OBL 5/28: Most Underappreciated Bills Player, Mike Giardi With The Latest On The Patriots

Chris Brown and Steve Tasker discussed news and notes from One Bills Drive and around the NFL. They asked the listeners who is the most underappreciated Bills player on the roster? Boston Sports Journal NFL writer Mike Giardi joined the show to share the latest from New England as the Patriots continue their offseason program.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker 1: The cook is in the kitchen, looks down the sideline.

Speaker 1: He's got kicktaid.

Speaker 2: For a twenty three yard touchdown and a dinner sept

Speaker 2: It Jumping over the air is Bedford.

Speaker 3: The One Bill's Live.

Speaker 4: All right, Welcome in to a Thursday edition of One

Speaker 4: Bill's Live here at the Bills Store on Abbot Road

Speaker 4: in Orchard Park.

Speaker 5: As we have reached.

Speaker 4: The final day of week two of OTA's we'll get

Speaker 4: into that in just a second. I was out for

Speaker 4: a couple of days, a few days here, and I

Speaker 4: will say that I've had a busy, busy schedule.

Speaker 5: It's crazy. Well, yeah, the busyness in western New York.

Speaker 5: It coincides with the break in the winter and spring

Speaker 5: weather into simmer and then everybody is like, up here.

Speaker 4: We had we had a wedding in Cleveland on Sunday.

Speaker 5: That's five rolled into that.

Speaker 4: Was on the on the heels of that, we're going

Speaker 4: to be moving my son.

Speaker 5: To Chicago for his first job out of school. Tell

Speaker 5: him so it's good, Tell him the unfortunate news work, Well,

Speaker 5: we can get into that later.

Speaker 4: What's more important is we decided because he starts work

Speaker 4: June first, he starts work on Monday. So my lovely

Speaker 4: wife and him went out to scout out apartments out

Speaker 4: there last week the previous week, found a place gottiise agreement.

Speaker 4: Then we have the wedding this past Sunday, for which

Speaker 4: he is the best man. So he's got all that

Speaker 4: to deal with on top of starting a new job

Speaker 4: in a new city, and we got to help them

Speaker 4: move in. So my wife and I are driving to

Speaker 4: a wedding in a rental truck, all this stuff, furniture,

Speaker 4: the whole thing, and I'm.

Speaker 5: Looking up the reception. Hold on, hold on, so I'm

Speaker 5: looking at my wife. We're driving there.

Speaker 4: Fortunately, my wife plans ahead for all of this stuff,

Speaker 4: because I was like, hun, I said, we're not rolling

Speaker 4: up to the reception in a rental truck in a

Speaker 4: suit and address, are we? She goes, no, No, I'm

Speaker 4: going to ask some of our friends that we're sitting

Speaker 4: with at the reception if they can, if we can

Speaker 4: bum a ride with them from the hotel to the reception.

Speaker 5: And thankfully we.

Speaker 4: Were able to do that because I was like, yeah,

Speaker 4: if we did the rental truck, we certainly wouldn't be

Speaker 4: classing up the event.

Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, twelve foot rental truck. I do everybody,

Speaker 5: and we've been awful. Lost the keys, the keys, the

Speaker 5: rental to the till valet guy, here you go, bro

Speaker 5: park in a good spot.

Speaker 4: So yeah, so we so we made that work and

Speaker 4: by doing that, we cut the drive to Chicago almost

Speaker 4: in half. Yeah, because that's three hours in change to

Speaker 4: Cleveland and then another five ish hours to to Chicago.

Speaker 4: So we did that, pulled it off. We're back, he's settled,

Speaker 4: he's in and good to go.

Speaker 5: So I just got back into town this morning. So

Speaker 5: that's right.

Speaker 4: It was like we were and once again, God bless

Speaker 4: my wife for making the decision.

Speaker 5: Yeah.

Speaker 4: After we do all that, we're flying home.

Speaker 5: Oh yeah, you have three vehicles down there are two

Speaker 5: you know. Yeah, I know, So I was. I was

Speaker 5: grateful for that decision. That's good.

Speaker 4: So we did a one way rental, drop the truck

Speaker 4: off and be done with that. I gotta tell you,

Speaker 4: dual independent suspension not available on rental trucks.

Speaker 5: Yeah, that's like going back to nineteen eighty two. Hey,

Speaker 5: remember car I was twenty years old than this.

Speaker 4: Remember cars by hands like that, because I think dual suspension,

Speaker 4: dual independent suspension, came in like the mid eighties.

Speaker 5: My first car was a nineteen seventy three Opal Manta.

Speaker 5: Oh my god, with standard on the floor. That's pretty good.

Speaker 4: Mine was an eighty two Corolla Hatchback that I bought

Speaker 4: off my grandfather for a thousand bucks.

Speaker 5: Yeah, mine was eleven hund though, and I thought, oh

Speaker 5: my gosh, that's an outrage. It's so expensive. Yeah.

Speaker 4: My grandfather, who was a mechanic, he apparently had been

Speaker 4: fixing this car. He used to own a garage and

Speaker 4: that was his thing. He'd work on cars. But he

Speaker 4: used to tell me after nineteen seventy three, the average

Speaker 4: American could no longer work on their car. That's when

Speaker 4: computers came in, and the whole thing and died. Mine

Speaker 4: was you couldn't do everything that Yeah, So he had

Speaker 4: retired from being a mechanic, but anytime his car had

Speaker 4: a problem, he knew what to do. So he had

Speaker 4: been you know, and he's got spare parts from the

Speaker 4: garage that he sold in his garage and hole.

Speaker 5: So anytime he.

Speaker 4: Had to repair something on his car, it's got.

Speaker 6: An entire This hose will fit, he's got an entire

Speaker 6: that eye yet a spare car.

Speaker 4: I buy this car off him for a thousand bucks.

Speaker 4: When I think I'm like a junior in college to

Speaker 4: take up and back from to school. And I'm driving

Speaker 4: up one time and I stopped for gas and I

Speaker 4: got anti freeze like leaking out of the bottom. I'm like, oh, dang,

Speaker 4: what's this. I pop it open and there's a hose

Speaker 4: and it's just you know, it's got a.

Speaker 5: Crack in the hose. The rubbers dried out. Why number one,

Speaker 5: it's not the.

Speaker 4: Proper hose for this car, but it fit. So my

Speaker 4: grandfather put it on by go to the auto parts store,

Speaker 4: buy a hose. I got a hose right here. The

Speaker 4: problem is that hose was thirty years old, right, So

Speaker 4: and there I am at the gas station duct taping

Speaker 4: the compromise in the It's so I found out a

Speaker 4: lot of things about the car I bought off my

Speaker 4: grandfather as we went along there. The only the only

Speaker 4: reason that was it car was it eighty two Toyota

Speaker 4: Corolla catch.

Speaker 5: Back, all right. So the only reason that was an

Speaker 5: a two Corolla hatchback was because that's what the body

Speaker 5: look inside it was. It was Frankenstein, right, It was

Speaker 5: had parts from every bucket seats.

Speaker 4: No, no, no, the interior was fine. The engine block

Speaker 4: is where he you know rigam you know rigamarolled.

Speaker 5: The whole thing. That's funny. Yeah, trying at his leisure.

Speaker 5: It was a different world, man, when I was a kid.

Speaker 4: Yeah, I remember my dad going over the house. He's like, oh,

Speaker 4: I'm going to Grandpa's. We're gonna go bleed the brakes

Speaker 4: and whatever.

Speaker 5: I was like, Okay, shade tree mechanics. That's everybody was.

Speaker 6: It it And now with AI and you know YouTube

Speaker 6: videos sending people around the moon again and you Tube

Speaker 6: and social media and the connectivity that everybody is aware

Speaker 6: of and so you know, familiar with today.

Speaker 5: It was a completely different world when I was a kid.

Speaker 5: I mean, you think about it, people literally, I mean,

Speaker 5: it sounds crazy, It sounds it doesn't sound as crazy

Speaker 5: to me as it probably does to some people out there.

Speaker 5: People everywhere, in every store, in every building, in every

Speaker 5: home in America, almost every home in America, in every bathroom,

Speaker 5: every everybody smoked every all the time. Everywhere. There were

Speaker 5: ashtrays on kitchen tables and people ashtrays in your car,

Speaker 5: built the door arm rest. Oh my gosh, every everybody

Speaker 5: smoked everywhere all the time. It was it was a

Speaker 5: different world. It was prevalent. Yeah, and it you know,

Speaker 5: and you had to My brothers had a paper route.

Speaker 5: I mean, think about that paper route. I had a

Speaker 5: paper ruff for two weeks. Yeah, I'm telling you. The

Speaker 5: first week, that's rough.

Speaker 4: The first week I had to develiver seventy five hundred

Speaker 4: by myself.

Speaker 5: Seventy five hundred.

Speaker 4: Yeah, and so my basket only held like seventy and

Speaker 4: I'm wedging him in there.

Speaker 5: So it'd make one hundred trips. It was a lot.

Speaker 4: Or I'm sorry, it wasn't seventy five hundred. It was

Speaker 4: seven to fifty seven hundred and seven hundred and fifty houses. Okay,

Speaker 4: so it was ten trips, yeah, ten change. And my

Speaker 4: first weekend pouring rain, pouring rain the whole day. My

Speaker 4: dad felt so bad for me. By about three in

Speaker 4: the afternoon. I started at seven in the morning. By

Speaker 4: the time I got to three in the afternoon, I

Speaker 4: was like three quarters done. And he's like, get the

Speaker 4: rest of your newspapers, get in the back of the

Speaker 4: station wagon. And I just had the back of the

Speaker 4: station wagon up and I just rode on the back

Speaker 4: and just started chucking papers, you know, at front lawns.

Speaker 4: Second week, I did it again, and I'm just like,

Speaker 4: get my check. Fifteen bucks, fifteen bucks. It was the

Speaker 4: Penny Saver. I got fifteen bucks and I'm like, yeah,

Speaker 4: this isn't adding up.

Speaker 5: Yeah, this isn't adding up. About two weeks I last, Yeah,

Speaker 5: I get it. We did the same thing, Chris.

Speaker 4: The truck drops off all the papers. They don't drop

Speaker 4: the papers off for you to deliver, right, you gotta

Speaker 4: put them.

Speaker 5: In the bag. Yes, you gotta do all that. They

Speaker 5: just throw it. They threw a bundle down on the ground,

Speaker 5: say get it going. You know, this generation of kids

Speaker 5: is my kids. My brother, my older brother, did the

Speaker 5: same thing, and they said, you gotta have these on

Speaker 5: the you gotta have them on the doorstep. Well, we

Speaker 5: lived in an incredibly small town. I kind of had

Speaker 5: to drive the house is too far away to bite.

Speaker 5: Oh no, not then, but well, yeah, the ones we

Speaker 5: just delivered it in the town. But it was Yeah,

Speaker 5: my my brother was up at five am grabbing the bundle,

Speaker 5: folding them. Were banned around. I have to do it

Speaker 5: the night before. There's no way I would have been

Speaker 5: able to finish. Yeah, well, the penny Saver didn't come

Speaker 5: out every day. No, this was like every day once

Speaker 5: a week. Oh my goodness. It was a crusher. So yeah,

Speaker 5: I'm And that's that's when you know, you got to

Speaker 5: learn hard lessons in life. That's when you learn the

Speaker 5: value of a dollar. You learn and the value of

Speaker 5: your time. That's right, that's even different. And this is

Speaker 5: where I can kind of relate to the kids today.

Speaker 5: Maybe you had to decide, I don't think that's that's

Speaker 5: not a good return on my investment of my time. Yeah,

Speaker 5: forget it. I'd I could sweep in a grocery store

Speaker 5: or something like that. Better Yeah, longer hours, but better pay.

Speaker 5: I found.

Speaker 4: I found a job packing boxes at a book distributor.

Speaker 4: I was just packing box bake orders and boxes and

Speaker 4: sealing them up, putting a label on it. Six bucks

Speaker 4: an hour. I was getting for that in like nineteen

Speaker 4: eighty four, twelve year old.

Speaker 5: Three hours of work and you make a labor But

Speaker 5: right I was off the books. It is all good.

