How does DeWayne Carter’s season-ending injury impact Bills defense?

How does DeWayne Carter’s season-ending injury impact Bills defense?

What is up everybody? Ryan Talbet. We have made it. It is week one of the NFL season. Monday, September 1st, Bills and Ravens Sunday night. It is going to be an absolutely electric week. Welcome into Shout a Buffalo Football Podcast. I’m back from vacation. We’re we’re we’re lock we’re locked in, Ryan. We’re locked in, ready to go for a huge week one in the NFL. Absolutely. And you know, it’s game week. I’m You know, I know you’re very busy. You have some live shows this week. I’m doing three different podcasts today. So, football is back. Um, football is back and if you’re if you’re traveling, if you’re doing any traveling this month, any month, you want to make sure that you check out Amtrak uh by heading over to amtrak.com. They offer frequent departures daily from Niger Falls, Buffalo all the way to New York City. Stops include Rochester, Syracuse, Udica, Skenctity, Albany, Hudson, Pikipsy, Rincliffe, and more. So many benefits of taking Amtrak instead of driving like no middle seats, plenty of leg room, reclining seats, free Wi-Fi, no baggage fees, and kids ride 50% off. Riding Amtrak is an experience, a fun and relaxing way to get to your destination. Ryan, we got a big week on tap and we I don’t want to say close it down or like the main event is Saturday night, but in a lot of ways for us it feels like that, right? will be at Wingnuts 6 pm uh Wingnuts Bar and Grill 1402 Millersport Highway this Saturday night, one day before Bills versus Ravens. It’s going to be an awesome time. Yeah, great time. Come on out, Bills fans looking for something to do. Uh Sunday night game, so you have plenty of time to uh hang out with us, party it up, and have a good time. All right. Um let’s get into this uh news of the day, and that is it was actually of yesterday, but we’re getting to it today. Dwayne Carter, Bill’s defensive tackle, uh, tore his Achilles in practice last Wednesday. Talk about like the the most awful news for a second year, young player, any player really, but like you do all the work all off seasonason long. You do all the work throughout training camp in the preseason. You make the 53man roster. You’re getting ready and geared up for the season. And what was probably the last practice before the season was officially going to get kickarted here. and he te tears his ACL. I think just first and foremost the player you feel for him obviously you feel for a young player that if you look at the Dwayne Carter story here a third round pick last year hasn’t really found his any kind of momentum yet. I thought he had a couple of decent weeks at the beginning of last season. Never really materialized before he was hurt and then kind of never was the same on the other side of that. You know, the Bills signed Jordan Phillips before this injury even happened. So, that wasn’t a reactionary move in in any way. I think that Dwayne Carter was probably going to have some type of role. We could talk about what that role was going to be, but obviously done before it begins. Fortunate for him. And Achilles injuries tough to come back for for any player in general. I know he’s a young guy. Uh you hope the best. You hope the recovery goes well and smoothly so that way he can compete for a roster spot again in 2026. But, you know, you look at this roster, they’re at least prepared for something like this. They draft two defensive tackles in the draft class, T.J. Sanders, Deion Walker. They have their starters in place and at Oliver, and Daquin Jones, and they have two defensive tackles on their practice squad. Uh Jordan Phillips, who obviously 90man roster for a day or two, practice squad after that. Zion Log who was here last year after the Bills signed him off of Atlanta’s practice squad. So there are internal options and then obviously after week six um you get Larry Ogen Joby back as well from suspension. So the bodies are there. This isn’t something where it’s going to cause them any kind of panic. Um, I liked, you know, I wanted to see him grow in year two after having a good start to his rookie year. Obviously, succumbing to an injury, a wrist injury that really then stunted his progress. I want to see what he looked like, but realistically, I don’t know if he was going to have a sizable role in that defensive tackle rotation. I don’t think he was going to have a sizable role, but I thought maybe early on in the season he would get an opportunity to play behind Dayquin Jones. Um, if you go to the Bills official depth chart, they actually list TJ Sanders as the the the main primary backup to Daquin Jones. He didn’t play in that way as much. I think it was more Dion Carter probably uh set to maybe take away a lot of the snaps that you expected for Dwayne Carter before the draft. So, I think from a planning perspective, this doesn’t change a lot for how the Bills were going to deploy their interior. I think you’re going