Bold predictions and players to watch for the Buffalo Bills in 2025 | Always Gameday in Buffalo

Bold predictions and players to watch for the Buffalo Bills in 2025 | Always Gameday in Buffalo

Hey, Bills Mafia. We know there’s only one topic every day. All Bills all the time. And now Matt Move and Sal Capacio are going really deep talking Bills all year long because it’s always game day in Buffalo. Well, we are inside one week. Can you believe it? I mean, if you go back to when the season heartbreakingly ended for the Buffalo Bills and their fans back in late January, and you think about the the hill to climb to get back to this spot and all the different things you have to go through and marking those, well, we’re 200 days away, 100 days away. Here we are, Matt. It is time. It is Buffalo Bills regular season week. Ravens at Bills is upon us. Sunday Night Football. We’ve we’ve been waiting for this, buddy. How would you expl explain the emotions? What do you feel right now? Is it excitement? Is it a bit of nervous energy? Is it a combination of everything? Like I get weirdly juiced up but also nervous about the season right now. I just it consumes so much of our lives professionally but also personally and so much of people who are listening to this lives. Like I have like all of these emotions right now. So let me just tell you something about myself. Like when we’re going on vacation, my wife always asked me, “Aren’t you excited when we leave like in 3 days?” I said, “No, not yet. uh when I when it comes time I will get there because I have other things to do that I have to focus on to make sure I’m ready to go on vacation. That’s where I am right now. So, it’s a great question because to me all I’m thinking about is what I need to do professionally over the next several days and then I’ll those juices will really start flowing on literally won’t be till Saturday night and then it’s like oh my gosh, right and here we go. I I don’t think about the other part of it. I would say this though I don’t I know you and I are different. I think we’re different on this. You tell me. Mhm. Like I like a bit of a more kind of soft landing, if you will, in week one, if you want to call it a landing, however you want to take off. Like I liked last year Arizona at home at home, Thursday night at the Rams, Monday night at the Jets, Sunday night against the Ravens. My goodness. Like to me, that’s just like, oh my god, I I don’t I don’t love starting like this, you know? And it doesn’t mean I think they’re going to win or lose. It just means I I like when you get, hey, Sunday at one o’clock against a team that you should take care of. Yeah, I don’t disagree with you. Uh, and to the point of that, I think this is the hardest regular season game the Bills are going to play this year. And I think their week one game like I think the Ravens are as tough of a matchup as you could have. I mean, who else would you say? Yeah, but I that where the Eagles game is makes it such a wild card and I feel like it’s close anyway. And the Bills love playing the Chiefs in the regular season. The Ravens, you know, I know they’ve beaten them in the regular season before, but they also got walloped by them last year. So, you know, take everything with a grain of salt. Specifically with week one, I think if it’s a really close competitive game, I think that tells us a lot about both teams. I think they’re going to be two of the best teams in the league and that they’re probably going to end up playing again. If it’s a blowout in either direction, I still don’t think we should be the sky is falling for whatever team loses because the Bills got blown out by the Ravens last year in the regular season and then beat them in the playoffs. So, you know, take everything with a grain of salt. But yeah, it’s I will be we’re recording this on Monday night. I will think about the game in some capacity probably every couple hours from now until then. Just it’ll pop into my head and thinking about thinking about even if it’s professionally you’re doing getting stuff done. You’re doing your video. You know, I’m I’m tweeting something about the game or stats or looking at research or upcoming what’s happening. No doubt about it. And I’m the same way and I I can’t get enough of that stuff. I love I love creating the content, keeping people informed. But man, you get to Sunday and you’re like, “Wow, like this is a this is a monster game to start with, right? And if you drop this one, you’re right, it doesn’t it’s not fatal, right? I mean, like last year, you’re right, what happened?” And it is a marathon, not a sprint. But boy, I do think that, you know, you want to get this one because after that, I think the Bills have the kind of schedule that can really give itself give themselves a chance to get off to a very, very, very good start. Yeah, I don’t disagree with any of that. And I think the thing that’s so interesting about this game too, the football game in itself, it’s the best game of the week. It’s Josh Allen against Lamar Jackson. You know, we’re recording this at almost 8:00. They’re about to announce the NFL 100. They’re going to be two of the top five players in the NFL this year and or from last year, excuse me. So, it’s an absolutely premier quarterback matchup. It’s also the last home opener ever in the stadium. Yeah. And that’s not lost on me. Like I know that the game is the bigger thing and the bigger storyline of course, but I’m going to be thinking about it that the home opener in Western New York is a holiday. Like if you went and pulled Bills fans and said, “Give us your favorite days of the year.” People would probably say birthdays, holidays, any other, you know, meaningful day. Bill’s home opener. So Bill’s home opener, last one at this stadium. It’s going to be unbelievable. All right, so let’s um kind of set you up for today, what we’re doing here and this week because we got a lot we got a lot going on. I’m Sal, he’s Matt. You know where to find us at Salports on the YouTube channel at Salesports and Matt_Bove on X. All right, Wednesday night, we are going to be live at the BFL store, Transittown Plaza, Transit Road in Williamsville. Come on out. 6:30 p.m. is when we’re going to be there. We’re going to be having uh a lot of discussion about what’s happening with the Bills and the Ravens at that time. We’ll do a little bit of that tonight. We’ll have a lot more information about injuries and things like that. And it’s your chance to browse the store, get some great sales. They got lots lots of great Bills gear. Um, including their own tailgate collection, Matt. I can’t wait to see it. That’s at the BFL store. So, make sure you check it out. That’s 6:30 p.m. Wednesday night. Come on out, say hi to us. We are live on this show where