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00:00All right, onward here. We've got football to talk about, Sal.
00:04I know we already talked about them not doing anything on Thursday
00:07and trading down three times until they were finally out of the round.
00:10From there, it felt like Friday night was maybe underwhelming for a lot of fans,
00:17just judging by what the chatter was like and the reviews seemed like on social media.
00:23But maybe they redeemed themselves on Saturday?
00:27I mean, what do you think in totality of all these picks they made?
00:31Yeah, redeemed is an interesting word because if you take it from a standpoint of,
00:34well, they really weren't impressive or anything like that, I think that's a good word.
00:40You know, I think the team was calculated what they did going into this draft.
00:44My preferred outcome was to trade down. That's what they did.
00:47I think that going, you know, for the last month and a half, I said,
00:50I think the team would like to trade down. I just didn't know they'd find a dance partner.
00:53Well, lo and behold, they found three of them.
00:54They kept going down and down and down. And, you know, look, I think to me,
01:00what I wrote out, what I wrote at WGR550.com for the draft, my thought overall on that was,
01:05I called it the upside down draft. Now, with apologies to Stranger Things,
01:08it had nothing to do with that with the upside down for those who watch it.
01:11For this upside down, what I meant was, normally in a draft, you figure your first couple picks
01:16are going to be guys that are going to walk onto your team, have a role right away,
01:19could make an impact, but these are guys that are going to play for you.
01:22And then later on, you kind of fill in the cracks and you, the depth pieces and all that.
01:26I kind of feel like the bills did in reverse order this year, but it wasn't because of
01:30them not knowing what they were doing. It was just because that's the way the depth was for the draft
01:34and how their roster kind of matched with that. What I mean is, I think TJ Parker is going to
01:39play,
01:39but he's not going to start over Bradley Chubb or Greg Rousseau, but he's a three down player.
01:43He can play in this league. He's going to be in the rotation.
01:45I think Davison Igmanosin, IGB, can play as the third corner, but he's the third corner.
01:51There's only two corners, really, that start on the outside, but he'll be able to kind of,
01:55you know, be a rotational guy. And then all of a sudden you have, wait a minute,
01:59could Jude Bowery actually win a starting guard spot? Now they're going to start him at tackle,
02:03but sure, he actually will have a chance to compete. Skyler Bell certainly is going to compete
02:07for a role right away as a wide receiver on this team. Caleb Elamzor is going to compete
02:12for a role as a starting inside linebacker. Jalen Kilgore, I think, is going to be on the field
02:17a lot. I think those four players, especially the last three, Bell, Elamzor, and Kilgore,
02:23absolutely have a chance to play right away. Yeah, that is really interesting. I think
02:27working backwards, because we spend so much time on receiver, and I want to save that for last,
02:33I'm intrigued by the Kilgore pick. He's, I think, someone who it feels like just reading what
02:39you've written about him already, Sal, and how the Bills have talked about him, might be,
02:45we know how good Taron Johnson was for so long here, and an important part of those defenses,
02:50and really was like, the main reason that they played nickel all the time is that they had a
02:55guy that was so good and valuable that they wanted him on the field in place of a third
02:59linebacker. I feel like Bell actually, or not Bell, Kilgore, because you see I'm focused on the
03:04receiver. Kilgore has a chance to maybe even improve on that because of his versatility.
03:11Yeah, you're right. Listen, when I, when they drafted him, I went to, I like to read what
03:16Lance Zerlein says about these guys at NFL.com where he projects them. He had him as a second
03:20round pick. Dane Brugler, the Beast, in his, you know, publication had it as a third round pick.
03:25I'm like, man, this is kind of wild. Here's the Bills getting this guy in the fifth round.
03:29Well, why is that? Like, why would a guy fall like that? And you know, in my experience,
03:32and this has happened for many years before with other players, teams sometimes shy away
03:38from a guy who doesn't have a true position. Well, where do we put them? Do you put them
03:43at safety? Do you put them at nickel? When's he going to, is he outside inside? All these
03:46kinds of things. And wow, we got to train them in these different spots. Whereas, you know,
03:50other teams like the Bills or, you know, in this case, I'll get to them may say, no, no,
03:54no. We really liked that. And look at, we know Jim Leonard told us back in his introductory
04:00press conference. He loves working with guys who, quote, don't fit into a box. This is the
04:05ultimate don't fit into a box guy. He is the chess piece that Jim Leonard needs in his defense. I
04:10think this guy fits exactly what the Bills want, and they're going to have a real good plan for him.
