Our reactions to the Buffalo Bills 38-0 preseason loss to Chicago Bears | Always Gameday in Buffalo

Our reactions to the Buffalo Bills 38-0 preseason loss to Chicago Bears | Always Gameday in Buffalo

Hey, Bills Mafia. We know there’s only one topic every day, all Bills all the time. And now, Matt Bo and Sal Capacio are going really deep, talking Bills all year long because it’s always game day in Buffalo. 38 to nothing. The Buffalo Bills lose in their second preseason game of the year to the Chicago Bears 38 to nothing. And we’re here to talk about it and hopefully calm everybody down just a little bit. What’s going on everyone? Welcome to another episode of It’s Always Game Day in Buffalo. Matt O Capacio sail fresh off of a flight. You landed what, five hours ago essentially? Uh yeah, I think so. Basically, um thankfully I got a little bit of sleep on the plane. It’s a short flight anyway from Chicago. But the reason I got some sleep on the plane, Matt, is I wrote my arrow up, arrow down column before getting on the plane because it was easy to write to be quite honest with you. You know what was down? I wrote pretty much everything. And then I I did add a few things in there and people, but it was pretty much okay. Look, if I was to sit here and the way I wrote it was if I was to actually list everything that was arrowed down, it would look like a supermarket receipt for a family of five and just it would be pretty long, right? Um, so I got that done and got a little bit of sleep here in our WGR studios right now doing this with you this morning and just kind of thinking back on a game last night and not not a good showing for the Buffalo Bills. No doubt. I believe I believe it was the largest I know it’s the largest uh preseason margin of victory like loss for Shawn McDermott. And I mean I don’t know right now Bills I didn’t take a look but it’s got to be one of the most all time. Yeah, I think it’s their most lopsided preseason loss since 1990, which is the first year that they went to the Super Bowl. So, and that was also against Chicago as I believe I saw the stats. Wow. I love it. You’re bring You’re bringing some good positive vibes this morning. So, maybe there’s some symmetry. Yeah. Full disclosure, like my plan, too, was to write on the game last night about the players that impressed during the game and then halfway through the game I was like, I don’t really have anybody. So, I’m gonna pivot to basically everybody who I don’t want to say stunk, but all of the players that we needed to see more from. So, I think that’s probably my big takeaway is like, listen, it’s the preseason. The results of the game do not matter, but the individual performance do, and there really weren’t a lot of promising individual performances. I left yesterday’s game watching it on television being like this isn’t good enough and the backups don’t look nearly good enough to be even competing with another team’s backups. Agreed. Shawn McDermott, you know, he spoke after the game as he always does and obviously he mentioned the Bear starters were in against the Bills twos and you know, you still want to compete at a high level, but even when that doesn’t work out and you might expect that in some respect, twos against twos, threes against threes, you have to have a better showing than that. That was most most concerning part for me Sunday night was just the lack of competition from the backups against the backups, right? You you had to have a better showing. It’s not like Caleb Williams and Roman Dunce and the entire Bears offense was in there for a long time. It was what, two series and those two series didn’t go well. But then once their backups come in, you want the Bills to be better. Look, I’ll just say this to start this whole thing off. All right, I’m going to take the entire weekend as a big picture because I think Friday mattered to everything here. Friday was the joint practice. The Bills and the Bears both I thought had a really good joint practice. I think there was a lot of give and take on both sides. I don’t know who won, who lost. There was a you you could point out good plays for each side, but man, the starters got a lot of reps that day. It was great. They went for over two hours, two and a half hours almost. And this was everybody, starters, backups, everybody got a lot of reps. I thought that was to me to me that’s more important than what happened Sunday night. It doesn’t excuse Sunday night at all. And I’d also say what doesn’t excuse it, but it is something. I just felt like Matt being there especially, this was a really tired team from four days in Chicago and a big joint practice on Friday and traveling in there and having a game late on Sunday night. It’s not an excuse. It’s not acceptable. I’m I’m here to tell you that. I’m just telling you though, I do think that that happened. I kind of love these wakeup call moments, especially before the season has started because I would imagine Shawn McDermott is livid and I think that he probably laid into his team and I’ll be fascinated to see if any of this is featured on Hard Knocks because this might be something that they want out there like right we talked about the team with editorial control. They might want it out there