Dalton Kincaid adds another injury?! + How long will Joey Bosa be out for Bills?

Dalton Kincaid adds another injury?! + How long will Joey Bosa be out for Bills?

What’s up everybody? Welcome into Shout, a Buffalo football podcast on this Wednesday, December 3rd. The Bills getting back after it down in Orchard Park today. Preparations have begun. They went they held a walkthrough practice. A lot of interesting injury developments today that we’re going to kind of get into, talk about what it means. There’s a couple on both sides of the ball that I think are going to have an impact uh over the next not only week here, but the next couple weeks with the New England Patriots on the horizon, the the the last ditch effort for the Bills to try to maybe make a run at the division. We’ll get into all of those things on this episode of Shout. And as always, if you’re part of the you’re part of the show, if you want to, you know, if you have something you want us specifically to talk about, the comment section is open on Facebook, on X, and right here on YouTube. Hit that like button, subscribe to the channel as well. We really appreciate that. Uh Ryan Talbot, how are you buddy? I’m doing great. Uh better than a lot of the Bills on that injury report. That’s for sure. That Mr. Parino. Yeah, and I think this was the way that it was trending with Bosa. So, I’m not very surprised about the fact today that Shawn McDermott said he’s going to be a week toe kind of injury and and and week to week could mean a number of different things. We’ve seen guys come back pretty early um off of a week toe designation and then we’ve seen it drag three to four to five weeks and that’s what Shawn McDermott said is kind of the window. Initially they’re hoping that he’s going to be back um on the shorter end of that window. But that’s what I wanted to talk about with Bosa because to me you have to treat this with kid gloves because he has dealt with soft tissue injuries in the past. He’s played through them. I was talking to our good buddy Kyle Trimble over at Banged Up Bills. He does a great job. Follow him on all the social media platforms. Um, and I was just talking to because he’s usually got a really good uh feel for guys’s injury histories. We were talking about Bosa. He said he dealt with something similar to this in 2023 where he played through a hamstring injury, then ended up getting um uh then he ended up getting worse and it affected him. You don’t want to be in that situation. So, as much as it hurts you in the meantime, the Bills are sitting in a pretty good spot. Even without Joey Bosa over the course of the next five games, you think the Bills should be able to win three of those five and get themselves a playoff spot at the very least. You need Joey Bosa healthy for the playoffs. So, I think this is going to be something where, sure, Shawn McDermott maybe gives a little hope that he could be ready for the Patriots game, but I’d also not want to rush it. The the other side of this though, Ryan, is the Bills have not treated Joey Bosa with kid gloves this year. He’s played 65% of the snaps, the most he’s played in a season since 2021. It feels like they’ve been comfortable with putting a ton on his plate. So, if he if you were to sell me on the on the story that he’s going to return for the Patriots game in a little bit less than two weeks from now, I’d believe you because the Bills have kind of let him go out there and rip it. Yeah, I’m not selling you on that though. Slow play this. Let the guy get healthy. It’s that simple. Bosa, when healthy is a dynamic pass rusher that can make big plays, force bad throws, force turnovers, as we saw against Pittsburgh Steelers. A Bose at less than 100% is a different matter. And we saw that, you know, with the wrist injury, with the club on the hand, whatever, you know, the hand injury, I guess. um not as effective obviously in different body parts in this case, but if you can’t, you know, get off the blocks as quickly as normal because of this injury, there’s no point in having him out there. I I think in terms of the snapshare and the fact that the Bills haven’t been treating him with kid gloves, it had a lot to do with the injuries that they’ve dealt with this season. Uh this has just been an injury plague Bill’s season in general across the board, positions, you name it. So, I think some injuries have have boosted him up. I think the first six weeks uh when you were dealing with the suspensions that lifted up his snap count a little bit. Obviously losing guys to injury uh since then doesn’t help. So the Bills haven’t treated him like he’s an injuryprone player which you know unfortunately he is. But at the same time at this point you’re thinking playoffs big picture slow play it. Let him get healthy for the playoffs. You know, this might have been an opportunity for a young player like Elon Jackson who’s been out for the last four weeks with uh the torn uh PCL MCL. He’s, you know, probably not going to be a part of this picture for the