OBL 5/20: Player Returning From Injury To Make An Impact, ESPN's Dan Graziano Joins The Show
Chris Brown and Steve Tasker updated the latest news and notes from One Bills Drive and around the NFL. They asked the listeners which injured player in 2025 do you see having a major impact on the Bills 2026 season? ESPN NFL Insider Dan Graziano joined the show. He shared his thoughts on the most lingering questions that still need to be answered from this offseason, his overall thoughts on the Bills, and the Chiefs chances in 2026 with Patrick Mahomes' return. Finally, he shared his thoughts on the increased slate of international games the league is implementing.
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Speaker 1: Look you boys today.
Speaker 2: He is a feast for the Capitol fiend. The cup
Speaker 2: is in the kitchen, looks down the sideline.
Speaker 3: He's got kickad for a twenty three yard touchdown and
Speaker 3: it's intercepted.
Speaker 4: Jumping over in the air is bad for these these one.
Speaker 1: Bill's Live. All right, Welcome into a Wednesday edition, as
Speaker 1: we are coming to you live from the Bill Store
Speaker 1: on Avid Road here in Orchard Park. Chris Brown, Steve
Speaker 1: Tasker with you as per usual, and uh, I gotta
Speaker 1: tell you, Steve, I feel like demolition behind us in
Speaker 1: former High March Stadium has taken on epic proportions. They
Speaker 1: are really ripping at this thing now. It's like big
Speaker 1: chunks are coming down. It's I mean, we can hear
Speaker 1: it here in the store right now. It's audible through
Speaker 1: my because you can hear the rumbling going on behind us.
Speaker 1: It is coming down in short order.
Speaker 4: Today. Seems like they shifted gears. Yeah, that's what I meant.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they uh.
Speaker 4: Picked up the pace. Yeah, yeah, you will have turned
Speaker 4: around a little. What are they doing now? It sounds awful, Yeah,
Speaker 4: you know, but they've they're Yeah, it's gone, man, it's
Speaker 4: it's going.
Speaker 1: I have put this offer out to people in the office.
Speaker 1: I've encouraged them knowing that the Sabers season is over
Speaker 1: to hop on the end where I'm a die in
Speaker 1: the wool Knicks fan, and I will admit and I
Speaker 1: don't usually do this, but last night Game one, Nicks
Speaker 1: are down twenty with like seven minutes left twenty two actually,
Speaker 1: with seven minutes left in game one of the Eastern
Speaker 1: Conference files against the Cabs, and I look at my wife,
Speaker 1: who has very little interest in watching the rest of
Speaker 1: this game. So I was like, all right, hon, let's
Speaker 1: see what's on the DVR, and you know I'll watch
Speaker 1: it right thirty minutes sitcom with you. We watched the
Speaker 1: show show ends, and my son, who's home this week,
Speaker 1: is in the basement and he goes, Dad, you may
Speaker 1: want to put the game on if you're not watching.
Speaker 1: I said, why, what's going on? He goes, They're in overtime.
Speaker 1: I was like, what, I've run upstairs, pop the TV on,
Speaker 1: and I watched probably the last four minutes of overtime,
Speaker 1: and man, I just get I get chills because I've
Speaker 1: been in Madison Square Garden when the Knicks were very,
Speaker 1: very bad, and I've been in there when they've been good,
Speaker 1: not great. It's a different building. Like I know, a
Speaker 1: lot of fans say, oh, we got the loudest arena
Speaker 1: in whatever whatever, and there are loud stadiums around the league,
Speaker 1: as we know in the NFL. Well, but when something
Speaker 1: like last night happens in that building, which the public
Speaker 1: address anouncer says every time he gets on the mic,
Speaker 1: Welcome to Madison Square Garden, the world's most famous arena.
Speaker 1: And yeah, it lives up to the billing when dramatic
Speaker 1: stuff like that happens, because you feel like the roof
Speaker 1: is coming off and it was like that last night.
Speaker 4: I've been in there one time, one time.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's for one of the last handful of Billy
Speaker 4: Joel concerts.
Speaker 1: Oh that's a good one.
Speaker 4: And it's compressed, it's intimate. It's got a unique feature
Speaker 4: if you've never been. It's got these walkways that you
Speaker 4: can that have seats in them, and you are literally
Speaker 4: on over the top of the court. People are looking
Speaker 4: almost straight down onto the court on a wide walkway
Speaker 4: that has seats in it, and you have to you
Speaker 4: can't get there, Yeah, you have to get it from
Speaker 4: the ends and walk all the way across. It's a
Speaker 4: unique feature that arena. And yeah, I could see how
Speaker 4: that place would absolutely it gets very, very loud and crazy.
Speaker 4: And the Knicks. The Knicks have a special place in
Speaker 4: the heart of New York. I'm not even I have
Speaker 4: no idea. I've never I've visited. I've been there a
Speaker 4: bunch of times. The New York Knicks have a special
Speaker 4: place in the hearts of New York City people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because I would say New York as a sports town.
Speaker 1: If you wanted me to rank the sports in that town,
Speaker 1: it's baseball first, and it always will be, whether you're
Speaker 1: a Yankees or Mets fan, it's baseball first. City basketball
Speaker 1: might be second.
Speaker 4: Well, and here's the thing. Now that you have the
Speaker 4: Brooklyn Nets, which is kind of a newer franchise, the
Speaker 4: Knicks were the only show in town in the NBA
Speaker 4: for a long time.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, because the New York Nets, right, we're in
Speaker 1: the ABA, right, played on Long Island. Then they moved
Speaker 1: to New Jersey when they joined the NBA. Were there
Speaker 1: for a long time, like thirty forty years, then left
Speaker 1: New Jersey, moved to Brooklyn, right, And so that's where
Speaker 1: they are now, but in a way they've always kind
Speaker 1: of been the step child, right.
Speaker 4: It's it is a New York nick town. And when
Speaker 4: the team has something happened like it did last night,
Speaker 4: I mean you, I mean cab drivers, Dorman, everybody's talking.
Speaker 1: About Oh and they got sports talk just like the
Speaker 1: Savers had, they got watch parties outside on Seventh Avenue.
Speaker 1: Those people are losing their minds.
Speaker 4: It's crazy, crazy. I had no I'm not an NBA guy, obviously,
Speaker 4: but I watch NBA for sure, particularly in the playoffs.
Speaker 4: I did not watch last night because I was busy
Speaker 4: and all you could hear about on all the radio
Speaker 4: sports radios that I was listening to on the way
Speaker 4: in a work And when I got up and you
Speaker 4: start kind of catching up with you know what we're
Speaker 4: going to be talking about today. And now they are god,
Speaker 4: you know, all this stuff comes out of New York
Speaker 4: like they are gaga over this next team.
Speaker 1: And I think I think overall, they're a little bit
Speaker 1: better than the Calves. Not tremendously better, but they're a
Speaker 1: little bit better than the Calves. I think their benches
Speaker 1: a little deeper. But the sad thing is I think
Speaker 1: they will win this series and get to the NBA Finals.
Speaker 1: They're not beating the don't think anybody's beating the Spurs.
Speaker 1: The Spurs, Spurs, I think are gonna beat the Thunder,
Speaker 1: which is the defending NBA champ, and then Wax, the
Speaker 1: Knicks or the Calves, whoever comes out of the East,
Speaker 1: because they are a force of nature. With Wemban Yama, it's.
Speaker 4: They're very ridiculous. The Spurs are incredibly.
Speaker 1: Their oldest starter is twenty four.
Speaker 4: They're incredibly young. But they you know, and last year
Speaker 4: it looked like the Thunder we're gonna run this thing
Speaker 4: and they're gonna have run off two or three championships
Speaker 4: in a row.
Speaker 1: It's hard to do.
Speaker 4: They've got the defending MVP, and now you know, the
Speaker 4: MVP again and win Banyana change win. Yama changes the
Speaker 4: equation for everybody. Very skilled player. And he's seven feet
Speaker 4: five inches.
Speaker 1: Tall and he shoots threes from twenty eight feet and
Speaker 1: can put the ball on.
Speaker 4: The deck and yeah, and it's he shoots threes from
Speaker 4: twenty eight feet as a set shot, just.
Speaker 1: Like like you because no one can block it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, like you're like he's standing at the like we
Speaker 4: all do standing at the free throw line. That's how
Speaker 4: he shoots a twenty eight foot three.
Speaker 1: He put it on the floor and he took his
Speaker 1: first step at the absolute top of the key. One step,
Speaker 1: two steps, and he just dropped it in the basket.
Speaker 1: So he covered almost twenty feet with stripes. That's just crazy.
Speaker 1: He's like an alien. He's not from this earth. He's ridiculous.
Speaker 1: And he's only twenty two years old.
Speaker 4: Yeah, maze good on him. It'll be interesting. I think
Speaker 4: the Knicks. I would love to see the series and
Speaker 4: I'd love to see something happen where the Knicks could win.
Speaker 4: It be great, but I think something's going to have
Speaker 4: to happen for them to do it. Yes, like wemb
Speaker 4: and you's painful or whatever. But yeah, it's gonna be
Speaker 4: the last.
Speaker 1: So I'm not last thing about this. Then we'll get
Speaker 1: into the bills notes. So I got a bunch of
Speaker 1: high school buddies and they're all huge hoopets. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: so they're texting about the game last night and everything,
Speaker 1: and Game one in the Western Conference Finals went to
Speaker 1: overtime also, and they were texting about that, saying, how
Speaker 1: the heck do you stop Webbin Yama. There's no answer
Speaker 1: for that guy. And one of my high school buddies goes, well,
Speaker 1: you could get a lead pipe and go Tanya harding,
Speaker 1: but that's the only thing you're gonna do to stop it, right, Like,
Speaker 1: that's that's where it's at. He's his pres the force
Speaker 1: of nature.
Speaker 4: His presence changes everything. And that's you know, and you
Speaker 4: got you like you, you and me. I spent my
Speaker 4: whole life staying Yeah, that's how it works, you know,
Speaker 4: because I was I was never I've never even been
Speaker 4: close to six feet let alone.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you always talk about the one percenters. This
Speaker 1: guy is like from the half percenters of those one
Speaker 1: percent he's.
Speaker 4: Point one percenters.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, nobody like him walking around the earth right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm playing NBA basketball.
Speaker 4: There'll there'll be other guys, yeah that are that tall.
Speaker 1: But the last seven to five guy was like yao ming.
Speaker 1: That was like, yeah, it's a generation.
Speaker 4: My new Bowl was seven seven. He was even taller,
Speaker 4: but he was not he was not an athlete.
Speaker 1: He was not an exceptional player, right, he was.
Speaker 4: New to the game and you know, did what he
Speaker 4: could do. But yeah, it was Yeah, it's crazy to
Speaker 4: have a young guy just starting out and being this
Speaker 4: good right away. Yeah, and you know he's a little
Speaker 4: bit frail. I mean, I mean you Marrol Framed. I'll
Speaker 4: tell you this. I would love to have seen Shack
Speaker 4: in his prime play that guy.
Speaker 1: Oh, that would be a different story. Although all he
Speaker 1: has to do is pull him out from the basket
Speaker 1: because he's got a three point shot that you have
Speaker 1: to respect. So was Shaq just gonna sit in the
Speaker 1: key and let him bomb three s on them all day?
Speaker 1: You know? And then if you come out now, the
Speaker 1: rim protector on Shack's team is gone because he's nineteen
Speaker 1: feet from the basket. So when you'm a and then
Speaker 1: dishes it to somebody cut to the basket, nobody to
Speaker 1: pocket get it. He's a conundrum.
Speaker 4: It's a problem. Yeah, it's a problem. Well so much
Speaker 4: so much for the NBA Finals. It'll be fun and
Speaker 4: that's why I just want the next to get there.
Speaker 4: They probably tune in for that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's get to some Bill's notes. Bill's OTA's continue tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Today is an off day before they resume on Thursday.