Speaker 5: My first my first job was as a farm hand

Speaker 5: driving a tract. I'm driving like a three hundred thousand

Speaker 5: dollars piece of machinery, and I was getting four to

Speaker 5: twenty five an hour, and I was like, I am

Speaker 5: making it.

Speaker 4: I got four twenty five an hours a twenty two

Speaker 4: year old out of college, my first radio jow.

Speaker 5: Oh my gosh, there you go. Say you all right?

Speaker 4: Enough down memory lane for us. Glad to have you back.

Speaker 4: Brownie right good to be. Yeah, everything worked out well.

Speaker 5: Maddy was great while you were gone. She was on it.

Speaker 5: We were we I gotta tell you too, while we

Speaker 5: were sitting here. Maybe it's maybe it's you and me

Speaker 5: when Maddie's co hosting, we have people standing around. Yeah,

Speaker 5: we have people coming in watching the show, and now

Speaker 5: that it's you and me, it's the place's vacant.

Speaker 4: Well, we're better, we're better heard than scene. I think

Speaker 4: did we make an answer? What do we make of

Speaker 4: that we are better heard than the scene? Okay, I

Speaker 4: think that's the answer. As we said. Though today was

Speaker 4: the last day of week two of OTA practices, players

Speaker 4: will be back on the practice field on Monday for

Speaker 4: the final three day.

Speaker 5: OTA session next week. Uh.

Speaker 4: After our show was all off the air yesterday, the

Speaker 4: Bills announced that they signed veteran linebacker Demetrius Flannagan Foles.

Speaker 4: He played last season for the Giants, but had spent

Speaker 4: some time on Buffalo's practice squad over the past couple

Speaker 4: of seasons. He is now back. He's wearing jersey number fifty.

Speaker 4: Has his first practice here today. So that's the Bills

Speaker 4: news to know at this point in time. Let's go

Speaker 4: around the NFL and Jets. Rookie tight end Kenyon Sadik

Speaker 4: underwent a hernia procedure and we'll miss the rest of

Speaker 4: the team's spring workouts. Head coach Aaron Glenn called the

Speaker 4: procedure minor in nature and expects him to be ready

Speaker 4: for training camp and hopefully that is the case because

Speaker 4: he is supposed to be a weapon in that office.

Speaker 5: I don't know how many. Yeah, hernias are fairly calmon

Speaker 5: and you get it taken.

Speaker 4: Care because it's not one of those core muscle surgery

Speaker 4: sports herneas. Those are like a three to four month recovery.

Speaker 4: It doesn't appear that it's.

Speaker 5: That those are different. Yeah, so yeah, well, good for him.

Speaker 5: That's now's the time to get her done.

Speaker 4: In other Jets news, they have signed kicker Young Ho Ku,

Speaker 4: who played last season for the Giants and Falcons. For

Speaker 4: those that don't remember, Ko had the worst field goal

Speaker 4: attempt technique of this century when while with the Giants

Speaker 4: and against the Patriots, he chunked the turf, never hit

Speaker 4: the ball, and was subsequently sacked for a turnover.

Speaker 5: Do you remember that play. I'm trying to just I'm

Speaker 5: trying to dredge up an accurate description without sounding disrespectful.

Speaker 5: It was the worst field goal attempt in NFL history.

Speaker 5: It's right, it's gotta be right there. You can you

Speaker 5: can never hit the ball. You can name. You can

Speaker 5: name any missed kick you want from any era and

Speaker 5: any kicker. Okay, So I'm gonna end some nothing will touch.

Speaker 4: Okay, I'm gonna I think I can come close, not

Speaker 4: with a place kicker, but with a punter.

Speaker 5: Well fift and he dropped it and in a wild

Speaker 5: card play or divisional playoffs the Bears, he completely missed

Speaker 5: the ball. But that was a punt. That was a punt.

Speaker 5: This this was a placement. It was just down. Young

Speaker 5: hokun Hoku planted his foot and it was I don't

Speaker 5: know what he was looking at, but the ball got planned.

Speaker 5: It looked like they were spotting the ball for somebody

Speaker 5: in another universe. He wasn't even close to it, and

Speaker 5: his foot hit the ground eighteen inches from the ball.

Speaker 4: It looked like he was trying to to kick the

Speaker 4: earth through the uprights more than the ball.

Speaker 5: It was and the bless his heart, the holder sitting

Speaker 5: there and he he's like, what just happened here? And

Speaker 5: let me tell you? And then he picked the ball up.

Speaker 5: He threw it at young Hoku. Are you kidding me?

Speaker 5: He's sitting there, bless his heart. That's what you're supposed

Speaker 5: to do as a holder. I've been there. I've never

Speaker 5: been in that spot because every kicker I ever held

Speaker 5: for at least hit it. And the worst one I

Speaker 5: ever had was the first one of my career as

Speaker 5: a rookie in Houston. And yeah, Louis plants and kicks

Speaker 5: it and he kicks it right in right into Bruce Matthews,

Speaker 5: who by the way, is a long snapper. He got nods.

Speaker 5: He didn't do that, but he got it got blocked

Speaker 5: back into our face. That was my first That was

Speaker 5: I think that might have been my first special team to.

Speaker 4: Play the Cares.

Speaker 5: It was fourth. Then we're kicking a field goal. Get

Speaker 5: me off the field. It might have been an extra point.

Speaker 5: I can't remember. It's been too long. All I know

Speaker 5: is it was like boom boom, right back at us.

Speaker 5: I did. I did lay before we went, before we

Speaker 5: went on the field. Bless his heart. Louis were standing there.

Speaker 5: I was a rookie, and I, like I tell everybody,

Speaker 5: I looked like I was eight years old, you know,

Speaker 5: I was looking like a little kid. And he's sitting there.

Speaker 5: He goes, hey, you're not ready to go on. We're

Speaker 5: playing the Miami Dolphins Dan Marino, after he'd just taken

Speaker 5: them in the Super Bowl. He looks, he goes, hey,

Speaker 5: somebody one of the other guys came over and talked

Speaker 5: to me. He goes, you nervous, and I go, well, yeah,

Speaker 5: a little bit. Das looks at me, he goes, what

Speaker 5: what are you talking about?

Speaker 4: Why would you say that to your kicker, because now

Speaker 4: he's nervous exactly, now he's a man.

Speaker 5: The ball got kicked right back into our face. Well,

Speaker 5: when you told him you were nervous, then he became nervous.

Speaker 4: And the performance dictated not the level of confidence that

Speaker 4: both of you had out there on.

Speaker 5: The field, and my career was off and running that

Speaker 5: is epic. So there you go, Louis and Dejas cursing

Speaker 5: tasker to this day, right, So there you go. But

Speaker 5: this that young that to me, young Hoku in the.

Speaker 4: League, Like, I didn't even think that was physically possible

Speaker 4: what he pulled off.

Speaker 5: Did anybody get any feedback from Is there any media

Speaker 5: interview from young ho kup after that mishap? You know

Speaker 5: what I mean, because it was you, Lgi. You ain't

Speaker 5: got no alibi, ugly, it was absolutely the worst thing

Speaker 5: you've ever seen.

Speaker 4: He explain that the cold weather caused the ball to

Speaker 4: slip out of place at the bottom, making it move

Speaker 4: just as he approached to kick. Because the ball was shifting,

Speaker 4: he intentionally pulled up on his kicking motion to avoid

Speaker 4: a worse outcome, resulting in him striking the turf instead.

Speaker 4: Can I call bs on that.

Speaker 5: Behind me? I'll call it first that. No, you, it

Speaker 5: doesn't matter it if.

Speaker 4: It still slips out of place, Kick it anyway, Kick it.

Speaker 5: Anyway, dude, Yeah, that doesn't fly. Let me quite literally did?

Speaker 5: Let me? Didn't fly it all. What was the name

Speaker 5: of the kicker from Denver who was so good bay

Speaker 5: way back in the day in my day's Pro Bowl

Speaker 5: kicker from Hawaii came out of and I can't remember

Speaker 5: the guy's Carlos. Is it barefooter? No? No, no, no, no,

Speaker 5: it was after it was post Carlos. So that's it.

Speaker 5: Jason elam is kicking in the Pro Bowl in Hawaii.

Speaker 5: Yours truly was his holder at that point as well.

Speaker 5: It didn't tell him you were nervous? Did I did

Speaker 5: not because I wasn't. I probably should have been. What

Speaker 5: happened back then was they didn't allow the kicker placekicker

Speaker 5: to bring his holder and his long snapper the way

Speaker 5: they do now. So we had a guy, an offensive

Speaker 5: lineman who was a snapper. It wasn't Bruce Matthews, who's

Speaker 5: usually there. It was some other long snapper. I can't.

Speaker 5: I think it was DERMANI Dawson who snap but wasn't

Speaker 5: a long snap, didn't do it on the regular. And

Speaker 5: I don't want to put this on I don't know

Speaker 5: if it's DERMANI or not. I'm throwing him out there

Speaker 5: because he right, so he he can be upset with me.

Speaker 5: It might not have been him, but whoever the snapper was,

Speaker 5: snapped it back. It got there with nice velocity. However,

Speaker 5: it was wobbling. It was wobbling like it was on LSD.

Speaker 5: I mean, the thing was coming back. It was like

Speaker 5: it was like this. And if you're a holder, that's

Speaker 5: not fun. It's a it's a big problem. I I

Speaker 5: caught it. Jason Elam, who punted in college for Hawaii,

Speaker 5: coming back home in his first PROBWL kicking in Aloha

Speaker 5: Stadium for the AFC squad in the Pro Bowl Pro Bowl.

Speaker 5: I mean, the guy was. It was what a moment.

Speaker 5: I put the ball down. It's laying flat on its side,

Speaker 5: laces towards him. I mean giving him a watermelon and

Speaker 5: a bad water it was. It was on its side.

Speaker 5: At least he didn't kick the point of the ball.

Speaker 5: I did get it sideways like the fat. He kicked

Speaker 5: the fat of the ball, laying on its side, flat

Speaker 5: with the laces towards him. And I had but I

Speaker 5: had my I had my finger. I had my finger

Speaker 5: on that pig man. I was holding that baby steady

Speaker 5: for him. But it was flat on his side and

Speaker 5: and he kicks that thing and I think it hit

Speaker 5: the tackle in the butt like it wasn't even the stage.

Speaker 5: It went stage left and it hit the guy like

Speaker 5: eight feet left of the center, two feet off the ground,

Speaker 5: and he I, you know, one of my I felt

Speaker 5: like a total you know, idiot, and I was, but

Speaker 5: I well, I didn't get But what was I gonna do?

Speaker 5: You know, I was going to juggle that thing for

Speaker 5: ten seconds Before I could get that thing, I just

Speaker 5: put it down. And to you know, this very day

Speaker 5: when I you know, I've seen cross paths with him,

Speaker 5: I bring it up to him how bad I feel.

Speaker 5: I was, like, dude, he was a hero for even

Speaker 5: getting his foot on it. But man, so that it

Speaker 5: is a good holder stories, Man, these are good is unbelievable.

Speaker 5: Young Hoku is trumped you though, So Young Hokku was

Speaker 5: worse than that attempt. He was way worse than that.

Speaker 5: Oh yeah, uh. Green Bay Packers running back.

Speaker 4: Josh Jacobs released from jail today after his arrest on

Speaker 4: several domestic violence charges pending further investigation. So the District

Speaker 4: Attorney's office in Brown County, Wisconsin basically said the investigation

Speaker 4: remains open and ongoing after reviewing the available evidence. The

Speaker 4: District Attorney's office not yet prepared to make a formal

Speaker 4: charging decision. According to the DA. Their office has requested

Speaker 4: additional investigation time as there is reason to believe that

Speaker 4: additional evidence may exist that would impact whether criminal charges

Speaker 4: are appropriate. So they're going to make a final charging

Speaker 4: decision at a later date. Speaking to reporters for the

Speaker 4: first time in four months, quarterback Lamar Jackson maintained his

Speaker 4: stance of keeping his contract talks with the Baltimore Ravens private,

Speaker 4: but he acknowledged that he still envisions himself being with

Speaker 4: the team long term.

Speaker 5: Quote.

Speaker 4: Absolutely, I love the Ravens. I love this organization. I

Speaker 4: love this city. This is the team that drafted me.