rest of the season. You have Michael Hoy who tore his Achilles. Two guys that were expected at least, especially Hoy, to be in the mix and probably could have um helped mitigate the loss of a player like Joey Bosa. Now we turn our attention to who is going to be the guy that gets to get elevated into this, you know, a potential role this weekend against Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals, which I mean, I guess it’s similar in a way. You know, Shaq Lawson and Morgan Fox are the two practice squad guys. Andre uh Jones, is it Andre Jones Jr.? Yep. They signed him back to the practice squad. So, he could maybe be in the mix as well. Uh I I have a feeling it’s probably going to be Morgan Fox. He’s been in the building the longest. Um I think maybe Andre Jones might have been here a little bit sooner, but they brought in Morgan Fox for a reason. Um the question that’s been asked here in the chat is is Morgan Fox uh game imitating Michael Hoit’s role. And that’s a really interesting question because if you remember the podcast when they signed Morgan Fox, we talked about he played the Hoy role in LA before Hoy even got to LA. It was the Morgan Fox role. Exactly. Yeah, it was a Morgan Fox role before, you know, Michael Hoy kind of took over, was the younger player. They moved off of Fox. He ended up going to Carolina, actually played with Shaq Thompson a little bit. So, they’re going to ask him to come in here and you’ll see how much he has left. You also have Shaq Lawson. It wouldn’t surprise me if both of those guys are elevated this weekend. We’ll get to the Daltton Concaid situation in a moment, but how do you kind of view this room without Joey Bosa? Because the Bills have had to ask rookie defensive tackle at times TJ Sanders to play on the outside. I don’t know if that’s necessarily where you want him long term, but in a pinch, you might have to lean into that once again this week. Yeah. How do I view the room? It’s subpar. I mean, injuries have created a lot of issues. Greg Russo, as good as he’s been in run defense, has not been a difference maker in terms of getting after the quarterback. AJ Aanessa has just been like much of his career, very hit and miss, very hot and cold. And then Javon Solomon is his own type of player off the edge. He’s still young. He’s not making much of an impact at this point. So now you do have to kind of look at what you have waiting in the wings on the practice squad. And to me, it it’s Morgan Fox uh at the highest point. He should definitely be it. And then everyone else underneath. And no offense to Shaq Lawson. I know he knows the system, but he just got back here. Uh didn’t make much of an impact last year when he was signed, I believe, by the Carolina Panthers, uh for a very short period of time. So, it’s been a little bit since he’s done much. Fox at least has some pretty good tape in the last few seasons where he can come in here, he can play off the edge on obvious pass rushing downs. you can kick him inside now that he’s going to to leapfrog uh other defensive tackles that this team has that have been performing and playing pretty well, but he at least has that versatility and flexibility, Matt. And you know, this team needs all the help that they can get. And speaking of help, Matt, in December at TOPS, it’s holiday helper time. I don’t know if you’ve seen this. Yeah. Between now and Christmas Eve, TOPS is making holidays easier, merrier, and more affordable. Tops Holiday Helper brings you 25 days of inspiration to simplify your season. From quick entertaining ideas and decorating hacks to thoughtful gift solutions, each day reveals a new helper paired with an e-cupon savings on holiday musthaves. Because the best holidays aren’t just joyful, they’re stressfree, too. Head over to topsmarkets.com/h holiday helper. Listen, I think it’s going to be Fox. But to me, like the one thing I will give Sha Shaq Lawson is that there is a juice uh factor that he brings on the sideline that if you elevate him, his versatility to go inside and outside. I think that that’s something at least. I know Cory is in the comments here saying if Shaq Lawson’s up, you’re in trouble. I I think he gives you a baseline level of production and the Bills are going to have to stop the run in this game, too. I mean, Chase Brown has been getting after it this season at times from an EPA per rush perspective. The Cincinnati Bengals have been pretty good. And the other thing on Shaq Lawson, Ryan, he is a fan favorite. I mean, people love him. Speaking of fan favorites this season, let us do the cooking and you’ll be the MVP with ready to serve fan favorites. Visit takeoutmeals.topsmarkets.com toppsarkets.com and elevate your food game with our great selection of custom cakes, desserts, pizzas, sandwiches, fresh fruit, cheese trays, fried chicken, and so much more. Save time and easily shop from on uh with the convenience of no fee pickup on all your game day deals. There’s no service fees, no tips, just the best deals in town. Listen, you’ve