This the One Bill's Live, presented by Calida Health.

All Right, welcome to a Wednesday edition of One Bill's Live.

Chris Brown's team tasker with you.

We got some Bill's notes yet too is whether, as well as some league stuff to address, and then off season discussions will ensue here on a Wednesday edition.

Thank you.

Have you been watching a lot of the Olympics.

Yes, I've kind of gotten roped into some stuff and and you know, you learn things like the people doing the luge they got like spikes on the fingertips of their gloves that so they can you know, propel themselves from the starting position.

Today, incidentally, Steve Coverage begins of the most uncomfortable race to probably participate in and to watch the two man lose.

Oh yeah, that just looks uncomfortable.

Well, let's be honest.

The two guys on't it wait, like ten times more than the sled they're laying on.

Yeah, and which is like seven pieces of wearing and they're wearing like body socks screwed together.

And yeah, and here's the other this is this is how far down the rabbit hole I go at sports like this that pique my interest because I was like, Okay, as if going down an ice sheet at eighty miles an hour on seven sticks of wood held together with screws and steered by your feet at eighty miles an hour isn't treacherous enough.

We're gonna put a guy on tapia so you can't see and you're still gonna have to steer because you're the bottom guy.

And you're still gonna go eighty mile an hour.

You're gonna go more than that because you got twice the weight hurtling down an icy track.

So here's the it's no joke, man, They're going fast.

So here's where my brain goes next.

Okay, how'd you like to be a coach trying to recruit athletes to participate in this sport?

Don't they kind of like that?

That's a tough sell, it is.

Hey, yes, I know you love luge and going down this thing, And like, if you're lucky enough to find somebody who loves louse, right, well, I gotta I got a proposition for you.

What if we sit another guy on tapia and it's gonna be even better.

You'll love it.

Here's the thing about lous And here's what I think, because when you're sitting there, back and white, going down this sliding tube.

It looks fun until you actually think about what it's going to be like going down a what a sheet ice?

A sheet of ice, curved sheet of ice, is not a strange shot in a tube on top of a like weapon.

It looks like, you know, hey, let's go sledding.

You know, they say, let's go slide, right, okay, let's go slide.

You're like, it is like it's unfathomably fast, and you're like, you got nothing, maybe a helmet.

Maybe it's appealing to be the bottom guy on the two Man Lose because you don't see where you're going.

Maybe that's better, Yeah, because I might be downright terrified, man barrel that guy.

I had not thought about the two Man Lose.

It's the most uncomfortable looking sport I can think of, not even person laying on top of you.

You're going eighty miles an hour.

If you're going to and using gravity, which it is, and it's going faster, wouldn't being heavier be better?

Right?

Well?

Right, so now you know, now you're talking about a big dude.

Probably one hundred and eighty ninety pound guy on you know, this isn't like a flyweight doing this.

This is like two hundred pound guys.

Because the heavier they are, the faster they go.

Right.

That's why I feel bad for the coaches to kind of recruit.

Are they gonna love this?

Promise you?

This is gonna be the best thing I'd ever done.

How do they start?

How do they start?

They both sit, They're both seated, one in front of the other, you know, like you do on the old sled hill, like a lot of buddy that you wanted a sleigh ride right right right.

And then they you know, they're both using their hands to propel themselves.

But then they gotta lay down, so they gotta like wiggle and get under.

Yeah, so the other guys like sitting right in front of him, and then the back guy lays down, and then the front guy lays down on.

Top of him.

It doesn't even look remotely comfortable.

I mean, the Winter Olympics, there's two people sitting in an airline seat.

The Winter Olympics.

While I am enjoyed them very much so, particularly the ice hockey, the women's US women's team is absolute juggernaut, which is kind of worrying me because sooner or later they're going to get into a Oh you think they're good.

Yeah, well it's too easy.

I can't believe they waxed Canada.

The Canadian women have ever been shut out forty one games.

Yeah, so I think it's going to come back to get him because they're gonna meet Canada and the gold medal round and Canad's gonna punch him in a mouth.

Oh well, they're going to be fuming from how that one.

So I'm worried about that, but I have enjoyed it.

The curling great.

How about the guy running up hill on the cross country skis was I thought, oh, there it is that the terminator came back and they calculated.

They calculated he was going at a six minute mile pace.

Uphill on cross country skis.

Yeah.

He and he was not like baking.

He was unfazed.

Yeah.

Oh he looked like a machine.

Literally looked like a machine.

That would I can just speak to how hard it is to run a six minute mile on dry land with running shoes.

He's doing an ass sees up a hill.

As a sixty three year old former pro athlete who doesn't really exercise very much anymore, I know this if I would have tried to keep up and do that, like with everything I had, I would two options.

One I'd be dead, yeah, Two, something in me would have broken and so badly that I wouldn't have been able to continue.

There's only two options.

Now, here's another cool part about the Olympic coverage.

The drone cameras.

Yeah, that's pretty cool.

Like they've got him in the bob sled tubes and the loose tubes, and they've also got him following the skiers down the mountain.

And I saw the most accurate tweet of Olympics.

Well, there's two tweets that I saw.

One made me laugh out loud.

The other one was one hundred percent accurate.

I'll give you one hundred percent accurate.

One first one hundred percent accurate tweet I saw in my feed was these drone cameras, while providing fantastic images and footage, make this downhill ski event look completely terrifying.

And the only.

Perspective of these maniacs going down the mountains.

And the old days, you get no idea of the elevation, no perspective.

There's no perspective.

You get that.

You get that that drone behind the guy and it's like, oh, he's going off a cliff.

Yeah, that's what it looks like.

Stop stop, I mean it looks like you're going off into the abyss.

A couple of times it's like I'm with you.

I was like, like, you realize how to get it deep that freaking mountain?

No one, no wonder.

They don't do this all the time.

Yeah, there's some of these things, like curling is a kind of a niche sport, right.

Do you have any idea and I could do that?

Yeah?

Which is what?

And you listen.

I saw a tweet today.

Guy goes after ten minutes of like after five minutes of watching curling, it's like, oh man, this is like slow dull.

I don't know.

After ten minutes, like oh, he's got to get the cross.

He's gotta After an hour, it's like, come on, sweep, like, let's go so in that it is so cool, like like an after.

An hour, but you're like, well, let's go in that same Vein the other tweet that made me laugh out loud was watching Olympic coverage.

It's amazing how much of an expert I've become, he says.

The guy goes, I just set out loud on my couch.

Oh, you gotta come out of that triple tolat sooner.

There's not enough rotation.

As I crack open the second sleeve of oreos, right.

Tell me we haven't all done that.

Here's the thing too, this skeche and it's a big deal.

I have World championships, you know, every year, and the Olympics every four years.

There is only a few hundred people in the world who ski jump like ski fly.

Oh yeah, there's only a couple of hundred in the world.

So it's like you're saying your odds are good to win something if you're halfway decent.

Well, here's the thing.

Back in the day, like thirty years ago, there was a kid guy named Eddie the Eagle.

He's from christ and he couldn't even he was He.

Had glasses like coat bottles.

Exactly, and he just said, come on, how you know?

And he didn't qualify.

He qualified for the Olympics.

That'd be kind of cool, he was.

It is a very thin field because once you get up there and look at what you gotta do, it's like, yeah, I'm good, I'll do curling.

I'll do curling.

It you gotta have a very very underdeveloped sense of self preservation to do that.

Or because I've heard this also like a lot of these people that do these events where you could get seriously injured, borderline maimed.

Psychological testing has shown that these athletes have very reduced psychological triggers for fear, so to your point, their brains quite literally have a lower level fear.

That's the way it is.

It's pretty wild.

There's a lot I think because I because I was covering kicks in the NFL and with a bunch of big dudes, and people are always like wowed by that.

And to me, I was a product of having three older brothers.

You know, he's just the bigger, stronger guys.

Didn't they didn't used to run around with bigger dudes.

They didn't scare you, you know.

And it carried me through the ability to you know, jump into a wedge you know who cares.

And it's I would think, And the reason I brought that I was I would think a lot of these ski jumpers and the downhill are younger siblings.

You know, there's probably a good chance of that, you know what I mean, probably a good chance.

That somehow you gravitate that people generally gravitate towards whatever.

Whatever.

I don't know.

That'd be a great scientific study that would glean no significant or relevant knowledge.

