Matt Milano brought out the hit stick on Day 5 of Bills camp as injury outlook worsens

Matt Milano brought out the hit stick on Day 5 of Bills camp as injury outlook worsens

What is up everybody? Welcome into shoutout a Buffalo football podcast. It is Monday July 28th and Ryan Talbet the Bills put pads on today. It was super hot out there. So as uh the title indicates, you know, the physicality got ratcheted up quite a bit. He’s Ryan Talbot. I’m Matt Parino. Thank you so much for joining us. Um day five, Ryan. I cannot believe how quick this is going, but we’re already here. The pads are already on and we got a lot to talk about today. Yeah, tons to talk about. And you know, real quick, we went to the comedy center, National Comedy Center recently, man. You and I did the Dumb and Dumber mocking bird scene. We might have to go back and shoot the the one where uh Lloyd goes in, he says, “We got no food. We got no jobs. Our pets heads are falling off the Bills injury list.” Man, I know that’s not the headline here, but holy cow. It is really unbelievable to think about the fact that we’re only five days in and we’re talking about a dozen players the Bills didn’t have available today. You know, multiple in a couple of different rooms. I mean, you think about Terrell Bernard and Dorian Williams in the linebacker room, Curtis Samuel and Elijah Moore in the receiver room. I mean, this is something where you’re trying to kind of get a look at a lot of different things and because of this whole injury situation, it’s really tough to try to navigate all of this and get guys reps. The the Bills bring back uh Dion Kane, who was obviously with them uh during training camp last year just to kind of fill out that room a little bit. Lisa Chanel was activated off the NFI list yesterday, but he didn’t really even participate in all of practice today. Dawson Knox activated as well, but he didn’t participate in practice as well. So, it’s really tough times. We’re get into a couple of the injuries, specifically Dalton Concade in a few minutes, but you’re right, it’s it’s the walking wounded right now for the Bills. Yeah, some bad luck for sure. And, you know, maybe the Bills are are managing it differently in terms of taking precautions, playing it safe. Uh, but it’s always eye popping when you see such a long injury list and then as practices go on, obviously there’s a few more as the days go on. Uh we’re brought to you today by Amtrak. Amtrak’s Empire service offers frequent departures daily from the Niger Falls, Buffalo uh area all the way to New York City. Stops include Rochester, Syracuse, Udicus, connectity, Albany, Hudson, Pikipsy, Rincliffe, and more. There’s comfort, no middle seats, plenty of leg room. You can even get some reclining action going on the seats. Stretch out, read, work, watch a movie, whatever you want to do. Free Wi-Fi on every single ride and no baggage fees. Riding Amtrak is an experience. Fun, relaxing, a way to get to your destination. Head over to amtrak.com today. All right, Ryan, we got to start with Matt Milano who absolutely stole the show today for me because, you know, if you go back a couple weeks, I mean, I was really hyping up, you know, I was getting the hype train going on Dorian Williams and I think rightfully so. he hasn’t been available, so it’s been hard to really evaluate him uh and where he’s at. But what I think we’ve seen since the start of training camp is Matt Milano, who in the off season restructured his contract, ripping up the final year of his deal essentially in 2026. He’ll become a free agent after this year, took a $3 million pay cut that he can kind of earn back in incentives. So, I I think there was a big question mark around the future of Matt Milano with the Bills, what to expect out of him this year. He was absolutely electric today. It felt like you were watching Matt Milano circa 2026 or 2019, 2021. I mean, this was that version of the player. No doubt about it. Looking fast. I’d say the same thing about Tradavius White to a degree. Same kind of thing, like moving around fast, competitive, you know, just a little bit of a departure from what we saw from Trey White when he was here last time when he was kind of working his way back. But the one play in particular, and I want to get your thoughts on Milano here in a second, it was just a routine kind of check down to KJ Hamler. Might have even been a screen play. Uh, I can’t really remember. And Matt Milano, like what made the play so impressive to me is he was kind of backpedaling, right? Like playing in his area of the field, defending against the pass. It was the recognition of where the ball was going, the area of the field that he had to fire off to, the explosion that he used to get downhill to then pursue KJ Hamler, who we’re going to talk about in a little later, who had his own section of practice today that was really entertaining. He runs him down and absolutely lays the boomstick on him. It was a basically a tackle. They’re supposed to be thting people up. It wasn’t a thud, man. He absolutely ran through the guy. And so I think it’s it was one of those ones where Taran Johnson said the defense has been chomping at the bit to really start hitting. It’s felt like flag football the first couple of days. But if you’re talking about like going back to the offseason when Shawn McDermott was talking