been showing me up lately, Talbot. I bring some fire with the transition game and so I I loved it. brought a smile to my face because I knew exactly what you were doing. So, Jason says that felt force. Come on, Jason. Thought and effort into that one. All right. Anyway, let’s get to Dalton Concade because I’m This was eye popping to me a little bit today. He’s been on the injury report for almost a month. He’s missed three straight games with a hamstring injury. And all of a sudden, the first injury report of the week comes out today. He was limited in practice, which is good. He’s he had two limited days of practice last week. It seems like he’s trending in a direct in a good direction. But here’s the thing, like you’re going to pop up on the injury report now with a knee designation as well. To me, that’s concerning. Ryan, this is a guy that last season had uh a knee injury that he played through. Obviously affected him down the stretch. he didn’t want to use as an excuse, but talked about it um really impacting him in the playoffs. Now, I’m starting to think even if he’s able to come back this weekend against the Cincinnati Bengals, is this something that’s kind of creeping up again as something that he’s going to have to play through? It’s a concerning update because against the Bengals or any team, but specifically this week against the Bengals, which this game could very well turn into a shootout, you need to get your passing game going. And to me, the key to unlocking this passing game in 2025 posttrade deadline, it’s not Brandon Cooks, it’s Daltton Concaid. And I’m worried about what this thing is going to look like over the course of the next six to eight weeks if you’re dealing with another nagging injury of your Dalton Concade. Yeah, this is beyond worrisome. this is, you know, having another ailment listed in addition to what you’re currently dealing with going into like I agree this has all the makings of a shootout, but it can’t be a shootout if you don’t have your bullets, Matt. And right now, this passing game already looks broken. You don’t have Dalton Concaid potentially in this matchup. And then what are you going to do? You can try to control the clock like you did last week against the Steelers, hold the ball for 40 plus minutes, but with Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase, you know, potentially T. Higgins concussion protocol. We’ll see on that. There’s so much ability to move the ball through the air. They have Chase Brown on the ground. This Bill’s defense, as good as they were last week against Pittsburgh, as good as they were in the second half against Houston, I need to see it against a high-flying passing attack like what we’re going to see from Cincinnati this weekend. Until then, I have the the feelings that this can be a high-scoring game, at least on Cincinnati’s part, and Buffalo’s going to have to match it. and I worry if they’re going to be able to do so if Concaid can’t play. If you’re watching on YouTube, make sure you smash that like button, subscribe to the channel as well. We really appreciate your support this holiday season as we make the climb to 15,000 uh subscribers on uh YouTube. Uh we really appreciate everybody uh making us a part of your Bill’s content uh viewing or listening experience. The thing about concup, Ryan, is it changes the like Dawson Knox is a capable receiver, but it feels like we’re so far removed from him having the kind of impact in the passing game that he had that helped him, you know, get the extension that’s been very much criticized over the last couple of years. The Bills using a big chunk of their salary cap space on a backup player at this point in his career, although he’s often times vaulted into a starting role because of Concaid’s injury history. You know, you look over the course of the season, and I know everybody eats, but Dawson Knox had an opportunity this season to really make an impact because of all the games that Kade has missed. Um, he’s never had a game this season where he’s been targeted more than five times. He has actually had only one game where he had five targets. He’s had two games with zero targets. Uh his season high in receiving was 37 yards. He’s got one touchdown on the year. Do you see a path to him having an impactful performance and what do you think has held him back from taking advantage of opportunity? Is it just the identity of the team? Is it a Dawson Knox specific problem? Because he has not really been a big part of what they do in the passing game. No. And I I don’t see a path for him being, you know, turning the the time back to when he was having these impact games here and there. It was never a consistent deal, but there was a period of time before Daltton Concaid, obviously, where you’d get a big game or two out of out of Dawson Knox, a regular season game against uh the Chiefs comes to mind where he got behind the defense a few times and had some big plays there. But it’s so sporadic. And at this point, I I think it’s a