to see a lot of Sanders and Walker anyway. I think, you know, that roster spot is something that we could talk about here in a minute and what the Bills can potentially do with it. But in terms of like a game day start the season, you hate to say that like there’s an exciting part about an injury because there’s it’s never the way that you frame it. But what I do think this does is it really forces the Bills hand in terms of depending and playing Sanders and Walker a little bit more from the jump, which is something that I think with with Carter in the mix would have given them, you know, everything is earned. And I get that that mentality and that’s how you build the team and all that kind of stuff. But I do actually want to see what it looks like against the Ravens if Sanders is playing 35 40% of the st snaps. Walker 20 to 30% of the snaps. And I don’t know how you do that math if Carter’s also in the mix and has a game day jersey. Um, we’re going to get a a a look at these two rookies now. So much so in the next six weeks that you’ll really have an idea of where you’re at interior defensive line when Larry Oenjobi does get back from suspension. Yeah, there’s nothing good about the injury, but the silver lining is two rookies are going to get more playing time. And a few years ago, the last time the Chiefs won a Super Bowl, I believe, or maybe it was two Super Bowls ago, they had a ton of young talent on their roster that they drafted, that they brought in, and that unit went through some lumps early in the year. And as the year went on though, they became more cohesive, more confident. You saw uh them get more acclimated to the NFL game. And then, lo and behold, most of those rookies on that roster played huge roles uh in that Super Bowl win. So, you know, you’re you you would love to see the Bills get to the Super Bowl and win it with a lot of young talent on both sides of the ball, but at the very least, they’re going to get some lumps in now. And you need that if with these young talented players, Sanders being a second round pick that the Bills said could have been in play at pick 30 had Max Harrison been off the board. And uh Walker as talented as they come, but had some back issues that pushed him down the draft board and some bad tape from 20, you know, 2024 in college. So now these two players are going to get a lot of reps and it’s going to help them grow. In my opinion, there is um a conversation to be had and as we get into the tape over the course of this week, you know, go back and watch some of the preseason, some of the Bills Ravens matchups. We’ll have a full like preview edition of the show later in the week. To me, it’s going to be some interesting roster decisions for Shawn McDermott when he goes into this Ravens game with Carter out of the mix now. Do you just go with four defensive tackles? Do you elevate a Zion Log or Jordan Phillips? Like, those are questions that I think the Bills are going to have to have answered throughout the week of practice because, you know, Daquin Jones, Ed Oliver, you’re going to probably play them quite a bit. You have the two rookies there in the mix. Do you want to add another player that can give you some depth on some different spots? Because I think in a lot of ways, Carter and Walker or Sanders and Walker are here for third down against this def or this offense for the Baltimore Ravens. These styles of offense with mobile quarterbacks, quarterbacks that you have to try to affect in the pocket. And I I think we could see a pretty big sample size of these two players. But do the Bills kind of um give themselves a little bit of a alternate plan if they’re not having a lot of success, bring up a guy like Jordan Phillips who might not necessarily even be in game shape yet? We’ll have to check in with him over the course of this week, right? And and Phillips will probably say he’s in game shape. He’s been training all summer long and on his own, which you know, don’t want to doubt the guy, but there there is a big difference between game shape when you’ve been away from a team, uh, not at a training camp, not with the team for most of the preeason or off season. So now they they come in here and you might have to elevate Zion Log. I don’t know if you want to sign there yet to the 53 with that open roster spot when they officially make, you know, move him off the roster. uh that that obviously being Carter with the injury. So, I could see an elevation this week and then keeping that roster spot open potentially for a spot elsewhere just in general until they figure out what’s needed. So many people watching here on this Monday afternoon as we get into uh game week. We appreciate you hanging out with us at lunchtime. You know, one of the options the Bills have here now is to make a roster move uh to add another player in place of what Dwayne Carter is going to be. And I know a lot of people think, all right, maybe sign Jordan Phillips to the active roster or Zion Low, but there’s also been a pretty