OBL 9/3: Fan Mailbag, Maddy Glab Practice Updates

0:00We're going to do what you're doing. He is a beast for the capital B. The took is in the kitchen. Looks now the signline he's got contained for a 23 yard touchdown. And it's intercepted jumping up on the air is fed for... This is one bills live. Alright welcome in to a Thursday edition of One Bill's Live. Chris Brown Steve Chasker with you. And I believe I have this right because there was some unbelievable weather moving through this area yesterday. Fortunately us in Lancaster only got a smattering of what was going on up in Niagara County which I don't know if you've seen some of the video dude.

1:04I haven't seen any of it. It's the kind of stuff that you probably experience growing up in Kansas. In Kansas was there tornado and stuff? I don't think there were any confirmed touch to the ground tornadoes but I'll show you some video like probably something you're pretty familiar with. There was some scary stuff out there last night. The group in tornado alley which is South Central Kansas and Western Kansas. And it's real. People here you don't get it that often. Out there it's every year and there's a season of it. It's so sparsely populated that not too many people ever get hurt or get some property damage or whatever. But it's real. It's dumbest with it. Oh I saw the super sell. Yeah. That was here in New York. That was in Elba. Yeah. Yeah that's. Now this thing never touched the ground. It never came down. But that's scary enough for me to get the hell out of dodge. Yeah. It's. Oh yeah.

2:04It's impressive and where I grew up the land is incredibly flat and there isn't much foliage. Only crops really. No trees. So you can see the horizon to horizon and you can see it coming and you can also see it when it's 25 miles away. You can see the clouds and stuff. I remember when coming out of high school back in high school I was a kid. We were coming out for freshman track practice. And we were walking out with the coach. You know how it is your kids walking. Let's go. You know walking around just shooting the breeze and we look out and there's a funnel cloud on the ground. And we were frozen. Like do we time to go? Right. Do we leave? What do we do? And we sat there and watched it and to find out it was 11 miles away. That's how you know. Right. As long as it's not heading to the direction. And they only last. They usually only last the only on the ground five minutes tops. Usually it's just a few a minute or two. And. And it was gone. And we found out later that you know somebody who lived up that way said yeah it was up there and ran.

3:07And you know. So. And that was. I got dragged across the street as a fourth grader in a hurricane in a tornado which I couldn't never saw because I was in town where the buildings were. Yeah. It's a real thing. So with people I hope people in Niagara County open but it's okay. Did any injuries reported? I that I don't believe happened. I didn't really pay too close attention to the aftermath stuff. I was watching it as it was unfolding. Yeah. On the local news stations and stuff. Because. Like the thing that they've got to I got to say this and my wife brought this up to because we were watching just to make sure. We didn't have to like move lawn furniture inside or anything like that right. So we were just checking and we were in we were in the clear with where we were. But we were trying to watch the radar and the problem they have is. They have like the red radar is obviously bad that's super severe stuff right. But they over the red were all of these lightning strikes that they had documented.

4:12So you got like 50 lightning bolts totally covering up the radar. So you don't know where the red stuff is right. It's like show me if you know what I mean. So it was all covered up and they've got to. They got to give the meteorologists the ability to click a button and pull the lightning strikes out. So you can see where the red stuff is or the yellow or the you know what I mean. One screen at a time instead of overlap. You want to overlay them as you talk that's fine. But then pull them away so people can see like oh crap this red stuff's coming right at us. Like let's get in the basement or whatever they got to do you know what I mean. So yeah I heard Livingston County got some bad stuff which is south of Rochester. That's where my alma mater is. Geneseo from what I understand there were a lot of students in basements. Yeah a lot of students in basements last night in Geneseo. Don't fool around with it just go just get underground. It's the safest place. That's one of the blessings of living here in Western New York.

5:12You get this like you know once every two years or three years instead of every season. Like you do in other places parts of the country but it's he can't trifle with it. No people you see people getting these videos and stuff. Let your auto let your garage door security camera get the footage stay inside. Yeah with your phone. I get it but it's you're always going to have those storm chasers. Yeah but those guys are pros and they sign up for it and they do it a lot. You see him out west chasing the storms but you know like I say I've been there. Like I say I've told you it's like throwing a dart board. It's like throwing a dart on the side of a blank wall. Trying to catch where those things land. That's how small it is compared to the vastness of the country out there. So yeah last night we kind of our region got a little taste of it. It's rough man.

6:12Yeah so hopefully nobody's too worse for where. Well it's not you know impacted too greatly. I know there were some trees down power lines people without power and stuff. But it looks like the worst of it's gone thankfully because the humidity was so high yesterday. All of that moisture and heat goes up in and the cold air is coming down and then you get the. It was spinning that's a hot and thick yesterday. Oh it was kind of with a knife. Crazy. I mean you could tell it felt felt like my house. I didn't I didn't I was like cranking the air conditioner. I had the thing on refrigerate the house. You go as it was startling how hot and humid it was last night. Startling. It's not like that here you know. Yeah. We don't get that here. In more bills related news it did just come down a short time ago. On the NFL's top 100 we were waiting to see where Josh would fit in the top four.

7:15He is number two on the NFL top 100 by my own 2026. He is the number one quarterback. Yeah. And that means that Miles Garrett is number one. And not hard to figure after he set the league sack record single season sack record as a member of the Cleveland Browns last year. That is a historic achievement on many many levels. Yeah. That's the fact that he did it for Cleveland. The team that was struggling. Is says something about the guy. He was he was a monster. Yeah. But congrats to Josh. That's the highest the bills player has ever been. He's got it number two. He broke John's Josh's foot last year chasing him. Yeah. And the week 16 game spun him around. And when you have the full body weight of Miles Garrett being torqued on your on your foot while you're spinning around something's going to sheer off. Yeah it did. And that's what happened.

8:15But there we go. And it's um yeah. I'm like I said yesterday you get up here to the top three or four five guys in the NFL. You're you're splitting hairs as to who's better. Yeah. I'm Josh the number one quarterback something to be really proud of. It's something absolutely. It's very cool. I said on the podcast I saw you put it out. We had the bills by the numbers podcasting and we thought well which position groups kind of improve the most with this year. I said it might be Josh. And I just thought to myself I hadn't given that any thought it might be Josh. But now that I'm thinking because I even said it when you said it I said. Oh my god him improving. He's gonna where else can it go. I think he's going to have a bit statistically. I think he's going to have a better year this year than did a year ago. Well I've said this all off season. The last time the bills made this kind of investment at wide receiver. Trade for one draft one in the middle rounds was 2020.

9:17Yeah. 2020 they traded for digs drafted Gabe Davis in the fourth round this year. Obviously they traded for DJ Moore drafted Skyler Bell in the fourth round. And what did we see? We saw one of Josh Allen's best seasons of his career. I think in many individual statistical categories it still remains the best season of his career. He exploded in 2020 and he became Josh Allen in 2020 right. Well the full Josh Allen experience where that that year still stands as his highest passing yardage year. 4,544 passing yards. It still stands as his highest passing touchdown season 37. And I believe is it his highest passer rating season? Yes. Also his highest passer rating season of his career 107.2. Now last year he eclipsed the completion percentage number by a tenth.

10:1869.3%. But you think about all the throws at the line of scrimmage. You understand why he was able to eclipse that because he was almost 900 passing yards fewer last year than he was in his career high season. But I think we can kind of get closer to that. Yeah I think it's going to be really productive year for him. Well I think they're going to throw more. Yeah they're going to throw more. He's got better weapons and more established weapons around him. He is you know another year into it. I just a coordinator with no instructor plates. He's got the number he's got a proven guy behind him that he can hand it to whenever he feels like it that's going to keep defense honest. Yeah. Man I just think that's he's got a chance to hang up a big season this year. Yeah. Certainly the schedule is going to have something to say about it. Playing teams like Houston out of the gate. You know it has not been friendly.

