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Speaker 1: Love y'all boys.
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Speaker 2: He is a beast with a capital B.
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Speaker 3: The cook is in the kitchen.
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Speaker 2: Looks down the sideline.
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Speaker 3: He's got Kincaid for a 23-yard touchdown.
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Speaker 2: And it's intercepted. Jumping up in the air. He's bent for.
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Speaker 4: This is One Pills Live.
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Speaker 1: All right.
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Speaker 3: Coming back at you from the West Coast, Chris Brown, Steve Chastain. Betted with the team here as they make preparations for their week six matchup with the Raiders in Las Vegas. We're still in sunny Southern California where the temperature continues to climb. Saying it might hit 90 today, Steve.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I won't know about it.
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Speaker 3: It's a dry heat.
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Speaker 1: It's a dry heat. I won't be going outside today.
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Speaker 3: At all? What, are you going back to bed?
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Speaker 1: I don't know. I might go to the pool, I guess. I don't know. I'm very busy.
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Speaker 3: There is a hot tub out there. Yeah. I don't know if you're aware of this, but our fearless broadcast producer for the Bills Radio Network, Greg Harvey, he tweaked a knee like months ago. He got He twisted his knee up, and I guess he re-aggravated it. Kind of a Christian Benford situation. I saw him soaking his knee in the hot tub yesterday.
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Speaker 1: He's a little gimpy. I went out there and looked at it. I was just walking around after supper last night, and the hot tub is huge.
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Speaker 3: Oh, it's a big one.
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Speaker 1: And it's almost as huge as the bar right next to it. There's a There's an outdoor bar overlooking.
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Speaker 3: A golf course. Which is a dangerous combination.
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Speaker 1: It looks... Right.
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Speaker 3: Because if you get an alcoholic beverage... Yes. And then you go in the hot tub, you're dehydrating your body in the hot tub. Alcohol is also a dehydrator.
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Speaker 1: Right. You can get yourself in trouble pretty quick. So they got this bar out here by the... All right. The bar is by a pool overlooking a golf course from elevation. I mean, it's way up above it. You look down on the golf course. It's beautiful. And the ocean and the whole thing. And next to the bar... is this ginormous hot tub. I don't know if I can live like this.
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Speaker 3: Okay. I think a lot of other people would disagree with you. Did you see Spencer Brown's post-practice interview yesterday?
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Speaker 1: No, I didn't.
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Speaker 3: They were asking him about being out here, camaraderie, and it's like training camp because you're kind of 24 hours footballing your teammates, and that's it. He said, yes, it is similar. He goes, the only difference is um, you know, right off of our O-line meeting room, there's a balcony. So when we take a break from like film and stuff, we go out on the balcony and we're overlooking the golf course that you mentioned. He says they're, they're taking wagers with each other on the golfers. Like, Oh, I think he's going to put it on the green. I don't think he's going to put it. I think he's going to put it, you know, like 10 feet of the cup.
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Speaker 1: They can't help themselves. Yeah. It's just unbelievable. It's a, it is really beautiful out here. And, uh, You know, I went out and partook yesterday as well. I got out off the property and went and played golf.
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Speaker 3: Oh, good for you.
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Speaker 1: Yeah. I won't be doing that again. I thought I might play every day out here. You know, come out.
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Speaker 3: What, did you play nine?
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Speaker 1: No, I played 18.
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Speaker 3: Oh, okay.
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Speaker 1: On a spectacular, I'm not going to mention the course or anything. Spectacular course.
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Speaker 3: Okay. Beautiful.
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Speaker 1: And it couldn't have been easier. Called up. Yeah, we got high-end rental clubs. which is fine with, you know, you kind of expect that. Yeah, because you're a lefty, right? No, no.
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Speaker 3: Oh, no, you're not a lefty.
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Speaker 1: High-end rental clubs, the whole thing, complimentary range, the whole, beautiful, I mean, the place was spectacular, Brownie. Okay. Yeah. So then, you know, they ring me up, and I was like, I thought I might maybe, if I was playing good or had my own clubs, I would spend the amount of money all week on golf that I spent yesterday on one round.
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Speaker 5: Wow.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, it was pricey. So I was like, you know what? I'm just going to go hang at the hotel from now on. So, yeah. But let me just say this. You had your fill. But let me just say this. It was really beautiful, the place I played. It was nice. And I got to meet some people. Oh, you played with three people? Yeah. And it was fun. It was good. But good to get away from the hotel for a hot minute. Yeah. But it was... The weather is nice out here. It really is. It really is.
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Speaker 3: It's like 70 degrees at 8 p.m.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's crazy.
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Speaker 3: Let's check some Bills practice updates, which are presented by Labatt, an official beer of the Buffalo Bills. And the Bills will have their first full practice later today. They had a walk-through practice Wednesday, just two days removed from the Monday night game. Bodies are still healing. First injury report of the week, though, got a bit longer. Not practicing on Wednesday were D.J. Moore and Ed Oliver. And we should mention the Bills have to list an estimation of what players' participation would be if it were a full practice. It obviously wasn't yesterday, but they have to give some kind of estimated designation. So not practicing. D.J. Moore and Ed Oliver returning to practice but limited. D. Alford with his ankle injury. Spencer Brown with his back injury and Joshua Palmer with his shoulder injury. New as a limited participant was Ty Johnson with a hamstring injury. No word as to whether this is the same hamstring that kept him out a month in the preseason. Spencer Brown did say after practice that his MRI on his back provided good news. The disc that they wanted to check out was intact and looked better than it did last year coming off of surgery. He categorized his back injury as solely muscular and and is optimistic about being ready to go on Sunday. Obviously, if he can't go, Tylan Grable would step in as the swing tackle. So they'll probably just work on him all week with that muscle issue. Oh, yeah. Get in there.
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Speaker 1: You said it, even on the broadcast, and also we talked about it on Tuesday. If it's a backspin, you don't want to move. So not only do you have to get over that, you've got to get confident in being able to move around without having that thing seize up on you.
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Speaker 3: They got people working on him every day. He's on the table and they're kneading his back like dough. They are going. TJ Sanders also a limited participant with a shoulder injury which is a new ailment for him so we'll see how he makes his way through the week. Good news is Christian Benford full participant with the toe injury that he re-aggravated in Monday night's game. Landon Jackson who missed last week's game with a knee injury. also a full participant, so it looks like they'll have him available and back in the fold on Sunday, provided there are no setbacks. Bradley Chubb addressed the media and, well, explained how the postgame incident in which he was punched by Rams left tackle Alaric Jackson unfolded. Chubb denied saying anything about Jackson's mother, as Jackson had insinuated. He said he told Jackson... that they were going to meet up with the Rams again, and that all the chipping they did with tight ends and backs isn't going to save him the next time. At that point, Jackson came over and socked Chubb, as we saw on film. Jackson appealed his two-game suspension, which was reduced to one game by the league on Wednesday, so he's only going to miss this Sunday's game for the Rams.
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Speaker 1: What's your opinion about all that post-game? It's stupid. It's just a waste of everybody's time. And energy, and And Chubb admitted that he initiated it. Yeah.
00:08:06
Speaker 3: With the commentary.
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Speaker 1: They were smack talking the whole game. I mean, he's pointing at them. Yeah. And he was talking at him, you know, when Jackson came up to him after the fact. And, I don't know, I'm a little surprised by it.
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Speaker 3: By Chubb?
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Speaker 1: By the John after the game. Usually when you're going after the game, usually it's like anything goes during the game.
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Speaker 3: So he was, he, Chubb, was kind of outlining everything, and he said they were jawing at us the whole game, and when they were going down thinking they were going to kick the winning field goal, they got really brave and were really laying it on them, and then they missed the kick, and he's like, the whole thing changed. They got real quiet, real fast. So I don't know if that bothered Chubb that they were all confident, confident, confident, and then all of a sudden they're quiet as church mice. So I don't know. It's such a waste of time. Just play the game. Just play the game.
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Speaker 1: Yeah. It is a waste of time, although. I get it's an emotional sport. It's an emotional sport. More so than most others. And you can push buttons and make it work to your advantage when you get a guy that loses his mind. Yeah, but after the game, I'm like, man, I'm ready to be done.
00:09:22
Speaker 3: Flush it on to the next. Yeah. Let's go around the NFL. Raiders running back Ashton Genting. admitted to reporters that he is not 100% healthy. The running back's been hampered by an ankle injury that he sustained all the way back in the preseason, three weeks before the regular season started. Genting then appeared to re-aggravate that ankle injury in the team's week four loss to the Chiefs. He's also listed this week with a foot injury on the Raiders injury report, which reportedly happened during the Las Vegas loss to New England last Sunday. though he was listed as a full participant on the injury report Wednesday. Jenty told The Athletic, quote, unless I can't run, jump, cut, I'm playing. Football's a tough game. You're never going to play feeling 100%, so at the end of the day, I just want to go out there and do my best for my teammates and whatever it takes. Head coach Clint Kubiak said, quote, yes, Ashton is beat up. Raiders have had a major problem running the football. They rank 28th in the league in rushing and average just 82 yards on the ground per game. It has put a lot of undue pressure on Kirk Cousins to make hay in the passing game. They've been limited, and most defenses in the early stages of this season have rendered the Raiders' offense one-dimensional, and that's been part of their problem the last two weeks especially. And the Bills will be looking to do the same thing.
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Speaker 1: And luckily for the Raiders, they've got Brock Bauer, who's having a fantastic season. Yep. buried their passing game from the tight end spot. But yeah, it has, being one-dimensional makes you predictable. Yeah. And they've struggled with that, particularly the last couple of weeks. They played really well. They have played really well all five games. They lost a tight one to the Chiefs. And, you know, Bill's fans can relate to that. I watched that game. That was a back-and-forth game. Yeah, you can relate to that. The Patriot game this last week looks like they're trending down, but that game got away from the, Raiders late. It was a tight football game up until... Certainly through the first half. Yeah, through midway or late in the third, early fourth quarter, that game was very close.
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Speaker 3: Their problem was they got beat on some deep balls over the top.
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Speaker 1: Right, and then they got, yeah, then they started letting the lid off the defense and it looked lopsided, more lopsided than maybe the game. Because they gave up two 30-plus yard touchdowns. Drake may drop some dimes. Yeah, so the Raiders, they're playing well. They're playing well. Even though the stuff we've talked about, they're one-dimensional offensively, or at least struggling to run. And Cousins is not one of those guys that's going to run and hurt you with his legs too much. But they're getting it done. They're playing well, even in the midst of a two-game losing streak.
00:12:07
Speaker 3: I'm just going to tell you right now, if you have not seen Brock Bowers play, he might be the best tight end in football right now.
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Speaker 6: Already.
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Speaker 1: We'll talk to... Greg Cosell, and he'll tell you he's got some stuff out that Bowers is proving to be able to do a lot of things that we didn't know he could do in college because he was never asked to do it. A lot of stuff post-snap. He's flourishing. He's flourishing.
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Speaker 3: I've been up next to Brock Bowers and His legs are like tree trunks. Like a tight end should not have legs like that. Like ridiculously muscular legs and he can fly. Tight ends should not be able to run that fast. And this is a guy that's had knee problems already. I mean, they already pace him through the practice week. Remember, he missed a lot of games last year because of a knee injury. Even the beginning of this year, he was a little dinged. So he's always dealing with knee problems, and I fear that his career is not going to be a super long one, but it's like he's playing a different sport. He's going to be a handful. The Bills should do to Bowers what a lot of teams are doing to Kincaid, like bracket coverage, two guys in his vicinity at all times.
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Speaker 1: If they take Bauer off the score sheet, they're going to win the game.
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Speaker 3: He's got 20 catches for 202 yards and two touchdowns the last two weeks, so Last two weeks, not the season, just two weeks. Teams are having trouble with him, and it's because he is an elite, elite talent. Lamar Jackson did not practice Wednesday as he works through an ankle injury that kept him out of last week's game against the Falcons. Head coach Jesse Minter called him day-to-day. We've talked about him enough. Newly acquired Texans wideout Marvin Harrison Jr. going to play against the Jacksonville Jaguars in London on Sunday. That, according to head coach D'Amico Ryan's. Quick turnaround for Harrison. Just arrived in Houston on Monday after the trade. And it looks like Harrison, who has just five catches on 13 targets for 85 yards and a touchdown this season, is going to be part of the game plan. He said Wednesday he views the new chapter as a great opportunity as he reunites with his college quarterback at Ohio State, C.J.
00:14:26
Speaker 1: Stroud.
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Speaker 3: They're certainly hoping to tap into something there. Because if it doesn't work there... Yeah. Yeah, that's... I mean, the clock's ticking on that guy. He got in on Monday, and it was a big deal. They showed him and C.J. walking on the practice field together. They're back in the saddle. We can all kind of relate to getting a new spot. Here we go. Let's work our way into it and getting a fresh start.
00:14:55
Speaker 1: We'll see.
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Speaker 3: The team that he left, the Arizona Cardinals, are hoping to have rookie running back Jeremiah Love back in the lineup this week. But he did not practice Wednesday as he continues to rest his ailing left ankle. His status for Sunday's game against the Rams still up in the air, according to head coach Mike LaFleur. The plan, according to LaFleur, is to take Love's ankle one day at a time. But Cardinals understand for it to fully heal, third overall pick, probably going to need to stay off it. They haven't said whether it's a high ankle sprain, but I suspect it is. And cutting off of a high ankle sprain is extremely painful. And that's what a running back does on every single play. So they may have to just shut him down for a couple of weeks and just wait until it's right.
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Speaker 7: Right.
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Speaker 3: Instead of just trying to triage the thing and have him play at like 80%.
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Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:15:46
Speaker 3: Thursday night football features the Seahawks and the Broncos in Denver. Seahawks ruled out starting linebacker Drake Thomas and running back Zach Charbonnet for the game. Wide receiver Jackson Smith and Jigba and defensive tackle Leonard Williams have no game designations, though they are both dealing with ankle injuries. Head coach Mike McDonald said of Smith and Jigba and Williams, those guys, they're ready to play, looked good on the short week, so they will be up and active for tonight's game. That's a biggie. That's an old AFC West matchup. Remember when the Seahawks won the AFC?
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Speaker 1: I do. Seahawks won the AFC. Young kiddos don't remember that. With Denver, Kansas City... Raiders. The Raiders.
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Speaker 3: And who else was it?
00:16:30
Speaker 1: Chargers.
00:16:30
Speaker 3: Chargers, yeah.
00:16:31
Speaker 1: That was the old AFC West. There's five of them. There used to be five. They used to have three Central, East, and West. There were five teams out there? Yeah, there used to be five back in the days, in the 80s, and I can't remember. It was Seahawks, Broncos, Chiefs. Oilers were in the Central. That's it. Seahawks, Broncos, Chiefs, Raiders, Chargers.
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Speaker 3: Yeah. Seahawks are the only team.
00:16:54
Speaker 1: Not Then they realigned. Most people, they treat the realignment like it's chiseled in stone. I've seen it done three times. Yeah. Three times in my lifetime, in my time in the league. I mean, I remember when the Atlanta Falcons were in the NFC West. Right.
00:17:12
Speaker 3: Do you remember that? Oh, my gosh. That's like, man.
00:17:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, because the NFC Central was like Detroit, Chicago, Green Bay. Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay and... Not Cleveland. Who was the other one? Minnesota. And Tampa. Because they wanted a southern team in there, right? And so they threw Atlanta west. Yeah, that was rough.
00:17:39
Speaker 3: Imagine the travel miles for them. Three division games on the road all on the west coast. God dang. Talk about getting hosed.
00:17:47
Speaker 1: There were 28 teams divided into eight teams. Well, six divisions. Six divisions. So you had.
00:17:59
Speaker 3: The Central was the one that only had the four teams.
00:18:01
Speaker 1: That's right.
00:18:01
Speaker 3: Houston, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh.
00:18:06
Speaker 1: That's right.
00:18:06
Speaker 3: It was the old AFC Central.
00:18:07
Speaker 1: That's right. Because Baltimore was NFC. Baltimore was the Colts.
00:18:15
Speaker 3: The Colts.
00:18:17
Speaker 1: And they were an old NFC team. But then they moved over. Yeah. They were original. That's before my time. That was like Johnny Unitas.
00:18:24
Speaker 3: But then the AFC East, when they moved to Indianapolis, Colts were in the AFC East.
00:18:29
Speaker 1: That's right, because the Colts, remember, played in the Super Bowl against the Jets. Yeah, because they were NFL. Jets were AFL. That's wild. So everybody thinks that alignment in all these... Oh, they're not going to change.
00:18:46
Speaker 3: Not so fast.
00:18:47
Speaker 1: They will. I think it's a fun conversation to have. As to what it would be if they used a different philosophy to divide up the divisions. There's certain things that nobody would want.
00:19:06
Speaker 3: Well, there's no way that Jerry Jones is ever going to let his team leave the NFC East because he likes the big market football. Oh, sure.
00:19:14
Speaker 1: Sure. My thing has always been.
00:19:17
Speaker 3: Even though regionally it makes no sense.
00:19:19
Speaker 1: You should just chop the league, go in rankings on the TV broadcast market size. Do it that way. Top four teams here, top next four, next four, next four, next four.
00:19:30
Speaker 3: I did that.
00:19:30
Speaker 1: So we'll play Jacksonville and Green Bay every year? Jacksonville, Green Bay, and you know what the other one is? New Orleans? Jacksonville, Green Bay, New Orleans.
00:19:37
Speaker 3: Maybe Indy?
00:19:38
Speaker 1: No, New Orleans. It's New Orleans, Jacksonville, Buffalo, Green Bay. It'd be kind of nice... Two southern teams, two northern teams.
00:19:49
Speaker 3: Look at you.
00:19:50
Speaker 1: Is that another task or plan? Yeah, and then there's another one. You know what the NFC East would be? It would be Chicago, Dallas, Philly, Washington. And the other teams... And the other division would be Jets, Giants, New England, Chargers, Rams.
00:20:13
Speaker 3: Oh, I see what you're doing.
00:20:15
Speaker 1: Okay. All those teams would be in the same division. That'd be kind of cool, man. We should do that.
00:20:20
Speaker 3: I don't think so.
00:20:21
Speaker 1: Come on. No. Not going to do it. Then there's another one. I've said this before. One of the divisions would be Seattle. Miami.
00:20:29
Speaker 3: Oh, God.
