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We're going to do what you need for it.
He is a beast for the capital B. The Tuck is in the kitchen.
Looks now the sideline he's got contained for a 23-yard touchdown.
And it's intercepted. Jumping up on the air is meant for...
This is One Bill's Live, presented by Collider Health.
Welcome to A Thursday, this is No. 1 Bill's Live.
Everybody Maddie-Glab alongside of Steve Tasker and Happy March Madness to all who participate.
Let the game begin.
Let's go!
It's going to be awesome.
And awesome couple of weeks of basketball.
It's happening right here in Buffalo.
Maddie and I have been hanging out all morning getting ready.
Brownie's at the games. I mean, he said, you know what? Forget you guys. I'm going to the games.
So he's gone to the games. He's going to be there.
So say hi to him if you see him.
I, on the other hand, am not the hoops junkie that Brownie and Brownie is.
He's a hoops junkie.
He's a big St. John's fan because he's a long island kid, you know.
So anyway.
So I, on the other hand, have not watched a single solitary moment of college basketball all season at all ever.
I mean, I can't even remember a highlight. I can't name a single player.
I don't know who's good. I know nothing except I looked at the bracket.
And here it is.
Let's go.
We were up. This is how all of this started.
We were up at lunch, eaten lunch.
And we talked with our good friend, Brandon Bean.
Brandon Bean comes by.
And we were talking, you know, are you going to the games?
You know, who do you got?
And then Steve goes, I haven't watched any college basketball this year.
I don't have a dog in the fight.
And so then Bean and I, we both have Arizona winning it all.
And Tasker's like, I don't have a bracket.
So I'm like, we have to do a bracket.
Here we go. I'm going to do a bracket.
On air live.
Now I know games are like beginning and starting in a minute.
But it's okay.
They're going to start in 28 minutes.
They tip it off at 130, right?
130 in Buffalo.
All right.
So we're going to go through and do Steve Tasker's bracket live on air.
He filled out the first round to get it started.
I have not seen a single solid.
I have nothing but history to guide me.
And I'm an old dude.
So I know things.
But I have not seen anything.
Anybody play.
I don't know who's good.
I don't know who's having it down here.
I don't know, you know, all the blue bloods and college.
I know all those.
But I don't know if they're any good this year.
I filled out two brackets.
I've got Arizona winning in both my brackets.
I tried and won the other.
I really didn't try in.
Are you going off of vibes?
Or do you want?
Do you want some help?
Because there's.
I'll take some options.
Once I get deep.
I'll take some.
Okay.
First round.
I can do it in the first round.
So games tipped off at 1215.
DC and Ohio State is currently happening right now.
Well, I've already picked that game.
Troy Nebraska is going on.
And then one 30s when the next game.
I have picked in the coming up on the air.
And that like literally the five between.
Duffer and Marty's last break.
And the top of the hour.
So the last 10 minutes.
I have filled out the first round without even knowing anything.
So it's totally.
Totally, you know, okay.
Free of any.
Okay.
I thought I didn't even know games kicked off at 1215.
It's okay.
The games aren't over yet.
The games aren't over yet.
Right. So here we go.
We're going.
We're going with the East first.
We're going to start with the number one seed.
All right.
I've got.
This just in.
I didn't.
Really.
The only time I really have questions is when an eight meets a nine.
Yeah.
Everything else.
I took the favorite in every single game around the first round.
Because I have seen it when I was growing up back in my day.
Back in my day.
And it wasn't that long ago.
The fun part of March madness was the upsets.
It was Valparaiso, beaten some.
Valparaiso.
Valparaiso.
Yep.
Winning against whoever it was they beat in the for North Carolina.
Arizona got upset a few years back.
That was the fun part.
That to me now is a dinosaur.
I think because of NIL and because of the distillation process of talent, recruiting, money, the whole thing.
I think good players go to the better schools and it filters down through the ranks.
So there's really I don't think there's much much room for upsets like there used to be.
I'm buying one.
Plus it makes it easy because I don't know anything about anybody.
So I'm just I took the higher seed in every first round game.
I got Duke over Sienna.
Okay.
I got Ohio State over TCU, which is an eight over a nine, which is, you know, what is tough.
Then I got St. John's over Northern Iowa.
Mm-hmm.
By the way, I got recruited by Northern Iowa back in the day.
Oh, that's a fun fact.
I got Kansas over Cal Baptist.
I got Louisville over South Florida.
Michigan State over North Dakota State.
UCLA over UCF, Yukon over Furman.
Those are all to me.
Mm-hmm.
That's easy.
With the exception of Ohio State TCU.
Mm-hmm.
But I took Ohio State because they were that I trusted the committee.
What can I say?
You trusted the eighth seed.
I trusted the committee.
And they're in their seedings.
Ohio State's a big name too.
That's right.
And that's, yeah, the big, I'm a big 10 guy.
I mean, I wasn't, well, I am a big 10 guy because I went to Northwestern.
And they're in the big 10.
True.
Most of the time.
They're really good at sports at Northwestern outside of the sports you hear about.
Outside of football and basketball.
So that's, that's what's going.
And this is, by the way, this is obviously for entertainment purposes only because I don't,
I don't have any dog in this fight.
It's for fun.
TCU is beating Ohio State 3924 at the half.
I don't know anything.
I'm already out.
Okay.
Let's move to the west or the south.
Let's go south.
The south.
Or do you want to complete the east?
No, I don't know.
What do you want to do?
Oh, no, let's go around the first round first.
Let's go all the way through the first round first.
All right, here we go.
Because these games are going to happen here pretty quick.
All right, from the east going, I'm sorry, the south bracket.
The number one seed is Florida.
I took them over Pravew, A&M.
Even though I've seen Pravew, A&M over the years in this tournament.
I was going to say where you watch.
It's a Pravew, A&M games this year.
No, but I've heard that, that name has been in this tournament seemingly every year for decades.
So it was no, it wasn't just a wave of the pen, although it's a wave of the pen.
Florida's going to beat him.
Clemson over Iowa, tough for me to do that because of the big 10 thing.
But Clemson was a higher seed.
I'm staying disciplined.
Clemson's an eight, Iowa's a nine.
Right.
So then, then I took Vanderbilt over McNeese State.
Okay.
I took Nebraska.
I'm also, I also grew up in, listen to this, Mad Girl.
I grew up in the middle of big eight country.
Do you know what big eight is?
Enlighten me.
It used to be the, it's what the big 12 used to be.
Right.
Yeah.
It was eight schools, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State.
Who was it?
Who was the others?
Colorado.
Colorado.
Colorado State.
I think it was Colorado.
Missouri was in it.
Missouri.
Colorado was in it.
And somebody else.
Iowa State.
So there you go.
That's why I picked Nebraska back in the old days.
That used to be in the big eight.
Then I took, of course, UNC over VCU.
I took Illinois.
I took St. Mary's over Texas A&M.
And I took Houston over Idaho.
Okay.
So there you go.
All that side out where you want to keep going with the first round.
Let's keep going with the first round.
Okay.
So let's jump to the west.
All right.
Jump to the west.
The west I took Arizona, of course, over Villanova.
And then I took Villanova over Utah State.
Okay.
Eight versus a nine again.
Right.
Wisconsin over high.
High point.
High point.
Arkansas over Hawaii.
I took BYU over Texas.
I took Gonzaga over Kennesaw State.
I took Miami over Missouri.
Oh, you're choosing over my Missouri Tiger.
I speak your Missouri Tiger.
Miami is a seven seed.
I don't care.
All right.
So Purdue.
And I took Purdue over Queens.
Yep.
Michigan over Howard.
All right.
Georgia over.
Michigan over Howard.
That is happening in Buffalo.
Yeah.
That is.
Same as Georgia over St. Louis.
Or tonight.
That's tonight.
That's the late game.
Yep.
Georgia over St. Louis.
I took Texas Tech over Akron, Alabama over Hofstra.
Tennessee over Miami.
Go Vols.
Virginia over Wright State.
And of course I took Kentucky over Santa Clara.
And I took Iowa State over Tennessee State.
Okay.
All right.
That's the first round.
And that you can see.
The people who are watching us on MSG,
you can see the bracket on the screen,
although that's my hand writing on the side.
It's beautiful.
Yeah.
You can.
I made it legible.
So all right.
Okay.
So now we're going to second round the east.
That's right.
You got Duke versus Ohio State.
Duke's going to move on.
Duke's going to move on the one seat.
I got to make sure I get this written in ink.
So Duke's going to move on.
Then you got.
All right.
So here it is.
Kansas is kind of my team.
St. John's over Kansas.
I grew over.
I grew up.
And my wife is a Kansas alum.
Boo.
Go.
Go.
Yeah.
That's too bad.
That's a big rivalry.
I'm taking Kansas.
Yeah.
I took St. John.
That's the first time I have gone against.
I've gone against the seeding.
No, it isn't.