11:18It's not been friendly. So it's just defense is a real. It's a super bowl caliber defense. They've got their own issues down there that have nothing to do with the defense. The Josh going to play against week one. So but even with that over the course of 17 games and playing some teams twice that seem to be in rebuild mode like the dolphins and the jets. Even the own division that's four games right there that you would think Josh might make some hey. The Raiders he might make some hey. You know those kind of games are going to be out there. I just think he's got a chance with everything in the atmosphere and the stadium and yada yada yada. Yeah. I might have called that. A couple of years ago I called him being maybe the number one scoring offense in the league with no number one wide receiver and I out. They were two. I might have that. I might have this. This might be my call this year. That's going to be your whiteboard call.

12:18Yeah. All right. That on the whiteboard. This. Here's the problem. We have no whiteboard handy in the in the store. So I got to I got to remember it. I never remember to put that stuff on the whiteboard. Right. As for the bills themselves they were on the practice field again yesterday. Largely the same players participating in their return from injury. Continue to do so. Conor McGovern, CJ Gardner Johnson, Tarell Bernard, Keon Coleman. Not practicing. Khalil Shakir, Jordan Hancock, Javan Solomon, Ty Johnson, Jalen Kilgore, Jude Bowry, and practice squad signing, Jettrick Wills. So still have guys working their way back. I believe they have a brief practice session today that's closed to the media. And then they're on to week one effective Monday. They're giving them a couple of days. They'll get the weekend off. They're kind of getting them a couple of days to relax and recharge a little bit and settle into their routine for game week. I would imagine they will try to make it exactly like a like as if it was a regular week and they play on Sunday.

13:23They'll still get the extra Monday to practice because you're not coming off a game. They'll come in Monday but they'll run through some stuff a little harder on this Monday than they would have normally. But I'll give them Tuesday off as well. Oh, you think? Either that or they'll come in workout a little bit, light workout. I don't think they'll be on the field Tuesday. They might be. Certainly they could. But Wednesday, Thursday, Friday is going to be the exact game we can routine that they usually have. I would think. Yeah. Let's go around the NFL and Baltimore Ravens GM, Eric DeCosta expressed confidence that the team can reach a contract extension with quarterback Lamar Jackson before March, which is obviously when you get to the New Lee gear and free agency. I'm optimistic said to Costa. I feel good about it to cost a later added. We would love to get a deal done as soon as possible. The 29 year old Jackson has two left, two years left on his current contract would become an unrestricted free agent after the 27 season. But it would be beneficial for Baltimore to get a new deal because the last year of his deal, he's got an 83.3 million dollar cap figure.

14:31Third highest in the NFL, they got to redo it. Like there's just, there's no way around that you can't have a guy with an 83 million dollar cap figure and do business on a, you know, a 51 top 51 salaries in the off season. That's still going to be a hard nut to crack. Right. You can't commit that kind of, you got to move that number and get it lower and you do that by giving him an extension. So you can spread some of the guaranteed money, bonus money out. You got to extend the contract, at least even if you don't give him any new money, which he would never go for. And really, if you think about this, if Lamar wants to play hardball, like he's got him because... Oh, sure. The cap figure has to be adjusted by the Ravens. No ifs, hands, or buts. That has to be adjusted. So they have to kind of bend to the will of what Lamar wants. That's correct. And here's the thing as well. If even if they wanted to move off Lamar, which there's no way in this earth that they're wanting to move on from Lamar,

15:31even if they wanted to move on from them, they'd have to trade him. And they'd have to do it now because the quarterback class coming out is the one you want to be a part of. If you're going to replace him. Right. They can't wait till 2027. Nobody knows who's going to come back. You know, there's not going to be anybody in 2027 draft. Well, people are talking about this quarterback class coming up as being a very good one. So if that's the decision you're going to make, or Lamar is playing hardball and you decide you have to move them. Because there's been a lot of talk. These are the rumblings that happen in New York. And I got high school buddies that listen to talk radio down there. And there are already rumblings that Woody Johnson, the owner of the Jets, is talking to Mike Tomlin about being the next head coach of the New York Jets. And it's, and then they take it a step further because it's the belief that if Tomlin becomes the head coach of the Jets, that he would be able to successfully recruit Lamar Jackson to the Jets from Baltimore.

16:33Come on, man. So to me, it's far fetched. But stranger things have happened in this league. I mean, Brett Farve played for the Jets. So Aaron Rogers played for the Jets. Brett Farve was 60 years old. At the end of their careers, I get it. 63 years old. But these are the Dodgers who did the same thing. Come on. Does it wreak of desperation and the typical musings of a Jets fan? Yes. That's true. But I've seen it in more than one place. If you're going to do that, now is the time. Or two months ago. Well, right. You should have done that two months. You should have thrown three ones out. And say, we'll take Lamar off your hands. Give him a new deal and give him to us. And you can have, you can align your stuff up for this coming draft. Right. I don't think there's a lot of validity to it. But these are the circles in which people are talking about what Woody Johnson is. You're late. They're too late. Well, I don't think he's concerned about this year. I think if Aaron Glenn and company win six or seven games, it's probably not going to be good enough for Woody Johnson.

17:39And there will probably be another washing through of the coaching staff. And they will hit the reset button yet again. Because Woody Johnson sees a bigger fish out there. And Mike Tomlin is convinced he could get it. Sure. So this is where the talk in New York is already going. They're already on to the next coach. We haven't played a game yet. We haven't played a game yet. That's right. I am in apparently, and certainly as far as New York jet fans go, and I'm not one of them just saying, I'm more on board with Aaron Glenn than any of them. And he's their coach. Right. Yeah, they don't have a choice in the matter. Or to say this all the time. I played against a guy like face to face. He guarded me. I was watching him on film. That dude was money. He was smart. He was tough. One of the few first round picks that worked for the jet. He was the dude, man. I liked him. I respected him as a player.

18:39And he's paid his dues. He keeps the coaching range. He crushed it in Detroit. Come on. Yeah. What do you... We'll see what happens. I haven't played a game yet. I know. And we saw a little bit of this at the end of Ralph Wilson's life, where you've got an owner that is a little bit... Out Ralph is old. Doug Morone opted out when Ralph passed. Because they just don't know what owner they're going to get. Right? These head coaches. And they know they weren't hired by a new owner. That's right. You have to... And there have been times when there have been guys that wouldn't come to Buffalo because of the state of the ownership. Because Ralph was... He was in Detroit and he didn't travel and that kind of thing. Absentee owner. Yeah. It was a rough situation. And you couldn't get guys to say yes for that reason.

19:39Because Ralph was 90. Oh, uncertain. He was 90. They couldn't get guys to say yes when he was 80. He lived to 95. Right? That's the atmosphere during the drought. So, now you've got Woody Johnson in New York. It's a different reason why guys might not say yes. Because he's a meddling owner. Mike Tomlin might say, you know what? No. Yeah. I'm not into it. I've got other opportunities. So it might be that Aaron Glen was the first guy on the list that said, yeah, okay, I'll coach for you. I'm not saying Aaron Glen's a consolation prize because I think he's a good coach. But there might have been some guys on the list above him that said, yeah, that job's not for me. It's the wrong... The timing's not right. Right? They give you that line. It's not at this time. Now is not the time. Exactly. So they may have their sights set on Mike Tomlin. Yeah. And Mike Tomlin might be saying, you know, I like this TV game.

20:39I like the TV game. I'm making just as much money. And I don't have... And I go home and I don't have the games over. I don't have a scoreboard. Yeah. I go home in the games. Yeah. And I'm not crunching tape the next day either. So there's a lot in that. Oh yeah. And to be talking about it right now just tells you the desperation of jet fans. And all the stuff I'm talking about is all con... And we've seen stuff like this happen in the league. And I'm not saying it's happening or whether Woody Johnson's talk to him or not. But man, you're stepping into... You're stepping into it if you're taking the jet job. Yeah. Kurt Cousins is going to begin the season as the Raiders starting quarterback over Rookie Fernando Mendoza. First year head coach Clint Coobeak announcing that Wednesday that Cousins is going to start the season opener. In Las Vegas against the Miami Dolphins. And Dosa will be the first quarterback drafted with the first overall pick to not start in week one since Baker Mayfield in 2018.