you can watch it. If you can’t come out, you can just watch us live. We’re recording now, but you can come out and watch us and, you know, be a part of the show and you or you can watch us, you know, on the uh on the stream itself. While we are there, Nick Ryberg is going to be there. He owns Sojier and Travel Advisors. He’s the one that’s putting together the big Buffalo Football Legends cruise May 10th through 17th next year. I hope you’ve signed up. If you haven’t, you need to go check it out. It’s gonna be amazing. I’m going to be on board as kind of like the cruise director with all the Bills stuff going on with the legends Thurman Thomas, Steve Tasker, Don BB, Scott Norwood, Butch Ro. It’s going to be amazing. We’re going to be celebrating Thurman’s 60th birthday. Nick’s going to join us at the BFLO store for anyone who has any questions about it and to just kind of pump it up and let everybody know. So, if you’re watching, you’re there. All that is taking place. In the meantime, the Bills back on the practice field on Wednesday for an official practice with the media and an official injury report day. No practice for us on Monday, but Matt, I looked around the league. I think the Bills might have been on the field because everybody seemed like they were practicing. We just didn’t have any media today. Yeah, for sure. So, I mean, things are starting to ramp up. They had the long weekend off essentially. You know, I don’t know exactly what they had on Monday, but I know that they had Friday off. So, getting back into the swing of things Wednesday. We’ll get the first injury report from the Bills. I think for us, all eyes are going to be on the quarterbacks, Christian Benford and Tradavius White at this point on Monday. feeling a bit more confident that Christian Benford plays than Tradavius White plays. That said, there have been a couple little interesting nuggets. Like we saw Trey White after practice on Wednesday in the fieldhouse and he looked good. Like he was there, he was chitchatting with a couple teammates. Saw him do like a light jog across the field. That’s a good sign. Then there was a clip from Hard Knocks. Now here’s the thing that’s interesting about this. It was Deion Dawkins in the fieldhouse kind of moving like a little RC car and chasing some of his teammates and Trey ran fast away from it. We don’t know when that clip was from. That clip could have been from two weeks ago. That clip could have been from two days ago. The only reason it makes me feel like it was recent is because they have been posting content kind of following the timeline of the show. They’re not taking clips from the beginning of the series and posting them now. So, that was an interesting thing to me. And then Inspector Bo here, I love it. Inspector Bo and Khil Shakir had his pet adoption event over the weekend on Saturday and Trey White was there and all of the people who saw him took pictures with him. There have been pictures posted online. I think you know, no braces, no notable limping, no I’m sure some fans like, “Hey man, how you feeling?” Right. Exactly. And he’s probably like, “I’m great. Good. Whatever.” Exactly. Good. So once again, these are completely this is a hypothesis for me, but I feel better about his chances of being out there than I did a week ago. But I guess I’ll I’ll learn more. Really on Thursday is going to be the day when I feel like I’ve got a good read on it because even if he misses practice on Wednesday, but he’s limited like I won’t feel like, oh yeah, there’s no chance. I don’t disagree, but if he does practice Wednesday, he’s going to play. I think it’s a really really good chance he plays. If he doesn’t practice, then Thursday is really the key day. If he doesn’t practice at all on Wednesday, it’s not trending well. If he practices limited, I think that’s a really good sign. He’s probably trending towards, you know, playing on Sunday. If he practices in full, then obviously he’s going to be playing. And the other one is Christian Benford, as you said. And then we’re going to get to the Ravens in a minute. But Matt, some big big news broke over the weekend. Defensive tackle Dwayne Carter tore his Achilles. He is out for this season. I mean, this is just a terrible blow to a young man who was a third- round pick last year, expected to be part of a rotation this year. Yes, they went out and they signed Deion or drafted Deion Walker, drafted TJ Sanders, signed Larry Oen, Joby, but he’s suspended and that’s a big reason why I felt Dwayne Carter would have a pretty good role here amongst five defensive tackles that they kept on the 53man roster. But you got to feel really bad for Dwayne Carter. Uh he posted some pictures on social media. It has not been officially confirmed by the Bills, but we know this is the case based on all that. He’ll most likely go on IR this week. That’ll open a roster spot. But in the meantime, what do the Bills do without Dwayne Carter? Do they maybe elevate or sign, I should say, Jordan Phillips or Zion Log or do they go out sign somebody else or maybe just kind of just go with four guys? Yeah, brutal blow for the Bills right now. More brutal blow for Dwayne Carter. Yes, this is a huge setback in his career, especially because the first year was a bit rocky and there were some injuries cons injury concerns there. How does this impact the Bills this season? Well, admittedly it does, but I don’t think it is a massive major blow to their team or their outlook just because he was further down the depth chart. They have a lot of guys at defensive tackle even with the heavy rotation that they like to use. You know, there were people I never thought it was realistic, but there were people who didn’t know if he was going to even be on the team. So for him, got to get healthy, got to get back in the building, have training camp next year, assuming he could be back out there by then and make an impression because, you know, this is now he’s fighting for his career in the NFL. For the Bills right now, I think the most likely outcome is Zion Log. I just feel like that would make more sense than Jordan Phillips. I don’t think they would bring it because Dwayne Carter to me, I know that they always talk about the position flexibility and how he could play a little bit of everything. Don’t you think they would rather right now bring in another one tech than a three-tech? I think so. Are you saying it makes more sense than Jordan Phillips because Jordan Phillips just got here? I’m saying Jordan Phillips I think would very clearly be behind in his role both Ed Oliver and TJ Sanders. Even though knowing TJ Sanders sometimes lines up next or we think will sometimes be lining up next to Ed Oliver, I just feel like Zion Log has a skill set that would be a smarter fit for what