Last Olympic note, I finally watched the Netflix documentary on the Miracle on Ice team.

It's called The Boys of eighty.

It is outstanding.

Oh is it?

They did a nice job with it.

It is all it's on Netflix.

It's on It's all original footage from the nineteen eighty Olympic Games.

And then obviously sit down interviews with the guy now guys nowadays, because you know they're all in there.

It's sixties.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, amazing and I and Herb Brooks's past past ye yes year, along with about three or four players from the team too.

I've met Mike Ruzione on occasion as well.

Oh cool captain.

Yeah, it was.

It's worth the watch.

So I think it's like an hour and forty minutes.

Really well done.

There was a a really good.

There was a little on on Twitter yesterday.

It was like thirty nine year of whatever it was forty five years ago.

Uh, that the mirror Colini because that was the that was a semi final game with the Russians, and there was a clip of the goals and the bench reaction.

You could hear her Brooks pumping the guys up.

Same play your game.

The whole thing it was.

It's still it's still since shivers.

Yeah it's I was almost eight years old, but I remember it vividly.

Oh.

I watched that thing from front to back, like the whole game.

And I still remember to this day running out of my house after they beat the Russians, and I've got my little American flag and I'm waving it in my driveway screaming at any neighbor that would listen to me in the middle of February, just scream it.

I remember, I was eight, I was eighteen, and that game was tape delayed.

Like nobody outside of Lake Placid saw that thing live.

There's only three thousand seats in the arena.

I think it's seats sixty five hundred, eighty five hundred.

It's smallsh it's small.

I've been there.

It still was tiny, and I remember, man, it was a it was enormous.

It was enormous.

Nineteen eighty was Jimmy Carter was president.

Well, they do.

They do a very good job in the documentary of describing, you know, what was going on in the country, you know, recession, gas lines, you know, the whole whole thing, and they really kind of show you how, you know, this little hockey team that.

Could kind of fun stuff.

Yeah, it's I highly reckon.

I am.

I am eagerly awaiting the NHL players to take the ice tomorrow, right us.

Does I think that the game today?

Yeah, but I am eagerly await And I'll say this I have because of the success of the American women's team.

Man, I am way into that, you know, because they're playing so well.

They've giving up one goal in four games.

They are just absolutely mowing people down.

And to do that to the women's Canadian team, I was, I was like, that surprised me.

That's why that's when I that's when I set up and go, well, it's too good, it's too much.

What are we gonna do?

Something's gonna happen.

Can't have nice things, We can't have nice things, right.

Maybe that's just the Buffalonian in me that says that, but dar tissue, Yeah, but that's that's how good they're playing.

Yeah, you know, and the Canadians And here's the thing too.

The Canadians didn't have Poline p o U l I n is her name.

She was out.

She's their captain.

So the Canadians didn't have their you know, heart and soul.

So you think in the gold medal round, everything's gonna change.

Let's be a little different.

Oh my gosh, we'll see.

Uh.

So that's all right, we've drama.

Talked enough about drama, Brownie.

Yeah, it's there.

Uh, let's get over to some Bills notes.

Because the Bills had a couple of transactions made official today.

They signed quarterback Shane bouchell and wide receiver Jalen Virgil to their off season roster.

Bouschelle was signed off of Buffalo's practic this squad late last season by Kansas City after Patrick Mahomes and his backup Gardner Minshew went down with injuries.

But Bouchelle returns now to where he has served on Buffalo's practice squad the past two years.

Vergil, who was waived injured by the Bills with a hamstring injury last August, latched on with the Arizona Cardinals practice squad last season.

The six one two ten pound receiver has four to four speed and has been on and off the Bills practice squad for the last two years as well, So two practice squad players of familiarity to you know, the offensive coaching staff, which we anticipate is going to stay somewhat intact going forward with a few changes, and I would imagine that, you know, coach Brady will be announcing his full coaching staff in the coming days, because he's got to be close to wrapping up the hirings at this point in time.

So yeah, we'll we'll see where it goes from here, although it's going to dive in pretty quickly to draft prospects with the Combine just a couple of weeks away.

I've already started thinking about it.

There's a three round mark.

We had Maddie on yesterday.

We've got all right drafts going.

They've got somebody's got the Bills trading up to twentieth for a wide out, and it's just you know, what are you gonna do?

You're not ready, Ah, you haven't turned the page yet.

I just dread watching college college football tape.

There you go.

Yeah, so you know what are you gonna do?

Let's go around the NFL Presented by Kalida Healthy official healthcare system of the Buffalo Bills and the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks have their championship parade in downtown Seattle today on the heels of their convincing Super Bowl sixty victory over New England.

Now there's a bit of a stir going on in Seattle because the Seattle public schools are staying open and denying excused absences during the Seahawks' victory parade.

No parade for you.

You're going to school and getting educated.

My kids are coming out anyway.

I don't care.

Now, here's an interesting thing.

I'm wondering.

I'm wondering this.

Obviously Seattle doesn't care that much, thank you.

I'm wondering if they still have like truancy officers.

Do you remember them?

Maybe not because you grew up in a rural community, but yeah, we didn't have anything.

So if you were in school ever, me and my buddies, like you know, we would go into the city sometimes to catch nick games, you know, and uh, you know, March April, it's spring, the weather's getting nice, and you know, senior in high school, you're thinking's why, yeah, you know what, the Knick's got a holiday game and or you know whatever, it's Saint Patrick's Day.

They got an afternoon game.

You know, let's go blowing off school.

I'm going to the game.

I couldn't because I had practiced after school and all that stuff, so it kind of complicated things.

One of my other buddies is like, I'm going to the next game, and he's telling us all all about it.

He gets picked up by a truancy officer outside the garden.

His parents had to come get he was skipping school.

So they used to have truancy officers pick you up if you were out of school.

You know, you're you're you're a student, supposed to be in school.

These to have truancy officers and used to be out there, pick you up, bring you into the station, call your parents, embarrassed the hell out of you, and you know you come to school at the tail between your legs the next day.

Ah, you got busted.

I am so over that.

Yeah, so over that.

That's what they used to do.

I don't I'd be surprised if they still do it nowadays.

But it was a thing.

Yeah, I'm so over I'm yeah, okay, yeah, if kids skipped school, it's on him.

Yeah, uh forward.

Tennessee Titans head coach Brian Callahan has been hired by the Giants to be their quarterbacks coach slash passing game coordinator.

So John Harbaugh still filling out his staff.

And we mentioned the NFL Combine Steve.

They have published its official list of prospect invites.

A total of three hundred nineteen prospects have been invited to Indianapolis.

Our full coverage of the NFL Combine will begin here on One Bills Live on Tuesday, February twenty fourth from Indianapolis and run the rest of the week.

Yeah.

Yeah, three, they only draft two hundred and fifty guys, right, and they're inviting three hundred to.

The two hundred fifty something.

Yeah, and they draft, they bring three hundred to the combine over three hundred.

And then also there are when we were into this last year where if you got to some teams have they've got a guy that's like from East nowhere, Stateville.

They don't invite him on purpose, so nobody gets a chance to see him.

So, yeah, they're gonna of the three hundred guys that are there, probably one hundred and eighty or two hundred of them will be drafted.

There'll be one hundred guys of the combine will not get drafted.

Oh you think it's that high, Yeah, one hundred.

Yeah.

They were already putting out the combine invite snub prospect lists, like this guy should have gone, but he didn't get an invite.

Yeah, blah blah blah.

That's what there are, guys, the guys that get drafted.

Yeah, sometimes those are the guys that do get drafted.

Because the teams put together lists and.

Then there's an NFL Advisory county.

And there and they they divvy up sections of the country or conferences or whatever whatever, and they tell the teams like draft you know, you know, invite the guys from this region.

You guys pick the put the list together.

Here, you put the list together, and guys get left off purposely because they don't want everybody to find out about them.

So there's a little bit of that going on.

So three hundred guys in the combine, Okay, one hundred might be high, but I'll bet it's not much lower than that.

Yeah, it just seems like because you're saying, basically a third of those guys don't get drafted, which I guess if you do the math, knowing there's two hundred and fifty four to fifty six selections every year, you know, even in a best case scenario, you know, you're still talking seventy guys.

Yeah, they aren't getting drafted.

Yeah, So yeah, I get what you're saying.

So and there's probably a percentage of guys that don't get invited to the combine.

Then you know that we were just talking about, or do you get drafted?