Speaker 1: Yesterday's session was open to the media, and Keon Coleman
Speaker 1: spoke with the media after practice. He called his twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five season an expletive and said this season is
Speaker 1: make or break for him. Coleman said quote, I don't
Speaker 1: need self motivation. I know what I'm here to do
Speaker 1: and know what I'm capable of doing. Obviously, he was
Speaker 1: the subject of some comments in a press conference, you know,
Speaker 1: this offseason, and the media kind of took it and
Speaker 1: ran with it. But I think Joe Brady and Brandon
Speaker 1: Bean were pretty upfront and saying, hey, look, he's not
Speaker 1: going anywhere. He's gonna be here. We're gonna make this work.
Speaker 1: So and Joe said it again yesterday in his press conference.
Speaker 1: I told Keon as soon as I was named the
Speaker 1: head coach of the Bills, You're going to be here
Speaker 1: and we're gonna make it work. So that's where it is.
Speaker 4: And you know, we've only seen flashes from Keon. We
Speaker 4: haven't seen any consistency. He was a healthy scratch and
Speaker 4: number of games last year four games, and and you
Speaker 4: know there was a lot of question marks surrounding him
Speaker 4: with the team. Was the team going to give him
Speaker 4: prove himself? Because this this facity you can go back
Speaker 4: and look, he called his he called his rookie season trash.
Speaker 4: He called this second season even worse than that. I
Speaker 4: guess it's even where we had a debate about which
Speaker 4: was worse, but in his own mind. But he's in
Speaker 4: the same body was a year ago, and he and
Speaker 4: he didn't elevate. That's right, that's a problem. So he's
Speaker 4: he's been the conversation center of a conversation has been
Speaker 4: going on since the end of the season.
Speaker 1: This despite the fact that, for those that don't remember,
Speaker 1: his off season last year was very promising. He had
Speaker 1: a strong training camp. He was turning in plays for
Speaker 1: some reason. I don't seem to remember too many plays
Speaker 1: in the preseason games. But he had a good training
Speaker 1: camp where people were encouraged and thought, Okay, here's where
Speaker 1: he kind of ascends. And then it didn't materialize, and
Speaker 1: then we all know what happened in terms of missing
Speaker 1: meetings and being laid and stuff like that, which earned
Speaker 1: him being a healthy scratch for four games last season.
Speaker 1: I would like to believe that all the pieces of
Speaker 1: the puzzle come together this year and he's a more
Speaker 1: consistent contributor because it's in there. You can see sure,
Speaker 1: the physical ability. It's in there now it just has
Speaker 1: to come out on Sundays on a weekly basis, so
Speaker 1: hopefully that does, in fact happen. He said he's motivated
Speaker 1: and ready to roll, so hopefully it comes to Michael
Speaker 1: Hoyt was also seen running on the side at the
Speaker 1: OTA practice session yesterday. He's trying to return from an Achilles'
Speaker 1: tear suffered last October. I talked to him about a
Speaker 1: week ago, and he did say that he had the
Speaker 1: lesser of the two Achilles types of injuries. Like if
Speaker 1: you rupture your achilles, sometimes it snaps in the middle
Speaker 1: and then other times it snaps off the bone at
Speaker 1: the heel. The one that snaps off the bone at
Speaker 1: the heel is the more serious Achilles injury and takes
Speaker 1: more time to rehabilitate. Hoyt had the one where it
Speaker 1: snapped in the middle, which usually has a shorter rehab turnaround.
Speaker 1: So to see the film of him running out there,
Speaker 1: you know, doing straight line, maybe not sprints, but three
Speaker 1: quarter speed runs, that was encouraging to see. So we'll
Speaker 1: have to see if this means he's ahead of schedule,
Speaker 1: because we know the recovery time is typically ten to
Speaker 1: twelve months, and he did that in the third week
Speaker 1: in October last year, So August would be ten months, right,
Speaker 1: August would be ten months. So he's gonna be right there.
Speaker 1: If he's ahead of schedule, maybe he's participating on a
Speaker 1: limited basis in training camp. I mean, we were wondering
Speaker 1: if he's gonna be ready for the regular season. To me,
Speaker 1: that's I'm not a doctor, but that was an encouraging
Speaker 1: scien scene in some of that yesterday.
Speaker 4: You get some You're right, some injuries are worse than others,
Speaker 4: and they're different types, even though they call them both
Speaker 4: Achilles injuries. When the when it separates from the tendon
Speaker 4: and the soft muscle, there's more blood flow there, it
Speaker 4: heals faster, heals better, and it's reparable when it comes
Speaker 4: off the bone. I mean you're talking about we got
Speaker 4: to reattach it to the ball screw like a screw
Speaker 4: heel bone. It's like, oh, it sounds awful, and it is,
Speaker 4: but that's that's a longer It takes a longer time
Speaker 4: to get that strengthened to the point where you can
Speaker 4: put full force on it. Yeah, it'll he's not gonna
Speaker 4: be on right away. It's gonna take it's gonna be
Speaker 4: a process. We'll see him when we see him, just
Speaker 4: knock on wood. But he's not one of those guys
Speaker 4: who like the like Von Miller, where the Bills sign him.
Speaker 4: He's awesome for a heartbeat, gets injured, comes back, gets
Speaker 4: injured again. You know that's that's the worst. So we'll
Speaker 4: see I mean that, it's yeah, I'm I I'm high
Speaker 4: hopes for the guy.
Speaker 1: And you can really play and really smart. I mean,
Speaker 1: guy's an Ivy leaguer. He went to Brown University, so
Speaker 1: knows what he's doing out there. I mean, you talked
Speaker 1: about it last year when he got back in the lineup,
Speaker 1: it was gonna be his job to pre snap, call
Speaker 1: the pass rush games for this defense. And he played
Speaker 1: a game and a half and then ruptured the achilles,
Speaker 1: So it's unfortunate. NFL dot Com writers were asked to
Speaker 1: predict the one loss records for all thirty two teams
Speaker 1: now that everybody's schedule is out. For the Bills, they
Speaker 1: predicted twelve and five and eleven and six. Both Ali
Speaker 1: Bonpori and Tom Blair. The writers had the Bills winning
Speaker 1: the AFC East. Bonpori had the Bills as the top
Speaker 1: seed in the AFC at twelve and five, Blair had
Speaker 1: them as the three seed. Can you imagine if we
Speaker 1: get the top seed this year.
Speaker 4: In that joint? It'd be nice, be nice, it would
Speaker 4: be very nice.
Speaker 1: Yes, sir, may I have another Yeah.
Speaker 4: That would be that's a huge accomplishment with with with
Speaker 4: with the schedule that they on the horizon. It's a bear,
Speaker 4: it's a real it's yeah, it's Almo. It's almost impossible
Speaker 4: to dream of that because so many things have to
Speaker 4: go your way.
Speaker 1: The first five games, I mean that is, yeah, at
Speaker 1: Texans home, Lions home, Chargers home, Patriots at Rams. The
Speaker 1: best part of that five game stretches, three of them
Speaker 1: are at home in a row. That's the best part
Speaker 1: of the whole dang thing.
Speaker 4: That's right, That's right.
Speaker 1: It's the first five weeks and then weeks twelve to sixteen.
Speaker 1: Those are the tough stretches, like the really hard parts
Speaker 1: of the schedule where it's just one opponent after another
Speaker 1: of high quality and you better be on your stuff.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's nice too because this weeks three and four
Speaker 4: are one pm games. It's in the afternoon, you know,
Speaker 4: so it's it's gonna be a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: Let's go around the NFL, because, as we know, the
Speaker 1: only unsigned Bills draft pick right now is fourth round
Speaker 1: offensive tackle Jude Bowery, but the fourth rounders are starting
Speaker 1: to sign, which could trigger more concrete contract parameters for
Speaker 1: Bowery and the Bills. Bronco's fourth round offensive tackle Cage
Speaker 1: Casey signed his four year rookie con He was taken
Speaker 1: nine picks after Bowery and plays the same position. The
Speaker 1: only other offensive lineman drafted between Bowery and Casey is
Speaker 1: Texans guard Fabeci Nowayu with pick one oh six. Bowery
Speaker 1: was picked one oh two, Casey was picked one to eleven,
Speaker 1: So hopefully this brings them closer. I'm trying to remember
Speaker 1: there's been a stumbling block the last few years with
Speaker 1: the fourth rounders. It used to be the third rounders,
Speaker 1: then more and more of their contracts got guaranteed. Now
Speaker 1: it's shifted to the fourth rounders where they're trying to
Speaker 1: get guaranteed money and offset language and all this other stuff,
Speaker 1: and it bogs down the negotiation process because ever since
Speaker 1: the rookie contract, the rookie wage scale came in with
Speaker 1: the latest edition of the CBA holdouts anymore. Right amongst
Speaker 1: draft class, you know draft picks and rookies, but these
Speaker 1: fourth rounders now are taking longer to sign because of
Speaker 1: some of those sticks pulations. Eventually they get done, but
Speaker 1: there's a lot more haggling involved. An interesting side note
Speaker 1: for Chiefs wide receiver Rashid Rice, who we told you yesterday,
Speaker 1: was ordered to serve thirty days in jail for violating
Speaker 1: his probation. One week before the order, Rice underwent a
Speaker 1: cleanup surgery on his right knee a scope due to
Speaker 1: some inflammation. Rice is expected to be sidelined for two months,
Speaker 1: but is expected to be ready for training camp later
Speaker 1: this summer. But here's the rub. Rice underwent surgery last
Speaker 1: week in Dallas, doing it obviously before he knew it
Speaker 1: would be sentenced after violating the terms of his probation.
Speaker 1: So now in a Dallas County jail, Rice is going
Speaker 1: to be unable to get the type of medical attention
Speaker 1: and rehabilitation that could have expedited his return from said surgery.
Speaker 1: So he's got to rehab himself in a jail cell
Speaker 1: the next thirty days. Yeah, whatever stupid is as stupid
Speaker 1: does I mean? What are we doing?
Speaker 4: Bro?
Speaker 1: What are we doing?
Speaker 4: Like, Yeah, that's it's selfish, isn't it. It's yes, it's
Speaker 4: a lot of things, selfish being one of them.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So we'll see how that all turns out and
Speaker 1: if he's behind in his rehabilitation and if that slows
Speaker 1: his return to be ready for training camp for the Chiefs.
Speaker 1: Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Pennocks Junior, now back to participating
Speaker 1: in practice following his ACL surgery back in November, said
Speaker 1: he's planning to be ready for week one. Penick said
Speaker 1: he started throwing again in mid March. He feels mostly
Speaker 1: normal at this stage. He has been doing individual drills
Speaker 1: during practice as well as seven on seven sessions, but
Speaker 1: he has not yet competed in eleven on eleven team sessions,
Speaker 1: so another hurdle to clear there in his return to
Speaker 1: full action, and as expected, NFL owners approved increasing the
Speaker 1: maximum number of league run international games per season from
Speaker 1: eight to ten, beginning in twenty twenty seven. That maximum
Speaker 1: does not include the Jaguars run game in London. There
Speaker 1: were eight international games not counting the Jaguars game, making
Speaker 1: it nine this year. There is one change, however, Steve
Speaker 1: NFL teams are no longer able to protect specific home
Speaker 1: games from being moved internationally. Up until now, teams could
Speaker 1: lock in two guaranteed home stadium games each season. That
Speaker 1: rule has been eliminated, and the NFL can now move
Speaker 1: any game they want to a different country. So, for example,
Speaker 1: let's just look at the Bill schedule this year. What
Speaker 1: would be the two home games you would protect? Probably
Speaker 1: the home opener against Detroit, right, and what the Chiefs game?
Speaker 4: Probably right?
Speaker 1: Well, not anymore. Now the league can come in and say, well,
Speaker 1: I know, Thanksgivings an American holiday, but we're gonna move
Speaker 1: that Chiefs game receives for Thanksgiving.
Speaker 4: I know the Bears Packers game is a.
Speaker 1: Is a rivalry that I've loved and hated all of
Speaker 1: the Packers Munich Thursday night game in Munich.
Speaker 4: Thanks guys, thanks for coming out.