they’re missing now on their roster. I wonder too, could they sign a player at another position and then just elevate one of these guys over the next few weeks depending on what they need for that particular game? Yeah, I think that a cornerback or I mean like Jabril Peppers is somebody we talked about. Like if you wanted to bring in a player like that and that’s your only way of getting him. Let’s say that they were interested in Jabril Peppers. Before it was, hey, come join the practice squad. Like I I just didn’t see them cutting somebody for Jabril Peppers. Now you got an open roster spot. Like now you could theoretically give him a spot on this team. I don’t know if that’s going to happen, but I do like your idea or your theory because I do think that like, hey, you could elevate Zion, you could alternate, right? You could do Zion Lo gets a game, then Jordan Phillips gets a game, and go vice versa back and forth, and then by the time that’s over, Larry Oen Joy is back. No, that’s exactly right. Let’s not forget, um, there’s a couple of guys that the Bills have had before who are still out. I don’t believe, I’m not predicting they would do it, but the Bills like to go to guys who know the system. Quinton Jefferson, I believe, still out there. Uh, has not signed with anybody. I have to look. But also, Iliano hasn’t signed. He’s been with the Bills many times over the years. That could be like a practice squad addition, a guy that you want to elevate. So, we’ll see. Johnson, you still out there? Austin Johnson. Yeah. How about this one? Would you Do you think the Bills would be interested in Christian Wilkerson? [Music] That’s fascinating. Christian Wilkins. What did I say? Wilkerson. Yeah, you said Wilkerson. I know what I know. I’m sorry. I thought Yeah, that’s the wide receiver they have on the roster. You know what I mean? Not Not if Josh has anything to say about it, right? I meant to say Christian Wilkins. Yeah. Um, no. I maybe, but I I don’t think that matters, right? I mean, the Bills have signed guys before who’ve that doesn’t I mean, it’s almost like the Bills talked with signing Rob Gronkowski after what happened with Davius White. Yeah. I mean, I you’re not wrong for him. The injury like isn’t he going to miss almost all the year with an injury? Look, what is his status? I know he had that uh Yeah, I thought he had like a lingering injury where he wasn’t even going to be available and that’s why they ultimately cut him. I don’t know. I read I’m reading something here. Wil Wilkins signed with Packers. I don’t think that’s the case. Uh yeah, I don’t think that’s the case. I And I’d have to look, but I don’t think that’s the case with him. Anyway, the reason I bring him up is um he was a name that a lot of you asked me when I said, “Hey, we’re doing a pod tonight. Ask us some questions.” And that was like the the number one question. Would the Bills consider bringing in Christian Wilkins or Peppers? Yeah. Uh, that’s really interesting. I mean, the health would matter. It’s not a name that I’ve really thought about. I just don’t think it to be very realistic. I don’t think Jabril Peppers is like I think it’s realistic. I don’t think it’ll happen just because the odds of it happening are smaller than the odds of it not happening. But of the two, Jabril Peppers absolutely seems more likely. All right, Matt Boapachio here. It’s always game day in Buffalo. And now uh we’re getting ready for the Sunday night game and I want to take a look at the Ravens because Matt on Monday we did get a report from the Ravens. Not an official injury report. In fact, John Harbaugh said I won’t not going to talk about injuries. It’s funny they had media. Some teams had media availability, some teams didn’t. Here we did not. They did there. And I will tell you three players who did not practice for the Ravens. Um Gy Alexander is still not practicing. He has not practiced since like early August and he’s still not practicing. At this point I’m like I don’t that seems like a pretty good long shot for him to play in this game. Isaiah likely broke his foot like five weeks ago and that’s supposed to be like a six week injury. So people think he could come back to practice this week. I don’t know. I think that is, pardon the pun, unlikely to happen. And then the really interesting one is their fullback Patrick Ricard has not practiced in a couple weeks and he again did not practice on Monday. Boy, that would kind of really change maybe how you think about defending the Ravens a little bit sometimes. Yeah, I don’t disagree with that. I think that all three of those would be big blows for the Ravens realistically. Likely when the injury happened in the summer kind of felt like, hey, maybe he’ll be back early in the season, but week one might be a bit lofty. Haven’t thought much about Jier Alexander. I still think Jier Alexander can play in this league. I know that he was a a big addition for the Ravens, but I don’t know how much he his availability changes the game plan for the Bills offense, but yeah, Patrick Ricard would be a big blow to the Ravens. He helps a lot of what they do as such a physical force, especially in the run game. So, I I think that that would be, but once again, I don’t think my opinion of the game changes knowing with or without like Patrick Ricard is in or Patrick Ricard is out. No, I don’t disagree with you, but I do think it may change the Bills strategy because this is a game I believe, Matt, that we might see a little bit different of a look from the Bills. And what I mean by that is sometimes they’ve played base defense against the Ravens. And I really believe that Shaq Thompson is going to play a role on this team this year in that sort of set. And I think this week could be the week. Could be Dorian Williams. They’ve done with that with him as well, but it feels like to me he was kind of brought in for this type of situation. Yeah, I think so, too. I think that we will see. And that’s kind of why when we were making our 53man roster projections, not about one specific game, but it feels like Shaq Thompson has a skill set that they’ve been seeking a little bit and this would be the type of game where that could really shine. So yeah, I think that we will see a little bit of a different approach because that was a notable change they made from the regular season to the preseason or to the playoffs last year. You remember it? It was also just them getting healthy. There was a screenshot from the broadcast of the Sunday night football game where Milano, Terrell Bernard, and Taran Johnson were all off to the side and you know that was going around and it was like, okay, is this really going to make a difference or not? And then look at what Terrell Bernard did in that game. So yeah, I think that