Speaker 4: I love Baltimore. Everyone should know that by now. I

Speaker 4: gotta tell you though, like he's got to know. When

Speaker 4: contract negotiations drag on, fans get nervous when it's the

Speaker 4: franchise quarterback. So that's just kind of the way it is.

Speaker 4: I mean, it'll get.

Speaker 5: Done, you know. Yeah, it's you know, there's as we

Speaker 5: all know those who follow this kind of stuff, there's

Speaker 5: an extra layer of difficulty because they're dealing with Lamar

Speaker 5: and his mom. Yeah, he doesn't have an agent. It

Speaker 5: adds a level of well, it makes it even more personal.

Speaker 5: It's yes, every player always takes contract negotiations personally, even

Speaker 5: when they don't ever talk to the GM, never talk

Speaker 5: to the owner, never talk to the head coach during

Speaker 5: those negotiations about the contract, even if they're practicing and

Speaker 5: all that during they never talk about that stuff. And

Speaker 5: the agent handles the ugliness of contract negotiations. For instance,

Speaker 5: if you're the Baltimore Ravens, you're sitting there with a

Speaker 5: new head coach and you're saying, listen, Lamar, we had

Speaker 5: to adjust the entire organization schedule because Lamar didn't want

Speaker 5: to show up early in the morning. We had to

Speaker 5: adjust this and that. We had to do this, and

Speaker 5: Lamar's Lamar has been hurt three out of the last

Speaker 5: four years. It hasn't been able to finish the season

Speaker 5: or play in seventeen games. The whole thing, we can't

Speaker 5: trust Lamar. You can't say that to Lamar's mom, right,

Speaker 5: So that takes a little extra time to get that

Speaker 5: stuff like that done. And as much as of well,

Speaker 5: let's just call it what it is, as much as

Speaker 5: an absolute non starter that Lamar is not their starting

Speaker 5: quarterback on day one, they can't not let have that happen.

Speaker 5: They can't let that happen. Lamar's too good a player.

Speaker 5: They can't let him hold out.

Speaker 4: Yeah, especially with the first year head coach Jesse Mentor.

Speaker 5: It is impossible to overstate how important Lamore is to

Speaker 5: the franchise at this point. And he probably and he

Speaker 5: obviously knows that, which is why he's That's a little

Speaker 5: bit of them, a little bit of the reason why

Speaker 5: they're in this situation. And that's his leverage. Yeah, that's

Speaker 5: his leverage, and he's using it, which he should, I guess,

Speaker 5: but Yeah.

Speaker 4: The NFL NFL dot Com put together their list of

Speaker 4: the eight teams most likely to dethrone the defending Super

Speaker 4: Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks at number eight. It was Kansas

Speaker 4: City number seven, Detroit number six, was Denver number five,

Speaker 4: San Francisco number four, Philadelphia number three, Buffalo number two,

Speaker 4: Baltimore number one, the LA Rams. Here's what they wrote

Speaker 4: about the Bills being the third team on this list.

Speaker 4: Buffalo has a new head coach and Joe Brady got

Speaker 4: Any challenges related to that transition might be mitigated by

Speaker 4: the bond that already exists between Josh Allen and Brady,

Speaker 4: who has been on the team staff since twenty twenty two,

Speaker 4: including his offensive coordinator the last two plus seasons. The question,

Speaker 4: as has long been the case for the Bills, is

Speaker 4: whether Allen can carry the team to the top despite

Speaker 4: shortcoming in some other areas of the roster. The receiving

Speaker 4: corps not nearly good enough last season, and while DJ

Speaker 4: Moore helps, there's still a need for dynamic downfield ball

Speaker 4: winners to maximize Allen's talent. On the other side of

Speaker 4: the ball, run defense can't sag like it did in

Speaker 4: twenty twenty five. If Buffalo is going to make a

Speaker 4: deeper run. Bills allowed one hundred and thirty six yards

Speaker 4: per game on the ground, fifth most in the league.

Speaker 5: Fixing that area.

Speaker 4: Has to be the first priority for new defensive coordinator

Speaker 4: Jim Leonard, who as the squad moving to a three

Speaker 4: to four base, but squeezing more out of the pass

Speaker 4: rush ranks high on the to do list as well,

Speaker 4: and that might not be an easy ask. The team

Speaker 4: has a favorable schedule at least by one metric and

Speaker 4: won't face the Seahawks in the regular season. If everything

Speaker 4: comes together around Allen, the Bills will have as good

Speaker 4: a shot as anyone at the title.

Speaker 5: As good as shot as anybody. Yea, including the Rams

Speaker 5: and including Philly, and including Baltimore that the Bills.

Speaker 4: Found it interesting Baltimore was number two.

Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah. They've got a new head coach too.

Speaker 4: And haven't been to the playoffs. They didn't go last year's.

Speaker 4: I mean a good team, don't get me wrong.

Speaker 5: But you and I both from doing the show, and

Speaker 5: we interact with Bills fans all the time, and it's

Speaker 5: it's always a blast because a lot of people we

Speaker 5: talked to listen to the show. Obviously, we have some

Speaker 5: people in here yesterday and the guy goes, I, he goes,

Speaker 5: I listened to it every day, and if I can't

Speaker 5: catch it live, I'm always on the Spotify. I can

Speaker 5: always get the I'm like, oh wow, that's awesome. So

Speaker 5: we interact with people like that all the time, and

Speaker 5: they always ask us, you know what do you you

Speaker 5: know what about it? How's it gonna? And I'm telling

Speaker 5: them my line on this. At this point, on May

Speaker 5: twenty eighth, the Bill's going to be right there again.

Speaker 5: They're going to be right there again, and everything's on

Speaker 5: the table, from a wild card berth to a number

Speaker 5: one seed. They're a playoff caliber team. They're gonna like

Speaker 5: a playoff caliber team. There's so many unpredictables. Of course,

Speaker 5: you don't know how it's gonna work out, and you

Speaker 5: know how many games they'll win exactly. But they're gonna

Speaker 5: be right there again, just like they have been for

Speaker 5: the last six or seven years. The question is how

Speaker 5: do they arrive. What kind of physical shape are they in?

Speaker 5: Are all there? Are their guns blazing? Are there all

Speaker 5: their weapons intact? Are all their good players on the field?

Speaker 5: And the second question is when they get to those

Speaker 5: tough playoff games past the division round, as they always

Speaker 5: they always win a playoff game. Are they gonna be

Speaker 5: able to close out a game when they get control

Speaker 5: of it. Are they gonna be able to do something

Speaker 5: make some first downs when it's been hard to make

Speaker 5: first downs? Are they going to be able to score

Speaker 5: a touchdown when they need a touchdown? Or they're going

Speaker 5: to be able to hold on to a lead when

Speaker 5: they get hold on to a lead. Is the other

Speaker 5: team gonna get a bad spot or drop a pass,

Speaker 5: or have something happened has happened to the Bills over

Speaker 5: the past six years. Those are the questions that are

Speaker 5: gonna be asked. They are gonna be right in the

Speaker 5: middle of it again this year at the end of

Speaker 5: the season when the playoffs rolled around. They're gonna be

Speaker 5: right there. Yeah, how is it gonna change? We'll see

Speaker 5: when they get there. Right.

Speaker 4: Topic of discussion for you today, who's the most underappreciated

Speaker 4: Bills player on the roster? Tell us who that is

Speaker 4: and why? Pretty simple, pretty straightforward today. Give us some

Speaker 4: guy that you think is terribly unsung, either for what

Speaker 4: they've done for the Bills or what you think they

Speaker 4: will do this coming season. Most underappreciated Bills player on

Speaker 4: the roster and your estimation. Add One Bill's Live is

Speaker 4: where you can tell us your opinion way in now,

Speaker 4: and we'll get to the tweeteet when we return here

Speaker 4: on One Bill's Live.

Speaker 5: All right back here on a Thursday edition.

Speaker 4: On Bill's Live, Chris Browse save tasker who is the

Speaker 4: most underappreciated Bills player.

Speaker 5: On the roster?

Speaker 4: Add One Bill's Live is where you and way in

Speaker 4: on the tweet sheet and we are going to crack

Speaker 4: that tweetsheet open right now. And leading us off today

Speaker 4: is Connor, who says two players for me, Bernard and Kincaid.

Speaker 4: The reason I say that is because these two players

Speaker 4: are always surrounded in the injury conversation, but when they

Speaker 4: are healthy and on the field, they have the potential

Speaker 4: to be game changers for the Bills. Hoping for a

Speaker 4: healthy tb En Kincaid. We heard from Kincaid earlier in

Speaker 4: the week and he said he his knee feels as

Speaker 4: strong as he can remember in the last three years.

Speaker 4: He tweaked it last year in training camp and was

Speaker 4: I don't want to say he was anxiety ridden, but

Speaker 4: it was a thing for the whole season. Yeah, did

Speaker 4: not have surgery, sought multiple opinions, and their decision was

Speaker 4: surgery not necessary. Strengthen the muscles around it, you'll be

Speaker 4: good to go, no problem with the PCL.

Speaker 5: And he's done that. You know, a lot of these

Speaker 5: guys came back a little bit, I don't know, finger

Speaker 5: quotes refurbished physically. You know, we've been talking about Land

Speaker 5: and Jackson a lot, but Kinkaid is also one of

Speaker 5: those guys who looks a little bit physically different this year,

Speaker 5: coming back into training camping into the OTAs He's it's

Speaker 5: obvious he's been working out and all these guys work out,

Speaker 5: and they work out really, really hard. But these guys

Speaker 5: came back and it looks like they're a little bit

Speaker 5: different physically. So yeah, it'll be interesting to see if

Speaker 5: it translates itself into some more consistent on field availability.

Speaker 4: As for Charrell Bernard, he had an off season procedure

Speaker 4: on his ankle and has been limited in OTAs because

Speaker 4: of it, but defensive coordinator Jim Leonard indicated that his

Speaker 4: level of part participation was going to increase as he

Speaker 4: made his way through OTAs and then into Mini camp,

Speaker 4: and I would think the expectation is full go for

Speaker 4: training camp. So he's been somewhat limited here in the

Speaker 4: spring coming off this ankle procedure, which I think was

Speaker 4: I'm not going to pretend to know the nature of it,

Speaker 4: but you know, we hear these guys whether it's a

Speaker 4: scope or a tightrope procedure, you know, for high ankle sprains,

Speaker 4: that's like the new soup d jore right, for high

Speaker 4: ankle sprains. We get those tightrope surgeries to alleviate the problem,

Speaker 4: shortened the recovery time, and prevent recurrence of seid injury.

Speaker 4: So nothing's guaranteed, but he's doing what he can now,

Speaker 4: so he's more right during the season and it doesn't

Speaker 4: pop up again as a problem, right, So that's good news.

Speaker 5: Yeah, it'll be interesting to see these got we you know,

Speaker 5: right now, everybody feels great, right, it's May, so you're

Speaker 5: gonna get a lot of guys participating in feeling great

Speaker 5: and looking great. As we all know. Though once the

Speaker 5: season starts, that ceases to be the case, and you've

Speaker 5: got to you got to go when you don't feel great.

Speaker 5: That's really where the nuts and bolts of the season

Speaker 5: take over large.

Speaker 4: Tim Horton says Shavers blocking special teams and never stopped

Speaker 4: when thrown too. He's got him for his most underappreciated bill.

Speaker 4: I kind of liked that one.

Speaker 5: Shaves was on the field a lot.

Speaker 4: Did a lot of the dirty work a lot.

Speaker 5: He was And when Gabe Davis went to Jacksonville for

Speaker 5: a year, Shavers kind of mushroomed his way into that after.

Speaker 5: You know, Mac Collins was there for a year. He

Speaker 5: was that guy, and last year it was Shavers. He

Speaker 5: got a lot of time as a play.

Speaker 4: He made the fifty three man roster out of camp.

Speaker 4: That was after being here for two years on the

Speaker 4: practice squad and you know, made some plays, but was

Speaker 4: an asset in the run game as a blocker. Yeah,

Speaker 4: and did a lot of the dirty work, as we say,

Speaker 4: all through the preseason and then into the season. And

Speaker 4: it's just a shame now that he's I mean, he

Speaker 4: played half a playoff game on a torn ACL still

Speaker 4: blocking in the run game. So that injury, though, I think,

Speaker 4: is gonna make his availability a major question mark because

Speaker 4: training camp in the start of the season.