00:20:30
Speaker 1: Seattle, Miami, Arizona, and Boston. The Four Corners Division? Yeah, the Four Corners Division.
00:20:34
Speaker 3: Oh, my God.
00:20:35
Speaker 1: How about it? Let's go.
00:20:37
Speaker 3: Disastrous.
00:20:38
Speaker 1: Yeah. So there you go. But still, the realignment is not as far-fetched as people think. It's been done a ton.
00:20:46
Speaker 3: Let's give you our topic of discussion today where you can weigh in. And we're asking you today, in light of Jim Leonard's comments earlier this week, what changes do you expect him to make To his defense, after the comments he made, and in case you didn't see the comments Jim Leonard made in his press conference on Tuesday, when asked about his defense and potential changes, he said, quote, right now it's too inconsistent to pretend that we're building and working and making improvements. Everything's being evaluated right now, starting with every decision I'm making, and we've got to put him in better positions to have success. Guys have to make plays when given opportunities, and it really comes down to just finishing games. We have stretches where we play good football, stretches where we get things accomplished, but sustaining it for 60 minutes or 60 minutes plus in the case of Monday night has not happened. So we went on to say, I've got faith in coaches and players that we're going to make the adjustments needed. And this is professional football. If we don't feel like the answers are here, then yeah, there needs to be some big conversations. First things first, we've got to fix it with what we have and the players that we're playing with on Sundays and who we're game planning for. We've got to find a way to give them game plans that we can go out there and execute. As we know, he already made a change last week. Davison Igbenosin into the starting lineup. He played 69 snaps. Max Hairston played 17. Anthony Kendall was added to the active roster just for this past week to help at nickel in the absence of Dee Alford and to Corey Couch and Jordan Hancock. So he and DeMar Hamlin kind of worked in there in the nickel corner spot. Kendall has since been re-signed to the practice squad and Mike Dana back to the active roster but what changes do you expect from Jim Leonard with his defense whether it's personnel related whether you think it's scheme related whether you think it's player rotation related maybe they rotate more on the D-line although I don't think the D-line is the problem but you let us know 716-427-0989 the number to jump on board what changes are you expecting from defensive coordinator Jim Leonard with his defense this week against the Raiders. What do you think is coming down the pike here? I think it's X's and O's that they're going to change more than people. They're not going to throw guys, kick guys to the curb. There's only so much they can do, particularly with the injuries that mount up and the fact that every time you make a change, all of a sudden something happens. You've got to make the change back the way it was because of an injury or whatever or a matchup problem. Yeah, I think the coaching staff is jumping through hoops trying to give these guys– enough of a menu to be unpredictable defensively and to let them do what they do best and then also trim it down so that they know what they're doing.
00:23:39
Speaker 1: Reduce volume. Yeah, reduce the volume. You kind of picture it like a tree where the trunk of the tree is what we do, right? Yeah. Then you branch off maybe three or four branches and then it's you know, the tree forks, and then it forks again and forks again and forks again pretty soon, you've got all this whole canopy of leaves that you can do anything you want.
00:24:03
Speaker 3: Do we need a Charlie Brown Christmas tree right now?
00:24:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, you kind of need a Charlie Brown Christmas tree right now. Yeah, a little bit of that. So they're pruning branches, I think, right now. Yeah.
00:24:15
Speaker 3: I think there might be some player shifting, nothing major, but I think, like, for example, I think they might, give somebody like TJ Parker 10 more snaps in the game. He's flashed at times, and I think he's flashing more and more, and so it wouldn't surprise me if he maybe eats into Bradley Chubb's snaps a little bit more.
00:24:37
Speaker 1: Sure.
00:24:38
Speaker 3: Maybe there's a few more snaps for Caleb Elarms, who only got seven last week on defense. I think he's got as many as 15 in a game. Now, obviously... Down and distance will factor into that because they usually bring him in in obvious pass-down situations because they like his coverage ability. So how the game unfolds kind of predicates that to some extent, too. But I could see him maybe getting a few more snaps in there a little bit.
00:25:07
Speaker 1: And here's the thing that we talk about all the time. Some of these, like Landon Jackson, Dwayne Carter, TJ Sanders, TJ Parker, the young guys that we talk about it. Some of these guys are starting to spread their wings a little bit. They're starting to get the hang of this. Other guys, because of injuries or whatever, are stagnant. Who knows which ones. We may never know what the coaching staff feels about these guys or how they've changed from the beginning of training camp until game six coming up. Some of these guys, like TJ Sanders and Dwayne Carter, I feel like and TJ Parker as well, I feel like they're getting better on the one-on-one matchups. You know what I mean?
00:25:51
Speaker 3: And that's why I feel like they might get worked in a little bit more and there might be a more frequent rotation there up front, which is ironic because I think a lot of people would argue it's the back end that's been the problem here because the coverage is not hanging in there long enough to let the guys up front to finish plays with the quarterback on the ground or something like that. So I'm curious how they... how they handicap that to make it more effective. We got to take a break here, but 716-427-0989, the number to jump on board as we are asking you, what changes do you expect Jim Leonard to make to his defense this coming week against the Raiders? 716-427-0989, got open lines for you there. If you don't have time to make a phone call, not a problem. You can always hit us up on the Tweed Sheet at One Bills Live on X. Your phone calls coming your way next here on a Thursday edition of One Bills Live, live from California, out on the left coast. All right, welcome back to a Thursday edition of One Bills Live. Chris Brown, Steve Tasker with you. Coming to you live from sunny California, where the Bills are practicing all week in advance of their Week 6 game against the Raiders. And the question on the table for you today is what changes do you expect Jim Leonard to make to his defense in the wake of his comments earlier this week? He basically indicated changes are coming because the results are not... acceptable. So, do you think that's players? Do you think that's scheme? Do you think that's something else? Maybe it's player rotation? Whatever you think it might be, you let us know. It's 716-427-0989. Open lines for you there, or you can hit us up on the tweet sheet at OneBillsLive. But let's go to the phones, and leading us off today is Joe in Williamsville. What do you got for us, Joe? You're on OneBillsLive. Hey, guys.
00:28:04
Speaker 7: Nice to talk with you. My take on Joe Brady's threatening to reduce Cook's carries, I'm getting my voice is repeating. I'm sorry. Anyway, I disagree with the fact that they're going to cut James Cook's playing time because ball security is important, but you have to realize that the Cook, when you compare him, is he going to, are they going to reduce Allen's time? Because Allen has more turnovers than Cook does.
00:28:45
Speaker 4: And I could argue that the.
00:28:47
Speaker 7: New England game, we lost that New England game because Allen threw that interception at the end of the game.
00:28:53
Speaker 4: Go ahead.
00:28:54
Speaker 7: I'll let you comment.
00:28:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, that's, that's fine, Joe. I get where you're coming from. Um, Obviously, Josh handles the ball far more often than James does. James might have 24, 25 carries in a game, and Josh is handling the ball on every single play. So naturally, with the more decisions that he has to make in the course of a game, the odds are he's going to probably have more turnovers by the time you get to the end of the season because he's throwing the ball, he's carrying the ball at times. So the law of averages is going to tell you He's presumably going to want, I mean, every team in the league, their quarterback is probably responsible for the most turnovers on their team. I don't know that that argument tracks.
00:29:40
Speaker 1: You're comparing apples to oranges a little bit because it's a different position. Joe didn't threaten to cut Cook's reps. He just said if it continues like it is, something will change. Nobody expects James Cook to continue to fumble. except maybe the Raiders, right? They're going to go out and try and make him fumble. So it's a little bit strong to say Joe threatened to do it, but he just stated the obvious. If the guy's going to fumble at every game, he might put Ty Johnson in or Ray Davis in a little bit more. Another thing, too, is the difference between playing quarterback and playing running back is what kind of you're talking about. And They're not treated the same because, like Brownie said, Josh has got his hands on the ball every single play. They had 50, what was it, 57, 52 plays offensively or something?
00:30:41
Speaker 3: I think it was 50. I'll have to go look.
00:30:44
Speaker 1: They had 55 plays. Josh handled the ball on all of them and had the arm punt on a third and six deep in their own end. James Cook has fumbled the ball in every game.
00:31:01
Speaker 3: And right now, since the start of the 2025 season, he's averaging a fumble once every 40 carries. It's the highest rate in football among running backs. It's the highest rate in the league. So you're comparing Cook to Allen. Compare Cook to the rest of the running backs in the league. He's the number one most frequent fumbler since the start of the 2025 season.
00:31:23
Speaker 1: That's a problem. The reason, as well, in my opinion... there's all the old-time coaches, you fumble the ball, you're off the field. And, I mean, after one fumble, right? So, that happens. You know, now, because James Cook is who he is, they didn't do that. They left him out there. Yeah. Well, he's still doing that. So, you know, now you've got, now what do you do? You have to make an adjustment if you're a coaching staff. Like I told Brownie yesterday, Joe Brady and Pete Carmichael. They've got a responsibility to Josh and Kincaid and all those guys to give them the best chance to win. They don't want to put a guy out there that's going to put the ball on the ground anymore.
00:32:06
Speaker 3: And the reason it's a difficult balance is because of what even Dan Orlovsky said yesterday on the show when we were talking to him about it. And he said, the Bills cannot win a Super Bowl without James Cook. Right. And so you're like, what do I do here? Because I want to win the game and Cook is our best back, but he's fumbling the ball and If he does that two times in this game, it reduces our chances to win this game dramatically. So it's a difficult push-pull situation that they have to come down with a firm decision on. And at the same time, everybody knows it's out there. And here's the other part of the equation, Steve. The Raiders lead the league. Tied for the league lead in takeaways.
00:32:55
Speaker 5: Right.
00:32:56
Speaker 3: And they lead the league in forced fumbles, and they lead the league in fumble recoveries. So it's got to get fixed in a hurry here because the Raiders are really good at ripping the ball out or punching the ball out. I don't know what the caller would do. What would you do? We should ask, what would you do? How would you handle James Cook's fumble? Are you John Quinones from that show on NBC?
00:33:20
Speaker 1: What would you do? What's your solution? What's your solution? You've got to change the guy's mindset when he's got the ball in his hand. Yeah. I mean, it's about being aware of it all the time. It's about thinking about the ball first when you're trying to run and run away from big dudes who are trying to tackle you.
00:33:37
Speaker 7: Yeah.
00:33:37
Speaker 1: You've got to do two things at once. You know, I don't know what the caller's solution is, but here's the thing. You've got to fix it.
00:33:48
Speaker 3: Yeah. It's got to be addressed. You've got to fix it. No question about it. Let's get back to the phones, and we go to Mark in Jersey City next. What's up, Mark? Good morning, gentlemen.
00:33:59
Speaker 8: Thanks for taking my call. You guys spoke yesterday about this a little bit, and you said how we're getting good pressure up front. Didn't get home as much on Monday, but the pressure was there. And I think the previous week, May was pressured the most times in a game. He was able to leak out a little bit. The run defense has been stout for the most part, but the back end has been Swiss cheese. And for almost the better part of a decade, we wished we had stout run defense and a good pass rush. It's like we can't have both. So the thing that had been ailing the Bills for so long is the thing that seems to be their strength and the thing that was their only thing that they hung their hat on defense is their Achilles heel and howl. I will say Stafford did slice up McDermott's defense the last time they were in L.A. before this.
00:34:55
Speaker 3: Yep.
00:34:56
Speaker 8: They really, you know, they got shredded. And I think they scored 44, Bill scored 42, or I forget the final score.
00:35:05
Speaker 3: Of that game.
00:35:06
Speaker 1: Yep, right.
00:35:07
Speaker 8: I just call it. But in terms of changes, I think we just kind of have to, you know, we know what certain guys are. They've been here long enough.
00:35:17
Speaker 3: We know what the.
00:35:17
Speaker 8: Dorian Williams are. They flash, they have good games, you know, they look great running around with the threats. You know, they look the part, but guys like Bernard, even though he has a ski on his chest, you can't keep.
00:35:30
Speaker 1: He's late.
00:35:31
Speaker 8: You see it, he gets caught in the wash too much. He kind of like, he does pile watch. Like whatever McDean said about pile watching, I've seen him do it. He shows up a little too early, a little too late. You need something different there. You just need something different there. You can't have that. There's too many busts for there not to be an issue there. Thanks for taking my call, guys.
00:35:58
Speaker 3: People are wondering, Mark among them, if there'll be a change at the second level of the defense. You've got Dorian Williams and Terrell Bernard there. The backups are Caleb Elarms or Joe Andreessen, who's an outstanding special teams player. You got Shaq Thompson on the practice squad. So, I don't know. Does something change there? We'll have to see. That's a pretty big change if you're going to change your defensive captain, the guy with the green dot. But I get it. There's a vocal minority out there among the fan base that wants to see changes at linebacker. I don't know that it's going to happen. we'll have to wait and see what it brings, but Jim Leonard wants better results. What does that mean to you? What changes do you think he's going to make with his defense this coming week against the Raiders? 716-427-0989, the number to get on board. Got open lines for you there, or you can hit us up on the tweet sheet at OneBillsLive. Let's go to Frank on a cell. Frank, what do you got for us here on OneBillsLive?
00:37:11
Speaker 9: Good morning, gentlemen.
00:37:14
Speaker 7: Here it is.
00:37:17
Speaker 9: Them chairs you're sitting in look like they're not comfortable.
00:37:21
Speaker 3: Okay?
00:37:22
Speaker 9: And I think, I don't want to talk about negative fumbling the football. You must talk positive in everything you do. You must not go into the game thinking, we're going to fumble the ball again. You know, we can't think of that. We just got to go out and play our best game we can put out.
00:37:45
Speaker 3: There, okay?
00:37:46
Speaker 9: You got to get out of them chairs, both of you, because them chairs are not comfortable as I look at you on the TV. So have a good day in big California. You're in California, you're in Beijing.
00:38:00
Speaker 3: All right, bye.
00:38:01
Speaker 1: Frank, thank you for your concern. I appreciate it. Actually, these chairs are a little bit more comfortable than the ones we usually sit in. Yeah, they're, yeah, they're, They're rather plush. They're kind of plush. Maybe we'll look too comfortable. I'm sitting here with my legs crossed. I've got my elbow resting with my head. We're doing this show from like a quote-unquote speakeasy. Right. We rented the whole thing out. Like over here, there's a whole bar. And there's little nooks and crannies for people to sit in and come in and kind of have a quiet evening with a little drink in their hand. And we're doing the show from there. It's nice. No, these chairs are... I don't know why he thinks we're not comfortable. I couldn't look more comfortable. Yeah.
00:38:41
Speaker 3: I mean, maybe I'm twisted up a little because I'm trying to, you know, move through the.
00:38:46
Speaker 1: We do have to move some tables. They have a small table here. We moved in and changed it out for a big table every morning. But, no, this is very comfortable here. Yeah.
00:38:55
Speaker 3: I mean, we usually sit at a square table of some kind, and this one is round. So maybe that just throws off the dynamic of what people are observing with us that are watching on MSG. And listen.
00:39:06
Speaker 1: Frank, we're talking about what people want to talk about. Turn over their problem.
00:39:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think he's talking about as it relates to the team, like psychologically, don't talk about it. Focus on the positive. And look, the players are definitely doing that. But there is it is a thing that needs to be rectified. And fumbling the football has to be rectified because it's because an ongoing issue it has not you cannot call it a one game problem it is an ongoing problem this season for James Cook and for some others I mean other guys have been victimized too Kincaid from behind left it out there to get punched out Khalil Shakir left it out there to get punched out. So it's not just James Cook, although the numbers say he has been the biggest part of that problem. So, yeah, it's got to get rectified because you can't keep putting the ball on the ground. As Joe Brady said himself on Tuesday in his press conference, it's going to cost us a game at some point in time if it continues. And he's 100% right.
00:40:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's no way around it.
00:40:19
Speaker 3: Got to step aside and take a break here, but when we come back, we'll get right back to your phone calls. We'll be leading off with Bill down in Dallas at 716-427-0989. What changes do you expect Jim Leonard to make to his defense this weekend after he said changes are coming? Your call is next here on One Bill's Live. All right, back here on One Pills Live, Chris Brown, Steve Tasker with you. Topic of today, what changes do you expect Jim Leonard to make to his defense after his comments earlier this week that essentially indicated changes are coming? 716-427-0989, the number to jump on board. And as promised, we lead off with Bill in Dallas. What do you got for us, Bill?
00:41:13
Speaker 5: Good morning, gentlemen, and welcome to the fans' high expectations once you start winning. The defense only has to be as good as they can be right now.
00:41:26
Speaker 10: They don't have to be world beaters right now.
00:41:28
Speaker 5: It's still early in the season. If the same things are happening after week eight, then you have a problem. But it's early. You want to be playing your best football at the end of the season. Give these young guys time to figure out this defense, figure out what they're doing, and where they should be, and you're going to be fine. On the thing with the fumbling, if you watch this land, man, that's all he was trying to do is punch out the ball. He wasn't trying to make a tackle. He wasn't doing anything other than that. On Josh Allen, where Josh Allen took off, faked him out, and ran down the field, and once they stopped him and stood him up, land man is probably throwing three or four punches trying to get the.
00:42:05
Speaker 8: Ball out of Josh Allen's hand.
00:42:07
Speaker 5: So James Cook is going to be fine. Let him run, let him run, let him run. Thank you, guys, and have a good day in California.
00:42:17
Speaker 3: All right. Thank you much, Bill. Appreciate the phone call.
00:42:20
Speaker 1: So Bill's solution is nothing.
00:42:25
Speaker 3: That's right.
00:42:26
Speaker 1: Just hope for better. There's nothing to fix.
00:42:29
Speaker 3: Hope for better. Okay.
00:42:32
Speaker 1: Okay.
00:42:32
Speaker 3: And look, I get it because I think everybody knows the Bills need James Cook at his best if they're going to go where they want to go this year.
00:42:42
Speaker 1: He's a problem, man. There's just no two ways about it. He's a problem as a runner for opponents.
00:42:50
Speaker 3: But the fumbling issue has to be addressed and knowing that teams are going to be coming in with that peanut punch all the more because it's been effective against him. He and running backs coach Kelly Skipper have to find a way, whether it's technique wise, covering up the ball in a different fashion like You know, whether you're running with it like this and not at your side, like run it like this, like you're in a fullback dive kind of carry. If that's what it takes to not fumble the football and maybe it makes you a hair less elusive, you may have to resort to that, at least in the interim or whenever there is someone within arm's length of you.