04:14And you're right. They could put him as a nickel, a big nickel. He's kind of a traditional big nickel
04:18that even Sean McDermott would have, but he can play dime in a extra safety role. He can run with
04:23tight ends. He's not going to play outside corner, but anything in the middle of the field, he can do.
04:28Yeah. I'm, I'm into that. I mean, you, you know, I don't, I don't want to say this player's name
04:33because this player does not athletically project like that, but I love them and worry positionless
04:39guy. Like just get me an athlete. And you know, he had that incredible combine and then, you know,
04:44got drafted where he got drafted. And, you know, even with the incredible combine, he lasted longer
04:49and still had an immediate impact. So anybody that is that sort of idea I'm here for. So I'm,
04:57I'm excited about him. How about the linebacker alarms or does he have a chance to play right away
05:05too? Right. I think he does, but I'm going to be less on him and his opportunity there,
05:11because I think, you know, this I've said, I believe they like Dorian Williams more than most
05:15people believe. Right. I think they believe Dorian Williams can be a starting linebacker,
05:19but I don't think that's a certainty. He's going to have to earn it. And alarm's or is going to
05:23come in
05:23here as a fourth round pick. That's the guy you're going to put on your team. He's making the team.
05:27And usually those guys aren't just right away, special teams, guys, they can provide a role for
05:32you. So let's remember, you know, the bills are going to this new defense where sometimes let's
05:36remember they're gonna have three linebackers on the field. That's a, a Mike linebacker, a will
05:40linebacker and a strong linebacker, right? A weak side, a middle guy and a strong guy. So I think,
05:46you know, and however you want to parse all of that to inside guys, but maybe Dorian Williams becomes a
05:50little bit more of your strong guy in certain sets. And maybe he's a little bit more on the
05:53field as your weak side guy, you know, and you could just kind of do a lot of things here.
05:57So
05:58yes, I think he's going to have an opportunity to play. I still would put Dorian Williams ahead of
06:02him on the depth chart, but you cannot discount a fourth round linebacker coming in on a brand new
06:08defense, new defensive scheme to not, you know, give an opportunity to play. I think he absolutely
06:13will have that. He's a sideline to sideline guy. He's, he's fast. He can track down ball carriers,
06:19might be a little bit of a kind of hesitation, like at the next level of, you know, getting to
06:24a spot quick enough, but that's kind of like, you got, you know, we talked about with Dorian,
06:28sometimes Dorian gets somewhere too quick, right? You know, he wants to just run with his hair on
06:32fire. Right. So you kind of got it. You're going to have to kind of work to see what fits
06:35best next
06:36to Terrell Bernard. This has probably come up. But while we're on the linebackers and we're talking
06:41about the fourth round pick linebacker alarms or here, how well do you feel like, I know we don't know
06:48this and a lot of this will get hashed out once we get into things, especially once we get to
06:52training camp, what kind of fit do you think Bernard is for this Jim Leonard defense?
06:57Well, I've always said, I've always felt that Bernard was more of a three, four inside guy
07:02than a four, three middle guy. And that's what they're running. But let's remember again, this
07:06isn't a true three, four in a traditional sense. There's going to be, you know, different ways to go
07:10about it. But I, I think the one thing I think that's going to help Terrell Bernard a lot in
07:14this
07:14defense, he's not going to have to take on so many guards and centers and, you know, big
07:18guys up the middle. He's going to have a much kind of different role to be able to take angles
07:22a little bit better, to get off blocks a little bit easier, to not have to take on blocks. So
07:26I think from that standpoint, this defense will really help him, you know, but Terrell Bernard,
07:31if Terrell Bernard was bigger, he'd be a like prototypical, great, perfect middle linebacker
07:37in a, in a four, three, he's just, he's smaller and it hurts him, you know, both in the sense
07:42of
07:42it hurts him to be able to play like that all the time. And he's gotten hurt because of it.
07:46So I think simply Bulldog by the wear and tear being left in his body, I think it'll help
07:51him.
07:52So Capaccio on the Western hotline here, pouring over the weekend that was for the bills in
07:57the 2026 NFL draft. Okay. Skylar bell, the receiver, the receiver train. And I don't know,
08:03we're maybe hoping for higher, uh, but still fourth round pick. And this is a very experienced
08:09guy, a little older, right? 24 already. Um, I don't want to make too big a deal out of that,
08:15but tell me what, you know, about Skylar bell.