that like this is just unacceptable even with the things that you mentioned and even with the fact that it was the backups against the starters for the Bears. It was just sloppy all around. So, I do think that this is a nice little wakeup call, especially for those guys that are competing for playing time, competing for jobs that like this isn’t going to cut it. Obviously, these were not the starters. Obviously, somebody’s watching this or listening to this five minutes in and they’re going, “Matt and S, the Bills lost to the Bears last year in the preseason 33 to6 and look what happened to both of those seasons. This does not matter.” And that’s completely valid. But the difference in that game was it was still relatively close and then the Bears kind of just poured it on at the end. This was a shellacking from the start of the game. Like the Bills didn’t have any answers on either sides of the ball. And I think the big takeaway for me or the thing that I’m most concerned about moving forward is the play at a safety position. Because if you would have asked me a month ago, I would have said this is the position that I’m the most concerned about as we are getting ready for the season. I don’t feel any better about the position and honestly at this point I think I feel worse. I totally understand that and I think most Bills fans were just kind of waiting on Cole Bishop to get healthy and get on the field. Well, we saw that and it didn’t go great for Cole Bishop on Sunday night. He had a missed tackle early on. Um he was not in great position on a touchdown that the Bears scored. He was on a pitch count so he didn’t get a lot of reps. It was good to see him get some time out there, but I’m just going to throw it out there right now that I wouldn’t be surprised if over the next two weeks maybe we start to see Jordan Hancock get a little bit more of a look. I think Jordan Hancock has looked better than Cole Bishop. Now, he did get injured in the game. Um, he was actually playing Nickel at the time he got injured. He said that he should be fine after the game, but they are going to take a look at his shoulder. It’s a shoulder injury. Now, I still think that Cole Bishop is the presumed starter and the Bills wanted him to be the starter with Taylor W. Let’s remember if you go to Sunday night, still three weeks from Sunday night is the opener, right? You you have a lot of time, a lot of time. You still have time to get Cole Bishop enough reps with Taylor Wrap to feel more confident and comfortable, but time is running out here and you only have one preseason game left and I don’t know what the plan is next week. So, at some point, what did the Bills do? Did you find it interesting that after the game, Shawn McDer said, “We’ll have to take a look at what like take a look at that and what we need.” Yep. That was the first thing that I took away from listening to it of like, whoa, he said that. And you know, maybe that’s a little bit of a message to the guys that they have currently in that room. But here’s the thing that’s fascinating. All right, we’re going to probably get to this earlier than I thought. The most You’re on the sideline for the game. Last night I had a rare game where I was sitting on my couch watching it on television. And that is a completely different experience than covering the game like I normally do. So I’m sitting there and I’m on Twitter and I’m seeing all of these comments from Bill’s fans. And I know social media is an echo chamber, but Justin Simmons name was tweeted last night more than probably any of the guys who actually played on the Bills team. And it’s a fascinating discussion, and I’ve thought about it a lot in the last 12 hours because that would be a person who you could go out and get, add to this team, and immediately make your roster better. But it would also essentially end Cole Bishop’s time like with this organization as the potential like he misses most of last year. If you sign Justin Simmons now all of a sudden he’s going Cole Bishop is going to miss all of this year. Are you really? Right. Because what you’re saying and I don’t disagree. If you sign Justin Simmons it’s not to be a backup. No. Are you punting are you punting on a second round safety a couple games into his career? because of injuries and incon. I just don’t see this team doing that. But then that also goes to the Jordan Hancock point is like are they really going to be taking these reps away from him for Jordan Hancock already? Like it I just don’t know what they’re going to do. Part of this discussion is also Cam Lewis who did not play in the game on Sunday night. He can play safety. He’s a guy back there that you know that he knows the defense. I think they feel comfortable. He’s not the most high-end safety. We know that it gives you a baseline play of okay he can fill in in spot duty but they really like him in nickel corner and if that’s happening then that’s why Jordan Hancock has primarily been playing safety and he has by the way Jordan Hancock has been more of a safety than he has been a nickel he’s playing nickel in that one instance last night in that specific series but he is a guy that they they want back there I haven’t seen enough from Derek Forest to be confident