Speaker 5: Because it happened when it did so late in mid

Speaker 5: January in the playoffs, wouldn't shock me if you know

Speaker 5: they kind of.

Speaker 4: Put him on reserve pup maybe then say let's see

Speaker 4: where you're at week seven, because you get you know,

Speaker 4: you can open up his practice window then, so see

Speaker 4: what the receiver room looks at that point health wise,

Speaker 4: what it looks like, and then determine how ready Shavers

Speaker 4: might be in his return from an ACL injury.

Speaker 5: So yeah, big guy, he's big, tall dude. It's a

Speaker 5: little slender, high cut, but man, oh man, he his

Speaker 5: attitude is work ethic, his commitment is really what got

Speaker 5: him on the field, and you got to tip your

Speaker 5: hat to him and hope he comes back on a

Speaker 5: hundred percent and can make his way back on the

Speaker 5: field for the Bills.

Speaker 4: Walter goes with James Cook is one of the tops

Speaker 4: backs in football. But outside of Buffalo, it's like people

Speaker 4: never heard of him. You'd like to think a few

Speaker 4: more people heard of him after he led the league

Speaker 4: in rushing.

Speaker 5: It's hard to hide, right.

Speaker 4: So, and I mean a lot of nationally televised games

Speaker 4: for the Bills in which and James Cook often went

Speaker 4: off in some of those games. You know, the Monday

Speaker 4: night game here a couple of years ago against the Cowboys,

Speaker 4: or was that Sunday night Sunday night against the Cowboys

Speaker 4: here comes to mind, you know, in some other nationally

Speaker 4: televised game in the four o'clock window.

Speaker 5: So, and playoff games.

Speaker 4: So I would like to think he's a more recognizable

Speaker 4: name than maybe Walter believes. But I mean I get

Speaker 4: where he's coming from. Underappreciated maybe nationally, but locally amongst

Speaker 4: the fan base. I think he is wholeheartedly appreciate.

Speaker 5: Yeah, he I mean you go back and watch, you know,

Speaker 5: his plays from last year, and it's just one long run,

Speaker 5: one long run after another, another long run, he scored

Speaker 5: a ton of touchdowns, made a lot of tough runs,

Speaker 5: and you always think about because of the passing game

Speaker 5: is so prevalent. He snaps off a six yard run

Speaker 5: on first down, it's like a whole hum, right, that

Speaker 5: is a hugely successful play and plus four in the

Speaker 5: successful and people kind of shrugged their shoulders, saying, ah,

Speaker 5: you know, if that guy would have made one more block,

Speaker 5: he would have gotten an extra five yards. A plus

Speaker 5: six run on first down is giant in the NFL,

Speaker 5: and I think that's underappreciated, and therefore the guys who

Speaker 5: do it on a consistent basins are on the basis

Speaker 5: are under appreciated. So I'm kind of with you on

Speaker 5: the James Cook thing. Plus, he nobody does less health promotion,

Speaker 5: and David Cook, you can't just about playing. You can't

Speaker 5: prack conversation out of him. So he's not out there

Speaker 5: on social media and they're pumping his own tires. So

Speaker 5: I think that that's a little bit of it. But

Speaker 5: certainly that's a great guess. I've got a great opinion

Speaker 5: to have him as your most underrated player.

Speaker 4: Jim on the tweets sheet, says Reid, Ferguson. If this

Speaker 4: player does his job, nobody knows his name. Therefore, I

Speaker 4: think he's the definition of underappreciated. He has been a

Speaker 4: modicum of consistency for this football team for the better

Speaker 4: part of the last decade. I mean he got here

Speaker 4: in twenty sixteen.

Speaker 5: He's the oldest tenured Buffalo Bill. He's been on the league,

Speaker 5: on the team longer than anybody. And I cannot recall

Speaker 5: a bad snap. I'm having trouble thinking, Uh, yeah, I

Speaker 5: can't eat he's yeah, thirty two years old. Is they're

Speaker 5: an older player on the team. Umm, I'm looking, Look,

Speaker 5: don't believe so. I don't think there is nobody's older

Speaker 5: on this team.

Speaker 4: Austin Corbett is thirty one. I think the free agent

Speaker 4: guard who signed from care.

Speaker 5: No, there's nobody thirty three year older on the team.

Speaker 5: He's the oldest guy. Dawkins is thirty two, and he's

Speaker 5: the longest tenured Yeah Bill, Yeah, him and Dawkins.

Speaker 4: I mean he's put together a heck of a career.

Speaker 4: That's been rude.

Speaker 5: Here we go. Mitch Wesnowski's thirty four, okay, but he's

Speaker 5: only been here for less than a calendar year. Yeah.

Speaker 5: So yeah, he's not the oldest. He's not the oldest,

Speaker 5: he's the longest tenured. Yeah, but I like that pick.

Speaker 4: Nobody talks about the long snapper, and usually that's a

Speaker 4: good thing. If nobody's talking about him, to you know,

Speaker 4: to Jim's point, it means he's doing everything right right,

Speaker 4: So he's probably happy that nobody is.

Speaker 5: Uh. And it's one of those jobs too, and you know,

Speaker 5: historically speaking that you can do for as long as

Speaker 5: you can do it. I mean, well it sounds crazy.

Speaker 5: You can do it until you decide you don't want

Speaker 5: to do it. I remember the Buffalo Bills. Adam Lingner

Speaker 5: was a long snapper for my I think my almost

Speaker 5: my entire career and maybe not quite my entire career.

Speaker 5: He was like, I'm done. My back is killing me,

Speaker 5: my elbows.

Speaker 4: Well that was back when you could snap a long

Speaker 4: snapper in half.

Speaker 5: Well yeah, yeah, players cuts right on. Now you've got

Speaker 5: nobody over And he said, I'm done. I don't want

Speaker 5: to do it. And Marv went and said, listen, you

Speaker 5: give us another year. Another year. He goes, I'll do it,

Speaker 5: but I don't. I don't want to do any offensive

Speaker 5: line stuff. I can't practice offensive line getting into a

Speaker 5: stance just for looks on. You know, you let me

Speaker 5: long snap, like be a long snapper and else and

Speaker 5: nothing else. I'll come back and do it, they said. Deal.

Speaker 4: But that's a position you can play well into your

Speaker 4: mid thirties. Absolutely, because a lot of guys doolute. If

Speaker 4: you look around the league, many of them are in

Speaker 4: their mid thirties.

Speaker 5: So there's you go back and look through the annals

Speaker 5: of NFL history. Long snappers are guys who because the

Speaker 5: it's not physically particularly in today's day and age, it

Speaker 5: is not a physically demanding thing, like you don't have

Speaker 5: to be six five to three bills. You know, Read

Speaker 5: is not that big. No, he's like two forty five. Yeah,

Speaker 5: So you don't have to be a genetic freak to

Speaker 5: do it, and you literally can kind of hang in

Speaker 5: there as long as you want to hang in there.

Speaker 5: Historically speaking, guys have played that position for like, you know,

Speaker 5: seventeen years, and it's the level of trust that is

Speaker 5: the huge marker. That's what these coaching staffs live for.

Speaker 5: We've we've illustrated in a hundred different ways in different

Speaker 5: parts of the roster. You think about it. Long may

Speaker 5: be the one place where that's the job requirement. I

Speaker 5: trust you, Just go do it. I don't care if

Speaker 5: you're on one leg. I don't care if you're blind

Speaker 5: in one eye. Just go snap the ball. You have accuracy,

Speaker 5: do you have velocity? Yeah, they do not care. I

Speaker 5: don't care if you're five to ten, a buck ninety.

Speaker 5: Just go snap the ball. We gotta get it to

Speaker 5: the guy. And that's yeah. I gotta remember that, because

Speaker 5: that's truly you talk about trusting guys, and having the

Speaker 5: long snapper is the only position on the field where

Speaker 5: that's the only qualification they trust you because they need to.

Speaker 5: They've got no choice. That's the only qualification they care about.

Speaker 4: Got to step aside for a break here, but you

Speaker 4: let us know who you think is the most underappreciated

Speaker 4: Bill's player on the roster and explain to us why

Speaker 4: add One Bill's Live.

Speaker 5: Is where you can do that and be part of

Speaker 5: the show.

Speaker 4: Or if you're hanging out on Avid Road, or do

Speaker 4: you need to shopping in the Bill Store, you can

Speaker 4: stop by our live mic and let us know who

Speaker 4: you think it is as well here.

Speaker 5: On One Bill's Live.

Speaker 4: All right, back here on One Bill's Live.

Speaker 5: Chris Brown Steve Tasker.

Speaker 4: Fraternized him with some patrons of the Bills Store, Kelly

Speaker 4: and Chuck here from Tennessee in the store around Chuck

Speaker 4: it grew up here down south Buffalo and now he's

Speaker 4: lived all the way all around the country.

Speaker 5: Two other local fellows, one who park cars here at

Speaker 5: the stadium and the other old Form and his other brother.

Speaker 5: His older brother says, I remember this the old the

Speaker 5: former high Mark when it was a farm. Oh wow,

Speaker 5: So there you go. Okay, it's been a minute that

Speaker 5: it has.

Speaker 4: We got to get back to the tweets sheeet though,

Speaker 4: where we've been asking you today who is the most

Speaker 4: underappreciated Bill's player on the roster? And why add One

Speaker 4: Bill's Live is where you can weigh in or if

Speaker 4: you're milling around here in the Bills Store, can stop

Speaker 4: by our live mike and way in there with your.

Speaker 5: Own voice on the show.

Speaker 4: But we're up to saber gaming on the tweetsheet, and

Speaker 4: they say in terms of national media, Christian Benford by

Speaker 4: the fans, probably Buffalo Joe.

Speaker 5: Yeah, Benford.

Speaker 4: It's interesting because he's been the number one corner here

Speaker 4: for probably the last three seasons, right, and last year

Speaker 4: made a couple of gigantic plays in back to back games. Yeah,

Speaker 4: won AFC Defensive Player of the Week for his fumble

Speaker 4: return and interception against the Steelers on the road, and

Speaker 4: then the very next week picks off Joe Burrow on

Speaker 4: a bubble screen and goes the other way for a touchdown.

Speaker 4: Is second in his many games.

Speaker 5: Unbelievable that Joe Burrow play. And I'll say this too,

Speaker 5: we talked about it at the time. The Bills really

Speaker 5: were doing it with smoking mirrors. Defensively last year they

Speaker 5: had you know, Ed Oliver was out, Mike Hoyt was out,

Speaker 5: their pass rush was decapitated, and they had to kind

Speaker 5: of fool teams into making defense so that they could

Speaker 5: make defensive plays. And they fooled Joe Burrow on that

Speaker 5: and caused Burrow to panic just for a hot second

Speaker 5: and just tried to shot put it real quick to

Speaker 5: an uncovered Chase. You know, Jamar Chase and Benford got him,

Speaker 5: and they just got it. If that plays completed, Chase

Speaker 5: is going for a first down and you know, Milano's

Speaker 5: five yards behind him chasing him. But they disguised the

Speaker 5: defense perfectly. Benford comes in and makes that play. It's unbelievable.

Speaker 4: They snatched out of the I mean it was you

Speaker 4: your car. Know if Chase would have got a first

Speaker 4: down there, I don't know. Man, look at the end

Speaker 4: zone footage of it. He's by himself, but bur but

Speaker 4: Burke can't see. I mean, Milano's behind him now, would

Speaker 4: have taken Yeah, maybe they would have recovered that guy's

Speaker 4: closing on him.

Speaker 5: But man, yeah, I lost my mind on that. Oh

Speaker 5: so and the national I don't know who the TV

Speaker 5: guy was. I can't what just happened? Is what just happened?

Speaker 5: It was it was Fox? It might have been Joe

Speaker 5: Davis or because and this is the play. Uh. And

Speaker 5: then the next play after this, the Bengals come out

Speaker 5: on offense and it's a tipped interception again like Panessa

Speaker 5: ends up with it in his hand. I think it

Speaker 5: was I think it was Tippy Walker. Was that it

Speaker 5: was either Deon Walker or Jordan Phillips who it might

Speaker 5: have been Jordan's anyway, tipped intercept two plays in a row,

Speaker 5: two consecutive interceptions the.