No, Kansas.
Kansas.
There you go.
I'm on it.
I'm staying disciplined.
Okay.
I decided.
Louisville.
Louisville, Michigan State.
Michigan State.
How am I looking at here?
What I think.
You got a six versus a three.
Give me the three.
Michigan State.
Okay.
Michigan State's winning.
Michigan State.
Then we got.
You see a layover.
You con.
You con's a two seed.
They're going to go on.
They're going to move on.
You con.
Florida's going to take Clemson.
I must have accidentally picked Ferman on.
In the first round against you con.
What did you do?
And it's locked in already.
That's on you.
That's on me.
Okay.
So you have you have you con moving on against UCLA.
Right.
And then I've got Florida over Clemson.
And I'm going to take.
Go against my big 12.
Roos and go Vandy.
Okay.
Vandy over in Nebraska.
So you're choosing a five over four.
Yeah.
And I'm going to take.
And I'm going to take.
North Carolina against Illinois.
Okay.
So you're choosing a six over three.
Oh my.
Am I really?
You are, sir.
I don't know anything about this bracket today.
Okay. Well, hold on.
When you get in a little tiff and you don't know.
Well, I just thought I didn't realize we were down
and that kind of seeding.
I kind of.
Let me hit you with.
I kind of ignored the seeding there for a hotman.
Okay.
There's something called the trapezoid of excellence
that I like to use when I'm struggling.
And so it shows you the pace of play and a net rating.
And it's adjusted for the opponent.
So it's a good way to see how fast teams play
and how successful they are.
And there's a trapezoid of excellence,
which means you are one of the best teams in the NCAA.
And so in the trapezoid of excellence this year,
Duke, Iowa State, Gonzaga, Arizona, and Michigan.
And then you can see all these teams scattered about this graph.
You can look it up on Twitter or on X.
If you're listening right now, Ryan Hammer is the guy who does it.
I like to see it because you can see the teams that play really,
really fast and some of these fast teams that really push pace
of play can sometimes dictate what happens in a game.
For example, we have Georgia playing against St. Louis
and eight versus a nine seed in Buffalo later tonight.
And both teams play really fast.
St. Louis is a little bit more efficient,
but Georgia is one of the fastest teams in the NCAA this year
right next to Alabama, the fastest pace team.
So that's kind of how I like to weigh my decisions
is by looking at the trapezoid of excellence.
That sounds really weird.
It is hard to locate the teams on the trapezoid of excellence
because sometimes there's like five logos on top of each other.
Right.
But that's what I used.
And then there's also something called the Kenpom rankings.
And those are and measure adjusted offensive
and defensive efficiency ratings.
And historically, those teams have pretty much had deep runs
in March madness.
It's not it's not all true, but it kind of shows you
what teams are really going to offensively and defensively
how that measures out.
All right.
So I'm like a lot of work.
I'm just helping you.
Let me just turn it dark.
All right.
But you said you were going to choose North Carolina over Illinois.
I am.
I am.
And I'm taking also I'm taking St. Mary's over Texas saying it.
Oh, no, I'm sorry.
Houston.
I'm taking Houston over St. Mary's in the second round.
So all these teams are taking a two over seven.
That's right.
All right.
We're bouncing to the West.
The West Arizona will advance to go over Villanova.
I will.
I'll take Wisconsin.
Oh, well, no, I'll take Wisconsin against Arkansas.
I'll take Arkansas.
I think that's good choice.
That's a four over five.
Yeah.
Arkansas is pretty good.
They're faster team too.
And I think Gonzaga is going to beat my pick.
So I'm going to go Gonzo over by you.
So three over six.
I'm taking Purdue over Miami.
Oh, Purdue is a slower team, but they got some bigs.
I think that's going to.
Yeah, I see it.
They always have a big side.
They're just outside the trapezoid of excellent.
Look at you.
All right.
So all right.
All right.
Turn him into a basketball fan.
Michigan moves on Midwest bracket.
And the Midwest against against Georgia.
They were.
Okay.
Yep.
And then Texas.
I'll see what it is.
You have Texas against Alabama.
Alabama is a four.
Texas Tech is a five.
I'm who.
That's a tough one.
That's tough one.
Alabama is the fastest pace team in NCAA.
Where does that sit?
Where does it say that on the trapezoid of excellent?
Do you see it all the way in the corner?
Over here.
Yeah, over there.
Texas Tech will have a plan for that though.
Texas Tech is in the middle in terms of pace.
And they're about the same efficiency.
Yeah, I get it.
I chose Alabama because I think Alabama is a push.
You like pace of play.
What if Texas Tech locks them down?
That could happen.
Then you got to go in the Ken Poms ring.
I'm going Texas Tech.
Okay.
You're just in a five over four.
They strike me as a discipline team from a million miles away.
And not knowing anything about anything.
That's what I'm going to go.
All right.
Virginia is going to beat Tennessee.
All right.
Shot to the heart over here.
Yeah.
And then Iowa State over Kentucky.
Yeah, Kentucky is a seven.
Iowa State's in the trapezoid of excellence.
All right.
We may stick with Iowa State for a minute.
There we go.
All right.
All right.
We're down to the sweet 16.
Balance back to the east.
Now we're going to go to the east and the elite eight Duke.
And you got Duke over Kansas.
Kansas.
Duke's considered one of the best teams.
It's like Duke and Arizona this year.
The two teams who can win it all.
They're very good on the trapezoid of excellence.
You tell them to be seen.
I'm going to take Duke.
Or even though.
Even though.
My family is from Kansas.
And they're.
They're not going to like this.
Sorry.
I can't.
It's okay.
We were going to school.
At the same time.
Danny Manning was winning the national championship.
Wow.
With Larry Brown as their coach.
That was the day.
Yeah.
And that was so that's hard for me to do.
All right.
Duke.
Yeah.
Kansas a few times.
Those are the best days in my life.
There you go.
I would imagine.
All right.
Yukon and Michigan State.
Michigan State is three Yukons to two.
Yukon and Michigan State.
I'm taking Yukon.
Okay.
All right.
And I was getting this is all right.
Florida and Vanderbilt.
Jumping back over to the south.
Going to the south.
I'm going to go.
Florida Vanderbilt.
I'm going to take Florida.
They're taking Florida.
Okay.
And on the other side.
You have what Houston and University of North Carolina.
Houston continues to advance.
Okay.
Good.
All right.
Bouncing to the west.
The west is Arizona.
Arizona Arkansas is number four.
I'm going to take Arizona.
By this time Arizona will be.
And then you got Purdue and who else?
Gonzaga.
Okay.
I'll take Purdue.
All right.
Down to the Midwest.
You got Michigan and Texas Tech, right?
Yeah.
Texas Tech, who is right now is the five C.
So you got five Michigan's one.
Yeah.
I'll take the one.
All right.
Then you got Virginia and Iowa State.
Iowa State.
Iowa State's in the trapezoid of excellence.
They have to advance.
They must advance.
All right.
So that's the elite eight.
The elite eight is Duke, UConn, Florida, Houston, Arizona, Purdue, Michigan, Ohio, and Iowa State.
All right.
Here we go.
By the way, one of these is already Ohio State's getting their heads handed to them by TCU.
Wait.
Who'd you pick?
Did you pick Ohio State too?
I think I picked Ohio State too.
Yeah.
All right.
Final four.
Final four.
Duke, UConn.
Duke, UConn.
Duke, UConn.
Duke, UConn.
Duke, UConn.
What you're going to do?
What you're going to do.
Duke, UConn.
Where is the trapezoid of excellence?
Duke is by itself.
I'll take Duke because of the trapezoid of excellence.
Wow.
I'm so glad I turned you on at trapezoid.
And then Florida, Houston, Houston, the two seed, Florida, the one.
All right.
Houston, Florida, Houston.
Florida, playing down and down.
Okay.
Down there.
Florida's just outside the trapezoid of excellence.
And then Houston.
Houston, I honestly can't find them on this trapezoid of excellence.
Oh.
I see them.
Where are they?
Oh, they're over here, though.
They're looking good.
They're both probably the same line, but Florida's way faster paced.
And if you're looking at 10 palms, Florida is ranked fourth.
And Houston is ranked fifth.
They're going to have a great day.
This is going to be a barn burner.
Okay.
Florida averages 125.
The offensive rating is 125.5 for Florida.
For Houston, it's like a point less at 124.8.
This is offensive efficiency rating.
And their defensive efficiency rating is about the same too.
So here's what you have to do now.
Here's what you have to do.
Take it from an experienced bracketologist who's never done anything.
Yeah.
And hasn't washed it down.
Wash it down a basketball.
I have washed it down a basketball.
No extra points.
Nothing.
Okay.
Houston came through St. Mary's and UNC.
Florida came through Vandy and Clemson.
I'm going to take Florida.
Oh, and with the one seed.
Because of the trip they had to go through.
Okay.
All right.