you know it might change up the strategy for the Bills a little bit. I feel like I have obvious passing downs, we’ll probably see Taran out there, but I don’t know if it’s you know it’s not I don’t think we’ll see a snap count like we usually do. Like Taran usually doesn’t come off the field. I think in this game he will come off the field at times. I I agree with you. It is a very very tough thing to kind of really needle the thread if you’re Bobby Babage. We’ve talked about that with him. Like if you’re going to bring a third linebacker in, you’re going to have to take your nickel quarterback off. And your nickel corner is maybe arguably the best guy at that in the league and he’s one of your best players on defense. All right, before we get into the a little bit more of a season preview and some interesting topics and predictions we want to make, um, one other piece of news that came down, the Bills once again only choosing two captains this year, Josh Allen and Terrell Bernard. One on offense, one on defense. As opposed to several other years in the past that we covered the team, and they would have six, seven, eight captains, they’ve gone with two the last two years, this year and last year. I like it. I like it. I think it makes sense. I think you have a voice and a face for the offense and the same thing for the defense. That does not mean that there’s other guys on the roster who aren’t leaders. There is a leadership council that the Bills have. So, a lot of the names that people have thrown out there as like captain snubs are most likely also part of that leadership council. Like I saw a couple people say like, “Hey, Christian Benford should be a captain.” It’s like, okay, listen, I would absolutely support that. But Terrell Bernard has done nothing to take the captaincy away from him. And if you’re not only gonna have two, really, what else are you gonna do? Like, you went to the AFC Championship last year. Those two guys who are your captains were two really, really big reasons why. Doesn’t feel like it’s anything you need to change. Those are also two types of guys who you I think want as captains both on and off the field. The way they kind of approach their day-to-day business. Last year, I think for me, you tell me if you agree with this. I think making Josh the only captain on offense and keeping only two captains total was a lot more about handing the reigns to him of this team because gone were those big personalities of Micah High, Jordan Pery, we know Micah came back later, but Micah High, Jordan Puy or Stefon Diggs especially, right? Mitch Morris, Gabe Davis, like they were gone and I think it was really Shawn McDermott saying Josh you have to be the leader of this team now. You are the leader of this team and I think that’s what a lot of that was about last year. Yeah, I think so too. But I also think that obviously you have to have somebody on the defensive side of things. And I think that the way Terrell Bernard kind of jumped onto the scene without really anybody expecting it or predicting it and his work ethic and his just unbelievable knack to make splash plays when the Bills need them the most, I think is something that they really, really value. And I think they want probably most of the guys on that defense to play the way Terrell Bernard plays. So that’s why it makes sense. And I mean, listen, the leader of He’s also the most vocal because he’s got to call the defense. Sure, the leader of this team is Josh Allen, but you got to have somebody for defense, too. Oh, yeah. Are you surprised? Wait, what about I I get this question. I actually agree. Maybe they should have somebody for special teams. Even if it’s, you know, Reed Ferguson, the longest tenure Bill, there’s not a special teams captain. There’s There are plays where neither Josh nor Terrell are on the field. Yeah, it’s fine. What they’re doing is fine. I don’t disagree. I like if Reed was a I it would be totally fine. It’s not going to be the punter. He just got here. So that leaves Tyler Bass or Reed Ferguson and by process of elimination it would be Reed because of tenure. So I just Yeah, I don’t think that you need Speaking of Tyler, they worked out some kickers recently. Now I will tell you a lot of times a lot of times here here’s what you a lot of times and I because of Tyler’s injury I don’t want to totally dismiss that they’re you know hey let’s just make sure he’s good. that that could very well be the case here. But oftentimes what happens, just so everybody knows, teams just bring guys in at different positions early in the season because if something does happen later in the year, you got a guy in already, you looked at him, you you you you talked with him, and you could just give him a call and say, “Let’s go.” Instead of doing that in the in the time that when the guy gets hurt and saying, “Oh, let’s bring somebody in and see what he’s about.” You already know what he’s about. So, it feels like that’s what’s happening. But I also think because of the injury, we have to kind of keep our eyes open on that a little bit. Didn’t they work out a couple kickers after Bass struggled early in the season last year? They signed one. They had one in the practice squad. Oh, yeah. They did. What was that guy’s name? Oh, I would never get to it in a million years. I would never get to. Yeah, but but I don’t think it’s about maybe. I mean, I to me it’s about maybe Tyler making sure he’s good if something were to happen to him, tweak something because he’s coming back from the injury. I also think there’s here’s the other part of this just something I was thinking about because of the new kickoff rules and what we’ve seen kickers do. line drives, right? Not going up the air. You don’t have to have hang time anymore because everybody just starts when the guy catches it, no matter what that is. Is that maybe something they’re like, “Hey, because of Tyler’s injury, we don’t want him having to kick like that. Maybe you think about actually elevating or signing a kicker at some point to do.” I don’t know. I’m just just kind of thinking out loud here a little bit that there is a little bit different strategy for some teams. You’re not wrong at all. But my goodness gracious, if they have two kickers on their roster, then they need to get a new regular kicker who can do both. Like that is my thought because Tyler Bass has been a good NFL kicker, but he’s not so good that he shouldn’t be able to do the other stuff. Cuz if what if it would be though just about kicking it a certain way because of the injury, you don’t want to aggravate it. And like that’s just kind of a different way to do it. If that’s a couple week elevation thing and you have two kickers active for a couple games, sure, but two kickers on your active roster is obscene after all of these months of us talking about whether or not the Bills could keep six wide receivers and then all of a sudden it’s like, “Oh, yeah, but they’ve got two kickers.” Like, that’s bananas to me. Would you uh do you support Tyrell Shavers changing from 80 to 14? Yeah, I don’t care. Yeah, I care. Make 80 great again. That’s what I say. Make 80 great again. Give me a give me another wide receiver who wore number 80. The reason I wore number 80 in high school was because of Jerry Butler, the great Buffalo Bill. And then you had Eric Moulds, the great Buffalo Bill. You had you had Jerry Rice. You had Steve Largeant. You James Loftton. 