big social media movement since the uh Patriots released uh veteran safety Jabriel Peppers for the Bills to maybe entertain this idea. This is to me a complicated conversation because there’s there’s layers to this that I think on the surface both of us are in agreement and I won’t speak for you. You could chime in here. I think we think the Bills adding Jabril Peppers makes a ton of sense, right? Like adding a quality safety that would give you some really really good uh veteran presence in that room. It makes a ton of sense. I think he’s still probably got a year or two left of his prime. Come in here, fortify that spot. The problem is, is there a starting job available to him? And how much is that a necessity for him to agree to sign on with a team? I don’t know if Jabril Peppers, uh, at age 28 or 29, whatever he is, is signing up to come in here and be a backup to a Cole Bishop and Taylor Rap. I think he’d want to probably say, “I want to be a starter. I think I’m better than Cole Bishop right now.” And I just don’t know if the Bills would sign up for that. we can have a conversation on if they should consider it. But again, it’s it’s a complicated thing because it’s going to be an investment. He’s going to cost some money and if you’re not signing him to be your starter, is that an investment that is worthwhile when there might be something else that comes up over the next couple of weeks and months? Right. I So, first and foremost, I’d be 100% in on signing Peppers to this roster with the uncertainty uh of the safety room. And when I say uncertainty, not just in terms of depth uh with with Hamlin with a rookie in Hancock, but also with the injury history of Cole Bishop. It’s a very, you know, it’s not a long list, but he’s only been in this league for two years and he’s dealt with injuries both summers that have, you know, stunted his progress to a certain extent. Taylor Rap and the way that he plays that physical style. Um, knowing that he gets banged up very easily as well. If I’m Buffalo, I, you know, I would approach Peppers and I would say we can’t guarantee you a starting spot, uh, but we can bring you in, get you acclimated to this defense, see how you fit, use you as a, you know, a weapon, blitzing, whatever the case may be. get find creative ways to get you onto the field and then if an injury were to happen and we have two guys that do get banged up. Um you would have the opportunity to obviously play and start in that role and then maybe not give up said role. That might be the one piece of it that I think there may be some intrigue on Pepper’s side is okay, I got to come in here and learn this defense. I don’t know if I’d be ready week one of the NFL season to come in and, you know, plug and play. And he’s a 29 year old veteran player. He’s been in multiple systems, played for multiple teams. I’m not saying he couldn’t do it, but that might be something that, you know, if I’m the Bills and I’m selling, listen, both of these guys have been banged up, not only throughout the course of their career, but this summer a as we gotten through training camp. come in here, get in the meetings, link up with Jordan Puyer, learn this defense, and then when there’s an opportunity to get you into the game, that could be an opportunity uh that the Bills uh you know, settle on, right? And you know, Pepper said it today actually uh on social media, going on nine years in this league, I’ve had seven head coaches, six defensive coordinators. There is no scheme you can place me in where I won’t find a way to be effective. So, he’s confident in his abilities. He But at the same time, I think he’d be realistic about there being a learning curve and needing a little bit of time to uh get comfortable with this scheme. I also think that the Hancock conversation in all of this is interesting and you wonder what the Bills think about the depth in that room and how they view Hancock. Even throughout the summer, as we were kind of observing that he was playing majority safety, the Bills still kind of talked about him being that utility player, somebody that could play in the slot as well, but it seems like he’s majoring at safety. Now, that’s an option that, you know, you bring in a Jabriel Peppers and he gets knocked down the depth chart a little bit. And I his primary role this season is probably going to be special teams anyway. But I do like the idea that if things don’t go well for Cole Bishop or if Bishop gets hurt, the idea of Hancock getting an opportunity and seeing what it looks in this defense because I think that’s another thing that you have to figure out over the course of this season. What is Cole Bishop to a lesser degree because it’s early. Who is Jordan Hancock? Taylor Rev’s not under contract forever in this with this team. you’re going to have to find answers at that position probably as early as next year’s draft. And not saying that it has to be a first round pick, but you know, we’ve seen some of the elite defenses around the NFL, and the