21:39So it's been a minute since the first pick in the draft has not started the first game of his rookie season. Well it's... Yeah. It's worked for other guys who weren't the first pick in the draft. I'll pat my homes. All right. So you've got... That's a layup. The Kurt Cousins. It gets the Dolphins week one at home. So you get the Dolphins. Then you've got the Chargers in LA. Tougher game. Then New Orleans at New Orleans. Probably a little tougher than people think. Well it's probably tougher than the Miami game at home. Yep. But let's say you go two and one. So the Chargers give it to you. But you beat the Saints and you beat the Dolphins. Then you got the Chiefs. All right. And then you got the Dolphins. At home. Yep. But let's face it, my homes will be a month into it. He'll be hitting his stride. You got no chance. Okay. Wow. No chance. The then New England Patriots.

22:39A month into them. I'm just going to remind you that Chiefs had a lot of turnover on defense. They lost their top two corners and their top safety. They got gaps to fill. All right. So you're competitive against the Chiefs. Okay. But you lose in it at the air. I'll give you that. I'll give you that. Then you got New England Patriots on the road. On the road across the country. West Coast, East Coast, Hard Think. You lose that one. So now you lost, lost, went, you're two and three. And you got Buffalo coming in. Yeah, week six. Week six. Followed by. Followed by the Los Angeles Rams. At home. Yeah. So that home stretch builds rams at home for the Raiders. I think cousins makes it to the Rams game. Oh, you think you get that far? Yeah. Okay. I thought you had to pull the rip quarter Patriots. No. And here comes the New York Jets coming in. You're going.

23:39And that's why you put them in. Because it's the two of the New York Jets on the road. You let them start on the road at the Jets. And you give them a chance to be a little successful before coming home. Then have fun with the next three games. Yes. The first one of the two one. Because they've ended a 50 and now, we got. And we're going for a hit of Five Pink City. So nineers. See, Hawk's Broncos. And you're thinking about who you're going to draft next. Man, this is what. Man, do dresses. First bitch. No. But you're going to, but you're. You're here. I'm going to be able to parlay that pick which is going to be a top five pick and. Get a couple of draft picks. And you're going to be able to build your entire franchising around Mendoza lives. Whoever you're doing right now for the Raiders. What you just Be moon Jets fans doing. You're already on to the next draft. True. It's not exactly true. We are... You're not going to win the Super Bowl with a rookie quarterback. Probably not. And you're not going to win it with Kirk Cousins. This is about building for the future. And I like Cubi Ag.

24:39Nobody's trying to kick Cubi Ag to the curb yet. Correct. So, yeah. Well, considering that Mark Davis is paying for three previous coaches to not coaches team and a former GM, I would tend to think they're going to hang on to Cubi Ag a little bit here. So they're not paying five coaches. Yeah. They got like three coaches. They're still paying money to that they fired. Like, it's insanity. Mm-hmm. That's just... Oh my gosh. But that's what happens when you're one of those teams in the churn. Every two years, change in the coach out. Right. Because those contracts for the coaches are guaranteed as we know. Other news. Niners defensive and Nick Bosa took a step toward returning to play when he participated in a full practice for the first time since tearing his ACL in week three of last season. After his session, Bosa did... In which Bosa did individual drills took part in some team periods.

25:40He said he felt great, called his progress very encouraging. Asked if he intended to play in the September 10th opener against the Rams in Melbourne, Australia. Bosa did not make any definitive declarations, but did say, quote, after today, yeah, that was pretty good. So he seems optimistic that he'll be good to go in Australia. He did make the trip, obviously, with the team they left yesterday. So it looks like they may have Kiddell and Bosa in the lineup. An offense and defense respectively, whether they'll be the full version of themselves remains to be seen, but looks like they're going to dress and play in some capacity. The way it's trending anyway. The Niners really feel worn out already going into week one, don't they? They a little bit. They haven't heard anything about McCaffrey. Like their best players are all old or coming off major injuries. I think Kiddell's 30. I think McCaffrey's now 30.

26:42Bosa I think is 28 or 29, but multiple like three ACLs, like seriously. So yeah, like I mean Trent Williams, they're left tackles of 38. So I mean, he's still great, but they're best players with the exception of Purdy. They're all old. So be interesting to see how that plays out for them. They just seem worn out a little bit. And finally Vikings GM Nolan Teasley said he expects quarterback JJ McCarty to be a part of the team's roster when the regular season begins. Teasley showed a measure of support following a preseason in which McCarty lost his starting job and appears to be third on the Vikings death chart behind Kyler Mary and Carson Wentz. Quote, JJ McCarty's role is to continue to develop and prove and support his teammates. He's done an excellent job of that from the moment that I've been here and from my understanding since he walked through the door, asked if he anticipated McCarty being on

27:42the Vikings roster in week one. Teasley said, quote, I do. He would not comment on whether or not he has engaged in any trade discussions involving McCarty. I got to be honest. Are people beating down the door to trade for JJ McCarty right now? No, I don't think so. Who would be? Yeah. Who would Miami? Atlanta? No, I don't think so. Atlanta, maybe, with Pinnix and Tuah. Perhaps Cleveland? I guess we couldn't rule it out. Arizona? I don't think he's... I don't think so. Yeah, that's not great. He's not an attractive item on the menu. No. He's athletic. He's not around, but his throwing mechanics are still not right from a consistency perspective. He'll throw a good ball. Now and again, he's like me playing golf.

28:44I'll get a good shot, every six shots. The other ones are spraying all over the place. It's not good. So that is around the NFL. We are moving up the OBL Friday Fan Mailbag 2 today because we don't have a show tomorrow. We get a day off for the Labor Day weekend. We will be back on Monday. We don't get Monday off. We get Friday off, which is great. So we're going to do the OBL Friday Fan Mailbag 2 Day. So any question you have on the bills, the 53-man roster, the practice squad, the weak one match up with the Texans, the new stadium, whatever's on your mind, fire the questions at us at One Bill's Live. And Steve and I will provide you with any and all answers that we can come up with, all of which we try to make as legitimate and knowledgeable as possible. No promises, but send your questions in and we'll crack open that mailbag when we return here on One Bill's Live. All right, back here on One Bill's Live, Chris Brown, Steve Tasker, and Friday Fan

29:53Mailbag. We're doing it a day early because we don't have a show tomorrow on the Labor Day weekend. Hope everybody else enjoys their Labor Day weekend as well. But we've got mailbag questions to get to and we're going to do that in a short order. Right here, first question comes from Steve, not the guy next to me and other Steve, who says, hey, Steve, I know the players prefer grass, but what was so bad about the turf across the street? It wasn't like the carpet you played on or the turf at the vet where players were blowing out ACLs every other week. So I didn't, I've never played on turf that was like the one in the field turf. Field turf in former high mark. But obviously it's better that this grass and the field turf they played on most recently was better than the old turf that was in rich stadium when I first got here in the mid-80s and when I played in the Houston, Astridone for the Oilers. This was literally, it was indoor outdoor carpeting if that.

30:57The newer stuff and the reason you didn't like it was very hard, it was laid over asphalt, then they started putting carpet padding or whatever padding underneath it and even that was, it would get worn out. It was mild improvement and it was really hard. They made it stiff so it would hold up, it was too stiff. You could, the older surfaces that I played on and then got better and better, but the older sir, it was so sticky, they would give you turf shoes, we used to call them, they were 150 stud cleats. And the knobs, the little knobs on the bottom. You could really stop and start on those, but to do that, when you did that, I mean, you put a lot of pressure on your joints and you could feel it. As the technology improved for the turf, in my mind, and I may be wrong about this, but my observation was, you could make the new stuff with the ground up rubber pellets in it,

32:03small, it was like rubber dirt basically and it was, you think, wow, that's a great idea. And it was, it's a great idea, huge improvement. You could make that as sticky as you wanted it to be. So if you wanted to wear big thick cleats, it would work, but you never, it wasn't the sticky surface that the indoor outdoor carpeting that I played on was. And it wasn't as grippy as real turf, real grass could be. I always felt like you could see guys slip and fall on that stuff, particularly if it got wet. It was a little too slippery and it wasn't as consistent for some reason to me. Obviously, there are different companies who make different iterations of artificial grass. And they all act differently, hence the inconsistencies. Some guys who wear certain shoes on games, they'd slip and fall around, they'd have to change shoes.