08:19He's about a year older than Keon Coleman, by the way, you think about that, right? I mean,
08:23he's already, like you said, 24, he played five years of college football. I'm going to
08:28tell you, as soon as he was drafted and we all knew kind of the names that there was the
08:32bell brothers, people would call him, you know, Chris bell, Skylar bell. And then when
08:36he was drafted, we were kind of looking around and I, Andy young from spectrum news was sitting
08:40next to me and all of a sudden I saw him pull up highlight and it was against Syracuse go,
08:44wait a minute. Now I know. I said, that's the guy that torched Syracuse. I watched that
08:48game. He was unbelievable. Sure enough. He was, he had 11 catches for 108 yards in that
08:52game. And then Brandon being said in the post a draft presser, you want to just really watch
08:57them, watch them tape, watch them against Syracuse last year, which hurt me, but I agree.
09:01It was incredible. And that's why I really noticed the kid. He is the, he is the only wide receiver
09:06in all of college football last year to finish top three and receptions yards and touchdowns.
09:12Pretty amazing. His testing is really good. Physically. He's fast. Brandon said this morning
09:18to Jeremy, he's like, he's like speed, like Khalil Shakir, right? He's not, you know, he's not
09:23getting down the field. Like, you know, he's not a figure worthy running down the field, but
09:26he's fast. He can get down the field. Great body control here. Here's the issue of why I think
09:32he dropped because when you look at that, you say, okay, well, okay. So you're saying all this
09:35stuff, why did he last until the fourth round? Well, I think the reason is because he started
09:42at Wisconsin for three years. He was not very productive at Wisconsin. So he went down a
09:48level and then he was super productive. And I think that scares teams off, right? You
09:51could see how they would go. Well, you know what? Like when the competition got lesser,
09:55he got better, but he wasn't as good against the higher competition. I don't think that's
09:59unfair, Bulldog. I think it's a fair way to look at it, but I would also tell you, I think
10:03some guys just take longer to develop and understand what their specific role is and
10:07how they need to win. And for him to play college football for five years and to be
10:11at the age he isn't as productive as he is. I don't think that has to mean that he
10:14just couldn't do it against higher competition. I think it just might mean he didn't do it
10:19at that time against higher competition. Right. How, um, how do you see him earning
10:24playing time? Like where, where does he fit on the field? How much has been said about
10:27that? This is a bit of the challenge because he has not played special teams in college.
10:34And I know people hate hearing this, but I'm going to say it. If you're going to make an NFL
10:38roster as a fifth or even fourth wide receiver, generally, you have to be able to play special
10:44teams. You got to find a role. They got it. You, you, it's a waste of a roster spot generally
10:49to
10:49have a young guy. I think particularly to be one of your top, uh, to be one, a bottom roster
10:54guy
10:54and not play. Now, does he have to be a bottom roster guy? No, he could be the two or
10:58three guy
10:58walks in and he does that. I think he's going to play right away. I do think he's going to
11:01help.
11:02I think he understands the game. He's already to a level where nuances route running. He has a lot
11:07of experience. I think he's on this team. I think he's one of the main wide receivers. They'll try,
11:12they'll figure that piece out as they go, but it is the challenge. Even Brandon Bean did say
11:16there was debates in the draft room about it. Like, well, how much could we use them if he's not
11:21actually getting time? Like what, what, what does that look like here? So those are real things
11:25they have to think about. So we started this conversation, at least talking about the prospects
11:29anyway, with the first of their two fifth round picks before we go over the top guys, because
11:36that'll probably swallow the rest of the time. If I start now, anything about Zane Durant, Toriano
11:42pride, junior, Tommy Doman, junior, or Armage Reed Adams that we want to get on the air here.
11:48Well, the first thing I'll say is Zane Durant, defensive tackle at Penn State. I think it's
11:52interesting. The Bills did not go for a much bigger true nose tackle type of guy. You know,
11:57I had Caden McDonald mocked them. I really thought it was a good fit still at 35. It didn't happen.