00:43:27
Speaker 1: Right.
00:43:28
Speaker 3: I mean, you got to do something to at least prevent it and calm the waters for the next couple of games where people on tape like, oh, Now he's running like that. We're not going to be able to use the punch anymore. We're going to have to do something else.
00:43:41
Speaker 1: You know?
00:43:42
Speaker 3: And then maybe you can get back to the way you've always carried the football. We'll have to wait and see.
00:43:46
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:43:46
Speaker 3: Let's go to Al and Clarence next. What do you got for us, Al?
00:43:51
Speaker 10: Hey, guys. Nobody's feeling sorry for you two having to get up that early to do the show because it looks beautiful out there.
00:44:00
Speaker 1: Right.
00:44:01
Speaker 10: Really missing a damn thing. I think the thing... What we're going to eventually have to do is make some trades. I think this is squarely on Bean. I'd like to see him go get Dante Jackson, cornerback from San Diego, and Buda Baker for safety if he fits the system. I mean, how many years are you going to let Josh weigh his prime here? I don't know. I'm not talking where I think you'd have to give up more draft picks than maybe a fifth for Jackson. I don't know what you think of Buda, but he's 31 years old.
00:44:43
Speaker 1: What position are you talking about?
00:44:45
Speaker 3: He's talking about corner and safety, Steve. Thanks, Al, for the call. Appreciate it. Both corner and safety. Yeah, because Buda Baker's a safety. Dante Jackson's a corner. I will say this. Chargers might be willing to move players off their books. I mean, they're 0-5, and they are going nowhere this year. Now, here's the beauty of it. The trade deadline is even later this year. It's now November 10th. So you can let this kind of simmer. Maybe you make some exploratory phone calls if, and I'm saying if, Brandon Bean and the personnel department believe they have to augment the roster with more player talent.
00:45:22
Speaker 1: Well, the coaching staff will let Brandon Bean know. I mean, the coaching staff will tell us that these guys aren't good enough. We're getting to that point. We're getting very close.
00:45:31
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:45:32
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:45:33
Speaker 3: Because between week six and eight, to me, that's the time where it's getting late early. If you still don't think the players on your roster are improving to a level where you can play consistently on that side of the ball, and that's when I think this team is going to make a difference. That's why these changes are happening now. You heard what Jim Leonard said. He said, we're going to try to make it work with the people that we have, but this is professional football.
00:45:59
Speaker 1: And if that doesn't work, The next step is to look outside. You have to have big conversations. Yeah, which means looking outside the organization.
00:46:07
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:46:07
Speaker 1: This is all hypothetical because we don't even know what the coaching staff thinks about the guys they have in the room or what the problems are. If they haven't made changes to places, like we got all kinds of people clamoring for the second level of the defense to be switched out, have heard nothing like that from the coaching staff. They may be looking at this like going, Benford really is trying to cover up for this guy and this guy and that guy. Every time we call a defense, he's trying to do this guy's job and his job. Or same thing with KEO or Dorian Williams or whatever. They're trying to cover up for some stuff that's going on around. We don't know. This is all hypothetical and if this is true, then this will be true as well. Maybe it is. Maybe it's not. We don't know the the basic math yet, but all we can see is the results. They're giving up a ton of points. We don't know that the reason they're giving up a ton of points is the same in week five as it was in week one or two. Maybe it is. Um, the defensive line doesn't seem to be getting sacks as much as they did in weeks one and two, but we'll see injuries have a play, a play a part in this as well. Uh, All of a sudden, they got thin real fast in the secondary when he started dropping people. Right, but they weren't covering people well from the very beginning. And they got Anthony Kendall coming up from the practice squad. Now he's back on the practice squad. So they've got like six juggling balls that they're trying to get in the air all at once. And now they're changing.
00:47:46
Speaker 3: So.
00:47:48
Speaker 1: This is all hypothetical, and we all have our ideas because we've seen other teams kind of have to make these same adjustments. But this is, you know, Jim Leonard is right. Something's got to give.
00:48:03
Speaker 3: And we'll probably get some evidence of where they think they're faltering with some of the changes he makes this week.
00:48:10
Speaker 1: And the evidence might be they don't make a change personnel-wise.
00:48:13
Speaker 3: Might not.
00:48:13
Speaker 1: And then it comes back to the X's and O's and the schemes and the play callers. Then we'll see.
00:48:18
Speaker 3: And he's pointed at himself as well and said they'll try to do some things to make it easier for them. So we'll see. Let's squeeze Mike in Syracuse in before the break here. What's up, Mike? Good morning, guys.
00:48:31
Speaker 11: I'll get my comments in quick because you guys are going to go to break or whatever. I think that a possible solution, and this is just you know, me spitballing, but I know you mentioned it, is maybe is elevating Shaq Thompson to fill in a linebacker. My only reasoning behind that is that last year I thought he played well for us, even though he was quite an injury at the end of the season. I thought that he emerged as a good leader back there because I've noticed, especially last game with the defense struggling, that a lot of the young guys were arguing amongst each other, things like that. I think someone needs to emerge as a leader and kind of take command there, and I thought he was able to do that last year. Plus, he's a hard tackler. Um, my other small thing would be if we can get away with it, which is hard to say, because I think Benford is our best cover corner right now. He was fighting his injury again in the last game. If we can possibly get away without him playing this week, considering we're playing a team that is good, but I don't think their offense is going to be nearly as good as the Rams. let him sit, rest, make sure his injury is, is completely recovered from, because then we got to buy as well, um, to make sure that he has, he can get right healthy so that he can come back at a hundred percent and, um, hopefully be able to dominate at the corner position. Uh, that's all I got and go build.
00:49:50
Speaker 3: All right. Thanks Mike. Appreciate it. Um, yeah, I mean, when Shaq Thompson played in this defense last year, you noticed him, you felt his presence. He's an alpha male.
00:50:01
Speaker 1: He's a hammer.
00:50:02
Speaker 3: Um, You know, made the interception in the Jacksonville playoff game last year. He's a playmaker, and he's a leader. So it does make you wonder if that's a lever that Jim Leonard might pull. We'll just have to wait and see.
00:50:17
Speaker 1: One of the things you mentioned, too, is you've got young guys out there, and when the play's over, they're kind of arguing with each other about it. There's only so much they can be arguing about, because if they're arguing, both of them thought they were right.
00:50:29
Speaker 10: Yeah.
00:50:31
Speaker 1: But to his point, that's where you need a leader, though, to kind of say, hey, and break that up. You've got to get them right. I mean, if they both think they did the right thing and they didn't, that's a problem. And if they both think they're right and they're talking to each other and they find out one of them was playing one defense and the other guy was playing it a different way, who's right and who's wrong and how do you play it the right way and how do you make sure you know? You've got to talk to each other about what's going on out there. So if you've got guys arguing after the play, everybody who argues thinks they're the right one. That's where the disconnect comes. If you've got guys playing it and thinking they're right and they're not, that's the crux of the problem right there. And that comes down to communication.
00:51:19
Speaker 3: Yep. Got to take a break here. When we come back, hour number two begins with our good friend, senior producer from NFL Films, Greg Cosell, going to join us, talk some X's and O's about the Monday night game, and we'll look ahead to Bills Raiders with Greg next here on One Bills Live.
00:51:48
Speaker 4: Love y'all boys.
00:51:50
Speaker 2: He is a beast with a capital B. The cook is in the kitchen. Looks down the sideline.
00:51:59
Speaker 3: He's got Kincaid for a 23-yard touchdown.
00:52:04
Speaker 2: And it's intercepted. Jumping up in the air is meant for.
00:52:14
Speaker 3: This is One Pills Live. All right, ready to begin hour number two. Chris Brown, Steve Tasker with you. We welcome in senior producer from NFL Films, Greg Cosell, also co-host of ESPN's NFL Matchup Show. Well, we thought it would be entertaining. It was a slow first half, Greg, on Monday Night Football, but holy cow, the two teams combined for 50 points in the second half. as the defense is kind of looked like Swiss cheese a little bit there. What was your, what was your ultimate takeaway from the Monday night game?
00:52:51
Speaker 4: I would say this. I think it's hard to play defense when you have to play 80 plays in a game, give or take. And that's a hard thing. And I think the Bills defense has played a lot of plays this year. And I, you know, that's something there's, there's obviously multiple factors and variables for that. Not just, the defense, I'm sure, but still that, that's a hard road to hoe. And, uh, uh, you know, I think however they're dealing with that, I think that's something you have to, you have to deal with because that's just too hard.
00:53:23
Speaker 1: And what do you, what did you think about, certainly both these offenses took a hot minute to get on track. Why do you think that is?
00:53:30
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:53:31
Speaker 4: I mean, I was kind of surprised to be honest with you with the Rams because, um, obviously Stafford's a great player, but Do they really want to have him drop back that many times in a game? I was very surprised by that because the score certainly didn't dictate that he had to drop back close to 60 times. And normally, guys, they will run the ball. I mean, as you know, I'm sure as you prepare for the game, Brownie, you know, they've been a good running team and they run the ball. And to have him drop back close to 60 times in a game that was never out of hand for them, I mean, it was a close game all the way through pretty much. That really surprised me.
00:54:13
Speaker 3: Let's kind of spin it forward right into the Raiders game since it's already Thursday. The Raiders cannot run the football. I know Ashton Gentry is not 100% healthy, but what do you see as the biggest factors that are preventing the Raiders from being a two-dimensional offense?
00:54:33
Speaker 4: Yeah, the offensive line is really struggling. There's not a lot of room. I was very, very surprised in watching the tape this week that Dylan Laub ended up getting meaningful snaps ahead of Mike Washington. And that was a coach's decision, apparently. And again, I'm not there every day, so I certainly don't know what goes on, but I like Mike Washington a lot. And I actually think overall, he's a better back than Jenty, who I liked coming out of college, but I didn't think Jenty was, wasn't a great prospect. I thought he was a solid prospect. And their run game has been absolutely non-existent. And For Clint Kubiak, he wants everything to start with the run game. But I think the real interesting element, as you know, Brownie, in preparing for this, I'm sure, is since Bowers has been back, this is a team that does not play with three wide receivers. I mean, they ended up playing 11 snaps with it last week and only in the second half because of the score. They did not play one snap with three wide receivers in the first half. And in the two prior games, they played seven in the entire two games. So this is a different animal when you look at how you want to play their defense, their offense, because they do not play like any other team in the National Football League.
00:55:51
Speaker 1: Is that all because of Brock Bowers?
00:55:52
Speaker 3: Well, and Mayer, the other tight end.
00:55:56
Speaker 1: Why is Brock Bowers the catalyst for them?
00:56:00
Speaker 4: Because he's essentially a wide receiver. We'll call him a tight end because I guess that's what he technically is, but He lines up as their boundary X. They line him up all over. He's a movable chess piece. He can beat corners. I mean, look what happened last week early in the game. There were two plays, I think, on the first two possessions where the Patriots essentially played their normal defense, and they had Jones, Marcus Jones at 5'8, their nickel slot corner, who, by the way, is a very good player, matched up on him man-to-man. One was a slot fade for 20-plus yards, and the other was the first touchdown they scored So he's a matchup problem because of how he lines up and the fact that he can essentially beat safeties and corners without a problem.
00:56:49
Speaker 3: So, you know, looking at their offense, you know, the white kid has kind of popped up as an interesting target, huge receiver. How would you describe his skill set and how do they deploy him? Because... I think he's been maybe the next most reliable option for them through the early part of the season after maybe Bowers and Mayer as a chain mover.
00:57:16
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, White's a big kid. He's physical. He fits how they play offense because they're not a vertical offense. They're really a short to intermediate passing game, and that's his game because he's not a burner. He's kind of in the.
00:57:34
Speaker 4: Like joan jennings mold you know the big physical competitive short to intermediate receiver and it fits how they play uh because essentially they play with two tight ends uh sometimes they play in 22 personnel and they only have one wide receiver on the field and he can block a bit too but um he's sort of emerging as their kind of number one wide receiver given how they're playing um i guess in the second half this past week when they went three wide um it was Tucker and Tucker is the one guy who does give you some verticality, but they don't necessarily do that very often. They've done it and you have to be careful because he can run and get on top of your defense. And obviously we see the bills, you know, have made a change coaching decision. You know, Hashton seems to be, you know, being sit that sat down a little bit. Now he only played 17 snaps this past week. It wasn't due to injury as you guys know. So, you know, it, The Ohio State kid, is it Igbenosyn? How do you pronounce his name officially?
00:58:35
Speaker 3: Igbenosyn.
00:58:37
Speaker 4: It's funny because I did him for two years at Ohio State and I really liked his tape. He's big, he's physical, he can run. Even though Bedford's a solid corner, Igbenosyn is just a bigger athlete. We'll see how this plays out going forward. Hairston He seems to be in the doghouse a little bit right now.
00:59:05
Speaker 1: Yeah how would you anticipate the bills handle this group of wide receivers and characterize the raiders wide receivers as a whole i mean what do you expect from them against this bill's defense you.
00:59:16
Speaker 4: Have to be careful about the potential with tucker who can run and get over the top and every once in a while they take a shot like that and you certainly don't want to get stuck and have him score you know a big touchdown he's the guy who can run um And he's also pretty good in space. You know, they'll run some screens with him, try to get him the ball in space. But White has seemingly become, Steve, their sort of number one receiver in the context of their offense. He's not a number one the way you think of a number one in the league, but in the context of their offense, he seems to have emerged as that guy because of all the 12 personnel, which is their foundation. 12 personnel with their tight ends, Bowers and Mayer, is really their foundation. Um, But they will play the fullback, Haywood. They'll play 21, 22 personnel. And it's almost always white on the field. So Tucker is the second. And then if they go to three, which is very rare, it's usually Malik Benson, the rookie. And he's got a little juice to him, too. But obviously they've decided that this is the best way to play. And Bowers is a matchup nightmare.
01:00:21
Speaker 3: The Raiders' defense has gotten a little leaky the last couple of weeks, you know, over 30 points in each of the last two games. Granted, they're playing Kansas City and New England, who are capable point-scoring offenses. What do you feel has been the major issue for them? Because we know this is a defensive front that can get pressure, you know, with Crosby, Paye, and Coates. So what has been the sticking point the last couple of weeks for them?
01:00:50
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think the rookie masses at right corner are starting to struggle a little bit. Stokes plays left corner literally on every snap. He's played 287 of his outside corner snaps at left corner. He does not move. They don't move their corners. So what we started to see was Porter playing a lot more at right corner this past week. We'll see what happens this week. They've got the rookie safety, a player I really like coming out of Arizona, Stokes. He and Chin are the safeties, and they both pretty much play every snap. They do have veteran linebackers who are good players in Dean and Walker. Their pass rush I don't think has been quite what they hoped it would be, but they've been getting burned on the back end. We'll see how they decide to play it. We'll also see how the Bills choose to play it. Obviously, this past week was not a big passing game week. It doesn't mean the Bills aren't capable of that. Obviously, they can't. You know, it's funny. I fell asleep, so I didn't see the game on TV. So when I woke up on Tuesday morning and I saw the score, I just assumed, guys, that, you know, I'd see Josh Allen, you know, 27 for 39 for 300. You know, and obviously that was not the way the game played out. But when I first saw the score, 37-34 in overtime, you know, I'm sure if you guys hadn't seen the game, obviously you did, you would have thought the same thing, right? That it would have been, you know, a big passing game, right? But, you know, then I saw 12 for 19 for 220 yards or whatever it was. And, you know, and then saw his rushing numbers. But, you know, I think that's probably a bit of an aberration. I don't think that's the way they're going to play every game.
01:02:32
Speaker 1: Right. And the Bills, offensively, the one thing they have to do is block Max Crosby. How has Crosby played? Certainly, his defenses have been mended. It seems as though when the Raiders tried to trade him and it went south because of his knee for the Baltimore Ravens, all that seems to be water under the bridge now.
01:02:55
Speaker 9: Oh, sure.
01:02:56
Speaker 4: I know we're talking on a Thursday. Do you guys know about Spencer Brown for this week?
01:03:01
Speaker 3: So he had an MRI, and everything structurally on his back is fine, so they've determined it's only a muscular issue, so he's optimistic about playing on Sunday.
01:03:13
Speaker 4: Okay, because I think that's critical, because if he couldn't play, I think that would impact how they would choose to protect, particularly in those third down and impure pass situations, because it would be Grable playing at right tackle, and I don't think you'd feel really comfortable playing nine having Grable block Crosby one-on-one, particularly in vertical type sets. So I think that would change how they would play. And again, Brown could start and he could go out after 10 snaps too, you never know. But if it's Brown, I'm not saying they would never help him, but I think you'd feel a lot more comfortable with Brown being one-on-one in those situations than you certainly would with Grable. Now, the other factor here too is you have a quarterback that can move around and make people miss and not that you want to live like that but you know sometimes you do live like that because you know the quarterback can do that uh so uh it'll be interesting to see you know how joe brady decides to play that but you know i think overall and i think he would probably agree they're going to need more from their pass game their intermediate pass game they didn't really have.
01:04:19
Speaker 3: One last week yeah i mean no the.
01:04:21
Speaker 4: Only intermediate pass really was 17 yards With 17 yards to Shakir, I think that was in the second half, but they really didn't have an intermediate pass game last week.
01:04:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I mean the one play to Shakir over the middle in overtime that he took up the sideline, it ended up not helping them because James Cook fumbled on the next play. But that was the other one, the catch-and-run that went for about 50 yards, I think.
01:04:46
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was kind of a schemed play because I think it was third and short, if I recall, and they knew they were going to get manned, and it was a man-beater because of the way they ran the bunch situation. I mean, we're looking at it right here. It was a man-beater. So, yeah, I wouldn't call that an intermediate throw. That was a schemed play in anticipation of the coverage.
01:05:08
Speaker 3: Okay, fair enough. I do want to talk to you, though, about this combination that has happened about Sunday. We know that James Cook has put the ball on the ground a lot more than any other running back since the start of the 2025 season with 11 fumbles counting playoffs and six of them lost. And the Raiders come in as the leader in the league. Well, they're tied for the league lead in takeaways with Minnesota with 10, but they also... have forced the most fumbles in the league and have the most fumble recoveries in the league already with six. How have they been effective and has it been solely the peanut punch or have they come away with other ripouts to get turnover?