Speaker 1: I mean, they could pick anything. I would like to
Speaker 1: think that the league would be aware of the impact
Speaker 1: of pulling like a classic matchup type game and putting
Speaker 1: it somewhere else.
Speaker 4: It doesn't affect it this year, but it could next
Speaker 4: year for the Bills. But think about this, they don't
Speaker 4: have the Bill to worry about selling out every game
Speaker 4: this year. That the building's going to sell out the games.
Speaker 4: Forget about the team, novelty of good, how good the
Speaker 4: team is. That everything is going to say they're going
Speaker 4: to sell that out. So when you that's what teams
Speaker 4: are looking at, so they know they're going to get
Speaker 4: that revenue. The league knows it too, So that would
Speaker 4: be into into the stew of what the league considers. Listen,
Speaker 4: they're gonna sell out at home, They're gonna do this,
Speaker 4: let's leave it there for this year, knowing that they're
Speaker 4: gonna max it out, max out that value in the
Speaker 4: whole thing. Now, we got a team like you name
Speaker 4: it Arizona and they're not selling out anything, but we
Speaker 4: will sell it out in Munich, you know what I mean, right,
Speaker 4: So we will sell it out in Buenos Aires.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I think there is a formula for
Speaker 1: how they land on certain games. But there is also
Speaker 1: the pressure to provide quality matchups overseas two because they're
Speaker 1: stand alone to further draw eyeballs, you know in Europe.
Speaker 4: So standalone games as well here in America, the europe games.
Speaker 4: So yeah, all that goes into the mix. And who
Speaker 4: knows why. It could be that there are certain teams
Speaker 4: with some cachet in certain towns, in certain countries that
Speaker 4: would sell better, and the league's probably very aware of
Speaker 4: which teams those are, so that'll be as big a
Speaker 4: thing as.
Speaker 1: Anything topic of discussion for you today. Which injured player
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty five do you see having a major
Speaker 1: impact on the bills twenty twenty six season. You have
Speaker 1: a lot of names to choose from, because, as we know,
Speaker 1: there were a lot of Bills out for multiple weeks
Speaker 1: with injuries, including last year's draft class. So if you
Speaker 1: got a person in mind that you're excited to see
Speaker 1: back on the field and you believe can play a
Speaker 1: major role in the fortunes of the Bills in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty six, lay it on us at one Bills Live
Speaker 1: on Twitter. That's where you can compete to appear on
Speaker 1: the tweet sheet. So fire away and give us a
Speaker 1: player in mind, and why you think that player could
Speaker 1: have a significant impact on Buffalo's twenty twenty sixth season.
Speaker 1: Did anybody's name spring mind immediately?
Speaker 4: Well? Hoy did, Yeah, immediately, Ed did as well. Max
Speaker 4: Harrison sprang to mind as well because of the you know,
Speaker 4: the problems he had. Kinkaid is in that I mean
Speaker 4: the list goes on, like he's started laming these guys off.
Speaker 4: Everybody was down last year. I think if he stays healthy,
Speaker 4: I think fans at home, the way, the way we
Speaker 4: observe the game, and what kind of drives our interest,
Speaker 4: it's going to be Dalton Kincaid having him played one
Speaker 4: hundred percent for more of the season. This team's a
Speaker 4: different animal with him on the field. I didn't really
Speaker 4: even if you don't see it with the naked eye,
Speaker 4: the numbers will tell you they are way more effective
Speaker 4: and efficient offensively when he's on the field. So I
Speaker 4: think if he stays healthy and can get out there,
Speaker 4: I mean, this is going to be a team that's
Speaker 4: really really difficult to be And when you start talking
Speaker 4: about getting the one seed, stuff like that's got to
Speaker 4: go your way. You gotta have key guys on the
Speaker 4: field for the season. And you know, losing you know,
Speaker 4: losing a cut, you know, losing a special teams guy
Speaker 4: is not as important as losing your number one tight end.
Speaker 4: Who's your number one targets in your past game. So
Speaker 4: that's I think the guy I would pick Ken Kaid. Yes,
Speaker 4: DJ Moore is going to make a difference James Cook,
Speaker 4: the whole thing. It's all going to make a difference.
Speaker 4: But if Dalton, k and Caid can stay healthy, this
Speaker 4: offense is going to play at a level, at a
Speaker 4: little higher level than it was able to week to
Speaker 4: week to week to week last year. And it's going
Speaker 4: to be this whole team is going to be really
Speaker 4: even more difficult to beat than it already is.
Speaker 1: That is what we put to you at One Bill's Live.
Speaker 1: Give us a player that you have in mind, and
Speaker 1: we will check your tweets when we get back by
Speaker 1: cracking open that tweetsheet here on a Whennesday edition of
Speaker 1: One Bill's Live.
Speaker 5: Stay tune.
Speaker 1: All right back here on One Bill's Live Wednesday edition
Speaker 1: live from the Bill's.
Speaker 5: Store, Chris Brown steek tasker with.
Speaker 1: You and talking to you a little bit about what
Speaker 1: injured player from twenty twenty five more than their fair
Speaker 1: share of injured players out for multiple weeks. What injured
Speaker 1: player from twenty twenty five do you see having a
Speaker 1: major impact on the Bill's twenty twenty six season. And
Speaker 1: you can comment add One Bills Live on Twitter, and
Speaker 1: we are going to crack open the tweets sheet here
Speaker 1: where Jack says obvious answers are Kincaid and Hoyt. If healthy,
Speaker 1: both will be big contributors. However, a dark horse is
Speaker 1: Dwayne Carter. He showed lashes, is a rookie and by
Speaker 1: all accounts, has come back bigger and stronger. He has
Speaker 1: an opportunity to make noise on the interior of the
Speaker 1: D that is light on bodies. I think the young
Speaker 1: players like Dwayne Carter, Landon Jackson, TJ. Sanders, They're going
Speaker 1: to be given every opportunity to win a starting job
Speaker 1: on that D line, presumably alongside Dion Walker and Ed Oliver.
Speaker 1: I think those two guys are odds on favorites to
Speaker 1: have two of the three roles on the D line.
Speaker 1: That third one is open, and you know, Dwayne Carter, TJ. Sanders,
Speaker 1: Land and Jackson are some of those younger players who
Speaker 1: are going to be in the mix. Because there's no
Speaker 1: day Kwon Jones anymore, there's no Larry Ogan Joby hanging around.
Speaker 1: There aren't a contingent of veterans that a coaching staff
Speaker 1: might lean on because they're playing experience. It's these young
Speaker 1: kids gotta go.
Speaker 4: Yeah they do. And you know, you go down this list,
Speaker 4: there's a ton of guys on here from Landon Jackson.
Speaker 4: And remember it's it's Tommy A. King, Besote, Dwayne Carter,
Speaker 4: Zane Durant, the Ryan log Faderian mathis Ed Oliver, t
Speaker 4: J Sanders, Dion Walker. I mean, it's a list of
Speaker 4: guys that's going to be down inside there. And yeah,
Speaker 4: they've got some They've got some big dudes, and they've
Speaker 4: got some athletic guys. Zaye Durant and Ed Oliver are
Speaker 4: cut from the same cloth, although Edg's a little bigger
Speaker 4: I think than Zane actually little power pack.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's a little thicker through the bottle, little.
Speaker 4: Thicker, but he's I don't think he's as tall as
Speaker 4: even Ed.
Speaker 1: So they're about the same.
Speaker 4: So we'll see. But you know, to have some pieces
Speaker 4: like that to play around with, it gets you excited
Speaker 4: about the possibilities. You certainly the transition. You know, he
Speaker 4: can't be that seamless, but maybe it will be.
Speaker 1: Frank on the tweet, she says, Michael Hoyt, the dude
Speaker 1: was only on the field for a game and a
Speaker 1: half and he was game wrecking beast.
Speaker 4: He was.
Speaker 1: I mean, you noticed him immediately in that Carolina Panthers game,
Speaker 1: and then the following week he was playing well until
Speaker 1: he pops his achilles, and really all hopes for the
Speaker 1: defense making a turn were lost because you lost Dad
Speaker 1: Oliver and Michael Hoyt in two games for the season.
Speaker 4: At one week, Michael Hoyt the next and it's like
Speaker 4: it just puff, it was gone. So yeah, that's rough.
Speaker 4: If you can stay away from that, that would be
Speaker 4: job one this year. Yep. It's so unpredictable, the whole thing,
Speaker 4: and they've been They've gotten more than their share the
Speaker 4: last couple of years. Maybe it'll come back to the
Speaker 4: mean this year at least.
Speaker 1: Right it's largely defensive alignment and pass rushers that have
Speaker 1: been named thus far. I mean, Terrel Bernard was gimpy
Speaker 1: last season and missed a good portion of the campaign,
Speaker 1: and I don't think he had the season he wanted
Speaker 1: to have because he was nicked up for a good
Speaker 1: portion of the season. Max Harston missed more than half
Speaker 1: the season in his rookie year because of the injury
Speaker 1: in training camp, and then when he came back, he
Speaker 1: missed late in the season and it was costly because
Speaker 1: they had to put guys like Dan Jackson and Darnell
Speaker 1: Savage on the field because he didn't have Max Harriston
Speaker 1: available he was out injured. So there's more than just
Speaker 1: some of the defensive linemen. I mean, I get why
Speaker 1: Hoyt is coming up here time and again. It's because
Speaker 1: in the game and a half he played, he looked
Speaker 1: great and people want to see that again, which begs
Speaker 1: another question. But Michael says, yeah, Michael Hoyt, the man
Speaker 1: is a beast. He can play tackle in linebacker, he
Speaker 1: can drop in the coverage blitz sure tackler. I just
Speaker 1: hope he's fully recovered from his achilles injury. And that's
Speaker 1: really the question here, Steve. He might be medically cleared
Speaker 1: to play at the start of the season, but we've
Speaker 1: we've seen players come back from these kinds of injuries.
Speaker 1: They're not always they don't always look like the same
Speaker 1: explosive player they were a pre injury, at least not
Speaker 1: at the outset of their return.
Speaker 4: I never had an achilles, but I did have a
Speaker 4: couple of different knee injuries and had surgery a bunch
Speaker 4: of times. So when you have a knee surgery or
Speaker 4: a major surgery and you come back and you and
Speaker 4: the doctors will tell you it's never going to be
Speaker 4: exactly like it was because we had to fix it right,
Speaker 4: and there's nothing better than your regular knee, let alone
Speaker 4: us fixing it. And it's not that it's gonna the
Speaker 4: doctors they get medically clear you to play because they
Speaker 4: know you're not gonna hurt yourself. Just run around doing
Speaker 4: whatever you're able physically able to do. You can go
Speaker 4: one hundred percent. You're never gonna injure it the way
Speaker 4: you did or the same at the same spot. The
Speaker 4: difference is every guy is running out there, he can
Speaker 4: feel his knees different, and that's a problem for a
Speaker 4: lot of guy. You got to play long enough and
Speaker 4: you have to get enough time behind you from the
Speaker 4: injury to make the knee the way it is now normal.
Speaker 4: It's got you have a new normal, and that you get.
Speaker 4: It takes a long time to get used to that.
Speaker 4: That's the problem. When they say, yeah, you're medically cleared,
Speaker 4: and but you're still not really exactly where you want
Speaker 4: to be, or you don't feel like it. Usually it's
Speaker 4: because you're you're operating from a new normal and it
Speaker 4: doesn't feel normal yet.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And so because even when he is quote unquote
Speaker 1: physically healthy. You know, you always have to be mindful
Speaker 1: with an injury like that to not compensate with your
Speaker 1: other leg, like unconsciously compensate just because you might tell
Speaker 1: yourself and the docs and the athletic trainers might tell
Speaker 1: you you're fully healed, you're good to go, that leg's as
Speaker 1: strong as the other one, but subconsciously you might be
Speaker 1: favoring it. I mean, look at Jason Tatum for the Celtics.
Speaker 1: He did his achilles last year in the playoffs, came back,
Speaker 1: played most of the season, and then in the playoffs
Speaker 1: he was favoring his He was over compensating for his
Speaker 1: injured leg with his other leg, and then the other
Speaker 1: leg got injured. And we see that a lot.