33:04Other guys would come out and blow a knee, right? So that's hard to, that's hard to, I don't know, adjust with your own shoes and with the hoop player. That guy that plays wide out is different than the guy that plays D-line and how he runs and stops and starts and they're all different. If it's grass, it seems to be a little bit more natural, a little bit more consistent. Certainly, there's good grass and bad grass, but at this level, what they're talking about and you've heard they're replacing the grass already. And people ask, was it torn? It got torn up because of the blue red scrimmage, it got torn up because of the Carolina game, it got the open practice, the night practice they had, and then of course the Pittsburgh game. So all that stuff, yeah, it got torn up a little bit, but I think they replaced it because they want that stuff to look perfect. It's going to look great. That's what they want. Players love it. This grass over here, they kicked it up in a couple of spots. I don't think the players that were complaining about it at all.

34:04They're putting new grass down. They're putting new grass down for this stretch of, you know, you've got this stretch from the three home games. Three home games through. What amounts to a month, three games less than that, right? Less than 20 days. Yeah, because you play Thursday night than the following Sunday and the Sunday after that. Right, it's the Lions, the Chargers and the Patriots games. And then they've got between the 17th and October. Yeah, and then you go from the 4th of October all the way till November 1st before you have another game on it. And by that time, getting grass to take and set when the other starts getting cold, I know they can control the grass temperature. They may switch it out again after the October 4th game. Well, most teams with stadiums that have grass fields do swap out their grass at least once, usually twice a season. And that's, and that's the, in the old days, that's why it was told to the players, you know, the players that like, listen, it cost us, we got to replace it and it's cost us all this money. We put the turf down.

35:04That's all we have to do. Put it down. When we run a brush over it every time. That's it. That's all we got to do. We don't even have to paint it. Right? So that was always the big detriment to getting natural grass. There's maintenance in the mowing, the getting it to grow, and then replacing it a couple of times a year. Now that doesn't seem to be as big an issue because, you know, you got a new stadium. The income, you know, the income supposedly, you know, you get them, you got the money to do it. And the cash flow to do it. So they're just, they're just replacing it. Players like it and they're going to do it. But this is common. Grass is hard to maintain. Well, in a climate like this. Harder to maintain. But they have technology to help keep it growing. Yeah. You know, they can control the temperature of the ground under the lights on. They put the ground will never freeze. They got impressive light system to go on. They just roll with light. Yeah, it's UV lights and then the grass will grow and it'll stay.

36:05It won't go dormant. They got, they can suck the water out from underneath it so it won't get muddy and torn up that way. And it heated so it won't get, it keeps snow on it. They can heat it. And it won't freeze. The ground won't freeze. So you can extend the ground all that stuff going on. But it's still, I mean, it still gets torn up from big heavy dudes running around on it. 283 hundred pound guys running around. So that's part of the deal. That's part of the deal. I had never really thought about it but makes sense. I was like, yeah, of course, that the same grass that is going to be there may hopefully for the playoff run is going to be different grass than, you know, they're playing in October. Yeah. They're just going to switch it out. Pittsburgh has is notorious for doing it. University of Pittsburgh plays on that field. High school plays on that. And high school playoff that playoff. Do their playoffs on that case. They got teams running on and off that thing all the time. Yeah. They just switch it out and away they go. Now they have had problems with it when they don't get it done right or they can't get it done on time or the scheduling is not what they anticipated because of all the extra

37:09stuff going on. But when it's when they've got a handle on it, they know probably before the season when they're going to switch it out. Yeah. Ganon from the mailbag asks going into 2026, what are each of your seven AFC playoff teams? Hmm. All right. I guess we're just doing AFC here. Yeah. AFC playoff teams. You want to pick yours first? Yeah. I'll say Buffalo. Jacksonville. Denver. I'll say Denver, the Chargers in Kansas City. Three from the West. Yeah. I'll leave you with division winners the rest of the Jacksonville Buffalo. Cincinnati. Hmm. Okay.

38:10I think since three from the West, you say I. I don't yeah, because that's interesting. 11 and six last year. That gets you in for sure. Kansas City's going to be back. They're going to win 10 games at least. They're going to win 10 games and Denver will win 10 11 games. Yeah. I will go Buffalo, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Houston. Mm-hmm. And then Broncos Chargers. So that's it. One, two, three, four, five, six. So I get one more. Mm-hmm. Yeah. For me, that's either New England, Kansas City, or Jacksonville. Wow. Three teams I really dislike.

39:12Yeah. It's a hard AFC North is a tough division to pick this year. I think I'll just pick Kansas City even night. I'll monitor it. So I'll take three from the West, too. Yeah. Lord. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's going to be Denver, Kansas City. Those teams are going to beat up on each other a lot. Yeah. Which is good. Yeah. And then I think I like your call from Houston. I take Jacksonville or Houston. You took Jacksonville. I think I might take Houston instead. That defense is going to travel. Yeah. And the team in the North is going to be the North winner, whether you think it's going to be Baltimore, or Cincinnati or Pittsburgh. You didn't pick Baltimore. Did you? I know I picked Cincinnati. You picked Cincinnati. Which I don't know. You picked that as the only team from the North. Yeah. I think it's too hard. And then those teams beat up on each other, too. That's correct. Every year. That's correct. Akeko asks, when the NFL teams travel for overseas games, are they provided with spacious seats on the plane? Economy seats would be far too cramped for them to sleep. It depends on the team, Akeko.

40:15That's correct. Charters, an airline usually, the Patriots own their own planes. They have two. Robert Kraft does. But the other teams, the balance of the other teams and the league, charter their planes through an airline. So if they want to spend the extra money, which I would assume both the Niners and Rams are doing for the 16-hour flight to Australia to provide sleeper seats, you know, that just allow players to completely lay out and go to bed. But I do know in the two times we have flown to London. We have had a, for what, for lack of a better term, a regular jetliner. Now, it has a first class section and a business class section. Staff, we just sit in economy in the back. So we're in a regular seat. The players sometimes have a little more room or if the coaching staff, depending on what a staff decides, can put them in first class where very often on transatlantic flights, you have a seat that can lay out and you can go back.

41:22They usually put the coaching staffs in the first class, maybe in the sleeper parts of it because those guys are working on the flight. They're looking at film, they're doing break, they're still working, where are they travel. So they give them the best accommodations so they can have some space to do that. I've heard it used to be that, you know, the veteran players get to sit up in first class and most teams don't do that. Most teams don't do that. But, and the plane is never completely full. So the big guys, anybody who's sitting in economy has a seat between each other so they have some space to spread out. It's a transatlantic flight. You got to play in the seats about 300 people and the travel party usually is around 125, 130 people. So you got seats in between years so you can stretch out a little bit. I know a lot of people on our staff the last time we went over, they just put up the armrest and lay down on three seats. That's pretty common. Yeah, just rack out. Not ideal, but you know, you make it work.

42:22Gotta take a break here when we come back more questions from the mailbag that we will be answering. We also in the second hour of the show have Maddie GLAB. She'll give us a practice update on what she saw out there the last couple of days, so stay tuned for that as well. Here on Thursday edition of One Built Live. All right, back here on One Built Live. First Brown Steve Taster with you. As we count down to the season opener, there is also a countdown involved for the home opener against the Lions in Week 2 Thursday night football. As we know, it'll be on Amazon. Yesterday it was announced. One Republic will be the halftime entertainment for the fans in attendance. And our president of business operations for the bills and savers peak well, he just put out on his Twitter handle.