So I've got Duke and Florida coming out of the East South.
All right.
The West.
The West.
Purdue.
Arizona and Purdue.
Arizona is, oh, they're pretty good.
They're inside the trapezoid of excellence.
Arizona advances.
Yep.
They're considered one of the teams who could win it all.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right.
Michigan and Ohio State for the final spot and the final four.
Michigan and Ohio.
No, not Iowa State.
Iowa State.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
That's a good question.
I'm sorry.
The Scott tissue Iowa State.
Iowa State.
A one versus a two.
Again.
Michigan is up in...
Oh, and they're both in the trapezoid of excellence.
Yep.
Could be a really, really good game.
Michigan is faster and more efficient barely.
I'm going to take Michigan.
I hate it.
I hate that I'm doing that.
But then again, my experience tells me that, I yeah, I don't wanna get in the politics.
I want preferatix.
So my big 10 tells me if Michigan wants to win it,
they'll just cheat and win it.
Like they did for football a few years ago.
Wow.
Right?
With that whole thing.
It's a hot take.
I don't know if they're spillage over
into the basketball arena.
Michigan's in Buffalo though.
Are you riding with the Buffalo team?
Michigan's playing in a Buffalo.
Let's go.
Yeah.
I'm all about it.
So it's Arizona, Michigan, Florida, Duke.
Final four.
Final four.
I'll take Arizona over Michigan.
OK.
I like that.
And then you got Duke in Florida.
I just missed, I almost wrote the wrong thing.
All right.
And Florida, Duke.
I'm taking Florida.
I think it's going to be a new dawn.
Wow.
My SEC vibes could not let me.
And I think the winner, I think the winner will be Duke.
No, it's Florida, Arizona against Arizona.
Florida against Arizona.
Florida, Arizona.
One of them begins with an A. The other ends with an A.
The Arizona also ends with an A.
Oh, yeah, I put Arizona.
How'd you spell Arizona?
That's it.
Two A's in Arizona.
I'm taking Arizona.
A, A plus.
There you go.
And I'll put a plus before Arizona.
And I'll put a plus after.
And if you ask Tasker, why did you choose Arizona?
He will tell you.
It has two A's.
Arizona has two A's.
There we go.
Make and make sense.
Everybody.
That's it.
Mark it down.
I'm already losing on my first round Ohio State Pick.
But there you go.
That's a live bracket from Steve Tasker.
I'm going to put this down.
And the trapezoid of excellence came in handy.
You know, came in handy.
I like to help when I can.
Good call.
Yeah.
My experience also with how this tournament has gone in the past.
I really believe that though, the NIL has taken the Cinderella stories out of the NCA
tournament.
Yeah.
You're doing a bracket.
It's harder.
It's hard for me to pick upsets.
I mean, you kind of root for it.
You root for the Cinderella story.
You root for an upset early on.
And it's fun to watch a team who shouldn't win a couple games.
That's how Butler got on the mat in basketball.
They had years ago, and I'm, man, I'm delving into something I only remember.
I don't know anything.
They had guys on their team that had played together all four years.
They had senior upper-classmen.
And all the other schools were those, you know, one in Dunes, and they had some freshmen
and a lot of sophomore's playing and not a, and Butler got all the way to the final
four and the whole thing because they were a group of guys who were better than the
some of their parts, and they had played together for four years.
And they kind of hung together.
You know, that kind of thing.
And it worked.
It worked.
So Butler gets on the mat.
Teamwork.
Yeah.
I like it.
Great.
We went, yeah, and I've been to a, I've been to a game and, but a couple of games in Butler
Fieldhouse.
Yes.
Really cool.
Really cool.
I kind of, I considered Butler as a school early on.
Oh, yeah.
There are a lot of people from Chicago that went to Butler.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
So.
Down in Indianapolis is perfect.
Yeah, not too far from Chicago.
If you are heading to the March Manus Games in Buffalo at Keybank Center, that is about
to kick off, TIP.
Yeah, it's kind of TIP in about 10 minutes.
You know, we're mixing basketball and football terms because that's how our brains
work.
Yeah, they're going to drop the puck in 10 minutes.
TIP off is set for 10 minutes.
So at 1.30, you got 11th ranked, 11th seeded South Florida, taken on the 6th seed, Louisville.
And then at 405, rounding out the first session, North Dakota State 14th seed against a third
seed Michigan State.
And kicking it off tonight in the second session at 710, you got 16 seeded Howard against
the number one seed Michigan and the late night game to everybody who's going to stay
up late for this one.
Kudos to you.
I'll be in bed.
St. Louis, number nine seed, taken on eight seeded Georgia.
That will be a pretty good game, I think.
So the winners of Howard Michigan will play the winners of the St. Louis and Georgia game
on the Midwest side of the bracket and the winners of the USF and Louisville game will
play against the winners of the North Dakota State and Michigan State game on the East
side of the bracket.
And the bills have a little bit of a tie here to Michigan because Joe Bray and Brandon
Bean stopped by Michigan's practice on Wednesday afternoon.
So the bills are giving them some good vibes as Michigan begins their dance in the tournament
tonight at 710.
Michigan went 31 and 3 during the season, does he may is their head coach.
He's in his second season with the team.
They're known for having an aggressive defense, good size and depth off the charts.
If you want to go into March, depth is something that you've got to have and you've got
to be successful with.
They have a big on their team.
A guy, Mara, is their big 7-3, a junior from Spain, what would you do if you were 7-3
seeded?
You'd play basketball.
That's the easy answer.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I wouldn't be tied in in the NFL, that's for sure.
Maybe a kick blocker, maybe, but 7-3.
That story came out a couple, maybe a week ago, the Colter signing, a former basketball
player to try and turn him into a tie-dend.
There's some guys out there who have done it.
There's some guys out there who have done it.
Some guys in the Hall of Fame who have done it.
Now we've had this discussion before and just sports fans have, what's the heart of transition?
Football and a basketball, basketball and a football.
They're both very difficult, both for it.
You can't, I'm a football guy and I'd never poo-poo what Hoops asks you to do physically.
Certainly football is a different, they're completely different animals.
If you've got the body type to play, it comes more down to how intelligent you are to make
that transition.
You've got to really understand beyond what you can be taught, how to compete.
I think for some, it's different for every guy.
There's no way you can generalize it.
Some guys shy away from the physicality of football, particularly if they move to the defensive
side of the ball, where they've got to come up and take a guy down, when he's trying not
to be taken down, some guys can't get that mindset of aggression and physicality, and certainly
a lot of guys don't like getting hit the way they are in football.
In basketball, it is such a skill game.
It's having a handle on the ball, shooting, playing on both sides of the ball, constant
motion, constant on the floor, constant ball in play, instead of a six second play, drop
back to the huddle, take a rest, it's not anaerobic, it's aerobic.
I don't know.
I think, and also this, if you go to an NBA game, we talk about one percenters a lot,
and then in football, in the NBA, it's a tenth, it's like one percent, it's one percent
of the one percent, it's the one percent, yeah, it's like the one hundredth of a percent
of guys that are in the NBA.
It is, the distillation process to get in the NBA is staggering, staggering.
The 13th guy on the bench is better than any basketball player you have ever known.
They're unbelievable.
It really is.
The distillation process for getting into an NBA roster is incredibly, incredibly taxing.
You got to be physically gifted enough to do it, committed enough to get there, skilled
enough and accomplished enough, it's amazing.
So I would say it's probably harder to get into the NBA than it is the NFL, because
there are so many different ways and different types of athletes you can be to get in the
NFL.
Yeah.
All different body types.
Yeah.
We'll see.
Well, congratulations everybody.
I gave you the winning bracket.
Steve has.
Use it to your own advantage.
Who do you have?
For entertainment.
Arizona.
Arizona.
He's got Arizona winning now.
This do not, do not copy my bracket.
We're going to follow up.
You're going to check back.
You have no shot.
We are checking in on your bracket, sir.
I did.
I filled out the bracket as you did with knowing zero about this season's college basketball
teams.
Zero.
That makes a fun.
Thanks for joining the fun, Steve.
I mean, as we go to break Nebraska and Troy, they're kicked off, tipped off.
Oh my gosh.
They dropped the puck.
34 to 21.
Nebraska is ahead.
They're the four seed Troy is the 13 seed.
And then Ohio State, TCU 89, the nine seeded TCU horn frogs, 41 to 28 over Ohio State
in the second half.
All right.
Break time for us.
When we come back, we're dipping into some news and notes from around the NFL.
So stay tuned here on OneBills Live, represented by Clyde Health on Buffalo Bills Radio.
All right, we're back on OneBills Live, Maddie Glaven, Steve Tasker.
If you join for the first segment, Steve Tasker filled out his bracket for March Madness.
He's got Arizona winning it all and has not watched a minute of college basketball this
season.
We will see if he is correct.
This is all said and done games beginning in Buffalo at one 30.