Speaker 4: To me, that's a problem. And the doctors, none of
Speaker 4: these guys do everything. The doctors and the and the
Speaker 4: therapists and them, and the rehab specialists, they none of
Speaker 4: them do everything. So the doctor will say, yeah, it's
Speaker 4: good to go, you're you're one hundred percent healthy, and
Speaker 4: this guy said, well, you're as strong and fast as
Speaker 4: you used to be, so okay, you must be okay.
Speaker 4: But the player is going to do some things and
Speaker 4: do things that they don't know that he's gonna favorite.
Speaker 4: They can't tell he's gonna favorite. The player can't help
Speaker 4: but favorite. It's where his where he feels like he
Speaker 4: needs to He's trying to play like he thinks he
Speaker 4: needs to play. And that's the gap where you get
Speaker 4: a guy that re injures himself after coming back from
Speaker 4: a major injury. Is because what he feels like he
Speaker 4: can do isn't the same as what the doctors and
Speaker 4: the therapists feel like he can do or telling he
Speaker 4: telling him he can do. So he's trying to play
Speaker 4: in a certain way and doesn't feel like he is
Speaker 4: the same guy. So he's playing a little differently and
Speaker 4: his body's not built for it. He's not trained to
Speaker 4: go one hundred percent in a different body than the
Speaker 4: one he grew up playing in. So you get all
Speaker 4: this these inconsistencies and how strong they are here where
Speaker 4: they are there, and they pop, you know, they they
Speaker 4: pop the other hamstring because their achilles got blown up
Speaker 4: ten fourteen months ago. Now now their hamstring can't stay healthy.
Speaker 4: That kind of thing, that kind of weird connectivity is
Speaker 4: kind of where we're with a lot of players and
Speaker 4: what you hope doesn't happen to guys like Michael Hoyt.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Kate is in the majority, she says, Michael Hoyt
Speaker 1: as well. He was playing well until he tore his achilles.
Speaker 1: Excited to see him healthy. He looked great yesterday. Feel
Speaker 1: like he will do great with the new scheme. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I get it. Lauren changes the choice. She says, Tyler
Speaker 1: Bass had his ebbs and flows with consistency, has an
Speaker 1: exceeded league field goal percentage since twenty twenty two, plus
Speaker 1: coming off injury. I don't like all of our eggs
Speaker 1: in one basket. Feel we needed to draft kicker, not punter.
Speaker 1: Too many close games for better or words, it's Bass
Speaker 1: and his impact. Yeah, the Bill's kicking game went through
Speaker 1: a lot of change last year, but they go through
Speaker 1: three punters a couple of kickers, so yeah, it was
Speaker 1: a lot and that can be disruptive.
Speaker 4: So when push comes to shove, however, and I'm the
Speaker 4: last guy to poop poo, anybody's position that they play.
Speaker 4: The kicker and the punter had very little impact on
Speaker 4: the success or failure at the end of the season
Speaker 4: for the Bills or even during the regular season. They
Speaker 4: were the guys they brought in.
Speaker 1: Were won the game in week one.
Speaker 4: They were money. I mean, they were as good as
Speaker 4: you could expect them to be. You would not have
Speaker 4: batted an eye if Tyler Bass and whoever the punter
Speaker 4: could you pick punter. If Tyler Bass and the other
Speaker 4: guy would have had the year all the way through,
Speaker 4: without making all the chance of five different guys coming
Speaker 4: through and all that, if they would have had that
Speaker 4: year all the way through, nobody would have batted an eye.
Speaker 4: So I'm I'm with you. I wish the best for Tyler.
Speaker 4: I like him. He's a good kicker, he's got a
Speaker 4: strong leg and punter the same thing. You just wish
Speaker 4: them to stay healthy and trust their process.
Speaker 1: I mean, for those that if for gotten. When Tyler
Speaker 1: Bass is right, he is a weapon for this football team,
Speaker 1: a weapon. So hopefully his recovery from you know, the
Speaker 1: surgery he underwent last year when he just could not
Speaker 1: get himself right and the inflammation kept returning. Hopefully he's
Speaker 1: good to go this year and he's back to the
Speaker 1: Tyler Bass that a lot of people remember. I still
Speaker 1: remember that game in Arizona where he's hitting a fifty
Speaker 1: six and a fifty six and a fifty eight yarder
Speaker 1: and Iron Eagles on CBS, going, man, that's good bass
Speaker 1: after the dan Ackroyd skid on SNL back in the
Speaker 1: day of the basismatic and then he said basismatic as well,
Speaker 1: and we can't forget he holds the team record for
Speaker 1: the longest field goal in team history, sixty one yards
Speaker 1: to beat Miami at the gun or with five seconds left.
Speaker 1: I think there were five seconds left after the kick
Speaker 1: went through sixty one yards and it made it by
Speaker 1: a mile. Yeah, like it would have been good from
Speaker 1: like sixty eight. And it takes a lot, I think
Speaker 1: for a punter. I like to say, Tommy Doman comes
Speaker 1: in and as the draft pick of the Bills and
Speaker 1: the punter comes in and absolutely crush it. What would
Speaker 1: it take for a punter to come in and grab
Speaker 1: the imagination of a fan base has?
Speaker 4: That's a big ask. That is a big ass, particularly
Speaker 4: on a team that notorious. Is he's gonna punt like
Speaker 4: twenty times during the season, right, He's maybe thirty. Yeah,
Speaker 4: Well it'll be it'll be between It'll be between thirty
Speaker 4: and forty at least. So that's I mean that it's
Speaker 4: hard to capture a fan base's attention punting that few
Speaker 4: of times and in situations that will allow you to
Speaker 4: make a play or punt the ball in such a
Speaker 4: way as to you know, be a weapon. We'll see.
Speaker 4: But yeah, Tyler Bass, getting him back and getting him healthy,
Speaker 4: it has been an enormously long process for him. Man,
Speaker 4: he feel bad for the guy. He's gonna get a
Speaker 4: chance to compete this year and we'll see if he
Speaker 4: can come back and be the player he once was.
Speaker 1: Break time for us here when we come back. More
Speaker 1: of your comments on the tweets sheet. I see some
Speaker 1: different names there, so we'll pass those along to you
Speaker 1: as we want to know what injured player from twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five do you believe will have a great impact
Speaker 1: on the Bill's twenty twenty six fortunes. We're back in
Speaker 1: a flash here on One Bill's Live. All right, back
Speaker 1: here on One Bill's Live, Chris Brown Steve Tasker with
Speaker 1: you and asking him today what injured player twenty twenty
Speaker 1: five do you see having a major impact on the
Speaker 1: Bill's twenty twos And Michael Hoyt has been the overwhelming favorite,
Speaker 1: although we have heard others, Tyler Bass among them, along
Speaker 1: with Dwayne Carter as a dark horse pick. Jim. On
Speaker 1: the tweet, she says, Terrell Bernard, he's the one with
Speaker 1: the contract extension a ton to prove. If he can
Speaker 1: stay healthy, that's a big plus. Yeah, only played twelve
Speaker 1: games last year. He missed five games and only played
Speaker 1: in thirteen the year before, So.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's got to stay on the field. He's too important.
Speaker 1: We're talking about a defensive captain here who's calling the defense.
Speaker 4: And he was that guy, like from the moment he
Speaker 4: showed up. Remember, I mean they plugged him in pretty
Speaker 4: quickly after he got here, and.
Speaker 1: It was a starter in his second year.
Speaker 4: They need him to they need him to emerge and
Speaker 4: be available.
Speaker 1: Because there was a stretch there when he was playing
Speaker 1: where I was calling a mister fourth quarter on the broadcast,
Speaker 1: because he was making plays at the critical moments of
Speaker 1: football games and crunch time, including Week one last year.
Speaker 1: You know, he comes up with the fumble force by
Speaker 1: ed On Derrick Henry and it gives them the opportunity
Speaker 1: to win the football game in Week one, right, the
Speaker 1: interception against Kansas City in Week nine two years ago,
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four. You know, Bills are up by nine,
Speaker 1: but Chiefs are driving. Mahomes tries to find Kelsey over
Speaker 1: the middle and he picks it off the rakeout on
Speaker 1: Mark Andrews in the playoff game, in the divisional play.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's made big plays and big moments, but
Speaker 1: when he's not on the field, you note.
Speaker 4: The hard thing about it. I mean we saw it
Speaker 4: in the It's been the con topic of conversation around
Speaker 4: the Sabers as well. When you get into these big moments,
Speaker 4: who shows up? Right? Sometimes it's guys who you don't expect.
Speaker 4: Bernard is a guy you almost came to expect it
Speaker 4: a lot like Milana when he was playing at his
Speaker 4: best and healthy. Those guys show up and just make
Speaker 4: a play that they've seen that you can tell they're
Speaker 4: out ahead of it mentally, and they were on top
Speaker 4: of it before the ball was even snapped. Stuff like
Speaker 4: that is really important, and that's what Bernard brings to
Speaker 4: the table when he's one hundred percent. You need as
Speaker 4: many of those guys as you can get, and you
Speaker 4: need him stay healthy and Bernard, I mean that's really
Speaker 4: the like this question you know refers to them. That's
Speaker 4: really a crucial element for him that he's been lacking
Speaker 4: in the last couple of years. He hasn't been able
Speaker 4: to show up every single week. When he does and
Speaker 4: when he's healthy, he seems to be that guy. But
Speaker 4: obviously there's been games he was there, but he wasn't.
Speaker 4: You know, he wasn't healthy and you can tell he
Speaker 4: played like and his deduction showed it.
Speaker 1: He was playing through an ankle injury a lot of
Speaker 1: times last year and it compromised his range and coverage.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean he was playing hurt and then
Speaker 1: missed five games on top of that. From Go Bills,
Speaker 1: Michael Hoyt looked incredible for the whole six quarters they
Speaker 1: had him in last season. If he's healthy, his versatility
Speaker 1: and motor will be a problem for opposing offensive lines.
Speaker 1: Go Bills. I think we've talked about Hoyt's game enough.
Speaker 1: You just have to hope he looks like the same
Speaker 1: player coming back from the akil So's that's the big if.
Speaker 4: He's the favorite out of this hole.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it makes sense right like, because you could
Speaker 1: see him as a stand up outside linebacker in this
Speaker 1: but you could use him in different ways.
Speaker 4: He was he was a total game record for like
Speaker 4: you say, six for one game, just yeah, and half
Speaker 4: of another. It's just a crusher when that when that happens,
Speaker 4: and people are excited to see him back. Tough injury
Speaker 4: to come back from. But if he does and can
Speaker 4: get back to that level, man, oh man, it's pretty
Speaker 4: exciting to think about.
Speaker 1: Connor also picked Hoyt, but he had a second choice.
Speaker 1: He said, I really want to see Landon Jackson have
Speaker 1: a great season. I was excited for him coming out
Speaker 1: of college and with his new role in the defense,
Speaker 1: I'm excited. Yeah. I mean he was drafted, you know,
Speaker 1: by the previous regime to play four to three defensive end.
Speaker 1: Now they asked it to put on twenty pounds and
Speaker 1: he's done that. Steve and I have seen him. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's it looks like somebody gave him a new pair
Speaker 1: of shoulders. I mean he is broad shouldered now and
Speaker 1: that twenty points a lean twenty points twenty pounds of
Speaker 1: lean muscle mass. So he's gonna play that five tech
Speaker 1: that four I position, and I'm excited to see him
Speaker 1: in that role. He is not foreign to a version
Speaker 1: anyway of a three to four scheme. When he was
Speaker 1: at Arkansas, he played in a three three five system,
Speaker 1: so too did TJ. Sanders at South Carolina. So these
Speaker 1: guys are used to three man fronts, you know, with
Speaker 1: stand up linebackers outside of them. So I'm hoping that
Speaker 1: means that those guys can be quick studies with Jim
Speaker 1: Leonard's system. Not that you're splitting Adams when you're playing
Speaker 1: up on the defensive line all the time, unless you
Speaker 1: get to the pass rush games and those can be
Speaker 1: more complex. But I guess what I'm getting at is
Speaker 1: these guys have already been here a year, but not
Speaker 1: in this system, so it's on like their rookies again.
