Speaker 1: Welcome to Bills by the Numbers, where we let the
Speaker 1: stats tell you where the Bills are at. We're presented
Speaker 1: by FANDU will make every moment more coming up. What
Speaker 1: is at the top of the to do list for
Speaker 1: the Bills on the bye week? Can all that needs
Speaker 1: fixing be fixed in time for Week eight? Did the
Speaker 1: Bills dip into the trade market mid season for the
Speaker 1: third year in a row? And we'll have our one
Speaker 1: burning question. Who said we had the weekend off? We're
Speaker 1: here for you during this bye week for the Bills. God,
Speaker 1: we provide such a public service here. Glad to have
Speaker 1: you with us on Bills by the Numbers. He's Wall
Speaker 1: of FAMERU Steve Tasker on Bills play by playman Chris Brown,
Speaker 1: and after a set of back to back lasses, Buffalo
Speaker 1: has now had at least one of those occurrences in
Speaker 1: every season under coach McDermott. The Bills outset about righting
Speaker 1: some of the wrongs that have cropped up over the
Speaker 1: last few weeks to get back to winning football. Steve,
Speaker 1: what sits at the top of the priority list for you?
Speaker 2: The first thing is obvious, it's try and get guys healthy.
Speaker 2: You spend the first month of the season trying to
Speaker 2: find out who you are, what you're good at, and
Speaker 2: all that. I don't think the Bills know that yet.
Speaker 2: They've had the roster churn on the defensive side, in
Speaker 2: particular of guys in and out of the lineup. At
Speaker 2: Oliver Is played in two games. Daikwan Jones is now out,
Speaker 2: was out for this last game. Max Harriston, you have
Speaker 2: no idea what his status is. Dorian Strong looked like
Speaker 2: he was going to emerge as a helper. He's disappeared
Speaker 2: on the ir this last game. At one point he
Speaker 2: had Jordan Poyer on the field, which it was for
Speaker 2: Jordan Poyer to be on the field. It was a
Speaker 2: break glass in case of emergency situation for a month.
Speaker 2: For a hot minute, it looked like you were going
Speaker 2: to use Christian Benford. For a minute. You had Connor
Speaker 2: McGovern go down. In this game, you had dayk one
Speaker 2: was out, Josh Palmer went down, Dalton Kincaid was out.
Speaker 2: So the list goes on on. Try and get healthy
Speaker 2: so you can find out who you are, and try
Speaker 2: and stay healthy so you can get better. There have
Speaker 2: been some positive signs. Dion Walker flashed in the second
Speaker 2: half of this game, it looked like the reps are
Speaker 2: starting to show up, and he's starting to be more
Speaker 2: consistent for longer stretches. He still has some spots where
Speaker 2: you can't find him even at six seven three and
Speaker 2: fifty pounds, but there are times when he is in
Speaker 2: the middle of it and he's making a play, and
Speaker 2: that is happening more and more as we go on.
Speaker 2: I thought Dorian Strong and Jordan Hancock, the two rookie
Speaker 2: defensive backs, I think we're going to see a little
Speaker 2: bit of them in the second half of this season
Speaker 2: after this bye week, as they get helped.
Speaker 1: John get ir.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we don't really know his Hoyt and Ogunjobi will
Speaker 2: be back in the building. They'll be able to contribute.
Speaker 2: That gives them some depth on that side. You know,
Speaker 2: you got Damar Hamlin's on IR, TJ Sanders is on IR.
Speaker 2: I mean, you've the list goes on and on. When
Speaker 2: we yeah, when we started this season, we really, i
Speaker 2: mean almost universally this roster was like, Wow, it's better
Speaker 2: than it was last year when they went to the
Speaker 2: AMC Championship. The only thing that really could derail us Gosh,
Speaker 2: you know, if something happens to Josh or if the
Speaker 2: injury bug gets us, well, here we are. It has happened.
Speaker 2: They're four and two in spite of it, so their
Speaker 2: roster was deep enough before they started getting injured. But
Speaker 2: this two weeks, sitting four and two, going into this
Speaker 2: and having two weeks to get ready and refresh, that's
Speaker 2: the number one priority. Get the guys you've got as
Speaker 2: healthy as you can get, and then evaluate where you
Speaker 2: really need to make a move. But you won't have
Speaker 2: much time after the next week.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I will say my priority list is maybe a
Speaker 1: little more granular than yours is because I think tackling
Speaker 1: has to get addressed and repped. And look, this is
Speaker 1: the coaching staff that reps the fundamentals to high Heaven.
Speaker 1: They practice tackling every single week, whether it's with those
Speaker 1: giant rolling donuts, the low bags that they tackle onto
Speaker 1: a padded matt, whatever it is, it's got to get
Speaker 1: repped and it's got to get emphasized because the mistackle
Speaker 1: rate is just too high and the extra yards after
Speaker 1: misstackles are killing this defense. The most recent example the
Speaker 1: Beijon Robinson eighty one yard touchdown run after two misstackles,
Speaker 1: one at the line of scrimmage and then one deep
Speaker 1: in the secondary down. The sideline tackling has got to
Speaker 1: get addressed fixed and be more consistent on the defensive
Speaker 1: side of the ball. The other thing is better starts
Speaker 1: to games like these last couple of weeks. They just
Speaker 1: cannot get on tra early, and I think it's largely
Speaker 1: urgency energy fight. For some reason, this team does not
Speaker 1: look amped up for games at the beginning. There are
Speaker 1: times over the last several years where we have seen
Speaker 1: this team charged up at the beginning of a football game,
Speaker 1: and for some reason, it has been absent the last
Speaker 1: three weeks. And Steve can speak to this far better
Speaker 1: than I can. You have to bring a certain measure
Speaker 1: of emotional constitution to every game you play in the NFL.