about or Brandon Bean was talking about adding weapons for the defense, right? That was what he tasked himself with with Malano was a weapon in this defense for many years. If they get that version of him, that kind of weapon, that changes the math on this defense. Yeah. And it’s been encouraging through five days watching Milano the way he’s been moving. Uh clearly not hampered in any way, shape, or form thus far. So he looks like, like you said, Matt Milano of old, the one without any kind of injuries. He has been flying around and you know, I I think I saw a video of the play in question that you mentioned. It looked like it was one of those quick passes out to Hamler. Uh and Milano with the recognition shot right through and as you mentioned, laid him out. Uh great tackle. Maybe he was getting revenge for another player on the defense that we’ll talk about later in that KJ Hamlers segment, but Milano’s looking really good through five days. So, it’s encouraging because you didn’t know where he was at at this point with the age, with the injuries. It’s going to be a long season, but you have to love everything you’ve seen to this point out of Matt Milano. And uh Sean, I believe in the comments here on YouTube said, “It’s good to hear that he’s doing well, but I don’t want to get my hopes up.” Yeah, we’ll talk about this in a moment, right? But let’s use some perspective. Like it’s a long season. The big thing, I don’t even know if I’m more concerned about the level of play with Matt Milano because he’s done so much and he’s, you know, had so many snaps in the NFL. I’m more, you know, worried about the availability, like his ability to stay healthy consistently, be able to go out there, not kind of linger on the injury report for a hamstring or a groin or a quad or a calf. Like Balin Spectre, you know, was playing in place of Terrell Bernard today and at the end of practice, probably the last 10 minutes or so, I look over on the sideline and there he is. He’s got his his left shoe off and he’s getting some kind of work done on his on his foot or his ankle. And that’s been really the problem area for for Bale Inspect. And so like you think about like Dorian Williams is hurt right now. Terrell Bernard’s hurt right now. Matt Milano is the beacon of health for this unit. Shaq Thompson as well who also put a big thud on in practice today. Had a really nice hit at one point as well. And so I just think that you have so many injury concerns in this room specifically. If you can get one guy to be consistent and available, that would be really huge because I just don’t trust Balen Spectre as well as he’s played when he’s been on the field through training camp. I don’t know if you could trust him once you get into the season if they have to call upon him. Right. That that’s always been the big knock on Balen Spectre, the availability, the injury concerns, the problems with that. And it’s a big reason why my initial mock draft a few weeks ago, maybe a month plus ago, I didn’t have him making this roster. You have to be available if you want to play. What’s that? Your mock draft. You’re my mock draft. Gez, my 53man roster projection. Thank you for correcting me. Got him. Um, but it’s funny because you mentioned it. The two healthiest linebackers right now arguably are the two oldest on this team in Shaq Thompson, Matt Milano. And is it where they’ve learned at this point of their respective careers how much to turn up the heat, turn up the volume, so to speak, in their practice habits? Is it just luck? Who knows? But Thompson’s a player that’s played six games in the last two seasons. Milana, we know about all of his ailments from last year. But right now, these two who bring a wealth of knowledge for the system just in general. It’s good to have them at least out there on the field when you’re having to go down that depth chart to depend on some of these younger players to fill in the gaps for the injured linebackers. Shout out to our guy Scott Morano with a I love it. the Balin spectator. Wow. Shots fired. That’s tough. But listen, it fits. I mean, he struggled to stay on the field. You know, we we were talking so much about Curtis Samuel. Maybe we kind of glossed over the Terrell Bernard injury a little bit. I mean, this is concerning, too. I mean, you’re talking about a hamstring for a guy that uh you know, he was uh out there today in a kind of a watching mode with Dorian Williams. So, I think that that’s encouraging. I believe it was Joe Bcalia from The Athletic that noticed that. um that’s really important that like maybe that you know if he can get back on the field like in the next couple of days you feel good about it but again over the course of Bernard’s career it’s been the same kind of holdup it’s just like not being available it’s weird like and I know they played different positions so maybe the correlation isn’t there but it’s so strange how healthy the Bills have been in certain rooms over the last couple years like offensive line room has been such a beacon of health and I know Spencer Brown’s dealing with his own thing right Bills fans. Well, yeah. Knock on wood. But like it’s one of those things where it’s like it’s unbelievable how healthy they’ve stayed on the offensive line in some of these other rooms where they’ve just they’ve dealt with more injuries. Yeah. It’s it’s been something like