variety of things. one your identity right now this season is more of a run you know a running first team a run first team James Cook is dynamic you want to get him involved get the ball in his hands as much as possible you’re having issues with your uh offense with the route trees with the predictability of it and I don’t think that helps a player like Dawson Knox either and you know it’s funny on the play that Josh Allen threw the touchdown to Keon Coleman fun play to watch back the pump fake the getting the guy in the hair waiting another split second and throwing it to Keon Coleman. I if you had if he had looked slightly to his left, you had Dawson Knox wide open. No one in his vicinity. So it it could also be where he is on the quarterback reads. You got quarterbacks go one through four, one through five on their reads and he might just be buried on that area. He blocks well, so it’s not an issue where he can’t be out there to block. But you can also argue that uh Jackson Haw is already significantly better as a blocking option. So that kind of keeps him off the field at times. There’s so many reasons why uh he hasn’t been a factor, but I I just can’t see it all of a sudden changing either this weekend despite the fact that I think he is still a highly athletic tight end and could maybe be a mismatch at times if you utilized him correctly. Uh, this is a good question here, but last, uh, I want to get to it, but before we move off of Knox, I mean, the the stats are alarming when you look at it. I mean, you take his first four seasons and he put together 20 touchdowns in four seasons. I mean, he averaged well over uh, uh, 12 yards per carry or per reception in those first four seasons. Since Concade showed up, four touchdowns in two and a half seasons. It’s just been a fall off of epic proportion almost so much that I think there’s probably a little bit of a personal identity crisis. Like he’s been turned into such a block first tight end, which you know he wasn’t drafted necessarily to be. I mean his athletic were like the ri the really big selling point. I mean early in his career remember he was on uh you know the the Kyle Brandt show um a couple of times he was a playmaker in the offense. So it’s it’s been quite a a falloff for Dawson Knox. Depending on what’s going on with conc, they might need him to step up step up. Whiskey asks, “How difficult is it to ask questions during such a sensitive season?” I’d imagine with all the issues reporters are walking on eggshells, you know? I think that’s a good question. I mean, inside football kind of question, right? Like what’s it like being a reporter in a press conference? I don’t think it’s necessarily difficult. And I’d argue uh you know, Tori came in here on on YouTube and said local media is soft, doesn’t ask any tough questions. If you’re saying that, I don’t think you’ve been watching. I I think there’s been plenty of testy exchanges with the coach, with the quarterback, with uh you know, Keon Coleman over the course of the last month. There there there have been some press conferences where tough questions have have been asked. And I don’t think anybody’s, you know, dancing around the topic either. I mean, when Keon Coleman was benched, I came out and specifically asked Shawn McDermott about what was going on with everything. It wasn’t, you know, a back door into the question. It was direct like are you are you satisfied with what you’re you’re getting from Keon Coleman? I think that know that I’m kind of paraphrasing. I don’t remember the exact question but you yeah you have to it’s part of the job. You have to ask straight direct questions. But I also think like we got to use a little bit of perspective here. Like you know somebody mentioned if this was New York media New York media is they’re great right? There’s a lot of heavy hitters, hard hitters in in both those markets to cover the Jets, the Giants, the Yankees, the Rangers, all those different teams. But most New York football reporters are covering horrible train wrecks. Train wrecks. Like absolute organ organizational meltdowns. I get having your issues with Shawn McDermott, Brandon Bean. We could sit here and talk about it on the podcast. You’re you’re it’s all that is fair, but let’s not sit here and act that this hasn’t been a super successful organization since these two guys showed up. And they’re on the verge of going to the playoffs. We’ll see how the next couple of weeks goes. and they’re not eliminated from the division yet, as far-fetched as that might seem at this point. You know, they’re probably going to go to the division for um every season that Shawn McDermott has been here, except for one, and it’s a pretty good run. And and and you know, he’s he has some pretty good numbers, too. But in terms of asking tough questions, sure, sometimes it’s awkward, but it’s part of the job. 100% part of the job. And when you look at this, though, it is the success. And it it we have definitely on this podcast criticized Brandon Bean for some of