Speaker 1: If you want to give yourself a chance to win.
Speaker 1: It's not just physical, it's emotional as well. And I
Speaker 1: think the emotional element has been lacking for this team
Speaker 1: the last three times they've stepped on the football field
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the game, it's put them in
Speaker 1: early holes and then they've been forced to try to
Speaker 1: climb out of them, and two out of three times
Speaker 1: they have been unsuccessful in their last three games, so
Speaker 1: better starts to games ties in with the lack of urgency,
Speaker 1: emotional energy. We're just not seeing it from this football
Speaker 1: team at the start of games. And I think it's
Speaker 1: made it's made winning games that much harder each and
Speaker 1: every week. You want to stake yourself to a ten
Speaker 1: fourteen point deficit, even if you're the high octane offense Bills,
Speaker 1: good luck coming back from that every week and winning
Speaker 1: more than you lose.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a team that, even in the early four
Speaker 2: game winning streak, at times seemed like they were playing
Speaker 2: with their food. They were disinterested, you know, they just
Speaker 2: it was you know, you go back and look at
Speaker 2: the second half of that Jet game and it was
Speaker 2: a snooze fest. Now, certainly they had a big lead
Speaker 2: and all of that, and the Jets were foundering, but
Speaker 2: they were just disinterested. And I think that carries over
Speaker 2: they feel, and maybe it's and it might be a
Speaker 2: carryover from, you know, from division title fatigue. They win
Speaker 2: it every year and it hasn't it hasn't been closed.
Speaker 2: In the first month of this season, looked like it
Speaker 2: was gonna be another laugher of a division race, not
Speaker 2: so much anymore. So perhaps that's enough to get them
Speaker 2: to put some emotional content into their preparation and their
Speaker 2: game time. But you're right, Brownie, you in this league.
Speaker 2: I played in the NFL, then I covered it for
Speaker 2: two decades, and I watched a lot of games from
Speaker 2: the booth, very engaged in every game when one team
Speaker 2: stops to take a breath because they've got a double
Speaker 2: digit lead in the second half, when they stop to
Speaker 2: raise up and just take just turn it off for
Speaker 2: just a minute because of the stress, because the injured,
Speaker 2: because they're deep into the season, because they need a rest.
Speaker 2: The moment one team does that and the other team
Speaker 2: does not, the scoreboard shows it almost immediately. Almost immediately,
Speaker 2: you could have the eighty five Bears of the Legion
Speaker 2: of Doom or the two thousand Ravens as a defense.
Speaker 2: The minute they let up and take a breath, the
Speaker 2: Cleveland Browns go bang bang bang touchdown, Bang bang bang touchdown.
Speaker 2: It happens that fast. I have seen it literally one
Speaker 2: hundred times. And if you start a game like that,
Speaker 2: it's really hard to turn it on later. Now, certainly
Speaker 2: when you got to lead athletes and all that, and
Speaker 2: there's some guys on the Bills squad who can do that,
Speaker 2: but not fifty three of them. And that has shown
Speaker 2: over the last couple of weeks, and it showed in
Speaker 2: the games they were winning too. Let's face it, let's
Speaker 2: be honest. It was showing in the games they won
Speaker 2: and they got away with it. It showed in the Saints game,
Speaker 2: it showed in the Jet game. So yeah, it's when
Speaker 2: you get against a team that with a pulse like
Speaker 2: the Falcons and the Patriots, it shows.
Speaker 1: They didn't match the energy of either of those teams
Speaker 1: at the beginning, the middle, or the end. What in
Speaker 1: your mind is in a week's time, technically two weeks time,
Speaker 1: but they're not playing right here in the bye week,
Speaker 1: What in your mind is fixable in a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks time that can improve as soon as they're back
Speaker 1: on the field in Week eight at Carolina.
Speaker 2: Well, I think I think the starting lineups need to
Speaker 2: be a little shaken up, either to send a message
Speaker 2: or to reward hard work or reward effort. You know,
Speaker 2: if there's somebody out there who's not playing or not
Speaker 2: playing well enough, they need to sit down. I don't
Speaker 2: know if there's I don't know if you can single
Speaker 2: a guy out, and I don't know what they've been at.
Speaker 2: I don't know who the coaching staff would be happy
Speaker 2: with and who they're not happy with, But certainly getting
Speaker 2: guys healthy and plugging them back in will help. But
Speaker 2: I also think there's there's space in in the way
Speaker 2: they're working this team and feeling this team to improve it,
Speaker 2: maybe with some youth and maybe with some energized younger
Speaker 2: guys at certain spots. You can take your pick of
Speaker 2: where that might be. But I think there's plenty of
Speaker 2: room for that, and I think they should. I don't
Speaker 2: think there's anything wrong. Yeah, you look at the way
Speaker 2: this defense played in the first half against the Atlanta Falcons.