you mentioned, the linebacker room last year took a big hit. The cornerback rooms in years past have taken some pretty big hits uh with key players, starting players. Trey White obviously comes to mind there. And then there are other areas that have been very healthy. Running back for the most part part has been a very healthy room. I know James Cook missed one at least one game last year, but for the most part they were very healthy. Obviously quarterback, too. And the list goes on. It’s just one of those balancing acts where there’s no rhyme or reason for it. There were a few years where the Bills as an entire team were arguably the healthiest team in the league. early on in Shawn McDermott’s tenure might have been like 2018 2019 or somewhere in that range but then the next few years they had one of the you know longer injury reports maybe not serious injuries but a lot that have kind of piled up in time. Um, speaking of injuries, uh, let’s let’s talk for a second about Dalton Concaid, uh, knee soreness, which I think, all right, knee soreness, the way that you’re terming that, I think at least gives you a little bit of security if you’re a Bills fan, but again, it’s the knee, it’s the left knee. He had a full wrap job on that today, like one of those big long sleeves that Dawson Knox was wearing at the beginning of camp. Sean McDerman was asked like kind of about the injury, and he said he went up for a pass. There was three defenders in the area. It’s unclear if the injury happened because of contact that he took on the play or if he came down on it funny. So, in terms of like what it actually is, doesn’t seem like there’s a whole lot of details on it right now. But with Knox not back at practice yet and Concaid unavailable today, now you’re looking at Jackson Haw is tight end one or Zack Davidson is tight end one, it changes the math quite a bit. Not ideal as you want to be. You know, I think that the chemistry has really been building between Keon Coleman and Josh Allen. You want that with Concinc Kaid, too, but when he’s not out there, it’s hard to build that chemistry. Yeah, and you saw some signs of that chemistry in the first four practices. And some of the throws yesterday, including the one you mentioned between three defenders, uh it did look like when he went down to the ground, someone landed on him. Again, that’s pure speculation in terms of if that’s when the injury took place. Um, as the Bills termed it, though. Hopefully the soreness just means maybe a bruise or uh something like that. Nothing more serious. And based on the injury he dealt with last year, I would prefer the Bills airing on the side of cautiousness when it comes to a knee injury for a tight end who’s going to be or they want to be a big focal point for this offense. Dude, did I send out a uh the text for like the episode link to our insiders? I don’t think you did. Dude, what am I doing? This is like uh a couple days in a row. If you are a shout Buffalo Bills insider, you have full permission to yell at me on the insider text line right now. Send me a text. I know David’s probably firing one up right now if he hasn’t already, but that’s totally on me. I’m supposed to be sending out these links when we’re going live, so I’m going to do that right now. You know, Joe Andre James asks about him. Uh he’s playing behind Balen Spectre right now, two straight days. So, it’s not like one of those situations we talked about yesterday on the show. It’s it seems like Spectre is like on the depth chart ahead of Joe Andre right now. And I you know there’s one play today where Andre got kind of caught out of position and we’re going to talk about this play a little bit later uh in the episode. But you know it’s that’s where we’re at right now. If he needs to play like if you need to throw Buffalo Joe out there I I think that I’m confident knowing everything that we’ve seen from him when he has played. But it’s one of those ones where you wonder why the Bills still go Spectre over Andre. Is it about familiarity familiarity with the scheme? Uh he’s obviously a little bit older than him, maybe has a little bit different of a skill set, but is that surprising to you? It is a little bit surprising to me. It’s something where you look at how much Andre did last year coming from the rookie mini camp try out to getting a contract to making the roster really shining in the pre-season joint practices and when he had his opportunity looking the part on the field versus Spectre who has not been available at all. So, you know, maybe it is just a veteran thing where they’re they’re trying to give these players that have been in the system a little bit longer uh some run with the the ones or the twos depending on the injuries that are taking place at the time at the position and Andre can surpass him before the end of the summer. I think when it’s all said and done, you almost have to go Andre and based on the availability and what we’ve seen in a very small sample size, mind you, but you don’t even have that great of a sample size with Spectre because of the injuries that he’s had throughout his long career. And you know, Bobby Babich did give some praise to Andre a few days ago and he goes, “It’s not Buffalo Joe anymore. It’s Joey Andre the football player.” Meaning that he’s really come into his own already as this young player. He had a really