Speaker 1: But I'm hoping their college experience in a three three
Speaker 1: five system will help speed that up a bit, just
Speaker 1: in terms of the angles and the blocking techniques and stuff.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I'm yeah, playing with your hand on the
Speaker 4: grounds one thing. And then there's a lot of nuance
Speaker 4: down inside when you get on the you know, as
Speaker 4: opposed to inside shade of the guard or the outside
Speaker 4: shade of the guard, or head up on the center,
Speaker 4: outside shade of the center, inside shade of the tackle,
Speaker 4: all that stuff. And these guys are moving around down
Speaker 4: there and they have different responsibilities. It's as much about
Speaker 4: knowing what you need to get done in your assignment
Speaker 4: as it is about you know, making the play yourself.
Speaker 4: It's about just helping your team and doing your part
Speaker 4: on this defensive front when you're trying to fit in
Speaker 4: these gaps and stop a run game or get into
Speaker 4: a pass game. So yeah, that the big question is, yeah,
Speaker 4: all these guys have the physical talent. To me, they
Speaker 4: all have the physical talent to be a part of
Speaker 4: what they're gonna do defensively. The question for me is
Speaker 4: are they gonna pick up Who's gonna pick this thing
Speaker 4: up fastest? I mean, it's brand new and they're all
Speaker 4: starting from a clean slate, So I'm I'm interested to
Speaker 4: see who, you know, how the filters work with this
Speaker 4: coaching staff, and who starts to get more and more
Speaker 4: reps that we didn't expect to get more and more reps.
Speaker 4: That's that's the fun part of seeing what training camp
Speaker 4: brings in these OTAs, even these mini camps.
Speaker 1: We are up against the clock, so we are gonna
Speaker 1: take a break here, but when we return. ESPN senior
Speaker 1: national NFL insider Dan grasianom gonna join us, give us
Speaker 1: the lay of the land here this offseason, some interesting
Speaker 1: comments out of Cincinnati at their OTAs, and we'll talk
Speaker 1: bills with him as well. He's coming up next here
Speaker 1: on One Bill's Live. Love You All Boys do today.
Speaker 2: He is a feast for the Capitol Fie the cook
Speaker 2: is in the kitchen.
Speaker 1: Looks down the sideline.
Speaker 3: He's got kick kaid for a twenty three yard touchdown
Speaker 3: and as intercept it, jumping.
Speaker 4: Up with the Air's bet.
Speaker 1: This the One Bill's Live all right here we are,
Speaker 1: I went number two on a Wednesday, Chris Brown, Steve
Speaker 1: Tasker with you, and please to welcome in at and
Speaker 1: senior national NFL insider Dan Graziano. As there's some stuff
Speaker 1: percolating around the league here in the off season. People
Speaker 1: are assessing rosters, schedules in the like, we thought we
Speaker 1: get Dan on for a little update on some of
Speaker 1: those things and get his thoughts, knowing he's talking to
Speaker 1: a lot of these people around the league. So Dan,
Speaker 1: first of all, thanks very much for the time. And
Speaker 1: before we talk a little Bill, Yes, I was kind
Speaker 1: of it, Yeah, it was kind of interested to talk
Speaker 1: a little bit maybe about Cincinnati, and you know, Joe
Speaker 1: Burrow making a proclamation that he believes it's the best
Speaker 1: roster they've had since he has been there, and we
Speaker 1: know they felt they needed to load up on defense.
Speaker 1: They have done that, including some big names like Dexter
Speaker 1: Lawrence for example, Boye Mafe, Brian Cook, who I think
Speaker 1: is an underrated safety that they got from Kansas City.
Speaker 1: How well do you feel they have balanced out their
Speaker 1: roster to get back in the playoff conversation, where they
Speaker 1: haven't been for a couple of years.
Speaker 6: Yeah, on paper, it looks like they attacked the areas
Speaker 6: they needed to and then of course made the big
Speaker 6: swing trading the tenth overall pick for Dexter Lawrence right
Speaker 6: before the draft. So they're returning all eleven starters On offense,
Speaker 6: they obviously are announcing to the world that they're good
Speaker 6: with the way the offense operates and has been the
Speaker 6: last couple of years when Joe Burrow has been on
Speaker 6: the field, actually even occasionally when Joe Flacco has been
Speaker 6: on the field for them.
Speaker 7: They've had an elite offense. So they had to attack
Speaker 7: the defense. They feel like they did it.
Speaker 6: The guys you met, obviously are expected to be big
Speaker 6: pieces of it. The young linebackers that got a lot
Speaker 6: more run last year than I think the Bengals were
Speaker 6: expecting them to get. I think they expect to see
Speaker 6: improvement at those positions as well.
Speaker 7: And then it's really about Burrow and doing his part.
Speaker 6: Like we've talked a lot about the Bengals sort of
Speaker 6: not supporting him, maybe letting him down early in his career,
Speaker 6: but you know, he's got to stay healthy. When he
Speaker 6: has stayed healthy for a full season, he's been MVP
Speaker 6: caliber player and the offense has been one of the best,
Speaker 6: if not the best, in the league. Last year he
Speaker 6: missed a big chunk of games with injuries, so this
Speaker 6: has to be one of his healthy years. And if
Speaker 6: it is, yeah, I don't think it's you know, I
Speaker 6: don't think it's crazy to suggest what he's suggesting.
Speaker 7: And in a division where.
Speaker 6: Literally every other team changed head coaches this offseason, I
Speaker 6: think the Bengals see an opportunity in front of them.
Speaker 4: And certainly he's got the weapons around and what ands
Speaker 4: of long line is it are they maintaining? Are they
Speaker 4: change and have they changed some names there? If Joe
Speaker 4: Burrow goes down, I mean Joe Flacco is a great dude,
Speaker 4: But right, you know they need Joe Burrow to stay
Speaker 4: on two good pins. What about the nuts and bolts
Speaker 4: of the offensive line, of the line of scrimmage.
Speaker 7: You know, it's what it's.
Speaker 6: Been, and I think you know they've been They've been
Speaker 6: happy with it the last couple of years. I think
Speaker 6: there are elements of the protection that are that.
Speaker 7: Are intrinsic to the scheme that they struggle with.
Speaker 6: They do a lot of straight drop back passing, and
Speaker 6: I think Burrow has said publicly that that's the way
Speaker 6: he likes it.
Speaker 7: He likes to be able to drop.
Speaker 6: Back everybody out and into their patterns and be able
Speaker 6: to assess who's open and where to go with the ball.
Speaker 7: Now, that lends itself to protection struggles.
Speaker 6: Sometimes they really don't have anything to do with the
Speaker 6: offensive line because it's more about how long he's holding
Speaker 6: onto the ball or when he takes off and run runs,
Speaker 6: does he put himself in harm's way? So you know,
Speaker 6: it's a collaborative thing there. If you talk to coaches
Speaker 6: on that staff, they'll tell you, yes, the offensive line
Speaker 6: has had times when it needed to play better, but
Speaker 6: we feel like we have the right people and there
Speaker 6: are other aspects of protection that we count on that
Speaker 6: aren't always rock solid either. So it's the line, it's Burrow,
Speaker 6: it's you know, the backs picking up the blitz on
Speaker 6: their way out into you know, they don't do much
Speaker 6: to help like they don't they don't keep a tight
Speaker 6: end in to block very often. They want as many
Speaker 6: options for Burrow when he drops back as possible. Obviously
Speaker 6: that leads to incredible things at times, especially given the
Speaker 6: personnel they have a wide receiver, but it also leads
Speaker 6: to some protection breakdowns, and with a quarterback that has
Speaker 6: struggled with health in his career, it's certainly something they
Speaker 6: need to work on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, couple that with the fact that the other three
Speaker 1: teams in the division all f new head coaches. Maybe
Speaker 1: they can get off to a fast start there and
Speaker 1: put some distance between themselves and the rest of the group.
Speaker 1: On the other end of the spectrum, though, dan are
Speaker 1: the Chicago Bears exciting first season und Ben Johnson some
Speaker 1: dramatic playoff victories as well, But now they got to
Speaker 1: play a first play schedule and it's one of the
Speaker 1: toughest in the league, and they're going to be an
Speaker 1: opponent of the Bills here in December in a Saturday
Speaker 1: Night game. You wrote in a recent piece that it's
Speaker 1: not an overreaction to think they might miss the playoffs entirely.
Speaker 1: Tell us what you're, you know, putting behind that sentiment.
Speaker 7: You mentioned the first place schedule.
Speaker 6: They also play in a division in which literally every
Speaker 6: team had a winning record.
Speaker 7: Last year.
Speaker 6: The Lions at nine to eight finished fourth in that division.
Speaker 6: That's pretty so that's that's six games right there against
Speaker 6: teams that want what the Bears have, that division title,
Speaker 6: and are.
Speaker 7: Are good enough and motivated enough to beat them.
Speaker 6: And then, yeah, I think you know, Caleb Williams, for
Speaker 6: all his fourth quarter brilliance, overtime brilliant, they throw unforgettable
Speaker 6: throws he made right through the playoff run.
Speaker 7: He was thirty second in the league in completion percentage.
Speaker 6: There's work to do on Caleb Williams game that Ben
Speaker 6: Johnson knows that. I would say the Bears, you know, defensively,
Speaker 6: they're still tinkering. I think they in some respects that
Speaker 6: remind me a little bit of Buffalo in that I
Speaker 6: think they're reliant on the scheme to generate problems for
Speaker 6: the other team as opposed to like one particular game
Speaker 6: wrecker on defense.
Speaker 7: So I think, you know, Ben Jonson's smart enough to
Speaker 7: know that what.
Speaker 6: He accomplished last year doesn't mean the Bears have arrived
Speaker 6: and that there's going to be work to do to
Speaker 6: stay on top. And obviously they're not going to surprise anybody.
Speaker 6: This year schedule looks tougher than it did last year,
Speaker 6: and we do need to see strides from Caleb Williams.
Speaker 6: So I'm not saying the Bears are going to be bad.
Speaker 6: I'm saying the road back to the playoffs is going
Speaker 6: to be very, very difficult for them, and if.
Speaker 7: Things don't go quite the way they did last year,
Speaker 7: they could be at risk.
Speaker 4: Who wins that division if it's not Chicago.
Speaker 7: Detroit I think.
Speaker 6: I mean, look, this is your two seasons removed from
Speaker 6: them being a fifteen two team and the one seed.
Speaker 7: That was upset in the playoffs right away by Washington.
Speaker 6: They will play a fourth place schedule, which is not
Speaker 6: fair considering how good the Lions.
Speaker 7: Yeah, so that's certainly helpful to them. It makes a difference.
Speaker 6: You saw what the Patriots were able to do last
Speaker 6: year against an all time week schedule.
Speaker 7: You saw what the forty nine ers were able to.
Speaker 6: Put together last year in eleven win season, twelve win
Speaker 6: season in spite of all their injuries because they really
Speaker 6: weren't playing top level quarterbacks throughout the years.
Speaker 7: So it does make a difference.
Speaker 6: And in a division where everybody won at least nine
Speaker 6: and the Lions are not far removed from being the
Speaker 6: kings of it, I think with their schedule and the
Speaker 6: way it sets up, they should be the favorites.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaking of schedules, the Bills for the first time
Speaker 1: in six years, don't have to play a first play schedule.
Speaker 1: They're playing a second place schedule. But of course it's
Speaker 1: the same year that the Chiefs don't win the division,
Speaker 1: the Ravens don't win the division, and the Rams don't
Speaker 1: win the division. They got to play all three of
Speaker 1: those teams.
Speaker 8: Games are a.
Speaker 1: Bit of a gauntlet for the Bills. Yeah, yeah, right, exactly.