that he’s a guy that you’d like to put on there and honestly it hasn’t gone that great for Demar Hamlin I think in the time we’ve seen him on the field in two games throughout the preseason. So, this is a position that they’re going to have to really evaluate. Um, you you said would this organization, you know, punt on a second round safety just a just over a year in. I know there are Bills fans out there saying, “Well, you have to do it. It’s time to win.” I I agree with you though. I don’t think that’s the Bills mo. I don’t think that’s what they’re doing. I think we’re ways away from that happening. What I could see happening though is again, hey, we got this guy in the second round last year. We got this guy, what was Jordan Hancock? Fifth round this year, right? We got this guy in the fifth round this year. There’s nothing wrong with letting them compete. And because of availability issues, maybe Jordan Hancock actually does wind up passing Cole Bishop on the depth chart. That doesn’t mean you have to throw Cole Bishop out and never play again because now you still have two young guys. And yes, you have Taylor rep for two more years on a contract. So that’s a long way out, but I would see that scenario before bringing in a Justin Simmons, although anything’s on the table. Yeah, I definitely the point from Shawn McDermott, the comment that he made was eye opening because him saying that they might need to see what’s out there or like essentially what they need to add is not nothing because that is essentially him saying that they don’t believe in the players or at least right now they haven’t I shouldn’t say they don’t believe they haven’t seen enough from the players that are currently in that room. And I think everybody who’s watching this or listening to this probably agrees. And the other part that’s so concerning is we’ve written Taylor Wrap’s name in permanent marker here. He is starting. He is one of their starting safeties, but availability with him has not been super consistent. And it’s not like he is an elite level player who can completely carry that position. He is a good player. So when you have a good player and then a bunch of questions next to that player, that’s when it becomes such a concerning pos. It’s not even close to me that that is far and away the most concerning thing that this team needs to figure out over the course of the next three weeks because it is noticeable. Like you just watch the game and it is noticeable that the safety play is not good enough. I mean I know we were spoiled with Micah and Jordan for years but that that’s not even what this is about anymore, right? I mean like you’re holding there’s a certain standard that you can’t really expect anyone to attain but the standard that being set right now or what they’re not hitting is they’re lacking where they need to be, right? I mean, it’s not about Michael and Jordan anymore. It’s about them get being better than what they currently are. Not about getting to that standard, which might be unattainable overall, but even raising the floor from where they are right now. It is interesting. I don’t I don’t think he said see what’s out there. I want to make sure I phrase it right. I don’t have the exact quote. He said, “See what we need.” See what we need. And I do wonder, does he mean what’s out there or does he mean see what we need as far as reps and who’s on the field and trying to piece this together from the current group? It’s probably a little bit of both. It probably is, but the way he frames it, nothing that is said by him is on accident, right? Especially with the time that passes between the end of the game and when he comes out to the podium. A lot of the times he’s of course answering our questions and speaking to us, but he’s speaking also to his team because they know that he’s, you know, they’re listening to those comments. They see what he says. So, I think he is trying to send a message that like the safety position is a concern and we need to see more out of that entire group. And if that means we have to go outside and find somebody to come in here, we’re not like closing that door because for me, let’s say they keep four or five safeties because we’re now getting to the point where, you know, in a week we’re talking about what the 53man roster looks like. I think it’ll be Cole Bishop. I think it’ll be Taylor Rap. I think it’ll be Cam Lewis. I think it’ll be Jordan Hancock. And then I’m assuming Demar Hamlin makes the team, I think. But at the same time, I don’t think it’s a slam dunk either. Right. So, if you go back to Friday’s practice against the Bears, this was also a concern. It’s the thing I liked about Friday’s practice was the pass rush. Like, I thought the Bills pass rush Friday was good against the Bears. What I didn’t like was the pass coverage. That wasn’t just safeties, that was corners, too. And you know where they really got hurt a lot? Right there above the linebackers, right? In that mid level, right? A little little below the safeties, a little between the linebackers and the safeties. And that’s what happened. And it was also the corners. And if this team’s pass rush doesn’t improve, then we’re really talking about some concerns because I didn’t think