So the first game just tipped off.
We got South Florida and Louisville taken on each other 11 verse six and then North Dakota
State against Michigan State Howard against Michigan and St. Louis against Georgia today.
Those winners will play each other on Saturday at Keybank.
It'll be fun to see what happens.
Let's go.
But let's also pivot to what's happening in the NFL.
We also want to let you know that we've got a topic for today, which bills, offseason
decision or signing will have the biggest impact.
We want to know what you think about what Buffalo has done so far this off season.
What's going to have the biggest impact?
You can tweet at us and we'll read off those responses later in the show.
And then coming up at 2 p.m. ESPN national NFL analyst Seth Walder joining the show to
help us break down everything that's happened in free agency.
It's dying down a little bit, but there's still moves happening still transactions going
on.
There's still guys out there.
I think the number, you know, there guys are still holding out for like four or five
million bucks a year or something like that on it.
But it's not going to happen.
It's going to start dropping down.
You're going to get the veteran minimum or you're not going to be working.
A lot of the people who are going to earn top dollar next season are already.
Yeah, they're done.
Set and done for.
Yeah.
Are you spoken for, I should say.
But a former bill has found a new home as we go around the NFL defensive and AJ epinessa
signing a one year deal with the Browns according to Adam Schefter.
It's worth up to five million dollars now epinessa started his career with the bills.
And six years in Buffalo was drafted in the second round of the 2020 NFL drafts those
think back to the COVID years.
Epinessa played a 91 games started in 19 registered 24 sacks, 29 TFLs, 53 quarterback
hits, four interceptions.
That was epinessa's calling card was getting his hands up in the passing lane, knocking
balls down 21 passes defense, 21 pass breakups is what a defensive lineman had.
He was talented at doing so and then came down with four of those and scored one touchdown
in his career with the bills also had five force fumbles.
Yeah, that was an amazing he was he did that a couple of times almost went the pick six
there.
We were just watching again.
He picked off Andy Dalton.
This is the one against Joe brewery knocked it down.
And then or it was knocked down by Deon Walker and he came in and picked it up intercepted
it.
Back in maybe maybe his 2020 when he picked off the guy in Washington.
I can't remember who the quarterback was even and took it in for a touchdown as well.
I mean, AJ, he's tall and long.
That's one of the you know, one of the traits the bills looked for and you know, with
Rousseau and AJ and those guy that had some length on the edges.
And of course, you know, now they got Deon Walker down inside who's even taller and longer.
So it's one of the things they've always looked for in defensive lineman and AJ.
That was kind of the thing you remember him for.
Yeah.
Was batten passes down.
Epin us.
I had two interceptions last season.
I remember talking to Epin us after he had that second interception and saying, what has
gotten into you?
Why is this happening so often for you so close to the line of scrimmage?
And Epin us said, this is going to sound weird, but I have a funny story.
Micah Hyde told us we have to have a nose for the football.
He said, when I think about Micah Hyde and smell, yes, smell a football, that's when
I've had my interceptions.
Believe it if you want.
That's what he told me as to why he came down with two interceptions in 2025, which I
think is absolutely hilarious.
That sounds like AJ Epin us as a 80 year old telling his great grandson, you have to smell
the football.
You have to smell the football.
I have a nose for the football.
It was great though, and good luck to AJ, a deal up to five, man.
I don't know what the, and if he's got any guarantees or if it's a one, it is a one
year deal.
And obviously some of it is incentive laden because, you know, it's worth up to five
million.
I don't know what the base contract is going to be, but there you have it, AJ laid it on
the line for the club.
It's here for six years.
Miles Garrett is now on his team.
That's true.
He's on Miles Garrett team is the way that works, you know, he's on the team with
Miles.
Miles is on his team.
Go AJ Abanesa.
That's what I'm saying, guys.
He's on.
You're right.
He's on Miles team.
Miles isn't on his team.
You're right.
Yeah, that's the way that goes.
Yeah.
Good for him and congratulations.
We'll stay with the Browns.
The Browns have submitted a new rule to the 2026 club proposals.
They want to allow teams to trade draft picks five years out instead of three.
Right now you can only trade draft picks three years out.
The Browns think that's not enough time to do business.
I want to go five years out.
Do you think five years out is a little crazy or I mean three to me makes sense.
Five seems a little bit far in the future.
Well, think of what it really means.
It means you get basically speaking 14 extra draft picks to trade with, but those draft
picks are highly devalued because of the distance into the future.
It gives you more chips to push to the middle of the table now so you can try and win now.
I don't know.
It's not I got to say this.
I don't think it's that valuable.
Because most GMs don't look around.
They're not there five years from now.
So you make it a lot of it.
You make it a lot of that.
It might not be my team in five years.
So I'm just going to do some business.
Well, that's right.
And then you would have new head coaches coming in and GMs coming in upset about the fact
that you traded my first round pick.
That's right.
Or you get you make that trade or what do you make trades and you get picks.
Then you leave and all of a sudden, oh, yeah, all those picks you traded for to use.
And now we're getting we have three firsts this year.
And thanks for stopping by.
You're already five.
Both sides.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Would there be more trades if you could trade five years in advance of draft picks?
Do you think that would affect how many trades happen or how many how many deals happen?
Yeah.
I think so more more capital to trade means means more options.
Yeah.
I would really be interested in seeing the value chart for a pick five years down the
road.
It's also really hard to project what a draft class is going to look like five years
out.
These kids aren't even entering college.
Oh my gosh.
I just did that math.
Yeah.
Acting like high school players, yeah.
Which I don't well here are scouts watching high school tape.
Say if you got a team a club and you're like you're where the bills are Josh Allen going
into his ninth year, right?
I think that's right.
Yeah.
You're nine.
You're nine.
Five years down the road.
He's going to go into 14 year 14.
So you might want to start stockpiling some firsts.
So when he's in his 14th year.
I guess you have two or three ones and you can get a quarter back.
If you flip it from thinking about your roster rather than thinking about what's in that
draft class in five years, that makes more sense because it's easier to project your team
in five years or current players in five years rather than names you've never heard.
I would love to know why Cleveland wants this in.
I mean, what's their reasoning?
What is what is holding them back?
They want to get their quarter back.
That's why Tasker.
What?
That doesn't.
Yeah.
It's so what?
They've been trying for a long time.
They pick Johnny Manzell.
They get what they do.
They sign Dishonne Watson and you don't know what they get what you deserve.
You're going to give you four first rounds.
You're still going to mess it up.
Doesn't matter if you can trade five years down the future.
You're going to pick Johnny Manzell.
Yeah.
Dope.
Well, it'll be interesting to see what comes of this because owners meetings are at the
end of March.
So a lot of this will be talked about when owners meetings happen at the end of the month.
All right.
According to Ian Rappaport, the Vikings are adding some veteran quarterback depth to their
roster.
Carson Wentz.
One year deal.
Now, Wentz played with the Vikings last year, making five starts going two and three in
those games through for six touchdowns.
Wentz played through a shoulder injury last season, but is now healthy.
2026 will mark his 11th season.
Now he joins an interesting quarterback room because you have Jay-Jay McCarthy, the young
buck, and you got Kyler Murray.
What is going to happen to Kyler Murray's career?
How much do they trust Jay-Jay McCarthy?
Now, if you can remember, going back to the beginning of last season, all the way,
let's go two seasons ago.
McCarthy missed his rookie year due to a torn meniscus.
So last year was his first year playing and came out of the gate on fire, cooled off.
Interceptions were McCarthy's big bugaboo, 11 touchdowns to 12 interceptions in 10
starts.
He went six and four in those games, but you wonder about that type of quarterback.
Jay-Jay McCarthy, Kyler Murray, and Carson Wentz.
Carson Wentz has bounced around the league and aside from his rookie year when he was
in Philly.
Remember this when he was headed on an MVP pace, he caught fire, blew his ACL, and now
who's the kid that took over for him, the quarterback, the one that's Super Bowl?
It was the name is at the tip of my tongue.
Nick Fools.
Yeah, I couldn't remember Nick Fools.
Nick Fools takes over for him, takes it on the Super Bowl run, they win the Super Bowl.
Carson Wentz, think about this.
Carson Wentz is never heard from again.
He's a total journeyman quarterback after being on pace, after a first round pick, and being
on pace to be an MVP for a Super Bowl winning team.
I mean, he played in 68 games and started in 68 with the Eagles.
And he was, and he, so it turns out, you know, he, you know, something happened between
his ears that he can't, he can't stay on a team.
There's a problem.
There's somehow some way.
Now Kyler Murray comes and has struggled in Arizona, the whole thing with the clause in
his contract about playing video games, his commitment, the whole thing.
Now you're putting both those guys on a team.
Wow.
Minnesota is turning into Minnesota is turning into the Cleveland Browns.
Oh, man, am I right?
I'm very interested to see what happens throughout the season where they're at week one with
a quarterback and where they're at week 10 with a quarterback.