most recent example of that is the Baltimore Ravens extending Kyle Hamilton and what he’s meant to that defense. Do the Bills have to start maybe alternate alternating their thinking a little bit in how they view the position, how they acquire young players at the position and maybe thinking about going out and getting a potential game changer at that position. Probably. Yes. I mean, look at their week one opponent as a good example. Matt, you mentioned it. The the Ravens a few years ago, they draft Kyle Hamilton when he slides down the draft board. one of the best players in that draft class falls into their lap. Going into the season, they had Hamilton and uh Washington set up to be their top two safeties. They still go and draft Malachi Starks in round one because he was the best player available and they know the importance of the safety position. And then guess what happens? Washington is out for the year with an injury. And now they’re they’re ready to go with a young player in Starks, but a promising player who starred at Georgia. They have Kyle Hamilton. You know, they prioritize the position where I I can’t sit here and say the Bills haven’t prioritized the position in Shawn McDermott’s history because they went out and they signed Micah Hyde and Jordan Puyer as two of the first free agents uh once he came over as head coach. So, they didn’t have to necessarily find the answers or find another player. But, as those two guys got older, yeah, you wanted to see them kind of figure out some some other pieces. And Taylor Wrap’s been a hit for them when he’s been on the field. He’s been very, very good. Cole Bishop, too early to say. Hanland’s been a fine depth piece, but really probably shouldn’t be logging the amount of starts that he has um based on, you know, not having as much talent there. And I’m as big of a fan of Jordan Hancock as anyone in terms of the players in this draft class, what we saw out of him this summer in the preseason. But Shawn McDermott’s pumped the brakes on him a few times despite really strong play. And in the preeason, we have to remember the Bills don’t game plan a lot. He lets the players use their natural instincts, athleticism, etc. There’s a learning curve with learning this defense. It’s a lot to it. And the Bills might think that Hancock’s an answer longterm at safety, but that he has so much on his plate that they wanted to be comfortable before throwing him out there. Yeah. And I don’t think you’re making the Peppers decision based on what you want for Jordan Hancock, right? Like I think you bring in the competition, you let it play out and figure out where you are on the other side of things. The thing I will throw in there about Peppers on the maybe the negative side, you know, this is a guy that you started 15 games in 2023 and that was a really really good season for him. eight passes defensed, uh, an interception, uh, two interceptions, a forced fumble, 78 tackles. I mean, he looked really good in New England’s defense, second year in that scheme. But, I mean, two of the last four seasons, he’s only played six games. And so, this is a guy that deals with his own version of availability issues. And that’s another question, like, are you going to bring in a guy that in his own right struggles to stay healthy? That’s something that might play into the math there for the Bills. And again, it comes down to contract. What do you just before I look up what he is coming off of in terms of his deal with the Patriots? What are you What would you say is just like a a deal that you’d be comfortable with the Bills signing him at? I I mean, I would it would be heavily incentivized? I think he only was getting about four million from the Patriots this year. I could be wrong on that. Um or maybe that was what he’s what the So he signed a um three-year $24 million deal with the Patriots in 2024. Um so he was on the books this season to get somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 million. Okay. Um but he’s not going to get that now, especially as like a 29y old player. So I think somewhere in the neighborhood of four to six million with incentives makes a lot of sense. the Bills are going to have to make some moves to figure out uh to be able to get their salary cap in a spot where they can even make that happen if that ends up being the number, right? Maybe the guarantee was somewhere. I know I saw four something floating around, so maybe it was the guarantee money, whatever it was. But yeah, I I mean, offer him an incentivized deal where they’re attainable. You get on the field, we we’re going to give you every opportunity to you can look at the history here. he has taken some money home from after getting cut by the Patriots. So maybe he’s not looking for as much as you would think versus rebuilding his his stock, getting revenge against the former team. Um it kind of flew under the radar, but he went from starting to second team to third team and playing in the final preseason game. There’s something