- 1 year ago
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00all right welcome back final hour of in game live game day here on sports grid and as we have been
00:26doing here for weeks on the program we're going team by team across the nfl previewing every team season
00:34in 2025 we've done the bulk of the afc only the afc east remains and that begins tonight the bills
00:41the patriots this hour tomorrow we'll get to the jets and dolphins because i guess we have to
00:46but it begins with a team that has very nearly the best odds to win the super bowl the buffalo
00:52bills which is interesting behind those baltimore ravens looking at it right now and you can see on
00:57your screen just a little bit about this team you're looking at uh seven to one to win the super
01:03bowl on fan duel minus 290 to win the afc east can the patriots give them any threat we'll see
01:08plus 340 to win the conference of course make the playoffs minus 8 50 my god plus 540 to miss the
01:16playoffs there's a healthy number there and really interesting is the over under at 11 and a half
01:22why is that really interesting it's not so much the number but the odds associated with it to go
01:27over 12 plus wins you are looking at minus 165 that is disgusting meanwhile plus 140 to go under 11 and a
01:37half so it makes you really think what are reasonable expectations for the reigning mvp josh allen
01:43under sean mcdermott once again and this offense especially the defense on the other side all of it how
01:49does it all come together what does it look like we're going to get boots on the ground here and
01:53great insights here from our next guest carl jones joins us who uh former football player at syracuse
01:58university by the way i just would like to mention that personally as a syracuse guy but carl on twitter
02:03at jones 11 and an underscore he is part of news 4 in buffalo carl how are you i'm all good thank you
02:10for bringing me on and i'm loving the syracuse love already we're going to get along just fine
02:15absolutely so look this team has won the division i mean for so long i mean i'm i'm a patriots guy
02:22boston's my backyard for or foxborough as it were for the pats for so many years it was the patriots
02:28division to lose that has flipped since 2020 the bills have won this division every single year it is
02:35five running right now and you know it's it's second active streak in the nfl to the chiefs at
02:40nine so let's just begin with this is there i almost it's hard not to laugh when i ask the question
02:45is there any reasonable threat to buffalo to win this division if god forbid josh allen got hurt
02:52in week two is this still the bills division to lose i truthfully can't see a scenario where any other
02:59team in the afc east can challenge them at least in this year um obviously the jets are in a sort
03:04of a transition with aaron glenn over there now miami god knows what what they want to do are they
03:10trying to rebuild are they trying to go for the future who knows and then although i think we all
03:14can agree the patriots have had a really really interesting and probably good offseason they're
03:19probably a year away from legitimately um competing against the buffalo bills week in and week out so
03:26they didn't lose a lot this offseason quite frankly i don't think they lost much um so i don't
03:30think there's anything that would knock them off that pedestal once again of being the front
03:34runners for the division yeah i would agree with you carl uh you know and i think you're spot on
03:40with the patriots i'm not ready to buy in on them just yet either however if we're looking at their
03:45season win total i've seen 11 and a half i've seen 12 and a half it feels to me like they could slide
03:52a bit because everything went so well last year and not only josh allen being the mvp you know is he going
04:00to be able to sustain that level of play you would think he can't go much higher you know is he going
04:05to come back a little bit and then the other thing is they were incredibly healthy they had great injury
04:11luck last year and yet still did not you know get to the get to the ultimate prize of the super bowl
04:18would you expect uh that there is possible concern here that they could slip just a little bit still
04:23win the division but maybe they don't look as good doing it as they did last year i think that's
04:29fair to say there are two areas where you can say there can be some aggression you mentioned the injury
04:33luck the offensive line has been extremely healthy dating back to 2023 as well i believe spencer brown
04:39the right tackle was the only starter to miss a game last year and that was the kansas city chiefs
04:44regular season game where they still found out a way to come out on top 2023 they were all healthy
04:49the other department turnover luck they didn't have a running back lose a fumble all year long and if
04:55you were to watch the bills there were some comically lucky fumbles that ended up back in
04:59james cooks and ray davis's hands so i think those two departments will you know you you will we all
05:05know how the nfl works there's a lot of one possession games where one turnover one fumble accidentally
05:10goes your way josh allen took care of the ball last year who knows if that'll happen again in 2025
05:15but i think those two areas probably regress to the mean to a certain extent and they won't
05:21necessarily pull away from all those games like we did in 2024 bills 15 and 5 last year including of
05:28course the playoffs straight up 12 and 8 against the spread for those out there wondering entering
05:32the new year what i think is really interesting for josh allen and just the the extra feller feather