Speaker 1: So the first five games for the Bills are somewhat
Speaker 1: of a gauntlet there. And I know the defense is
Speaker 1: probably the biggest question mark under new coordinator Jim Leonard,
Speaker 1: But what speaks to you about the things you're wondering
Speaker 1: most about the Bills fortunes this season as it pertains
Speaker 1: to their team.
Speaker 7: I mean, what kind of head coach is Joe Brady
Speaker 7: going to be? This is not an answer we have.
Speaker 6: I think he's well regarded and he could do an
Speaker 6: extremely good job. We were just talking about Ben Johnson
Speaker 6: and living up to the hype in his first year,
Speaker 6: but not everybody does it. And until the you know,
Speaker 6: the things the games start getting real, you know, we
Speaker 6: won't have a sense of how.
Speaker 7: Joe Brady is juggling everything.
Speaker 6: You know, say what you want about Sean McDermott, who
Speaker 6: was obviously an effective head coach, uh in terms of
Speaker 6: getting his team through the season in a positive way.
Speaker 7: So new defensive coordinator in Jim Leonard.
Speaker 6: It's gonna be a lot of changes scheme wise on
Speaker 6: that side of the ball, but not a lot of
Speaker 6: personnel changes, right, It's pretty much. I mean, there's they've
Speaker 6: added some guys obviously, but a lot of the same
Speaker 6: guys are going to have to fit into a defensive concept.
Speaker 6: That's that's different for the first time in really almost
Speaker 6: a decade. So uh, I think there are there are
Speaker 6: things to watch that you're still gonna be You're still
Speaker 6: gonna be rolling in every week with an advantage at
Speaker 6: the quarterback position over everyone, if not almost everyone, still
Speaker 6: have the guy that led the league in rushing last year. Uh,
Speaker 6: there's there's a lot to like about this team, obviously,
Speaker 6: but you know, there are questions when when a team
Speaker 6: changes head coaches, there are questions, especially when they hire
Speaker 6: somebody who's never done it before. So I think that's
Speaker 6: fair to say and and and he might be great,
Speaker 6: but we you know, we would need to see it.
Speaker 6: And you put that schedule up. What's it for the
Speaker 6: first five games against teams that made the playoffs last year.
Speaker 7: And the one that didn't is the Lions.
Speaker 6: That's, uh, that's gonna be If there are growing pains,
Speaker 6: they're gonna show up early.
Speaker 4: What are you looking for? In most cases? And we
Speaker 4: had ten new head coaches this year around the league,
Speaker 4: what's the first thing you look at for differences in
Speaker 4: what this new head coach is doing as opposed to
Speaker 4: last year. One of the things we've talked about The
Speaker 4: Bills were a fifty to fifty run pass team last year,
Speaker 4: and they had the league leading rusher along with the
Speaker 4: defending MVP. What could look different about this offense with
Speaker 4: a head coach who's now calling the plays rather than
Speaker 4: a defensive head coach with an offensive coordinator.
Speaker 7: Well, I mean the head coach.
Speaker 6: The new head coach was already calling the offensive plays.
Speaker 6: So my expectation is that not a tonnel change on offense.
Speaker 6: You're bringing back the same line. You're adding Dj Moore,
Speaker 6: who I think is going to be a really.
Speaker 7: Exciting player for Josh Allen and for Bills.
Speaker 6: Fans as a presumptive number one wide receiver. So I
Speaker 6: think that the questions I have about the Bills are
Speaker 6: on the defensive side of the ball and how well
Speaker 6: the players that are holdovers will take to it. On offense,
Speaker 6: I think the questions are more structural. Sometimes a guy
Speaker 6: goes from offensive coordinator to head coach and the added
Speaker 6: responsibility distracts him from you know what kind what made
Speaker 6: him a good play caller, what made him a good
Speaker 6: offensive coordinator. So I don't think that'll happen with Joe Brady,
Speaker 6: but we have seen it happen to people that we
Speaker 6: had high hopes for. So it's one of those things.
Speaker 6: Guy I keep saying, like I got to see it.
Speaker 6: I think there's reason to be excited about the bills.
Speaker 6: But if there's reason to wonder, change in that office
Speaker 6: for the first time in a decade is certainly worth
Speaker 6: you know, paying attention to, and and maybe Joe Brady,
Speaker 6: you know, stuns us all and is Ben Johnson first
Speaker 6: year out, but he's certainly got the team to do it.
Speaker 6: But I do think operationally how it works with him
Speaker 6: taking on head coach responsibilities. By the way, Jim Leonard
Speaker 6: a first time defensive coordinator, is he going to just
Speaker 6: give him the defense and let him do it. We
Speaker 6: haven't seen Jim Leonard do that either, So yeah, I
Speaker 6: think there are some question marks in terms of how
Speaker 6: it's going to operate ructurally, which is probably better than
Speaker 6: having questions about you know, roster and personnel and do
Speaker 6: you have good enough players, But.
Speaker 7: There's certainly questions. I'm gonna have my eye on for
Speaker 7: the answers early in the.
Speaker 1: Season once again on Buffalo's regular season schedule as Kansas City.
Speaker 1: As we mentioned, it's going to be a Thanksgiving game,
Speaker 1: and we see what has happened with Rashid Rice here
Speaker 1: sentenced to thirty days in jail for violation of his probation.
Speaker 1: He also had an e scope not gonna be able
Speaker 1: to rehab that in a jail cell for the next
Speaker 1: thirty days. Is it fair to assume Dan that jail
Speaker 1: time is going to result in possible suspension from the league, again,
Speaker 1: because they often let these cases play out. This is
Speaker 1: just a probation violation, but it's it's jail time, like,
Speaker 1: there's no other way to describe that. So we're kind
Speaker 1: of openly wondering even though he was you know, the
Speaker 1: case had been adjudicated and thension was handed down by
Speaker 1: the league. This is kind of a unique circumstance. You know,
Speaker 1: in your expert opinion, could you see another suspension coming
Speaker 1: from the league in the wake of this for this
Speaker 1: coming season?
Speaker 7: I could.
Speaker 6: Now, sometimes the backlog gets such that the suspension doesn't
Speaker 6: show up till later, like sometimes you'll see transgressions from
Speaker 6: one off season, not the suspension doesn't go into effect
Speaker 6: till two seasons later, just because it took.
Speaker 7: That long for the league to do investigation.
Speaker 6: Now in this case, they've already sort of investigated what
Speaker 6: Rashi Rice got himself in trouble for I'd have to
Speaker 6: go back and look at the suspension letter from last year.
Speaker 6: But more often than not, they do say something along
Speaker 6: the lines of, if new information comes to light, we
Speaker 6: reserve the right to impose additional discipline, and this was certainly.
Speaker 7: Could fit that category.
Speaker 6: Remember, like league discipline for off the field matters under
Speaker 6: the Personal Conduct Policy. You know, it's not like it's
Speaker 6: not like a court imposing a thirty day jail sentence.
Speaker 6: That the main reason the league does this is for
Speaker 6: appearance reasons, right, they don't want like this, this person
Speaker 6: did something that violates our code of conduct, We're going
Speaker 6: to take him off the field, punish him financially, and
Speaker 6: not put you the fan and position where you have
Speaker 6: to cheer for somebody have maybe mixed feelings about.
Speaker 7: So it's certainly the kind of thing that the league
Speaker 7: will look.
Speaker 6: Into and I think examine for potential further discipline for
Speaker 6: Rashi Rice, whose career really is has kind of been
Speaker 6: a kind of a mess so far between injury and
Speaker 6: off the field.
Speaker 7: And I don't know.
Speaker 6: I mean, it's obviously very serious incident that he was
Speaker 6: involved in, uh and that he's being punished for. But yeah,
Speaker 6: short answer, yes, I think it's very possible the league
Speaker 6: would discipline him when a potential further suspension would arrive
Speaker 6: is a different matter. It depends a lot on you know,
Speaker 6: scheduling and how long it takes to work through the process.
Speaker 4: What's your outlook for the Kansas City Chiefs? I mean,
Speaker 4: they you know, they're kind of like on the front burner.
Speaker 4: Everybody's think. Bills fans are always thinking about the Chiefs
Speaker 4: over the the last half dozen years has gone in
Speaker 4: the playoffs. What are your thoughts about Pat Mahomes coming back?
Speaker 4: Andy Reid, who is you know, pushing seventy Travis Kelcey
Speaker 4: Rashid the whole thing. I mean, what are your thoughts
Speaker 4: about how Mahomes comes back and where the Chiefs go?
Speaker 4: Are they on the ascent again? Now that Holme's going
Speaker 4: to be healthy, perhaps.
Speaker 6: I think we have to see how healthy and how
Speaker 6: good Patrick Mahomes is at the outset of the season.
Speaker 6: You know, is he going to be back for week one?
Speaker 6: If so, is he going to be himself? Would it
Speaker 6: be a better idea if he weren't back week one
Speaker 6: and needed more time?
Speaker 7: You know?
Speaker 6: And then what is the lingering effect throughout the season?
Speaker 6: How does it affect the way he plays? How does
Speaker 6: it affect a significant knee injury, the way he moves around,
Speaker 6: which has always been a big part of his game.
Speaker 7: So you know he's not a Lamar Jackson level runner.
Speaker 6: But certainly the mobility and his ability to take off
Speaker 6: and run has been a factor. So what impact does
Speaker 6: the injury have on that? They you know, they're figuring
Speaker 6: out right tackle. They are not great at wide receiver,
Speaker 6: even if Rashi Rice is out there, and as we
Speaker 6: just discussed as possible, you won't be for a variety
Speaker 6: of reasons.
Speaker 7: They spent big money on Kenneth Walker, the running back.
Speaker 6: What does that mean for the offense, which, by the way,
Speaker 6: has a new coordinator old new coordinator Eric Penmy who's
Speaker 6: had the job before in Kansas City, but it's at
Speaker 6: Maggy so a lot of change there as well. Last
Speaker 6: year sort of gave us license to wonder about the Chiefs.
Speaker 6: Like prior to last year, I was like, oh, the
Speaker 6: Chiefs will be fine. They always are right there in
Speaker 6: the AFC Championship game literally every year. But now I
Speaker 6: think to expect it to be a one year blip
Speaker 6: and they just bounce right back. I think so much
Speaker 6: of that is tied up into how soon Mahomes can
Speaker 6: get back to being Mahomes not healthy, not good quarterback,
Speaker 6: but Patrick Mahomes because so much of what they do
Speaker 6: relies on him. They have worked to beef up the
Speaker 6: defense this offseason, but offensively, the group doesn't look a
Speaker 6: ton different other than the change at running back. So
Speaker 6: I do think it matters how healthy he is, how
Speaker 6: great he is right away. I don't put anything past
Speaker 6: that guy. And I'm sure Bills fans hear me when
Speaker 6: I say that.
Speaker 7: But you know, we don't know.
Speaker 6: It's a major injury that he's never had before, and
Speaker 6: we don't know what he's going to look like coming back.
Speaker 1: Last one for me Dan, As we expected, the NFL
Speaker 1: owners approved increasing the maximum number of international games from
Speaker 1: eight to ten that the league would have control over
Speaker 1: that starts next year. We've heard it floated out there
Speaker 1: that they eventually want to get to a place where
Speaker 1: every team in the league is playing at least one
Speaker 1: international game per season, and Roger Goodell has even talked
Speaker 1: about down the line idea of a division of teams
Speaker 1: over there. You know how far off into the future
Speaker 1: that is, who knows. But where do you where do
Speaker 1: you see this crescendoing? I guess, like, what is the limit,
Speaker 1: because if you get to sixteen international games, that's at
Speaker 1: least one team playing in a game overseas every single year.
Speaker 4: It is.
Speaker 6: It's alarming the speed at which they're moving with this.
Speaker 6: I always say there's never there never seems to be
Speaker 6: a meeting, like at a big corporation where somebody stands
Speaker 6: up and goes, hey, what if we only made like
Speaker 6: ninety percent of the maximum amount of money we could
Speaker 6: possibly make and just kept the product really good like that?
Speaker 6: That doesn't seem to be a conversation that gets had.
