maybe get some turnovers, get
and start winning that turnover battle again, and we might
be talking about it in the in a month from now,
talking about them battling for a one seed, because I
just don't see that.

Speaker 3 (01:24:43):
I don't see these teams.

Speaker 2 (01:24:45):
Listen, if the Patriots and the you know, the Colts
and the Broncos all just end up going fifteen to
two or fourteen to three, then kudos to that man,
like good, good on you guys for doing it. Just
doesn't feel like there's a team like that in the
AFC this year. So I still think everything is in
front of this Bills team. Maybe not to get a
one seed, maybe they won't win the division, but they

(01:25:06):
can play with these teams. They can have a chance
to beat them in the playoffs. They're not levels above them,
and I think the Bills there's opportunities there that are
left on the field to iron out, to really get
back into a rhythm and be a team that nobody's
gonna want to face once you're in the wildcard round.

Speaker 1 (01:25:23):
Yeah, it's not impossible for this team to get back
into the right side of the column. It's not impossible
for this team to go on a run. It's not
impossible for this team to beat good and it's not
impossible for them to win a championship. It looks rough
right now. We are in the middle of the season,
and for everything we've complained about, for all the issues

(01:25:43):
that they do have, there is a path for them
to get better, and it could start this week, it
could start in two weeks. But you can't lose faith
after one bad game. The reality is that was still
a divisional game and it was still on the road.
And in my last episode, I did say you can
never sleep on a team like that, no matter how
bad they are. Here's your reason why, because these types
of losses happen, but it doesn't have to define your season.

(01:26:05):
And for as much bad as we've talked about with
for the Bills and the receiving core and everything that's
going on, it's been a lot of good and that
goods happened even just two weeks ago in a really
nice offensive game against a really tough team. Yes, I
know the record's not great right now, but the Chiefs
are still very much contender to whether you like it
or not. So I mean, this is a Bills team
that I think still has plenty of opportunity to correct things.
And I'm very excited to see what happens this Sunday, Jake,

(01:26:26):
because I mean, without Dalton Kincaid, what does that mean
for Joe Brady, Like what is he going to have
to do creatively to try and get some better positioning
for his skill position players. I mean, when you talk
about even just pivoting to twelve personnel now and running
play action out of that. How much involvement does Jackson
Haws get or Dawson knus, how much more eleven p
do they run? How do they run out of it?
It could be bad, it could be good. We have

(01:26:48):
to wait and see. But I do think that there
is plenty of reason to think that if they make
subtle tweaks to their tendencies on offense, and if they
heal up on defense, the team could still be formidable.
They could still win plenty of games, get into double digit,
get into the playoffs, and again potentially go on a run.
So I don't want to leave people here doom and gloom.
We complained and talked about a lot of things on
this show, but it's still a good team. It's still

(01:27:08):
a team that can contend. They still have Josh Allen.
For as much as I've critique Josh Allen and said
how bad he's been over the past couple games, with
the exception of the Chiefs game, I also think he
is still an MVP quarterback, still an elite quarterback, and
that when he gets a little more comfortable and all
it could take, all it could take, Jake is like
one play. I'm not even joking sometimes it takes a
singular play for Josh Allen to walk in like. That's

(01:27:30):
the funniest part about the whole thing is his mental
space is so apparent when you watch him play football,
like one play could crack the egg and get him going,
and that might be all you need to go on
a massive run. So don't lose Hope Bills fans. That's
not the point of this episode. It's more just to
call out some of the things that have been wrong
and offer some solutions. Potentially, if Joe Brady can get
a little more unpredictable, break a little bit more of

(01:27:52):
his tendencies, if some more things happen where Josh Allen
is able to reel himself in and take the profit underneath.
I think they put themselves in a better pace position,
maybe take more shots. Your offense gets a little better
as a result. The run game doesn't have to be
leaned on as a desperation tactic, but rather something you
can use to control a game, and you can be
in a much better position and for your defense, same
things as we mentioned before, Jake, you were awesome. This

(01:28:14):
was a ton of fun. I know this one ran
a little bit longer. I apologize. I want to give
you the opportunity right now to tell the good people
what you got going on, where they can find you
and what's next.

Speaker 2 (01:28:24):
Absolutely, now, this was a blast. Thank you for having me.
It's a great conversation. Listen.

Speaker 3 (01:28:28):
I'm very used to this where.

Speaker 2 (01:28:30):
I'm like, hey, we're gonna do you know, an hour,
seventy minutes whatever, and then we're at ninety minutes and
we're just rolling. But that's just that's a good conversation.
That's all it is.

Speaker 3 (01:28:38):
Is great.