Speaker 4: Game, and they still only won by five or four.

Speaker 5: And that then they you know, Joe comes back and

Speaker 5: puts his foot on the gas and it ends up.

Speaker 5: Yeah that was Jordan Phillips who tipped it, and you

Speaker 5: know then they end up uh t Higgins ends up

Speaker 5: one hand in one of the end zone to finish

Speaker 5: up the game. That was unbelievable. Yeah that was.

Speaker 3: Yeah.

Speaker 5: I love it. Yeah that's great.

Speaker 4: Uh So, you know, Benford, I guess he still doesn't

Speaker 4: get the national recognition. And then Joe andreeson. I don't

Speaker 4: know if he's underappreciated by Bills fans. Bill's fans probably

Speaker 4: like him better at anybody, right right right, like one

Speaker 4: of their own.

Speaker 5: Christian. I don't think he's underappreciated by Bills fans. Christian Benford,

Speaker 5: I don't think he gets I don't think a lot

Speaker 5: of people around the league appreciate how that guy's career

Speaker 5: has gone. From the very beginning, he was like sixth

Speaker 5: guy on the depth chart. At corner, he was like

Speaker 5: the third. He was like the sixth corner and ended

Speaker 5: up on opening day of his rookie season on the

Speaker 5: field play starting that in and of itself is an

Speaker 5: unbelievable turn of events and something that nobody saw coming.

Speaker 5: And I mean it's just it's an amazing story. So

Speaker 5: I think I don't think anybody appreciates that the way

Speaker 5: they should. So that's a good That's a good answer.

Speaker 5: Christian Benford is an extremely good answer. I think a

Speaker 5: little few people kind of put him off the side

Speaker 5: because of the way the season ended last year. He

Speaker 5: was he was hurt and couldn't play, so that leaves

Speaker 5: and and the Bills needed some corners at the end

Speaker 5: of the season. And uh yeah, so I think that

Speaker 5: puts it takes him off the radar there. But man,

Speaker 5: that's a great answer.

Speaker 4: Gonna take a break here because when we begin our

Speaker 4: number two here on this Thursday edition of One Bills Live,

Speaker 4: we're gonna be doing it with Boston Sports Journal NFL

Speaker 4: writer Mike Garty. He's also co host of the All

Speaker 4: thirty two podcast. We'll catch up with him, get some

Speaker 4: goings on on the Patriots and some AFC East news.

Speaker 5: Next. Love y'all boys were today.

Speaker 1: He is a feast for the Capitol Fie. The cook

Speaker 1: is in the kitchen, looks down the sideline. He's got

Speaker 1: kick Kade.

Speaker 2: Twenty three yard touchdown and a dinner sept It jumping up.

Speaker 3: In the air better, please please one Bill's live.

Speaker 4: All right here we are on a Thursday, Chris Brown,

Speaker 4: Steve Tasker with you, and please to welcome in now

Speaker 4: Boston Sports Chareal NFL writer Mike Giardi also co host

Speaker 4: of the All thirty two podcast, and I'm gonna talk

Speaker 4: a little AFC East with Mike, obviously since he's got

Speaker 4: his ear to the ground on the Patriots. But Mike,

Speaker 4: first of all, thanks for giving us some time here

Speaker 4: in the quote unquote off season. That ever, it's really

Speaker 4: truly an off season. OTAs are going on right now.

Speaker 4: But what would you say is kind of the I guess,

Speaker 4: the the underlying current of the Patriots off season because

Speaker 4: it's interesting. We know full well it's not gonna look

Speaker 4: much like the same team from last year. Some pretty

Speaker 4: big names are off that roster now digs the most

Speaker 4: notable of those. We're on the heels of the draft

Speaker 4: as well, not super active in free agency, and everyone

Speaker 4: seems to be waiting for the aj Brown shoe to drop.

Speaker 4: It might be the worst kept secret in NFL offseason

Speaker 4: trading history. But which one of those would you probably

Speaker 4: pull from the pile and say, this is kind of

Speaker 4: the biggest question mark an underlying current of the Patriots offseason.

Speaker 7: How about that nowhere we go?

Speaker 5: Now I got you, Mike.

Speaker 7: Yeah, I would say the Aj Brown thing, guys, is

Speaker 7: the biggest one to me because I like that they

Speaker 7: turned over some of the receiver room. I think the

Speaker 7: Romeo Dobbs signing was smart. I think moving away from

Speaker 7: Stefan Diggs despite the production last year, was smart because

Speaker 7: I think it was a balancing act with him all

Speaker 7: year long to sort of keep him happy and focused

Speaker 7: and all those sorts of things. So you had your

Speaker 7: your one moon, one year highmoon, and I think you

Speaker 7: wisely moved on. But Brown is a difference maker. Even

Speaker 7: if you don't believe he's the same player he was,

Speaker 7: say two or three years ago, He's still that physical

Speaker 7: presence who can thrive on some of the stuff underneath

Speaker 7: that Jalen Hurts does not want to throw that Drake

Speaker 7: May has no problem throwing. So I think getting him

Speaker 7: into the equation, having him play for a coach that

Speaker 7: he wants to play for in Mike Vrabel, with a

Speaker 7: quarterback he wants to play with in Drake May, I

Speaker 7: think you're going to see a bounce from Aj Brown

Speaker 7: and what was low one thousand yard receivers in each

Speaker 7: of the last two years could be more like twelve

Speaker 7: or thirteen hundred. If, of course, then these stays healthy.

Speaker 5: And you've got to how much of a maybe overreaction

Speaker 5: was it to you know, they put together a really

Speaker 5: good season this past year, got all the way to

Speaker 5: the Super Bowl, and of course it was disappointing in

Speaker 5: the Super Bowl. Is there you know, are fans overreacting

Speaker 5: to the way that season ended, thinking hey, we got

Speaker 5: to throw some stuff out that we might You know,

Speaker 5: what's that kind of reaction been from the fans and

Speaker 5: the organization? I think the organization is probably a little

Speaker 5: bit more level ahead and saying, hey, we you know,

Speaker 5: we're not maybe that far away. I mean, we went

Speaker 5: to the Super Bowl, so there are a lot of

Speaker 5: teams looking up at us. You know, what is the

Speaker 5: reaction there after the way the season ended, and is

Speaker 5: it an overreaction?

Speaker 7: I think from an organizational perspective, they understood that it

Speaker 7: happened maybe a little earlier than they thought it would,

Speaker 7: and that the roster still needed work. So while they

Speaker 7: didn't go out and spend a ton of money in

Speaker 7: free agency, the idea of getting someone like Dobbs, who's

Speaker 7: twenty six and you know it should be entering his prime,

Speaker 7: and they certainly feel like for as productive as he

Speaker 7: was in Green Bay, there's more meat on the bone

Speaker 7: there with that player, Draymont Jones. They flop him out

Speaker 7: with Calevon Chason, and Chason was a nice story for

Speaker 7: them last year as a pass rusher but not much

Speaker 7: of a run defender. In Jones, they feel like they

Speaker 7: have a different kind of pass rusher. They can give

Speaker 7: them that same tour sort of production, but also be

Speaker 7: better as a run defender and sort of show them

Speaker 7: up that way. And then you know they made the

Speaker 7: subtle move on the inside, you know, not so subtle

Speaker 7: was signing Elijah vera Tucker who, as we know, if

Speaker 7: he's healthy, he's a really good player. Now being healthy

Speaker 7: has been a problem for him. So the contract is

Speaker 7: structured where they gave themselves some insurance. You know, if

Speaker 7: he plays, the more he plays, the more money there

Speaker 7: is to be made there. But they moved Jared Wilson,

Speaker 7: who was their third round pick last year, who started

Speaker 7: at left guard for them for the majority of the year.

Speaker 7: They've moved him back to his natural position of center,

Speaker 7: Garrett Bradberry was there last year. They'd moved Wilson into

Speaker 7: that spot, and they feel like that gives them with

Speaker 7: the left side of the line with Campbell Vera Tucker

Speaker 7: and now with Wilson in the middle, a really good athletic,

Speaker 7: physical group that sort of they struggled to run that

Speaker 7: way last year. They feel like maybe they could do

Speaker 7: it a little bit more with this configuration.

Speaker 4: There are a lot of people around the league, Mike,

Speaker 4: and I'm sure you heard this, that felt that the

Speaker 4: Patriots benefited from a supremely soft schedule, one of the

Speaker 4: softest in years. And look, you can't fault the Patriots.

Speaker 4: They play who's on their schedule, but it changes precipitously

Speaker 4: now playing a first play schedule, not the least of

Speaker 4: which begins with the defending Super Bowl champions on the

Speaker 4: road in the kickoff game. What has been made of

Speaker 4: the fact that week after week, for the most part,

Speaker 4: I mean, there's some soft spots still in this schedule.

Speaker 4: They get to play the Jets twice and the Dolphins twice,

Speaker 4: just like the Bills do, and the Raiders are on

Speaker 4: there as we know, and the Vikings are still trying

Speaker 4: to find themselves, although they have Kyler Murray. But what

Speaker 4: has been said, if anything about the step up in

Speaker 4: schedule and competition this year is compared to last year.

Speaker 7: Well, heaven forbid, Chris, you say anything about the schedule

Speaker 7: of Patriots fans around here last year, they lost their minds,

Speaker 7: even though it is proven by every single positive metric

Speaker 7: that anybody's ever come up with that it will historically

Speaker 7: about as easy as it's gotten in the last thirty

Speaker 7: years or so. And again, like you said, you can't say, oh, well,

Speaker 7: shame on the Patriots. Like, no, the schedule is the schedule.

Speaker 7: You play who's in front of you. And what I

Speaker 7: actually thought was a good sign about the team last

Speaker 7: year is they never had that slip up, right, They

Speaker 7: never There's some of these opponents that we looked at

Speaker 7: and go as the season went on, you're like, that

Speaker 7: team stinks, they should just bury him. Well they did,

Speaker 7: you know, they beat him. They didn't have that letdown game.

Speaker 7: I guess really the only time in the regular season

Speaker 7: that they had a letdown was the Bills game at home.

Speaker 7: But we obviously know the talent of the Bills and

Speaker 7: that three score deficit proved to be surmountable instead of insurmountable.

Speaker 7: But by and large, they were really good at sort

Speaker 7: of keeping the pressure on opponents. And you know, in

Speaker 7: some ways it was reminiscent of you know, the Belichick

Speaker 7: Brady era, where like the other teams would just make

Speaker 7: mistakes and they just kept playing this clean game of

Speaker 7: football and eventually, you know, you look up and hey,

Speaker 7: they're up by seventeen points. This one's over. That'll be

Speaker 7: different this year. You saw the way the season starts.

Speaker 7: I don't know who was clamoring for a rematch with

Speaker 7: Seattle in week one they opened the season because that

Speaker 7: game was pretty much non competitive, I think in the

Speaker 7: super Bowl, but that's what you get. And you know,

Speaker 7: Steelers with Rogers early. That's not the easiest spot they

Speaker 7: found ou out. Last year, they lost the Steelers early

Speaker 7: in the season, got to go to Jacksonville play the

Speaker 7: Jags in that heat, then of course the Bills in

Speaker 7: the new stadium. So yeah, that first month with the

Speaker 7: sort of stuff that's been swirling around this team here

Speaker 7: in April and may like there'll be a lot of

Speaker 7: eyeballs on the football team and see how they respond

Speaker 7: to that schedule respond to some of the stuff that's

Speaker 7: gone on with Rabel off the field, and are they

Speaker 7: as dialed in as they need to be, Because if

Speaker 7: you're not, you could look at that first month and

Speaker 7: be one in three or heaven forbid zer and four

Speaker 7: and be like, did we just blow our whole season

Speaker 7: because we didn't get out of the gates fast enough?

Speaker 5: Can you give us a little bit of a rundown?

Speaker 5: So I don't want to go through every pick that

Speaker 5: they made in this last draft, but give us an

Speaker 5: overview of who they drafted, why they drafted, and what

Speaker 5: their plans are for these guys right out of the gate.

