Matt Milano Banged Up as Bills Get Ready for Miami Dolphins | Always Gameday in Buffalo

Matt Milano Banged Up as Bills Get Ready for Miami Dolphins | 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 Salapacio are going really deep talking Bills all year long because it’s always game day in Buffalo. Bet. Do you do the laundry at your house or does your wife do it? Do you split duties? My wife does more of the laundry than I do. Well, I’ll do some stuff here and there, like I know how to do laundry, and I’ll do most of my own laundry, but she usually does some of our laundry together, her laundry, and our daughters. So, she does more of it. I generally do the laundry at our house, okay? And especially folding. Like, my wife doesn’t love to fold, but I do the laundry, I fold. It kind of I don’t love it, but also it’s kind of a little relaxing. I get stuff done in my head. Here’s the reason I’m telling you. You can’t see this on the video, but right before I left to come down here today, I was doing a little laundry, and I think I got detergent on my shirt. And now I got a couple little stains on my shirt. And like I’m very self-conscious of this right now. And it’s not a big deal, but I’m like I think it’s laundry on my shirt. If you’re watching on the video screen, there you go. I’m going to tell all the players to say something about sale shirt and be like, hey, did you get detergent on your shirt? Like what an amateur. I know, right? Liquid detergent. So I think that’s what happened. I’m like, God, I’m so self-conscious. I’m thinking about it. I’m like, we’re going to be on video. We’re doing this and it’s always game day in Buffalo. But you know what? We can’t see it because we have a great producer there who makes sure that we have a great shot and that is Mike Robbier and of course it is beautiful out. Look at that. It’s incredible, right? With that new stadium in case you haven’t seen anything lately. The uh the panels are going up on the the far side over there. It’s pretty awesome. Um we are here outside One Bill’s Drive and outside the fieldhouse and the reason is it is like 80° out here. It is going to be a gorgeous, gorgeous Thursday night game inside Highark Stadium. by the way, probably looks like the last game ever after 53 years of this particular rivalry inside this stadium. Yeah, I was doing a little bit of the research ahead of it. There was some interesting little nuggets. Do you know how many in a row the Bills have won against the Dolphins? I know it’s 12 of 13, so I’m going to say Oh, 13. Thank you. The last The only one they lost in that time period was Rex in 2016 when they went to overtime and they didn’t have enough guys on the field. So 17 through 24 would be what? Eight in a They lost one in 2022 in Miami. The game when Josh skipped it here. Yeah, they’ve won nine in a row in Orchard Park going back to 2016 when they lost in overtime in that game. But yeah, nine in a row. Josh Allen has never lost to the Dolphins inside this building. I know quarterback’s not a win stat. I get that. People are rolling their eyes. I’m just saying in his tenure and in Sean McDerman’s tenure, they have never lost to the Dolphins here. You talk about how nice the weather is going to be. I don’t necessarily think that’s an advantage. I think if you’ve got the Dolphins coming to town, you want it to be miserable weather here because that’s when they seem to crumble every single year is when it gets a little bit cold. You know, I remember those shirts. I wish it were colder. No, you don’t. Stop lying. They don’t wish it was colder. They wish it was like this every single week. I don’t think this year should matter too much if the Bills do what they’re supposed to do. They should take care of business against this team, which is reeling right now. Look, it is a division game. Anything can happen. Um, I thought you were referencing just inside this stadium. The last time the Bills lost to the Dolphins was the year before Shawn McDermott, 2016. Rex Ryan was the coach. But before that, the Bills had beaten the Dolphins quite a few times in a row as well. I mean, the Bills have a pretty long streak. I think it’s 12 of the last 13 years inside Highark Stadium. Bills and Dolphins. All right, let’s get right to the news of the day. Very, very interesting and I think encouraging from my standpoint news on Matt Milano. Shawn McDermott basically said he could practice tomorrow, meaning Wednesday, which means he’s not ruled out for Thursday. Yeah, I think that’s a great news. I’m not anticipating that we see him on Thursday. I feel like when you’re talking about a player who would miss two days in a row of practice any given week, I wouldn’t like their outlook. To me, that’s positive because it doesn’t feel like it’s going to be a super long-term injury. Now, Shawn McDermott was specifically asked because you are saying there’s a chance he practices on what is