the second because again, are we totally sure what Tradavius White is, you know, going into the season, right? Um I think right now that whole group from corners to safeties is something that has to improve. You can definitely help it with a better pass rush. I like what I saw on Friday and they did some decent things on Sunday, a couple of the young guys as well. Um, but overall that was a concern for me taking away from Friday as well, by the way. Yeah. And that’s the thing that you go back to is like, okay, you’re counting on the pass rush, right, to get home and if the pass rush is better, then the quarterback should conceivably have less on their plate and the safeties will have less on their plate because the quarterback they’re playing against just won’t have enough time. But I didn’t see nearly enough out of the rookie defensive lineman on Sunday night to make me feel like, okay, yeah, you like Greg Russo and Joey Bosa and Ned Oliver and players like that, but there’s major questions with Joey Bosa’s health, right? You have the suspensions to Hoy and Oen Joby. And I think the only guy who really flashed on Sunday was Hoy. And you know, you’re going to be without him for the first six weeks of the season. So that’s going to mean you need two weeks in a row. By the way, Michael Hoy’s looked pretty good. You need plays from Landon Jackson and TJ Sanders and Deion Walker and I was watching them against backups yesterday not look good like losing their individual battles which is not what you want to see. I I will say I think Landon Jackson had a much better performance. Yeah, he Landon Jackson had a couple pressures that that that he was in on and you know and you know he wasn’t a game changer but he had a better performance. I I thought the two defensive tackles, their performance in the Giants was better than it was against the Bears. This was part and parcel with the entire D line, though. They just got they just got beat up. They got pushed around a little bit, right? Physically, um you look at a couple of those runs now. Only 4.0 yards per carry for the Bears. In fact, at one point, I thought the Bills run defense was doing okay, but as the game went on, they got worn down worn down. The defense is on the field for a long time. I did think that Landon Jackson bounced back a little bit. I wouldn’t say he had a bad performance, but it wasn’t anything of note. When you have that happen to you, when you’re down 38 to nothing and everything’s going against you, it’s hard to find anybody on the defense that you can say, “Oh, yeah, that guy really stepped up.” Offensively, um, look, the offensive line wasn’t great, but I think Ryan Vandermark had a tough night. Ryan Vandermark had two false starts to start the game, and then later he got beat on a pass rush that caused, I think it either was a sack or at least a pressure right there, the incompletion. Um, just not a good night for him. He talked about that after the game and not living up to his standard as well and not wanting what he’d wanted to put on film. So, um, overall the offensive line backups were in there. We know that. Uh, but still, you want to have a better showing than what they had backups and like some third stringers because it wasn’t just without your starting five. It was also without Alec Anderson and Tylen Greyel. So, those are the guys who I think like, yeah, they’re making the roster, but Ryan Vandermark is in a position battle essentially with Chase Lunt. And I didn’t think that Ryan Vandermark had a strong day. I think there’s a lot of questions with all of those other pieces. You probably are going to keep 10 offensive linemen. So, we know the seven that we just mentioned, all the starters, Alec Anderson and Tylen Greyel, but I do think that the Bills now have some decisions to make with some of those depth guys. And, you know, that’s the thing that I’m trying to tell myself of. I’m really not concerned about the offense. I like the offensive production last night doesn’t concern me. It was a third string quarterback and Mike White who I essentially think lost the competition last night. There were not really many skilled players around them and there were second and third string offensive linemen in the game. That looked like it was supposed to look. I’m much more concerned on the defensive side of the ball. But yeah, like you don’t want to see your offensive line get pushed around. Like there were times last year when we were watching when Tylin Greybel looked really really good in the preseason and you’re like okay like hey maybe that’s by the way he’s still in concussion protocol. It’s been over a week. I know. So but same thing preseason I think they know that he’s going to be on this roster. So I don’t think that there’s like necessarily a rush to get him back. They’re getting a a bit healthier right like just as time passes. But it’s still not like a clean health for this team. Yeah. Except now Conor McGovern didn’t even dress last night. He told reporters afterward, he tweaked his hamstring on Friday during the uh during the practice. Now, he made it sound like, you know, if it’s regular season, he’s probably out there. Um so hopefully nothing to be too concerned about. He was on the field last