to be said about a veteran maybe wanting to stay within the division and kind of uh show the new coach there in New England, Vrabel, that he made a mistake and letting him go. Lot of uh hamstring injuries uh looking back through the Jabril Pepper injury history log over at uh Fox does a a kind of a tracker. And so that that’s just something to kind of keep in mind when you’re thinking about the player quality of player pretty high. Like I think if you if you told me going into the season you got Jabrell Peppers and Taylor Rap with um Cole Bishop waiting in line, I think that that would probably be a much better safety situation. It just the math changes a little bit on September 1st when you’re trying to make an addition for somebody that hasn’t been a part of this thing. And for better, for worse, for right or for wrong, Shawn McDerman has talked so much about what these offseason and and preseason training camp reps mean for these players, veterans or otherwise, getting themselves accustomed to the system that I think like even a guy like Amari Cooper, like I go back to that last season, I know the Bills have a complicated offense and all that, Ryan, we’re in December and they’re coming off the practice field and an hour after practice, Amari Cooper is with DJ Mangus, the assistant wide receivers’s coach, going over different route concepts, going over different different parts of the offense in the playbook. It’s like he came in midway through the season. I mean, Peppers would have a little bit more runway from there, but it’s just it’s just not feasible to think that you get a guy in here on a Monday and he’s starting for you on a Sunday. So, if if you’re a Bills fan hoping for that outcome, I don’t see that that being a possible um way the Bills choose to go at this thing. No, it’s not a lawyer Malloy situation because that was pretty late when they signed him and then they blew out the Patriots in that one week one game. Uh which, you know, that was great too because they were facing each other. He knew the game plan that helped out the Bills. Uh there’s no incentive like that if they were to go out and sign Jerrell Peppers for week one, but he he is an impact safety. He makes good plays when he is on the field and available. He he is certainly worth looking at concerning the question marks we have about Buffalo’s overall secondary entering the regular season. Uh thank you so much for watching on this Monday afternoon. If you’re watching on YouTube, hit that like button, subscribe to the channel as well. We really appreciate you guys. Um we’re on our way to 14K, Ryan. I mean, we’re almost there. We’re uh we’re cooking on the YouTube uh channel. Uh the Bills in other uh news over the last couple of days, Tyler Bass has been kind of dealing with this nagging um pelvic injury. So, they ended up bringing in three three different kickers um to try out. What do you What do you make of the the the kicker tryyous, Ryan? I think we’ll we’ll start there. Eddie Panera, Zayn Gonzalez, and Greg Joseph. What do you think of those three players? But also, what do you make of the try out? because I think fans see that and maybe think, oh man, um Tyler Bass might not be able to kick this weekend. It may also be like Tyler Bass is probably good, but we want to get a look at three guys to see if we do run into anything over the course of the season. We already did our homework on these three players and we we’d be able to move them in uh pretty quickly. Yeah, it it’s the latter for me. I think Tyler Bass is kicking week one. Uh that being said, the pelvic soreness that he dealt with all summer, it can linger. It can come back very quickly. It’s something where you want to have your ducks in a row. And a lot of the workouts that the Bills and every other team, you know, has in this league, it’s to build up a case file essentially or a file on those players in case a player at this position goes down. We’ve looked at these guys. Here’s who we’re confident. Here’s who we can bring in. Two of the three kickers have played under Chris Taber as well, which obviously helps in terms of uh the research. Paniro was with him and the third kicker, Joseph, uh was with him. So, all three guys have over an 80% uh you know, rate in terms of you know, making their kicks. Um which that that’s not a great baseline. I think Eddie is 88% though, the highest of of the trio, but they’re all proven kickers. This is not like bringing in three UDFA guys that are just sitting out there uh and seeing what they have. These are legitimate guys where if kickers around the league go down, hamstring injuries, whatever, they’re going to be some of the first guys that get signed. So, I think the Bills are doing their due diligence just in case there is any kind of lingering uh injury to Bass throughout the year. Are you surprised at all that um I agree with you. I think Bass is going week one. We could move past that. Are you surprised at all at Zack Davidson still floating out there as a free