I'm watching the Minnesota Vikings like I'm watching NASCAR.
I'm just waiting for the crash.
Oh my gosh.
I, there's going to be, they're going to alternate, we'll see.
You might see.
That'll be fun.
All right, break time for us.
When we return, going back around the NFL finishing things out before Seth Walder comes
on at two o'clock to talk free agency for one Bill's fiber, give me back in just a
couple minutes.
What's up, we're back here in line, one goes live topic for you today, which Bill's
offseason decision or signing will have the biggest impact on, I don't know what you
think.
You can go ahead and tweet at us, we'll be reading those responses later in the show
and then coming up just a few minutes, ESPN National NFL analyst Seth Walder joining
the show, breaking down some of the top free agency moves that have happened thus far.
Talking more about what's happened in the last week in free agency, the Panthers are
trading veteran quarterback Andy Dalton to the Eagles in exchange for a 2027 seventh round
pick.
Other sources now Dalton joins a quarterback room with Jalen Hurts and Tanner McKee.
McKee was the primary backup last season for the Eagles, played in a few games.
Dalton will be in his 16th NFL season and also on his sixth team.
So some quarterback news as of late the last few days, Justin Fields also a part of that
news.
And then yesterday we saw a couple players announce that they were retiring, two players from
the league.
For Bengals and Cowboys linebacker Logan Wilson took to Instagram to say after a lot of
thought and prayer I've decided to officially retire from the NFL, he went on to thank
the Bengals and Dallas and said he's excited for his next chapter saying that they'll have
more time with family and new fitness challenges.
And then Ty Hilton who played 10 years with Colts and won with Dallas last season was
actually in 2022.
So after being a free agent for the past three seasons, Hill announced he's hanging up
the cleats and also took to social media to say after an incredible journey, it's time
for me to retire from the game of football and begin a new chapter.
He thanked the Colts Cowboys and fans who supported him.
Yeah, Ty, he's been out of football for three years and only just now decided that's
it.
And I don't know, I don't know Ty, but if you're going to hang out for three years and
kind of keep the door open, it's hard to let it go, man.
Some of the guys, it's hard to say you're done playing football and he waited three years
to make the decision after his last game, three years, not easy.
It's hard to let it go for some guys.
And Logan Wilson joins a group of players who are starting to retire earlier in their
NFL careers.
Wilson played six years in the NFL, had four straight seasons of at least a hundred tackles,
had 70 tackles last season played on two teams with Cincinnati and Dallas.
It's, you can't, I say this all the time to Brian, I think a lot of people kind of rolled
their eyes when I say, you really can't oversell how physically taxing the NFL is.
And I know the old guys always say it's a softer league than it used to be and I get some
of it is softer, but it's a different, it's a different kind of physical than it used
to be, but it's still very demanding and it still hurts to play.
And these guys, some of them, they get out there and they sign a second contract and
they see, you know, seven or maybe even eight digits in the bank and they say, you know
what?
I don't want to do it anymore.
There's a growing number of guys who make that decision and bless their heart, if it's
their decision to make and I'm all for it because it is not easy to strap it on and go
out and bang, you know, bang heads with guys and throw your body around.
So you said it, man, there's a growing number of players who four years, six years, eight
years.
I was drafted with a guy who played offensive line before he ever suited up for a single
game sat down with a coach and he said, I don't want to play and gave it up right then.
He was a mid round, he was a high first third of the draft draft, he said, I just don't
want to play and that's it and he never played.
While this business is incredible and it's, you know, gives a lot, it also takes a lot
from you.
Yeah, it does.
It does.
And you got to be okay with that.
Yeah, you got to be okay with it.
And some guys get to the point where they look at what the game has already given them and
they want more, could it possibly give me and is it worth me going through all of this?
I remember when I, at the end of my career, the hard part was getting ready to play training.
You got to go out and train, you got to, yeah, you got to work hard and I, you know, by
that time I played 13 years and you get to the point where you can't even train hard
because it hurts, you know, your, your body just screams at you.
I get it.
Man, it's hard.
It's heartbreaking and you just don't want to put yourself through it because you loved
it so much.
It's amazing.
And it kind of changes.
Don't ever, don't ever undersell how much the game asks of these guys.
And so I'm, I've never been one of those old guys that's bitter about all the money these
young guys make.
I, man, they earn it to me.
They earn it.
It's hard.
Yeah.
Guys are already back in the building three weeks, three and a half weeks away from when people
return for workouts.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it's, it's hard.
It's not easy and you got to commit a lot to it and you got to be really, really diligent
and strict with how you live your life and the things that you do.
We got to take a break because when we return coming up in the two o'clock hour, ESPN National
NFL Analyst, Seth Walder joining the show next on One Bill's Live, stay tuned.
Love y'all boys, we're not doing much of these work.
He is a piece for the Capitol V. The top is in the kitchen.
Looks now the sideline he's got contained for a 23-yard touchdown and it's intercepted
jumping up on the air is fed for-
This is One Bill's Live, presented by Collider Health.
Welcome to One Bill's Live, a Thursday edition here, Maddie Glybel, on the side of Steve
Tasker, March Madness, tipped off this afternoon and there's games happening in Buffalo.
The first game is going on right now.
We got Lulville taking on South Florida, Lulville has the lead right now 24-11, 16 versus
an 11.
We're monitoring those games for fun.
We know a lot of you are going to be at the bank at some point today or on Saturday to
join in on the action.
A lot of fun.
I heard it's buzzing already.
I got a Texas at the bank is buzzing.
Good for them.
That's a fun atmosphere down there.
No question.
We're going to tap into what's been going on in free agency as we welcome Seth Walder,
ESPN National NFL analyst to the show.
Seth, thanks for taking the time to join the show.
You got a bracket going on.
You in a college basketball?
Of course.
I'm not a huge college basketball person anymore, but more than one bracket for sure.
Got to track it all.
Of course.
Who you got winning it?
Well, I hedge my bets because I don't know what I'm talking about.
I got a Houston one and I was state one.
There's a Gonzaga one.
I produced one.
There you go.
There you go.
There you go.
Perfect.
There you go.
I like that.
Tasker and I both have Arizona.
I filled out my first bracket on the air at the start of the show today.
I have not watched a single basket of hoops all year at all.
Nothing.
All I know is history.
I filled out the bracket on the air here.
There you go.
I learned a trapezoid of excellence.
Excellent.
That's what we used to help fill out right now.
So there you go.
I probably win now.
That's probably.
Seth, give us an idea.
What has been your first, your overall impressions, this first wave and now into the second
wave and third wave of free agency?
What has struck you more than anything else?
Lead wide what struck me is how fast it went.
So I've been doing this exercise over the last few years where I grade every major transaction
as they come in.
And I feel like in over the last few years what's happened is I'm only sort of like four
or five signings behind on those first couple of days, right?
There's a new one comes in.
Okay.
I'm going to get to it like four or five down the road.
Day one, this was like I just was in a 20 free agent signing hole right off the bat.
It was fun because they all just kept coming in, but it was it was really a blizzard right
at the start.
And then even by the end of week one, that Friday was kind of quiet and then we've sort
of had a trade a day each, each day this week.
But I think the speed with which it happened is what took me by surprise.
Right.
Yeah, it's really slowed down as of the last couple weeks.
We got some quarterback news here and there.
You mentioned how fast it was.
Why was it so fast this season?
It's a great question.
I don't know.
I think ultimately you've got this market and everybody has a limited amount of money
to spend and there's a very limited number of free agents that might be needle movers
for you.
And so you just feel like if we're going to get this guy, this is the only moment to do
it.
And that just pushes up the timeline every every a little bit every year.
And so once that happens, it gets it just like reach the sort of fever pitch that this
time.
And one of the trades obviously that happened early was the DJ Moore trade, Chicago
Bears trading DJ here to Buffalo.
And the bills giving up a number two to get it, they get a fifth back.
But this was a trade that at first glance, yeah, DJ Moore is a good player, but I don't
know if he's a second round pick good player, at least at this point of his career.
But as this for us here in Buffalo, and we always kind of tend to, you know, positive
spin everything obviously for the bills, but it looked like a really expensive price tag
for DJ Moore until the rest of the dominoes started to falling thing, well, that's about
right.
Well, listen, I always feel like I come on this show and I say a bunch of nice things
about the bills and I feel I always preface that I'm not just saying that because the bills,
this is this time is the other way.
I thought this was a really bad trade for Buffalo.
I thought there was a substantial overpay.
DJ Moore is coming off of back to back, disappointing seasons.
There are things you can say, maybe Caleb Williams didn't get him a ton of catchable balls,
the accuracy, all of that, but there's no question.
Two years ago, he signed this extension for 27 and a half million dollars per year.
Then he had two bad years.
Now Buffalo is taking that contract, it's a cash heavy deal.
So there's still paying 22 and a half per year.