Speaker 2: You can change out a lot of guys three.
Speaker 1: Hundred and thirty five yards in one half. Yep.
Speaker 2: That's unacceptable.
Speaker 1: Yep. And there has to be accountability for it, and
Speaker 1: some people may have to pay the price for it
Speaker 1: as a playing time.
Speaker 2: I'm not saying you look at the stat sheet and
Speaker 2: look at the first half and.
Speaker 1: You evaluate the film.
Speaker 2: Now you look, you look at the film and you see,
Speaker 2: you say what you know, You lay it out. That's
Speaker 2: how it's got to work. And I'm sure that's how
Speaker 2: it is gonna work.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I don't have any doubt about that. I
Speaker 1: think you can. I think the player driven leadership on
Speaker 1: this team can rally the troops and bring more emotional
Speaker 1: energy and urgency to a game at the start. I
Speaker 1: believe that can be fixed like that, especially with the
Speaker 1: veteran leadership you have on this team to demand it
Speaker 1: of the players. That's one I want to believe this
Speaker 1: team can improve their tackling. But to Steve's point, you
Speaker 1: may have to switch people out to get it to happen.
Speaker 1: Maybe some people have to lose their time on the
Speaker 1: field to wake them up and get them to realize
Speaker 1: my best isn't good enough right now. And that's why
Speaker 1: I'm on the sidelines watching with the coaches. And maybe
Speaker 1: that's the price some guys have to pay to get
Speaker 1: better results on the field. We've heard for a long
Speaker 1: time how that player driven leadership has been instrumental in
Speaker 1: this team's year over year success. Seemed last season like
Speaker 1: the new young core of leadership had capably taken over
Speaker 1: for the old guard that had aged out, but the
Speaker 1: failure to apply the fundamentals to their play and the
Speaker 1: mental errors have been far more extensive than we're used
Speaker 1: to seeing from this club. I touch on it there,
Speaker 1: but how much do the leaders in the locker room,
Speaker 1: Steve need to step forward so it's not the coaches
Speaker 1: all the time harping on what the standard needs to be.
Speaker 2: Absolutely that veteran leaders the best it has come. It
Speaker 2: works best when it comes from the best players like Josh,
Speaker 2: like Ed Oliver, Greg Russau, Christian Benford, Tredavious White, even.
Speaker 2: You need to get it from your best players, and
Speaker 2: you gotta do it a couple of ways. You got
Speaker 2: to say how it needs to be. You gotta tell
Speaker 2: them point blank what's got to change. If anything, you
Speaker 2: gotta tell them. Then you gotta go out and you
Speaker 2: gotta you the best players have to put full put
Speaker 2: forth the full effort of making that happen. Practice hard,
Speaker 2: prepare hard, go the extra mile. Do that. The best
Speaker 2: players have to do that, so the lesser players know
Speaker 2: that's the bar they have to clear, so they up
Speaker 2: their game. Then you gotta communicate. Then the best players
Speaker 2: have to communicate where they're not doing it. Hey, you're
Speaker 2: not You're still not getting it right. Let's go and
Speaker 2: you got to hold them accountable for that. That's what
Speaker 2: it's gotta be. You gotta say how it's gonna be,
Speaker 2: show them how it's gonna be, and tell them when
Speaker 2: they're not doing it, and hold them accountable when you
Speaker 2: do that. That's how. That's how player driven leadership.
Speaker 1: I think it goes beyond just pushing guys during the
Speaker 1: practice week and making sure guys are up for the
Speaker 1: start of the game. I think the player driven leadership
Speaker 1: has to be checking in on guys between series, second quarter,
Speaker 1: third quarter. I watched Pooka Nakua in the third quarter
Speaker 1: on the sideline for the Rams, circle up the entire
Speaker 1: offense and basically tell them, hey, we love dancing in
Speaker 1: the end zone at the end of a scoring drive,
Speaker 1: but we got to earn the right to dance, and
Speaker 1: that starts with first and ten at the start of
Speaker 1: the drive and second and twelve when we're behind the
Speaker 1: sticks and we need all eleven of us pulling on
Speaker 1: the rope. Like he was inspiring and he talked to
Speaker 1: them for like a minute, and that was in between
Speaker 1: series in the third quarter. So I don't think the
Speaker 1: leaders on this team can just assume that the message
Speaker 1: is received. I think it has to be repeated and
Speaker 1: reiterated beginning of the game, middle of the game, end
Speaker 1: of the game, to make sure that some of this
Speaker 1: youth understands that it's not a some of the time thing.
Speaker 1: It's an all the time thing. If you want to
Speaker 1: be a twelve, thirteen, fourteen win football team, it's as
Speaker 1: simple as that. To your point earlier, you can't take
Speaker 1: your foot off the gas ever, not in this league.
Speaker 1: The margins are too narrow.
Speaker 2: You don't ever do that. As you can't ever do
Speaker 2: that as a player. Coaching staffs do that that for you.