80 was always a great receiver number. Tyrell Shavers makes the roster. And I’m not kidding you, Matt Bet. I walked up to him. We had we had talked about the number 80 before. And I said, “Hey, it’s got to be the number, baby. Go make it proud.” We were laughing because I told him I had wore 80 in high school. like it was great. And then he goes and changes it to 14. Maybe you shouldn’t have said something. Maybe you’re the reason. And maybe he’s like, S, I can’t do that. Maybe he’s like bad. He’s like, I don’t want to have that number because S had that number. Here’s what I’ll say. Uh I I like for Tyrell Shavers, respectfully, very few people have Tyrell Shavers jersey. So, this is a change that doesn’t impact a lot of people. So, I have no issue with that, right? Because like if all of these people had Tyrell Shaver’s jersey and then he changes his number. It’s not like Jack Eel going from 15 to nine. That’s what I mean. It’s a very different thing. 14 has been a good receiver number for the Bills. It has, right? I mean, you know, most notably Stefon Diggs recently, a little Joe Webb before that Watkins. Obviously, a lot of people still have Sammy. You just put Joe Webb in the same conversation and breath as you did. I’m just going chronologically of the 14s. I remember Joe Webb in the snow game and then Sammy Watkins. Joe Webb. The reason Joe Webb is a reason the drought ended. Was it 14 fits also? Yes, I was getting there. I was going down the line. I was going down the line. Uh Chase Clayool wear 14 for the Bills last year, I think. So, yeah, I have no issue with it. I Yeah, I have no issue with it. I give my full support to Tyrrell Shavers changing whatever jersey number he wants. But man, can we get another really good 80 in this league? I I’m old school. I’m nostalgic. I I’ve always hated the whole big number change thing they’ve done around the league and these single digits on defense and guys wearing 20s at linebacker. What are we doing? All right. They have they have collectively a really weird wide receiver room of numbers. Keon Coleman zero. Josh Palmer five. Khalil Shakir 10. Elijah Moore what’s 18. 18 now 14. Curtis Samuel one. Yeah, but that’s every team now. All of their receivers, the the highest number from a receiver on their active roster is Elijah Moore at 18. See, that’s what I mean. That’s crazy. Whatever happened to 80 and 81 and 82, Peerless Price at 81, Eric Bolts at 80, right? Yeah, that’s what I think. But you still have the tight ends wearing the 80s and you know, Jackson Hall’s 85, Dolan Concincaid 86, Dawson Knox 88. Anyway, # make 80 great again. Okay, here’s the thing though. There’s a lot of 80 numbers that are ugly on jerseys. Just admittedly, there are. So, you know, I know some players like I don’t 83 is a weird number actually. Isn’t 80 is 83 retired? No, it’s not. No, only one. There’s only one Bill’s number retired. That is 12. Isn’t there a Isn’t 78 retired? I don’t think 78’s retired. Is nobody wears it. Nobody’s actually Right. It’s not retired. Retired. I don’t think they actually retired the number. I thought they did. Oh, yeah. Yeah. A few years ago, right? A few years ago they did. I thought I thought 34, 78, and 12 are retired. Hold on. I want to look because I thought it was just 12 of them. You’re right. I’m sorry. See, that’s what I all in my feels now about 80, but you’re right. All three are are are retired. My apologies. That’s exactly But like 82 is a weird number for a receiver. I don’t like how that looks. 83, Andre Reid, whatever. I don’t love the number. 84. I think of Randy Moss in 84. But no, I just want to ask you, does it does this look weird? Come on. Does that look weird? Is that you? That’s me. Yeah, it looks good. See, come on. Here we go. Hold on. There we go. There he is looking like awesome. Yeah, it was the Michigan helmets. The Eagles. Cleveland Hill Eagles. There you go. Yeah, those are clean. All right. Well, there you go. That’s why number eight. I’m a I’m a jersey number snob. Like I like if I was had this conversation with a couple people at work the other day. They were talking about what jersey they wanted. And I think if you’re going to get a jersey, you got to have a jersey with a cool number, but I I also like obscure jerseys. So, you know. All right, let’s uh let’s move on and talk a little bit about the uh season itself and have a little fun here. Matthew Bo, um let’s throw up the schedule. We got a little schedule graphic we could throw up. By the way, apologies to those of you not watching, but you should be watching on YouTube at Cell Sports, but it’s okay if you can’t. We have a schedule graphic up right now. It’s got the entire 17game, 18week schedule for the Buffalo Bills. Matt Bo, what game are you most excited for this season? Wow, that’s a fun one. I I’ve gone a couple different ways here. I feel like I’m genuinely the most excited for week one, but that’s kind of a crummy answer. I’m going to give you a little bit of a weird answer or a unique answer. Oh, go ahead. I’m really excited for the Sunday Night Football game against the Patriots and I like that. Okay. Really interested the Stefon Digs coming back to Buffalo. The rivalries jerseys, even though I don’t think they’re spectacular, I still think that they are cool and unique. I think that stage I think the Patriots are going to be much improved. I think that they’re going to finish second best record in the AFC East. I think that they could even compete for a playoff spot. It just feels like there’s going to be some good juice to that game. Week one already has juice, but something about Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football always just feels different. It just really does. That’s why I am going with a night game as well. And I actually think there’s two of them for me that are very exciting for two different reasons. I’m actually really excited for the Thursday night game in Houston because of the way the Bills were played last year. The way Josh Allen played was not good. And boy, the Texans, I mean, it’s an interesting team. CJ Stout after everything that happened. It’s a night game