43:28He is asking fans in a poll to pick what color the end zone should be red or blue. And right now red is taking the cake with more than two thirds of the vote. 67.8%. Blue just under 25%. So it's almost margin red over blue. And I think it's because people miss the red end zones back when you played. Yeah, the end zones were red back then. Ever since then they've been pretty much blue. Go back and look at the 51 to 3 game. They're a little bit pink by that. Yeah, well, they're all faded. They're all faded. But yeah, good for them. That's that. Okay. Yeah, awesome. I picked red myself. I kind of miss the red end zones too. We've seen blue for so long. Let's change it up. You know, you're in a new building. Yeah. Get the red end zones rolling. It's amazing what you get. Did you see this on social about the London bills backers?

44:31I did not. We don't usually shout out people. But the London bills backers are going to call broadwood pub and kitchen home for the 2026 season. Good for a new venue. They have a new venue as well. It's a short walk from the Liverpool Street Station. You got us registered to join them. You got to go through the London bills backers website or go to the directly to the pub. If you really, if you've already registered for game this season, you're going to have to receive an email with more details. Good for them. The London bills backers have a home. The broadwood pub and kitchen. How about that? That's nice. I don't. I don't really do that. But we talk so much angling for a free drink. Right. We. We talk so much about and people know this to it. It's a. I think it's a point of pride for the mafia. You go out across the world and you wear your logo. Somebody's going to give you shout out. Yeah. Right. Give you go bills. Somebody's going to give you a go bills. It's very heartwarming and it's something that happens to all of us as we go out and about.

45:35So here we get the London bills backers or in that in the broadwood pub and kitchen and give me shout out. Good for them. Do you have a preference on end zone color? Yeah. The red pops for me. No question about it. That's what I could see them doing something different. You know, stripes or something like that or whatever. I could see them just doing the bill like it has been just. The preseason was just green grass with the built in the word bills in the end zone. You can see them coloring the letters of the bills and leaving it at that, making them red or blue or whatever. Yeah, a little bit like the one we're seeing right now, but I would say you could color the BILLS in red or color it in blue. But yeah, I'm good with it. Red red pops. That's all there is to it.

46:37I think if they paint it on grass, it's going to stay pop. Yeah, they're also giving you options to just color the bills and zones just color the letters in blue or red. That's the other option. Yeah. But those are red painted end zone with white letters is winning the voting right now. I'm good with it. The non-painted end zones with just painted letters, distant third and fourth right now. Okay, distant third and third. I am okay with that. So yeah, I picked red end zones. Okay, I'm all for that. Yeah, red end zones are they they just pop, man. Yeah, I think it'll look good on TV too. Yeah, so I'm all for that. Let's quickly get back in the mailbag here where Ed asks, might this be the year's bill? Might this year's Bill's offense be the most lethal in the Josh Allen era? I'm bullish on the offense. I know Steve is too best, most lethal.

47:47That's a hard one. Yeah, because you don't really know what Ed's definition of lethal is. Does that mean they're scoring fast with three play drives and bombs out of the sky? You know what I mean? Like, or what is the definition of lethal for Ed? I know that the the Kagan offense when it burst onto the scene back in the day, they scored like 491 points or something like that on the season. I thought, man, nobody's ever going to touch that. Yeah, with the 17 game seed. All of a sudden, Josh comes out and they just blow it out of the water. I mean, they rip it apart. So that's to me scoring is what you're out there for. And Josh is better at it than anybody's ever been. I mean, you wouldn't be, when you say lethal, what do you mean? You wouldn't be called crazy to say that this year it could be. I think this, you're not out of line. I, we've been talking about it. I think this might be Josh's best year coming up.

48:50I think he might, he might be the position group that improves the most from last year to this year. I think he might just like do it. So yeah, I'm, I'm totally on board with that possibility. But, you know, there's only got six million moving parts you got to look out for and all that stuff's got to fall into place. Josh is a greater racer though. He can make up for some deficiencies. But the more deficiencies he has to make up with the less lethal their offense is going to be, right? So, no, I, I think it is on the table. I think it could be their best version of this offense. Certainly in the Joe Brady era as offensive coordinator. I think it could be their best one ever. So yeah, I'm, it could be. Yeah, I'm, I'm not a, like I said, it's not our landers to indicate it could be. The most lethal offensive season for sure. I know it's going to be entertaining. That's for dang sure. I got to take a break here. We're near the top of the hour. And when we come back, hour number two, as we said, we'll begin with senior team reporter,

49:51Maddie Glad will get some updates on practice. Who's not practicing and what some of the players are saying before they're long weekend. And then they're back at it for week one. So we'll catch up with Maddie when we return here on one bills left. I love y'all boys. We don't do much of this. He is a beast with a capital B. The top is in the kitchen. Look now the sign line. He's got to get paid for a 23 yard touchdown. And it's intercepted jumping over the air is fed for. This is one bills live.

50:55All right. Welcome to hour number two of a Thursday edition of one bills live. Chris Brownstein and joined by a bill senior team reporter, Maddie lab. As the bills got some practices in here before the Labor Day weekend. They will get the weekend off and then back at it Labor Day Monday as they get ready for Texans week one. I'm crazy to say it is here. There is something about it though. Stephen, I were talking about this, Maddie, like a couple of weeks ago. I don't know what it is. It feels like it's been like a year since they last played football. And it's really only been what amounts to eight months. But it feels I don't know why it's felt longer this off season building across the way is made it. We've had so much going on. I think it's one reason anticipation of that. Yes. And plus we've been we're you and I. We've been marooned. We're homeless. Yeah. We're we're letting us stay here in the store until they kick us out. Yes. Stephen Chris are living at the store. They stay here overnight every night. I sleep on I sleep on a pile of blankets that they could sell.

51:59I sleep on a pile of mattress full of new era has. But we've been we've watched the ribbon cutting. We've watched the you know the whole thing the landscaping the bison's going in. Everything's been going on. And let's not forget the way the off season started was with the coaching change. Oh my god. The options has been so busy for us. Been a little jam. They're there and everywhere introducing a new head coach and entirely new staff. Yeah. Getting used to new people in the building. A new schedule. Then you open this big beauty of a stadium across the street from us in a high mark stadium. Yeah. New locations for us on game day. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. There's been so much. And because of that, I think feels like wow. It's been forever that we actually played football. Yeah. Football has been on the horizon, but never been center stage. Even in the preseason, this is the stadium kind of took over. Yeah, the stadium has all the headlines. Right. Right. Right. So it's been a different kind of offseason. You're right. But we talked about about how you know can we just get there.

53:01Yeah. It seems like now. Just about there. So let me start here, Maddie, because you know we've heard from Josh. We heard from coach Brady. We heard from Brandon Bean after the roster got set and then the practice squad right after that. What do you feel are still the headline grabbers with respect to the roster, whether it's a question about the roster or the decisions made in formulating it as we head into week one. What do you think still stands out there? One of the biggest things for me was Kalecki Latu making the 53 man roster, keeping a four man tight end group. We haven't seen that here in Buffalo in several years. Usually it's three strong and Latu does enough to earn himself a roster spot. Latu is somebody who I've gotten to know over the last year. Always find myself talking to him after practice and spent some time talking with him in the preseason, just wondering like what are you really trying to work on this off season?

54:04What are you proud of? And Latu says, you know, I have my size. I'm six, seven. I know I have great hands. I was brought to the bills because of that. But this off season for me has really been about learning how to be a better blocker. He said, I went to Jackson Haws and asked him, how are you so good at this? What can I do to add to my craft and and Haws had a funny response? He said, you just have to be like an ogre out there. I thought that was hilarious when Kalecki Latu is telling me that. But he really worked at becoming a more complete tight end this off season. And the coaching staff saw that. I asked Brandon Bean and Joe Brady about Kalecki Latu and their faces lit up when they got to talk about the young tight end. And just the amount of work he's put in the last year, living in the weight room, spending extra time with Titans coach Rob Boris. It paid off. I asked Latu, I was like, did you think you were a lock? What was going through your mind in the final days? And he said, I had no idea if they were going to keep a full back. He was like, I thought I was kind of on the fence with if they keep a full back, I'm not on the roster.