Speaker 2: When it's time. Josh sits down the fourth quarter against
Speaker 2: the Jets, or the fourth, third and last half of
Speaker 2: the third and the fourth quarter, that you sit him down,
Speaker 2: you put Ray Davis in as a running back and
Speaker 2: you go downhill, and that's what you're gonna do for
Speaker 2: three downs while he's in the game. You got all
Speaker 2: three year backup off. That's what happens. That's the only
Speaker 2: way you take the gas. You foot off the gas.
Speaker 2: You're out of the game. You're out of the game.
Speaker 2: You sit down and your rest.
Speaker 1: And you're sitting there and you're pushing the guys that are.
Speaker 2: In that's right, and you're cheering for him, so yeah,
Speaker 2: you never disengage. So that's how that's how it works.
Speaker 1: And I.
Speaker 2: I've seen a lot of good There's been a lot
Speaker 2: of good stuff that this team has done. And with
Speaker 2: Josh this offensive line and James Cook getting off for
Speaker 2: the start he has gotten off to this year, there's
Speaker 2: a lot of good things going on. And it's not
Speaker 2: like they don't have it in the tank. We've seen
Speaker 2: it too often to believe that it's not like this
Speaker 2: talent This roster is talentless or law lost, has lost
Speaker 2: its way, but they gotta do better. Yeah.
Speaker 1: As much as the players bear the brunt of this
Speaker 1: responsibility to get things rolling again, the coaches know full
Speaker 1: well they bear some responsibility to be the facilitators. Putting
Speaker 1: their players in position to succeed is critical, especially with
Speaker 1: a roster that I think we can all agree does
Speaker 1: not have elite physical talent across the board. This team
Speaker 1: has been successful because of the sum of their parts,
Speaker 1: but much how much more do the few elite players
Speaker 1: they do have need to be on the field to
Speaker 1: try to make a difference and keep games from looking
Speaker 1: like such a heavy lift?
Speaker 2: Yeah, no question it falls on your best players, the
Speaker 2: James Cooks and the Josh Allens and the Dalton Kincaids
Speaker 2: of the world, and the offensive line, and defensively, it's
Speaker 2: on those guys up front, the guys who you know
Speaker 2: cash checks, like the Rousseau's and the Ed Olivers of
Speaker 2: the world. It falls on those guys to do as
Speaker 2: much as they can do. But let's be honest, is
Speaker 2: a team game, and you need guys out there to
Speaker 2: help the star players and those star players and then
Speaker 2: this we've seen it. These guys. It's not like Ed
Speaker 2: Oliver and Greg Russou are picking up all the sacks
Speaker 2: or Josh is doing all these guys need some help.
Speaker 2: Everybody else on the roster has got to do more
Speaker 2: as well. You've got to be there when the great
Speaker 2: players need, especially on the offensive side, when Josh needs
Speaker 2: somebody be available. You know you've got to and you've
Speaker 2: got to do everything you can to get on the
Speaker 2: field and stay on the field and help in any
Speaker 2: way you can. Even if it's a wide out and
Speaker 2: it's a run play, you got to get on somebody.
Speaker 2: I think the real symptom that we can all agree
Speaker 2: on that lets you know, that mentally they're just a
Speaker 2: little bit casual. Is the penalties. That is the total
Speaker 2: symptom of being of having it out of gear.
Speaker 1: Right thirty in the last three games.
Speaker 2: You've got penalties. They're just take it out of gear mentally,
Speaker 2: and that's when those start to creep in. That is
Speaker 2: the biggest and most telling symptom of why you and
Speaker 2: I are having this conversation.
Speaker 1: And that's why your leadership has to police that as well.
Speaker 1: Your player driven leadership has to police that, like, dude,
Speaker 1: you're killing us. You are killing us right now. We
Speaker 1: can't have that. You're killing us. Like that message has
Speaker 1: to be sent. It seems obvious, but maybe to a
Speaker 1: young player it isn't.
Speaker 2: I get Greg Rusou to lining up off's at first
Speaker 2: play of the game, let's go out, let's get it,
Speaker 2: and you're amped up and stuff. When he makes that
Speaker 2: mistake and gets called for an off size after and
Speaker 2: brings a fumble back, there's no way any other guy
Speaker 2: on that line should not have learned the lesson from
Speaker 2: Greg Russeau's mistake at Oliver? Is he not watching Greg
Speaker 2: Russou lose a big play by lining up off sides
Speaker 2: and then a quarter and a half later, a quarter later,
Speaker 2: he does it and causes us Joey Bosta to lose
Speaker 2: a sack.
Speaker 1: And the defense you have a second and sixteen.
Speaker 2: Situation that is a that is doubling down on mistake. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and that's that's the death now, right.