Yeah?

And plus there's six hundred guys signed to rosters.

I mean because they're unrestricted, undrafted rookie free agents.

There's like, not six hundred, there's.

Most teams will sign anywhere from well, no, it's it's usually more than that if they've got the roster space.

Yeah, it could be anywhere from like six to ten.

Right, So you put that in.

There's a couple hundred guys for thirty two teams.

And that's another select The league tracks.

I said this yesterday.

The league tracks all nineteen hundred guys that are in the league, and now it's probably about twelve hundred guys with the rosters reduced.

They track all the guys on the practice squads, They track the guys who are sophomores, juniors, seniors in college and track the guys who are twelve to eighteen months out of the league that haven't been back in the league.

And they track all of those guys.

So that's, you know what, twenty five hundred guys that are on the radar for the league.

And and that goes everybody.

That's everybody from Matt Stafford, Josh Allen, Pat Mahomes all the way down to you know, well today Jalen Virgil, he gets tracked.

So that's the pool.

You gotta pick.

You gotta pick your guys.

Our topic of discussion today concerns Buffalo's defense.

We know there is going to be change this offseason.

There is a new coordinator as well, we anticipate a new scheme.

So our question for you is what is the acceptable floor for you for the Bills defense in twenty twenty six.

So you're expecting the changes to take root quickly and they're often running.

Turning over the roster isn't going to be an issue.

What is your acceptable floor for the Bills defense for twenty twenty six?

Can hit us up on the tweets sheet at one Bills Live with your thoughts there, because I think there's going to be I think it's safe to say there's going to be some measure of grace for all of the changes that need to happen, right and the ramp up period to get people used to playing within this system together as an eleven man unit.

But at the same time, I mean, you got these team expectations out there that are like, hey, we got to get over the hump here in the playoffs, and it's like, well, hold on a second, we're rebuilding a defense over here.

That's right, yeah, And that's I think it will vary.

The amount of grace fans are willing to give a team to get it together varies on how much roster turnover they perceive.

And if, like say, for instance, the Bills trade a couple of very prominent players or don't trade any of them, sign them, you know, keep them, and then acquire some players in free agency or by a trade with draft picks or whatever, that amount of perceived turnover at guys who you expect to contribute will will will drop or raise the level of grace you have for a bad defense if they show up and they can't play.

You know what, I mean, oh yeah, so that that we still have to see that.

We don't know what that's gonna be.

Well today, you know it, it's all about last year's defense.

On this question, we're asking today what's your floor?

And it doesn't have anything to say about what they're going to be this year.

I think it's all about last year.

What do you want to see?

Well, where does the defense have to get here in year one under Jim Leonard to be acceptable in your eyes?

Now, to Steve's point, we don't know holistically who all of that is going to entail.

Who's here, who's not here, you know, on the roster, not on the roster, A fit, not a fit?

And then how is it coached and how does it perform?

And what is an acceptable floor of play and performance for you for the Bills defense in twenty twenty six.

Hit us up on the tweet sheet at one Bill's Live.

We've got some tweets fill in the queue already, but we'll take your comments as well.

Got to take a break here, but we'll be back with those comments when we return here on One Bill's Live presented by KLIDA Health's Buffalo Bills Football Bills Live Chris Browns de tasker with you, what is the acceptable floor for you for the Bills defense in twenty twenty six.

Obviously a lot of change is going to be happening on that side of the ball this offseason, So taking all of that into account, where must the defense be at the very least for you in twenty twenty six.

So let's go to the tweet sheet, which is brought to you by Coryan Moving Systems, the official equipment moving company of the Buffalo Bills, and Pat says super Bowl caliber is the floor set by Terry Pagoula and Brandon Bean And yeah, that's right, but I would say that is more of a team, all inclusive team floor that was set.

Defense is We're trying to parse out the defense here and get your thoughts that way.

So I think it's safe to say with a scheme change, it's gonna bring personnel change, which means we're gonna get Roster turner over probably greater than we've seen in the past nine seasons, particularly on that side of the ball.

And then how effectively can Jim Leonard and his defensive staff pull all that together and get the unit to operate like a well oiled machine by week four, five six.

Because it's going to be a process from training camp to preseason and then to regular season.

What do you think the chances are, Steve that defensive starters who we have not seen play all that much in the preseason the last several years.

Because it is a new system and the group will need live reps together.

I think we'll notice it.

I think the players will notice it in training camp.

I think the ones will get a ton more reps than they have in the past.

I think there'll be some further experimentation, but I would say, yeah, I think there's no question you're gonna see guys play defensively a lot more in live reps in the preseason.

I think it's a must.

I think you got to take the risk.

I think I'm anticipating it because the most important thing is to have your most important players ready for Week one.

Yeah, and in light of what we've kind of outlined that unfolded under Sean mcdermot's tenure, here was every year there would be a set of back to back losses, and while they weren't catastrophic in terms of the team's fortunes, whether it was winning the division or going to the playoffs.

It did impact their chances at the one seed, which they never accomplished.

And I think we can all agree that is the easier road to the super Bowl because you're playing one less playoff game, you get an extra buy for goodness, say.

Let's face it, that's a high, high, high floor.

Yes, well no, I'm just saying in general.

Yes, that's right, but it is a high, high, high floor.

But that's kind of level of expectations that you kind of used to around this building, yep.

And you're looking for ways to close that gap between losing back to back games in the first half of the season and then always chasing the one seed from behind, dropping games to the New England Patriots and the Miami Dolphins.

That the head scratcher was the Miami Dolphins game on the road down there, where they just they looked disinterested in playing.

So stuff like that you have to fight against it.

And yeah, you need you need a defense to show up in games where your offense is sluggish at the very best, at the least.

So yeah's it's a total team effort.

But we are we're asking about this upheaval that's going to happen on the defensive side of the ball, and what are you expecting and what your bare minimum requirement for seeing some progress.

Chris on the tweet, he says the Bills have to be in the top ten in rushing defense and in the top five in turnovers and have over fifty sacks.

It will be a slow start with a new system, but you've got to play best at the end of the year.

Go Bills, now, this is more of what we're looking for here, I would say because the Bills total defense they were seventh last year.

The trouble spots were against the run, where they were twenty eighth, and they were languishing near the bottom of the league almost the entire season.

Number one against the pass, but that is probably a bit skewed because teams had so much success running the ball against the Bills defense.

And then third down was a problem area for the second season in a row.

In twenty twenty four, they were twenty ninth in third down defense, last season twenty fourth in third down defense, and the Bills this past year were twelfth in points allowed.

As for takeaways, they weren't at the top of the league.

We know this.

I'll pull those numbers up here shortly, but they were barely in the plus territory with the turnover margin.

I think they were a plus two or three by the time we got to the end of the regular season.

Yeah, they were.

Plus one twenty takeaways.

It's about ten shy of where they usually flirt with takeaways.

They're usually up around twenty seven to twenty eight thirty somewhere in there, and they were kind of right at the top of the middle of the pack in takeaways.

They were twenty fourth in the NFL in third down percentage.

Yeah, defense, it wasn't good.

It's not good and and hasn't been for the last two years, and it's probably rooted in the lack of a pass rush.

Fans were almost expecting them the team their opponents to convert if it was third and twelve.

That's how bad it got.

They were giving up third and longs routinely throughout the season, and that crushes you.

And so that in and of itself, being better on third down would be awesome, let alone being better on take in takeaways and sacks.

Having more than you know, fifty sacks would be well, I don't know.

People wouldn't know how to act it would be so good.

Let's look at it this way.

So the Bills, I believe had I think they had thirty eight or thirty six sacks this past year.

They had thirty six sacks this past year, Okay.

They had two game.

They had thirty eight the year before, and they finished about eighteenth in sacks for the season team ranking wise.

If you add a premier pass rusher that gets ten twelve sacks, now you're right around fifty.

There you are, You're right around fifty.

So is that what is that?

How they views solving that issue or are they gonna throw numbers at the issue.

I think one thing that's encouraging, and I know we've briefly discussed this, Steve, but the pass rush.

It's been difficult for the Bills to fill that role with a premier player, whether it's one that they drafted that they couldn't develop into a premier player, or a player in free agency that had been a premier player but couldn't recapture it here in Buffalo, whether it's Von Miller, Joey Bosa, name your guy.