55:12If they don't, then I am on the roster. Well, we see the bills decide to not keep a full back at this time. And Brady said in relation to not keeping a full back, I feel like our tight end's room is just so versatile. We'll be able to use them in a lot of different ways. That's that makes a lot of sense. And plus a lot of people say, you know, I kind of this side of their mouth. Like, well, if King Kig gets hurt again, you still got your guy, right? And that's that may be some of it. But I think it has more to do with Latu growing than it does. Well, King Kig's risk of being hurt again or having some on and off the field. And I think Josh flew us in onto another layer of this decision when he started getting into how it's going to help keep defenses even more off balance because if you have haws out there. And it technically is 12 personnel. And then he goes and lines up in the backfield after they break the huddle. Well, now is it 21? Yeah. Are they are they going to smash us in the mouth and run the football? Oh, no, he just motioned out of the backfield. Now he split out wide, holy crap. What's happening?

56:18Like 12 personnel was enough of a bug a boo for opposing defenses with this team. Now, Sans a fullback haws is out there. He could be any one of those things. And you got the other two tight ends. Latu expanding his profile as Maddie explained and then knocks who can do just about everything to like you have zero clue what's coming. The only thing that they probably I can't see on the menu really as a big part of it would be handing the ball off to a fullback that's a tight end. You know what I mean? Well, right handed off to Latu. You're not going to hand it off to haws but having them on the field in the backfield where they can motion move around and shift. The defenses got to get in deep into its adjustment package. Because when Gilliams on the field it's 21 like there's no debate about it. When haws is on the field as a fullback is it 12? Is it 21? You don't know. Right. So I think it just adds another layer of uncertainty to the opposing defense. They're going to have to get it right how they designate haws when he's lined up with his hand on the ground next to cook.

57:20Or when he's on the line of scrimmage on in a flex position. And don't think that Joe isn't going to mess with you on right exactly. So they get a mess with you. How are they thinking about him and what are they doing you know about that formation about that personnel grouping it. This gives another layer a degree of difficulty for the defense. All right. So Maddie we've got a handful of starters or projected starters anyway that are still trying to work their way back from injury. We got good news at least from what we've seen on the field. Right on McGovern Bernard Coleman. Those guys are all working their way back in. Waiting on a couple of other people. Oh, CJ Gardner Johnson back to right. And right now we don't get the descriptions of their degree of participation in practice. But seeing them has just working with the team in a practice setting has to be encouraged. Yes. It felt like for I know it wasn't a long part of the off season, but it felt like for good amount of time we were down. Good amount of starters and it's the preseason you're like, okay, it's fine. But then the preseason ticks on and you're like, what are they coming back. So it's great to see some of these players out there. Specifically, I am so glad that coal bishop and CJ Gardner Johnson are getting time on the field together right now. I know they've been working together throughout walkthrough.

58:44When Gardner Johnson has been injured, even Bishop coming back into the fold two, but I love that they're getting time on tax during practice, during team drills outside. We heard from Gardner Johnson and Bishop in the last couple days and Bishop was funny when talking about Gardner Johnson. And John's saying like, hey, it's obvious. We are very different. But we're well, there's no filter with see. Yeah, none. You could get that in your sideline interview with him during the Pittsburgh game. It was hard to keep that interview on the rails. Right. I mean, he was dapping people up talking to guys off camera. The whole thing. Yeah, it's. I like that you're different, but you have to learn how to talk the same language on the field when a play is happening. That's right. And I think a guy like CJ when he's you know, he's bumped around the league to a couple of different places. And one of the things we saw when McDermott was here and I think it has now become part of the fabric this they just want to be understood.

59:45They want to have a voice. They want to beat him so like when Mac Hollins was here, you never heard about Mac. Until he got to Buffalo and he could walk around barefoot and nobody said anything. He'd come in and costume on a game day. Nobody said anything. Guys thrive in that kind of environment. CJ's finding that out. I think here by the fact that you know, you got something to say say it and be you with us. You know, and guys thrive in that kind of culture because they just they want to be understood. They want to be able to be themselves. They don't want to have to fake anything. And that's it's a great atmosphere for guys to thrive. I realize coach Brady's not given a lot in terms of injury information, but we still have not seen Thai Johnson return to the fold. We have still not seen Khalil Shakir return to the fold. I guess if we get to like Wednesday next week, we start getting concerned. If we still don't see them because they have a nice long weekend here where they're not going to be practicing their off and you assume the guys who are injured are going to be living in the training. And they'll be here over the next few days to feel like they can get to a place to participate in that week one game. You're also now down Jordan Hancock, Jalen Kilgore has been out Jew Bowery has been out for a couple weeks at this point.

1:00:56I know not part of the starting rotation, but depth pieces that you have to account for. Yeah, Shakir and Johnson, I hope we see them on the field Wednesday for the first practice that we get to watch. Yeah, right. I think one of the things as well is you get into this how this is going to go in the prison. We may never know whether all those guys could have would have should have played in the preseason or where they really were hurt and they they needed the time. Whether this new whether this coaching staff is get ready and play when you're ready or is one of those like, hey, come on, let's go and we need you on the field. There's probably some of both maybe I don't know, but having a list like this long in the preseason, I think it's a testament to how little they can prepare to get ready to be physical in the prison. When they start coming in, they start doing this even thud drills in practice and going to, you know, the blue and red scrimmage, there was a bunch of guys that were like, yes, that's when Ty Johnson got in here.

1:02:00When the intensity got turned up just one more not not all the way, but just one more notch yet guys going down. How much of this is Joe Brady saying no, no, get ready and we will have you for week one and how much of it is these guys were really hurt needed an extra time or they could have played if it was a game or they might have played. There's a lot of that stuff going around at this time of year. Yeah, because we're still learning how Joe Brady deals with injuries as it relates to his team and he said multiple times to us when he hasn't really given us an injury update. He said, I'm still learning how these guys come back from injuries. I'm still learning about that whole process as well. So in turn, we get to learn that with Joe Brady of how does he treat injured guys? How does he treat guys who are maybe not as injured as we think they are, but he feels confident, you know, just take care of what you need to take care of. Off the field and when you get back on, we believe it's going to happen really quickly. We have two veteran players in the league that are healthy and on the practice squad.

1:03:03Shaq Thompson, who builds fans are very familiar with having played in this defense last year. Now it's a new system, but Shaq Thompson does have experience in three or four defenses in his career and then you have Greg Dorch, who the moment he stepped on the roster was the best punt returner on the team. What's the vibe you're getting either from players in the locker room or just from what we got from Brandon Bean and Joe Brady this week as to their chances of being practice squad elevation sooner rather than later for this football team on a game day. The way that Joe Brady and Brandon Bean have talked about both those players, it's not in a sense of their just practice squad players. I believe there was a line that was used relating to Shaq Thompson of getting him ready and then they'll see. So I think you add two veterans to the team who have a lot of playing experience.

1:04:04I mean Thompson played in a ton of games last year for the bills when the linebacking core was injured. We know what Dorch has done returning punts and kicks at Arizona and he played with Jeff Rogers. Our special teams coordinator he played with Drew Trel are wide receivers coach like four years so they know him very well. So I think there's a reason why you bring those two guys onto the practice squad and it's just a matter of time before they get elevated because that punt returner job is very well fully open. Brandon Bean said Joe Brady said I couldn't tell you who it's going to be week one. That means the next two weeks there's going to be a battle going on and I don't even know I don't even know week one week two week three. It will be the same person back there they could they could kind of rotate and figure out what do we have since we're we're having this battle go on into week one right here. Yeah, I have in those guys up dork and Shaq Thompson in particular.