the extensions that he has made as of late. Uh the cap situation, the moves, the you name it. But you know, at the same time, this is a team as you mentioned in in the contention for the playoffs. Once again, there’s stuff that he has done extremely well. He extending Josh Allen again knowing that in due time that’s going to be a deal for this team. the offensive line depth on this team coming off of a win where you had two backup tackles in Ryan Vandermark and Alec Anderson who came in and played at an extremely high level. You know, he built up that offensive line from the starters to the depth in terms of the contracts, the drafting, etc. The UDFAs, you name it. So, where they’re at right now, it’s a frustrating season because I think a lot of Bills fans saw a path to the one seed in a week AFC and it hasn’t worked out that way. But in the grand scheme of things, this is still a successful season if they get to the playoffs and especially if they win a few games come playoff time because at the end of the day, there’s only so many teams that get to the dance and if the Bills can at least get there, they can get hot at the right time. Uh question here in the comments about uh packaging Keon Coleman and uh Concaid for Justin Jefferson. How hard would the Minnesota Vikings laugh at that offer? They probably would. It would it would it would um it would definitely require some draft picks for sure. Um but listen, I the issue with the Jefferson trade is this isn’t the diggs trade from a couple years ago, Ryan. Like to trade him this off season, the dead cap hit that the Minnesota Vikings would have to take. And listen, things are going pretty poorly there. Like it’s probably going to go pretty poorly there over the next month. Who knows where things sit in March and and maybe there is some movement. It would come trading him before June 1st this off seasonason. Justin Jefferson would come with an $72 million dead cap hit for the Minnesota Vikings. And that’s just listen, it’s not impossible. Teams have taken on that kind of astronomical number in the past and there’s going to be a lot of teams that are taking big hits to get rid of guys, but that is a massive number that’s going to be sitting on your salary cap for the next, you know, two, three seasons. Yeah, it doesn’t seem realistic. And again, I I pitch some younger players. Uh Marvin Harrison Jr., Roma Dunay, players that are, you know, fresh in this league, but maybe not being utilized properly by their teams. The Bears obviously are having a very successful season. I don’t know if they’d be willing to move him. Harrison’s family has had some frustration with how he’s being used in Arizona. I think the Bills will turn over every stone possible, including making calls on players like Jefferson, knowing full well that the the team uh in Minnesota in this case is going to say, “Yeah, no, thank you. We’re not looking to move him whatsoever.” And there’s going to be other players of that caliber, too, where they get shut down. But all you need is one yes from a team where then maybe the ball gets rolling and or and if they don’t have success there, maybe this is the year they go all in on the draft on a guy and they they move up uh to get someone. There’s multiple names that are uh going to be drafted in the first round or maybe early in the second round that the Bills could be in play for once again that I I think could be good fits, but there’s always the roll of the dice in terms of what the ceilings of these players are and whether they can ever become a superstar come, you know, entering the NFL. Yeah, there’s going to be there’ll be a lot to dig into and potential options for the Bills at wide receiver this off season. Uh before we can Oh, we got a super chat here. Yes. with the did the Patriots take the Bills organization by surprise? I mean, I think that they took the league by surprise to a degree. I mean, when you run off 10 wins in a row, schedule, you know, easy schedule, all that kind of baked in, that’s still something I don’t think anybody was predicting. I think people thought that they were going to be a factor in the division. I thought that a lot of people thought they were going to be a playoff team. And and Drake May had really good moments as a rookie. And you add Varel into the mix who’s a career competent coach. Like that’s another thing that sometimes people forget. Like just adding competency at the head coaching position changes so much potentially for an organization. It’s why things haven’t gone well in Miami and things haven’t gone well in New York. But you take what Mike Vreyel did in Tennessee and I know it didn’t maybe end well there and he hasn’t had a lot of success in the playoffs. Hasn’t had didn’t really never had a quarterback there. That probably played into it. But he is a really solid maybe above average coach. We’ll see where things end this season, but I think adding all those things into the mix, it feels like they’ve they’ve added a lot of really good pieces. I don’t