in Houston, week before Thanksgiving, November could could mean a little bit, you know, in the AFC. We’ll see where things are falling. I’m excited for that game because mainly because I just think the Bills need to atone for the way they played last year that game. Keep talking about how keep talking about how excited you are because that game is on channel 7 locally. So, it’s going to be the greatest game of all time. The coverage is going to be unmatched and it’s the best game that’s ever been played. And I and I’ll give you another one that I think should be uh you’re affiliated with. I think the Monday night game at Atlanta is going to be really good. You know why? I’m looking forward to the jerseys, the uh the helmets. You got the throwback helmets for the Bills. You got the throwback helmets for the uh for the Falcons. I think that’s going to be super cool. Plus, the Falcons could have a pretty exciting team. We don’t know. Uh it’s a night game and it’s in Atlanta. Lots of Bills fans are going to be there. I’m excited for those two games. Yeah, I think that those are the two most Is that an Is that an ESPN game? So, no, that game there’s it’s it’s okay. That game is Oh, no. That game is an ESPN game. Okay. Okay. Listen how crazy this is. But ABC is airing a double header that night. So, locally in Buffalo, we won’t be allowed to air the Bills game. Oh, okay. So, yeah. So that’s but still I think it’ll be I think it’ll be a very fun game. I think it’ll be an exciting game. We’ll go back to the Houston game. That’s most I think exactly. I think those are the two hardest road games the Bills play. Um which I think also says something about the Bills schedule. I don’t think that a lot of people are talking about how easy the schedule is. The Vegas overunder is 12 a half for the Bills wins. You know, whatever you think how they fall, are they over? Are they under? Whatever it is. The fact that all of their hard games are at home and they were undefeated at home last year, I think does give me some optimism that they could, you know, really string together. I don’t disagree. I just want to be careful with saying that, right? Because you never know who jumps up and is like, could Pittsburgh suddenly be really good? We don’t know, right? I mean, like that’s a road game. Could Could Atlanta suddenly be really good? Like to me, you could have some really challenging road games. I don’t disagree with any of that, but you could, right? the could the word could is doing a lot of lifting there. I feel really confident with the Bills in most of the road games that they’re playing whereas in years past it’s been at least right now projected as a tougher look and you know I just think the Bills are a really hard team to beat at home. They got nine home games this year. What’s is if they go five and if they go five and if they go five and four at home, I think people would be super disappointed. Yeah. Even if you go five and four at home, I think you’re still looking at like an 11 win season. That’s It’s a great point. No, you’re right. The schedule certainly sets up for uh maybe a little tease here, something we’re going to talk about in a little while. Before we get to that though, uh All right, Matt, let’s give our um let’s give a couple players to watch that we’re really excited about this year. I’m going to start here. We’re going to go one on offense, one on defense. Um, we’ll go on offense. I hope I don’t take yours. The guy I’m really excited to watch this year on offense is Keon Coleman. Yeah. Well, with with everything we’re hearing about him from Dion Dawkins, from Josh Allen, from from I’m sorry, from um Joe Brady, from Shawn McDermott, Brandon Bean, I just think Keon Coleman could really be ready to have um a nice kind of breakout second year. I don’t know what that looks like though because everybody eats and I get that and I don’t think I don’t need him to have 120 targets. But I do think he’s going to be a player that makes big plays for this team. Yeah, I agree. I had my fantasy football draft for a league that I’ve been in for a long time and somebody took Keon a bit earlier than you know his average draft position is last night and I just kind of like they looked at me and I like kind of nodded. I’m like I think that he’s going to be something this year. I really do. just the way that his teammates have talked about him, how I don’t want to say strong his summer has been, but how there have been far more good days than bad days. I like that. I’m going to also, it’s not the most interesting thing, but talking about the offensive line feels like it would be a little I I don’t know how excited people would be about that. We already know about the quarterback. We know about the running backs. Josh Palmer is really interesting to me. Like Josh Palmer, they was the first move they made in free agency. Like clearly they value this guy. Clearly they targeted this guy. They gave him a good amount of money. I think that Josh Palmer is going to have a noticeable and sizable role on this team. I I don’t think it’s crazy that I think Khalil Shakir will lead the team in targets offensively. Like I think it’ll be Shakir or Dalton Concincaid, one of those two. But I think Josh Palmer could be around the same number of targets as Keon Coleman. I I think they’re going to be used differently though. I think Kian Coleman is going to be your red zone threat. You know, go win contested catches down the sideline. I just think Josh Palmer is going to get used a lot. Everybody always talks about how well he separates. Yeah, that could be a really nice addition to this offense. All right. Um I’ll let you go first then on the defensive side. Joey Bosa. I think I think I think Joey Bosa has a lot of gas left in the tank. That said, you got to keep the engine running, got to keep him healthy, you got to make sure that he is available when you need him to be. But I think that he has been the most impressive player. I I don’t want to say the most impressive player on that side of the ball, but the guy who I’ve noticed the most, and I’m probably watching the line a lot more just because of all the additions they’ve made there, and it feels like he’s going to be able to provide an almost Greg Russo level of impact from what we’ve seen in years past. But that is so substantially more than they have gotten from that since the Von Miller injury. And it feels like that could really un I just think about the sample size was really small. But those first like eight games until Von Miller got hurt. The defense looked so good compared to how they have looked ever since then. If this defensive line can cook, I think that the problems in the secondary can be masked a little bit. And I think Joey Bosa will be a big factor. you know, if