Speaker 7: So Caleb Loomu was their first round pick. They traded

Speaker 7: up from thirty one to twenty eight, gave up an

Speaker 7: additional fourth to move up and get him. He's the

Speaker 7: guy who played left tackle at Utah. Well, they just

Speaker 7: drafted a left tackle a year ago in Will Campbell,

Speaker 7: And we saw Campbell before the injury which happened in

Speaker 7: late November, where he was let's call him fine, maybe

Speaker 7: even like above average, like probably the fifteenth or sixteenth

Speaker 7: best left tackle in football, which for a rookie is

Speaker 7: not that bad, especially one when we talked about the

Speaker 7: arm length and some of the issues there. The guy

Speaker 7: that we saw after the injury was borderline disaster, and

Speaker 7: they feel like he's way more of the player before

Speaker 7: the injury than after. But I think there'll be a

Speaker 7: lot of eyeballs on him. The addition of Lomu, I

Speaker 7: think for now is insurance and succession plan for Morgan.

Speaker 7: Moses at right tackle is now thirty five. Somehow managed

Speaker 7: to play every single game last year in the playoffs.

Speaker 7: That's twenty one games for a guy who had started

Speaker 7: to break down prior. And we've seen very limited snapshot

Speaker 7: of the Patriots thus far in the spring, and Lomu's

Speaker 7: been on the right side the majority of the time

Speaker 7: there as the third tackle, if you will. But like

Speaker 7: if Campbell comes out of the gates in September like

Speaker 7: he played in January and February, then there'll be a

Speaker 7: bigger conversation to be had whether Lomu is the long

Speaker 7: term answer and Campbell needs to go someplace else. Round two,

Speaker 7: they traded up for defensive end Gay Bacchus from Illinois.

Speaker 7: He's like, to me, the prototypical sort of Rabel player, physical,

Speaker 7: really hard to play against, not He's not overly athletic

Speaker 7: in bendy, but he's bendy enough, you know, and he's

Speaker 7: pretty accomplished as a run defender. They traded up again

Speaker 7: from the back end of the second to I think

Speaker 7: pick fifty five with another one of their fourths to

Speaker 7: move up. They really liked that player. They like Zion Young.

Speaker 7: Zion Young went forty five. The Missouri edge went to Baltimore,

Speaker 7: so they wanted an edge. They got one there. We

Speaker 7: haven't seen him on the field yet. I don't know

Speaker 7: if there's a lingering issue with an injury or if

Speaker 7: it's country contractual, so I can't really tell you what

Speaker 7: we've seen from him so far. And the third and

Speaker 7: last pick, I think the relevance was the tight and

Speaker 7: Eli Reridan from Notre Dame. They need a succession planet

Speaker 7: tight end. They've kind of needed one for a couple

Speaker 7: of years. Hunter Henry is getting older, and while he's

Speaker 7: been consistent, I think you saw last year, maybe at

Speaker 7: the back end of the year, Steve a drop off

Speaker 7: in his play, a couple of characteristic drops. I think

Speaker 7: they asked too much of him last year, quite frankly,

Speaker 7: especially as a blocker, where he's fine, but like, you

Speaker 7: don't want to have to do that to him all

Speaker 7: the time. And I think they had to last year.

Speaker 7: And I think they're hoping that Ridan sooner rather than

Speaker 7: later can at least give them a boost in that

Speaker 7: regard and take some off Hunter Henry's plate.

Speaker 4: The Bills kind of saw how much their defense was

Speaker 4: going to struggle when they lost some frontline players due

Speaker 4: to injury. Terrell Bernard comes to mind, and I'll for

Speaker 4: obviously even Michael Hoyt. Last year the Patriots experienced something similar.

Speaker 4: They were not the same when Milton Williams was out.

Speaker 4: They were not the same when Robert Splaine was out

Speaker 4: down the stretch. Do they feel they have acquired the

Speaker 4: depth necessary to better handle potential losses to frontline players

Speaker 4: in those areas.

Speaker 7: Not at those two positions. You know, it's kind of funny.

Speaker 7: I think the way I saw the draft unfolding and

Speaker 7: the way it did was it was one of those

Speaker 7: rare times where it sort of mirrored exactly what you

Speaker 7: thought where their needs, and then they went and got them.

Speaker 7: But in doing that, they took those two fourth round

Speaker 7: picks to move up, and I think they vacated I

Speaker 7: think guard was the spot they would have liked to address.

Speaker 7: I think they would have liked to address linebacker, probably

Speaker 7: in that same range. They had to wait till the

Speaker 7: sixth round to do that with more of a developmental guy,

Speaker 7: so I think. And then they lost Kyros tongat a

Speaker 7: free agency and that was a little bit of a

Speaker 7: heartbreaker for them because they thought they had a deal

Speaker 7: done and then his market kind of went nuts and

Speaker 7: they didn't get it done. He's now in Kansas City.

Speaker 7: They didn't replace that. They don't have a true nose.

Speaker 7: So I look at those three spots in particular and say,

Speaker 7: you know, they're better, and they've got a little bit

Speaker 7: more depth in competition at a bunch of spots. But

Speaker 7: those three spots in particular, which you would say spine

Speaker 7: of the defense and in some case the sort of

Speaker 7: the spine of the offense, they didn't necessarily address. And

Speaker 7: those will be areas that I would expect them to

Speaker 7: still sort of be sniffing around post June first, or

Speaker 7: sniffing around during training camp and cut down day and

Speaker 7: those sorts of things to try to find a player

Speaker 7: like that. They had good success last year. Corey Durdin

Speaker 7: was someone who stepped in for them in the defensive

Speaker 7: line and did some really good things for them. But

Speaker 7: I feel like they're a body short there.

Speaker 5: Yeah, when you get into some of the things, the

Speaker 5: historical rivalry between the Bills and the Patriots, some of

Speaker 5: the things that's been interesting as players who switch sides,

Speaker 5: you know, you go back to like mc collins and

Speaker 5: Stefan Diggs. And now this year the Patriots signed Reggie

Speaker 5: gilly in the full back? Is that? And I'm not

Speaker 5: as familiar with their roster. They always have a full

Speaker 5: back great or are they moving to this or are

Speaker 5: they giving Reggie Gilliam a chance to do something different?

Speaker 5: Was the plan for him? And how does that fit in?

Speaker 7: So Steve Josh McDaniel's offense has always had a fullback

Speaker 7: or almost always had a full back, and last year

Speaker 7: they sort of went without one and they took Jack

Speaker 7: west Over was a tight end and was like a

Speaker 7: borderline roster candidate and sort of made him into the

Speaker 7: full back and he did some nice things, but it

Speaker 7: wasn't consistent. It certainly wasn't the caliber play that Reggie

Speaker 7: Gilliam has given the Bills over the last few years

Speaker 7: in particular. So I think that was an area of

Speaker 7: that they wanted to address, and they wanted to address

Speaker 7: with a plus player, and they feel like they got

Speaker 7: that in Gilliam and I'll just tell you along that line,

Speaker 7: they signed Julian Hill, who was the backup tight end

Speaker 7: in Miami but is a really good blocking tight end.

Speaker 7: And I think the message has been clear that the

Speaker 7: Patriots felt like they weren't physical enough last year or

Speaker 7: when they needed to be physical in the run game,

Speaker 7: they just didn't have the personnel to consistently do that.

Speaker 7: And Gilliam and Hill, they feel like they've done that

Speaker 7: now and they've given them themselves a little bit more

Speaker 7: formation versatility. I think we've seen a lot of teams

Speaker 7: leaning into the twelve and in some cases the thirteen personnel.

Speaker 7: I think the Patriots are sort of, hey, we can

Speaker 7: do that too, or maybe we can do it with

Speaker 7: the you know, with the with the twelve and do

Speaker 7: it with Reggie on the field and his versatility a

Speaker 7: little bit as well. So I think that's I think

Speaker 7: that's a big part of the plan this year, Like

Speaker 7: if Reggie had I think what percent of the snaps

Speaker 7: last year for I remember correctly with Buffalo. Wouldn't surprise

Speaker 7: me if he's at or above that number this year

Speaker 7: for the Patriots.

Speaker 4: Okay, last one I've got for you, Mike. Christian Barmore

Speaker 4: obviously is a super talented player. The blood clots have

Speaker 4: been a problem the last couple of years. Is he

Speaker 4: free and clear of those going forward where we're not

Speaker 4: expecting them to crop up as an issue ever again.

Speaker 7: So they managed him last year, Chris that they he

Speaker 7: had a veteran day off every week during even during

Speaker 7: the summer, like it was not. He did not practice

Speaker 7: every day. He did not practice every day during the

Speaker 7: course of the regular season, although we know that that

Speaker 7: schedule is not exactly grueling from in terms of the

Speaker 7: hitting and stuff that they do. So my guess is

Speaker 7: they continue to take that approach with them because it

Speaker 7: worked for him last year. He did stay healthy. They've

Speaker 7: never fully explained, Christian has never fully explained what the

Speaker 7: root of the problem was, if they had the root

Speaker 7: cause of it, and if it was something that would

Speaker 7: reoccur or not. Obviously it did recur in the year

Speaker 7: that it popped up initially, and so that is part

Speaker 7: of the thing where you're always watching and with him,

Speaker 7: he's for as physically talented as he is. He went

Speaker 7: in the second round as the best defensive lineman in

Speaker 7: that draft, interior defensive lineman because of some off field

Speaker 7: concerns and some work ethic things and some of those

Speaker 7: things that popped up here as well. So there's the

Speaker 7: managing the health part and then there's managing some of

Speaker 7: the off field stuff with bar More. But when he

Speaker 7: is right, there's not too many guys that are that

Speaker 7: size that moved the way he does. His teammates some

Speaker 7: times marvel at it, like you can't be six foot

Speaker 7: five three twenty and somehow have that kind of bend.

Speaker 7: But he does, and I think that's why he's got

Speaker 7: a long lifespan in the NFL.

Speaker 5: Mike, thanks, really appreciate you spending some time with us.

Speaker 7: Always a pleasure.

Speaker 5: Guys, that's Boston Sports.

Speaker 4: You're an NFL right on, Mike's already joining us talking

Speaker 4: some Patriots and uh yeah. I it was interesting because

Speaker 4: last year I felt like New England's defense struggled the

Speaker 4: most when Milton Williams was out for a lengthy stretch.

Speaker 4: He missed like six seven weeks, including the second game

Speaker 4: against the Bills and Spelane. I think he either got

Speaker 4: hurt the week before or I think it was a

Speaker 4: week before the Bill's second meeting. And the Bill's offense

Speaker 4: got off to a slow start, only seven points in

Speaker 4: the first half, but they ring up twenty eight on

Speaker 4: them in the second half, come back from twenty four

Speaker 4: to seven deficit and win thirty five thirty one, and

Speaker 4: do not allow the Patriots to clinch the division title

Speaker 4: on their watch in a head to head game. They

Speaker 4: eventually did clinch the following week because the Bills lost

Speaker 4: at home to the Eagles in an agonizing thirteen to

Speaker 4: twelve final in the rain, and the Patriots won that

Speaker 4: week the following week and won the division, wrestling it

Speaker 4: away from the Bills for the first time in six seasons.

Speaker 4: I found that's why I asked Mike the question, because

Speaker 4: I found it interesting that the two areas where they

Speaker 4: didn't really try to refortify their ranks were at defensive

Speaker 4: line and linebacker, which were two positions that the Bills

Speaker 4: sorely missed when they had injury Bernard who missed four

Speaker 4: or five games at Oliver who missed almost three quarters

Speaker 4: of the season, and Hoyt like they didn't have quality

Speaker 4: depth behind those guys, or at least experienced depth. They

Speaker 4: had young players that they could put in, but not

Speaker 4: experienced players, and there was a noticeable drop off there.

Speaker 4: Shaq Thompson did a nice job into el Bernard's absence,

Speaker 4: but up front they missed add.

Speaker 5: And so I found.

Speaker 4: It interesting that the Patriots really didn't address those two positions.