It's probably going to end up being more than that because that would only be the case
to be last the whole way.
They gave up a two five swap to get that contract and then they guaranteed, and this is the part
that I honestly completely flummoxed by, why they guaranteed 20, 28 money for him.
When we could be going to 20, 28, saying this guy's off of four bad years in a row, in
the worst case scenario, it has got guaranteed money.
DJ Moore was a great receiver a few years ago, but when we look at our metrics, this
past season, 1.4 yards per route run below average in our player tracking receiver scores,
I understand what Buffalo was, right, they were in a bit of a tight spot, they needed a
receiving help, but this is an overpay is putting it really lightly, I think.
Another player that Buffalo signed is Bradley Chubb, who will fit into Buffalo's new defense
as they switch from a 4-3 to a 3-4.
Now Chubb is quite familiar with the bills because he was on the Miami Dolphins for the
last few years, signs a three year deal with Buffalo.
What were your impressions of that deal?
I thought this was a really tough signing too, one of maybe one of the worst pre-agents
signings of this group, and I like Bradley Chubb, I think he's had a really nice career,
but you look at the numbers since he came back from injury and he's just not been the
same guy.
Last year, he was in the 14th percentile in past rush win rate at edge, that's the rate
at which he beats his blocker within two and a half seconds.
That's a metric he used to crush in.
He used to be awesome in it, like I always used to have to caveat and say like, hey, he's
always been really good in this, like he's always outperformed his sacks in this metric,
and now he didn't have that last year, and so to get the kind of money he did, I thought
it was really surprising to me that he got that from Buffalo, and they needed an edge
across from Greg Russo, not questioning that.
I just couldn't believe that that was the kind of money he got after the year he had last
year.
My idea as well, I mean, I went back, your grades of A plus deals, and I was surprised
to generalize, four out of the top seven moves you had in Friasi were offensive linemen.
You're a guy after my own heart, you start with the guys up front and then move down
from there, but you really liked the way the big guys moved around up front.
I did.
I thought they went cheap this year, so last year we had some really big money deals,
the guards, like I'm thinking about Aaron Banks and Will Fry's, went for huge money,
and those were two players that Armatrix didn't even really like going into last year,
and they still got a ton of money.
Dan Moore got that $20 million deal from the Titans.
I'm going into this free agency looking at guys like David Edwards from Buffalo, who I
think is a really good guard and thinking, wow, he's going to get a ton of money, right?
Or Rashid Walker, where I feel like maybe we're missing something there, but again, top
tackle on the market, he's going to get a ton of money.
The money came in way lower than we would have expected, I think.
And I'm not faulting Buffalo for letting Edwards go.
I think they had to probably choose between McGovern and Edwards, and they got a nice deal
with McGovern, I think.
So you can understand probably only one could stay, but yeah, those deals were Elkton Jenkins,
I thought, great deal for versatile offensive linemen that can go to Cleveland who needs
that versatility, and hasn't been quite, wasn't quite as good at center last year,
or still decent, but has that flexibility to play all the way from center to tackle.
Those ones stood out to me, like you said, yeah, Rashid Walker, David Edwards, there's
another one I'm missing in there that I think, oh, Braden Smith, I mean, I thought was a
value for being a tackle for Houston.
That was a nice little, nice little move that Houston did where they got, they traded
tight as Howard.
I would say him and Braden Smith, maybe they're sort of equivalent-ish players that get
a pick to pay Braden Smith less money.
I like that little maneuver for Houston.
Talking about the protectors now, the protectors are protecting quarterbacks, and you also
have the quarterbacks on your a graded signings.
One of them was Kyler Murray heading to the Vikings, and the other one you also had was
Malik Willis signing with the dolphins.
What will happen in both of those quarterback rooms this year as you project with these
moves?
Well, I think Kyler Murray, I almost certainly will be the starter in Minnesota, I mean,
especially after they sign cars and wins, I think that tells you exactly what they think
about JJ McCarthy.
Murray, it's just like a slam dunk, it's almost like cheating because of the offsets
in the contract, they get to have them for a minimum deal no matter what you think of
Kyler Murray.
I tend to be pretty bullish.
I usually like him a little bit more than consensus, and I know that he wasn't great last
year, but we're not that far removed from Kyler Murray who was like pretty good quarterback,
but above average and QB are just two years ago, and then he's obviously got that extra
gear in him that 2021 season from Kyler Murray was really incredible.
So I do think that Kyler Murray will be the Viking starting quarterback, and just the way
that those coaches have been able to get what they've been able to get out of the players
on both sides of the ball there, you got to think it makes them at least a playoff contender.
Malik Willis, it's like I went into this offseason thinking, I am not going to be a Malik
Willis guy, small sample size, played for a great play caller, yeah, you could barely
get on the field in Tennessee.
Those are just red flag after red flag for me, but then I went back and I watched that
Baltimore game and watched some, you know, his three starts in Green Bay have been unbelievable,
and there's the way that he is able to, I mean, throw on the run, different arm angles,
speed, he does take a lot of sacks, but he also eludes sacks, and I thought, man, if you
were going to find a franchise quarterback in free agency, which is almost impossible
to do, wouldn't this be the scenario where it happens, like a guy who is a decent prospect
and then he takes time to develop, and then he is a really small sample of elite success.
Wouldn't this be what it looks like?
Yeah, that's, the problem is he may be that guy, but his landing spot looks to be rocky
at best.
I mean, Miami is in a total rebuild, no question about it, and they, and his, the structure
of his contract, he looks like they're giving him two years, they're going to draft a
guy next year after hopefully he plays brilliantly in losing efforts this year, right?
I mean, they want Malik Willis to look great and lose the game, right?
I mean, that's, that's a rough spot for him to excel in.
I, I don't disagree at all, and it obviously got a lot harder when they dealt Jalen Wattle,
and I can, I think, given the return they had, I can understand that, and I, I would
even be in favor of it, but there's, there's no question that it makes life harder on
that, right?
It's like you said, they have two objectives in 2026.
Find out what you have in Malik Willis, develop Malik, and develop Malik Willis, and then
push as many resources as you can into 2027 and beyond.
And so yeah, it, those two things can be in conflict.
It is harder to develop him when you're not surrounding him with talent.
There's, I don't think there's really much question about that, but I think what you
said is also the key point here, the structure of the contract is basically giving them
probably two years.
And so they have to look at Willis with kind of grading on a curve probably in this first
year.
You kind of got to feel out, what kind of player do we have here independent of the surroundings?
And then if you feel good enough about it, you go all in and you bolster the team around
him in 2027.
You also graded some of the trades that happened.
We talked about the trade for DJ Moore already, but a team that Buffalo plays quite frequently
in the regular season and in the playoffs are the Kansas City Chiefs and they traded
away one of their best players in Trent McDuffy, but they got a haul in return for McDuffy.
They got the Ramses 2026 first round pick, which is number 29, 2026 fifth, a 2026 sixth,
and a 2027 third round pick.
Why did the Chiefs get an A- for letting one of those talented, talented defenders go?
Yeah, and I'm a McDuffy fan.
So it is hard for me to say, yeah, go ahead and trade him, but you just look at the history
of these kinds of deals.
It's really hard to be the acquiring team and make it worthwhile.
I'm not saying that it can't work.
We've seen examples of it working, but what say, take it from the Ramses perspective,
what they are doing is paying a one in a three for the right to pay market price on Trent
McDuffy.
And that's where I think it's really hard to sustain a team build when you do that.
Now, McDuffy, he also plays a corner, right?
It's a very, very positioned from year to year.
Now, McDuffy is a great player.
He's been very consistent, and so if you're going to be betting on a corner, I think he's
exactly the kind of guy to do it.
And the Rams, they're in this limited window, so you can also understand it's a little
bit easier for them to do this.
You take it from the Chiefs perspective, though.
Does it make them worse in 2026?
Yeah.
I think it does.
Does it make them better from 2027 and 8 and 9 and 30?
Yes.
I also think that this does because the value of what they can get through a first round
pick on a cost-controlled deal is just so substantial.
And Kansas City, they have to make choices when it comes to the salary cap and the players
they have, and they've just been able to develop DBs under Steve Spagnolo.
And so it makes sense for them to sort of take this pain and then take the draft capital.
What team?
You know, out of all the 32 teams and they're all in it, some are in it more than others.
Who helped themselves the most?
I mean, who's going to, what, you know, because I get it, a team like Minnesota, who is
in a really rough division, they got quarterbacks, they're all number one picks at quarterback
in the division.
They're all, you know, so Minnesota may get the most impact if Kyla Murray does indeed
become a starter, is that kind of the team you're looking at or is there another team that's
off the radar that's going to be like, oh, wow, look what they did when this is all
said in that.
I think it is Minnesota is the answer to that question and sort of a boring answer, but
I think it's, I think you're right, like who went into this off season and changed their
outlook?