Speaker 1: But you know the coaches are going to be combing
Speaker 1: through everything over the next week plus to try to
Speaker 1: find some of what has been ailing the team. And
Speaker 1: then I think secondarily, I would expect them to examine
Speaker 1: where they can enhance the talents on this roster, even
Speaker 1: beyond the elite talents who can perform for you in
Speaker 1: just about any situation. I'm thinking of somebody like a
Speaker 1: Keon Coleman, a guy who had enormous success in the
Speaker 1: slot in college. Do you experiment there and say, hey,
Speaker 1: let's try to unlock him and put him here in
Speaker 1: the slot and let's work him there, especially if you
Speaker 1: don't have Kincaid coming out in week eight, Like, let's
Speaker 1: experiment with a big target in the slot. Since we
Speaker 1: don't have Kincaid, let's use him there. See if we
Speaker 1: can unlock him. We'll put somebody else outside. Maybe it's
Speaker 1: Shavers that lines up outside instead. The bigger receiver. So
Speaker 1: I think there's gonna be some some time spent in
Speaker 1: the lab to see with the talent that we have,
Speaker 1: and maybe not the highest end talent because we know
Speaker 1: what they can do, but let's find some of those
Speaker 1: role players at the second and third levels and put
Speaker 1: them in a position to a maximize their strengths and
Speaker 1: even enhance some of their weaknesses that maybe they can't
Speaker 1: do well because it's not part of the strength category
Speaker 1: for them. I really expect the coaches to drill down
Speaker 1: on a lot of those things and find some answers,
Speaker 1: because that will level up the offense, or level up
Speaker 1: the defense, or level up special teams across the board.
Speaker 1: Because when you can get your second and third tier
Speaker 1: performers to level up their game because you're putting them
Speaker 1: in a better position to help you, it raises all boats,
Speaker 1: like you know, high tide raises all boats. I think
Speaker 1: the coaching staff, just knowing how they operate in the
Speaker 1: bye week, they're gonna find some things to utilize some
Speaker 1: of that second and third tier talent on the roster
Speaker 1: to make the whole product better going forward. It's a
Speaker 1: big reason why Sean McDermott is eight to no after
Speaker 1: the bye. As Bill's head coach each of the last
Speaker 1: two seasons, GM Brandon Bean has made a veteran player
Speaker 1: addition before the trade deadline. Two years ago, it was
Speaker 1: cornerback Raswell Douglas. Last year it was wide receiver Amari Cooper.
Speaker 1: First part of the question, Steve, do you think Brandon
Speaker 1: Bean pulls the trigger? Second part of the question, do
Speaker 1: you think he has to pull the trigger?
Speaker 2: First part's the real question, YEP. I don't think he'll hesitate.
Speaker 2: I think it comes down to this, and we've been
Speaker 2: talking about it. How healthy are they going to be
Speaker 2: coming out of this by and before the deadline and
Speaker 2: are they going to be able to find out how
Speaker 2: good they can be now? Certainly going four to oh
Speaker 2: and not never playing your best football says something about
Speaker 2: where they are. They feel like they probably have to
Speaker 2: feel like they've got the juice to do it if
Speaker 2: they can stay healthy. Secondly, if some of these guys
Speaker 2: coming back aren't gonna get there in time, like Max Harrison, TJ. Sanders,
Speaker 2: Dorian Strong name the one you want, Milano. If those
Speaker 2: guys aren't gonna be able to get back and help you,
Speaker 2: do you have enough juice to get there, that's the question.
Speaker 2: And then again, can you got to fit it under
Speaker 2: the cabinet. It can be one for one and do
Speaker 2: you want to part with the assets for what is
Speaker 2: a maybe help? If you get a guy that you say, wow,
Speaker 2: I can't believe we got the guy. If it's that
Speaker 2: kind of trade, yeah, give them, give them a whatever
Speaker 2: draft pick, right if it guy that's like, well, I
Speaker 2: don't know, he might help us, and you know, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's got to be an absolute slam dunk. I think
Speaker 2: to make the move because they've shown early in this
Speaker 2: season that when they're healthy and when they're clicking, when
Speaker 2: they got things going on, they've got the juice to
Speaker 2: beat about anybody.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think a shakeup on the roster needs to
Speaker 1: be made. To your point earlier, it doesn't necessarily have
Speaker 1: to be a trade. It could be somebody losing their
Speaker 1: starting job to somebody on the bench. Sometimes that can
Speaker 1: be enough to spark a wake up call, because Steve's right,
Speaker 1: this team needs to shake up. Sometimes when you've been
Speaker 1: as successful as the Bills have been over the last
Speaker 1: six seasons, players can get complacent. Let's just be honest.
Speaker 1: It can happen. They don't sweat the details. They lack
Speaker 1: the urgency, they lack the hunger, and it shows up
Speaker 1: on the field. You could see how much hungrier the
Speaker 1: Atlanta Falcons were in that game than the Buffalo Bills
Speaker 1: on Monday Night in Week six. Some personnel changes could
Speaker 1: be made to wake the team up, get them squarely
Speaker 1: focused on the details. You know, or it could be
Speaker 1: your job. You could be next that can wake a
Speaker 1: team up out of a complacent slumber if you will.
Speaker 1: I think for being though, there are two things at
Speaker 1: play here. His ability to add to the roster is
Speaker 1: limited by cap space. In all likelihood, if he's going
Speaker 1: to make a trade of any significance, it's probably going
Speaker 1: to have to be a player with dollars going out
Speaker 1: to get another player with dollars coming in. And that
Speaker 1: could complicate things because a lot of teams willing to
Speaker 1: trade at this time of the year are teams that
Speaker 1: are either at the bottom of their division, they're going nowhere,
Speaker 1: and what do they want? They want draft capital. They
Speaker 1: don't want your veteran player with a high price tag,
Speaker 1: because you've got to push dollars out to fit the
Speaker 1: guy you're bringing in. Under the cap, so that might
Speaker 1: complicate things in order for being to get a deal done.