night in street clothes. I didn’t see any wraps on his leg or anything like that. So hopefully um that’s good news. You’re you’re talking about health. Curtis Samuel did not play in this game. He did not participate much in the joint practice. He did do warm-ups both in the practice and in the game. He did not actually play in the practice with the team or in the game. This is a guy here who needs to get on the field soon because wide receiver is very interesting right now. And Elijah Moore had two drops last night. Now he also had a touchdown, nice touchdown in the joint practice. Catches it. Nice run. And I think Elijah Moore is on this team a financially and b offers something that they really don’t have skill setwise what he brings to the table. But that’s a guy last night again couple of drops. You can’t have that. That didn’t help out Mike White. You said Mike White didn’t have a good day. I agree with that. He also wasn’t helped much by his O line or his receivers. Yeah, Mike White needed to though win like have a really strong performance and he didn’t do that. And even though I don’t put nearly all of that on him, I think the competition is done. I think it’s Mitch Trabisky’s job and I think Mike White will probably be the practice squad quarterback. The wide receiver battle is really interesting because I do think that this is one that could impact some of the players that we actually see on the field. I thought Tyrell Shavers did enough to win a job last year and he still got cut. Has he improved his chances this year? I think so. But I think it’s going to kind of come down to two of three names. If they keep five receivers, I think it’s going to be two of these three guys. Well, they keep five. The question is, do they keep six? They always No. No, I know. I’m saying if they keep five, it’s two of these three names. Tyrell Shavers, Curtis Samuel, and Elijah Moore. I think two of those three guys are on the roster. If they keep five, if they keep six, then I think it’s easy and everybody that we mentioned is on the team, including Tyrell Shavers. Well, maybe I Let me ask you this. It Here’s the way it has to work. This is standard. This isn’t a Bill ccentric thing, folks. Okay? This is how it works in the NFL. If you’re going to keep six wide receivers, the six wide receiver has to play special teams. Does he offer enough to do that? I mean, he they put him as a gunner, I think, last week a little bit, and I don’t think it it wasn’t like great, but then he did a really nice job in the in the joint practice as a gunner on a on a drill, which everybody went nuts for. But that’s the question you have to ask yourself. Honestly, I I’ll even ask this. If it comes down to keeping six wide receivers, wouldn’t you say Lisa Chanel actually offers more to do that than Tyrell Shavers? I’m really torn on him, Levisc Chanel, because it feels like there’s been a little buzz around him because of the position flexibility and how he can do everything. He can return, he can be a safe, you know, that’s key for a depth wide receiver. It is, but I just don’t know if he provides you anything offensively, anything. And like that’s the thing that you need to figure out is Tyrell Shavers providing your offense something that you do not have elsewhere. I don’t know because then you could make the argument, well, why do you need Curtis Samuel and Elijah Moore and I think that that’s a fair point, but I think the money complicates that for both of those two players more than it does for Tyrell Shavers. Agreed. I I think the key name here is Samuel and you keep bringing him up and I agree with you because it is a like seven plus million dollar dead cap hit this year, but that money’s already accounted for. Let’s say $8 million. That money is accounted for. It’s on the books whether he’s on the team or not. That money is spent. Mhm. If you do release him, you do have to take an additional cap hit next year. By the way, he’s a postjun one cut. He figured that out along the way. That money is spent. The question might be, are they okay with saying, “Look, we have dead cap hit for people all the time, so we can.” Or is it, “No, no, no. We’re going to if we’re going to be paying him and counting this money, we want him on the team and he offers us something when he’s healthy, we don’t have.” The problem is he hasn’t been healthy, obviously. I think he’s an interesting interesting guy here. Who do you think are the wide receivers that make the 53man roster? I mean, it’s a week from today, I’m pretty sure, is cut down day. Who do you think is on this team wide receiver wise? Shakir Coleman, Palmer. Yep. Elijah Moore, I think, is on the team. Yep. I mean, right now, I think Curtis Samuel is 6040, maybe 7030, but I mean, it was probably 9010 for me even early on after the injury here. So, I still think it’s only five. I can’t see them keeping six at that position. And here’s why. I’m going to go back to what I said a little while ago. I know folks, I get You see Tyrell Shavers making plays, even Levis Kushel and and those are certainly conversations and I feel bad for Tyrell Shavers. But I think for to maximize the roster, they have to keep guys at other positions to play special teams who those guys aren’t going