I think it has to be Minnesota, they're starting to change in McCarthy.
I don't think we're looking at them as a serious playoff team.
And now we are.
And that's despite not doing a heck of a lot else and cutting two defensive tackles, I think
that they're, they're the team.
I think, you know, other teams have added talent, right?
I think definitely certainly Vegas and the Titans have added a lot of talent.
I don't like a lot of those deals value wise.
I think the commanders have definitely added some added some ability and you could look
at a team like the Eagles, which hasn't been that, been that busy, but they added
Rick Woolen at this kind of major weakness spot.
That's another one that kind of jumps out to me, but yes, which team improved the most
to me?
It's Minnesota.
Yeah.
The most, which team still has the most work left to do?
Oh, wow.
The most work left to do, that's a great question.
I think Tampa strikes me as a team that you can't feel great about how things have gone
for them.
They lose Mike Evans and now you look at that roster and they weren't able to win the
NFC South last year and you say, what's like what's really the, what's really the plan
here?
That's a tough one to me.
I think that one, they do stand out to me off the top of my head.
I definitely thought the chargers were going to do more though.
I wouldn't say they have too much to do, you know, though that's probably the one green
bay.
Maybe you would have liked to see a little more.
Those are the teams I think that jump out, jump out to me in terms of, don't love it
so far.
Yeah.
It's still March 19th, but you see a lot's gone off the board.
You see that you see these divisions and how they shake out, certainly the NFC North last
year with Chicago, Minnesota, Detroit, Green Bay, all of those teams right at 500, Chicago
of course, 11 and six who wins it.
But the other three, Green Bay's 97 and one, the other two, Detroit and Minnesota, 9
and 8 and 97 and one, I mean, that division seems like a, like a foresighted coin flip.
And you said it, Green Bay seems to maybe have fallen behind with the trade that Chicago
made.
Maybe they do use that.
Maybe that does give them some, some margin of error with the extra draft picks.
And you know, they're saying goodbye to DJ Moore who became an afterthought in their passing
game with the emergence of the young receivers, Chicago may, may lengthen their lead in this
division.
It's really, it's really tight.
Detroit, another one that hasn't really done much this off season.
And so you look at them and I wonder what becomes of them.
I think that Chicago over achieved last year.
I believe in Ben Johnson, I think that the offense has been incredible.
One thing I liked that Chicago did was they were very fortunate when it came to turnovers
on defense.
That defense, if you looked at, if you took it, every team's non-turnover plays, I
think they were last in EPA per play.
So they relied so heavily on turnovers, but they just had a ton of turnover in their secondary,
not to use the same word, but they didn't say, oh, we're just going to roll that back
again and try to get a million picks.
That's not realistic.
And I thought it was smart of them to say, we know we need it.
We need to change something here on that defense.
And yeah, Green Bay, I still believe in Green Bay because I just think that Jordan Love
took a pretty big step last year.
And I do think if they were able to rely a little more on the passing end, they tend
to be, in my opinion, too run heavy considering how efficient they are in the passing game.
And then you get, if you get a whole, if you can get Micah Parsons back to where he was
and he can stay healthy through the end of the year, I still think that they're one
of these like secondary, super bowl contender teams.
I'm still believing in Green Bay, even though some other things, they also, I liked the
trade that they made dealing with Sean Gary to the Cowboys.
I thought they were, they got a good deal to get for a fourth round pick out of that.
Yeah, Matt will for really good coach as well.
And I wouldn't be surprised if the Packers are one of last team standing when it's all
said and done.
If they can get Parsons back to being healthy and effective when it comes to getting
after the quarterback.
But Seth, we want to thank you for the time.
Thanks for kind of breaking down the first couple of waves of free agency as things have
died down.
But still over a month left before the NFL draft.
So we're going to see some other free agents get picked up in the next couple of weeks as
teams kind of prepare themselves for that first round.
Thanks, Seth.
That was the above.
All right.
That was Seth Walder, ESPN National NFL analyst who just joined the show and helped us make
sense of everything that's happened.
He said in the beginning about how fast it's been, how fast the first wave kind of came
and went.
It did seem like it was really fast and crazy because you and I were on air when the legal
tampering period started.
And it was 120 miles per hour, these transactions agreeing to terms were happening left and
right.
And then as soon as the newly year begins, it becomes official.
And then after that week was over, it kind of fizzled out a little bit and it's been
quiet here in Buffalo too.
So we're a part of that quietness.
If we were a team who was still signing people, you know, a couple of people a week, I would
probably say something different, but the bills made a few moves and we, there's probably
going to be more moves that happened before the NFL draft at the end of April.
But it's been quiet here in past two weeks.
Interesting too, because part of the, you know, you get the urgency, you know, like we
said, the third of the league turned over head coaches this year and some of them even
GMs and the whole kit and caboodle, right?
So there's a lot of change going on around the league and one out of every three teams
has a new head coach, new philosophy, new leadership, the whole, the whole thing.
So you get that there would be a sense of urgency in some of these deals.
What we don't ever find out is why the sense of urgency was there, was it because somebody
else was bidding on the thing too, sometimes we do hear about that.
There have been other things like with the Max Crosby, it was the Baltimore Ravens and
the Dallas Cowboys and then you find out that the Ravens back out of the Crosby trade
because they got their medical people, didn't like it and the Cowboys doctor was in on the
reference for the scans that they got and the Cowboy doctor didn't like it either.
So you hear some of that going on where there's a couple of teams involved in the race
to get these players.
But when push comes to shove, it seems like, I mean, I don't know, was anybody else interested
in DJ Moore other than the bills was, you know, was anybody not pounding on Kyler Murray's
door?
I imagine for a quarterback, right?
Malik Willis.
You know, there's got to be teams, teams interested in him and I'm, in fact, I'm shocked
I didn't hear anything from the Pittsburgh Steelers knocking on Malik Willis's door.
All of that stuff going on, you never know why the sense of urgency is to get that thing
done.
Get it reported because nothing happens for three days anyway because that's when it
opens up.
So just like what happened with Baltimore when a team can say, you didn't pass the physical
thing.
The deals off.
Yeah.
None of these deals are permanent until Wednesday or whatever, you know, Wednesday
at four when the free agency begins.
Right.
So I don't get the, you know, shoe that drops because none of its floodgates open.
Yeah.
Because there's always room for like as Baltimore proved.
I don't know, you know, these teams like racing to get that guy like because you get that
feeling because you sense that the marketplace is hot for the guy.
And then the bills trade for DJ Moore and half the people are saying, yeah, it's a pretty
good trade.
And the other half are like Seth Walters, like when I hate that deal, Buffalo got fleeced.
No way.
If it wasn't going to be Buffalo, was it going to be someplace else?
Somebody else?
You know, that's the thing.
You never know the whole story, I guess, because, you know, but I don't get this, like
you said, 120 miles an hour, we got to get this deal in even though it won't even take
place for three days, but it's always that way.
Yeah.
And I think it's only gotten worse in terms of get it done now.
What have you done for me lately?
Because of the era we live in with social media.
I think that's, and just everything happens, you know, at your fingertips.
Yeah.
I need to know now.
I need to know now.
Tell me the information now.
And you can get the information.
We have cell phones and internet and Instagram applications are real things.
I don't want to know.
And I'm just, I like the way the league has evolved in this off-season stuff because now
the league has really become to realize that these are all tent pole events.
I mean, for goodness sakes, the combine is a tent pole event.
There's a radio row now from combine.
We're there.
And the team is there.
32 teams.
Colleges are there.
The whole thing is there.
So I get how the league is divvying out this information, you know, one month at a time.
And you know, there's stuff we can hang our hat on as radio shows like that.
We're looking, now we're looking forward to the draft and pro days and all of that stuff.
It's, I get how they divvy out that information, but we still never get everything we want
to get.
The first game of the men's NCAA tournament went final Ohio State TCU, eight versus nine.
TCU beat him.
TCU on frogs.
Michael.
And my bracket is busted.
Bracket is busted.
My bracket is busted.
After one game, what are we doing?
Yep.
How does that happen?
We got to take a break when we return, dipping into the tweet sheet, answering your responses,
I should say to our question, which bill's off season decision or signing will have the
biggest impact we're tapping into that next on one bill's live.
Well, back to one bill's live.
We're here to say that Steve Tasker's perfect bracket is already busted.
No, no longer perfect.
It was perfect when we made it.
Come on, man.
I decided to pick eight, senior Ohio State.
That's what I get for not watching a single moment of college basketball happens.
It happens.
It happens.
It happens.
It happens.
It happens.
It happens.
It happens.
Maybe next year.
It does happen.
Wisconsin 5 seed is playing a high point number 12.
High point is down by two points at half.
Here we go.
I'm sure Wisconsin's feeling, feeling like they got to turn it up in the second half,
but we'll dip back into some football talk or topic for you today, which bills, off season
decision or signing will have the biggest impact.