good spring. He needs to build on that throughout the next, you know, however many training camp prices are left the preeason. But, uh, this could just be something where Shawn is and the Bills in general are just mixing some guys in despite it being two days in a row of Spectre over Andre. Josh gets us. If Ryan hadn’t sent the link, Matt would have never let him hear the end of it. I think you’re right, Josh. I probably would have been a little bit rougher on on on Ryan than he was to me. So, I got to be a better friend. Scott with a great comment. you did say 2:30 on the insider text line. So, be ready so you don’t have to get ready. Um, but you know, I just like I like making it easier so people could just like, you know, click the link, get right to the show. No big deal. All right, let’s get to, you know, it was hot out there today. Uh, our guy Pops Mafia, I think I saw him out there near um the big field, uh, the actual field after practice. He said there were some, uh, fans that were really going through it heatwise, some issues with that. It was hot out there. And when the when it’s one of those super hot days, I feel like tempers tend to flare a little bit easier. And we saw it. And there’s also the piece of like, you know, what I mentioned about Taran and like playing feeling like it was flag football the first couple days when you get to hit somebody, it’s just really about that competition. And today KJ Hamler and Christian Benford during one one-on- ones. Ryan, get your popcorn ready because it was that kind of matchup. The first one, Hamler makes a play. He’s so tough to defend in those one-on- ones. Makes a play. I think he chirped a little bit at Christian Benford. I mean, people forget about KJ Hamler. Like, I know I’ve been kind of pumping the tires here a little bit at the start of training camp. He’s former second round pick. He had himself a really good start to his career before injuries kind of changed the math a little bit for him, but he’s he’s been really good in training camp, and I’ll give him that credit. The next one, Christian Benford kind of bowed up a little bit, beat him up pretty solid, ends up breaking up the pass and made sure face pass to face mask to let KJ Hamler know about it. So they come back, it’s the third rep between these two. And it’s you wonder sometimes like do the coaches notice a little bit of heat and say, “All right, Hamler, Benford, get back out there. Go at it one more time. We want to see this, too.” I mean, everybody’s kind of just fans out there watching this thing. And Hamler puts like kind of like a double move, fakes one way, goes the other way, catches the ball, goes up field, and Benford wasn’t even really close. And as he’s running down the field, he turns back to Benford and starts shouting out to him. Benford walks a couple feet almost like they were going to meet. He starts yelling something back to him. It’s like one of those exchanges in training camp that I feel like you just love to see. And Terrence said, “You wanna you want to walk up to the line. You don’t want to cross it, but you want to get as close as you can to it because guys are trying to get better out there.” Yeah. And that’s just it because Christian Benford is the standard. He is cornerback number one, a star to Bills fans, and should be more of a household name and star elsewhere. So, when you’re going one-on-one against him and you get a win, you’re probably going to, you know, speak a little bit. You and I have been talking about Hamler a lot. We saw a lot of his talent last year in training camp and making plays. It was it was just for some rhyme or reason, the Bills never elevated him off of the practice squad last year. So now he gets lined up with the cornerback at this year’s training camp, gets a win, then Benford gets it back, and then, you know, the tiebreaker of sorts goes in Hamler’s favor. I, you know, I’d be chirping, too. It’s a a player that doesn’t get the opportunities that some of these other receivers have, whether you’re talking about a Tyrell Shavers or a Jaylen Virgil, guys that did get the elevations. And it might have come down to special teams play versus uh in terms of coverage versus returnability, which is more of what Hamler’s speed is as a special teams player. But getting the opportunity out there and shining against the best of the Bills have, you know, why not? It it certainly helps get things a little bit more fiery between the two sides. But but you to your point about him being the standard, I mean, every rep that a receiver gets against Christian Benford, it is like got to see it, right? Like those are the ones where you really evaluate the receiver on the other side of that. You know, Khil Shakir had a play. I can’t remember if it was in team drills or in one-on- ones. I think it was in team drills, actually. and he ended up just kind of working uh kind of across the field made kind of angled him out of the play a little bit and Benford is so good that he still finds a way to compete to the catch point to try to at least make a play on the ball and in this spot it was so good by Shakir he makes the catch kind of like box Benford out of the play and it’s like okay that’s what you want to see you want to see Shakir doing what he does so well with positioning and the angling and the the craft of it like how to run a route. That’s