tomorrow, Wednesday. Wednesday. Will you rule out the fact that it’s not long-term? He said no. So, he’s not ruling it out. But the fact that even hinted to us that he could practice tomorrow makes it seem like it is a very promising prognosis for a player who’s definitely important to what they do on defense. Yeah. The way I read this is, hey, everything looks pretty good right now, but we got to make sure and we’re not going to put him out there if there’s any risk of injury, but at the same time, let’s go through the rest of the testing just to kind of see how it responds to make sure it’s not a long-term injury. And the biggest thing for me is simply Shawn McDerman himself. Sean is very careful about how he talks about these things. Matt, for him to even open the door for Matt Milano practicing Wednesday really means a lot to me. Yeah. Let me just say this too, and once again, I’m assuming here, I don’t think Milano will play in this game. But because Taran Johnson and Shaq Thompson have been limited on back-to-back days, I think they’re probably trending in the right direction. I honestly feel like they were probably trending in the right direction before the Jets game, but the Bills were like, you know what, let’s be a little bit overcautious here knowing we’ve got a short week coming up. So, in my head, I’m kind of mentally preparing. Milano comes out, Terren Johnson and Shaq Thompson go in. And oh, by the way, I think Jordan Hancock’s also got a chance to probably make his NFL debut this weekend as well, or excuse me, this Thursday as well. So, yeah, I think overall good injury news. The only one we’re still waiting on is Ed Oliver. But given the fact that they didn’t put him on IR before the Jets game, it feels like probably misses this game. Maybe one more. But then after that, like, you know, with a 10-day break coming up between the Jets game or the Dolphins game and the Saints game, maybe he plays back and maybe he’s back for that game. Bills are home for all three of their next next three games. They have the Dolphins Thursday night, Saints on a Sunday afternoon, and then Patriots on a Sunday night. That’s the rivalry uniform game that the Bills are going to wear on Sunday night, October 5th. Yeah, I I want to talk about what’s behind these guys if they don’t play like Matt Milano specifically. First of all, let me say in the game on Sunday, there were a lot of speculation about when Matt got hurt. We don’t know. There seems to be maybe the play where he stumbled on Justin Field’s run. That looks like it, but Matt, he played after that. I watched play and he he played until the end of the half. He just didn’t come out at the end of the half. So, that’s another thing that’s a bit encouraging for me, which is, you know what, they went to the locker room, he’s like, “Hey, something doesn’t feel right.” And it wasn’t like he got injured per se on a play. It felt like Yeah, it felt like that’s one of the reasons I think from the time it happened, the prognosis from both of us, while we didn’t know the details, the signs didn’t make it seem like it was going to be a super significant injury. And admittedly, too, like you shouldn’t bank on this, but a lot of times with these big injuries, big injuries get reported by the big time insiders. And none of that has happened with Matt Milano. Like how many times, think about the Joe Burrow stuff. Obviously, I’m not comparing Matt Milano to Joe Burrow, but the Joe Burrow news dropped the minute the next day started of like, hey, he’s going to miss substantial amount of time. And we even saw that with the Bucks. They had a player who got in Clancy. Yeah, I was just about to find that. Say like they haven’t gone back to the facility yet, but that’s out there that he is going to miss the rest of the season. So, with me, I think given the injury history of Milano, there’s no reason to rush him. And if that means he has to miss a game against the Dolphins, then so be it. But that’s okay. You just need him ready to go for this stretch after these next couple games and obviously into the playoffs and all of that kind of stuff. I feel that way about a lot of the guys on their defense. Honestly, how you how are you with Dorian Williams after what you saw last year and him backing up Matt Milano and if Matt Milano is lost for a couple of weeks regardless of opponent and the Bills should take care of these teams just simply Dorian Williams playing will linebacker. I like Dorian Williams. I think Dorian Williams has probably earned a bigger role on this team, but he hasn’t had a chance to kind of secure it because of the players who were in front of him, which is Matt Milano. And when Matt Milano came back last year, I think they wanted to shake off a bit of the rust to get him into the playoffs. And then when he got into the playoffs, it felt like every single week he started to play a little bit better. I trust Dorian Williams in this. Like, I