01:05:49
Speaker 4: And I think, Brownie, if I'm not mistaken, they had nine after the first three games. And they've only had one, I believe, the last two weeks. And turnovers, and Steve, you know this, they come in bunches. You know, sometimes they don't have anything to do with the defense. You have to look at those plays as individual plays. You know, it's like with corners when I often hear people say, well, he's around the ball. Well, you know, if a quarterback throws a ball, you know, makes a bad throw right to a corner, he's not around the ball. It's thrown right to him. So I think you have to be careful about that. You know, to me, I don't think, Brownie, that's a And again, I'm not suggesting they're not going to have any turnovers. We know Josh can throw it up at times. I mean, he threw the interception this week. That was at the end of the first half. I always view that as an irrelevant kind of play. But we do know in other situations he can force it. He obviously has a lot of arm arrogance and he thinks he can make throws. And sometimes he'll do that. But I don't know. I don't view that as a big thing. They've only had one the past two weeks. I don't see them as a turnover machine by any stretch.
01:06:58
Speaker 1: How do you think this game, if you're the Raiders coming in and you've got your offense looking the way it does, coming off a two-game losing streak where you didn't play bad in either game, I think the Patriot game got away from them late, and you're looking at this Bills defense, you've got to be licking your chops at least a little bit, right?
01:07:19
Speaker 4: Well, I think the big thing for them is I don't think they're a past-first kind of team. Obviously, they can create some matchups with Bowers, and we'll see how Jimmy Leonard wants to play that. But their run game has been a big problem, and they need that to be a factor. Now, they don't have to run for 150 yards, but they need some sustainability in their run game. Right now, they're getting no sustainability whatsoever.
01:07:46
Speaker 1: Right.
01:07:46
Speaker 4: Run games are an odd thing. I mean, you don't have to run for a lot of yards, but you do need to, at some point, feel like you are controlling the pace and tempo of the game to some degree with your run game. And they've been unable to do that.
01:08:00
Speaker 1: That's a little bit of a function. That's a little function of the scoreboard, right? If you can keep it close, you can keep running the football.
01:08:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, then you can keep running the ball. I mean, obviously last week, the game got away from them in the third quarter. It was close at halftime, and it got away from them in the third quarter. They obviously played the Chiefs very well. That was a close game, obviously, all the way. But they just need more from their run game, and it's not been there at all. And you would think it would be, given how much base personnel they play. because it's not like they're a spread it out and try to run it offense. They're kind of a condensed, let's be physical offense, and that really hasn't worked. Now, again, they may feel, okay, they may feel, and I'm fascinated to see how Clint Kubiak goes into this game, they may feel they have to put up 30 in this game to win. And that, if you feel that way, Stephen, you know this, because I'm sure teams in your day felt like they had to put up 30 to beat the Bills. You know, that's Shane the way you game plan and how you go about playing. This is not likely to be a 13-10 game, certainly not from the Bills' perspective. So, you know, because even when Josh Allen is not at his best throwing the ball and the pass game is not what we normally expect, we saw what the Bills can do. They still put up 37 points. So, I mean, you know. I'd be curious to see what Kubiak thinks, you know, just how he wants to approach this game. You know, some coaches think, hey, we got to run it. We got to try to slow the game down. Other coaches might think, you know what, we got to come out and we got to put points up early.
01:09:34
Speaker 5: Right.
01:09:35
Speaker 1: Yeah.
01:09:36
Speaker 3: Greg, thanks for the time. We appreciate it. We'll catch up with you next week. All right.
01:09:41
Speaker 5: Thanks, guys.
01:09:41
Speaker 4: Appreciate it. You guys look very comfortable, by the way.
01:09:45
Speaker 3: Well, thank you. See? Which is the exact opposite. We got a caller earlier that said we looked uncomfortable in these chairs, and we vehemently disagree. Thanks for supporting our position.
01:09:56
Speaker 4: No, no, you guys look really comfortable. It's nice, you know. We're just talking ball, you know.
01:10:00
Speaker 1: It's a nice spot.
01:10:01
Speaker 4: We don't need the coat and ties and all that. We're just talking ball.
01:10:04
Speaker 1: That's right.
01:10:05
Speaker 3: Appreciate it. Thanks, Greg. We'll catch up with you next week. Yep, that's senior producer from NFL Films, Greg Cosell, joining us as he does every week. Also, co-host of the ESPN NFL Matchup Show. I forgot to ask him if he's doing anything on the Bills game this week. He had done a thing on the Bills run game a couple of weeks ago, which was really interesting. I actually watched that on the matchup show, which is on very early in the morning on Saturdays and Sundays.
01:10:33
Speaker 1: Earlier than like this? Yeah.
01:10:37
Speaker 3: It's on at like 6.30 a.m.
01:10:39
Speaker 1: On like Saturdays and Sundays. I mean, that'd be like 3.30 a.m.
01:10:43
Speaker 3: Well, I would imagine they would re-rack it for West Coast time. at 6.30 a.m.
01:10:47
Speaker 1: Here.
01:10:48
Speaker 3: I think they can regionally adjust it. It'll be interesting. I'm very curious, and I know we're up against the break, but we're going to talk about this when we come back because I want to talk about it a bit and get your take on it. James Cook is going against two of his college teammates that he played against every day in practice. N'Kobe Dean and Quay Walker are the two linebackers in the Raiders' defense. And they know him and his game intimately well. And I don't know why, but that has me a little concerned from a ball security issue. But we can talk about that more when we come back, because I want to get your thoughts on playing against former college teammates. They know you, you know them kind of thing. I want your take on that when we return here on a Thursday edition of One Bills Live. back here on one bills live chris brown steve task what before the break i kind of pitched it to steve you got james cook who's got two former college teammates he went against every day in practice at the raiders linebacker position in the kobe dean and quay walker They know him. He knows them. He's had fumbling problems. Is it a factor at all, the well-versed knowledge of each other's games?
01:12:19
Speaker 1: Knowledge of each other's games, I don't know. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to think that's going to be a factor in this game of James Cook trying to get the ball out of him, from him. It's a topic now for every team that's preparing for him. He fumbles more than any running back in the league, by far.
01:12:37
Speaker 3: So.
01:12:39
Speaker 1: They're going to have that conversation. I think it's more a factor. It's not so much the turnovers as the fact that those two guys are going to focus on him. They're going to really look for him when it's his turn to get the ball. They're going to attack him. I think it's been four years for him, so it's been a minute, but I think it's more about relationships than it is about the X's and O's and about forced fumbles and stuff like that. You're just aware of your buddy being on the field. You know what I mean? Okay. Yeah, it draws you to him. And as a running back, that's not a good thing when your two buddies are linebackers. You can bet there's going to be– James Cook is going to find himself under a pile with those– Those two guys on top of him a lot. A lot. Yeah. I just think it's one of those things where it's, you know, you know, N'Kobe Dean and Walker, those guys, they're going to have conversations about it.
01:13:47
Speaker 3: Yeah.
01:13:49
Speaker 1: So, yeah, I think James Cook's going to feel their presence. They want to make sure.
01:13:53
Speaker 3: 716-427-0989, the number to get on board. Jim Leonard said earlier this week, changes are coming to his defense in one form or another. What form do you believe that to be? You let us know, 716-427-0989. Next up is Dave in Clarence. What do you got for us, Dave?
01:14:15
Speaker 4: Hi, guys.
01:14:16
Speaker 12: I just want to say, I think in defense, I'm not expecting anything going on this weekend. I mean, they got five games from their last game. nothing's going to change anything, maybe over the five weeks. But the biggest concern I think I have is when I see on third down, there's, you know, new personnel coming in in the defensive backfield, and they're looking at each other, and their ball's ready to be sent, and they don't even know where they're going. So, to me, that's coaching. That's communication, you know?
01:14:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, I get it, Dave.
01:14:55
Speaker 4: Yeah.
01:14:56
Speaker 1: All right. Thanks, Dave.
01:14:58
Speaker 3: I don't know. I mean, he does make a valid point. You know, you've got one day less to prepare for the next game. So does that limit the changes you might have made in a regular week? I don't know. I almost feel like we're getting to the breaking point, and I feel that Coach Leonard reached it on Tuesday morning. After looking at the film and said, all right, we've gone five games. The results are not changing. We're still giving up 30 points a game. We've got to do something here. So I don't think the length of time between the Monday night game and the Raiders game is going to change his decision that he's made that some changes have to happen here to change the results that are staying the same.
01:15:54
Speaker 1: Here's what I think the conversation went like. All right, guys. We're going to be on the road. We're staying out west. We're going to give you this. We're going to get it together this week as best we can. If they're anticipating changes, this has to happen. This has to happen. This has to happen. Otherwise, over the bye week, this is going to happen.
01:16:21
Speaker 4: Right.
01:16:22
Speaker 3: I think there will be some subtle changes and tweaks this week.
01:16:26
Speaker 1: Sure.
01:16:27
Speaker 3: And if that doesn't fix it, Big changes are coming.
01:16:30
Speaker 1: That's right. I think they're going to give them another week and say, listen, we need to do this. We need to get this done, this done, and this done. If all that stuff doesn't get done, this other thing is going to get done over the bye week. I think that's kind of more the– I think that's.
01:16:44
Speaker 3: Because that affords you more time to make bigger changes.
01:16:48
Speaker 1: Right. You can get some reps in. That's what I think the conversation or the tone of what Leonard said needs to be taken into context of. They're out here all week. Most of what they do is going to be mental anyway at this point of the regular season. They'll go out and run through some stuff today, take a hard practice. But that's not going to, you know, I mean, this is their last hard practice. They're only one hard practice of the entire week. So they'll come out and do that. They're going to get some stuff under their belt. But like I said, this is like, this is your last chance to get it right, guys. And then we're going to make, then we're going to, We're going to start some more aggressive treatment of the problem.
01:17:33
Speaker 3: Exactly, yeah. Let's go to Dennis in North Carolina next. Dennis, what do you got for us? You're on One Bills Live.
01:17:42
Speaker 6: Hey, so I have a couple questions. How many DBs is on the field at a time? Is it two safeties and two corners?
01:17:54
Speaker 1: Well, it changes all the time. It changes four, five, or six usually.
01:18:01
Speaker 6: Yeah, so why don't they play like three down linemen, three linebackers, and five DBs? And the reason I'm saying that is like University of Tennessee got a new defensive coordinator, and we're into that defense, and we're leading the country in quarterback stats. And I think that would be pretty good. And also do you think Brandon Bing will go get a receiver or anything like that to help out, help Josh out?
01:18:34
Speaker 3: Okay. Valid questions, Dennis. Thanks for them. Um, that's a very popular defensive scheme in the college ranks right now. The three, three, five system. Um, cause I've talked to some of the younger players on this roster defensively, Landon Jackson played in it. Um, TJ Parker played in versions of it. TJ Sanders played in it. It's a very popular defensive scheme at the college level. College football and NFL football are two very different things. The Bills did utilize that very system In the latter half of the season, last year under Sean McDermott, as a matter of fact, they flipped into that in the second half of the Week 15 game against the Patriots, and it had Drake May completely crossed up. He did not know what he was looking at. And the Bills came back from a 24-7 deficit and won the game 34-31. I think there might be instances where you can say, hey, let's make this shift for a series to that and see what it does. to an opposing offense, but I don't believe that's at the core of what Jim Leonard wants this defense to be, so I don't anticipate it will happen to any great lengths for this defense.
01:19:49
Speaker 1: Right, and I don't know that a three-down lineman will give you enough in the run game at this level to Last year they did that and they were already 29th against the run. It didn't get any better after making that switch. I don't think there's any limit to what the defensive coaches will do to fix it, but as to whether that's a fix or whether it's not, I don't know. I don't know enough about the X's and O's of that 3-3-5 alignment to know. It gives you more athletes on the field, theoretically, because your linebackers are better than your defensive linemen athletically. It gives them more speed on the field, and it gives you more flexibility in your pass rush. So if you take it for granted, if you're an offense, that the three down linemen are going to come, and any one of, or maybe two of, the linebackers standing up behind the line of scrimmage are coming, it does make it hard to sort through your pass protections. So maybe that does give you an extra edge on... the unpredictability of your pass rush and where it's coming from. And it messes up with their protection schemes. Maybe that's a plus. But for me, if you've got three guys behind three guys up at the front, defensive front, that's not enough to stop the run. Right.
01:21:16
Speaker 3: And look, there were a handful of times, maybe even less, where I saw the Bills with only three rushers on the field. They did try to drop eight a couple of times against Stafford last week. because they were throwing the ball as much as they were. I'm not going to pretend to know off the top of my head the effectiveness when they ran those, but I do remember seeing it at least two or three times. It may not have been more than that. Let's get to the tweet sheet to get some of your thoughts on what changes you expect Jim Leonard to make to his defense after his comments earlier this week. Adam says, I expect Caleb Elarm's ore to be worked in more this week, with Shaq Thompson possibly elevated after the bye week. IGB continues to start at corner. Heather says, we need to cover tight end Brock Bowers somehow, and that's going to be rough with all the injuries we have at nickel corner. When does Hancock come back from IR? I'll have to check the transaction list. sheet to see exactly when it went on, but I think this is game three, and it's game served. It's not weeks, so the bye week doesn't count. You have to sit for four games on injured reserve. I think this is game three, but I'll double check in the break and let you know for sure, Heather, but thanks for that question. It's interesting. So Adam thinks more changes presumably after the bye, and We already kind of covered that. I think that's a likely scenario. Not saying who, but I think changes just in general are more likely to be significant then.
01:23:00
Speaker 1: They'll have a chance to evaluate and make those changes and get a week more reps, repetitions in before the next game, before the Baltimore game. And spring it on Baltimore where they may not be ready for it.
01:23:13
Speaker 3: Right, which is an important AFC game as we know. Michael on the tweet sheet says, I think the defense will be better against the Raiders this week, and once the bye week comes, the defense might benefit from it. Yeah, you know, look, they might make some tweaks this week, you know, more subtle in nature, and if those yield better results, they might say, okay, we may have found something, maybe this is better, and obviously things change based on opponent, because your game plan will change based on who you're going against, but There might be some subtle tweaks to what they're doing defensively. They're going to see how that works, and then if it does, maybe they stick with that. If it doesn't, I think more seismic changes are afoot during the bye. That's probably what we're going to be looking at here.
01:23:59
Speaker 1: It seems logical. They're not going to flip the page on a short week on the road when you're staying out west. I think they'll keep on keeping on a tweak as much as they think they can get away with. Same thing, during practice and in meetings and when they study film and they have conversations in the room and the defensive backs coach are there and they're all talking about using the same language, the coaches get a lot of confidence that the players know what's going on. And it's only when they get in the game when the offense that they're playing against gives them something they haven't seen. Mm-hmm. Or does something in such a way that tweaks what they had already talked about that the problems start to arise. Right? So, that's what you're up against. You go into a game feeling pretty confident. Almost, you know, unwaveringly. It's unchanging. You always go into the game thinking, okay, we've got this. Let's go. And then you get exposed when something happens you're not expecting and you don't know how to adjust. And, Or it's so noisy that your DBs are looking at each other. They think you said one thing and you're doing another, but they meant another. Or they give you a signal that you misinterpret.
01:25:24
Speaker 3: The whole thing.
01:25:27
Speaker 1: You go into the game thinking you've got some things fixed every week, particularly this bills group.
01:25:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, and how you execute it matters.
01:25:35
Speaker 1: And then you find out you might have fixed that stuff, but now you've got other problems. Yeah.
01:25:40
Speaker 3: Unintended consequences. That's right. Break time for us. When we come back, we'll see if we can squeeze in a phone call or a comment on the tweet sheet here on a Thursday edition of One Bills Live.
01:26:02
Speaker 4: We'll be right.
01:26:05
Speaker 1: Back.
01:26:07
Speaker 3: Alright, back here on One Bills Live. One final segment to go on a Thursday edition as we're coming out of California. And we go to John in Fairport here. What do you got for us, John? You're on One Bills Live. Johnny there? Okay, I'm going to have to let John go. He's not picking up. So, uh, sorry, John, maybe try again another time. Some final thoughts on the tweet sheet, uh, where Leonard says elevate Shaq Thompson, give Andreessen some rotation. What do you think of having Poyer or Hyde as mentors for the safeties? The safety coaches don't seem to be making any headway and Leonard has his hands full with everyone else. Um, I mean, I'll respectfully disagree. I think Mike Dan is a really good defensive backs coach. Um, I thought he brought some young players along quite well the last couple of years. And Jay Valai is the new cornerbacks coach. Who knows Jim Leonard from their Wisconsin days together. And I just think it's young players, quite frankly, learning on the job. And I would lump Cole Bishop into that group, Steve, only because we saw his game improving dramatically last year. And that was his second year in the McDermott system. Now he's in his third season and the defense has completely changed. And so I think his responsibilities in it are brand new. And he's kind of, you know, he's learning on the job all over again. And I think it's compromised his ability to be an anticipatory player because all of it's new again. Not to mention his playing partner at safety.
01:28:03
Speaker 1: It's hard for us, me in particular, I was an offensive player and fans to get inside the defense. Defense is a completely different kind of mindset than offense is. You've got to get on, you've got to put your mind in a different spot. It's complicated and you have to be two things at once. Once you have to be, well maybe three things at once. Once you have to know your defense backwards and forwards. You have to know what you're doing and why. Secondly, You've got to adjust on the fly. And you've got to communicate those adjustments and everybody else on the defense has to adjust the exact same way you do. And three, you've got to know when to be a football player and instinctively react when the offense does something wrong or something new or different. So you've got to be all three of those things at a very high level against the highest level defenses that are– And this much time. It's got to be instantaneous. Yeah. All of that stuff has to be in place to be a really good defense, or at least one guy has to be one really good defensive player. So they've got a ways to go, and these defenses at this level, the coaching staffs would love them to be really complex and be able to do anything at any given time and ask any player to do anything, and they're just not there yet. They're just not there yet, and it looks like it.
01:29:24
Speaker 3: Dwayne Carter, Richie Incognito, tomorrow on a Friday edition of One Bills Live. We'll see you at 10.
01:29:32
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Love y'all boys.
00:00:07
Speaker 2: He is a beast with a capital B.
00:00:10
Speaker 3: The cook is in the kitchen.
00:00:14
Speaker 2: Looks down the sideline.
00:00:15
Speaker 3: He's got Kincaid for a 23-yard touchdown.
00:00:19
Speaker 2: And it's intercepted. Jumping up in the air. He's bent for.