12:01And they didn't get anybody like that through the draft. In fact, he's another undersized guy. You
12:04can call him 6'1", 287, but he wins being low and with, and being, you know, with leverage and
12:09things
12:09like that. And I just think the Bills have given us an indication of what they want to do
12:13today with Jeremy, Brandon Bean said, if they rolled the ball out today, Deion Walker would
12:19be the nose tackle. You and I are same wave on this, which is fine. He can play that position,
12:23but I'd rather have him somewhere else doing things he might be able to do better. Right. But
12:26let's see, this is their plan. I want, I'm interested to see where this plan comes from
12:29the kid himself, though, Zane Durant, good football player, productive. He knows how to
12:33penetrate, get in the backfield, things like that. The only other guy I do want to talk about is
12:37the punter. I mean, it was the worst kept secret. I think we all said it every time we talk
12:42about
12:42the draft, they're going to draft the punter. They're going to draft the punter. They need
12:45a punter. They got to reset the position. Mitch Wisnowski did a nice job coming in last year.
12:48He's still on the roster, but they got to have a long-term solution. Well, Tommy Doman is the
12:53long-term solution. They did a lot of work on punters. Well, this isn't just a, let's grab
12:57a punter. Like they really went to work on these guys and who was the best fit in Buffalo, the
13:02new stadium, everything. And Jeff Rogers, their special teams coordinator had a lot to do with
13:07that. They zoom call with these guys. Brandon talked about how they literally did a lot of
13:11the timing and toe to toe to step and kick and all these things. Well, what I think you
13:16should know about him as a bills fan is a, what's very important is he also was a kickoff
13:22specialist in college. And with Tyler Bass recovering from surgery and missing a whole
13:28year, that could be really critical for the bills next year. Maybe you have to take some
13:32load off him at some point. You want to just keep a lighter load in camp or something like
13:36that. The other part about it is he played at Michigan for four years before Florida.
13:41He grew up in Detroit. He's kicked in cold weather. He's punted in cold weather. So
13:44I just think those things are important. Excellent. Didn't back to the Durant, the
13:49defensive tackle. I don't know if it was this morning with Jeremy on WGR or over the
13:54weekend at a media appearance, but didn't Bean say that Dwayne Carter is bulking up and
13:59so is Landon Jackson. Not so much for Landon Jackson to play nose tackle, but Carter was a
14:04defensive tackle to begin with. So maybe that's an idea there.
14:08That is correct. I would say definitely more Carter than Jackson if it came to playing the
14:12nose, but you're right. One thing was clarified. So everybody knows in this new defense, Landon
14:19Jackson will be a down lineman with his hand down. If you want to call him an end, that's
14:23fine. I will call him right now a defensive tackle. He will not be on the edge. The edges
14:27are your standup guys. That is Bradley Chubb. That is now TJ Parker. That is Greg Rousseau.
14:31That's Javon Solomon will be a standup guy. Michael Hoyt, when he comes back, the down
14:36guys are going to be at Oliver, Dwayne Carter, TJ Sanders, Landon Jackson, and now Zane Durant.
14:42And yes, I think what he said was Landon has really bulked up. So has Dwayne Carter. And
14:47he thinks Dwayne Carter has a chance to play the nose.
14:49So on the top two picks, then the two second round picks, they traded back into the second
14:55round, uh, to get the corner, uh, Igbenesem and TJ Parker. The thing about Parker that maybe freaked
15:03me out at the moment he was picked is that he reads his athletic profile reads so similarly to
15:11other edge rushers ends that they've had here that have not really smashed. And I think there
15:19was, I had some hope that they might get that with the new coordinator here and Jim Leonard running a
15:24different system that maybe we'd get undersized speed bendy guy, like a Cassius Howell with his
15:30short arms. And I, I was, as I was hoping to maybe see them try something that it feels like
15:35they
15:35haven't tried before, which I recognize is unfair to TJ Parker as a prospect, cause it's not really
15:41commenting at all on what he might be capable of. It's just merely observing that he's got, you know,
15:47he's, he's a similar height and athletic profile as other edge guys that they've had, right? He
15:52almost reads like Bradley Chubb on paper. Um, and they've just brought Bradley Chubb in. So I guess
15:57that's the, the only thing about Parker that I, that I would say, uh, that, and you know, his last
16:03name is Parker and now I got to get a Jersey. Um, what are your thoughts on their first pick?