don’t think losing Milano potentially this week is as big as not having that Oliver last week. Like, I really don’t. Even though I’m anticipating that both of those guys probably miss, I felt like taking Oliver out of their lineup defensively is a much bigger loss at least in the short term than Milano because I just trust Dorian Williams more than I trust some of the other guys on the defensive line behind Ed Oliver just because of lack of experience. Dorian Williams has been in the league and played a lot of games because of all of the Milano injuries. Yeah. And on top of that, you have Shaq Thompson who I think really looked good in in preseason and training camp till he had an injury here. He can play all three linebacker positions. The Bills generally only use two, but he could play all three. He’s right there as well. All right, let’s get to Jordan Hancock because here’s a young man, as you said, might make his NFL debut. Now, he had really only exclusively been playing safety for most of training camp and preseason with the injury to Taran with Cam Lewis even a little bit banged up. I do wonder if they train him back at Nickel Corner, but I would expect him to kind of be a depth safety. Who knows if he even gets a game day jersey, but I think he becomes more of a depth safety, a special teams player. Yeah, I think so, too. And I just think because of the injuries that you talked about with Taran Johnson and Cam Lewis. Not knowing what their status is, they’re both limited. They’ve been limited for two days in a row. That’s usually a good sign. Not knowing what their status is though, I think there’s got to be a way that you get Jordan Hancock onto the active, you know, like 48 guys that are playing on Thursday night. I don’t know who would ultimately come out. Maybe that’s Jamarcus Ingram. Maybe he’s the guy that comes out for Jordan Hancock to come in just because it feels like Hancock would be one of the primary backups at nickel quarterback, but also one of the primary backups at safety. Although that being said, would it be maybe Demar? That’s what I was going to just say. I was going to say I don’t know if you’d do Jammarcus because then you would be a little bit thin at boundary corner and I feel like you would rather go too deep there. So then maybe Yeah, you are talking about I mean who else would it be? You’re not Well, Sam Franklin, but he he’s not going to come off the field. He’s a safety. No, Sam Franklin. I mean, I was listening to your conversation with Eric Turner a little bit ago, and he’s been awesome. Like, he has made so many special teams plays. So, think of him as a guy who’s going to be playing in all of these games, and it has nothing to do with his ability to play safety. It’s everything to do with what he brings on the special teams uh element of the game. Let me just look. I’m going to pull up the roster that we have right now to make sure that we’re covering all our bases here. Obviously, Hancock, so that’s I mean really you only have Rap Bishop Hancock as your because Cam Lewis is really your other backup safety but then if he has to play at all for Nickel I think you’re right there. Maybe you have to keep all those guys active and then maybe Jammarcus comes into play. Would Dorian Stronger come into play? Probably not because the way he played and the fact that he can play boundary corner right there. Um could be look at linebacker. I don’t think so. Maybe Joanne Drees if you think Shaq Thompson’s healthy. It’s going to it’s Hey, it’s a good problem to have uh as they say. All right. Yeah. ask you this though because we’re looking at this roster. When do we see Landon Jackson? I mean it feels I I think if everybody stays healthy at edge all year. Not all year really. A third round pick who is not playing. Like I think back to the conversations we have in the offseason about the misses and how the Bills are perceived and if they’re better drafting or worse drafting than some of the other teams like that’s unacceptable. Is that a is that a miss though if you who’s he supposed to play over? Because you could say the same thing if he’s playing over Javon Solomon who was just drafted last year his second year. could say that’s a miss. Yeah, but Javon Solomon was a fifth round pick and Landon Jackson was a third round pick, right? I would imagine that you need to be getting more contributions out of it. Not that I would imagine you should a year later though. I mean, he’s still young. Yeah, but I mean like let’s talk about I don’t remember off the top of my head, but we’ve talked about our concerns with the safety positions and it feels like the Jets game was a step in the right direction, but look at some of the safeties in the NFL that are going out there and making plays like Xavier Watts and Billy Bowman and some of these guys that were day two picks. I don’t remember who was taken first out of any of those players, but those are guys