Speaker 1: I suppose you could always send draft capital out, bring
Speaker 1: that player in, and then cut somebody to save money.
Speaker 1: That's another option. So it's not like he's not without
Speaker 1: options to make something happen, but you could quickly come
Speaker 1: up with positions where they need help. It was nice
Speaker 1: to hear this week from coach McDermott that Max Harston
Speaker 1: his practice window could be open next week. That at
Speaker 1: least leaves you hope that the corner position is getting
Speaker 1: some help there because they're thin right now with Dorian
Speaker 1: Strong and Harston on IRR, you know, and Benford a
Speaker 1: little hobbled coming out of the Atlanta game with an
Speaker 1: achilles injury. So we'll have to see where all of
Speaker 1: that goes. But I think to your point, player health
Speaker 1: right now on the roster is going to predicate whether
Speaker 1: or not Brandon Bean feels he needs to pull the
Speaker 1: trigger somewhere, whether it's corner linebacker where they have injuries,
Speaker 1: you know, or somewhere.
Speaker 2: Else right, And that's a hard trade to swing, and
Speaker 2: it's sometime there's just never a team or not a
Speaker 2: team that fits they need a player that they need,
Speaker 2: a player where they've got a weakness, where you've got
Speaker 2: a player where you've got a strength, and you can
Speaker 2: trade both sides, right, You can get a player from
Speaker 2: them and their strength, and they can take a player
Speaker 2: from you and your strength, and you both get stronger
Speaker 2: at your weaker point. It's hard. It's a hard puzzle
Speaker 2: to find, plus the and you add in the cat
Speaker 2: the financial aspects of it, and it's really hard puzzle
Speaker 2: to make fit. But don't think that they're not working
Speaker 2: on it. I because I think I think they are.
Speaker 2: And every time the general public finds out about a
Speaker 2: player who's available or whatever, and particularly a player at
Speaker 2: a certain position, they're like, go get them, Go get them,
Speaker 2: go get them. And believe me, before we heard about
Speaker 2: it as a public piece of news, Brandon Bean's already
Speaker 2: talked to the guy. That's the way it works.
Speaker 1: Just think about it last year or even two years ago,
Speaker 1: the Rasul Douglas trade. Every when Brandon spoke to the
Speaker 1: media about it, he said, we had been working on
Speaker 1: this for three or four weeks. Yeah, Like it's a process. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And there's a lot of conversations, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: back and forth. There's offers and counteroffers and more counter offers,
Speaker 1: so those things don't just happen haphazardly or in a vacuum.
Speaker 1: They take a lot of work, a lot of negotiating
Speaker 1: before they're finally consummated.
Speaker 2: As a side note, one of the reasons it works
Speaker 2: here in Buffalo and most teams who have a really
Speaker 2: good cohesive front office. The reason it works is because
Speaker 2: the head coach is also aware of what the GM
Speaker 2: is doing and he has some input. And the coach
Speaker 2: and we have this guy or this guy. We're talking
Speaker 2: to this guy, and the head coaches say, I'll take
Speaker 2: either one, but I prefer that one because we're doing
Speaker 2: this and this guy's better at it. There's conversation, conversation
Speaker 2: about which guy he would like to do it, and
Speaker 2: he has if he has experience with him. The coaching
Speaker 2: staff is fully informed about the possibilities and they probably
Speaker 2: Then there's another layer of this, to the pro personnel.
Speaker 2: Each coach will have a pro personnel guy he likes
Speaker 2: better than he say, Hey, what do you think about it?
Speaker 2: He says, but I think that I think he's right.
Speaker 2: I think this is that you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: So it's a it's a group think and they as
Speaker 2: with the Rasoul Douglas and even the Amari Cooper thing,
Speaker 2: they get it right. I mean Mari Coopy. It didn't
Speaker 2: work out. Marie Cooper didn't work out because of you know,
Speaker 2: he got injured and all that, but the guy helped
Speaker 2: and the Bills wouldn't have beat the Chiefs last year
Speaker 2: without Amary. That's the kind of thing you get.
Speaker 1: He pulls it. He was pulling attention away from.
Speaker 2: He also caught on the first third down and caught
Speaker 2: one with a busted hand down the sideline. Then he
Speaker 2: made that catch over the head in the back. I mean,
Speaker 2: Amari Cooper helped this team. And of course Rasul Douglas
Speaker 2: was an absolute home run. He came in and got
Speaker 2: a turnovers games. So yeah, that kind of group think
Speaker 2: leads to good situations like that if you can fit
Speaker 2: it under the economics and you can get the other
Speaker 2: team to say, yeah, we're we're done with this guy.
Speaker 1: Let's in and over to the numbers game, where Steve
Speaker 1: will be quizzed on Bills versus NFC South history. The
Speaker 1: Bills have two games against the NFC House South already
Speaker 1: in the books beat The Saints lost to the Falcons,
Speaker 1: and they have Carolina on deck, so this seemed very timely.