think they I don’t think they necessarily snuck up on the Bills, though, Ryan. No, I I agree with that. I think a lot of people had them projected as a potential playoff team this year. Uh we both had them as the number two team in the division if I remember correctly going into the season. And and you know, they’re going to leaprog the Bills, it seems, and be the number one team in the division. But I think it a lot of people had them being in the mix at least this year and maybe being where they are now next year. Now that being said, I am skeptical of them because of their historically soft schedule. Uh I want to see what this looks like next year when they play a first place schedule, a much more difficult uh schedule, which it will be. But you know, kudos to them for rattling off all these wins in a row, defeating the teams that they’re supposed to defeat for the most part. They obviously had some hiccups in week one against the Raiders, which if they played that game now or any week to from now to the end of the year. I would 100% expect the Patriots to win in a landslide. So, some of these losses were a little bit baffling, but for the most part, they they’ve done their job against the teams are supposed to beat. All right, I want to see if I can pull up um this video clip. Uh I want to talk about it for a minute. Um, what do you think about where the Miami Dolphins are? This could be a good, um, segue here, uh, before we get out of the AFC East because they’re sitting there at five wins. I think they have a really easy schedule the rest of the way. I think they play the Patriots maybe in the final week, which with how things are going, all these teams are set up, we talked about on the show yesterday with Josh and Carl, like these teams are going to be beating each other up. If Miami keeps winning that potentially, they could be playing the Patriots in week 18 for a playoff spot. like maybe the seventh playoff spot. What where are you at with Miami and what do you think is going to happen there leadership-wise this off seasonason? I I think they’re going to slip up at some point before the end of the year and they’re going to fall out of the playoff picture. They’re not going to end up making it uh despite this recent streak of wins. And and to me, if I’m a Bills fan, I’m loving what I’m seeing right now in Miami minus the head-to-head game in which Miami won because they played picked these last few weeks in this upcoming draft class. The way that they’ve been winning, this reminds me a lot of the Bills teams uh from the drought years where they were never good enough to make the playoffs, but they were never bad enough to get that difference maker franchise guy with a top three to five pick. And and this is exactly where I think they’re going to be. They’re going to end up with anywhere from maybe seven to nine wins. And I don’t think nine wins cuts it come playoff time this year in my opinion. So, it’s a feel-good story in terms of how they’ve turned things around. I think it might have saved Mike McDaniel’s uh job, but at the same time, there’s going to be a new GM there, and the new GM might be able to have the decision to keep him or not. Um, good stuff. I agree with you, too. And I I also think if you it’ll come down to who are the options. Like one very interesting idea would be if Mike Tomlin does move off of the Pittsburgh Steelers, whether it’s his own decision or somebody else. I mean, it’s probably headed towards a divorce when you have an entire stadium chanting to fire the coach uh at a in a in a late season game. Uh but I think that would be an interesting addition. But outside of that, like who are the top candidates that you’re going to are you going to go out and get one of the the latest versions of Mike McDaniel to come in and do the exact same thing? I think it’s more about moving and I’m not a big fan of Mike McDaniel, right? I’ve been critical of him on the show. I going back to that appearance on Hard Knocks. I don’t but I do think he deserves credit for what he’s done this season and what has been kind of like a, you know, show uh for lack of a better term like that that that organization has been a mess. I mean, the Greer situation, you know, Tyreek going out, all these different things that have kind of been in play and I think a very limited quarterback. I think it’s more going to be about the transition plan out of to a tongue of more so than it is uh what’s going on at the head co position. Now, I have this video pulled up, Ryan. Have you seen this? Uh maybe I’ve seen a few of these Cam Newton videos in the last few days, so this might be one of them. All right, let’s play this one, and I want to I want to talk about it and get your reaction. folks ain’t going to keep being patient with you. That playful person that the Buffalo City by storm in his first interview and he sat down and was like, “Yeah, I love cookies.” And he had the the whole That was all cool, but we give that grace to young players. Big dog, you supposed to be