Speaker 4: And those are those are two veteran players. You know,

Speaker 4: Spallane he gets nicked, you know, when he's playing a

Speaker 4: front line role at linebacker, and they missed time. His

Speaker 4: foot was all messed up. Even through the playoffs, he

Speaker 4: was getting it worked on. It was was not the

Speaker 4: same player. And Williams came back and looked to be okay,

Speaker 4: but they didn't have quality depth behind those guys to

Speaker 4: really fill a void. So I thought they might be

Speaker 4: more aggressive in those two areas, especially knowing they still

Speaker 4: had some cap money to spend, and they never did it.

Speaker 4: He Mike suspense that they'll be looking at the waiver

Speaker 4: wire in August, see who gets clipped off of a

Speaker 4: roster that they could use.

Speaker 5: Yeah, it's hard to find meaningful contributors. You can certainly

Speaker 5: upgrade spots on your roster when you go through those

Speaker 5: waiver wires and the last cuts and all of that stuff,

Speaker 5: But it's hard to find meaningful contributors that way. Yeah, athletically,

Speaker 5: you can always upgrade because somebody's cutting a defensive tackle.

Speaker 5: It's better than the fifth defensive tackle you've got, or

Speaker 5: you know, the practice squad guys you've got. But man

Speaker 5: o man nuts, Yeah, it's a bad spot to be in.

Speaker 4: So they might be in the market for, you know,

Speaker 4: a June free agent signing. Maybe once as AJ Brown

Speaker 4: thing happens, they'll know exactly what their cap situation looks

Speaker 4: like and determine whether or not they can add, you know,

Speaker 4: a veteran free agent on the cheap to kind of

Speaker 4: fill one of these backup roles.

Speaker 5: There's a better player than they currently There'll be plenty

Speaker 5: of guys post June one, but typically those guys you

Speaker 5: know are gonna sign a one year deal probably right,

Speaker 5: but they're not gonna be for veteran minimum. And I

Speaker 5: think that's the best place to do it if you're

Speaker 5: gonna do it. But you're right, I think the AJ

Speaker 5: Brown thing has kind of bottlenecked their financials for the

Speaker 5: time being don't you think?

Speaker 4: Yeah, Because I'm of the belief that if in fact

Speaker 4: the trade goes down, AJ Brown and his camp are

Speaker 4: going to ask for a new contract. Sure, so then

Speaker 4: you got to figure out what that looks like, how

Speaker 4: are you structuring that? And then after you do all that,

Speaker 4: what do we have left to fortify the roster in

Speaker 4: these other areas?

Speaker 5: Depth Wise? Right, they may not be able to do it.

Speaker 5: We don't know well that and and I think that's

Speaker 5: why the post June one thing makes some sense. And

Speaker 5: once they get all the the big pieces, all the

Speaker 5: boulders in place, which AJ Brown would be one of those,

Speaker 5: then they'll start thinking about these subsidiary contracts.

Speaker 4: And it's post you one more for the Eagles than

Speaker 4: it is for the Patriots. They need the cap relief

Speaker 4: to move him off the roster because the dead cap

Speaker 4: hit gets spread out over two years instead of just this.

Speaker 5: I think one thing we need to do and maybe

Speaker 5: we'll put our research staff on this, which means you Browning.

Speaker 5: By the way, what other team. I know every other

Speaker 5: team would love to have AJ Brown on their roster,

Speaker 5: But one other team are we talking about could jump

Speaker 5: up and say, hey, we'll take a J. Brown. Yeah,

Speaker 5: it's not that many. It's a short list because of

Speaker 5: the financial A lot of the money has been spent exactly.

Speaker 5: There's not that many teams with that kind of money.

Speaker 5: The Patriots always have cash money, cash under the.

Speaker 4: It'll be changing when May signs his second contract, maybe

Speaker 4: as soon as next year.

Speaker 5: Yeah, but you have it, so we'll see. But is

Speaker 5: there even a short list of teams that could say,

Speaker 5: you know what, not so fast. The Patriots are giving

Speaker 5: you this, we might be able to give you this,

Speaker 5: and it might be a team for in for instance,

Speaker 5: like a Miami team who is going to go you know,

Speaker 5: who is absolutely deflating everything so that they can tank

Speaker 5: for a quarterback in this connects coming draft, So they

Speaker 5: could do this now, give them the money now, and

Speaker 5: then move on and get their quarter you know, and

Speaker 5: have things kind of like they're a new quarterback.

Speaker 4: They're tearing it down to the studs in Miami. I

Speaker 4: can't see them investing in a gigantic way in a

Speaker 4: thirty year old wide receiver.

Speaker 5: Yeah, but a thirty year old wide receiver will get

Speaker 5: you through a first year quarterback next year with some weapons,

Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying, I think.

Speaker 4: Draft some, but they did. They drafted to Chris Bell

Speaker 4: and another receiver who's slipping my mind right now, but

Speaker 4: they drafted two receivers. They'll get a first year under

Speaker 4: their belt now with Malik Willis and be entering their

Speaker 4: second year with a perceived you know, first round quarterback.

Speaker 5: Even if it's not you know, Miami type of team,

Speaker 5: there's got to be another team with some space. And

Speaker 5: certainly the need for an AJ Brown is more widespread

Speaker 5: than the cap space for AJ Brown. But there's got

Speaker 5: to be more teams than just this New England Patriot

Speaker 5: thing going on in March.

Speaker 4: I would have said yes. In almost June, I'm gonna

Speaker 4: say probably not.

Speaker 5: Well, yeah, I get that. I mean, certainly, it's it's

Speaker 5: not everybody can afford the guy. And then plus even

Speaker 5: particularly if if you know his if he needs a

Speaker 5: new deal san Franich, I think he's almost certainly gonna ask,

Speaker 5: you know, San Francisco's got some cap space, yeah, Tennessee, Well,

Speaker 5: he's not going to go back to Tennessee, Washington, the Chargers.

Speaker 5: I mean, there's some teams out there now that the Chargers,

Speaker 5: I'm if they're looking for a jew some juice. I

Speaker 5: mean there are there are some teams with some cap space,

Speaker 5: the Chargers, and then New England comes in at number five,

Speaker 5: So there's four teams above them, one of just disqualified

Speaker 5: because it's the team that.

Speaker 4: Not that it's a done deal, but I would like

Speaker 4: to think the parameters of the deal are in place

Speaker 4: between New England and Philly. I mean, this is like

Speaker 4: the worst kept secret of the off season. Yeah, I

Speaker 4: think it's gonna happen maybe, And then you know, the

Speaker 4: Bills have a real issue on their hands because that

Speaker 4: levels up their offense, so it certainly does. It makes

Speaker 4: it even more imperative and important. And we're all thinking

Speaker 4: our lucky stars that the Bills did invest in the

Speaker 4: cornerback position, you know, with igbinos and most notably got

Speaker 4: to take a break here when we come back. More

Speaker 4: of your comments on the tweet sheet where we are

Speaker 4: asking you today who is the most underappreciated player on

Speaker 4: the Bills roster and tell us why. Add One Bill's

Speaker 4: Live is where you can do that, or hop on

Speaker 4: the mic here at the Bill Store and give us

Speaker 4: your answer next here on One Bill's Live.

Speaker 5: Back here on One Bill's Live.

Speaker 4: Chris I'll see Tasker on a Thursday and we're asking

Speaker 4: you who is the most underappreciated Bill's player on the roster?

Speaker 4: Tell us why add one? Bill's Live is where you

Speaker 4: can do that, and that's where we're headed. Right back

Speaker 4: to the tweet sheet where Chris says it's Cybo. The

Speaker 4: guy has been great and has not missed time knocked

Speaker 4: on would Yeah, I'll do that. Second round pick steps

Speaker 4: right in, starts at right guard. You never look back,

Speaker 4: and the guys there every week holding it down.

Speaker 5: It'll be interesting to see. I mean this last year

Speaker 5: we saw a guard get twenty seven million dollars? Is

Speaker 5: that what he got? The guy from ball and.

Speaker 4: Was it twenty No, that was a center tyler.

Speaker 5: Linder Linderbaum got here, he got twenty seven nine something

Speaker 5: like that.

Speaker 4: I think guards are up to twenty three or twenty four.

Speaker 5: To big investment. We'll see and it's hard to hard

Speaker 5: to you know. I mean, the only way it could

Speaker 5: have gone better for Cibo is if he would have

Speaker 5: been all pro or pro bowler. He hasn't been to

Speaker 5: that level. But he hasn't sat down for a minute

Speaker 5: in three years, right he isn't. I mean He's always

Speaker 5: there that that goes a long way.

Speaker 4: I also think he is a prime candidate to be

Speaker 4: signed to an extension in August this year. More often

Speaker 4: than not, Brandon Beam when he is when he has

Speaker 4: targeted a player that he wants to get under contract

Speaker 4: on a second contract, a lot of those are done

Speaker 4: in August, Spencer Brown, Tyler Bass, Terrell Bernard. I believe

Speaker 4: Benford was in August. No, he was earlier than that.

Speaker 4: Or was he the one right before the season.

Speaker 5: No, Ben Benford was. I thought he had done it

Speaker 5: in training camp. He did it in the summer summer

Speaker 5: because when he got to training Yeah, he got to

Speaker 5: training camp and it was after after Trey had left.

Speaker 5: He was the guy he came back to training camp.

Speaker 4: And anyway, the point is, more often than not, players

Speaker 4: that he wants to get under a second contract usually

Speaker 4: get worked out sometime in August.

Speaker 5: And would I would.

Speaker 4: Put Osiris Torrance, if not at the top, right near

Speaker 4: the top of that list for a second.

Speaker 5: Contract maybe or it might be it might be of

Speaker 5: the tremain Edmonds scenario as well. Where you can go

Speaker 5: check out free agency, here's our offer. You can go

Speaker 5: check out free agency or the player might or the

Speaker 5: club might say here's our offer, and the player might go,

Speaker 5: you know what, I'm gonna check out the markets to

Speaker 5: what I can get because this is this is the

Speaker 5: con tract for these guys. It's an enormous step up

Speaker 5: and it is an absolute life changer and a lot

Speaker 5: of time. And let me just say this, let me

Speaker 5: take the player's side of this. You owe it to

Speaker 5: your family and to your career and to your future

Speaker 5: to maximize the leverage you have on this coming contract.

Speaker 5: And if I'm cybo, I think like that. Now, if

Speaker 5: the Bills offer you something, you say, I just can't.

Speaker 5: I'm gonna take the money, and they give it to you. Now,

Speaker 5: it's like you gotta take it. Yeah, And I was right,

Speaker 5: you have to take it, but you got to take it,

Speaker 5: And I was right.

Speaker 4: The top earning guards are right around twenty three to

Speaker 4: twenty four a year. Cowboys guard Tyler Smith twenty four

Speaker 4: million a year average annual salary, Trey Smith with the

Speaker 4: Chiefs who just signed last year, twenty three and a half.

Speaker 4: Average annual value. Landing Dickerson Eagles twenty one million a year.

Speaker 4: So let's let's look at this now, you're looking at

Speaker 4: twenty plus, right, I think that's a I mean, he's

Speaker 4: not a Pro Bowl guy, so I don't know. Maybe

Speaker 4: he can get it for eighteen and a half, that's right.

Speaker 5: Nineteen. Well, here's here's the deal. What if the bills

Speaker 5: come out of the gate and say, we'll give you

Speaker 5: four year extension sixteen million bucks a year, twenty or

Speaker 5: thirty two of it upfront.

Speaker 4: Yeah, if you're going to lower his average annual value,

Speaker 4: you have to put more upfront, right, And you have

Speaker 4: to guarantee more of it, right, Because you get signed

Speaker 4: a guy to twenty six million a year, and if

Speaker 4: only forty of it's guaranteed, he's probably only seeing forty.

Speaker 4: He's not going to see all twenty six million all

Speaker 4: four years.

Speaker 5: But he doesn't care if he gets forty in the

Speaker 5: first year and a half of the contract, right, because

Speaker 5: then if you want to get rid of him. My

Speaker 5: point was get rid of him.

Speaker 4: If you want to pay him less average annual value,

Speaker 4: you have to guarantee more of it, and you have

Speaker 4: to put more of it in the front of the

Speaker 4: Osireay you get around.

Speaker 5: The Osyrus is making four point three this coming year.

Speaker 5: He hasn't made four point three. Yet he's making four

Speaker 5: point three this coming year.