Speaker 1: Tampa's a little bit later in the season. Question Number
Speaker 1: one in the Sean McDermott era, what is their best
Speaker 1: record in a season in which they faced the NFC South.
Speaker 1: It's happened two times. This is the third go round
Speaker 1: this year.
Speaker 2: They're one and one right now? Is that counts the season? Now?
Speaker 1: We're not counting that one? Oh, so there's only half ones.
Speaker 1: You would not expect one and one to be the
Speaker 1: best record against the NFC South right.
Speaker 2: Over time to Tampa Bay that year, I think they
Speaker 2: beat Atlanta that year they got crushed by the same
Speaker 2: Stead year.
Speaker 1: So I just need what you think the record would be.
Speaker 1: I think three one, three and one is correct, and
Speaker 1: that was in twenty twenty one. Nice job is one
Speaker 1: for one. Question two, the Bill's best turnover margin against
Speaker 1: the NFC South under McDermott in a season is a
Speaker 1: plus five. What year of McDermott's tenure did that happen
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen, twenty twenty one, or twenty twenty five against
Speaker 1: the NFC South.
Speaker 2: I'll say twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1: It was twenty seventeen. That Falcons game. That Falcons game
Speaker 1: was a big one. There's three takeaways there for Davious
Speaker 1: with that fifty two yard fumble return, Micah Hyde with
Speaker 1: a pick. Yeah, and don't forget they come home to
Speaker 1: play Tampa and Trey forces the fumble at the end
Speaker 1: of the game and they kicked the game winning field
Speaker 1: goal twenty seven to twenty four. I think that slot
Speaker 1: receiver was Humphreys. I want to say they punched it
Speaker 1: out there, so yeah, they were getting takeaways twenty.
Speaker 2: Seven en psycopedia, I don't know if it can't.
Speaker 1: Remember what h Question three, what current Bills player I
Speaker 1: haven't known this. I know this, what current Bills player
Speaker 1: has the most tackles since twenty seventeen against NFC South opponents?
Speaker 1: And I will acknowledge this is a little bit of
Speaker 1: a trick question. So you need to do some thinking
Speaker 1: here about the Bill's current roster and the Bills player
Speaker 1: that would have the most tackles against the NFC South.
Speaker 2: Trey White.
Speaker 1: It's not Trey White. It's an excellent guest. Oh, it's
Speaker 1: an excellent guest because that would have been my guest.
Speaker 1: It is not Poyer I'm gonna help you. It's a
Speaker 1: new arrival to the team.
Speaker 2: Who's Shack Thompson.
Speaker 1: There you go, Shaq Thompson, who's spent a good portion
Speaker 1: of his time in the NFC. That's why I said
Speaker 1: it was kind of a trick question. Question four got
Speaker 1: a pretty good kind of you're doing well, you're doing well,
Speaker 1: a chance to go three for four right out of
Speaker 1: the shoot? Which current Bills player has a defensive touchdown
Speaker 1: against an NFC South opponent and the Sean mcdermoan era,
Speaker 1: Trey White, You are right, Trey White. I kind of
Speaker 1: gave it to your earlier.
Speaker 2: To me earlier I would have gotten that, though.
Speaker 1: I know Bubble returned for a touchdown against Atlanta in
Speaker 1: twenty seventy Steve Batton seven in the Numbers game. Very
Speaker 1: well done. Bill's fans. Get in on the action with FanDuel,
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Speaker 1: we now ask our one burning question, Steve. If you
Speaker 1: could add a reliable, productive starter at any one position
Speaker 1: right now for the Bills, where would you do it.
Speaker 2: It's an interesting question because they are getting a product.
Speaker 2: They're getting two productive starters on the defensive front in Hoyton,
Speaker 2: Ogan Jobie. I think you you could say wide receiver,
Speaker 2: because I just think they need some juice out there.
Speaker 2: I think they've become a little bit stagnant. And we
Speaker 2: saw too the Bills struggled in pass protection against the Falcons.
Speaker 2: But I'm not going to say an offensive lineman.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I might have screwed it up. Yeah, what
Speaker 1: I didn't delete it. I think I copied and pasted
Speaker 1: the fan duel, read and asked, and I did the
Speaker 1: same question. All right, So let's do a redo there. Sorry,
Speaker 1: time now for our one learning question. Buffalo has won
Speaker 1: five consecutive division titles, Steve. They've played at least two
Speaker 1: playoff games each of the last five years and have
Speaker 1: played a first play schedule the last five years as well.
Speaker 1: It is is it at all possible that the Bills
Speaker 1: as a team have experienced contention fatigue?
Speaker 2: Absolutely. We've talked a lot about the emotional This is
Speaker 2: an appropriate question for you because your team, year after
Speaker 2: year in the nineties went back and went back and
Speaker 2: went back and went back, and that can wear on
Speaker 2: you play When you play in a lot of big
Speaker 2: games at the end of the season, important games like
Speaker 2: we did back in the day, these regular season games,
Speaker 2: you just feel like, just get me to the ones
Speaker 2: that matter. I think there's a little bit of that
Speaker 2: going on.