going to happen sometimes. And Benford probably sitting on the other side of that like, “Yeah, I learned something going against this guy, too.” So, you’re getting a lot of that, you know, play-to-play um period to period, which is really important. Let’s move on to a undrafted free agent that I want to shout out today because I remember back in mini camp, I was talking to I believe Joe Bcalio and we were watching him during individual work. Stephen Gosnell out of Virginia Tech was somebody that we thought, man, he might be somebody worth watching this summer just in the way that he he runs. He’s like super fluid. He’s a biggerbodied kind of wide receiver, somebody that can kind of get things going in training camp and maybe get the hype train going a little bit around him. He had one of those days today because I mentioned, you know, there was a touchdown against Joe Andre. Gosell on a dart from Mike White, 15 16 yards down the field. Gossnell catches it on the run, turns it up field, takes it for a 70 yard touchdown, Ryan, this is one that like, all right, doesn’t really have a path to the roster most likely. I mean, never say never, but very very low likelihood of that happening. But in terms of a pre-season guy to watch, potential train uh uh practice squad uh priority guy at the 53man roster cut down, Steven Gosnell is somebody that I think we have to start taking notice of, especially when you make a play like that with the pads on. Yeah, listen, if you score a 70 yard touchdown, you have to take notice. You have to pay attention to a player like that. And what’s funny is he did display some wheels on the play to get in the end zone. He was not a burner at Virginia Tech. He ran a four, five, six, 40 yard dash, but sometimes, you know, your play speed’s a lot different than your 40 time speed, and that was kind of on display. But, you know, I I was just talking about those receivers that were are kind of pulled together because of the practice squad guys. The Hamler, uh, Tyrell Shavers, Jaylen Virgil, and they’ve had other guys in the years past, too, that have hung around for a year or two. Um, including a player that they signed today or resigned today. You want more competition there. You want to have someone else that’s trying to push one of those guys out because you’re always trying to stay younger. you’re you’re always trying to say, okay, has this has player A reached their ceiling where a guy like Gaznell, maybe you feel like you can develop and bring him along even further. So, a play like that helps. Now, he’s got to build upon that tomorrow and throughout the rest of camp. Max Haristston splash play alert. Let’s get into this one next up here. Um, you know, I I think he’s been very competitive to start and I think a play like this on the first day of pads get you to to to really open your eyes a little bit like, okay, this is pretty impressive. What were your you came out, you watched two days of practice before we get to the actual play? Like what was your overall impression of Harrison? How they were using him? And was it something that it met the expectations you had coming into camp? Yeah, it met the expectations. I mean, you’re still making him compete for a role going against some of the best in the one-on- ons, but sometimes you’re he’s behind Trey White in the pecking order in the seven on sevens, 11 on 111s, stuff like that. It’s what you want to see out of your rookie, giving him some valuable reps and making him kind of earn it. Uh some of the plays that he was beaten on, I thought he was right there. There was a really good video the Bills shared a few days ago of a touchdown pass. I want to say it was to concade in the end zone. Maybe not. And and you had uh Harrison right behind though and just comes into the play and gets a hand in there. Just doesn’t break the ball free. It feels like he’s right there a lot of the time. And that’s because of the closing speed and some of the natural athleticism. I talked about it on Friday. Uh the hip flip, the way that he moves is just so smooth and natural and fluid. The speed, the athleticism. Eventually, it’s going to all come together in terms of the Bills feeling like he’s ready to go and you’re going to unleash him out there opposite Christian Benford. But right now, I like how they’ve been utilizing him. I like how they’re kind of making him earn it, making him realize that it’s going to be a roller coaster-like experience, but you can’t ride the roller coaster. This was a great play that you’re you’re mentioning, but you got to put it in the rearview mirror and there’s a new day tomorrow. Because if you get beaten tomorrow, it’s the same thing. put it in the rearview mirror and go on to the next day. So, he’s working one-on-one against Khalil Shakir. And so, when you’re talking about a rookie cornerback, I’m not sure there’s many more, you know, tougher test that he’ll face. You know, Josh Palmer’s a really good receiver, but from a nuance perspective, Shakir has so much in his bag to work with. And, you know, he’s not an overly fast receiver, but in this specific snap, he gets some separation from Haristen. And I didn’t think it was a bad like first part of the snap for Haristston. It was just that it was better by Khalil Shakir. Gets some separation. Allen was running a play action on the play. Looks and notices almost immediately