they’re able to have that success. First of all, shout out to you for being physically around everybody who’s drafting in your fantasy football league instead of just doing it online. I like that. All right, that’s number one. Uh, number two, I’m so glad you said and put like that type of play with Russo in the same breath because so many people tell us all the time, well, Russo really hasn’t been great. Dude, he’s been really, really good. I mean, he’s he’s a really good player and Yeah. I know he’s not getting 15 sacks a year, but holy cow, like this guy, he does so much for this team and he really is an important piece. So, that’s great on your part. Uh guy I’m really looking forward to watching. I’m going to give you one that I’m I have two actually, but the first one is Dion Walker because I’m just excited like what what can he bring from what we’ve seen in preseason, but who knows how much he’s going to be on the field. The guy I’m really pointing to here though is Matt Milano. I just think Matt Milano has had a fantastic preseason in camp. He looks great. And boy, if Matt Milano can be healthy, good, really even close to what we’ve seen all pro Matt Milano be before, my gosh, what a great great benefit that would be to this Buffalo Bills defense. You made a great point to me last week when we’re in the fieldhouse. You said, did you go back and look at that Cardinals game and who they were playing on defense in week one last year? And I did that. I did. I went back and watched it the other day. It was bad. And like Taran Johnson gets hit hurt early. But look, Dorian Williams had a nice year last year, no doubt. But man, like it’s a it’s different having Matt next to Tro Bernard, right? You know what I mean? There were there were times last year in the Arizona game and it’s a you know, going up against the Ravens is a hell of a lot different than going up against the Cardinals. But I was watching back that game and it’s like, okay, all of a sudden on defense at the same time you’ve got Dorian Williams out there, Cam Lewis out there, Demar Hamlin out there, Casey Tuhill out there, AJ Epaness out there and like I’m not trying to pile it on these guys and then like Austin Johnson and whoever. It’s just the level of talent and skill wasn’t even close to what they should be able to put on the fields this year when healthy. But a lot of that will depend on Christian Benford and the safeties and Matt Milano and all that kind of stuff. So, but yeah, like I I think that’s a really good pick from you, Milano. He’s been he’s been maybe the biggest the most pleasant surprise of the summer. He has looked every bit like Matt Milano, which is a really good thing for the Bills. Love it. No doubt. I I love seeing it and I’m really hoping that it carries over to the regular season um for the Buffalo Bills. All right, we’re going to both give a bold prediction here be before we get on out of here. Uh it could be kind of anything around the team that you want. So, I’ll let Matt start first. Mine’s bold. Do you want me to finish? Mine’s bold. Okay. Yeah, mine isn’t like super bold. I think people have thought about it. They’ve said it, but you know, I Matt, let’s go back to your schedule point. I do think that this this year the Bills will do the one thing they have not done yet. Get the one seed. My bold prediction is the Bills finish first in the AFC with the one seed. And I think it’s a lot of it is a for me the schedule is very conducive for them, right? They have a very good team. They have Josh Allen. They have a schedule that sets up for them to get the one seed because I also think teams are better in the AFC West. The Chargers, the Broncos. I think the Chiefs could have a couple of losses along the way that could really hurt them where they might otherwise not have had. And last year they pulled out a few games that we think they got lucky, whatever, but they were able to do that. Ravens, they got to go through the Bengals twice. They got to go through the Steelers twice, which is always tough for them. The Browns always give them a tough time. Maybe another team sneaks up there, but I just think the Bills have everything set up for them. And my bold prediction is the Buffalo Bills will have the one seed. They’ll have that first round buy and they’re going to be set up to play two games at home to finish out High Mark Stadium before trying to get to the Super Bowl. Yeah, that’s a very good bold prediction and I think it leads nicely into what mine was going to be. My bold prediction is that the Bills are going to win the final game ever inside Highark Stadium against the Kansas City Chiefs to go to the Super Bowl and will stop the Chiefs from going to four straight Super Bowls. And that’s going to be the story that’s on the line, right? It’s going to be the Chiefs and the Bills. This team that you have not beat in the playoffs that has beat you four straight times in the playoffs is now trying to go to four straight Super Bowls. The only other team that has ever done it is the Bills and it’s the final game inside the stadium. Taylor Swift is at halftime. So everybody thinks that the league is rigging this for the Chiefs and everybody’s like what is going on? And my take is that the Bills are going to win the final game inside that stadium and punch a ticket to the Super Bowl where they will take on the Green Bay Packers. And the Super Bowl, mind you, is in San Francisco, which is essentially Josh Allen’s hometown. It’s also, I believe, we have to fact check this at the time of the game, the only place where Josh has not played an NFL game. I believe that’s right because he played against the 49ers but it was in Arizona correct co year he has not played in San Francisco as you know a national football league player I don’t think he’s played in Atlanta but he will this year and I don’t think he has played Carolina in Carolina but once again he will this year you know knock on wood assuming he’s healthy so yeah that’s Josh played in Tampa yes uh the game that they lost to Tom. Oh yeah, that’s right. Tom Brady on overtime. Bills were down huge at the half, came back. That game kind of changed that game was like, remember that and they they kind of ran the table after that. That game changed the season. That game saved the Bills season even though it was a loss. It was They’ve had a couple things like that actually. Uh that game did that the loss to the Eagles a couple years ago in that monsoon right before the by-week kind of changed their season even though they lost that one. So, you know, and just remember everybody, like we’ll do another podcast later this week, but if they lose to the Ravens, it does not mean that they’re a bad team or that the season is going to be a disaster. It means that the Ravens are really, really good. But remember, the thing about the Ra Ravens is that they’re really, really good until they get to the playoffs and sometimes they slip up. The Bills, you know, have played well in the playoffs except against the Chiefs. Three quick things for you. number one. Next time we talk to everybody, Jessica Pagula will have played in the quarterfinals trying to get to the semi-finals of the US Open for the second straight year. Remember last year she finals playing right now, right? No, no, she she won. She’s in the she she she’s in the quarterfinals. No, I think she’s playing in the quarterfinals tonight. No, not till tomorrow. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, okay. Tonight. It’s Monday night right now, folks. She’s playing on Tuesday. Okay, my bad. I thought it was tonight. No, she’s playing to Tuesday in the quarterfinals. If she wins, she’s in the final four. Good luck to Jessica McGoula. That’s amazing. I love it. Absolutely. So, that would be awesome if she could do that. Number two, I am currently, as I’m doing this, watching Bill Bich’s debut as head coach of North Carolina, his college coaching debut. Did you see what he did with the depth chart? So stupid. I agree. People think it’s funny. I think it’s stupid. So, in case people don’t know, he released a depth chart for North Carolina. He left it blank. I mean, come on. it that’s not funny to me. Like what are we doing? Let’s help people out. Who’s playing where? You don’t even have to have it completely accurate. Maybe maybe you have a guard listed that’s not really the starter and the backup is or the running backs rotate. Who cares? But come on. What? That’s just to me just really stupid. Uh the NFL top 100 countdown is underway. Okay. Um, Patrick Certan 10, Justin Jefferson 9, Miles Garrett 8, Derek Henry seven, Joe Burrow six, Patrick Mahomes five. So Josh Allen will be in the top five. I would imagine number one is Lamar, Seaquan, or Josh. Are we Is it NFL Network? I think so. As soon as I’m done, soon as we hit soon as Mike hits the end button here, I’m going to go watch that. All right, last thing for you. Matt, I got a question for you. Is there something that you own way too many of? Way too much of like, yeah, normal people shouldn’t own this many of these things or something. That’s a great question. Um, no, not that I can think of. Number one, for me, there’s two things. Number one, coffee cups. I have way too many coffee cups, but I love them. Like, there’s different ones I have. I like coffee cups. Yeah, but I got a lot of coffee cups. I don’t need them all. Actually, I drink a lot of coffee, so they come in handy. But I have a ton of coffee cups. Toddler girls clothes is my answer. Okay. Well, number two, I’m just going to show you this. I posted this on my Instagram and Facebook. I went through I was trying to get all my um credential ready and all this. These are lanyards. Okay, I save I save all my credentials and lanyards. Got lanyards all over here. That’s crazy. There we go. We’re wearing all these lanyards, folks. There it is. I got way too many lanyards. I got I got stuff from London on here. Bills, Landers. What’s your What’s your coolest credential that you have saved? I mean, you I’m sure every It might be the same answer as me. Maybe London. Yeah, London’s cool. I mean, my I guess I have a It’s over there. You don’t see it. On the other end of where I’m recording this now, I have like a shadow box full of credentials. Yeah. The coolest game I’ve ever covered is 13 seconds at Arrowhead. Yeah. Coolest credential I have might be the Blue Jays first game in Buffalo for CO year. Like that’s a very unique Okay. Yeah, for sure. Cool thing to have. I did save and I know this sounds a bit weird to say on the sidelines we have to wear an armband. Uhhuh. To show we’re supposed to be on the sidelines. The only armband I have saved was from the Demar Hamlin game. Oh, okay. Yeah. Oh, I’ve got that credential somewhere. The only I have every credential I’ve ever had. I’ve literally sort them out, Matt. I go back to my sideline debut as a Bill Sideline reporter was 2014. I have every single game, every road game credential, 2014, 2015, 20 and they’re all stacked in in neat order. And I do that and then they all had lanyards and here are the lanyards and that’s why for over the years. Yeah, I keep I mean I think that this stuff is cool. This is a picture. It might be hard to tell. That is Josh’s first ever game. That’s me standing next to him walking off the field. So, not his first ever game, his first ever home game. First, no, his first ever game. His first ever game was I mean, okay start. His first ever start. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. His first ever start. He went in in Baltimore for like a quarter, but yeah, his first ever start. They lost to the Chargers in 2018. But it’s a cool picture. First ever game inside the stadium. I would be I’m mad at myself because I did not save somewhere in this house. Maybe I have it. I doubt I do. I have a credential from when the um when Syracuse played Yukon in a six overtime game at Madison Square Garden. Oh, that’s sweet. I have that been a cool one to keep. I’m staring at a Syracuse credential. But I got a coffee mug from that game. There you go. I’m staring at Syracuse credential right now when UB played them a couple years ago and destroyed them in the dome. UB basketball. Love it. Not season. Oh yeah. Listen, we’re going to be back on Wednesday. Come to the BFL store if you’re around Western New York. We’re to be there Transit Road, Williamsville, 6:30 p.m. start time. We’re doing this show live. You can also just watch live. And then we’re ready to rock and roll for Sunday. But come on out, see us. Say hi, say hi to Nick Ryberg. Learn about the cruise that’s coming up next year. Any questions, he’ll answer them for you. Got to check out their tailgate uh clothing selection in line that uh they’re going to be making sure they uh put out there for everybody to to see. And it’s going to be an amazing um amazing a lot of clothes, you know, different kinds of items you can buy. Anyway, the whole point is get to the BFLO store. Matt, I will talk to you on Wednesday. We will be at practice on Wednesday. That’s the first time we’ll hear an injury report for the Bills and the Ravens. Thank you very much to Mike Rabier, our producer. And uh I guess that’s it, right, buddy? Yeah, let’s do it. Let’s get ready. Regular season, week one. Here we go.

We preview the week leading up to the huge Week 1 Baltimore Ravens at Buffalo Bills game, including injuries to monitor. Plus, we each give a bold prediction for the Bills season, one player we are excited to watch on offense and defense, and the game we are most excited for on the Bills schedule.