to be able to do that. And in Chanel’s case, he can, but he wouldn’t offer enough offensively. Yeah, I’m looking up Ty I think Tyrell Shaver’s birthday is today and he’s 26 years old. Happy birthday. He’s still a young birth. He’s still a young player and that’s relevant. Man, I’m gonna refer to something you said to me once though. You had a great analogy about hockey and you said sometimes with hockey players, you just you’re just good enough to be like in the NHL, but at some point everybody keeps passing you because you’re not good enough to sustain. That could be Tyrell Shavers. Well, that’s what I was going to bring up. Elijah Moore is younger than Tyrell Shavers. Now, because Elijah Moore has been around the league, I don’t think people really, you know, it’s almost the Tummaine Edmonds conversation of like, oh, this guy is still this age. Elijah Moore is still 25 years old and has legitimately produced in the NFL. If I needed somebody to be a contributor for my offense, I would feel more comfortable with Elijah Moore than Tyrell Shavers. But the Curtis Samuel piece of this is fascinating because I have no clue what I think I think Curtis Samuel is on this team. I really do. But could they get a little creative? Could they put him like stash him away for a couple weeks and then open up a spot and see what happens? I don’t know. They’re going to have to do some sort of roster gymnastics. They always do. I just don’t know how they’re going to do it. I mean, last year we were talking about Dayquin Hardy as the kick returner, punt returner, and then he gets cut and then they trade in for Brandon Codrington like completely out of left field. So, you know, I’m not gonna rule out anything. Well, one thing I think that is going to wind up happening as I sit here now, we’re a week away from this, but I’ll say I think I think Cedric Vamp Granger will stay on pup. Um, he stays on the pup list and that for you do not you do not have to worry about a roster spot for him. He’ll just transfer to the reserve pup as long as he doesn’t practice at all before the 53man roster is due. You can keep on pup then it gives him four weeks and then he can kind of work back in. My apologies. Then when he’s ready, you can bring him in. Um, speaking of wide receivers, Kaden Prather actually did leave the game last night briefly in the medical tent. He had just come back from a hamstring injury. They were working him out on the side. I don’t didn’t get like any official updates on him, but I wonder if that’s a guy that goes winds up being on IR. I mean, maybe you give him a red shirt year, right? He just kind of winds up being on IR like they’ve done with some young receivers in the past. And then, of course, we know Hoy and Ogen Joby are going to immediately go on the suspended list. I also think Max Haristen is going to be on the that he’s going to be one of those two IR designated to returns. They get on cut down day where he doesn’t have to make the 53. You just put him on there and that opens up a roster spot. So there, as you say, there are some roster gymnastics and I think that would at least allow maybe for another guy or two to be on this club. The Haristston one is interesting because as I was watching the game last night, the cornerback room a month ago we thought looked pretty good, right? Hey, there’s depth here. There’s a lot of names that you like. Don’t feel that way right now. Don’t feel very good about the potential of Dane Jackson having to play. I don’t even know if he’s going to make the 53. Haven’t seen enough consistently from Dorian Strong to say like, okay, slam dunk. He’s absolutely in the rotation. Like, I think he’s on the team, but I still don’t know what to expect. Demarcus Ingram was playing real late into the game, which is usually not a great sign for somebody, even though we know they like him and we know he got snaps last year. So, I don’t know if they’ll be willing to wait on Haristen another month, especially because we don’t know what to expect from Trudeavius White. Like, if we knew Trey White was going to be a B or higher, like a B-level player, then you’d be like, “Okay, we’re going to have a little bit of time here.” But I don’t know if we can expect that because based off of, you know, some of the things that you had said about joint practice and some of the other people who were there, it seems like he didn’t have a phenomenal day. He didn’t. He didn’t. Um I thought that it was not a great day for Tradavius White. Look, he’s had some down practices. He’s had some up practices. There was a there was a camp practice. I thought he was the best player on the field one day, right? So, we’ve kind of seen a little bit of both from him. Demarcus Ingram is an interesting guy because if you if you are dipping into your cornerback depth and you don’t know if you can trust a Dorian Strong or a Dane Jackson, well, look, I mean, Jarus Ingram, I think that they’ve shown that they they can at least trust to put him on the field. he’s had to play and that helps him and he’s got position flexibility. He’s the dime safety he played last year. He can play nickel. That really helps his case. That said, are you going to release Dorian Strong and subject him to waiverss and any team