1:05:04There's always this thing about list those guys particularly Shaq I mean how can you watch him play last year and come in and be really a pleasant surprise I think for a lot of bills fans he came in and his attitude his leadership well and his production I mean the guy was a banger. You got to love that that's hard to say well he's he's done now well this was the most telling comment for me this week about Shaq. So I can't remember if it was Brandon or Joe that was asked about Shaq specifically and Matt you can probably shed some light on that who was asked but the answer I remember and it was yeah our coaching staff on defense that was not familiar with him previously. Spend a day with him and came back to me and said oh my god this guy's unbelievable he's awesome that was being right who knows him intimately obviously from his time in Carolina and here last year and to me that's a signal of as soon as this guy's got the defense down. He's going to be elevated right and how the bills choose to play it remains to be seen but my belief is with dork and Thompson they'll probably exhaust the elevations yes right which is three for each player and then after that they're going to figure it out now by that time you might have an injury or two where the decisions may before you got it open spot you say okay and that move them up that does happen a lot but these guys.

1:06:29These guys are going to be playing on game days I think very very soon. Yeah dork in particular probably sooner than later yeah he's going to get some live action I might be the part of the week once he might be the guy because particularly now you bring him in it seems like the best part of the team it seems like they're bringing it while they're bringing him right before the start of the pre you know they haven't been here what are they going to do listen they've had two weeks. I mean they got this whole week this week that we've been living through that they just signed them and now next week as well to get ready. That's two weeks is all the time you had before your first preseason game right I mean they've got enough to get installed and get up to speed get get get settled in that's plenty of time for them to be ready even even shak on week one will have a menu big enough to go out and play dork for sure it'll take him a day even if you just have him serve as the kick and pun return that's enough justification to have him up on a game day as a practice squad elevation sure I think that's right especially in an AFC opponent game that's going to be

1:07:34important at the end of the season you're playing the Texans it's an AFC conference game right right get off on the right foot and going back to shak Thompson what he brings to the team from a leadership standpoint 12 year veteran Thompson did not have to come back to the league this year he is played in the league for a long time and said I want to come back to the bills I missed this team I missed what they had going on I wanted to be here let's not forget what he did last year to really light the fire under this team when they started winning games he had a conversation in a team meeting where he got up in front of the entire team and talked about having a do go mentality that dog mentality and it's stuck with the entire team and in the locker room after you saw guys had dogs taped up above their locker pictures of dogs and it kind of resonated with the entire locker room and from there it was like let's let's go let's do this thing you're bringing that type of character back in to locker room I think it's going to pay dividends for the best we know that on defense

1:08:39Jim Leonard wants guys playing with an edge he's got a one that's built in like he doesn't have to summon it up it's just they are already that's right and that you know you and I've talked about how much that made a difference on that team last year and because it was something that they didn't have and now they go out and they get C.J. and they get bring Shackback yeah there's a reason to think that that's that was important to them. Maddie thanks for the info enjoy your holiday weekend because after that we are at it we are at it game week we'll take a break here we'll get back to more of the questions in the OBL fan mailbag when we return here on one bill's life all right back here on one bills live moving the fan mailbag up a date of Thursday since we will not have a show on Friday and got a question there bill asks with the recent signing of Shacktops and the addition of

1:09:40the law to the 53 man roster do you consider this insurance of injury history of Bernard and Concade respectfully also why did they wait so long to resign Thompson well bill it worked like they didn't have to it wasn't a sense of urgency in resigning Thompson because nobody else was hot after him either and as you heard Brandon being explained in his press conference this week they stayed in touch with him checked in on him made it at least made him feel like hey you're not forgotten we value you as a veteran player but I think there's also this at work here bill you know what Shacktops and can do as a linebacker in just about any defense Brandon being seen him in a three four he's seen him in a four three he knows what he can do the players he didn't know about in a three four system Caleb elarms or Keontay Jenkins to Reuben are played in a three four at Baylor in college so he

1:10:46probably has film of that so he knows what Bernard can do and then Joe and reason so if you sign Shacktops and you put him on your roster and you go to training camp Shacktops and taking reps away from guys that you need to see more of and get a proper evaluation on you already know what Shackt can do so and I'll just tell you not that I know Shack because the guys is but you know I've talked to him a few times would he prefer to be in camp and get the reps absolutely but he's also a 12 year veteran who if he misses camp it's really not going to kill his game you know I mean like plus you're taking miles off of tires and he's all the more saved up physically for the regular season if and when you decide to elevate him and play him on a game day they sign in my opinion this is how I think it went down they signed Shackt when they told him three months ago they would sign him yeah he knew when they were going to sign him and probably said hey you're good with that and he's like works for me yeah I don't

1:11:48have to go to training camp and do two things yeah I mean Shackt would have come into training camp they would have absolutely they're saying listen Shackt we're going to sign you in late August early September you're going to come in be ready for week one we'll give you a couple of weeks to ramp up but you want to look at these young guys first and and Shackt said fine but if I get a great offer from another team I might take it and that's always understood anyway but the bill said listen we'll sign you in September we want you we're going to sign in Shackt was probably like yeah that's where I want to be and I'm going and while I don't think it was the main factor in the in those two decisions lot to do the active roster Thompson to the practice squad I do think the injury histories of Bernard and Concade played some role in the decision to put him in the second two on the lot to on the 53 I think primarily are these two things one he has

1:12:49expanded his skill set as we just discussed with Maddie in the previous time he's expanded his skill set he had a great training camp in preseason may have had the catch of the entire preseason in the blue and red practice in the end zone and then second you heard Brandon Bean say there was no way we were getting that guy through waivers if we cut him and put him on the break no ways getting through waivers why because the demand for capable tight ends in this league is at an all time high while full back is a dying position tight end is a growing position go around the league see how many teams have three four tight four tight ends there's more than you think and it's because the league is moving towards heavier formations moving towards guys like Travis Kelsey don't can Cade George Kittle guys who can really catch be a threat in the passing game that linebackers can't cover lot to is is in that plus we're also seeing a cyclical return to more 12 personnel which became popular in the last couple of years bills were at the forefront of that so

1:13:52to where the Rams and a couple of other teams so you're going to see more teams gravitating towards that 12 personnel well to do that you need more tight ends so there are going to be more that can do more than just one thing on NFL rosters across the league but I don't disagree with you bill I think there was some element of consideration and adding those two players to the roster based on the injury histories of Bernard and Concade and it's no knock on those players it's just bad luck they've been hurt they've missed time each of the last two years and those are frontline players that you need answers for if they can't be in your lineup because a lot changes when they're out unless you have capable guys to fill the void we've talked a lot about how King Cade changes the equation for the bills offense they're different when he's on the field because because mostly because defenses perceive them as being very different when he's on the field so they play them different you need somebody like that and it's a difference maker so you need a guy with that

1:14:55kind of skill set that at least you have confidence in whether the defense sees him as King Cade or not you got a guy that can go in there and you can run your offense with it so yeah I a lot to his development is the big wild card that changed the roster decisions for me I think he came in and played better than he had in the past he's he's a he's a better football player this year than he has been in the past and he made the roster because of it and it forced the bills into doing some things with the full back and that kind of stuff then they thought they were able to do in the past yeah that's it's that simple lots who's better he's on the team they'll find a way to use him yes and it's like I said earlier just listening to Josh at his press conference yesterday he kind of gave you a peek at to as to why they're carrying four tight ends you can you can be a little more deceiving in what your

1:15:55true intentions are on offense with multiple tight ends on the field as opposed to a full back and a tight end or a full back and two tight ends so you put the full back on the field and look Regigilium can catch the ball but let's be honest he caught three passes in the last two seasons combined that's right when Regigilium came on the field it was somewhat of an inclination as to what's coming I don't know if it was a full fledged tail because I don't remember the percentages from last year but there's a very good chance they're running the ball when you put multiple tight ends on the field with this crew it is not a tell that it's a run plan well at least not yet I mean we haven't seen that as much and so teams are going to have to start get a handle on it and the bills are going to find out when they put those guys on the field altogether what are they going to do because they're going to do if if they're wildly successful doing only one thing they're going to continue