05:37in his cap carl was you know for all the gaudy numbers that he put up and to me he was the mvp
05:43throughout the year i just i didn't understand comparatively the lamar jackson love i never
05:47thought he had a chance and i know it was awfully close in terms of the vote by the end but you know
05:51alan passed for north of 4200 yards 40 touchdowns but the fascinating thing was he did it without a
05:58true number one receiver you know you had khalil shakir keon coleman dawson knox dalton kincaid none of
06:05these guys exceeded even 850 yards so you welcome in now elijah moore is there josh palmer is there
06:14changes the dynamic a little bit but you still don't have like it's not stefan diggs when he was
06:19there you still don't have that bona fide number one option so does the offense ultimately look
06:25really similar in terms of the production guy to guy i would say so as well i mean khalil shakir here
06:31in western new york is underrated everyone feels as if he gets slighted by the masses but i truthfully
06:37think he's probably slotted properly as a really good slot receiver that doesn't necessarily have
06:42the high-end traits to be a one um and josh palmer will fit in nice as we all probably heard last year
06:48the bills don't have a separator they the offense feels clogged down and bogged down at times i think
06:54josh palmer will fit and help out in that department to a certain extent keon coleman that's not his game
06:59whatsoever he's more of a above the rim power forward wide receiver that they'll deploy so i
07:04expect it to be another everybody eats theme this year that they love to deploy they got the hats
07:10for his shirts all type of thing um where one week ty johnson will lead them in receiving one day it'll
07:16be james cook dawson knox might eat that day i think it'll be a by committee approach once again this
07:22season unless i would say keon coleman takes that year to leap he's looks pretty solid so far in camp
07:29thus far but i don't know if he has that on deck at least in 2025 carl this team went heavy in on
07:36defense in both the draft and the offseason you know trades and free agency acquisition the first
07:42five players they drafted were on the defensive side six out of nine uh overall and six out of
07:48nine of the free agents all on the defensive side obviously that's been an issue for this team
07:54in their inability to get to the super bowl is this going to be enough we're going to find out
08:01relatively soon aren't we i mean joey bolsa is healthy he's healthy right now i will say that he
08:06is healthy as of august 2nd he's out there running around at training camp um they they brought in the
08:12rookies as well whether that's landon jackson tj sanders deon walker all those young guys are flying
08:16around we'll find out max harrison is out right now the first round pick cornerback out of kentucky
08:22dealing with an lcl sprain we'll find out i there was mafia i've been telling them all year i they're
08:28the one team where i don't want to ignore what happens from september to december but you really
08:33kind of have to to a certain extent because they look totally different every single year in january
08:37a lot of draft picks spent in that secondary harrison of course as you mentioned and look it's a past
08:44defense that is going to need to be a lot better next season for anyone that is unaware
08:49the bills allowed the secondary the fifth most air yards across the nfl eighth most passing touchdowns
08:56last year the offense was not the issue this team was putting up 30 plus points every single week it felt
09:01like but the defense teams were keeping up that was an issue so we're gonna come on back more with
09:08carl jones on these bills gets james cook in that backfield as well we have carl jones with us
09:15from news for buffalo looking ahead to the 2025 bill season of course this is a team that is widely
09:20expected to win the afc east maybe even the conference of course a contender for the super
09:27bowl talking a lot about the reigning mvp josh allen expectations for the offense in general will it be
09:33everybody eats will it be receiver one by committee all of that let's talk about the backfield here carl
09:39with james cook coming off of back to back thousand yard rushing seasons there are people out there that
09:45will believe football fans that look you could bring in a dude off the street that with durability
09:50and opportunity is going to almost easily rush for a thousand yards in a season not that i want to
09:56diminish that accomplishment but it doesn't maybe mean what it used to here's what jumps off the charts
10:01though is 16 rushing touchdowns that's what he did last year this dude was a big big part of that team's
10:09success offensively and you know it wasn't just josh allen all that he was able to do with his legs
10:15cook was a prime example of what it took to get over the hump in a lot of these games here for the
10:21bills what can we expect from cook in the new season i'm sure another thousand yards if he can stay healthy
10:26but in terms of touchdown volume his i mean it was two to 16 what are we going to get in year four
10:34i don't know if we're necessarily going to get at that pace again i mean 16 is a whole lot
10:38but i think it would be safe to say that he will fall in that let's say median range of like 10 or
10:4311. they really really despite him being a smaller ish back i believe he's sub 200 they utilize him
10:50down there on the goal line and it's sort of a bit of a cheat code because we've watched bills games
10:55josh allen's usually the the tush push guy down there once they get to an end but james cook he will
11:00also steal some of those carries as well and get into the end zone so he he really fits what they