00:00:30
Speaker 4: This is One Pills Live.
00:00:35
Speaker 1: All right.
00:00:36
Speaker 3: Coming back at you from the West Coast, Chris Brown, Steve Chastain. Betted with the team here as they make preparations for their week six matchup with the Raiders in Las Vegas. We're still in sunny Southern California where the temperature continues to climb. Saying it might hit 90 today, Steve.
00:00:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, I won't know about it.
00:00:57
Speaker 3: It's a dry heat.
00:00:58
Speaker 1: It's a dry heat. I won't be going outside today.
00:01:01
Speaker 3: At all? What, are you going back to bed?
00:01:02
Speaker 1: I don't know. I might go to the pool, I guess. I don't know. I'm very busy.
00:01:06
Speaker 3: There is a hot tub out there. Yeah. I don't know if you're aware of this, but our fearless broadcast producer for the Bills Radio Network, Greg Harvey, he tweaked a knee like months ago. He got He twisted his knee up, and I guess he re-aggravated it. Kind of a Christian Benford situation. I saw him soaking his knee in the hot tub yesterday.
00:01:37
Speaker 1: He's a little gimpy. I went out there and looked at it. I was just walking around after supper last night, and the hot tub is huge.
00:01:46
Speaker 3: Oh, it's a big one.
00:01:47
Speaker 1: And it's almost as huge as the bar right next to it. There's a There's an outdoor bar overlooking.
00:01:53
Speaker 3: A golf course. Which is a dangerous combination.
00:01:55
Speaker 1: It looks... Right.
00:01:56
Speaker 3: Because if you get an alcoholic beverage... Yes. And then you go in the hot tub, you're dehydrating your body in the hot tub. Alcohol is also a dehydrator.
00:02:05
Speaker 1: Right. You can get yourself in trouble pretty quick. So they got this bar out here by the... All right. The bar is by a pool overlooking a golf course from elevation. I mean, it's way up above it. You look down on the golf course. It's beautiful. And the ocean and the whole thing. And next to the bar... is this ginormous hot tub. I don't know if I can live like this.
00:02:26
Speaker 3: Okay. I think a lot of other people would disagree with you. Did you see Spencer Brown's post-practice interview yesterday?
00:02:34
Speaker 1: No, I didn't.
00:02:36
Speaker 3: They were asking him about being out here, camaraderie, and it's like training camp because you're kind of 24 hours footballing your teammates, and that's it. He said, yes, it is similar. He goes, the only difference is um, you know, right off of our O-line meeting room, there's a balcony. So when we take a break from like film and stuff, we go out on the balcony and we're overlooking the golf course that you mentioned. He says they're, they're taking wagers with each other on the golfers. Like, Oh, I think he's going to put it on the green. I don't think he's going to put it. I think he's going to put it, you know, like 10 feet of the cup.
00:03:14
Speaker 1: They can't help themselves. Yeah. It's just unbelievable. It's a, it is really beautiful out here. And, uh, You know, I went out and partook yesterday as well. I got out off the property and went and played golf.
00:03:29
Speaker 3: Oh, good for you.
00:03:30
Speaker 1: Yeah. I won't be doing that again. I thought I might play every day out here. You know, come out.
00:03:35
Speaker 3: What, did you play nine?
00:03:37
Speaker 1: No, I played 18.
00:03:38
Speaker 3: Oh, okay.
00:03:38
Speaker 1: On a spectacular, I'm not going to mention the course or anything. Spectacular course.
00:03:42
Speaker 3: Okay. Beautiful.
00:03:45
Speaker 1: And it couldn't have been easier. Called up. Yeah, we got high-end rental clubs. which is fine with, you know, you kind of expect that. Yeah, because you're a lefty, right? No, no.
00:03:54
Speaker 3: Oh, no, you're not a lefty.
00:03:55
Speaker 1: High-end rental clubs, the whole thing, complimentary range, the whole, beautiful, I mean, the place was spectacular, Brownie. Okay. Yeah. So then, you know, they ring me up, and I was like, I thought I might maybe, if I was playing good or had my own clubs, I would spend the amount of money all week on golf that I spent yesterday on one round.
00:04:19
Speaker 5: Wow.
00:04:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was pricey. So I was like, you know what? I'm just going to go hang at the hotel from now on. So, yeah. But let me just say this. You had your fill. But let me just say this. It was really beautiful, the place I played. It was nice. And I got to meet some people. Oh, you played with three people? Yeah. And it was fun. It was good. But good to get away from the hotel for a hot minute. Yeah. But it was... The weather is nice out here. It really is. It really is.
00:04:52
Speaker 3: It's like 70 degrees at 8 p.m.
00:04:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's crazy.
00:04:57
Speaker 3: Let's check some Bills practice updates, which are presented by Labatt, an official beer of the Buffalo Bills. And the Bills will have their first full practice later today. They had a walk-through practice Wednesday, just two days removed from the Monday night game. Bodies are still healing. First injury report of the week, though, got a bit longer. Not practicing on Wednesday were D.J. Moore and Ed Oliver. And we should mention the Bills have to list an estimation of what players' participation would be if it were a full practice. It obviously wasn't yesterday, but they have to give some kind of estimated designation. So not practicing. D.J. Moore and Ed Oliver returning to practice but limited. D. Alford with his ankle injury. Spencer Brown with his back injury and Joshua Palmer with his shoulder injury. New as a limited participant was Ty Johnson with a hamstring injury. No word as to whether this is the same hamstring that kept him out a month in the preseason. Spencer Brown did say after practice that his MRI on his back provided good news. The disc that they wanted to check out was intact and looked better than it did last year coming off of surgery. He categorized his back injury as solely muscular and and is optimistic about being ready to go on Sunday. Obviously, if he can't go, Tylan Grable would step in as the swing tackle. So they'll probably just work on him all week with that muscle issue. Oh, yeah. Get in there.
00:06:26
Speaker 1: You said it, even on the broadcast, and also we talked about it on Tuesday. If it's a backspin, you don't want to move. So not only do you have to get over that, you've got to get confident in being able to move around without having that thing seize up on you.
00:06:46
Speaker 3: They got people working on him every day. He's on the table and they're kneading his back like dough. They are going. TJ Sanders also a limited participant with a shoulder injury which is a new ailment for him so we'll see how he makes his way through the week. Good news is Christian Benford full participant with the toe injury that he re-aggravated in Monday night's game. Landon Jackson who missed last week's game with a knee injury. also a full participant, so it looks like they'll have him available and back in the fold on Sunday, provided there are no setbacks. Bradley Chubb addressed the media and, well, explained how the postgame incident in which he was punched by Rams left tackle Alaric Jackson unfolded. Chubb denied saying anything about Jackson's mother, as Jackson had insinuated. He said he told Jackson... that they were going to meet up with the Rams again, and that all the chipping they did with tight ends and backs isn't going to save him the next time. At that point, Jackson came over and socked Chubb, as we saw on film. Jackson appealed his two-game suspension, which was reduced to one game by the league on Wednesday, so he's only going to miss this Sunday's game for the Rams.
00:07:54
Speaker 1: What's your opinion about all that post-game? It's stupid. It's just a waste of everybody's time. And energy, and And Chubb admitted that he initiated it. Yeah.
00:08:06
Speaker 3: With the commentary.
00:08:07
Speaker 1: They were smack talking the whole game. I mean, he's pointing at them. Yeah. And he was talking at him, you know, when Jackson came up to him after the fact. And, I don't know, I'm a little surprised by it.
00:08:23
Speaker 3: By Chubb?
00:08:24
Speaker 1: By the John after the game. Usually when you're going after the game, usually it's like anything goes during the game.
00:08:29
Speaker 3: So he was, he, Chubb, was kind of outlining everything, and he said they were jawing at us the whole game, and when they were going down thinking they were going to kick the winning field goal, they got really brave and were really laying it on them, and then they missed the kick, and he's like, the whole thing changed. They got real quiet, real fast. So I don't know if that bothered Chubb that they were all confident, confident, confident, and then all of a sudden they're quiet as church mice. So I don't know. It's such a waste of time. Just play the game. Just play the game.
00:09:00
Speaker 1: Yeah. It is a waste of time, although. I get it's an emotional sport. It's an emotional sport. More so than most others. And you can push buttons and make it work to your advantage when you get a guy that loses his mind. Yeah, but after the game, I'm like, man, I'm ready to be done.
00:09:22
Speaker 3: Flush it on to the next. Yeah. Let's go around the NFL. Raiders running back Ashton Genting. admitted to reporters that he is not 100% healthy. The running back's been hampered by an ankle injury that he sustained all the way back in the preseason, three weeks before the regular season started. Genting then appeared to re-aggravate that ankle injury in the team's week four loss to the Chiefs. He's also listed this week with a foot injury on the Raiders injury report, which reportedly happened during the Las Vegas loss to New England last Sunday. though he was listed as a full participant on the injury report Wednesday. Jenty told The Athletic, quote, unless I can't run, jump, cut, I'm playing. Football's a tough game. You're never going to play feeling 100%, so at the end of the day, I just want to go out there and do my best for my teammates and whatever it takes. Head coach Clint Kubiak said, quote, yes, Ashton is beat up. Raiders have had a major problem running the football. They rank 28th in the league in rushing and average just 82 yards on the ground per game. It has put a lot of undue pressure on Kirk Cousins to make hay in the passing game. They've been limited, and most defenses in the early stages of this season have rendered the Raiders' offense one-dimensional, and that's been part of their problem the last two weeks especially. And the Bills will be looking to do the same thing.
00:10:44
Speaker 1: And luckily for the Raiders, they've got Brock Bauer, who's having a fantastic season. Yep. buried their passing game from the tight end spot. But yeah, it has, being one-dimensional makes you predictable. Yeah. And they've struggled with that, particularly the last couple of weeks. They played really well. They have played really well all five games. They lost a tight one to the Chiefs. And, you know, Bill's fans can relate to that. I watched that game. That was a back-and-forth game. Yeah, you can relate to that. The Patriot game this last week looks like they're trending down, but that game got away from the, Raiders late. It was a tight football game up until... Certainly through the first half. Yeah, through midway or late in the third, early fourth quarter, that game was very close.
00:11:29
Speaker 3: Their problem was they got beat on some deep balls over the top.
00:11:31
Speaker 1: Right, and then they got, yeah, then they started letting the lid off the defense and it looked lopsided, more lopsided than maybe the game. Because they gave up two 30-plus yard touchdowns. Drake may drop some dimes. Yeah, so the Raiders, they're playing well. They're playing well. Even though the stuff we've talked about, they're one-dimensional offensively, or at least struggling to run. And Cousins is not one of those guys that's going to run and hurt you with his legs too much. But they're getting it done. They're playing well, even in the midst of a two-game losing streak.
00:12:07
Speaker 3: I'm just going to tell you right now, if you have not seen Brock Bowers play, he might be the best tight end in football right now.
00:12:14
Speaker 6: Already.
00:12:15
Speaker 1: We'll talk to... Greg Cosell, and he'll tell you he's got some stuff out that Bowers is proving to be able to do a lot of things that we didn't know he could do in college because he was never asked to do it. A lot of stuff post-snap. He's flourishing. He's flourishing.
00:12:40
Speaker 3: I've been up next to Brock Bowers and His legs are like tree trunks. Like a tight end should not have legs like that. Like ridiculously muscular legs and he can fly. Tight ends should not be able to run that fast. And this is a guy that's had knee problems already. I mean, they already pace him through the practice week. Remember, he missed a lot of games last year because of a knee injury. Even the beginning of this year, he was a little dinged. So he's always dealing with knee problems, and I fear that his career is not going to be a super long one, but it's like he's playing a different sport. He's going to be a handful. The Bills should do to Bowers what a lot of teams are doing to Kincaid, like bracket coverage, two guys in his vicinity at all times.
00:13:31
Speaker 1: If they take Bauer off the score sheet, they're going to win the game.
00:13:35
Speaker 3: He's got 20 catches for 202 yards and two touchdowns the last two weeks, so Last two weeks, not the season, just two weeks. Teams are having trouble with him, and it's because he is an elite, elite talent. Lamar Jackson did not practice Wednesday as he works through an ankle injury that kept him out of last week's game against the Falcons. Head coach Jesse Minter called him day-to-day. We've talked about him enough. Newly acquired Texans wideout Marvin Harrison Jr. going to play against the Jacksonville Jaguars in London on Sunday. That, according to head coach D'Amico Ryan's. Quick turnaround for Harrison. Just arrived in Houston on Monday after the trade. And it looks like Harrison, who has just five catches on 13 targets for 85 yards and a touchdown this season, is going to be part of the game plan. He said Wednesday he views the new chapter as a great opportunity as he reunites with his college quarterback at Ohio State, C.J.
00:14:26
Speaker 1: Stroud.
00:14:28
Speaker 3: They're certainly hoping to tap into something there. Because if it doesn't work there... Yeah. Yeah, that's... I mean, the clock's ticking on that guy. He got in on Monday, and it was a big deal. They showed him and C.J. walking on the practice field together. They're back in the saddle. We can all kind of relate to getting a new spot. Here we go. Let's work our way into it and getting a fresh start.
00:14:55
Speaker 1: We'll see.
00:14:56
Speaker 3: The team that he left, the Arizona Cardinals, are hoping to have rookie running back Jeremiah Love back in the lineup this week. But he did not practice Wednesday as he continues to rest his ailing left ankle. His status for Sunday's game against the Rams still up in the air, according to head coach Mike LaFleur. The plan, according to LaFleur, is to take Love's ankle one day at a time. But Cardinals understand for it to fully heal, third overall pick, probably going to need to stay off it. They haven't said whether it's a high ankle sprain, but I suspect it is. And cutting off of a high ankle sprain is extremely painful. And that's what a running back does on every single play. So they may have to just shut him down for a couple of weeks and just wait until it's right.
00:15:40
Speaker 7: Right.
00:15:40
Speaker 3: Instead of just trying to triage the thing and have him play at like 80%.
00:15:44
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:15:46
Speaker 3: Thursday night football features the Seahawks and the Broncos in Denver. Seahawks ruled out starting linebacker Drake Thomas and running back Zach Charbonnet for the game. Wide receiver Jackson Smith and Jigba and defensive tackle Leonard Williams have no game designations, though they are both dealing with ankle injuries. Head coach Mike McDonald said of Smith and Jigba and Williams, those guys, they're ready to play, looked good on the short week, so they will be up and active for tonight's game. That's a biggie. That's an old AFC West matchup. Remember when the Seahawks won the AFC?
00:16:17
Speaker 1: I do. Seahawks won the AFC. Young kiddos don't remember that. With Denver, Kansas City... Raiders. The Raiders.
00:16:28
Speaker 3: And who else was it?
00:16:30
Speaker 1: Chargers.
00:16:30
Speaker 3: Chargers, yeah.
00:16:31
Speaker 1: That was the old AFC West. There's five of them. There used to be five. They used to have three Central, East, and West. There were five teams out there? Yeah, there used to be five back in the days, in the 80s, and I can't remember. It was Seahawks, Broncos, Chiefs. Oilers were in the Central. That's it. Seahawks, Broncos, Chiefs, Raiders, Chargers.
00:16:51
Speaker 3: Yeah. Seahawks are the only team.
00:16:54
Speaker 1: Not Then they realigned. Most people, they treat the realignment like it's chiseled in stone. I've seen it done three times. Yeah. Three times in my lifetime, in my time in the league. I mean, I remember when the Atlanta Falcons were in the NFC West. Right.
00:17:12
Speaker 3: Do you remember that? Oh, my gosh. That's like, man.
00:17:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, because the NFC Central was like Detroit, Chicago, Green Bay. Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay and... Not Cleveland. Who was the other one? Minnesota. And Tampa. Because they wanted a southern team in there, right? And so they threw Atlanta west. Yeah, that was rough.
00:17:39
Speaker 3: Imagine the travel miles for them. Three division games on the road all on the west coast. God dang. Talk about getting hosed.
00:17:47
Speaker 1: There were 28 teams divided into eight teams. Well, six divisions. Six divisions. So you had.
00:17:59
Speaker 3: The Central was the one that only had the four teams.
00:18:01
Speaker 1: That's right.
00:18:01
Speaker 3: Houston, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh.
00:18:06
Speaker 1: That's right.
00:18:06
Speaker 3: It was the old AFC Central.
00:18:07
Speaker 1: That's right. Because Baltimore was NFC. Baltimore was the Colts.
00:18:15
Speaker 3: The Colts.
00:18:17
Speaker 1: And they were an old NFC team. But then they moved over. Yeah. They were original. That's before my time. That was like Johnny Unitas.
00:18:24
Speaker 3: But then the AFC East, when they moved to Indianapolis, Colts were in the AFC East.
00:18:29
Speaker 1: That's right, because the Colts, remember, played in the Super Bowl against the Jets. Yeah, because they were NFL. Jets were AFL. That's wild. So everybody thinks that alignment in all these... Oh, they're not going to change.
00:18:46
Speaker 3: Not so fast.
00:18:47
Speaker 1: They will. I think it's a fun conversation to have. As to what it would be if they used a different philosophy to divide up the divisions. There's certain things that nobody would want.
00:19:06
Speaker 3: Well, there's no way that Jerry Jones is ever going to let his team leave the NFC East because he likes the big market football. Oh, sure.
00:19:14
Speaker 1: Sure. My thing has always been.
00:19:17
Speaker 3: Even though regionally it makes no sense.
00:19:19
Speaker 1: You should just chop the league, go in rankings on the TV broadcast market size. Do it that way. Top four teams here, top next four, next four, next four, next four.
00:19:30
Speaker 3: I did that.
00:19:30
Speaker 1: So we'll play Jacksonville and Green Bay every year? Jacksonville, Green Bay, and you know what the other one is? New Orleans? Jacksonville, Green Bay, New Orleans.
00:19:37
Speaker 3: Maybe Indy?
00:19:38
Speaker 1: No, New Orleans. It's New Orleans, Jacksonville, Buffalo, Green Bay. It'd be kind of nice... Two southern teams, two northern teams.
00:19:49
Speaker 3: Look at you.
00:19:50
Speaker 1: Is that another task or plan? Yeah, and then there's another one. You know what the NFC East would be? It would be Chicago, Dallas, Philly, Washington. And the other teams... And the other division would be Jets, Giants, New England, Chargers, Rams.
00:20:13
Speaker 3: Oh, I see what you're doing.