16:09I mean, you and everybody else, me too. I thought if you're going to draft a edge guy, especially early,
16:14it was a bendy explosive guy. The bills have clearly given an indication and kind of told
16:19us by all their operations, this off season, that's not the kind of edge guy they need in
16:23this defense. They went out and signed Bradley Chubb and then got a guy, as you said, it reads
16:27like him. I mean, Bulldog, Brandon Bean even said he's basically Bradley Chubb. Like that's the,
16:31that's the comp he gave. They, this is the player they want. When I said earlier, like, okay,
16:37upside down draft, you didn't get your starter right away, but he's going to play.
16:40Okay. This is a guy. They, they feel very comfortable playing three downs. That's the
16:45difference. It's not that we need an edge guy that they want. They did not want a situational
16:49pass rusher. And I think some of those guys you talk about, whether it's Cassius Hall,
16:53whoever else, really, those guys are kind of situational pass rushers. The bills felt
16:56we have to have a guy that we can be comfortable putting on the field on three downs to close
17:01up against the run, to still get to the quarterback. So he had that explosiveness and he's going to
17:05get 12 sacks. No, probably not, but he can still get to the quarterback, but he also is
17:09going to be a really good run defender. You know, the thing about Bradley Chubb, everybody told me
17:12after it was signed, when I asked in really good run defender, right? I think they, this entire
17:18off season, we've been thinking about stopping the run, stopping the run, stopping the run. And
17:21when we do, we think middle, middle, middle, I think stopping the run for them also has to do with
17:26the edges. Look how many times Joey Bosa got beat last year that they want to be better at funneling
17:31everything inside with their edge guys. And TJ Parker is one of those guys they feel that can do that.
17:35And he was, he's one of these guys, maybe it's a little similar to Deion Walker, although Deion
17:40Walker, there was an injury, uh, that caused his stock to drop one year over the next. And it turned
17:46out his draft year, he was a fourth round pick and might've been much higher. Parker is another one
17:51of these guys, right? His 24 was maybe off the charts. I think I read 25, everybody on that defense
17:57just, it was an uneven year. So you might be looking at a guy that got dinged for a bad
18:04year
18:04in his draft year. And maybe there's, you know, there's more similarity to the player he was in
18:0924 than 25. Yeah. And let's remember though, Clemson had a defensive coordinator change last
18:14year. So that probably impacted, you know, how they used him, what they did. He recognized that he,
18:20by the way, he's a very mature, thoughtful young man, um, already married. His wife was at the press
18:26conference. She's an elite athlete. She's a volleyball player at Clemson. His dad is a
18:30military dad, uh, in the army. The guy walked into the media room, walked around. I've never
18:35had this happen before. He walked around the media room and shook everybody's hand and asked
18:39us our name when he came in. Like, this is a very thoughtful young man. I asked him about
18:43his, um, his college quarterback getting drafted, uh, Kade, uh, Kade Klubnik, uh, went to the Jets,
18:49gave an awesome, awesome response about how he no more practice jerseys. I'm going to run
18:54through you. And then he stopped. He said, he's super happy for him and said all the
18:56right things. So I think that mattered as much to the bills as anything here about a
19:01guy who has a really high football IQ and character that they know they can come in and
19:05play right away. Uh, is there anything I'm leaving not buttoned up here? Is there anything
19:09on undrafted free agents you need to share with us? Real quick, um, Jermaine Burton, Brandon
19:17did confirm today that Jermaine Burton is going to come to rookie minicamp. This is a young
19:21man who has all the talent in the world, uh, drafted by the Bengals, early draft pick,
19:25uh, a couple of years ago. Uh, but a lot of maturity issues, a lot of bad decision-making,
19:29uh, hasn't been in the league, was suspended, waived. Uh, the bills are going to give him
19:34a chance here. And look, I would say this, a, if he can put his maturity issues behind
19:38him, he can make better decisions. And there's been some really rough ones. He, he can be a
19:42guy that you can dream about maybe really helping this team, but I would temper expectations
19:46because those things a lot of times come with a lot of hope, you know, and Hey, as much
19:50as we like them, can we trust them? Can we do this? So let's see where that goes. Also
19:54today, I just wrote about it at WGR five 50.com. Uh, Brandon Bean did confirm today to Jeremy
19:59that, you know, they took some calls teams called them, I should say on key on Coleman
20:03or inquired about him, uh, during the off season, but he said, we shut those down and
20:07our intention for him to be here and we've hit the reset button. And I just think that's
20:10interesting to know. Very much. So thanks for squeezing that in sale. Thanks
20:14for fitting us in and, um, we'll, uh, talk again very soon. I'm sure.
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