Speaker 4: He's going to quadruple that, maybe even quintuple that number.

Speaker 5: So if he if you offer him, well like the

Speaker 5: Tremaine Edmunds contracts in Chicago, fifteen million a year, and

Speaker 5: you guarantee whatever whatever, and you get him for sake,

Speaker 5: make and for the bills. You make it a five

Speaker 5: year deal you know, longer, better and and you consider

Speaker 5: it a win and that then it's up to Osibo

Speaker 5: knowing that he could probably get what eighteen million at

Speaker 5: least a year, maybe twenty on a four year deal. Well,

Speaker 5: that's kind of why it's it's a problem, it's a That's.

Speaker 4: Why August makes sense because if he puts together another

Speaker 4: solid season seventeen starts right to no big busts plays

Speaker 4: well again, and two other guards sign between August and December,

Speaker 4: well now you're up to twenty two a year, lockstock

Speaker 4: and barrel. He's not even talking to you, that's right,

Speaker 4: So better sooner rather than later.

Speaker 5: So if you can get if the bills, sign a

Speaker 5: guy like Osirius Torrance, where the going rate for him

Speaker 5: has got to be between eighteen and twenty one million, dollars, right,

Speaker 5: and you're you can get him for an average annual

Speaker 5: salary of sixteen five or seventeen five, but you're willing

Speaker 5: to guarantee it because the guy never leaves the field, right,

Speaker 5: I mean, he's all you know, he's gonna pay for it,

Speaker 5: and he's gonna be on the roster, he's gonna be

Speaker 5: playing for you. You just you offer him that and

Speaker 5: give him a five year deal and guarantee it a

Speaker 5: lot of it, but it's spaced out so you don't

Speaker 5: have to do it all now, you know that maybe

Speaker 5: maybe he says yes to that. I don't know. Well,

Speaker 5: I don't know.

Speaker 4: So that is one TBD and one to keep an

Speaker 4: eye on for sure.

Speaker 5: But yeah, there's always that chance that the Bills are

Speaker 5: sitting there going in a in a philosophical way where

Speaker 5: in McDermott's era and maybe now in Joe's there, there's

Speaker 5: certain positions they didn't pay that kind of money to

Speaker 5: Tremaine Edmonds they let walk first round pick. Yeah, maybe

Speaker 5: right guard is a position where they go, ah, you

Speaker 5: know what we can make do for a veteran minimum

Speaker 5: or a young player, or we've got Spencer Brown and

Speaker 5: Connor mcgovernor on either side of whoever we plug in there,

Speaker 5: it's going to be a little better for him. We

Speaker 5: can make lesson with more. There's that always that question. Yeah,

Speaker 5: I don't know that.

Speaker 4: It seems like an easy answer, but it's not an

Speaker 4: easy decision if that makes sense, because of the financial

Speaker 4: implications involved. Andrew on the tweet sheet, Frank Gore Junior.

Speaker 4: He has the skill to play in this league. It's

Speaker 4: just a lot of competition in front of him. I

Speaker 4: think there's two things hurting Frank Gore Junior. One is

Speaker 4: his size and the other is his speed speed less

Speaker 4: so than size, I think the problem for Frank Gore

Speaker 4: Junior is holding up in blitz pickup and you know,

Speaker 4: capably protecting your quarterback on a third down, especially knowing

Speaker 4: he is probably not every down back material because of

Speaker 4: his size. I don't want to sell Frank Gore Junior short.

Speaker 4: I like him as a player. Guy works his tail off,

Speaker 4: tries to improve his game every single year. I think

Speaker 4: he's a very.

Speaker 5: Good receiver out of the backfield.

Speaker 4: I just think coaches look at his frame and even

Speaker 4: though he is a willing blocker in blitz pickup, he

Speaker 4: doesn't have the linebackers in this league, and the speed

Speaker 4: off the edge and the talent level is extreme. So yeah,

Speaker 4: I just think that's one area of his game that

Speaker 4: is going to be very hard for him to overcome.

Speaker 4: And you know, be an every day, every week roster

Speaker 4: guy with an appreciable role on offense.

Speaker 5: And I'll exaggerate a little bit to make a point.

Speaker 5: Small and slow is no path to the NFL. Now,

Speaker 5: obviously Frank's got some skills with the ball and he's

Speaker 5: not slow slow, But for a guy for six to

Speaker 5: six guys, right, for a guy that size, you need

Speaker 5: to be a four to three to three guy, right,

Speaker 5: you know what I mean. Then they have a role

Speaker 5: for you. Then you got it. Then you get on

Speaker 5: the field. Frank's strength is his football IQ and he

Speaker 5: doesn't make mistakes on the field when when the ball's

Speaker 5: in his hands, he gets every yard that's coming to him.

Speaker 5: He doesn't leave anything on the table, and he's always

Speaker 5: in the right spot at the right time. Now, sometimes

Speaker 5: he gets physically overpowered. That's not a mental mistake, that's

Speaker 5: a physical shortcoming. And that's really basically where it starts

Speaker 5: and ends with him. If he was built like Derrick Henry.

Speaker 5: He's on the field, but he's not small. He's short,

Speaker 5: you know what I mean. So and he's just and

Speaker 5: because he's that frame, you gotta be really fast to

Speaker 5: carve out a role in an offense in an NFL

Speaker 5: level right now, he would be a stopgap guy. And

Speaker 5: even if he got on the field, as with a

Speaker 5: game Jersey on a Sunday, the most he could hope for,

Speaker 5: the most coaches would ask him to do, would be

Speaker 5: to finish out the game if somebody got hurt or

Speaker 5: if the game was to blowout one way or the other.

Speaker 5: And even by the next week, they might have another

Speaker 5: guy in trying to get him on the field with

Speaker 5: more physical abilities, and there'd be some guys out there

Speaker 5: who could fill that role. Well. So that's it's tough

Speaker 5: for Frank gorg Junior because he doesn't He does everything

Speaker 5: pretty good and he's not outstandingly gifted in anyone area.

Speaker 5: So that's that's the problem with him.

Speaker 4: David on the tweet, she says, Connor McGovern it's tough

Speaker 4: enough to replace a legend, but even tougher to replace

Speaker 4: the special relationship between a quarterback and his center. Yeah,

Speaker 4: you don't have to do any convincing for Josh Allen

Speaker 4: on this one. He thought Connor mcgovernn was gonna go

Speaker 4: sign with Tennessee in the off season because he called

Speaker 4: him to say, Hey, been a nice few years with you,

Speaker 4: but I'm moving on. Hold on a second, all did

Speaker 4: right there? Yeah, wait a minute, that changed considerably.

Speaker 5: Yeah. I don't know that that was the be all

Speaker 5: end all Josh got involved, but let me just raise

Speaker 5: my eyebrows. It didn't hurt.

Speaker 4: I mean, Brandon said, you know, Josh did call him

Speaker 4: and he said, hey, we're working on it.

Speaker 5: So it wasn't like done. It might have been. It

Speaker 5: might have been. Could it have been? It might have

Speaker 5: been a chess move by mcgovernor and mcgovernor in a

Speaker 5: checkers game. Let me just see if I can pull

Speaker 5: in one.

Speaker 4: More eleven said, Hey, Connor, why don't you call Josh

Speaker 4: and tell him to leave it? See if that works.

Speaker 5: It did. Yeah, it helped.

Speaker 4: Although McGovern did take less money to come back to Buffalo.

Speaker 4: He's getting thirteen.

Speaker 5: A year, and.

Speaker 4: After Linderbaum got twenty seven, he could have got easily

Speaker 4: sixteen to eighteen.

Speaker 5: Yeah, so but we're glad he's back.

Speaker 4: Selfishly, gotta take a break one segment to go here.

Speaker 4: On a Thursday edition of One Bill's Live, we'll get

Speaker 4: some final comments from the tweetsheet net and stay with

Speaker 4: us who is the most underappreciated Bills player on the roster?

Speaker 4: To tell us who and why at One Bill's Live

Speaker 4: on the tweet Gee Dalton says Osiris Torrance. He has

Speaker 4: blocked some of the toughest DT's in the NFL and

Speaker 4: has held his own I recall a local radio station

Speaker 4: talking about him after last season that the Bills should

Speaker 4: trade him now to get draft picks for this past draft. Insanity,

Speaker 4: crazy talk talk.

Speaker 5: Yes, Ibo has been great.

Speaker 4: Jacob says Christian Benford, one of the few players over

Speaker 4: the years to give true value, being a former sixth

Speaker 4: round pick, plays hard, gives thoughtful answers when interviewed.

Speaker 5: Quiet leader.

Speaker 4: Yeah, he tried to step up and be more of

Speaker 4: a vocal leader last year.

Speaker 5: Oh, he was, and he was in training camp. He

Speaker 5: was because that was after he signed the extension. We

Speaker 5: went out and you know, we watched practice, and that's

Speaker 5: really the time when we can really really watch practice.

Speaker 5: You can get up close. We can walk around a

Speaker 5: little bit. During season when we do get a chance

Speaker 5: occasionally to go out and watch practice a little bit.

Speaker 5: With the rest of the media. You know, we're far

Speaker 5: away and we're kind of in a little paddock almost

Speaker 5: area where you know, you just kind of have to

Speaker 5: stay in one spot. But in training camp, Brand and

Speaker 5: I can walk around and get go watch different drills.

Speaker 5: It was stark the difference between Christian Benford from one

Speaker 5: year to the next one. He came back to training

Speaker 5: camp last year. He was the alpha and he let

Speaker 5: those guys know it. It was a big change and

Speaker 5: I'll tell you what it's He pulled that off really well.

Speaker 5: I thought that was a really interesting transformation and proof

Speaker 5: that they did the right thing with him. They extended him,

Speaker 5: made him the guy, told him he was the guy

Speaker 5: and said act like it and take this room under

Speaker 5: your wing man. He really put it together the last

Speaker 5: training camp I was impressed by. That was the most

Speaker 5: impressive thing I saw about the entire training camp last

Speaker 5: year was his transformation.

Speaker 4: T L says the Shnowman. His joy and passion is

Speaker 4: the glue that keeps the team together. He may not

Speaker 4: be the biggest, but he's got moves. I'm interested to

Speaker 4: talk to Dion because we had him on the show

Speaker 4: back early in the offseason, like right after the NFL

Speaker 4: Honors in February, and he told us about how it's

Speaker 4: his plan to play at three hundred and twenty pounds

Speaker 4: this year, his lightest weight ever. I'm curious to see

Speaker 4: if he got to that or plans to get to

Speaker 4: that by training camp, and how much it'll change his

Speaker 4: game and make him even quicker.

Speaker 5: I think in this day and age, it's probably smart

Speaker 5: for offensive lineman to stay as athletic and fast as

Speaker 5: they can be, given the fact thirty two now and

Speaker 5: plus defenders are getting lighter all the time. Yeah, and

Speaker 5: at tackle, you're always getting those fast edge rushers and

Speaker 5: you need to be as fast and quick as you

Speaker 5: can be to combat that.

Speaker 4: Aaron says, I think Groot is a lot better than

Speaker 4: folks think he is, Leonard says, Cole Bishop, and Pete says,

Speaker 4: I think Knox is underrated. Most of the focus is

Speaker 4: on Kincaid Knox as a steady player who occasionally comes

Speaker 4: up with big plays, reliable receiver in the red zone,

Speaker 4: blocks as good as anybody in the run game, and

Speaker 4: is an unselfish teammate. I think all of that is true,

Speaker 4: and I would have put Knocks on my list of

Speaker 4: under appreciated because I think he's been really good.

Speaker 5: One of the things, too, that we don't know we

Speaker 5: can hear about, is how these guys are in the

Speaker 5: locker room, and it's a lot of their value. If

Speaker 5: they doesn't come through on the field, it's because of

Speaker 5: the guy they are in the locker room. They can

Speaker 5: affect guys on the way they exactly. Yeah. Uh, that's

Speaker 5: the interesting part about this. Maybe we never know what

Speaker 5: you hear about from other players.

Speaker 4: Good responses today on the tweet cheep. Thanks for those,

Speaker 4: Steve and I back tomorrow. The OBL Friday fan mail

Speaker 4: bag is open. Get your questions in for tomorrow's show.