agent? He uh had a visit with the New York Giants. I I don’t see him currently on an NFL practice squad. Maybe he has signed in the last couple days and I was in Disney and missed it. But I haven’t seen you surprised at all about that. I think I guess I’m going to say no because of the age. I’m going to go back to the age. when you’re 27, 28 years old, you’re a former draft pick of the Vikings. You’ve had opportunities in Buffalo. You know, no offense to Quinton Morris, but Morris was not some roster lock on this team the last few years that he had no path to beating him out, but he couldn’t. And special teams factored into that. Obviously, he’s gotten to the point now where I think he’ll sign somewhere eventually to a practice squad, but no, it doesn’t surprise me that teams weren’t clamoring to sign him. It it goes back to the discussion that we’ve had a lot over the course of these summer months. Uh, every team has a version of Zack Davis. It doesn’t mean it’s a tight end, but whether it’s a running back, wide receiver, O lineman, a guy that they’ve had in their system that they like, that they feel confident if the injury happens, we can elevate that player. So, he might have to wait a little bit for some injuries to pop up, for another tight end to get elevated elsewhere, uh, and then for him to sign elsewhere. I I think he’s good enough to play in this league, but because he hasn’t shown the ability to break through at this point, teams probably aren’t busting down the door to sign him to their practice squad just yet. It’s a great reminder, too, and I’m I I joke with you about how much you’ve liked Davidson over the last couple of summers, but I’ve I’ve joined you in a lot of that praise. Like, I think he’s like he’s a fun player to watch. He brings brings a lot of energy. I think he’s really good as a pass catcher. I think the problem is when you have one dimension of your game that’s that’s lacking well behind it. It it puts you in a, you know, a place where it’s hard to continuously make not even just rosters, but practice squads over and over. I mean, Quinton Morris, you know, I thought he was a pretty well-rounded guy. He ends up on the Jacksonville Jaguars practice squad after getting cut from their 53man roster. You brought him up earlier. you know, in a great in in a larger conversation, it it puts a a bit of a spotlight on Daltton Concaid and the the lack of um ability in the blocking game for him because at times I think that Joe Brady, even if he does it subconsciously, I think there’s times when you kind of go to maybe Dawson Knox in certain packages because you trust him to be out there to block for Josh Allen and That’s something that I I I don’t know. We we’ll find out over the course of the next couple of weeks where Daltton Concaid has taken his level to and I’m still very bullish on the season that he could have, but it’s something to kind of keep in the back of your mind. When you look at the final snap counts if if Concaid is not out there as much as you want him to be, it’s because they they can’t trust him to be, right? And and I’m not saying Haw is going to come in here and start getting major reps, but we know he’s a monster as a blocker based on what he did in college, what we saw at times this summer. So, Concade’s really going to have to make the most of his reps, not just as a receiver, but when he does get those opportunities to block to show that he’s a grown in that area because the Bills showed last year, despite having Josh Allen, they’re not afraid to run the ball and pound the ball down your throat uh in a given matchup. If the run game is working, they’re going to stick with it with James Cook, with uh you know, Ray Davis and Ty Johnson. So, the opportunities are going to be there for him, but if he gives up a block, if if he is still uh uh if that’s still a major weakness for him, then you are going to bring Knox into the game in those situations and you’re going to give opportunities to Haw at some point this year because of what he can do as a blocker. So, it does shine a spotlight on Concaid in terms of uh how much he has to make of those opportunities when given to him. All right, that’s going to do it for podcast number one of an absolutely jam-packed week for Ryan Talbot. I’m Matt Pino. Keep it logged onto the channel. Every single day, we’ll have you covered with a new show. I I think I got everything lined up to give you a show every single day of the week. So, it’s going to be absolutely electric on the Shout channels this week. Um, make sure you sign up to become an insider if you want to chat with myself and Ryan all week long and all season long. 716-528-6727. See you later everybody.

Matt Parrino and Ryan Talbot are back to kick off the opening week of the NFL season with a Monday podcast discussing the news of DeWayne Carter’s torn Achilles. How does this impact Buffalo’s defensive line, and which player is now positioned for a larger role?

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