can claim him? I don’t think so. No. No, I don’t think you’re going to do that. And I don’t know how much the the position flexibility is always a good thing. You want players who can play multiple positions, but they have a lot of those guys now. Cam Lewis can do it. Cole Bishop could conceivably do it. you would think that Jordan Hancock can do it based off of where we’ve seen him these last couple weeks. So like how many players do you need who can have position flexibility if you still have major questions at boundary quarterback? So the Haristston thing I don’t know how it’s going to play out. And then the other position that I left yesterday’s game a little bit not confused about but almost I feel like Shaq Thompson makes this team because Joe Andre did not have a strong game and I feel like they need a bit more experience in that linebacker room. I still think Joe Andre makes the roster, but I think Joe Andre is making the roster as a special teams contributor and this team really will not want him to be out there for significant defensive snaps. I agree Joe didn’t have a great night. I still think Joe is the backup middle linebacker, but I also wouldn’t rule out Shaq Thompson making the team because of his position flex. He can play everywhere and if they go to a three linebacker set, they can put him on the field. I like the view your point about having a veteran in that room. I still think Joe I don’t think one night undoes what they’ve seen from Joe Andre. Shawn McDermott said last week to us, I’m a big fan of Joe’s. He’s just a football player. That’s what he said. I think Joe Andre ultimately is still the backup middle linebacker for this team. I want to touch on real quickly, give a little love to Frank Gore Jr. I thought he played well. He’s a guy that deserved. I gave him an arrow up. He did have the fumble and that’s something you you can’t have. It was in the red zone obviously. He said he’s got to take care of the ball better. He was kind of bracing for contact. The guy coming in front of him, guy came from behind him and punched out. Nice play by the defender. 81 yards total from scrimmage. Darren Evans has a hamstring injury. He is out now. So Frank Jr. got a lot of that run last night. I would expect again next week in Tampa the same thing. There’s just not a spot for him. Look, it good for Frank Jr. If another team comes calling and claims him if he gets released because that’s what you do. You you you put enough out there that if you’re not going to be on this team, you’re going to be on another team. But that’s a nice depth piece to have the way that he’s performed here through two games. Don’t you just think realistically, and I don’t disagree with anything that you said, the running back room is going to be the three guys who we know, James Cook, Ray Davis, Tai Johnson, and then Frank Gore Jr. is going to be on the practice squad unless he gets taken by another team. But we’ve talked about this on the pod before. Teams tend to value their own running backs in their own system. So, I don’t want people throwing their hands in the air and going, “Oh my goodness gracious, you can’t subject him to waivers.” like I feel like there’s a pretty strong chance that they get him back and then we can kind of do the same thing over again next year or you know if you think that you can get a similar type of production from Frank or Jr. as maybe you could from Tai Johnson maybe you start I just think that those three guys that are their you know their three running backs are all too valuable for even this to be a competition. I just they’re not moving on from any of those guys. No, I agree with that 100%. Um, and yes, not only that team do teams value their own running backs, you have to put a guy on the 53 if you claim him like, you know, are you who are you taking a spot from if that’s the case? Maybe a team has an injury and they feel that that’s something they want to do. Brad Robbins had a nice night. I know. Um, maybe the only bright spot. He’s had a really nice two games. The knock on him was not a big leg. Uh, but he’s had a big leg here through two games and he’s done a nice job directionally punting and that’s what the Bills really want uh from Brad Robbins. Before we wrap up here, I want to ask you, how would you approach next week’s game if you’re the Buffalo Bills? If you’re Shawn McDermott, what do you want to see and who’s on the field? So, I’m always the risk is not the the risk is far greater than the reward and there’s no reason that these guys should be on the field. I don’t know if they’ll do that. I think Shawn might be really mad with how bad the team looked and almost send a message to them and have everybody play for a series or two. Starters, not Josh. I don’t think I don’t think this I I don’t I don’t see it. I trust me, Ben Denucci started for the Bills in the final preseason game last year. But don’t you do you think it’s completely out of the realm of possibility to be like Sean says you’ve been embarrassed for two weeks in a row? You’re not going to embarrass us again. You guys are going out there and playing a couple series. Wait, wait, but but who Okay, it would be like what we saw. But who but who would he saying that to? The starters