Speaker 1: We saw Kansas City kind of experience that last year,
Speaker 1: eleven one score victories. They found a way to pull
Speaker 1: a lot of those out.
Speaker 2: Yes, but it looked.
Speaker 1: Hard for them and they looked disinterested.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they made it to the Super Bowl last year.
Speaker 2: I mean they turned it on when it mattered, and
Speaker 2: there's a little bit something to that. Maybe this team
Speaker 2: can do that, but you really need to win these games.
Speaker 2: You can't count on on going on the road in
Speaker 2: the playoffs because by that time, no matter who you're playing,
Speaker 2: whether it's the Chiefs, the Ravens, the Chargers, the Colts,
Speaker 2: all these teams are it doesn't matter who you're playing,
Speaker 2: they're going to be playing well and you've got to
Speaker 2: be ready for that. So, yes, I think that is
Speaker 2: an absolute real thing for this club. I think it's
Speaker 2: a battle they have to fight to get emotionally up
Speaker 2: for these games.
Speaker 1: I think it's one of the reasons we have seen
Speaker 1: the last three weeks they have not come into games
Speaker 1: with energy juice.
Speaker 2: You know, you're playing you're playing out of conference, out
Speaker 2: of division games, teams you don't normally see. They're two
Speaker 2: and two coming in. The Bills have been playing teams that.
Speaker 2: I mean, the Patriots are the only team that had
Speaker 2: won a game before they played the Bills. I mean,
Speaker 2: they're playing all these teams that can't win a game.
Speaker 2: It's just like it's it's rough.
Speaker 1: So I do think there is some contention. I call
Speaker 1: it contention fatigue. You're you're an AFC contender again and
Speaker 1: you have to play a first play schedule again, but
Speaker 1: the regular season seems almost secondary when you go to
Speaker 1: the postseason every year. Right It's like, this isn't a
Speaker 1: big game. And I think they've got to They've got
Speaker 1: to squash that and squash that fast, because right now
Speaker 1: you're sitting here on the bye week looking up at
Speaker 1: the New England Patriots, the first place in your division.
Speaker 2: A quick story of my old coach, Marv Levy, who
Speaker 2: was one hundred years old. This year, he told our
Speaker 2: team a story for this exact situation. You know, you're
Speaker 2: into these games where these teams that are struggling, and
Speaker 2: you're the team that's gonna you know, at the end,
Speaker 2: you're going to be a division title or you're going
Speaker 2: to be a wild card, even if you stumble and fall.
Speaker 2: He said. Listen, he goes. Back in the day, they
Speaker 2: asked one of the great pitchers in them in baseball
Speaker 2: about his pitching style. It was Sandy Kofax, and they said, well,
Speaker 2: what you know, when do you really you know, when
Speaker 2: is it really important to pitch well? And he and
Speaker 2: the and the he said, really breed down. When do
Speaker 2: you worry the most about a batter? He goes, I
Speaker 2: worry when the pitcher comes up. He goes, the picture
Speaker 2: they can't hit. Is why are you worried about the pitcher?
Speaker 2: And he goes, because the pitcher is the one I'm
Speaker 2: supposed to get out the picture, the guy who can't
Speaker 2: hit is the one they're depending on me to get
Speaker 2: him out. That's when I've got to do my job.
Speaker 2: And when you face a team that is struggling, it's
Speaker 2: just trying to rebuild and find find Carolina, like the
Speaker 2: Carolina Panthers. That's the team you're supposed to beat. That's
Speaker 2: when you're you know, there's a question whether, hey, you
Speaker 2: the Chiefs coming in here, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers coming
Speaker 2: in here, the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles coming here.
Speaker 2: You can hey those teams. Hey, that's a that's a tot.
Speaker 2: I get it. You lose a close one of those guys,
Speaker 2: that's a tough game. You're supposed to beat that team.
Speaker 2: Make it happen. So that was the story Marv told
Speaker 2: us as we were, you know, kind of in this
Speaker 2: you know, contention fatigue where he saw it and you
Speaker 2: have to address it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So hopefully that happens as well coming out of
Speaker 1: the buy. Our closing figure deals with James Cook's success
Speaker 1: running the football thus far this season. Among backs with
Speaker 1: more than fifty carries this season, Cook ranks sixth in
Speaker 1: the highest number of box defenders faced at seven point
Speaker 1: five six. Cook stands fourth in the NFL in total
Speaker 1: yards after contact with three hundred and six. He ranks
Speaker 1: second in the NFL and expected yards per attempt at
Speaker 1: nine point nine two, and only one player in the
Speaker 1: league ranks higher than Cook's EPA per attempt. It's Carolinas
Speaker 1: Rico Dowdle with a figure of twelve point three with
Speaker 1: the Bills face after the buye in week eight. That'll
Speaker 1: do it for this episode. Be sure to subscribe on
Speaker 1: whatever podcast platform you use or watch us on the
Speaker 1: Bills YouTube channel, because when you need to know about
Speaker 1: the Bills, you need to jeck Bill by the numbers
Speaker 1: for Steve tapter On, Chris Brown, thanks for listening. We'll
Speaker 1: pat you next time.
Speaker 2: Everybody