1:16:57to do that until defense is find an answer for it but if they're wildly successful doing everything you know if they've got a big menu of stuff they do really well out of that kind of personnel grouping defensive of got to answer for it this I'll say it again this offense is going to look like what they do best it's going to look like their best players it's going to look like what they're most productive at lot's who's going to be a part of that I think yeah I think they're going to look different because of it yeah I'm curious whether it's 12 13 20 you know 30 personnel who's it what's it going to be we'll see yeah got a question here from a bills fan who's going to be here for the week three game against the chargers Anthony says I'm flying in from Texas for the week three game and staying downtown I don't want to drive to the game is the bus service a reliable option to and from the game I know they're trying to

1:17:58facilitate bus service and they're actually as part of the new stadium construction they've built an entirely new bus lot terminal like a terminal where the buses can come in circulate and it's it's literally catty corner from the bison statues right so you want to talk about an easy walk up from the bus drop off yes with a capital Y you're talking a lot of the bus drop off station to the bison statues so if you want to use public transportation I would encourage it especially if you're coming from out of town and you're flying in because you're too far away to drive Texas being an example for Anthony I would wholeheartedly recommend it if you can do it do it because the campus is walkable once you get here Abbott road gets shut down 28 is you got crosswalks

1:18:58everywhere once you get on the campus the whole thing you can just walk around and of course it's bills fans know that's half the fun is going on stop by and waving all the tailgates and making new friends so that's the way to do it if you get dropped off of this bus terminal you're you're right here and I think there's a steady stream of buses that show up and people ingress and egress that way and that's you know I think that's going to and it's only going to get more and more efficient as we get more reps at this in these games coming in here so it's going to be I think that's a smart way to do it if you can checking back in on the end zone color poll that president of business operations bills and say we're speak well he put out on his Twitter feed because apparently this is an official poll like whatever gets voted on is going to be the end zone color for the home opener against the Detroit Lions in week two it's either going to be red end zones with white

1:20:00letters blue end zones with white letters or blue painted letters in a green end zone or red painted letters in a green end zone and running away with it is the red end zone it's still far and away the most popular pick 64% of those who have voted more over 5,900 votes and there's 22 hours left for you to vote right now the red end zones with white letters is winning with a 64% of the vote 28% of vote for blue end zones with white letters 4.6% green end zone with blue letters I think that's right is that what the bills choice to I got to go back and look hold on I want to make sure I have this right yeah let me see I'm trying to get to the original I think it's what each one was I believe I'm

1:21:00trying to get bills one and two I don't know which one or which but suffice it to say they're pretty much dead even for green end zones with blue letters and green end zones with red letters those only getting 4 and 3% of the vote respect all for painting the end zones with white letters and red is the clubhouse leader I'll be surprised if it gets overtaken because people haven't seen the red in a while haven't seen it so I think it'll be good yeah oh so it's green end zone white letters or green end zone blue letters no green end zone red letters so green end zone white letters is in the last right now 2.9% green end zone blue letters 4.6% I'm I'm all for the red end zones man let's get a pop of color on it'll look good on TV yeah the red looks good come on well it looks good on our computer screen when we're staring at it you know that's gonna look on the

1:22:01field it's gonna be spectacular I know it's gonna be great the whole place is gonna be off the charts beautiful I mean it's gonna be packed people are gonna be in here they're gonna be here all day getting ready for this Thursday night open let's yeah got got to that's what I voted for do you what about the extras like the AFC emblem on that and then NFL shield well the AFC is red traditionally well yeah the NFC the N in the NFC logo is blue you have to put those extra logos on there though I don't know that you have to but you only got five letters to work with and one of them's an eye you're not like you can't stretch that out across the width of the end zone that would be no they would look weird that's correct but I'm just saying yeah that's gonna look good you don't want you know you don't want extra what do you think it's too busy what's your concern I'm just saying a little busy but the in the middle of the field logo of the charging buffalo yeah traditional yes it

1:23:04goes all the way from the 42 yard line to the 42 yard line yeah which is that 16 yards right give or check 17 16 yards yeah I'd make it bigger bigger you want to make a bigger I make it a little bigger I'd go I wonder what the I do wonder what the limits are because you know the league has a limit for everything yeah they when it comes to field dimensions and stuff yeah in terms of how big things can be in certain areas of your field make it bigger ask for forgiveness now on grass you don't have the slick the slick or surface that you used to have on old turf when it was painted well old turf was painted the new sucker the new stuff was a different colored turf yeah it was permanent it was just different color it was a different color of the turf which was good the old stuff was paying they used to have a they had an offensive line call when they were in the middle of the field they they had a paint call so it remind everybody

1:24:05that they're they're on the paint in the middle of the field because you you had to tread lightly yeah dig in a little different yeah you had you knew that there was a problem it was slippery hmm that an off that our guys knew that hey home field advantage crazy we got to take a break here one segment to go on a Thursday edition of one bills live we'll see if there's any questions left in the mailbag and there is some news in the NFL on the quarterback depth chart in Indianapolis we'll tell you about it when we come back here on one bills life all right back here on one bills live to go as a reminder we will not be on the air tomorrow we have off on Friday heading into Labor Day weekend we will be back on Monday so we'll be back on the air Monday so when you're home if you're enjoying the Labor Day holiday you can tune us in at 10 a.m. and we will be here ready to roll game week week one we told you before the break there is some NFL

1:25:11news concerning a quarterback depth chart in Indianapolis Coltshead coach Shane Stuykin has said that former first round pick Anthony Richardson will be the teams back up quarterback behind Daniel Jones for those that don't remember the history back in February Anthony Richardson requested a trade there weren't a lot of takers so he stays with the Colts and to his credit performed well enough to serve as quarterback two on their depth chart behind Daniel Jones who's coming back from a season ending injury couple of season ending injuries well yes they broke his leg then blew his Achilles no is knee I think he's a calf calf I think he tore a calf muscle yeah yeah that the season that started out so promising for the Indianapolis Colts and I think a little bit surprisingly

1:26:13positive for the Colts they were oh no you're right it was a 20 kill yes they're right it was and they pushed all their chips the table needed a strong corner back so they went out got sauce gardener from the jets for two first round draft picks and then Daniel Jones proceeds to break his leg in a non-weight bearing bone in his leg continues to try and play on it and then pops his Achilles as a result of trying to compensate for that and do and and season went up in smoke the fibule in his left leg Achilles in his right yeah he did that sub-december 7th I realized the recovery now and if he had the lesser of the two Achilles tears he can take only five or six months to get back it's less serious if you rupture it in the middle as opposed to the bottom on the heel and then pop it off the heel bone that's the more serious one so let's just say since he did it December and he's already back let's assume it's the one in the

1:27:15middle but Anthony Richardson is your backup quarterback coming off in a kill he's Daniel Jones like there is a risk there I mean there's always a risk duh but it's football but you might see Anthony Richardson this year is what I'm saying it'll be interesting to see how he's gotten better yeah how Daniel Jones looks how he moves around yeah and also if Anthony Richard gets on the field has anything changed he was not good he only had eleven starts at quarterback in college and now he's been in the league for a year to what just be his third year right but he was playing better than he ever played for the giants in Indianapolis I mean yeah that's right and they were what they were like ten and two I think or what were they nine and two no six and one they were six and one right at the break oh right and then they and they went seven and one

1:28:18and seven the rest of the way or something like that and they couldn't win another game after Daniel Jones and sauce Gardner got hurt so yeah Anthony Richardson hopefully for the Colts sits the bench and Daniel Jones can play and kind of recreate what he did yeah they've kind of Shane Stuyke and seems to be a guy that can help a quarterback which is what he's doing early on but they traded away Michael Pittman Alec Pierce they gave him the big money he's had a foot problem all preseason although I guess he's back in practice now they got some things to figure out there yes they're not an easy division they got Houston and Jacksonville there so AFC South is a little more balanced than some other divisions like the AFC East for example but that's it for us today thanks for tuning in we'll be back on Monday no show Friday we will see you on Labor Day Monday and until then enjoy your Labor Day holiday everybody because when we see

1:29:20again it's gonna be on for football we'll see you ten on Monday