When you go to a three to four system, I would argue it's easier to find a six three six four, two hundred and fifty five pound pass rushing guy than it is to find a premiere six four six five two hundred sixty to seventy pounds.

I know the differences seem arbitrary or negligible, but I just always seem to feel like the three four defenses around the league, almost every single one of them has a top flight pass rusher, and it seems that there are fewer of them in four to three fronts.

Maybe it's just bills myopia.

And I mean, Miles Garrett is the best one in the league and he's in a four to three.

Yeah, but I'm not saying they're not out there, but they seem to be fewer in number to me.

We talked about this yesterday with Maddie.

You got three guys with their hand on the ground, four guys standing up the three guys.

Even if you take it for granted, those three guys are gonna rush the other four.

One of the other four is gonna rush for sure.

You're gonna have a four man rush most of the time.

At least you don't know which one of those four it is.

And that's a problem for an offensive line.

You got.

They've got to get it right, and if they don't, you should have them right.

So that uncertainty and that level of deception available and flexibility available to the defensive front with four stand up guys instead of three is a difference maker.

That's why it seems like three four defenses get after the passer a little better because there is a level of you know, mystery as to which one of those guys is gonna rush.

And if you think it's gonna be a certain guy and it's the guy opposite him, yeah, that that's a huge win.

It's even more complicated when you're starting involving secondary players, right and now you're dropping out of a defensive end.

You've got four guys that can drop into coverage theoretically and do a nice job.

And then you've got a safety or a corner rushing the passer, and that's something that the office is completely unaware of, you know, not ready for.

So that all of that stuff adds a layer of difficulty discerning who the rushers are and who the coverage guys are.

That gives you an edge in your pass rush that is not there in four to three.

Buffalo Sheriff on the tweet sheets says we need a ten plus sack pass rusher and at least ten interceptions through the year tens a light number, but more importantly showing up in the postseason.

Because the Bills had I think twenty interceptions last year, you want them at least at twenty.

That's kind of the floor for me.

I'd like to see more of what we saw in twenty twenty four when I think they had thirty two total takeaways.

Buffalo had thirteen in orse and led the league in thirteen interceptions and twenty total takeaways in twenty total.

Yeah, I'd like.

Them close it to fifteen to eighteen interceptions.

I'm even I've got a higher bar than Buffalo sheriff.

Buffalo had a plus one turnover ratio last year.

Yeah, they led the league with a plus twenty four turnover margin last year the prior year twenty twenty four.

So get back to some of that and maybe with an improved passerage there'll be more opportunities to get those takeaways and improve their turnover margin.

Robin on the tweet, she says, my one cent would be to end up no lower than fifteenth in overall ranking.

That would be my floor on defense with the right change in becoming an attacking defense, that should be attainable, even if, even if there are some players who are not a good fit for the scheme in transition.

So that's a that's very dual.

Yeah, you go seeventh to fifteenth.

I will say this though, seventh and fifteenth.

If your team is much better in situational football than they were a year ago and you end up ranked fifteenth, you may not notice the difference because this team giving up a third and nine or a third and eight or a third and fifteen on a regular basis is pretty frustrating.

And if you get off the field on third down, even if you're giving up even if third down is a third and two, I mean, who cares.

Right, I'd rather be better in third down defense and run defense than total defense.

That's right, And that there's plenty of room for them to do that and still not be ranked as highly as they were this year.

Yeah, yeah, the math can get you there, that's absolutely.

But that's I think situationally, this team needed to be better this last year defensively.

You know, thirteen interceptions, I mean it's okay, Yeah, it's okay, they're you know, the Chargers had nineteen, Atlanta had sixteen, and that's you know, Carolina had fifteen, Seattle eighteen, And those are the leaders.

The Bills are right, you know, the Bills are not far off, far off from that.

So, and that's with playing musical chairs at safety for a while.

That's right, musical chairs at corner for a while.

So and your top two pass rushers out for the year in the first half of the season.

Yeah at Oliver Michael Hoyt.

So, yeah, not bad all things considered.

Gotta take a break here, but back with more of your comments on the tweets sheet.

If you haven't yet, fire off an answer for us.

What is the acceptable floor for the Bills defense in twenty twenty six?

You let us know.

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What is the acceptable floor for the Bills defense in twenty twenty six.

You know you're going to have a new defensive play caller in Jim Leonard.

You know the scheme is going to be different.

You know there's probably going to be more roster turnover on that side of the ball than we've seen in quite some time because the defense is changing and the fits will be different.

So, with all that change in mind, what is the acceptable floor for the Bills defense this coming season?

In the fall back to the tweetsheet, we go where Tim says, if they can be a top fifteen d against the run, I like, our chances have to be able to stop the run to be legit super Bowl contenders.

Yeah, I mean they don't have to be lights out good at it, but yeah, they got to be top half of the league.

You've got to be able to make opposing offenses one dimensional, and if you can't stop the run, it's very hard to do that.

Right, I'm that's where you start.

Sure, you can point to games where the Bills did a nice job against the run and you know it ended up being the difference.

It's hard for quarterbacks who've got to throw it, quite frankly, to keep up with the Bills offense.

They gotta have a run game, and they gotta be able to control the ball and get first downs.

And if they're gonna have to do it just with one thing or the other.

If they can do it with just the run game, that's a little different.

But if they got to do it with the passing game, that puts them in a bund and not too many of the guys the Bills play can keep up with Josh and this crew, even with the wide receiver room the way it is and the but with this running game, the Bills have the offensive line, the tight ends.

It's just too hard to keep up with the offense on the scoreboard when you can't run the ball, because the Bills will jump up on your possession and then you're stuck.

Right.

I was trying to ascertain, with an offense as prolific as the Bills have, how good does that defense have to be to at least contribute enough in a way to get them over the hump and get them to the big game.

And like we hear some of our respondents on the tweets sheets saying top fifteen against the run, you know, top ten here, I think in most of these categories, you've got to be top half, like third down defense, sacks per play, run defense, pass defense, like you can't be poor really at anything.

You've got to be decent to good in a few of those categories and then very good good to very good in some others.

If you're not going to be a dominant defense, you got to be top half of the league and a lot of these critical categories, including red zone defense, which hasn't been mentioned.

The expectations for this team are high there.

They need to contend for the whole thing.

You look at those teams that you know, the Seattle Seahawks of the world, and the La Rams of the world, and the Patriots as well.

You got to click on both sides of the ball.

You've got to have it under the hood that you can put a game plan together and execution together.

You can win a game on either side of the ball.

And the Bills you have to ask yourself, could the defense have won a game for us this last year without the offense scoring thirty Maybe?

I mean, you look at the Philly game, but Philly was not a Super Bowl team this year.

Yeah, but I think and here's the thing too, you say, well, how they got it?

Like, for example, Bills last year nineteenth in the league in red zone defense.

They were giving up touchdowns at a clip of sixty percent when a team cracked their twenty yard line, and that's not a good number.

But so you say, ah, they got to be a top ten red zone defense, and I don't think that's a big ask because to be in the top ten this past season, the Bills would have to improve their red zone touchdown efficiency on defense by approximately six percent.

Just a six percent improvement in red zone defense gets you into the top ten from where they were last year at nineteen, because they were giving up touchdowns at a rate of almost sixty percent.

Philadelphia, which was number nine in red zone defense fifty three percent.

Like, we're not looking at seismic change here to get yourself in the top ten in some of these critical defensive categories.

Yeah, so that's kind of the task at hand here.

And not only are they going to have to choose where their focus lies, they're gonna have to assess the personnel they have and decide, well, these are our strengths.

We're gonna be good in these areas.

I'm a little worried about this over here.

How are we going to remedy that to get through this season?

Because we're gonna be great at A, B and C, but we're gonna be average at best at D and E and how do we cover that up right to be an effective enough defense to help our offense when football?

That's yeah, that's how they figured it out last year.

As the season went on.

They manufactured pressures, they sent extra people, timed it perfectly.

You get the odd and got the odd turnover.

When this team got the turnovers, man, they were impossible to beat with the way the offense clicked.

So yeah, there's a little There's a lot in the stew that can make a team really really good.

Some of it's predictable and some of it's not.

The more predictables you can control and be really good at the easier the unpredictables are to make happen.

Got to take a break here.

When we come back, our number two is going to begin with NFL dot Com analyst and lead draft writer Eric Edholm.