Let's go to the tweet sheet from Ken, Ken saying, I think signing DJ Moore is big, so major
focus can be on defense.
The wide receiver room is not as desperate right now, needs attention, but less urgent.
I agree with the fact that, you know, I, I could see the bills choosing another wide receiver,
whether that's, you know, at the end of free agency or in the draft or still doing both
to continue to add firepower to that room and really make it competitive this off season.
DJ Moore, I'm, I'm pretty excited about it.
Now, from Chicago, I watched a lot of Bears games.
I don't like that he didn't have a great last season, but Tasker and I were talking about
this before the show and Tasker was, was spitting some facts, you know, it makes sense
that Moore wasn't as big of a part of the game plan last year because they decided to
go with some of the younger players and really lean on their future.
That was Colston Loveland, that was Luther Burton.
They also got a lot out of some wide receivers who signed smaller deals, like a lot of days
is a key, has had some great games for the Bears, not Roe Bears anymore.
But Colston Loveland, rookie, tight end, really shined and him and Caleb Williams have, have
started to create an incredible relationship on field.
Two young receivers, Luther Burton and Roman Dunesay, both caught, you know, about the
same number of passes as more, a little few less, Moore had 50, Luther Burton had 47, Roman
Dunesay had 44, and they all had, you know, within the same 25 yards of production throughout
the season, almost the same average per catch, I mean, it was, they were all identical, except
Luther Burton only had two touchdowns and the other two DJ Moore and Roman Dunesay both
had six touchdowns.
They were all kind of the same guy.
And if you've got two young guys doing that and DJ Moore is making 24 and a half million,
DJ Moore goes, right?
So I get why the Bears were letting him go.
I don't know that there wasn't a philosophical shift that caused that kind of, you know,
statistical change.
We'll see where the Bears are this next year and certainly they feel like they're going
to take a, you know, step forward.
I'm not sure though, it's really interesting.
I like, the bills got better with DJ Moore.
I think so too.
I just, there's no question about it.
He's just better than, even in a down year last year, he was number two on the bills.
So he had 50 catches and the bill through the bill, through the season last year, he
would have fallen only behind Shakir.
He would have been ahead of every other receiver on the roster, including Kincaid.
He would have been behind Shakir and yards wise, he was ahead of everybody as well, except
for Shakir and he was almost there.
He had more touchdowns.
DJ Moore is just better than the bottom, the group behind Khalil Shakir and he plays
a different position.
Khalil is a slot guy.
DJ Moore is an outside guy.
The bills got better and you can say they overpaid for him and I don't think they did because
of the market.
You had to pay that to get that guy.
It's expensive to get wide receivers nowadays.
Yeah.
You had to pay that to get that guy and if you're going to get better right away, that's
how you do it.
Maybe the 26 pick of the draft and this year's draft, you could get a guy who's that good,
which guys are going to be?
If you ask 10 people, they're going to give you 10 different names.
DJ Moore is a known commodity.
I like that.
The stuff that he's got going on off the field, Tushy's the right kind of guy.
He showed up.
He's been an Ironman the last couple of years.
He hasn't missed a game in five years.
I think the bills got, and I always use this phrase, but it scratched a really good
itch for Buffalo's roster getting him.
Certainly a second round pick is big, but I'm, man, they needed a guy like DJ Moore.
Moore has had no less than six touchdowns in the last four seasons, so he's been productive
when his number is called when he's in the red zone and when he's separating from
people 20 yards down the field to score.
I'm excited to see what he looks like in a Joe Brady offense knowing those two also
have had time together prior to now being on the bills together.
Greg said, this is easy.
It's Jim Leonard for me.
No more passive defense waiting for mistakes.
Now we can dictate.
We heard from Jim Leonard maybe a month ago, now weeks ago, and learned a little bit
about what his system is going to be about, and we really understood quickly that this
is going to be an aggressive style of defense.
They want to dictate what the offense is doing.
They want to get after the quarterback, and they want to play together, sound football,
and be as multiple as possible.
When you hear about all that, it's going to be, it'll be a tough defense to learn because
Jim Leonard is known for being a very, very, very smart player.
You was.
Yeah.
What they did in Denver with their defense, that was a multiple defense that seemed pretty
intricate.
They posted some incredible numbers and really affected quarterbacks.
You'd guess Jim Leonard is going to want to do a lot of similar things in Buffalo.
I'm really eager to see what that looks like once these guys get out in the field and
we can start to see them actually participate in football activities together.
Yeah, it is going to be a transition.
We're going to talk about it all off season and into training camp and all the way through
the preseason, all the way up to the regular season, and probably into the, into the
regular season about how hard it's going to be to adjust to a completely new defensive
philosophy.
Now, they're going to have a lot of new players on the roster and it's part of the deal
as an NFL coach these days on any staff you go to is to include and acclimate new players.
It happens every year because of free agency as we've been going through these last week
or two.
You know you're going to have new players every year and you've got to get them up to speed
as quickly as possible.
So that's part of the deal as an NFL staff, but that's going to be the conversation.
How hard is it going to be to get these guys to play a new defense like its second nature?
It takes a lot of reps.
It takes a lot of effort.
It takes a lot of mental, scholastic effort, film watching, communication, conversations
between players off the field about what they're thinking and all that stuff, and they don't
even know which guys are going to make the team yet.
So they have miles and miles to go and Jim Leonard played safety.
He was a cerebral safety.
He was a communicator.
He was a guy that elevated the guys around him.
He probably expects his safety to do the same.
So we'll start there and he's starting to ground up.
When you're learning a new defense and you have several players together learning that
new defense for the first time, it takes a lot of commitment.
You've got to sit down and you've got to say we're in this together and I think it takes
a lot of extra time.
It's what happens outside of the meeting room.
It happens what happens outside of the practices.
These guys have to be committed to know this playbook and know this defense like the back
of their hand by the time week one starts in September.
That's going to be the conversation.
Yeah.
I'm excited for it.
Get acclimated, guys.
Good luck.
It'll be fun.
I can't wait to see how it comes together.
We're going to take a break when we return finishing out answering your responses to our
topic next on 1-0-1.
We're back here on 1-0 live answering this question, which builds off season decision
or signing.
We'll have the biggest impact to Andrew says, well, we know our offense is always produced,
so my focus will be on the defense and with CJ Garner Johnson.
We're going to see a lot more grit from that position.
There's going to be a difference maker, no question, and our young safeties can learn
from him, especially Jordan Hancock.
I'm excited to see what CJ Garner Johnson can do for Buffalo.
Now, I played for two teams last year, Chicago, and Houston, 10 starts had two interceptions
now the year before that in 2024, had six.
He definitely brings a lot of firepower to the defense.
He's the type of player where he said during his press conference, he was like, if we're
down seven to nothing, I want to make sure that I'm going to make sure that I'm going to
make a play and give the ball back to my quarterback.
I get mad when we're losing, so it's going to be fun to watch him.
Yeah, absolutely.
He does play, and he's got that reputation for being a chippy guy.
Bill's defense has not had that over the last larger part of a decade, and when you bring
up Hancock, it'll be interesting to see if we learn more, and he's a rookie last year,
and he always kind of give a pass to guys who are in their rookie season, because they're
just too much going on for them to take it all in a lot of times, particularly a guy
at that position who's trying to learn everything about the defense, and carve out a personal
life for himself in a new city, just getting parachuting in as a draft pick.
It's not easy.
So, in the second year, you expect a little more from the guy, and maybe we'll get some
information from him about where his game is at now, what held him back last year.
Are we going to see Hancock on the field a little more, and will guys like Gardner Johnson
help him do that?
Well, guys like Cole Bishop help him do that.
It'll be fun to watch the young guys watch guys like Chancy Gardner Johnson to see
what they do.
Oh, that's how you do it.
That kind of stuff.
Yeah, it's going to be fun.
And remember, Jordan Hancock started his career with the bills, and the question was
what position is Hancock going to play?
Is he going to be a nickel cornerback?
Is he going to be a safety?
He was listed as a DB, and then he ended up taking some snaps at safety toward the end
of the season, filling in for guys who are injured.
So, it'll also be interesting to see kind of where he fits in Jim Leonard's defense.
Right.
You know, new head coach and Joe Brady, new defense accordingly.
What do they do with him?
The coaching staff will get these guys, they'll look at them, they'll watch them play,
they'll give them things to do, and they'll see how he's doing this really well.
We'll see if he can do something else really well.
And if they do that really well, and it's like, oh, we can do a couple of things really
well.
Let's see if he can do a third thing really well.
They'll give them all this stuff, and they'll put those guys on the field and craft a defensive
scheme around what everybody does well.
And when they can do that, because it takes a while, when they can do that, then we'll
see.
We'll see.
If you enjoy the games the rest of the day, we're going to check back in on Seataspers
Bracket tomorrow on OneBill's Live.
See it from one to three.
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