our number one. Come on now. And you’re playing like a bum. Bet you better. I bet you better start doing your job. [Music] Okay. So, initial thoughts there. Let’s There’s a lot to kind of dig into. First and foremost, I want to ask a question because I think this is the perception around the league, right? And you know, even based on Steve Smith’s comments about him a couple of weeks ago, I don’t necessarily think the Bills, and maybe this is a problem that they didn’t do this. I’ve never gotten the sense that they drafted him to be a number one wide receiver. As a matter of fact, everything the Bills have done since they’ve drafted Keon Coleman has been running away from the idea of even needing or wanting a wide receiver one. So I think to start with that comment from Cam is really unfair for a player that’s really not in a situation or given an opportunity to be a one. And also like you take Drake London who was drafted in the first round and was immediately placed in the role that everybody said he should be a big slot in the league. He’s going to line up inside quite a bit. He’s going to kind of work on his game over the course of a couple seasons. I mean it didn’t go well for Drake London in year one. like people weren’t talking about him around the league. I’ve been critical of Keon Coleman, but I think this is a little bit unfair when people are kind of coming out and acting like he was he landed in a spot where he’d even be able to be a wide receiver one right now. It’s just nobody in this offense is going to be a wide receiver one. No, it’s the whole everyone eats mentality. And maybe that mentality changes if you were to get a difference maker. But the Bills never thought that Keon Coleman was going to be this difference maker like they ended up getting the premier receiver in the draft. None of that happened. They moved down multiple times in fact in that draft and let other teams draft wide receivers in front. They were looking for an ex receiver and they felt he fit that prototype, but they have never come out and said this guy’s going to be our wide receiver number one. We know that in terms of the pass catchers, the wide receivers purely, Khlo Shakir has the the most chemistry with Josh Allen. And although it hasn’t always looked like that this season in terms of his involvement, uh he’s still always going to be heavily factored in. They’ve they’ve gone out in free agency and they’ve paid decent money for guys. Curtis Samuel hasn’t worked out, but they paid him 8 million a year on average. Joshua Palmer, year one, 13 million on average. That’s not like a player that they expect to be sitting there far down on the depth chart. they were going to be in the mix. So, they’re bringing in different flavors and unfortunately a lot of these flavors haven’t been working this year at least. Uh Palmer is going to have another opportunity, you would think, later this year, next year as well to prove himself. But at no point has Kian Coleman ever been thought of as the number one receiver for this team since, you know, being drafted. He had a really good training camp and we talked about maybe him getting a much bigger role than we were anticipating, but that hasn’t played out either. I also think saying that he’s playing like a bum. And I know like he’s a he’s like a talk talking head, right? So a lot of it is bluster, a lot of it is over the top, you know, has Keon Coleman had a great season by any statistical measure. No. But I mean, I do want to sit here and look at the last three weeks in a season where they’re looking for guys to step up and make plays. He made a big play in the Miami game. He went on and got benched after that for two weeks. That’s part of the conversation. but he comes back on a fourth down, gotta have it play, and he comes up with a touchdown grab as well. So, you know, I think that there is still runway to a positive end to the season for Keon Coleman in this offense because if you look around this receiving room right now, and I’ll include Dalton Concaid in this mix, guys can’t stay on the field. And that’s one thing that Keon Coleman has consistently been able to do since the Bills drafted him. He’s a young player. He’s athletic. he has been available, you know, from a physical perspective. Obviously, he’s gotten into some off the- field issues uh that have kept him from playing, but I think this is a huge stretch for Keon Coleman down the stretch of the season that can maybe change the narrative on him a little bit going into the offseason. And I think if I was Shawn McDermott, that’s what I’d be sitting down with Keon Coleman and emphasizing like there’s a huge opportunity for you to maybe, you know, take the ball and run with it a little bit because Josh Palmer, this ankle issue, that’s also something we haven’t hit on the show yet. Shawn McDerman said he’s in a really bad place right now with where basically reagravating the injury, something he’s been dealing with, trying to play through. Probably came back a little bit too