They'll be joining us with some post Super Bowl power rankings and where each NFL team stands entering the twenty twenty six offseason.

So we'll check in with Eric next here on One Bills Live presented by co Lo out of Health.

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Second hour here on a Wednesday, Chris Brown Speed tasker with you, and please to welcome in now analyst and lead draft writer for NFL dot Comment Eric Heholme joining us here on the show.

And uh, Eric, As you might have aged, the offseason conversation has already started here in Buffalo after their playoff eggsit a few rounds ago, and with the defense in line for probably its biggest change in a decade, not only in terms of you know who, but what they're going to be lining up in, it's sparked a lot of conversation.

As we might expect, how much do you kind of tie the outcome of what that looks like come the fall to Buffalo's fortunes, knowing their offense is expected to largely remain the same.

Yeah, there's no doubt that defensive changes are coming, obviously with new coordinator, totally different system, several free agents, maybe some tough salary cap discussions to be had.

I don't know if players are going to be adjusted or cut or what, but changes are coming, and so I think you kind of look to that side of the ball as a natural place to start.

And you know, you can look at vers defense obviously and kind of see the archetypes if you will, for each position and try to figure out how does it match with what Buffalo has.

And so I'm sure some of that's gone on in fans circles and certainly behind closed doors too, but I'll be fascinated to see, you know, how much changes needed up front?

You know, obviously with several guys that could move on via free agency, but also do they fit the new scheme and where do they play?

That's those are big questions that you have to raise.

Who's going to drive I'm across the league the trends and the and the position groups and the number of free agents that key positions, the money spots like pass rusher, wide receiver, corner.

What's going to drive free agency?

You think across the NFL.

Yeah, that's a good question.

I think some of the top wide receivers certainly might be franchise tag.

You know, Dallas has already kind of said that that George Pickens they don't want to let him get away.

You know, even a player like Alec Pearce in Indianapolis, you look at him and you kind of say, boy, he's he's really elevated with each season.

He's a big, long target with some downfield speed.

But can Indy really afford to let him go given what they have?

You know, then kind of the hyper productive guys like Wandell Robinson, that maybe the level Rashid Shaheed, etc.

That makes it to free agency.

I don't think Mike Evans is going anywhere.

We'll see about guys like Keenan Allen, Romeo Dubbs, but I think it's going to get down to that second tier at receiver.

I think pass rusher people will look to the draft and say, there's a lot of talent there, so we can always fall back on that.

But pass rushers get paid one way or another in free agency, so when they're available and at the top of their game, they usually cash in.

I want to pose another option for player acquisition to you, Eric, and that's obviously the trade market, which you know, with this new generation of GMS has certainly been on the rise from what it was ten to fifteen years ago.

And knowing that ten different head coaching jobs got filled and a good portion of those teams are undergoing scheme changes, much like Buffalo, there are players on some of these rosters that are no longer fits there.

Much like the Bills, will probably find some players here that are no longer fits.

How much do you think, you know, ten new coaches and look, not all the systems are changing, particularly on defense, But how much do you think that could spark the trade market this offseason in comparison to other offseasons.

Hey, it's an interesting perspective.

I hadn't thought of it in those terms when it makes sense, right, anytime there's mass change around the NFL, and anytime you see kind of defense of an offensive trends sort of take hold in the league.

Those two things tend to go hand in hand.

And so you know, look at for instance, Tennessee, Robert sala is going to bring a different defense than what the Titans had last year.

So maybe that's a place I.

Don't know if we're talking Jeffrey Simmons, but they haven't given any indication they're best players up for trade.

But you could absolutely see some players.

Who no longer fit there that end up moving on via trade or you know, some other means.

So yeah, I think that's a good place to start.

Plus, there's been, you know, some teams that are making coaching changes that also have players who have either demanded a trade or reportedly demanded a trade somebody like Max Crosby in Vegas.

So you know, there's certainly a lot of interesting names out there.

We almost had a or you know, there was talk of a Miles Garrett trade a year ago, which you know, seems crazy now defensive player of the Year.

But yeah, some bigger names are getting thrown out there and we're actually getting some activity.

You're right.

Back in the day, we almost never saw player for pick trades.

They were very unusual, very rare.

Once every couple of years you'd see a bonanza.

But now they're more frequent.

So I think that's another avenue, especially with some salary cap restraints that you say, maybe that's a way we go after somebody as opposed to signing a big money free agent, because.

I was thinking, like, even player for player trades could be an mn here, Like you look at you know, so Tennessee, just to use your example, going from a three four to a four to three to and Andre Sweat at three hundred and sixty six pounds really doesn't fit there.

The Bills could would love to have a was tackled like that.

I would imagine to add to their ranks playing a three four.

It's like, hey, we got this four to three guy that you could use.

You want to give us de Andre Sweat for him, and like a laid pick like these are the things that are kind of rolling around in my head.

Doesn't have to be a headliner like Max CROs but it could be somebody like that who's still on a rookie contract.

And I think, you know, one of the reasons why those kinds of trades are more common, and that makes perfect sense to me, is that you know, you have devoted salary cap people, people who study the salary cap all year long, that know they're in house financials as well as the rest of the league, and so you know, you're always looking for opportunity purchases, right somebody with an expiring contract next year that could turn into a compensatory pick, a player no longer needed in the current system, that isn't valued the same way they were a year or two ago, you know, when they signed their extension or when they were drafted.

So all those opportunities, I think in just the expansion of how we look at NFL rosters and how we break it down, that leads to possibilities like your Devandre Sweat.

You know there one of the things about this offseason, there were ten openings at head coach uh and like you've just been talking about, a huge upheaval.

Rosters are going to be churned because of the philosophical changes of different free agent philosophies, different types of players, profiles.

And for the first time in a long time, you got like three perennial playoff teams in Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Buffalo who all switched head coaches.

What kind of who are you looking at?

The ten guy?

And I know it's a ten is a long list.

I'm sorry.

I don't want to put you on the spot, but you know you got Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Buffalo.

Of course, you know what other of the other openings, I mean, what do you look for from those clubs?

Are who's gonna turn it around?

Fat and the Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, you know, turn it around, but just build a little bit, right, But some of the other opportunities, who's gonna go from three and fourteen to fourteen and three this year?

Yeah?

I mean, obviously, you know you look at Baltimore for instance, and you know it's interesting that they kind of go in an opposite director getting a younger coach and obviously somebody with some Harbaugh ties too, which makes it even more interesting.

But then obviously John goes to New York and it's a Giants team that you know, has has a roster that's very interesting, some high end talent.

You look at the top twenty percent of their roster.

I think it stacks up pretty darn well with with some other teams around the league that have playoff appearances, you know, five hundred records somewhere closer to the top of the division as opposed to the bottom where the Giants have been recently.

So, you know, John Harbaugh's history success I think lends a possibility that if they keep Jackson Dart upright, you know, that could be a situation where he kind of turns things around.

And Pittsburgh's really interesting too.

What do they do at quarterback?

Is Aaron Rodgers in the picture?

Obviously Mike McCarthy knows a little about him in history, and they've been so steady for so long.

I mean, the losing seasons did not happen under Mike Tom literally didn't happen.

But can they take that next step that was always the knock against Mike and Dallas, and for parts of his Green Bay tenure was that he always feelded good team or routinely did, but couldn't always get to the mountaintop.

So a couple of interesting situations among those ten changes, for sure.

Let's Eric get to your NFL power rankings post Super Bowl here and we'll cut right to the chase.

You've got the Bills in the five hole, and you're acknowledging some of the change that's going to be coming here on the defensive side of the ball.

In your assessment, what do you think, because we've been talking to our listeners about this today, what do you think is an acceptable floor for this Bills defense in year one under Jim Leonard knowing the collective expectations for the team are higher.

Yeah, that's a great question.

Obviously, it's hard to know not knowing you know, just how much change is going to be on that side of the ball.

And there were some things the Bills obviously did very well defensively.

You know, how does that translate to a maybe a blitz heavier scheme and odd front, you know, some of these things that that Jim Leonard brought for I guess you know, you'd call it the Rex Ryan school, if you will, which is a vast departure from from what Sean did.

So how much does that translate?

How much depth is there?

Obviously?

You know, we know up front there was an issue, you know, not enough healthy bodies, you know, not being able to stop the run consistently.

That's obviously got to get better, you know.

And what the linebacker position looks like, that could be wholly different, you know, the pass frus situation.