11:05do um on offense they have a really really stout group got group of guys up front the offensive line
11:11in my opinion is one of the better units in all of football but they're maulers and james cook is
11:17more explosive and more of an elusive speed guy and the fact that when he can find a crease when those
11:23guys open up this crease like that good luck catching him i just remember that snow game against the san
11:29francisco 49ers where it looked like everyone was running slow because they were running in three
11:33feet of snow but he was the fastest guy in that and in that environment so i'm really excited to see
11:39what he can do in 2025. you know carl just to let you know eight and a half touchdowns yeah well the
11:47odds makers feel there could be some regression as well and you know we were we were touching on
11:52that type of thing right i mean carl you mentioned the fumble luck number one in football they they
11:59really caught some breaks there james cook rushing for 16 touchdowns turnover margin is plus 24 sack
12:05margin plus 25 penalty margin plus 15. five and three in one score games three and two and field goal games
12:13i talked about how that everything went so swimmingly with their health if you're a betting man and you're
12:19looking at that win total of 11 and a half are you going over or under because it now it seems
12:25they're set up to regress but then conversely if you just go by projected win totals they have the
12:31fifth easiest schedule in the nfl playing the nfc south this year i think really helps them and they
12:39get all of their heavy hitters in terms of the powerhouse teams on their schedule at home they get
12:43baltimore week one at home when you think about baltimore and how complex and just different
12:48their offense is you know all the the lamar jackson reed option stuff where you you have to prepare
12:55for that on four to five day notice it's difficult but the bills have had all season to prepare for
12:59that so that helps for them philadelphia comes to western new york so do the chiefs so do the bangles
13:05obviously note those games will not be easy by any means but you will prefer to play those
13:09in your backyard as opposed to going to those places which are hostile environments
13:13and then as i just mentioned you get the cleveland browns you get the nfc south it bodes well for
13:18them to i believe creep over that 11 and a half marker and i think that should be pretty feasible
13:23for them in 2025. so where do you put their chances of winning a super bowl ultimately as we know so much
13:30success so many division championships all of that but it's just been a series of ultimately falling
13:36short in the playoffs the vegas odds makers respect this team right there behind baltimore
13:42in terms of the favorites to ultimately get that lombardi but how do you handicap the bills chances
13:50for me personally when i think of postseason success and the most dominant teams in football
13:54you need stars not just one you need multiple to bring to the dance i think that the bills
14:00if we were to go through 11 through 53 in terms of the players on the roster they're about as good as
14:05anyone in football the problem is one through ten that's where they fall short and in the postseason
14:10when you play against the kansas city chiefs and patrick mahomes is bringing a chris jones he's
14:14bringing a travis kelsey to the dance with them a trip mcduffy george carloftis josh allen just doesn't
14:20just doesn't have those dancing partners with them to go toe-to-toe in those those environments and quite
14:25frankly i don't really see the bills adding those eight list stars this season so if i had to be a
14:32betting man i would lean the ravens or the chiefs or another team in the afc just based off the fact that
14:37i think the bills are a really really well constructed roster but in those one game formats
14:42where you need a guy to make it play those other teams just have more dudes i would say on the
14:47rosters carl i i think this has started to surface and there's been some rumblings you know maybe in
14:54the western new york area as well one of the problems they continue to come up short is one of
15:00the problems sean mcdermott uh yeah you there's a certain part of the bills mafia contingency who
15:08believes that he's a defensive-minded head coach and the bills defense has struggled in all of their
15:14postseason games at least since josh allen has emerged as his superstar player right let's say dating
15:19back to 2020 it's been the bills defense that has let them down obviously you know about the 13 seconds
15:24game 2020 i believe they gave up 35 plus points when the cincinnati bangles came to high mark stadium
15:30in the snow they put up a lot of points as well i personally don't land in that bucket because i
15:37still think he's very good in the roster like i just mentioned you can i don't know if he's mixing
15:43he's not giving the right ingredients i would say to build the best cage this best cake in my opinion
15:49so it's loud out here but not too loud where it's deafening and you can't really go out in public i
15:55would say carl before we're out of time how do you like josh allen to win mvp again his odds by the way
16:01are six to one i will not go that direction because in my opinion i believe a lot of it was narrative
16:07based and we know how toxic these debates can get he won't have the narrative two years in a row
16:12in terms of lifting a lesser roster very true again carl jones he is of syracuse fame by the way
16:20i'm going to mention that as many times as i can he is on twitter at jones 11 and an underscore news
16:25for buffalo carl really enjoyed it man thanks for hopping on with us we'll bug you again season
16:30gets going thank you have a good one
Comments