early. I saw Chargers fans on social media talking about welcome to the Josh Palmer experience. This is something that, you know, they’ve dealt with in in LA the last couple of years. And you know, if we’re talking about Brandon Bean and being critical of him, this is another guy on the heels of the Dalton Concaid experiment with the inability to stay healthy to now bring in another guy that you’re giving eight million dollars a season to that has a history of not being able to get on the field. He deserves a lot of criticism on that level as well. But Keon specifically, I’m not writing him off and saying that he can’t have some kind of positive end of the season and push into the playoffs. I I don’t disagree with that. I don’t know if he’s going to be a factor between the 20s, but I think in the red zone that is where he can really build on the end of the season, add some more touchdowns. if he can finish the year, I’m not saying double digits, but you know, if he can be the team’s leading scoreer and especially make his presence known in the red zone, give him some opportunities to win some 101 matchups, not just, you know, I don’t want to call it a broken play because it wasn’t a broken play, but the Josh Allen extending the play, uh, type of things, but give him some real opportunities to prove himself with a jump ball situation, back shoulder, whatever the case may be. Um, and kind of and on a positive note, this season with something like that. I think that’s very realistic. I think again it goes back to the the routes that are being run. They’re very predictable as is. You throw in someone that doesn’t separate well on their own. Uh it’s going to be tough for him to make an impact between the 20s, but on the outside or in the red zone, excuse me, I think that that can be his bread and butter. He’s had four touchdowns uh this season. He had 57 targets last year. He caught 29 balls and had 556 yards receiving with the four touchdowns. this year 52 targets. So, he’s going to probably end up with I’d say somewhere around 70ish targets. Uh he’s got five more catches right now, but he’s dramatically under his last year yardage total. So, he was he had a little bit more explosiveness to his game a year ago. And I think that part of that is baked into the offense and how their identity has been undergoing this shift over the course of the last two seasons. And they’re a very runheavy team and a lot of it is like short slants, short like plays in the short game. And that could be something that Joe Brady I think should be tasked with trying to unlock and Keon could be a part of it. Yeah, he had a a big gain on a few quick slants last year and they tried to throw him one or two. I believe it was in this Pittsburgh game. Um but they’ve tried to throw a few of them. Some haven’t necessarily landed or he dropped one. One was a very short reception that he was tackled immediately. There was the fourth down play last year against Houston where he broke the initial tackle on the play and went the distance. So, he did have some longer touchdowns last year where he was able to break some tackles and get by a defender. Just really hasn’t worked out that way this year. Uh, one of our uh, regulars uh, in the YouTube comments, uh, Jim, if Bean doesn’t draft a speedy wide receiver in the first round in next year’s draft, I’m going to the Amtrak station here in North Carolina riding to Buffalo and telling Perry Terry Pagoula to let him go. Boom. Nailed it. The transition was phenomenal. And right now, have you uh, make memories this holiday season? Got a small dog or cat? Fluffy or pho can travel with you on Amtrak. Uh or maybe you want to go to a Bills game and you want to get to town to see the Bills play one of their final games at Highark Stadium. Amtrak gets you right into downtown Buffalo. Just a short ride share from the stadium. No middle seats, a generous luggage luggage policy, free Wi-Fi, and kids ride 50% off. Head over to amtrak.com for more more details. Jim, thank you for that phenomenal uh transition. All right, Ryan, final thought. We’ll be back with a preview show on Friday. What do you got? Yeah, final thought. Join us December 18th at the New York Wreck and Social Club. Another live show that we have on the horizon coming up here soon. Uh inside the beautiful Turning Stone Resort and Casino. They have awesome Christmas displays, the the uh gingerbread houses lit up outside. So, come check all that out. Come check out a live episode of Shout as we’ll be talking about Buffalo’s late season push for the playoffs. Great stuff as always, my friend. Everybody enjoy the rest of your week. Big game coming up on Sunday. We’ll have you cover here on Shia.

The Buffalo Bills began preparation for Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals on Wednesday. Matt Parrino and Ryan Talbot discuss the latest Bills storylines, including a few troubling injury developments ahead of a critical game against the Bengals.

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