weren’t on the field for that, as you put it, embarrassment, right? So the guys that were out there to me need to have a better showing. Like I think it’s the opposite which is hey the guys who are on the field that was not a good showing and you need to put better stuff on film. I don’t think it’s about putting the starters out there to send a message. I think putting them back out there to send a message. I’m saying collectively because I don’t think the starters had like an exceptional start to the first preseason game either. I’m saying the whole the preseason as a whole, not just the game from last night, right? Has been not up to the standard that the Bills preach. And I think that we could see something similar to what we saw in the first preseason game where the starters minus Josh go out there for a series or two and then after that it’s a whole bunch of what we saw last night and them basically being like you better look better against your actual competition like the two possible let’s remember for people you still have two weeks because if there’s the off weekend Labor Day weekend if someone were to tweak something people would be pretty mad but you have two weeks but I don’t know I I I don’t I know. I hear what you’re saying, though. I do. I understand. And I mean, I think Shawn McDermott is levelheaded enough to maybe not go that far and say that, but certainly he could be that upset about their performance that he wants to make sure they get a few things buttoned up. I just think that, you know, he should be livid with what he has seen for really the last game, but the preseason as a whole has not gone exceptionally well for this team. And I don’t necessarily think that that correlates to what we see in the actual regular season. I don’t I’m not naive enough to that. But I think that like this would be a major pivot for them. Like Josh has always played in some capacity in the preseason and for him to not play I mean assuming he doesn’t play in the final preseason game, which I think is a safe assumption, like this this would be a change in philosophy for Shawn McDermott, which is interesting to see at kind of this point in his coaching career. Wonder also just think thinking extrapolating out here like who’s the center next week if they do that right if McGovern you’re going to hold him out probably if he tweaked something last week Anderson isn’t back yet is that still Kendrick Green like these are things you have to think about like who’s out there with who too right and something like that so we’ll see how the Bills approach it um on Saturday night another night preseason game thankfully this one though will be into Sunday morning not into Monday morning yeah no kidding and you know Saturday it’s a little earlier at 7:30. So that helps. When is off the top of your head, do you know is cut down day Monday or Tuesday? I got to look. Usually it’s on Tuesday after the uh Usually it’s on Tuesday at 4 p.m. Right. Yeah. But we we’ll have to look and we’ll have that information. We’ll have another podcast uh for you. Make sure you subscribe to us and of course um make sure you watch usports on YouTube_ove onxports onx as well. And I know I’m uh I said this last week and I’m just going to keep plugging it here. We got this uh promotion going on here at Odyssey. We got the big cruise coming up in May next year. You can join me, Thurman Thomas, Steve Tasker, uh Fred Jackson, our buddy Del Reed of 26 shirts, more lots of people. We’re going on a cruise, Matt, out of leaving out of Fort Lauderdale May, May 10th through 17th. Make sure you go to wgr550.com. It’s going to be awesome. And we’re even going to celebrate Thurman Thomas’s 60th birthday while on the cruise. It’s going to be awesome. Yeah, that’s awesome. So, you’ve got all the you’ve you’ve posted about it on X a couple times. I would say. Yeah, for sure. Just wanted to make sure we’re throwing No, I’m saying like that’s the easiest way to find the information. Yes. Yeah, for sure. No doubt. All right, real quickly. What do you got coming up this week on WKBW? Uh, Monday night, Leading the Charge. If you’re watching this on Monday morning, we’ve got our weekly show, Leading the Charge, 7:30 for a couple more weeks and then it becomes at uh goes to 7 o’clock. So, an hour every single Monday night getting ready for football. You know, I’m assuming the Bills are going to practice three times this week. So, we’ll probably be out there practice three times and then we’re, you know, it’s the busiest time of the year, which is awesome because there’s a ton of stuff going on, but like UB football, it’s less than a couple weeks away from their start of the season. High school sports are obviously starting to ramp up. So, we’ve got all of our super seven stuff that we do. And then, like somebody posted yesterday, I think the Sabres are a month and a half away. That’s also bananas because I haven’t really thought about that a lot. Thanks a lot to uh Jake Galley for producing here today. And it’s always game day in Buffalo. We’ll talk to you next time.

We give our reactions to the Buffalo Bills 38-0 preseason loss at the Chicago Bears. A lot went wrong. Did anything go right? Who stood out and what concerns do we have going forward?