Where does Greg Russeau line up?

You know, I have all these questions kind of rolling through my head.

Is Maxwell Harriston ready for starting duty?

Does Cole Bishop maybe level up a little bit in this kind of aggressive scheme?

You know, So there's a lot of things kind of rolling around in your head as you as.

You weigh the possibilities.

I guess the answer would be at least to the level that they performed last year overall.

And I know it could look different, but you know, somewhere on that level or better.

I think is is if you're.

Going to make a change, especially one as dramatic as a head coach, you significant influence over one side of the ball, you better see some results.

I think that's gonna be the expectation going into a new year.

So the Bill, we sit here and we talk about the Bills twenty four to seven.

That's all we think about.

But as you get to this point of the season, you watch the Super Bowl and other teams play in the playoffs along with your own, everybody has flaws, right.

The only one that think they're unflawed or is better is the Seahawks who win it all.

Right, even now in retrospecting in the echo chamber, the New England Patriots are really flawed.

What give us, you know, give us your assessment.

Which of the teams who made a great push this year, like the Seahawks, or like like the Seahawks, like all these the Rams, the New England Patriots, all these teams that got into the playoffs, the Broncos.

Who is so flawed that they may not be able to come back and bounce back and have a good year like they did last year.

Who's not going to be a perennial playoff team.

Yeah, that's a good question.

Obviously, you kind of look at the teams that have significantly tougher schedules.

Maybe they're on the you know, beside that gets the eight home games instead of nine, you know, I mean there are a number of factors.

Obviously, you can lose a lot in the offseason.

So you know, Minnesota last year was a great example.

They go fourteen and three, lose their first playoff game, change quarterbacks, and the season goes off the rails quickly.

So some kind of big seismic change like that is what you think of there.

And we could have a lot of teams switch quarterbacks.

I don't know if they're necessarily going to be the ones that were winning ten, eleven, twelve games and more, but certainly those teams could could go in opposite directions.

But as far as the teams that are falling off, look New England faced.

I'm probably playing to the locals here by knocking them down a peg or two, but face one of the easiest regular season schedules that we've seen in a couple of years, and so that just that alone, I think helped propel them to fourteen to three.

Now, they beat Buffalo once obviously, and had some big victories along the way, not taking away from anything they did, but you saw offensively how they kind of flatlined or leveled off and then took a big dip in the Super Bowl, so you know, all of a sudden they have some big questions to answer, and you know, a tougher schedule next year, you know, more pressure on Drake May, more pressure on Mike Rabel, limited resources, maybe not as many off as last year to improve both sides of the ball.

This still feels like a developing team to me in some respects.

So you know, that's one possible candidate that could see their their win total go down, even if I think they're still going to remain competitive.

All Right, we have entered mock draft season and you have followed suit dutifully with your first mock draft one point zero, and you've got the Bills at pick twenty six, taking the linebacker out of Georgia CJ.

Allen, which makes a lot of sense to me because I'm kind of envisioning to real Bernard moving to that quote unquote week inside linebacker spot.

They're gonna need somebody to be the mic.

Sure, you have Shaq Thompson you could bring back to the fold after a very good rec clamation season after an Achilles injury.

You could resign him and probably for pretty affordable money.

But I think you need a guy that's probably going to have starter potential here, and it's a good linebacker class.

Yeah, why did you pull the trigger in round one?

There are a lot of people in the NFL that like c J.

Allen, and so I kept hearing there's a possibility he could be a first round pick.

So some of it was, you know, it's a January mock.

It was in the middle of Senior Bowl week, so there's quite a bit of projection going on here.

But some of it was, Hey, let's find a place where c J.

Allen would make sense.

Denver would have been one of them, certainly, and the Buffalo Bills would be another.

There are a few other teams that would that would certainly like him as well.

But he's got some fans in the NFL.

You know, receiver was in play.

You know, I would have considered really any defensive position.

For the right guy at that spot.

You know, these aren't these aren't indelible ink, right, We're gonna we're gonna keep this in soft pencil at this time of year.

But you know, I think you can connect some dots and make a case for c.

J.

Allen making being a smart first round pick for the Bills.

So I think he'll go somewhere in that kind of twenty to forty range if I had to guess, depending on how he tests.

He's not the most forceful player, but really active and high ceiling.

I would say as a player, this could be the kind of guy who replicates that Matt Mulano level of play in a couple of years, or Terrell Bernard, etc.

At its best.

So yeah, I think it makes some sense, even if it may not be exactly what everybody wants.

Well, I'll say this in my experience, which isn't that vast in mock drafts at this time of year, the guys we think would be a great fit are never on the board.

When the Bills pick at twenty six.

Those guys always shoot through the roof because they run a four to four or something like that right and there, all of a sudden, they become a top fifteen pick and their heart And that's what we don't know yet.

What do you expect your expectations for any landscape shift once once the combine hits.

Certainly there's always guys who jet to the top of the rankings we didn't hear about, and all of a sudden are different.

How do you anticipate that changing and if even if it changes like it does every year, what do you see.

Yeah, I think it's going to help kind of break some tie breakers at certain positions.

You know, wide receiver, there are a lot of players.

I think it's a pretty good class of receivers.

You know, the more I've kind of looked at this, I think you're going to see some separation.

Players we think might be top ten or fifteen picks now could fall if they don't work out well, if they don't test well medically, if they don't interview well.

At the combine.

That's what makes it such an important week.

I think the medical and the you know, the interview process obviously carry a lot of weight, but you know the workouts matter too.

So you know, defensive end would be another one.

And there's all different types this year too, and this obviously applies to the Bills.

There's the stand up three to four outside linebacker types you saw it down a mobile to the different body shapes.

Then there's the more kind of forceful, rugged inline guys, and so you know, maybe a little flexibility to move inside.

I think you're going to see some exceptional work outs on the defensive line, including the defensive tackles too, which is a pretty good group to share as well, I believe.

And you'll see a couple of freaks going at it where you say, hey, they're putting up you know, defensive tackles.

They're putting up defensive line or defensive end type workouts, and defensive ends are doing linebacker type workouts.

That obviously is going to help, you know, kind of push them up a little bit.

And likewise the ones who don't test as well or don't get the opportunity because of an injury may slide a little bit.

So some of the deeper positions tight end could be on that list too.

I think it's a really good day two and three crop at the position, so you know, offensive line maybe a little less so, but wide receiver, defensive line, both spots, and then also tight end and maybe secondary as well though that's really the separator week.

And you learn a lot in India.

As far as who people have their eyes on and who kind of the hot names are so to speak.

Last one for me here Eric, we always kind of keep our ear to the ground on the division and looks like while we only had one coaching chain down in Miami.

The coaching change the coaching changes in New York were pretty significant in light of the clean house project that Aaron Glenn undertook after just one year on the job.

But what are your early tea leave readings of the quarterback situations for both those two teams?

Obviously we know two is cap situation is a little cost prohibitive unless they get past June first and wait that way to move on from him.

And then the Justin Fields thing is a little bit of an enigma.

Frank Reiches the new oc there.

So maybe just read the tea leaves for us, if you could, at the quarterback position for those two teams in the AFCs.

Yeah, for Miami, you know, it sounds like they've made a decision.

They're not revealing it yet, but it sounds like they've had enough internal discussions to feel comfortable with a plan.

And if I had a guess, I would say they're going to look to move on from to a tongue of Bilo.

It's just, you know, obviously there were some some high moments, some peaks, but it never really kind of progressed past that level.

And with a coaching change, you kind of have the built in excuse of sort of moving on now.

Obviously there are Sam Darnol like examples out there, So I think there'll be enough teams that say, hey, I think I can get something out of Tua or I've seen them at his best in Mike mcdale's system.

Let's see if we can make this work elsewhere.

And there are plenty of quarterback needy teams, including the Jets.

I don't think they would trade them within the division, but the Jets have to get somebody, right, And if let's say Miami with their little Green Bay connection there with Jeff Hafley and John Eric sulv in the new GM, let's say they convinced Malik Willis to take a maybe what Justin Field's got last year and a little bit more.

That could be your starter in Miami.

What happens in New York, though, you know that's a player that they would certainly look at, I would imagine, and may have more money to offer, So you know, you could see some interesting decisions for guys like Willis.

So they say, do I take less money maybe a little better comfortable situation in Miami, or do I take more money and go to a place like New York that you know traded two of its best defenders and has a long way to go.