Shakir kind of breaking open a little bit down. Uh he was on the right hash, a little bit on the outside of the right hash and Shakir was running to the other side of the field and he puts a a um an air ball up there probably 35 yards down the field. And this is a play like like I mentioned, he had made a similar play against Benford earlier in practice. Harrison had to get on his horse to me to get to the ball where it was going to be and then also make a play on it. He does just that. Gets to the spot, breaks up the pass. You saw kind of Shakir get up afterwards, kind of dapp him up a little bit, a little bit of a exchange of respect. But those are the kinds of building blocks confidencewise for a young cornerback that you want to see. Was it the big splash interception? No. But that kind of pass break up on a third down on a playaction pass against Lamar Jackson or Patrick Mahomes in a game type scenario would be massive for Maxwell Hash to make that kind of play. He made it in the practice setting today. Yeah, you mentioned he got on his horse. The Bills haven’t had a player like this where if they don’t win initially off the line, they have that recovery skill and ability with his speed and athleticism to get down there and break up a play like that because there are going to be times this year where when he’s on the field, he does lose the the initial step, the suddenness of another receiver, but he does have that closing speed on plays. And this is what you want to see. Get a hand on the ball. and eventually it might be turn your head and get two hands on the ball, haul in an interception. The Bills went away from what they typically look for in a cornerback uh in in terms of those guys that are really good in the zoneheavy type of scheme. Uh and they’re going with this athlete with with speed, with a little bit undersized compared to what they maybe typically looked for in the past. But there’s so many benefits to the type of quarterback that Harrison is that I can’t wait to see when they feel like he’s ready, what he can do out there on the field. You know, we’re brought to you by uh for a couple more days actually, the James Town National Comedy Center, I should say, the National Comedy Center located in Jamestown, New York. Ryan, they’ve been such an awesome sponsor partner for us uh the last few months. We got a chance to go down there, uh, check out all of the exhibits. You mentioned it. We did a a little bit of a comedy tour there and it’s awesome. They just, it immerses you in the world of comedy like uh few uh experiences can. There’s so many different exhibits like as you walk through the museum, it it’s almost like a trip down memory lane. I was talking to Caitlyn last night, my wife, and we’re trying to figure out when we’re going to get a chance to sit down and watch Happy Gilmore 2. Uh, I don’t know if you’ve seen it yet, but I’m sure that like we didn’t get to the Adam Sandler part because we weren’t in there for long enough, but I would have loved to have landed on Adam Sandler and that big spiderweb uh comedy uh timeline uh machine that they have. It’s it’s it’s unbelievable. It’s it’s worth a day trip. 75 minutes from from Buffalo. Very easy to get to. you got to get to the National Comedy Center. 100%. And and for someone like me who loves history, who loves comedy, it’s the perfect blend of the two. So, if you love either, go check out the National Comedy Museum. All right. Uh last, you know, I I wanted to talk about Keon Coleman, but I think we’re going to save it because like we’ve talked about him every single day, and I just think that like and it’s a good thing the trajectory is up. It is. And I but I don’t want to blow it out of proportion, but he continues to have really good g days. I think to me the thing about Coleman more than anything, it’s just the vibes with Allen. It it feels like he’s wide receiver one. I mean, I’m I’m watching him out there. The way that they’re really getting the ball to him in a bunch of a myriad of ways like that to me is something that I was going to be looking for during training camp and we’re seeing it. He’s making good plays. He had a one-on-one rep against Maxwell Haristen today. That’s one thing that I will mention. It was just picture perfect. Like, you’re not going to separate from Haristston. He’s too fast in that setting. So Keon Coleman got a little bit creative with how he ran his route. Little bit of a stop and start at one point. He had to kind of come back to the ball and set up Haristston with a kind of move at the second stage of it and then he makes this unbelievable play where the ball kind of flashed to him for just a second after he kind of moved back across Haristston’s body, makes the catch. It was really, really impressive. He’s had a really good camp. We don’t have to spend a ton of time talking about it, but I just think with a wide receiver room that’s completely beat up, Palmer’s been really good, too. I don’t want to downplay that Shakir as well, but Coleman was the big question going into training camp and through five days, one day with the pads on, he’s delivered. And four of the five days have been very good days for him overall. I I get it. You want to temper expectations. This is training camp. It’s the first day in pads. It’s not against another team or cornerback, but you saw the confidence over