Speaker 6: And I'm not just talking about the NFL, but certainly
Speaker 6: in this case, it's a lot to ask teams to
Speaker 6: go to Rio and Australia and so. But they continue
Speaker 6: to move ahead with it, and it's in the search
Speaker 6: of greater revenue growth, audience growth, et cetera.
Speaker 7: I don't think it's going to stop.
Speaker 6: Roger Goodell has said publicly that he wants an international
Speaker 6: game every week at some point in the future, and
Speaker 6: they are obviously moving toward that. So in answer to
Speaker 6: your question, where does it level off, I don't know
Speaker 6: if the league has even had that conversation. I think
Speaker 6: it's just about more and more and more. This is
Speaker 6: going great, Let's keep doing it.
Speaker 7: Uh. The result right now is a schedule that's frankly
Speaker 7: kind of messy.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 7: And yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 6: I'm interested to see what the answer to your question
Speaker 6: is because I'm not entirely sure.
Speaker 7: It's at the forefront of the NFL's conversations.
Speaker 4: On you, Dan, Thanks for coming on, man, appreciate it,
Speaker 4: appreciate spending.
Speaker 7: Some time with my pleasure.
Speaker 6: I look forward to seeing the new stadium. I'm excited
Speaker 6: about it. I want to get up there early in
Speaker 6: the season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a palace. You're gonna love it.
Speaker 4: It's a beauty. It is an absolute beauty.
Speaker 1: Thanks, Dan, appreciate the time. As always, that's the ESPN
Speaker 1: senior national insider for the NFL. Dan Grausiano based out
Speaker 1: of New Jersey, so yeah, he doesn't have to come
Speaker 1: far if he wants to come up for one of
Speaker 1: these games. He usually gets a Bill's game or two
Speaker 1: as an assignment. It can be a lot of every season.
Speaker 4: There will be I would say a long list of
Speaker 4: worldwide Bills fans and prominent Bills fans from around the
Speaker 4: country who will parachute in for a game this year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's uh. I mean, even people coming in the
Speaker 1: bill store here are saying like, Wow, that thing looks great.
Speaker 1: It's like, wait, do you see it on the endside?
Speaker 1: Magnificent because it's something else. But yeah, I wanted to
Speaker 1: get his perspective on that international game stuff because it's
Speaker 1: it's a freight train going downhill.
Speaker 4: I'll say this that the one of the underlying motivations
Speaker 4: is obviously promoting the game worldwide. What that does is
Speaker 4: it lays the groundwork for expansion, but not in the
Speaker 4: way I think most people would think. One of the
Speaker 4: things that has hampered expansion, and and a top executive
Speaker 4: told me this from a point of meetings and conversations
Speaker 4: that have gone on at the highest levels of the league,
Speaker 4: is that there are not enough good players to go around.
Speaker 4: There are not enough big offensive linemen, quality defensive linemen.
Speaker 4: There are not enough big guys one percenters in the
Speaker 4: one percent of this country, which is where you're getting
Speaker 4: all your one hundred percent of your players from all
Speaker 4: the emotional pathways players and a handful of those you're
Speaker 4: getting a handful of.
Speaker 1: It's not enough to fill out four more teams in
Speaker 1: a European division.
Speaker 4: Exactly it's long term, but that's part of the mindset
Speaker 4: of finding enough big dudes and enough one percenters who
Speaker 4: can play the game at the highest level around the world.
Speaker 4: There are enough around the world for what thirty thirty
Speaker 4: six teams. There's not enough in the US for thirty
Speaker 4: sent There's not enough for twenty eight teams in the
Speaker 4: US right.
Speaker 1: Because there are some teams with some horror of that is.
Speaker 4: That's something the league takes very seriously. They don't want
Speaker 4: to expand at the expense of what Dan said. You
Speaker 4: know the product thirty two teams right now, and they're
Speaker 4: getting better and better as time passes because they're the
Speaker 4: distillation process of the one percenters. It is getting better.
Speaker 4: But to get bigger, they got to spread out and
Speaker 4: get more one percenters into the pool. Yeah, that they
Speaker 4: can feel. They can't feel four more teams right now,
Speaker 4: there are enough. Have you seen the UFL. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 4: come on, I mean those guys are great. I love it.
Speaker 4: They're playing. They're getting paid a little bit, but they're
Speaker 4: they're playing because they love the game, most of them
Speaker 4: and for a shot back into this league. But there
Speaker 4: are some guys out. There are some teams out there,
Speaker 4: they can't play, and there's just not enough guys to
Speaker 4: go around for all the teams. That's what the international
Speaker 4: program is about, part and parcel. If they were if
Speaker 4: they had a limitless supply of offensive and defensive linemen
Speaker 4: who weigh three hundred and thirty pounds, who can run
Speaker 4: and outrun everybody, we know, yeah, they wouldn't be doing this.
Speaker 4: This wouldn't be such a prominent part of it, certainly everybody,
Speaker 4: and the cynical among us say, now they're doing it
Speaker 4: for the money. Well, they want the league to grow.
Speaker 1: That means well, yeah, because they want to grow the
Speaker 1: revenue streams.
Speaker 4: Want the league to grow. It can't grow until it
Speaker 4: gets enough guys to keep the quality of the product
Speaker 4: something that's just not something you can't watch. And they're
Speaker 4: smart enough to know that, and they've been on that
Speaker 4: train for quite some time. So you know, they didn't
Speaker 4: go from twenty four teams in my lifetime to thirty
Speaker 4: two without a lot of conversations about do we have
Speaker 4: a good guys that we can play.
Speaker 1: And we saw their initial attempt at trying to broaden
Speaker 1: the American football, you know, with NFL Europe back in
Speaker 1: the nineties, in early two thousands, and then that league
Speaker 1: eventually folded because it was more of a feeder system.
Speaker 1: But it was helpful, right for NFL roster helpful, but
Speaker 1: it didn't grow the game enough, or at least in
Speaker 1: the way that I think the NFL wanted.
Speaker 4: To well, And let's get it, that does come down
Speaker 4: to them. It was they were not getting the return
Speaker 4: on the investment. Correct, they weren't. They weren't making money.
Speaker 4: They weren't getting enough players out of that system to
Speaker 4: justify the multi million dollar losses they were taking in
Speaker 4: the league. They probably would have been able to. There
Speaker 4: probably would have been a level of acceptable losses if
Speaker 4: they were getting a steady stream of even one player
Speaker 4: per team, and they weren't getting that. So have it.
Speaker 1: If those league run international games, the league pays these
Speaker 1: teams to cover their costs to travel overseas. With the
Speaker 1: exception of the Jaguars, who run their own international game
Speaker 1: one they were on one of their own international games
Speaker 1: in London every year, they incur the cost because they're
Speaker 1: the quote unquote home team in London. But outside of them,
Speaker 1: the league helps cover the costs for these teams that
Speaker 1: got to do travel and sometimes spend a week in
Speaker 1: a hotel in Europe or Australia or wherever.
Speaker 4: I mean Australia, Australia. Go, that's even hall. Come on, man,
Speaker 4: you know you and I are going to make a
Speaker 4: trip to Australia with this club, do you think so? No, No,
Speaker 4: we retire maybe Australia. Yeah, that's like twenty four hours.
Speaker 1: Well, we were pain seat. We were going over the
Speaker 1: total air miles for NFL teams this year and to
Speaker 1: no one surprised, the Rams and the forty nine ers
Speaker 1: are number one and number two. Like the Australia trip
Speaker 1: alone probably out distances the whole season of travel for
Speaker 1: a couple of teams at the bottom of the list.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's going halfway around the world. Yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 4: Well, if you go halfway, you may as well go
Speaker 4: the same direction, go all the way.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Oh my gosh, gotta take a break here. More
Speaker 1: of your comments on the tweet sheet where we are
Speaker 1: asking you what injured player in twenty twenty five is
Speaker 1: gonna make a big impact on this bill's roster in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six at one Bill's Live is where you
Speaker 1: could do that on the tweet sheet we'll take more
Speaker 1: of those when we return here on One Bill's Live.
Speaker 1: All right back here on One Bills Live on Wednesday,
Speaker 1: Chris Brown Steam tasking with you company alive from the
Speaker 1: Bill Store here on Avid Road, and we will get
Speaker 1: back to the I think there is some league news.
Speaker 1: As we know, Aaron Rodgers signed his one year contract
Speaker 1: to return to the Steelers for a second season, his
Speaker 1: twenty second season in the league. But now there are
Speaker 1: reports coming down that Aaron Rodgers has said, in no
Speaker 1: uncertain terms, this will be his last year playing period
Speaker 1: exclamation point. So he's thirteen. You know, he had thirteen
Speaker 1: passing touchdowns this pass or needs thirteen passing touchdowns this
Speaker 1: season to move into third all time in league history
Speaker 1: with five hundred and forty. I think Mahomes and Allen
Speaker 1: are going to pass.
Speaker 4: Him, maybe. I don't know, though, twenty three years a lot.
Speaker 4: Five hundred and forty's a big number.
Speaker 1: Right, But I don't think Josh or Mahomes are going
Speaker 1: to need to play that long to hit that number.
Speaker 4: Maybe not, But it'll be interesting to see what Aaron
Speaker 4: does after this year. He strikes me as a guy
Speaker 4: who's kind of kind of disappear He doesn't strike me
Speaker 4: as a guy who will media hop, although he's on
Speaker 4: the Pat McAfee show regularly. Maybe he'll do that, but
Speaker 4: I don't know what he I could see it going
Speaker 4: either way, but I don't. I think he kind of disappears,
Speaker 4: don't you after he finishes. I think he's got a
Speaker 4: life he wants.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah. I mean he's forty two right now.
Speaker 1: He will turn forty three in December, so I mean
Speaker 1: he could still play. He's not what he once was,
Speaker 1: but he can still play, and I will maintain that
Speaker 1: he remains in my lifetime, the most accurate ball placement
Speaker 1: quarterback I have ever seen.
Speaker 4: He can ever. Yeah, he can sling it, I'm and
Speaker 4: he could put it through a keyhole. And he can
Speaker 4: do it like fall away on one heel standing there
Speaker 4: in a pocket, you know, running one way, running the
Speaker 4: other way. He can do it from every angle. He
Speaker 4: can put it right where he wants to put it.
Speaker 4: That was always his signature and he's really good at it.
Speaker 4: And plus he's a highly intel who knew what he
Speaker 4: was looking at when he dropped back, So he was
Speaker 4: he's one of He was an ald timer. And this
Speaker 4: current age of NFL football gives these guys a chance
Speaker 4: to play into their forties. We're gonna start seeing it
Speaker 4: more and more regularly. Maybe Josh will do it. You
Speaker 4: gotta think maybe Mahomes will give that a shot. There's
Speaker 4: probably some other guys around here in this league, in
Speaker 4: this in this era who will do it like Ben
Speaker 4: Roethlisberger's would deep into his thirties when he called it quits.
Speaker 4: It's getting more and more common, and they protect these guys.
Speaker 4: The game is structured so that they can keep going
Speaker 4: if they're physically capable enough to throw it right. You know,
Speaker 4: kudos to him at the week's better with guys like
Speaker 4: them in it. It's alorus to it and they know it,
Speaker 4: and the league is making it possible if they can
Speaker 4: stay relatively healthy throughout their career to do it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So final year for Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers.
Speaker 1: You know, they've drafted quarterbacks each of the last couple
Speaker 1: of years, so they have young guys in the pipeline.
Speaker 1: Drew Aller was the guy they drafted this year in
Speaker 1: round three. They drafted the Ohio State kid the year before,
Speaker 1: so who finished up at Syracuse. Actually Will Howard is
Speaker 1: that his name.
Speaker 4: Think that's in any event familiar.
Speaker 1: In any of it. Well, it's not going to matter
Speaker 1: this year, it'll matter next year. But let's get back
Speaker 1: to the tweet sheet where we were talking to you
Speaker 1: about injured players from twenty twenty five that we believe
Speaker 1: will have a major impact on the roster here in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six. Michael Hoyt has been the overwhelming favorite choice,
Speaker 1: and we understand why. But Andrew says, I think we're
Speaker 1: going to see a lot more out of Dalton Kincaid.