00:20:15
Speaker 1: Okay. All those teams would be in the same division. That'd be kind of cool, man. We should do that.
00:20:20
Speaker 3: I don't think so.
00:20:21
Speaker 1: Come on. No. Not going to do it. Then there's another one. I've said this before. One of the divisions would be Seattle. Miami.
00:20:29
Speaker 3: Oh, God.
00:20:30
Speaker 1: Seattle, Miami, Arizona, and Boston. The Four Corners Division? Yeah, the Four Corners Division.
00:20:34
Speaker 3: Oh, my God.
00:20:35
Speaker 1: How about it? Let's go.
00:20:37
Speaker 3: Disastrous.
00:20:38
Speaker 1: Yeah. So there you go. But still, the realignment is not as far-fetched as people think. It's been done a ton.
00:20:46
Speaker 3: Let's give you our topic of discussion today where you can weigh in. And we're asking you today, in light of Jim Leonard's comments earlier this week, what changes do you expect him to make To his defense, after the comments he made, and in case you didn't see the comments Jim Leonard made in his press conference on Tuesday, when asked about his defense and potential changes, he said, quote, right now it's too inconsistent to pretend that we're building and working and making improvements. Everything's being evaluated right now, starting with every decision I'm making, and we've got to put him in better positions to have success. Guys have to make plays when given opportunities, and it really comes down to just finishing games. We have stretches where we play good football, stretches where we get things accomplished, but sustaining it for 60 minutes or 60 minutes plus in the case of Monday night has not happened. So we went on to say, I've got faith in coaches and players that we're going to make the adjustments needed. And this is professional football. If we don't feel like the answers are here, then yeah, there needs to be some big conversations. First things first, we've got to fix it with what we have and the players that we're playing with on Sundays and who we're game planning for. We've got to find a way to give them game plans that we can go out there and execute. As we know, he already made a change last week. Davison Igbenosin into the starting lineup. He played 69 snaps. Max Hairston played 17. Anthony Kendall was added to the active roster just for this past week to help at nickel in the absence of Dee Alford and to Corey Couch and Jordan Hancock. So he and DeMar Hamlin kind of worked in there in the nickel corner spot. Kendall has since been re-signed to the practice squad and Mike Dana back to the active roster but what changes do you expect from Jim Leonard with his defense whether it's personnel related whether you think it's scheme related whether you think it's player rotation related maybe they rotate more on the D-line although I don't think the D-line is the problem but you let us know 716-427-0989 the number to jump on board what changes are you expecting from defensive coordinator Jim Leonard with his defense this week against the Raiders. What do you think is coming down the pike here? I think it's X's and O's that they're going to change more than people. They're not going to throw guys, kick guys to the curb. There's only so much they can do, particularly with the injuries that mount up and the fact that every time you make a change, all of a sudden something happens. You've got to make the change back the way it was because of an injury or whatever or a matchup problem. Yeah, I think the coaching staff is jumping through hoops trying to give these guys– enough of a menu to be unpredictable defensively and to let them do what they do best and then also trim it down so that they know what they're doing.
00:23:39
Speaker 1: Reduce volume. Yeah, reduce the volume. You kind of picture it like a tree where the trunk of the tree is what we do, right? Yeah. Then you branch off maybe three or four branches and then it's you know, the tree forks, and then it forks again and forks again and forks again pretty soon, you've got all this whole canopy of leaves that you can do anything you want.
00:24:03
Speaker 3: Do we need a Charlie Brown Christmas tree right now?
00:24:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, you kind of need a Charlie Brown Christmas tree right now. Yeah, a little bit of that. So they're pruning branches, I think, right now. Yeah.
00:24:15
Speaker 3: I think there might be some player shifting, nothing major, but I think, like, for example, I think they might, give somebody like TJ Parker 10 more snaps in the game. He's flashed at times, and I think he's flashing more and more, and so it wouldn't surprise me if he maybe eats into Bradley Chubb's snaps a little bit more.
00:24:37
Speaker 1: Sure.
00:24:38
Speaker 3: Maybe there's a few more snaps for Caleb Elarms, who only got seven last week on defense. I think he's got as many as 15 in a game. Now, obviously... Down and distance will factor into that because they usually bring him in in obvious pass-down situations because they like his coverage ability. So how the game unfolds kind of predicates that to some extent, too. But I could see him maybe getting a few more snaps in there a little bit.
00:25:07
Speaker 1: And here's the thing that we talk about all the time. Some of these, like Landon Jackson, Dwayne Carter, TJ Sanders, TJ Parker, the young guys that we talk about it. Some of these guys are starting to spread their wings a little bit. They're starting to get the hang of this. Other guys, because of injuries or whatever, are stagnant. Who knows which ones. We may never know what the coaching staff feels about these guys or how they've changed from the beginning of training camp until game six coming up. Some of these guys, like TJ Sanders and Dwayne Carter, I feel like and TJ Parker as well, I feel like they're getting better on the one-on-one matchups. You know what I mean?
00:25:51
Speaker 3: And that's why I feel like they might get worked in a little bit more and there might be a more frequent rotation there up front, which is ironic because I think a lot of people would argue it's the back end that's been the problem here because the coverage is not hanging in there long enough to let the guys up front to finish plays with the quarterback on the ground or something like that. So I'm curious how they... how they handicap that to make it more effective. We got to take a break here, but 716-427-0989, the number to jump on board as we are asking you, what changes do you expect Jim Leonard to make to his defense this coming week against the Raiders? 716-427-0989, got open lines for you there. If you don't have time to make a phone call, not a problem. You can always hit us up on the Tweed Sheet at One Bills Live on X. Your phone calls coming your way next here on a Thursday edition of One Bills Live, live from California, out on the left coast. All right, welcome back to a Thursday edition of One Bills Live. Chris Brown, Steve Tasker with you. Coming to you live from sunny California, where the Bills are practicing all week in advance of their Week 6 game against the Raiders. And the question on the table for you today is what changes do you expect Jim Leonard to make to his defense in the wake of his comments earlier this week? He basically indicated changes are coming because the results are not... acceptable. So, do you think that's players? Do you think that's scheme? Do you think that's something else? Maybe it's player rotation? Whatever you think it might be, you let us know. It's 716-427-0989. Open lines for you there, or you can hit us up on the tweet sheet at OneBillsLive. But let's go to the phones, and leading us off today is Joe in Williamsville. What do you got for us, Joe? You're on OneBillsLive. Hey, guys.
00:28:04
Speaker 7: Nice to talk with you. My take on Joe Brady's threatening to reduce Cook's carries, I'm getting my voice is repeating. I'm sorry. Anyway, I disagree with the fact that they're going to cut James Cook's playing time because ball security is important, but you have to realize that the Cook, when you compare him, is he going to, are they going to reduce Allen's time? Because Allen has more turnovers than Cook does.
00:28:45
Speaker 4: And I could argue that the.
00:28:47
Speaker 7: New England game, we lost that New England game because Allen threw that interception at the end of the game.
00:28:53
Speaker 4: Go ahead.
00:28:54
Speaker 7: I'll let you comment.
00:28:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, that's, that's fine, Joe. I get where you're coming from. Um, Obviously, Josh handles the ball far more often than James does. James might have 24, 25 carries in a game, and Josh is handling the ball on every single play. So naturally, with the more decisions that he has to make in the course of a game, the odds are he's going to probably have more turnovers by the time you get to the end of the season because he's throwing the ball, he's carrying the ball at times. So the law of averages is going to tell you He's presumably going to want, I mean, every team in the league, their quarterback is probably responsible for the most turnovers on their team. I don't know that that argument tracks.
00:29:40
Speaker 1: You're comparing apples to oranges a little bit because it's a different position. Joe didn't threaten to cut Cook's reps. He just said if it continues like it is, something will change. Nobody expects James Cook to continue to fumble. except maybe the Raiders, right? They're going to go out and try and make him fumble. So it's a little bit strong to say Joe threatened to do it, but he just stated the obvious. If the guy's going to fumble at every game, he might put Ty Johnson in or Ray Davis in a little bit more. Another thing, too, is the difference between playing quarterback and playing running back is what kind of you're talking about. And They're not treated the same because, like Brownie said, Josh has got his hands on the ball every single play. They had 50, what was it, 57, 52 plays offensively or something?
00:30:41
Speaker 3: I think it was 50. I'll have to go look.
00:30:44
Speaker 1: They had 55 plays. Josh handled the ball on all of them and had the arm punt on a third and six deep in their own end. James Cook has fumbled the ball in every game.
00:31:01
Speaker 3: And right now, since the start of the 2025 season, he's averaging a fumble once every 40 carries. It's the highest rate in football among running backs. It's the highest rate in the league. So you're comparing Cook to Allen. Compare Cook to the rest of the running backs in the league. He's the number one most frequent fumbler since the start of the 2025 season.
00:31:23
Speaker 1: That's a problem. The reason, as well, in my opinion... there's all the old-time coaches, you fumble the ball, you're off the field. And, I mean, after one fumble, right? So, that happens. You know, now, because James Cook is who he is, they didn't do that. They left him out there. Yeah. Well, he's still doing that. So, you know, now you've got, now what do you do? You have to make an adjustment if you're a coaching staff. Like I told Brownie yesterday, Joe Brady and Pete Carmichael. They've got a responsibility to Josh and Kincaid and all those guys to give them the best chance to win. They don't want to put a guy out there that's going to put the ball on the ground anymore.
00:32:06
Speaker 3: And the reason it's a difficult balance is because of what even Dan Orlovsky said yesterday on the show when we were talking to him about it. And he said, the Bills cannot win a Super Bowl without James Cook. Right. And so you're like, what do I do here? Because I want to win the game and Cook is our best back, but he's fumbling the ball and If he does that two times in this game, it reduces our chances to win this game dramatically. So it's a difficult push-pull situation that they have to come down with a firm decision on. And at the same time, everybody knows it's out there. And here's the other part of the equation, Steve. The Raiders lead the league. Tied for the league lead in takeaways.
00:32:55
Speaker 5: Right.
00:32:56
Speaker 3: And they lead the league in forced fumbles, and they lead the league in fumble recoveries. So it's got to get fixed in a hurry here because the Raiders are really good at ripping the ball out or punching the ball out. I don't know what the caller would do. What would you do? We should ask, what would you do? How would you handle James Cook's fumble? Are you John Quinones from that show on NBC?
00:33:20
Speaker 1: What would you do? What's your solution? What's your solution? You've got to change the guy's mindset when he's got the ball in his hand. Yeah. I mean, it's about being aware of it all the time. It's about thinking about the ball first when you're trying to run and run away from big dudes who are trying to tackle you.
00:33:37
Speaker 7: Yeah.
00:33:37
Speaker 1: You've got to do two things at once. You know, I don't know what the caller's solution is, but here's the thing. You've got to fix it.
00:33:48
Speaker 3: Yeah. It's got to be addressed. You've got to fix it. No question about it. Let's get back to the phones, and we go to Mark in Jersey City next. What's up, Mark? Good morning, gentlemen.
00:33:59
Speaker 8: Thanks for taking my call. You guys spoke yesterday about this a little bit, and you said how we're getting good pressure up front. Didn't get home as much on Monday, but the pressure was there. And I think the previous week, May was pressured the most times in a game. He was able to leak out a little bit. The run defense has been stout for the most part, but the back end has been Swiss cheese. And for almost the better part of a decade, we wished we had stout run defense and a good pass rush. It's like we can't have both. So the thing that had been ailing the Bills for so long is the thing that seems to be their strength and the thing that was their only thing that they hung their hat on defense is their Achilles heel and howl. I will say Stafford did slice up McDermott's defense the last time they were in L.A. before this.
00:34:55
Speaker 3: Yep.
00:34:56
Speaker 8: They really, you know, they got shredded. And I think they scored 44, Bill scored 42, or I forget the final score.
00:35:05
Speaker 3: Of that game.
00:35:06
Speaker 1: Yep, right.
00:35:07
Speaker 8: I just call it. But in terms of changes, I think we just kind of have to, you know, we know what certain guys are. They've been here long enough.
00:35:17
Speaker 3: We know what the.
00:35:17
Speaker 8: Dorian Williams are. They flash, they have good games, you know, they look great running around with the threats. You know, they look the part, but guys like Bernard, even though he has a ski on his chest, you can't keep.
00:35:30
Speaker 1: He's late.
00:35:31
Speaker 8: You see it, he gets caught in the wash too much. He kind of like, he does pile watch. Like whatever McDean said about pile watching, I've seen him do it. He shows up a little too early, a little too late. You need something different there. You just need something different there. You can't have that. There's too many busts for there not to be an issue there. Thanks for taking my call, guys.
00:35:58
Speaker 3: People are wondering, Mark among them, if there'll be a change at the second level of the defense. You've got Dorian Williams and Terrell Bernard there. The backups are Caleb Elarms or Joe Andreessen, who's an outstanding special teams player. You got Shaq Thompson on the practice squad. So, I don't know. Does something change there? We'll have to see. That's a pretty big change if you're going to change your defensive captain, the guy with the green dot. But I get it. There's a vocal minority out there among the fan base that wants to see changes at linebacker. I don't know that it's going to happen. we'll have to wait and see what it brings, but Jim Leonard wants better results. What does that mean to you? What changes do you think he's going to make with his defense this coming week against the Raiders? 716-427-0989, the number to get on board. Got open lines for you there, or you can hit us up on the tweet sheet at OneBillsLive. Let's go to Frank on a cell. Frank, what do you got for us here on OneBillsLive?
00:37:11
Speaker 9: Good morning, gentlemen.
00:37:14
Speaker 7: Here it is.
00:37:17
Speaker 9: Them chairs you're sitting in look like they're not comfortable.
00:37:21
Speaker 3: Okay?
00:37:22
Speaker 9: And I think, I don't want to talk about negative fumbling the football. You must talk positive in everything you do. You must not go into the game thinking, we're going to fumble the ball again. You know, we can't think of that. We just got to go out and play our best game we can put out.
00:37:45
Speaker 3: There, okay?
00:37:46
Speaker 9: You got to get out of them chairs, both of you, because them chairs are not comfortable as I look at you on the TV. So have a good day in big California. You're in California, you're in Beijing.
00:38:00
Speaker 3: All right, bye.
00:38:01
Speaker 1: Frank, thank you for your concern. I appreciate it. Actually, these chairs are a little bit more comfortable than the ones we usually sit in. Yeah, they're, yeah, they're, They're rather plush. They're kind of plush. Maybe we'll look too comfortable. I'm sitting here with my legs crossed. I've got my elbow resting with my head. We're doing this show from like a quote-unquote speakeasy. Right. We rented the whole thing out. Like over here, there's a whole bar. And there's little nooks and crannies for people to sit in and come in and kind of have a quiet evening with a little drink in their hand. And we're doing the show from there. It's nice. No, these chairs are... I don't know why he thinks we're not comfortable. I couldn't look more comfortable. Yeah.
00:38:41
Speaker 3: I mean, maybe I'm twisted up a little because I'm trying to, you know, move through the.
00:38:46
Speaker 1: We do have to move some tables. They have a small table here. We moved in and changed it out for a big table every morning. But, no, this is very comfortable here. Yeah.
00:38:55
Speaker 3: I mean, we usually sit at a square table of some kind, and this one is round. So maybe that just throws off the dynamic of what people are observing with us that are watching on MSG. And listen.
00:39:06
Speaker 1: Frank, we're talking about what people want to talk about. Turn over their problem.
00:39:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think he's talking about as it relates to the team, like psychologically, don't talk about it. Focus on the positive. And look, the players are definitely doing that. But there is it is a thing that needs to be rectified. And fumbling the football has to be rectified because it's because an ongoing issue it has not you cannot call it a one game problem it is an ongoing problem this season for James Cook and for some others I mean other guys have been victimized too Kincaid from behind left it out there to get punched out Khalil Shakir left it out there to get punched out. So it's not just James Cook, although the numbers say he has been the biggest part of that problem. So, yeah, it's got to get rectified because you can't keep putting the ball on the ground. As Joe Brady said himself on Tuesday in his press conference, it's going to cost us a game at some point in time if it continues. And he's 100% right.
00:40:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's no way around it.
00:40:19
Speaker 3: Got to step aside and take a break here, but when we come back, we'll get right back to your phone calls. We'll be leading off with Bill down in Dallas at 716-427-0989. What changes do you expect Jim Leonard to make to his defense this weekend after he said changes are coming? Your call is next here on One Bill's Live. All right, back here on One Pills Live, Chris Brown, Steve Tasker with you. Topic of today, what changes do you expect Jim Leonard to make to his defense after his comments earlier this week that essentially indicated changes are coming? 716-427-0989, the number to jump on board. And as promised, we lead off with Bill in Dallas. What do you got for us, Bill?
00:41:13
Speaker 5: Good morning, gentlemen, and welcome to the fans' high expectations once you start winning. The defense only has to be as good as they can be right now.
00:41:26
Speaker 10: They don't have to be world beaters right now.
00:41:28
Speaker 5: It's still early in the season. If the same things are happening after week eight, then you have a problem. But it's early. You want to be playing your best football at the end of the season. Give these young guys time to figure out this defense, figure out what they're doing, and where they should be, and you're going to be fine. On the thing with the fumbling, if you watch this land, man, that's all he was trying to do is punch out the ball. He wasn't trying to make a tackle. He wasn't doing anything other than that. On Josh Allen, where Josh Allen took off, faked him out, and ran down the field, and once they stopped him and stood him up, land man is probably throwing three or four punches trying to get the.
00:42:05
Speaker 8: Ball out of Josh Allen's hand.
00:42:07
Speaker 5: So James Cook is going to be fine. Let him run, let him run, let him run. Thank you, guys, and have a good day in California.
00:42:17
Speaker 3: All right. Thank you much, Bill. Appreciate the phone call.
00:42:20
Speaker 1: So Bill's solution is nothing.
00:42:25
Speaker 3: That's right.
00:42:26
Speaker 1: Just hope for better. There's nothing to fix.
00:42:29
Speaker 3: Hope for better. Okay.
00:42:32
Speaker 1: Okay.
00:42:32
Speaker 3: And look, I get it because I think everybody knows the Bills need James Cook at his best if they're going to go where they want to go this year.
00:42:42
Speaker 1: He's a problem, man. There's just no two ways about it. He's a problem as a runner for opponents.