who would be helping you right now. Okay. So, I think the conversation then goes to for me, and I I give space to it, but I would say it this way, is Landon Jackson the miss, or the fact that maybe you shouldn’t have drafted a defensive end there? It I don’t want to put it all on Landon Jackson because it’s hard to be critical of somebody who hasn’t even had an opportunity to prove themselves, but I felt like the opportunity to prove yourself was in the summer. And if he hasn’t been able to do that to this point, it feels like it’s a missed opportunity because a third round pick should be contributing. So, then again, I’ll ask who’s he playing over and who should who who would you take out? you’re unless you want five defensive ends active. And by the way, Michael Hoy’s gonna come back. Yeah. Well, I’m saying it’s a disappointment that he’s not winning a rep over or a job over Javon Solomon. And understanding I like Javon Solomon. I like the pass rushing component. I also understand the special teams component to Javon Solomon. But then that then that’s a bean conversation. It’s like why did you do that? I mean, if he was that high on your board, shouldn’t you be finding a way to get him onto the team, get him onto the active roster? I had to look at it different. I think this is what you have backups for. It’s what you have a roster for. or if guys get dinged up, you can you can play him. They develop. Guys are developing, right? I mean, that’s what you do. If you if you Javon Solomon’s a nice player for you. They kicked him inside. He contributed last week. That’s what you want. He’s a secondyear player. I think if you have that philosophy, then you have no depth at all. I mean, you get 53 players. He’s on the roster. Yeah. No, I get he’s on the roster, but what if he doesn’t play at all this season, and we’re having this exact same conversation last year, and you go, well, there’s going to be some learning curves. I mean, it’s the same thing we’ve talked about with Cole Bishop, right? the if you ask me what if he doesn’t play this all season I say well then next year he has another chance to crack it because now AJ Panessa is no longer in the team because he’s a free agent Joey Bosa we’ll see what happens with him this is why you do it no I get I’m not I’m not like crucifying them or anything like that I just think that you should be getting production out of a third round pick and I understand why he isn’t active right now like I get why they are going another direction that Javon Solomon brings them a bit more pass rush juice also is a more special teams contributor like right now but I I just feel like I’d like to see it too, but at what cost? If you’re taking someone off, so again, I’ll go back to I think then what your point is, maybe they shouldn’t have drafted a defensive end. That would be my point. Yeah. I mean, or if you did, you would like to see that person be someone you can’t keep off of your roster on Thursdays or Sundays in this, you know, in this case, Thursdays or Sundays, just because it feels like there were probably other positions that you could have addressed where that guy would have definitely been on the team and been playing. I mean, he’s on the team. I don’t want to make it seem like he’s not on the team. He’s on the team. He just hasn’t been active for a game yet. It is only a couple weeks. Maybe this is something that changes. Maybe at some point he flip-flops. Maybe if they get an injury, then obviously he would be the next man up. It just doesn’t feel like we’re trending in that direction at all. Like we’re talking about some of the other guys. Like we’re talking about Jordan Hancock. It’s almost a foregone conclusion that he’s probably going to be active on Thursday night. And I don’t think either of us think that Landon Jackson will be. And he was two rounds ahead of Jordan Hancock. on I don’t know most like I can’t look at every single team’s depth chart and know it off the top of my head. If Landon Jackson is on I don’t know 16 other teams how many is he playing? I think that’s where the conversation goes to me. See I think that’s just so funny people somebody commented the other day to me that you’re you’re the you’re the product of being a drought era guy right like right and I and I because and it’s fine there’s nothing wrong with that. I look at as a strength they have such a good roster it’s tough for a third round pick to crack it. So, you know what? Develop him and maybe next year. You look at it as, well, then why the hell is he on the team or did you draft him? I think we just look at it a lot different. I look at it as a strength. It’s a tough roster to crack. It’s a tough roster to crack unless you’re a fourth round pick or a fifth round pick or a sixth round pick and some of the other guys who are playing in front of him who are drafted later than him. So, I guess that goes more to the position thing. But, given the