They were not competitive in in December last year.

How do you hard to see what direction they're going to go?

And the draft may only offer one or one and a half potential starters this year, so it's a it's an unenviable position for the division rivals.

Yeah, in Miami, is there a map out of the too of contract?

It's a ninety nine million dollar cap hit.

Teams have been willing to do it.

I mean Denver did it two years ago and they were in Denver.

Yeah, so, uh, we've seen other teams bite the bullet, but ninety nine million dollars is astronomy.

Yeah, your cap going to a player who is an on your rosters, right, I mean tell me that's not going to have enough?

Is it a better way to maybe trade him for a bag of footballs and just pay some of the money and let you know what I mean, Uh, find anybody to take him for something.

I think there's a benefit to trading him post June first, So you could end up seeing a deal that that you know, we know is coming and will eventually happen.

But yeah, obviously, I think you pointed out that the Denver situation rightfully so Russell Wilson obviously cost them a ton, but they're probably a bow Nick's injury away.

From being in the super Bowl this year.

In two years, they were able to overcome that, that that that albatross of a contract, that boat anchor of a salary cap hit.

So you know that that's inspiration to teams.

We talked earlier about all the people in the front office who spend time analyzing this.

That has to be a point that's brought up, is that we can take this hit and here's the roadmap to do so.

Look, how Denver did it.

Yeah, Eric, thanks for the time as always.

I'm sure we'll catch up with you a little bit later on in the off season, although it's never really an off season, as you well know.

Eric, Thanks for the time, all right, see you guys at NFL dot com.

Analyst lead draft writer Eric heat Holme will be pumping out the content on NFL dot Com.

Already has his first mock draft out.

I'm all for the Georgia linebacker Buddy cej Allen, You're never.

Gonna be there.

He's never gonna be there at twenty.

Might not be if he runs a four to four, he won't.

It's too early for the best middle linebacker to be taken at twenty six.

By the time the draft gets around, other guys will have not a lot of lights constructed.

Yeah, but it's not a lot of linebackers going round one.

No.

That right, that's what I'm saying.

He might still be there, He's.

Not gonna be there, bro, you know what, I can feel.

Quarterbacks, edge rusher, by that, defensive tackle, wide receivers, and corners.

But and we know this too, this is true too.

This is absolutely gonnap.

Even if he's gonna be there, there will we will have hard conversations about whether or not that's the right position to go with, or the wide receiver or the edge rusher or whatever whatever.

There's gonna be a hard conversation.

It's not just gonna be like, oh, he's there, take him.

Yeah, It'll never be that.

I'm not saying he's the end all, be all answer either, but you could.

I am gonna say you could do a lot worse.

We see he can.

He is.

And the thing that I have I read his profile and some of the you know, some of the stuff about him.

Leadership type exactly.

Leader guy.

He's a green dot player.

That's a guy that when guys step into the huddle, they're looking for that guy.

They want him on their team.

That's the kind of guy.

And we have said it time and time again.

You step into an NFL huddle, you got to have a certain presence to command it.

C J.

Allen seems to be one of those guys, and that's a huge plus form particularly is a young player coming after draft.

What is the acceptable floor for you for the Bill's defense in twenty twenty six?

We know change is happening there.

What is the bare minimum that is acceptable for you for what that defense does in twenty twenty six?

You let us know on the tweets sheeet Next here on One Bill's Live presented by Kalida Health, what is the acceptable floor for you for the Bill's defense in twenty twenty six where most of the bigger changes are going to be happening this off season.

Let's get back to the tweet sheet for some of your responses on that very subject.

And we left off with Jim, who says to be top ten in stopping opponents on third down.

Bill's defense didn't play complimentary ball last year.

They allowed too many long drives, only forty two and a half percent at stopping teams on third down, which ranked twenty fifth in the NFL.

Yeah, they were bottom third in the league for the second year in a row.

They were twenty ninth last year.

I believe where they officially finished was twenty fourth.

But Jim's right, if top ten might be a little lofty, but if you get the right pass rusher up front, might be able to make that happen.

You can stay healthy in the back end.

Yeah, it's a big ask, but yes, third down be awesome.

Just get persistent problems.

Be better on third down, even better, I mean just not great, better, but just get yourself half of the league get Yeah, just on a third and speak thirteenth, third and seven plus get them off the field instead of having it be a coin flip.

Yeah, I mean they were third and longs where it's like, oh, here we go.

They got them in third and eleven it's like exactly, and then drives constantly.

So that it was not constantly, but it was frustrating.

And so yeah, they they.

Came up often enough to notice it.

Yes, it did.

Yeah, that's right.

So that that's a good That's a good tweet by Jim that that is something situationally defensively, you gotta be better.

I don't know how much certainly that came down to injuries, but your pass rush injuries and your secondary and some of that stuff that but it's got to be some of it's got to be got to fall on coaching and scheme and that kind of thing.

Is well, so we'll see if they get better, if they can be better.

But man, oh man, would that would be a That'd be a good drink of water after a long drought.

From Bill's Mafia.

STF.

We need Leonard's defense by the end of next year to have found its identity by the end of the season, which means we have optimized talent that is there to be the best of their capabilities in their specific roles.

If attacking and confusing opposing quarterbacks has achieved, Josh can do the rest.

So a little bit of a roundabout description there, But yeah, I don't think it ended next year.

I think it's got to happen before that.

Yeah, you've got to do more than you were able to do this year just squeezing into the playoffs.

I think you've got to have a home game so you don't have to go three times on the road against really good football teams to get to the Super Bowl.

At least one of those games needs to be.

I mean, the Rams came close to pulling that off and they couldn't do it either.

Yeah, they had to play three road games.

They got to the NFC Title Game and then lost to a division opponent thirty one twenty seven in the NFC Championship.

It's hard to do, even if you're playing your best football.

It's hard to do.

From Sitter Bitter, the floor is one hundred percent the Super Bowl because we blew the whole thing up after consistently going to the playoffs.

We're a super Bowl or bust organization for the remainder of Brandon Bean's time here.

I'm sensing that sitter Bitter is a little bitter right now.

Maybe.

I mean Terry Pagoula was asked the question point blank, is its super Bowl or bust?

And he said, no, that's not the way to bring a new head coach into the fold, you know, with those kinds, Which is right of expectations.

That's not to say that it doesn't exist out there and Bill's fandom.

But you got to say, if nothing else, and everybody, every owner in the NFL takes criticism from his fan base, and Terry's no different.

You can't call him impatient where the Bills are concerned.

Nine years they had Sean McDermott, and they were painfully close so many times.

That's a long in this league, you rarely see owners as patient as this one.

So it didn't surprise me that he said, no, it's not like that.

But I think realistically, you look at the history of the league, even for Sean McDermott, you get to that they got that seventeen, then they got Josh so it's a rookie year.

Then eighteen nineteen twenty twenty where they got to the thirteen second game right where they were humming and they were beating teams that nobody thought they would ever beat, and they were playing like a team that we hadn't seen in twenty years.

It was just an amazing moment.

That was a third or fourth year that McDermott was there.

Plus the COVID year kind of said everything, kind of made everything go crazy.

So I think the timeline is kind of that, like first two or three years, you're gonna take a big swing at it because you're gonna have everything up and running the way you want.

It wouldn't surprise me if Joe Brady had to tweak his staff after this year, you know what I mean, Or to make some subtle changes in free agency, and like Sean McDermott did in twenty seventeen, get rid of some guys that everyone was shocked that he said goodbye to.

That may happen with a new head coach.

You forget it kind of always does.

But I think the clock is ticking.

There's no question about it.

I think, and it's reasonable to say, you know, Josh is still elite yep.

So you kind of gotta think you're gonna get the benefit of the doubt in some of these coin flip games because of Josh.

You gotta get the defense to hold up its end of the table, and you gotta get some guys in there that will catch the ball when Josh throw it right, that'll help him get the first down on a fourth down on a push push, that will make a tough catch when he throws under duress and a catch will be a catch that would be nice.

So you know, all of that stuff has to happen.

But I don't yet super Bowl or bus No, not for twenty twenty six.

But man, you this is a good football team and you expected to play like that.

Brian on the tweets sheets says one points per game allowed must improve.

Two soft drop zone on third down must never be played again.

Defend the first down marker and force punts.