00:42:50
Speaker 3: But the fumbling issue has to be addressed and knowing that teams are going to be coming in with that peanut punch all the more because it's been effective against him. He and running backs coach Kelly Skipper have to find a way, whether it's technique wise, covering up the ball in a different fashion like You know, whether you're running with it like this and not at your side, like run it like this, like you're in a fullback dive kind of carry. If that's what it takes to not fumble the football and maybe it makes you a hair less elusive, you may have to resort to that, at least in the interim or whenever there is someone within arm's length of you.
00:43:27
Speaker 1: Right.
00:43:28
Speaker 3: I mean, you got to do something to at least prevent it and calm the waters for the next couple of games where people on tape like, oh, Now he's running like that. We're not going to be able to use the punch anymore. We're going to have to do something else.
00:43:41
Speaker 1: You know?
00:43:42
Speaker 3: And then maybe you can get back to the way you've always carried the football. We'll have to wait and see.
00:43:46
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:43:46
Speaker 3: Let's go to Al and Clarence next. What do you got for us, Al?
00:43:51
Speaker 10: Hey, guys. Nobody's feeling sorry for you two having to get up that early to do the show because it looks beautiful out there.
00:44:00
Speaker 1: Right.
00:44:01
Speaker 10: Really missing a damn thing. I think the thing... What we're going to eventually have to do is make some trades. I think this is squarely on Bean. I'd like to see him go get Dante Jackson, cornerback from San Diego, and Buda Baker for safety if he fits the system. I mean, how many years are you going to let Josh weigh his prime here? I don't know. I'm not talking where I think you'd have to give up more draft picks than maybe a fifth for Jackson. I don't know what you think of Buda, but he's 31 years old.
00:44:43
Speaker 1: What position are you talking about?
00:44:45
Speaker 3: He's talking about corner and safety, Steve. Thanks, Al, for the call. Appreciate it. Both corner and safety. Yeah, because Buda Baker's a safety. Dante Jackson's a corner. I will say this. Chargers might be willing to move players off their books. I mean, they're 0-5, and they are going nowhere this year. Now, here's the beauty of it. The trade deadline is even later this year. It's now November 10th. So you can let this kind of simmer. Maybe you make some exploratory phone calls if, and I'm saying if, Brandon Bean and the personnel department believe they have to augment the roster with more player talent.
00:45:22
Speaker 1: Well, the coaching staff will let Brandon Bean know. I mean, the coaching staff will tell us that these guys aren't good enough. We're getting to that point. We're getting very close.
00:45:31
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:45:32
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:45:33
Speaker 3: Because between week six and eight, to me, that's the time where it's getting late early. If you still don't think the players on your roster are improving to a level where you can play consistently on that side of the ball, and that's when I think this team is going to make a difference. That's why these changes are happening now. You heard what Jim Leonard said. He said, we're going to try to make it work with the people that we have, but this is professional football.
00:45:59
Speaker 1: And if that doesn't work, The next step is to look outside. You have to have big conversations. Yeah, which means looking outside the organization.
00:46:07
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:46:07
Speaker 1: This is all hypothetical because we don't even know what the coaching staff thinks about the guys they have in the room or what the problems are. If they haven't made changes to places, like we got all kinds of people clamoring for the second level of the defense to be switched out, have heard nothing like that from the coaching staff. They may be looking at this like going, Benford really is trying to cover up for this guy and this guy and that guy. Every time we call a defense, he's trying to do this guy's job and his job. Or same thing with KEO or Dorian Williams or whatever. They're trying to cover up for some stuff that's going on around. We don't know. This is all hypothetical and if this is true, then this will be true as well. Maybe it is. Maybe it's not. We don't know the the basic math yet, but all we can see is the results. They're giving up a ton of points. We don't know that the reason they're giving up a ton of points is the same in week five as it was in week one or two. Maybe it is. Um, the defensive line doesn't seem to be getting sacks as much as they did in weeks one and two, but we'll see injuries have a play, a play a part in this as well. Uh, All of a sudden, they got thin real fast in the secondary when he started dropping people. Right, but they weren't covering people well from the very beginning. And they got Anthony Kendall coming up from the practice squad. Now he's back on the practice squad. So they've got like six juggling balls that they're trying to get in the air all at once. And now they're changing.
00:47:46
Speaker 3: So.
00:47:48
Speaker 1: This is all hypothetical, and we all have our ideas because we've seen other teams kind of have to make these same adjustments. But this is, you know, Jim Leonard is right. Something's got to give.
00:48:03
Speaker 3: And we'll probably get some evidence of where they think they're faltering with some of the changes he makes this week.
00:48:10
Speaker 1: And the evidence might be they don't make a change personnel-wise.
00:48:13
Speaker 3: Might not.
00:48:13
Speaker 1: And then it comes back to the X's and O's and the schemes and the play callers. Then we'll see.
00:48:18
Speaker 3: And he's pointed at himself as well and said they'll try to do some things to make it easier for them. So we'll see. Let's squeeze Mike in Syracuse in before the break here. What's up, Mike? Good morning, guys.
00:48:31
Speaker 11: I'll get my comments in quick because you guys are going to go to break or whatever. I think that a possible solution, and this is just you know, me spitballing, but I know you mentioned it, is maybe is elevating Shaq Thompson to fill in a linebacker. My only reasoning behind that is that last year I thought he played well for us, even though he was quite an injury at the end of the season. I thought that he emerged as a good leader back there because I've noticed, especially last game with the defense struggling, that a lot of the young guys were arguing amongst each other, things like that. I think someone needs to emerge as a leader and kind of take command there, and I thought he was able to do that last year. Plus, he's a hard tackler. Um, my other small thing would be if we can get away with it, which is hard to say, because I think Benford is our best cover corner right now. He was fighting his injury again in the last game. If we can possibly get away without him playing this week, considering we're playing a team that is good, but I don't think their offense is going to be nearly as good as the Rams. let him sit, rest, make sure his injury is, is completely recovered from, because then we got to buy as well, um, to make sure that he has, he can get right healthy so that he can come back at a hundred percent and, um, hopefully be able to dominate at the corner position. Uh, that's all I got and go build.
00:49:50
Speaker 3: All right. Thanks Mike. Appreciate it. Um, yeah, I mean, when Shaq Thompson played in this defense last year, you noticed him, you felt his presence. He's an alpha male.
00:50:01
Speaker 1: He's a hammer.
00:50:02
Speaker 3: Um, You know, made the interception in the Jacksonville playoff game last year. He's a playmaker, and he's a leader. So it does make you wonder if that's a lever that Jim Leonard might pull. We'll just have to wait and see.
00:50:17
Speaker 1: One of the things you mentioned, too, is you've got young guys out there, and when the play's over, they're kind of arguing with each other about it. There's only so much they can be arguing about, because if they're arguing, both of them thought they were right.
00:50:29
Speaker 10: Yeah.
00:50:31
Speaker 1: But to his point, that's where you need a leader, though, to kind of say, hey, and break that up. You've got to get them right. I mean, if they both think they did the right thing and they didn't, that's a problem. And if they both think they're right and they're talking to each other and they find out one of them was playing one defense and the other guy was playing it a different way, who's right and who's wrong and how do you play it the right way and how do you make sure you know? You've got to talk to each other about what's going on out there. So if you've got guys arguing after the play, everybody who argues thinks they're the right one. That's where the disconnect comes. If you've got guys playing it and thinking they're right and they're not, that's the crux of the problem right there. And that comes down to communication.
00:51:19
Speaker 3: Yep. Got to take a break here. When we come back, hour number two begins with our good friend, senior producer from NFL Films, Greg Cosell, going to join us, talk some X's and O's about the Monday night game, and we'll look ahead to Bills Raiders with Greg next here on One Bills Live.
00:51:48
Speaker 4: Love y'all boys.
00:51:50
Speaker 2: He is a beast with a capital B. The cook is in the kitchen. Looks down the sideline.
00:51:59
Speaker 3: He's got Kincaid for a 23-yard touchdown.
00:52:04
Speaker 2: And it's intercepted. Jumping up in the air is meant for.
00:52:14
Speaker 3: This is One Pills Live. All right, ready to begin hour number two. Chris Brown, Steve Tasker with you. We welcome in senior producer from NFL Films, Greg Cosell, also co-host of ESPN's NFL Matchup Show. Well, we thought it would be entertaining. It was a slow first half, Greg, on Monday Night Football, but holy cow, the two teams combined for 50 points in the second half. as the defense is kind of looked like Swiss cheese a little bit there. What was your, what was your ultimate takeaway from the Monday night game?
00:52:51
Speaker 4: I would say this. I think it's hard to play defense when you have to play 80 plays in a game, give or take. And that's a hard thing. And I think the Bills defense has played a lot of plays this year. And I, you know, that's something there's, there's obviously multiple factors and variables for that. Not just, the defense, I'm sure, but still that, that's a hard road to hoe. And, uh, uh, you know, I think however they're dealing with that, I think that's something you have to, you have to deal with because that's just too hard.
00:53:23
Speaker 1: And what do you, what did you think about, certainly both these offenses took a hot minute to get on track. Why do you think that is?
00:53:30
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:53:31
Speaker 4: I mean, I was kind of surprised to be honest with you with the Rams because, um, obviously Stafford's a great player, but Do they really want to have him drop back that many times in a game? I was very surprised by that because the score certainly didn't dictate that he had to drop back close to 60 times. And normally, guys, they will run the ball. I mean, as you know, I'm sure as you prepare for the game, Brownie, you know, they've been a good running team and they run the ball. And to have him drop back close to 60 times in a game that was never out of hand for them, I mean, it was a close game all the way through pretty much. That really surprised me.
00:54:13
Speaker 3: Let's kind of spin it forward right into the Raiders game since it's already Thursday. The Raiders cannot run the football. I know Ashton Gentry is not 100% healthy, but what do you see as the biggest factors that are preventing the Raiders from being a two-dimensional offense?
00:54:33
Speaker 4: Yeah, the offensive line is really struggling. There's not a lot of room. I was very, very surprised in watching the tape this week that Dylan Laub ended up getting meaningful snaps ahead of Mike Washington. And that was a coach's decision, apparently. And again, I'm not there every day, so I certainly don't know what goes on, but I like Mike Washington a lot. And I actually think overall, he's a better back than Jenty, who I liked coming out of college, but I didn't think Jenty was, wasn't a great prospect. I thought he was a solid prospect. And their run game has been absolutely non-existent. And For Clint Kubiak, he wants everything to start with the run game. But I think the real interesting element, as you know, Brownie, in preparing for this, I'm sure, is since Bowers has been back, this is a team that does not play with three wide receivers. I mean, they ended up playing 11 snaps with it last week and only in the second half because of the score. They did not play one snap with three wide receivers in the first half. And in the two prior games, they played seven in the entire two games. So this is a different animal when you look at how you want to play their defense, their offense, because they do not play like any other team in the National Football League.
00:55:51
Speaker 1: Is that all because of Brock Bowers?
00:55:52
Speaker 3: Well, and Mayer, the other tight end.
00:55:56
Speaker 1: Why is Brock Bowers the catalyst for them?
00:56:00
Speaker 4: Because he's essentially a wide receiver. We'll call him a tight end because I guess that's what he technically is, but He lines up as their boundary X. They line him up all over. He's a movable chess piece. He can beat corners. I mean, look what happened last week early in the game. There were two plays, I think, on the first two possessions where the Patriots essentially played their normal defense, and they had Jones, Marcus Jones at 5'8, their nickel slot corner, who, by the way, is a very good player, matched up on him man-to-man. One was a slot fade for 20-plus yards, and the other was the first touchdown they scored So he's a matchup problem because of how he lines up and the fact that he can essentially beat safeties and corners without a problem.
00:56:49
Speaker 3: So, you know, looking at their offense, you know, the white kid has kind of popped up as an interesting target, huge receiver. How would you describe his skill set and how do they deploy him? Because... I think he's been maybe the next most reliable option for them through the early part of the season after maybe Bowers and Mayer as a chain mover.
00:57:16
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, White's a big kid. He's physical. He fits how they play offense because they're not a vertical offense. They're really a short to intermediate passing game, and that's his game because he's not a burner. He's kind of in the.
00:57:34
Speaker 4: Like joan jennings mold you know the big physical competitive short to intermediate receiver and it fits how they play uh because essentially they play with two tight ends uh sometimes they play in 22 personnel and they only have one wide receiver on the field and he can block a bit too but um he's sort of emerging as their kind of number one wide receiver given how they're playing um i guess in the second half this past week when they went three wide um it was Tucker and Tucker is the one guy who does give you some verticality, but they don't necessarily do that very often. They've done it and you have to be careful because he can run and get on top of your defense. And obviously we see the bills, you know, have made a change coaching decision. You know, Hashton seems to be, you know, being sit that sat down a little bit. Now he only played 17 snaps this past week. It wasn't due to injury as you guys know. So, you know, it, The Ohio State kid, is it Igbenosyn? How do you pronounce his name officially?
00:58:35
Speaker 3: Igbenosyn.
00:58:37
Speaker 4: It's funny because I did him for two years at Ohio State and I really liked his tape. He's big, he's physical, he can run. Even though Bedford's a solid corner, Igbenosyn is just a bigger athlete. We'll see how this plays out going forward. Hairston He seems to be in the doghouse a little bit right now.
00:59:05
Speaker 1: Yeah how would you anticipate the bills handle this group of wide receivers and characterize the raiders wide receivers as a whole i mean what do you expect from them against this bill's defense you.
00:59:16
Speaker 4: Have to be careful about the potential with tucker who can run and get over the top and every once in a while they take a shot like that and you certainly don't want to get stuck and have him score you know a big touchdown he's the guy who can run um And he's also pretty good in space. You know, they'll run some screens with him, try to get him the ball in space. But White has seemingly become, Steve, their sort of number one receiver in the context of their offense. He's not a number one the way you think of a number one in the league, but in the context of their offense, he seems to have emerged as that guy because of all the 12 personnel, which is their foundation. 12 personnel with their tight ends, Bowers and Mayer, is really their foundation. Um, But they will play the fullback, Haywood. They'll play 21, 22 personnel. And it's almost always white on the field. So Tucker is the second. And then if they go to three, which is very rare, it's usually Malik Benson, the rookie. And he's got a little juice to him, too. But obviously they've decided that this is the best way to play. And Bowers is a matchup nightmare.
01:00:21
Speaker 3: The Raiders' defense has gotten a little leaky the last couple of weeks, you know, over 30 points in each of the last two games. Granted, they're playing Kansas City and New England, who are capable point-scoring offenses. What do you feel has been the major issue for them? Because we know this is a defensive front that can get pressure, you know, with Crosby, Paye, and Coates. So what has been the sticking point the last couple of weeks for them?
01:00:50
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think the rookie masses at right corner are starting to struggle a little bit. Stokes plays left corner literally on every snap. He's played 287 of his outside corner snaps at left corner. He does not move. They don't move their corners. So what we started to see was Porter playing a lot more at right corner this past week. We'll see what happens this week. They've got the rookie safety, a player I really like coming out of Arizona, Stokes. He and Chin are the safeties, and they both pretty much play every snap. They do have veteran linebackers who are good players in Dean and Walker. Their pass rush I don't think has been quite what they hoped it would be, but they've been getting burned on the back end. We'll see how they decide to play it. We'll also see how the Bills choose to play it. Obviously, this past week was not a big passing game week. It doesn't mean the Bills aren't capable of that. Obviously, they can't. You know, it's funny. I fell asleep, so I didn't see the game on TV. So when I woke up on Tuesday morning and I saw the score, I just assumed, guys, that, you know, I'd see Josh Allen, you know, 27 for 39 for 300. You know, and obviously that was not the way the game played out. But when I first saw the score, 37-34 in overtime, you know, I'm sure if you guys hadn't seen the game, obviously you did, you would have thought the same thing, right? That it would have been, you know, a big passing game, right? But, you know, then I saw 12 for 19 for 220 yards or whatever it was. And, you know, and then saw his rushing numbers. But, you know, I think that's probably a bit of an aberration. I don't think that's the way they're going to play every game.
01:02:32
Speaker 1: Right. And the Bills, offensively, the one thing they have to do is block Max Crosby. How has Crosby played? Certainly, his defenses have been mended. It seems as though when the Raiders tried to trade him and it went south because of his knee for the Baltimore Ravens, all that seems to be water under the bridge now.
01:02:55
Speaker 9: Oh, sure.
01:02:56
Speaker 4: I know we're talking on a Thursday. Do you guys know about Spencer Brown for this week?
01:03:01
Speaker 3: So he had an MRI, and everything structurally on his back is fine, so they've determined it's only a muscular issue, so he's optimistic about playing on Sunday.
01:03:13
Speaker 4: Okay, because I think that's critical, because if he couldn't play, I think that would impact how they would choose to protect, particularly in those third down and impure pass situations, because it would be Grable playing at right tackle, and I don't think you'd feel really comfortable playing nine having Grable block Crosby one-on-one, particularly in vertical type sets. So I think that would change how they would play. And again, Brown could start and he could go out after 10 snaps too, you never know. But if it's Brown, I'm not saying they would never help him, but I think you'd feel a lot more comfortable with Brown being one-on-one in those situations than you certainly would with Grable. Now, the other factor here too is you have a quarterback that can move around and make people miss and not that you want to live like that but you know sometimes you do live like that because you know the quarterback can do that uh so uh it'll be interesting to see you know how joe brady decides to play that but you know i think overall and i think he would probably agree they're going to need more from their pass game their intermediate pass game they didn't really have.
01:04:19
Speaker 3: One last week yeah i mean no the.
01:04:21
Speaker 4: Only intermediate pass really was 17 yards With 17 yards to Shakir, I think that was in the second half, but they really didn't have an intermediate pass game last week.
01:04:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I mean the one play to Shakir over the middle in overtime that he took up the sideline, it ended up not helping them because James Cook fumbled on the next play. But that was the other one, the catch-and-run that went for about 50 yards, I think.
01:04:46
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was kind of a schemed play because I think it was third and short, if I recall, and they knew they were going to get manned, and it was a man-beater because of the way they ran the bunch situation. I mean, we're looking at it right here. It was a man-beater. So, yeah, I wouldn't call that an intermediate throw. That was a schemed play in anticipation of the coverage.
01:05:08
Speaker 3: Okay, fair enough. I do want to talk to you, though, about this combination that has happened about Sunday. We know that James Cook has put the ball on the ground a lot more than any other running back since the start of the 2025 season with 11 fumbles counting playoffs and six of them lost. And the Raiders come in as the leader in the league. Well, they're tied for the league lead in takeaways with Minnesota with 10, but they also... have forced the most fumbles in the league and have the most fumble recoveries in the league already with six. How have they been effective and has it been solely the peanut punch or have they come away with other ripouts to get turnover?