fact that Hoy is suspended, when he comes back, he’s going to be active. And then I think at that point, Javon Solomon’s probably not active, assuming everybody’s healthy. But I just wonder what is the path unless there’s an injury to a player like Landon Jackson. I don’t know if there is a path. I I’m wondering people have asked you what happens when Hoy comes back. You have to make a roster spot. Now injuries generally play a point in that. We are also two weeks away from Tyler Bass being eligible to return, which is becoming a conversation, but I’ve kind of tabled that for a while and I still want to table it, but at some point it’s going to become a conversation. He should not come back unless Matt Prader misses a kick until he screws up. And it’s not even a screw up, right? If you miss a kick, you miss a kick here and there, whatever. Like, Matt Prader has been good for them. He’s made all the kicks you’ve asked him to make. He made a long one against the Jets. He made the gamewinner on week one against the Ravens. Like, he has done nothing to not warrant a spot on this team. I felt more comfortable with Matt Prader walking out onto the fields to kick that game-winning field goal against the Ravens than I would have with Tyler Bass. Understanding Tyler Bass has also had that success and, you know, made that kick before, I just felt like, okay, this guy, he’s been in the league forever. He’s been in the league forever because he’s consistent and he’s good and I I think there’s value there. The thing that you’re missing is your field goal range probably isn’t as far, right? Tyler B 61 against the Dolphins to win last year. I I would normally agree, but this is a guy Matt Prader has more 50 yard plus field goals than anybody in NFL history. Yeah, but look, he’s a little older too though. But look at some of the kicks though that you see around the league of like Brandon Aubrey making these kicks that are longer than 60 yards. Bass last year making a kick inside the stadium to beat the Dolphins. Stronger leg. I think Bass has a stronger leg. He’s younger. So that makes sense that he would have a stronger leg, but I feel like on those kicks where you need to make them, Prader has not missed that. And and it just felt like we’re also coming off of a summer where Bass was injured for most of the summer. I think we were all wondering like how is he going to respond? Because he was better last year than he was two years ago, but he still wasn’t perfect by any stretch. So the Bills take on the Dolphins Thursday night at Highark Stadium. Not the new one behind us, but the current one that’s sitting just over there to our left right now. It’s always game day in Buffalo. Thanks a lot for watching. subscribing at Salesports on YouTube. You can always watch and of course you can listen to us on iTunes, Spotify, wherever you pod. Let’s talk about the Dolphins for a minute. This is a team that’s 0 and2. Their backs are against the wall. It’s a divisional matchup. They’re going to throw everything they have at the Buffalo Bills if it goes really badly for them. We could be looking at a coaching change. Although people in Miami I’ve talked to say they still think it’s a bit too early for that. But at the same time, Matt, they’re going to do everything they can to salvage their season right here and now. Yeah, they need to. I talked to a couple of the guys in the locker room on Monday about this same exact notion and I’m like listen I know that you need to focus on yourselves and whatever but the fact that the Dolphins are 0 and2 they’re going to be playing with some desperation and AJ Eanessa was like listen they’re playing for their season they know that they need to win I’m paraphrasing a little bit and then I thought Spencer Brown was interesting he was like they’re probably going to try some gimmicky stuff they’re probably going to blitz more because that’s what teams do when they need a spark and when they need to try and get a win and he’s like we have to be prepared for that and we need to be cognizant of that and I think that’s a direct result of how desperate they will be playing because I think for a lot of them like they know like if you start 0 and three you’re done. You’re done. If you start one and two with a head-to-head win against the Bills like you’re very much alive especially in a little bit of a dwindling AFC right now. Bills got to win this game. you know, they’re a huge favorite, which is a tad concerning, but at the same time, like there’s a reason. It’s tad concerning to me because like the Bills are really good and the Dolphins have struggled. But are the Dolphins that bad? Are the Dolphins really worse than the Jets that we just watched? Because they are twice as big of a favorite against the Dolphins as they were against the Jets. And that Jets team stunk. And that’s a product of Miami’s last performance as well, their first two performances. I don’t think