Three say goodbye to McDermott's darlings.

Four Whether beans sinks us further cap wise?

Not sure what the last one means.

Yeah, we're in really good shape cap wise.

I mean that's they got to get under.

They're over right now, the projected cap.

I mean it's like a quiff of a hen that does that.

And yeah, because they've got they've got the cap figured out.

And I think there's some contracts they're going to get out from under.

There's some others that are going to restructure.

You know, the usual forces of nature that a GM has at his disposal.

And I think the trade market, I mean we met.

I asked Eric heat Home about it from NFL dot Com in our last segment and I really think the trade market has a chance for the GMS that are really plugged into assessing value player for player to move money off your books for a player that doesn't fit anymore to acquire one that does.

Ideally, someone who's still on his rookie contract or is at the end of a contract and has incentive to produce.

I remember, very early in Brandon Bean's tenure here he was big on signing people to one year deals, and I think you can look for players like that in the trade market as well, because if they only have one year left on their contract, you're not gonna have to give up as much necessarily to acquire that player, because you go to the other GM you're like, hey, he's got a year left on his contract.

If he has a big I'm gonna have to sign that guy to big money.

Again.

That's a headache for me.

I'm taking this guy off your hands, you know.

So how about I only give you this instead of A B and C, I give you A and this little thing over here.

So I just think the trade market could prove fruitful in a year where the free agent market isn't super sexy.

So when you open up yourself to trade possibilities.

It also widens the field of the kinds of players you can acquire, provided your compensation fits the bill.

I know that's a big if in some cases, and there might be some teams that flat out don't want to trade with you just because you're the Bills, and if you're in the AFC, they don't need you to they don't want to improve the competition.

So there's some of that too, but that's not gonna keep ranting being from picking up the phone and inquiring.

Also, and his third point, he said, say goodbye to mcdermot's door.

I don't know what that means exactly specifically, but obviously there's a thought process out there that some fans think McDermott held onto guys because he liked them, whether they could play or not.

I don't know if that's the case or not, but certainly there's gonna be a rinse through the right you're gonna be I think most fans will be expecting a bigger roster turnover this year for the Bills than years past, and it may be some familiar faces, certainly, but I don't know.

Oh, we don't know.

You mentioned points per game allowed.

I mean the Bills finished twelfth in points allowed.

Despite all the shortcomings on defense, lack of turnovers, poor play in the red zone, third down defense not up to snuff, run defense not up to snuff, there's still top half of the league in points allowed, right when all is said and done, And that's playing against teams that are usually trying to catch your offense.

So right, I don't think that was really that bad this past year.

And the Bills were number four overall in points per game, so I mean right, so there was a good point differential there for the Bills.

It sometimes didn't seem like that obviously.

Yep.

Marcelo on the tweets sheet says, I am not really worried about numbers.

It's more situational football.

It would be nice to have a defense that can take the opposite offense off the field on third and long, like third and eleven in the fourth quarter of a playoff game you're winning to close the game out.

Yeah, And I think that subject of frustration led over into the decision to move on from coach McDermott.

It's clear that you know, the decision that was made to move on from McDermott was partially rooted in this team's inability to get off the field on third down in general, and then in big spots as well in the playoffs.

And it happened several times over in the postseason and contributed to the end of Buffalo's postseason runs on many occasions, not all, but a healthy number of them.

Yeah, it was frustrating at times, no question about it.

But in the playoffs everything gets turned up.

You're playing against a very good football team who expects to win and executes at a higher level than you do week to week in the regular season.

And you know you got to play better.

You got to plan better, you gotta practice better, you got to execute better.

And I you know, I will say it once more before the end, as we say goodbye the twenty twenty five season.

You gotta play well on that day.

Yep, yes you do.

We are gonna step aside, take a break here, but come back with one more segment.

We'll get some final thoughts from you on the one Bill's Live tweets sheet here next stay with us, all right, back for one final second here on a Wednesday, Chris Brown sky faster with you, what is an acceptable floor for the Bills defense?

In twenty twenty six, knowing change is a foot on that side of the ball.

Back to the tweets, see we go and Greg says top twelve in total yards with an increase on scoring defense, turnovers, and sacks.

The Bills were seventh in total defense this past season, scoring defense twelfth, takeaways they were a little bit lower.

Sacks they were eighteenth in the league.

Yeah, it's interesting too, because we talked about they were seventh overall in yardage given in total defense for the year.

It didn't feel like it to most No, right, No, I don't care if they're ranked twelve.

If it feels like they're ranked one.

Well, and just to show you how deceiving it is, they're seventh in total yards allowed, but they're twenty eighth and run defense, which is just not going to win a game.

Right, So it's whatever the rankings are total defense, you want it to feel like a top five defense, you know, a top ten defense.

You want him to be a factor in every game, and it just didn't always feel like that.

I'm so, I'm yeah, that's top twelve in total yards.

That's almost twice what they were this year.

They're seventh.

Yeah, Chuck on the twity sheet says, I think the floor will be just constant improvement.

The season may not start out too well for the defense, but if they improve and get better and gel more and more every week, they'll be super Bowl caliber right when they need to be.

This is the most rational response.

I was a good guy this afternoon.

Very logical response from Chuck.

I don't know if he fits into the tenor of our show.

It's too reasonable, too reasonable, but I like the way it sounds.

Constant improvement.

We have been able to see that through the last eight or nine years.

Year by year they always kind of come together and because of injuries or because of new players or young players getting plugged in and all of a sudden, now they're gonna play because of injury, they just get better and better.

Like this last year, Shaq Thompson gets on the field and all of a sudden, Wow, okay, here we go.

Stuff like that happens.

It'd be fun to see it happen for the fifteen guys who play in majority of the snaps, right, sixteen guys who are gonna play ninety percent of the snaps in the NFL, or the for the Bills defense.

It would be great to see that happen week over week over week, have them get better and better, and then in these games, the games at the end of the year, theoretically, the games that were you're just trying to coast to get through the postseason and line your pitching staff up for the postseason kind of thing.

You know, where Josh is in a ball cap after taking one snap, you know, I'll sign up for that licking and you know they just can't wait to see him play in the postseason.

That that would be an awesome feeling from Nate.

Buffalo's third string defense finished seventh in the NFL.

I don't know what that means.

I'm looking to replace Oliver Epanessa and maybe Rousseau.

That's it.

I'm one hundred percent focusing on how Buffalo can avoid multiple twenty yard sacks, hitting receivers in stride, throwing the ball away, stuff like that.

So those are his offensive criticisms.

It would seem, yeah, he's the third Yeah, he thinks Bill's third string defense is what they ended up the season with with, you know, with that's the floor with yeah, with you know, do what they did.

Oliver was out.

Mike, Mike Hoyt was out.

You know, all the guys in the secondary were in and out of the lineup, Harriston couldn't stay healthy, all of that stuff.

So yeah, staying healthy would be a huge boost.

It would also help the defense improve, not just from the guys that they start playing, but also staying on the field healthy means the good players get better too.

Yeah, not that the guys that were playing last year back, you know what I mean?

Yes, I know it true.

The starters would be improving as well, and not just the guys who were backed up and who start to get the field.

For Yeah, Epinessa is a free agent, so he's certainly not a lock to be back, and obviously they'd be making the assessment as to whether or not he would fit a three to four system as as much as they'll be going over the guys that are still under contract that Nate mentioned, like Ed Oliver and Greg Rousseau as well, but twenty two unrestricted free agents for the Bills.

Wanted to go over the numbers by position for the three hundred and nineteen combine invites Steve before we go, fifteen quarterbacks, twenty one running backs, forty six wide receivers, it's usually in the mid to upper forties.

Twenty seven tight ends.

That's a big number.

Yeah, more Day two, Day three prospects there, but it's a big number for tight ends.

Fifty seven offensive lineman, sixty three defensive linemen.

Now that counts outside linebacker edge rushers in that category.

Twenty nine linebackers, fifty four defensive backs.

That's corners and safeties, and seven specialists.

That makes up the three hundred and nineteen.

Invites seven punters, kickers.

And long snapper or two two possibly, I'll have to check.

Usually the long snappers just show up and do the snapping, but they're usually college prospects, So you know, it's fine.

We'll be talking more combined in the not too distant future, but we're still talking Bill's roster.

We'll do more of that with you tomorrow on a Thursday edition of one Bill's Live.

We'll see it one