01:05:49
Speaker 4: And I think, Brownie, if I'm not mistaken, they had nine after the first three games. And they've only had one, I believe, the last two weeks. And turnovers, and Steve, you know this, they come in bunches. You know, sometimes they don't have anything to do with the defense. You have to look at those plays as individual plays. You know, it's like with corners when I often hear people say, well, he's around the ball. Well, you know, if a quarterback throws a ball, you know, makes a bad throw right to a corner, he's not around the ball. It's thrown right to him. So I think you have to be careful about that. You know, to me, I don't think, Brownie, that's a And again, I'm not suggesting they're not going to have any turnovers. We know Josh can throw it up at times. I mean, he threw the interception this week. That was at the end of the first half. I always view that as an irrelevant kind of play. But we do know in other situations he can force it. He obviously has a lot of arm arrogance and he thinks he can make throws. And sometimes he'll do that. But I don't know. I don't view that as a big thing. They've only had one the past two weeks. I don't see them as a turnover machine by any stretch.
01:06:58
Speaker 1: How do you think this game, if you're the Raiders coming in and you've got your offense looking the way it does, coming off a two-game losing streak where you didn't play bad in either game, I think the Patriot game got away from them late, and you're looking at this Bills defense, you've got to be licking your chops at least a little bit, right?
01:07:19
Speaker 4: Well, I think the big thing for them is I don't think they're a past-first kind of team. Obviously, they can create some matchups with Bowers, and we'll see how Jimmy Leonard wants to play that. But their run game has been a big problem, and they need that to be a factor. Now, they don't have to run for 150 yards, but they need some sustainability in their run game. Right now, they're getting no sustainability whatsoever.
01:07:46
Speaker 1: Right.
01:07:46
Speaker 4: Run games are an odd thing. I mean, you don't have to run for a lot of yards, but you do need to, at some point, feel like you are controlling the pace and tempo of the game to some degree with your run game. And they've been unable to do that.
01:08:00
Speaker 1: That's a little bit of a function. That's a little function of the scoreboard, right? If you can keep it close, you can keep running the football.
01:08:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, then you can keep running the ball. I mean, obviously last week, the game got away from them in the third quarter. It was close at halftime, and it got away from them in the third quarter. They obviously played the Chiefs very well. That was a close game, obviously, all the way. But they just need more from their run game, and it's not been there at all. And you would think it would be, given how much base personnel they play. because it's not like they're a spread it out and try to run it offense. They're kind of a condensed, let's be physical offense, and that really hasn't worked. Now, again, they may feel, okay, they may feel, and I'm fascinated to see how Clint Kubiak goes into this game, they may feel they have to put up 30 in this game to win. And that, if you feel that way, Stephen, you know this, because I'm sure teams in your day felt like they had to put up 30 to beat the Bills. You know, that's Shane the way you game plan and how you go about playing. This is not likely to be a 13-10 game, certainly not from the Bills' perspective. So, you know, because even when Josh Allen is not at his best throwing the ball and the pass game is not what we normally expect, we saw what the Bills can do. They still put up 37 points. So, I mean, you know. I'd be curious to see what Kubiak thinks, you know, just how he wants to approach this game. You know, some coaches think, hey, we got to run it. We got to try to slow the game down. Other coaches might think, you know what, we got to come out and we got to put points up early.
01:09:34
Speaker 5: Right.
01:09:35
Speaker 1: Yeah.
01:09:36
Speaker 3: Greg, thanks for the time. We appreciate it. We'll catch up with you next week. All right.
01:09:41
Speaker 5: Thanks, guys.
01:09:41
Speaker 4: Appreciate it. You guys look very comfortable, by the way.
01:09:45
Speaker 3: Well, thank you. See? Which is the exact opposite. We got a caller earlier that said we looked uncomfortable in these chairs, and we vehemently disagree. Thanks for supporting our position.
01:09:56
Speaker 4: No, no, you guys look really comfortable. It's nice, you know. We're just talking ball, you know.
01:10:00
Speaker 1: It's a nice spot.
01:10:01
Speaker 4: We don't need the coat and ties and all that. We're just talking ball.
01:10:04
Speaker 1: That's right.
01:10:05
Speaker 3: Appreciate it. Thanks, Greg. We'll catch up with you next week. Yep, that's senior producer from NFL Films, Greg Cosell, joining us as he does every week. Also, co-host of the ESPN NFL Matchup Show. I forgot to ask him if he's doing anything on the Bills game this week. He had done a thing on the Bills run game a couple of weeks ago, which was really interesting. I actually watched that on the matchup show, which is on very early in the morning on Saturdays and Sundays.
01:10:33
Speaker 1: Earlier than like this? Yeah.
01:10:37
Speaker 3: It's on at like 6.30 a.m.
01:10:39
Speaker 1: On like Saturdays and Sundays. I mean, that'd be like 3.30 a.m.
01:10:43
Speaker 3: Well, I would imagine they would re-rack it for West Coast time. at 6.30 a.m.
01:10:47
Speaker 1: Here.
01:10:48
Speaker 3: I think they can regionally adjust it. It'll be interesting. I'm very curious, and I know we're up against the break, but we're going to talk about this when we come back because I want to talk about it a bit and get your take on it. James Cook is going against two of his college teammates that he played against every day in practice. N'Kobe Dean and Quay Walker are the two linebackers in the Raiders' defense. And they know him and his game intimately well. And I don't know why, but that has me a little concerned from a ball security issue. But we can talk about that more when we come back, because I want to get your thoughts on playing against former college teammates. They know you, you know them kind of thing. I want your take on that when we return here on a Thursday edition of One Bills Live. back here on one bills live chris brown steve task what before the break i kind of pitched it to steve you got james cook who's got two former college teammates he went against every day in practice at the raiders linebacker position in the kobe dean and quay walker They know him. He knows them. He's had fumbling problems. Is it a factor at all, the well-versed knowledge of each other's games?
01:12:19
Speaker 1: Knowledge of each other's games, I don't know. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to think that's going to be a factor in this game of James Cook trying to get the ball out of him, from him. It's a topic now for every team that's preparing for him. He fumbles more than any running back in the league, by far.
01:12:37
Speaker 3: So.
01:12:39
Speaker 1: They're going to have that conversation. I think it's more a factor. It's not so much the turnovers as the fact that those two guys are going to focus on him. They're going to really look for him when it's his turn to get the ball. They're going to attack him. I think it's been four years for him, so it's been a minute, but I think it's more about relationships than it is about the X's and O's and about forced fumbles and stuff like that. You're just aware of your buddy being on the field. You know what I mean? Okay. Yeah, it draws you to him. And as a running back, that's not a good thing when your two buddies are linebackers. You can bet there's going to be– James Cook is going to find himself under a pile with those– Those two guys on top of him a lot. A lot. Yeah. I just think it's one of those things where it's, you know, you know, N'Kobe Dean and Walker, those guys, they're going to have conversations about it.
01:13:47
Speaker 3: Yeah.
01:13:49
Speaker 1: So, yeah, I think James Cook's going to feel their presence. They want to make sure.
01:13:53
Speaker 3: 716-427-0989, the number to get on board. Jim Leonard said earlier this week, changes are coming to his defense in one form or another. What form do you believe that to be? You let us know, 716-427-0989. Next up is Dave in Clarence. What do you got for us, Dave?
01:14:15
Speaker 4: Hi, guys.
01:14:16
Speaker 12: I just want to say, I think in defense, I'm not expecting anything going on this weekend. I mean, they got five games from their last game. nothing's going to change anything, maybe over the five weeks. But the biggest concern I think I have is when I see on third down, there's, you know, new personnel coming in in the defensive backfield, and they're looking at each other, and their ball's ready to be sent, and they don't even know where they're going. So, to me, that's coaching. That's communication, you know?
01:14:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, I get it, Dave.
01:14:55
Speaker 4: Yeah.
01:14:56
Speaker 1: All right. Thanks, Dave.
01:14:58
Speaker 3: I don't know. I mean, he does make a valid point. You know, you've got one day less to prepare for the next game. So does that limit the changes you might have made in a regular week? I don't know. I almost feel like we're getting to the breaking point, and I feel that Coach Leonard reached it on Tuesday morning. After looking at the film and said, all right, we've gone five games. The results are not changing. We're still giving up 30 points a game. We've got to do something here. So I don't think the length of time between the Monday night game and the Raiders game is going to change his decision that he's made that some changes have to happen here to change the results that are staying the same.
01:15:54
Speaker 1: Here's what I think the conversation went like. All right, guys. We're going to be on the road. We're staying out west. We're going to give you this. We're going to get it together this week as best we can. If they're anticipating changes, this has to happen. This has to happen. This has to happen. Otherwise, over the bye week, this is going to happen.
01:16:21
Speaker 4: Right.
01:16:22
Speaker 3: I think there will be some subtle changes and tweaks this week.
01:16:26
Speaker 1: Sure.
01:16:27
Speaker 3: And if that doesn't fix it, Big changes are coming.
01:16:30
Speaker 1: That's right. I think they're going to give them another week and say, listen, we need to do this. We need to get this done, this done, and this done. If all that stuff doesn't get done, this other thing is going to get done over the bye week. I think that's kind of more the– I think that's.
01:16:44
Speaker 3: Because that affords you more time to make bigger changes.
01:16:48
Speaker 1: Right. You can get some reps in. That's what I think the conversation or the tone of what Leonard said needs to be taken into context of. They're out here all week. Most of what they do is going to be mental anyway at this point of the regular season. They'll go out and run through some stuff today, take a hard practice. But that's not going to, you know, I mean, this is their last hard practice. They're only one hard practice of the entire week. So they'll come out and do that. They're going to get some stuff under their belt. But like I said, this is like, this is your last chance to get it right, guys. And then we're going to make, then we're going to, We're going to start some more aggressive treatment of the problem.
01:17:33
Speaker 3: Exactly, yeah. Let's go to Dennis in North Carolina next. Dennis, what do you got for us? You're on One Bills Live.
01:17:42
Speaker 6: Hey, so I have a couple questions. How many DBs is on the field at a time? Is it two safeties and two corners?
01:17:54
Speaker 1: Well, it changes all the time. It changes four, five, or six usually.
01:18:01
Speaker 6: Yeah, so why don't they play like three down linemen, three linebackers, and five DBs? And the reason I'm saying that is like University of Tennessee got a new defensive coordinator, and we're into that defense, and we're leading the country in quarterback stats. And I think that would be pretty good. And also do you think Brandon Bing will go get a receiver or anything like that to help out, help Josh out?
01:18:34
Speaker 3: Okay. Valid questions, Dennis. Thanks for them. Um, that's a very popular defensive scheme in the college ranks right now. The three, three, five system. Um, cause I've talked to some of the younger players on this roster defensively, Landon Jackson played in it. Um, TJ Parker played in versions of it. TJ Sanders played in it. It's a very popular defensive scheme at the college level. College football and NFL football are two very different things. The Bills did utilize that very system In the latter half of the season, last year under Sean McDermott, as a matter of fact, they flipped into that in the second half of the Week 15 game against the Patriots, and it had Drake May completely crossed up. He did not know what he was looking at. And the Bills came back from a 24-7 deficit and won the game 34-31. I think there might be instances where you can say, hey, let's make this shift for a series to that and see what it does. to an opposing offense, but I don't believe that's at the core of what Jim Leonard wants this defense to be, so I don't anticipate it will happen to any great lengths for this defense.
01:19:49
Speaker 1: Right, and I don't know that a three-down lineman will give you enough in the run game at this level to Last year they did that and they were already 29th against the run. It didn't get any better after making that switch. I don't think there's any limit to what the defensive coaches will do to fix it, but as to whether that's a fix or whether it's not, I don't know. I don't know enough about the X's and O's of that 3-3-5 alignment to know. It gives you more athletes on the field, theoretically, because your linebackers are better than your defensive linemen athletically. It gives them more speed on the field, and it gives you more flexibility in your pass rush. So if you take it for granted, if you're an offense, that the three down linemen are going to come, and any one of, or maybe two of, the linebackers standing up behind the line of scrimmage are coming, it does make it hard to sort through your pass protections. So maybe that does give you an extra edge on... the unpredictability of your pass rush and where it's coming from. And it messes up with their protection schemes. Maybe that's a plus. But for me, if you've got three guys behind three guys up at the front, defensive front, that's not enough to stop the run. Right.
01:21:16
Speaker 3: And look, there were a handful of times, maybe even less, where I saw the Bills with only three rushers on the field. They did try to drop eight a couple of times against Stafford last week. because they were throwing the ball as much as they were. I'm not going to pretend to know off the top of my head the effectiveness when they ran those, but I do remember seeing it at least two or three times. It may not have been more than that. Let's get to the tweet sheet to get some of your thoughts on what changes you expect Jim Leonard to make to his defense after his comments earlier this week. Adam says, I expect Caleb Elarm's ore to be worked in more this week, with Shaq Thompson possibly elevated after the bye week. IGB continues to start at corner. Heather says, we need to cover tight end Brock Bowers somehow, and that's going to be rough with all the injuries we have at nickel corner. When does Hancock come back from IR? I'll have to check the transaction list. sheet to see exactly when it went on, but I think this is game three, and it's game served. It's not weeks, so the bye week doesn't count. You have to sit for four games on injured reserve. I think this is game three, but I'll double check in the break and let you know for sure, Heather, but thanks for that question. It's interesting. So Adam thinks more changes presumably after the bye, and We already kind of covered that. I think that's a likely scenario. Not saying who, but I think changes just in general are more likely to be significant then.
01:23:00
Speaker 1: They'll have a chance to evaluate and make those changes and get a week more reps, repetitions in before the next game, before the Baltimore game. And spring it on Baltimore where they may not be ready for it.
01:23:13
Speaker 3: Right, which is an important AFC game as we know. Michael on the tweet sheet says, I think the defense will be better against the Raiders this week, and once the bye week comes, the defense might benefit from it. Yeah, you know, look, they might make some tweaks this week, you know, more subtle in nature, and if those yield better results, they might say, okay, we may have found something, maybe this is better, and obviously things change based on opponent, because your game plan will change based on who you're going against, but There might be some subtle tweaks to what they're doing defensively. They're going to see how that works, and then if it does, maybe they stick with that. If it doesn't, I think more seismic changes are afoot during the bye. That's probably what we're going to be looking at here.
01:23:59
Speaker 1: It seems logical. They're not going to flip the page on a short week on the road when you're staying out west. I think they'll keep on keeping on a tweak as much as they think they can get away with. Same thing, during practice and in meetings and when they study film and they have conversations in the room and the defensive backs coach are there and they're all talking about using the same language, the coaches get a lot of confidence that the players know what's going on. And it's only when they get in the game when the offense that they're playing against gives them something they haven't seen. Mm-hmm. Or does something in such a way that tweaks what they had already talked about that the problems start to arise. Right? So, that's what you're up against. You go into a game feeling pretty confident. Almost, you know, unwaveringly. It's unchanging. You always go into the game thinking, okay, we've got this. Let's go. And then you get exposed when something happens you're not expecting and you don't know how to adjust. And, Or it's so noisy that your DBs are looking at each other. They think you said one thing and you're doing another, but they meant another. Or they give you a signal that you misinterpret.
01:25:24
Speaker 3: The whole thing.
01:25:27
Speaker 1: You go into the game thinking you've got some things fixed every week, particularly this bills group.
01:25:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, and how you execute it matters.
01:25:35
Speaker 1: And then you find out you might have fixed that stuff, but now you've got other problems. Yeah.
01:25:40
Speaker 3: Unintended consequences. That's right. Break time for us. When we come back, we'll see if we can squeeze in a phone call or a comment on the tweet sheet here on a Thursday edition of One Bills Live.
01:26:02
Speaker 4: We'll be right.
01:26:05
Speaker 1: Back.
01:26:07
Speaker 3: Alright, back here on One Bills Live. One final segment to go on a Thursday edition as we're coming out of California. And we go to John in Fairport here. What do you got for us, John? You're on One Bills Live. Johnny there? Okay, I'm going to have to let John go. He's not picking up. So, uh, sorry, John, maybe try again another time. Some final thoughts on the tweet sheet, uh, where Leonard says elevate Shaq Thompson, give Andreessen some rotation. What do you think of having Poyer or Hyde as mentors for the safeties? The safety coaches don't seem to be making any headway and Leonard has his hands full with everyone else. Um, I mean, I'll respectfully disagree. I think Mike Dan is a really good defensive backs coach. Um, I thought he brought some young players along quite well the last couple of years. And Jay Valai is the new cornerbacks coach. Who knows Jim Leonard from their Wisconsin days together. And I just think it's young players, quite frankly, learning on the job. And I would lump Cole Bishop into that group, Steve, only because we saw his game improving dramatically last year. And that was his second year in the McDermott system. Now he's in his third season and the defense has completely changed. And so I think his responsibilities in it are brand new. And he's kind of, you know, he's learning on the job all over again. And I think it's compromised his ability to be an anticipatory player because all of it's new again. Not to mention his playing partner at safety.
01:28:03
Speaker 1: It's hard for us, me in particular, I was an offensive player and fans to get inside the defense. Defense is a completely different kind of mindset than offense is. You've got to get on, you've got to put your mind in a different spot. It's complicated and you have to be two things at once. Once you have to be, well maybe three things at once. Once you have to know your defense backwards and forwards. You have to know what you're doing and why. Secondly, You've got to adjust on the fly. And you've got to communicate those adjustments and everybody else on the defense has to adjust the exact same way you do. And three, you've got to know when to be a football player and instinctively react when the offense does something wrong or something new or different. So you've got to be all three of those things at a very high level against the highest level defenses that are– And this much time. It's got to be instantaneous. Yeah. All of that stuff has to be in place to be a really good defense, or at least one guy has to be one really good defensive player. So they've got a ways to go, and these defenses at this level, the coaching staffs would love them to be really complex and be able to do anything at any given time and ask any player to do anything, and they're just not there yet. They're just not there yet, and it looks like it.
01:29:24
Speaker 3: Dwayne Carter, Richie Incognito, tomorrow on a Friday edition of One Bills Live. We'll see you at 10.
01:29:32
Speaker 1: Thank you.