Speaker 2 (01:28:39):
It's always fun talking football. Always don't talk a bills
And it was a great time here with you. But yes,
so follow me at Great Leg Jake fifteen. I've host
the Pay the Bills podcast at Pay the Bills Pod
on x and on Instagram. We have episodes every Tuesday
and usually have a postgame show. There won't be one
this week because I'm actually going to be in San

(01:29:00):
Diego on vacation watching the game from the Bill's Backer Bar,
but for the rest of the season after that there
will be post games every week too. And then follow
us at train Rex Sports. We cover everything Buffalo sports.
I also cover basketball, we cover wrestling, cover entertainment, so
all sports of coverage there, but follow at pay the
Bills Pod every every week on Tuesday, it's me, It's

(01:29:21):
Mike Bunt and then we have a rotating cast of crew,
Carson Hayek, Mike Partham aj Sabalski joining in too. It's
a great group. We have a we have a wonderful time.
We get heated, we start yelling at each other. It's
a lot of fun, but it's a good time, man.

Speaker 3 (01:29:36):
So yeah, appreciate that. I appreciate you giving me the
chance to plug.

Speaker 2 (01:29:39):
But yeah, at pay the Bills Pod at train Rex Sports,
give us a follow and thank you. I'm so appreciative
to be on here. I love I love the work
that you do. I love your account, and love love
this show. I watch all sorts of follow, all sorts
of cover one content myself too here, So I'm really
appreciative of the opportunity to be on here.

Speaker 1 (01:29:58):
Yeah, man, you're welcome back anytime. You're awesome. This was
a great conversation. I remembered I was laughing because there
was like a tweet you guys post where I think
you and Mike were just yelling at each other on
a show, and I was cracking up because I'm like, Mike,
you got you got Mike turning red and I was like,
what the hell did he say to pim off so much?
But like it's so we.

Speaker 2 (01:30:18):
Love to get Mike's face just increasingly ready, Like that's
that's the best part is.

Speaker 3 (01:30:24):
Just like just play.

Speaker 2 (01:30:26):
Just we're really good at just knowing the little keys
to turn to so great.

Speaker 1 (01:30:31):
I gotta get you and Mike on this show together. Dude,
that'll be, That'll be mussy, You're You're awesome. This was
a great discussion. Thank you so much, And for all
of you that haven't checked out Jake on Twitter or
anything that train Wrecks got going on, feel free to
check them out, give them if I'll give him a follow.
I brought him on the show because I really liked
what he had to say, and I think he does
really great work in the Bills content space and he's

(01:30:52):
worth your time as well, So please check him out
and check out Pay the Bills. I'm gonna throw out
the banner Joe REVOI. It is time to say good night,
every buddy. It was a very tumultuous week. I understand,
and yes, we talked about a while in this episode,
I probably made a lot of enemies with my Josh
Allen ren. I am so sorry again, I think he's good.
Please don't take it as anything other than that. But

(01:31:13):
you are allowed to critique the players on your team
even when they're not playing well. It does not mean
they suck. It does not mean that they'll never be
good again. It just means that they need to just
throw the check down when it's there and not bypass
it for something deeper, and vice versa. If you got
something downfield, let's work on those mechanics and get a
better ball out. You can do it. We've seen it.
You have a fucking MVP trophy, so I understand that

(01:31:35):
it's there in your game. But thank you guys again
for watching this week. Check out the description. You can
find a link to the one pass that is the
life bought of our network, and for just sixty dollars
a year, you can become an insider and have access
to all of the resources, all of the great content
we're putting out in a more personal way, especially in
our premium discord. You have a chance to get a
shirt that we created with twenty six shirts, so check

(01:31:56):
that out. It is well worth your time. I am
on t are at show underscored the Rosa, tweeting about
the bills and under random things and other nonsense. But
check out everything that's going on again over at train
Wreck with Jake and the guys, but also here at
Cover one with all of our guys, all of the
shows we are putting out. I am producing for Eric
and ant on the Film Room. I hope you check
out the most recent episode where they broke down a
little bit more of this offense. To a schematic degree,

(01:32:19):
the work those guys are putting out is next to none.
It's it is a work ethic of gods. Dude, Like,
I don't understand how the hell they I can't imagine. Bro,
I'm gonna like, I don't know if they'll see this,
but like having just produced for them and realizing how
much work goes into the show, what I am doing
for them is nothing near like what Eric just does
on a day to day basis to get that show going.

(01:32:41):
It's unbelievable. So please do yourself as a favorite.

Speaker 3 (01:32:43):
Check them out.

Speaker 1 (01:32:44):
Yeah, but also you know Greg and Aaron see one
Buff check out Judge and Dave. You know Monday nights
and show on Tuesday nights, and then if you feel
like being nice me that that is appreciated. This is
a great time to be a part of the network
and we're all getting through the season together. Keep the faith, people,
It's worth your time. The Bills are going to be fine,
but we are going to say good night. I will

(01:33:05):
be back next week with another episode. But in the meantime,
on Behalf of Jake, on behalf of Myself, we say
thank you. We say we hope you enjoy the rest
of your weekend. We hope you enjoy the game on
Sunday because it's fun, but also because they win and
go Bills, thank you again so much, everybody,

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