I think they have I don’t know. I would say more talent, but do they have more talent? I didn’t think the Dolphins will be very good coming into the year. But man, I think Tua is a pretty good quarterback that if you you protect him, he has weapons he can get him to. I think that’s the issue though. They can’t protect him. He’s not mobile and right now it’s going very poorly for him and them. Yeah, if I was Miami, I would just feed Han this game. Like he’s good. The problem is sometimes there are some injury concerns. His durability becomes a question. That’s why to me having Teran Johnson available for this game would be a big deal because like I understand you’re giving up a bit of size when you have Teran on the field but I think with a player that shifty you probably want somebody like Teran Johnson available because I feel good about Teran Johnson you know bringing down a player the size of Devon Achan he’s a really good player he’s a game changer with the ball in his hands it feels like they don’t give him the ball enough like I would be concerned about him breaking off a couple big plays more than I would be going against Bree Hall just because he’s a different type of player like I think that they should be doing everything they can to feed the ball there and maybe they will now that they are playing desperate. Just taking a look right now. Let’s go to the Miami Dolphins uh by game. Let’s just see by by their game stats. Just I have to pull down the drop down menu, folks. Bear with me for one second because they have not run the ball well, but I want to make sure I get their correct stats here. Okay. Total net yards 211 then 358. Rushing yards 78 and 61 in two games. 78 and 61 for this team. Yeah, it’s crazy when you just think about what the Bills get from James Cook and then what they also get from Josh Allen. I mean, in the first game, what was it? 70. Now, they did have 6.5 of play in the first game because they they they had to throw the ball mostly. That’s why they’re No, that’s right. Yeah, they were behind the whole game. And they’re going to have some success and they might hit a deep shot or two. Like, that’s realistic. But their offensive line, which is missing a couple starters, needs to hold up. If the Bills get to Tua the same way the Patriots got to Tua the other day, the Bills offense is more dynamic. And that is how this game gets out of hand. If the Bills get ahead and you force the Dolphins to throw, they’re trying to play catch-up and Tua just doesn’t have any time. Like, he gets the ball out of his fast, the ball out of his hand so unbelievably fast. And for him to still be getting sacked as often as he did is pretty telling of all of the weaknesses on their offensive line. But that might not even be the weakest part of their roster right now. The weakest part of their roster might be their secondary with the injuries that they have and just really the lack of talent they have at corner. Like this should be a field day for Josh Allen and the offense if they want to try and spread the ball around. All right, last thing for you because we got to get over to practice here on your network last night. Two Monday Night Football games basically ABC, ESPN. a seven and a 10. We don’t really see that. We talked to Mike North every year. He said they’re going to start to kind of do different things to see what works. Did you like that last night? Yeah, I liked it. I thought the first game was fun. I mean, the defenses in that first game were just absolutely dominating. And once again, just like offensive line play that was very, very questionable. That game made me once again realize, not that I don’t realize it, but how athletic and sneaky Josh Allen is. Like how many times did CJ Stout or Baker Mayfield kind of roll out and get caught from somebody from behind? It feels like Josh always breaks those off. I liked it. I mean, once again though, it kind of falls in the favor of the Bills. The second game I think we expected the Chargers to beat the Raiders, but I mean, my goodness, Houston 0 and2. Like, that’s another team that you thought was going to be contending for one of the top spots. Now, they’re 0 and2. So, they got to really battle their way back into this thing. So, yeah, I think another kind of good favorable results for the Bills. Chargers now 2 and0. They’re at top the AFC West. And of course, the Kansas City Chiefs 0 and2. Number one seed right now in the AFC would be the Indianapolis Colts. The Bills are the three seed. But hey, a lot of football to be played. We thank you for watching us here. We’ll have a lot more matt_bove at Cell Sports Game Thursday night. Thanks a lot to our producer Mike Rabier. Thanks a lot for coming aboard here to It’s Always Game Day in Buffalo.

We discuss Matt Milano’s status, the state of the secondary, when we might see Landon Jackson on the field and Thursday Night’s primetime matchup against the Dolphins!