Speaker 1: The fact that he wasn't wearing a knee brace in
Speaker 1: Ota is very encouraging. Josh will be happy to have
Speaker 1: one of his main targets back just out of curiosity.
Speaker 1: Do you know why he didn't get the surgery done?
Speaker 1: I missed seeing that report. Steve and I actually talked
Speaker 1: to Dalton early in the offseason. I think it was
Speaker 1: right after Joe Brady got named the head coach, and
Speaker 1: Dalton had gone to see multiple doctors for second and
Speaker 1: third opinions because he had a PCL knee problem that
Speaker 1: had been an issue each of the last two years
Speaker 1: and made him less than his full one hundred percent
Speaker 1: self as a player. And he said, nope. Every one
Speaker 1: of these doctors told me surgery is not necessary because
Speaker 1: of X, Y and Z. And again, I'm not a doctor,
Speaker 1: but the way he explained it to us, it seemed
Speaker 1: pretty clear that that surgery was not going to make
Speaker 1: the condition so unequivocally better that it would never crop
Speaker 1: up again. And so I was kind of perplexed by it.
Speaker 1: But he had done his homework. He had gone to
Speaker 1: great lengths to get multiple opinions from physicians in the
Speaker 1: know who are experts in that area. You know, orthopedic
Speaker 1: surgeons that do knee surgeries all day, every day for
Speaker 1: years and years and years on end, and he kept
Speaker 1: getting the same answer, surgery is not necessary. And you've
Speaker 1: had some experience with PCL knee injuries, right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I had a PCL injury my rookie season, and
Speaker 4: you can actually that back then, they'll tell you could
Speaker 4: play without a PCL. It's still yeah, I still never
Speaker 4: got fixed that there's nothing wrong with your knee that
Speaker 4: surgery couldn't make worse. And I think most doctors kind
Speaker 4: of go into it with that attitude, say listen, we
Speaker 4: don't if it if it'll heal up, and he's got
Speaker 4: time to let it rest and we can rehab it
Speaker 4: and do some things. It's better not to try and
Speaker 4: fix it and let it go on its own, let
Speaker 4: it get better on its own with healing like it should,
Speaker 4: like natural healing. So I don't know that it's going
Speaker 4: to tighten back up if it was stretched or and
Speaker 4: certainly not going to fix itself it was torn. But
Speaker 4: none of that seems to be the case. And if
Speaker 4: all those doctors agreed, you know, you kind of got
Speaker 4: to go with it. Those those guys have got years
Speaker 4: of observing this exact sact, this kind of injury and
Speaker 4: saying no, it's gonna be fine. The most players will
Speaker 4: tell you though, if they say, well, it'll fix it
Speaker 4: if you if you surge, if you can get surgery
Speaker 4: on it, but you're gonna have to rehabit, that doesn't
Speaker 4: scare players. Yeah, if you can fix it, I'll come
Speaker 4: back all work hard enough to get it back, get
Speaker 4: strong again. Just if you can fix it, fix it.
Speaker 4: But if I got to sit here and not do anything,
Speaker 4: that's worse for you know, just let it rest. That's
Speaker 4: the harder thing, right, player would rather work on it
Speaker 4: rather than sit there and look at it in the
Speaker 4: in the dark of the night, waiting on it to
Speaker 4: get better. That's not something players like. They like being
Speaker 4: able to challenge this process and go for it. So yeah,
Speaker 4: that multiple opinions is a common thing now and since
Speaker 4: all of them agreed, and I think he's doing the right.
Speaker 1: There well, and I think he went to those lengths
Speaker 1: because this has been a situation that has lingered for
Speaker 1: the better part of two seasons. Like he just knocked
Speaker 1: at us because Brandon Bean told us its surfaced in
Speaker 1: he knocked it in training camp, and then it became
Speaker 1: something he was going to have to manage. And obviously
Speaker 1: during games which are far more intense physically, you know,
Speaker 1: he was having some issues. I don't think it was
Speaker 1: to the degree that he had in twenty twenty four
Speaker 1: because he was dealing with that, and then in the
Speaker 1: indie game in twenty twenty four he tweaked the other knee.
Speaker 1: So he's playing on two bad wheels in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 4: Here's the thing, and fans will question comes up automatically, well,
Speaker 4: if okay, so he's fine, is the knee more as
Speaker 4: susceptible to getting re injured now that he didn't get
Speaker 4: it fixed than it was before. And I would think
Speaker 4: that they've because you know he's going to get whacked
Speaker 4: at some point. I mean you can't help not yea,
Speaker 4: knowing that.
Speaker 1: He's going to catch, that he's going to be a target.
Speaker 4: That's right. That's part of the equation. Is the knee
Speaker 4: less stable or more susceptible to injury because he didn't
Speaker 4: get it fixed and obviously he liked the answer he got,
Speaker 4: so yeah, you can expect him to come out and
Speaker 4: play as though you know that he hasn't had a
Speaker 4: knee injury. I mean that's that's the expectation for him
Speaker 4: and probably the doctors.
Speaker 1: Pat on the Tweets Sheet says, I think Landon Jackson
Speaker 1: and Josh Allen. Josh had a couple of things hampering
Speaker 1: him last year with his foot, and I believe a
Speaker 1: finger Josh will be MVP prospect again. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: we learned after the season. The guy's playing with a
Speaker 1: busted foot's running around with a broken foot.
Speaker 4: He's that's another guy that's not of this world. He's
Speaker 4: like a rented mule.
Speaker 1: He's like a robot.
Speaker 4: Can't you can't like derail the guy you find he
Speaker 4: was running around. He was running around playing quarterback with
Speaker 4: a busted finger. Two years ago, three years ago, I
Speaker 4: don't can't remember. He comes up and he's he does this,
Speaker 4: he was looking, he does this.
Speaker 1: It was this bone here from the Arizona again because
Speaker 1: he landed on it with his.
Speaker 4: Elbow opening opening weekend and he does this, and the
Speaker 4: whole the thing's like shaking, like it's not even attached.
Speaker 1: I'm like, dude, and he's like, I think it was
Speaker 1: his left hand though it wasn't his throwing. It was
Speaker 1: his left hand. Not that I'm making light of the injury. Well,
Speaker 1: you can got a broken bone in your hand. It's
Speaker 1: the problem.
Speaker 4: You can. We can make light of injuries because it's
Speaker 4: not us. Well, so sure everybody else's injuries for us
Speaker 4: to serve his minor injuries if it's not us.
Speaker 1: And the crazy thing about Josh's Josh had surgery on
Speaker 1: the foot after it was broken, and the doctors told him,
Speaker 1: because he said this in the press conference, that the
Speaker 1: little bone in his foot had been cracked and it
Speaker 1: was just it had it was just sitting there. And
Speaker 1: then when he got torqued and tried to get out
Speaker 1: of his sack from Miles Garrett in the Cleveland game,
Speaker 1: all that torque on the foot ping, the thing popped
Speaker 1: loose and was floating around in there. So at the
Speaker 1: end of the season he has the surgery and he
Speaker 1: said the doctors just took the chipped piece of the
Speaker 1: bone out of his foot because they said he didn't
Speaker 1: need it. And then, of course the next question from
Speaker 1: the media was, hey, did you keep the bone piece,
Speaker 1: and he goes, well, I wanted to at least look
Speaker 1: at it, but they got.
Speaker 4: Rid of it. Well there you go.
Speaker 1: Watch it pop up on eBay. Somebody will be selling
Speaker 1: Josh Allen's bone ship foote and people will be paying
Speaker 1: a lot of money to get it.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, not me, I no wan. I just I
Speaker 4: hope it doesn't compromise that jo.
Speaker 1: That fifth metatarsal for sale.
Speaker 4: Does that fill back in though? The chip?
Speaker 1: I mean, the doctors insisted that it would be fine
Speaker 1: and that he would be no worse for wear, So
Speaker 1: he said it was probably the piece of bone was
Speaker 1: like smaller than your pinky nail.
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, that's big.
Speaker 1: Well that's what I thought, That's what I thought. But
Speaker 1: as we know, Josh doesn't really he's not really impacted
Speaker 1: by doing all right, you know ailments like this, guys,
Speaker 1: gotta take a break here, one more segment to go.
Speaker 1: We'll get some final thoughts on the ahead to the
Speaker 1: Sutter States edition of One Bill's Lot.
Speaker 8: Stay with us, what's injured player in twenty twenty five
Speaker 8: you see having a major impact on the Bills twenty
Speaker 8: twenty six season.
Speaker 1: We're locking the store, which also lends itself to live
Speaker 1: input in commentary from the passers by here on Avertt Road,
Speaker 1: and we go to our live mike for one of
Speaker 1: our latest comments.
Speaker 9: What do we got, hey, Chris Dan from Youngstown, Ohio.
Speaker 9: Great to be with you guys today. Sure, I think
Speaker 9: when you look at this question, it's really easy to
Speaker 9: pick somebody from the defensive side of the ball because
Speaker 9: there were so.
Speaker 1: Many injuries there.
Speaker 9: But the problem I have in trying to pick somebody
Speaker 9: is it's going to be a whole new scheme and
Speaker 9: you're not quite sure how players are going to be used. Right,
Speaker 9: So I'm going to go with what Chris was or
Speaker 9: what Steve was saying earlier in the show, and that's
Speaker 9: Dalton kincaid. We just as he would say, we know
Speaker 9: what the offense looks like, with that joker out there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's really great.
Speaker 9: And I would also say, if that tight end room
Speaker 9: is healthy, is there a better tight end room in
Speaker 9: the league?
Speaker 1: Not too many. Yeah, I mean the Charge just tried
Speaker 1: to beefairs up with David and Joku to put him
Speaker 1: in there with Ronde Gadsden and Charlie Kohlar, who's a
Speaker 1: big blocker that came over from Baltimore. But I think
Speaker 1: we're gonna see more and more two and three tight
Speaker 1: end right sets because Mike McDaniel is going to use
Speaker 1: those three tight ends to the hilt for the Chargers,
Speaker 1: which we'll see here in week three.
Speaker 4: Very smart, take Dan, very smart, he's agreeing with you.
Speaker 9: I think when when the Bills can roll three healthy
Speaker 9: tight ends out there, it makes them more difficult to
Speaker 9: defend everywhere else in the field, including the running game.
Speaker 9: I'd like being that I live in Youngstown. I got
Speaker 9: to give a shout out to Max tom Zach Oh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the wide receiver, the undrafted rookie.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 9: I think, well, if he's going to make the team,
Speaker 9: he's got to make it for special teams. The good
Speaker 9: news is he is a quality special teams player. He
Speaker 9: can play gunner, he can return kicks and maybe over
Speaker 9: time he could even move into a backup behind Shakir.
Speaker 9: I watched to see him get an opportunity.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks for the comment, We appreciate it. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: watched some of his tape. Steve Good route runner good
Speaker 1: little and and Mike Mike Tomzach, the former NFL quarterback
Speaker 1: is his nephew, so it's a NFL bloodlines there as well.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, Mike tom Sack is his uncle. Yes that
Speaker 4: I met Max is his nephew. Yeah, that's yeah. Like
Speaker 4: I said, there's room for everybody if you just got
Speaker 4: to figure out a way to carve out a role. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Special teams is obviously something that I'm familiar with, and
Speaker 4: a lot of guys aren't ready to do it when
Speaker 4: they get here.
Speaker 1: Last comment on the tweet sheet comes from Joshua, who
Speaker 1: says landon Jackson, he's bigger and in a system that
Speaker 1: he's more comfortable in like college, and the position that
Speaker 1: he will be playing will benefit is playing style. Dude
Speaker 1: is going to be a stud I was bullish on
Speaker 1: land and Jackson, but we have to see it before
Speaker 1: you know, we all get on board. We'll see that's
Speaker 1: it for us today. Mike Gardi going to join us
Speaker 1: on the show here tomorrow. We'll see you on Thursday
Speaker 1: at one
Speaker 4: MM.