the last four practices. And I don’t know if you caught the clip yet of Josh Allen talking with NFL Network yesterday uh for the whatever it was called, welcome back. It wasn’t welcome back football, but whatever the weekend was uh for the NFL Network or they were traveling around. They t he was talking he said, “You know, if defenses want to play us certain way, I’ve got a guy that can go up there and and catch those 50-50 balls that can go downfield and make the big plays.” Speaking specifically of Coleman, so he’s speaking very high of him. We have seen good chemistry between the two. It’s really encouraging to see how much he has grown in a short time, knowing how young he is, knowing that there are still going to be flaws to his game. He’s never going to be a guy that wins with his natural speed and he might not be a natural separator, but he’s finding ways to get open. And you know, you can be have a very productive career if you can do that in this league. One more person I want to talk about before we get out of here. Greg Russo was absolutely dominant today. And again, the pads come on and you start to look for who are the guys that are going to step up and really make an impact in in the practice setting. And I’m sure that there was some messaging from the coaching staff on both sides of the ball like, you know, leaders need to step up, leaders need to make impact plays. And Russo a would be sack on Josh Allen. was a whole sequence where he was just winning over and over again. There was one time he was double team. I believe it was by Cyrus Torrance and I want to say Ryan Vandermark if I’m remembering correctly. It might have been Greyel that was kind mixing those guys up a little bit but he beat both blocks and he gets in and he just blows up the play. Another play uh this is kind of his calling card right like if you think back to one of his first highlight reel plays it was against Patrick Mahomes where he tipped the pass up to himself and he intercepted it. I think it was in a a night game that first season. I can’t remember when it was exactly. He did that to Josh Allen today, but he just couldn’t come down with the interception. It was just a really good, you know, the the the rush plan. And I was watching him work with Ryan Nielsen before practice. and you start to think about like the potential impact of him on a Greg Rouso to take him to the next level of the the plan that’s in place to win because once he wins it he’s so big and long to be in the defensive or the offensive backfield and present those problems back there. It’s it’s a it could be a differencemaker for this Bills defensive line. Absolutely huge with that wingspan being able to get your hand around and even bat a ball out of a quarterback’s hands, wrap up a quarterback. He has, you know, those natural gifts that not a lot of people have in terms of the pass rushers of that size and of that length. Even yesterday, I know they weren’t in pads yesterday, but the the play, the wouldbe sack for Ed Oliver, I thought Russo was right there as well. They kind of both were around Allen on the play. So, he is building up confidence. He’s making plays for this team, getting to getting home against the QB, getting his hands up, almost creating interception that way. Uh obviously a sa a sack or a turnover is the best thing, but if you get a sack, if you get a batted ball, that’s still a a loss down for the opposing team. And and that’s an encouraging sign. You throw Ryan Nielsen in the mix and his history coaching up defensive lineman. And you hope that he can help take Russo from an eight sack guy to a 12 14 sack player because the talent is certainly there. All right, that’s going to do it for this episode. Couple of quick shoutouts before we get out of here. If you seen this scrolling bar at the bottom, we have our own swag store now. So, check out the link in the description. Go buy yourself some Shout Swag. Whether you want a a t-shirt, a hat, a a mug, or a koozie, we got you covered with everything. August 7th, we’re closing down training camp in Rochester by hitting Park A. We’re going to go to Dorado. Uh we’re going to party. Uh we’re going to talk about the Bills. We’re going to drink some uh have some great drinks. We’re going to have some wings. Wing nuts is coming out. I talked to AJ the other day. He’s ready to go. Uh, and then finally, become an insider. We’re still cooking on the insider text line every single day. 716-528-6727. Uh, twoe free trial, 3.99 a month after that. Final thought, Ryan Talbot. Final thought. I’ll you and I will both be in there later clearing that thing out again. So, insiders, you know, you send your comments to us, we see them, we read them, we get right back to you. If you’re not an insider yet, join now. All right, that’ll do it. We’ll be right back tomorrow. I’m not going anywhere. staying right in this dorm room till tomorrow to watch practice so we could talk about it right here in the SH podcast.

The Buffalo Bills held their fifth training camp practice on Monday and the pads went on for the first time. Matt Milano was one of the stars of the day as the injury outlook worsened. Dalton Kincaid missed practice but a few offensive weapons made some noise in his place. Matt Parrino and Ryan Talbot break down all of Matt’s observations.

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