- 2 days ago
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00How I would have voted for a Coach of the Year award in the Atlantic Division alone,
00:04and I would have voted John Cooper fifth.
00:07Just in the Atlantic Division.
00:09Above Toronto, Berube, you can't vote for that guy this year.
00:12I mean, that's not a great coaching job.
00:14That's not elite.
00:15Paul Maurice, come on, you lost the team.
00:18And then Detroit, close.
00:23Travis Green, Marco Sturm, St. Louis, rough.
00:30Cooper had the fifth best year as a coach in the Atlantic Division.
00:33Won the League Award.
00:35That's really well done.
00:37I'm going to need some football questions, right?
00:39Sal Capaccio on the Western Hotline.
00:42Do you have any questions for me, Sal?
00:44I just know I'm loving this today.
00:46I was tuned in right when you started the show.
00:49I think you've been great today.
00:50You've really been on this.
00:53And I just love where you're coming from.
00:55And I'm feeling it, man.
00:56It's terrible.
00:57What are we doing?
00:59I like how you phrased it.
01:00And I'll say this to people then.
01:02And I tweeted this out, too, to kind of get people to listen to what you were saying, which is,
01:06like, give me the reason.
01:07Like, I mean, I'm generally interested.
01:09I want to know.
01:10I want someone on the record who made this vote to say, well, here's what he did better.
01:15What did he do better?
01:15Or what did Lindy not do that John Cooper did?
01:18I mean, and if it's not, it doesn't have to be about Lindy.
01:21Of course, we think Lindy deserved it.
01:23But if you're going to vote for Cooper, like, tell me why him and not Marco Sturm or not in
01:28the name of the Penguins, coach, excuse me, right?
01:30Yeah, Mews.
01:31Yeah, Mews.
01:32Tim Hughes did a great job.
01:34He deserved to be maybe above John Cooper this year.
01:37And why not Bednar?
01:38I mean, we know what happened in the playoffs, but it is not a playoff award.
01:42They had a historical season this year.
01:44You know, the Penguins, he was a finalist, and the Penguins coach argument was interesting.
01:51This came at a point where I was, like, invested in Ruff as a better and just, like, come on.
01:58But whether this is fair or not, and this is another point for Ruff, Sal, is Sidney Crosby, Evgeny Malkin,
02:09Chris Letang, Eric Carlson.
02:11Tell him, explain to me, coach of the year.
02:14And, like, they had not been in the playoffs, but McKinnon with the Avs.
02:19I don't know.
02:20Like, doesn't that usually, I mean, you and I are like-minded in this sort of way.
02:25How would you vote for these things?
02:27Isn't that usually something that would come to mind is, well, what kind of roster?
02:32This can be slippery because we don't really know always how good all the players are, and we can have
02:38our own biases.
02:39But who's going to tell you or me that the Sabres actually had, you know, all these great players, and
02:46Ruff, who was their coach last year, by the way, somehow just sort of cracked the code.
02:53And it's just there's no one on this team that's ever been close to an MVP award or a Vezina.
02:59And usually that kind of thing can not quite disqualify a coach, but it can make it harder for that
03:05coach to win.
03:06Yeah, I generally probably fall in the category of, well, that's just too kind of lame and not what it
03:12should be about.
03:13But I generally think it should go to, or I think in terms of, the coach that did the most
03:18with the least or the most with the most challenges.
03:22And the one argument I did see for Cooper that people kept bringing up this year was how many injuries
03:27they had.
03:28And they had a lot of guys that were out, and you were talking about man games earlier, and then
03:32when Hedman left, you know, and he was gone for a while.
03:38And I just, I don't know.
03:40I mean, the Sabres had injuries.
03:41Josh Norris is a big part of their team.
03:42He was in and out of the lineup.
03:44Obviously, Kulik.
03:45Like, they certainly don't have Vasilevsky in goal.
03:48So, yeah, I am generally that guy, though.
03:50You're right.
03:51That thinks of who does the most with the least.
03:54So, it's not fair, but I probably disqualify too much on my own mind guys who did a really good
04:01job with really good teams.
04:02Because it is hard sometimes to do that when you have a lot of expectation.
04:05Like, some people, I don't know if I totally lean into this, but I understand when people say, like, well,
04:12you know,
04:12it's hard to coach Michael Jordan and, you know, make sure that you get the most out of him when
04:17he's Michael Jordan running the team.
04:18I totally get that point.
04:19You know what I mean?
04:20But you do have him on your team, so it makes it easier to win games.
04:23Yeah, let's hear that argument from one of these voters today.
04:27Right.
04:27You know, it's not as easy.
04:29It's not what it's cracked up to be to have Kucherov on your team.
04:31Oh, yeah?
04:32Go on.
04:34I mean, it's not always fair or perfect.
04:40Who's the only Bills coach ever to win AP coach of the year?
04:43Chuck Knox in 1980.
04:45How did he do it?
04:46I mean, Chuck Knox, A, B, they might have improved by six wins.
04:51They weren't supposed to be good, and they were good, and guess what?
04:56McDermott might have had, I don't know who won the year he took the Bills to the playoffs to break
05:00the drought.
05:00He might have had a look at it if they were just like a little bit better.
05:02I was just thinking that, and I don't remember that.
05:04I don't remember, was it Shanahan or, because Shanahan and McVay, was it McVay?
05:08They all got hired the same year.
05:11You know, I would have to look.
05:1317, I got it right here.
05:15McVay.
05:16Yeah.
05:17Sean McVay in 17.
05:21McDermott did not get any votes, I think.
05:24Maybe he did.
05:26But he was not much of a contender.
05:29Mike Zimmer was second.
05:31Doug Marone.
05:36Let me just try to go a little bit deeper on this, not in terms of the NHL, Sal, but
05:41a good coaching job, right?
05:43Here's Joe Brady.
05:44Yeah.
05:45I don't know if Brady would have any shot at it.
05:47The Bills have been in the playoffs six or seven years in a row, so he's got a team that's
05:52expected to be good.
05:53It might be tough for him.
05:53That's also the Tampa Bay Lightning.
05:56What will you be, I'm trying to figure out this question as I speak, what will you be kind of
06:03looking for that are good signs for Brady?
06:05I think a lot of times when players talk, it's only ever bad if they say something that would be
06:12construed as controversial or that's not exceedingly positive.
06:16What do you kind of think?
06:18How do you think about Brady and this task before him?
06:22I think about making sure that during games, it's not chaos.
06:26It's organized.
06:27They know exactly what they're doing.
06:30And, you know, all coaches are going to be criticized or have moments of, you know, time, game clock, management,
06:35things like that.
06:35And I think a lot of times we as fans, we go way overboard on that because there's lots of
06:39good explanations why they do things, but people don't see them that way.
06:42But I do think that, you know, the operation itself, how it's running from start to finish for the game,
06:49penalties, you know, just things that little things that, you know, coaches can be a little bit more on top
06:54of.
06:55And you can't always, you know, I always say like players know where to line up.
06:57If they get called off sides, that's on them.
06:59That's not on the coach.
06:59We're not teaching it.
07:00I get it.
07:01But, you know, those kinds of things, the discipline stuff, the operation stuff, not having chaos.
07:06Those are things that I'm going to be looking for.
07:09I think that Joe Brady will have, I think, a better opportunity to win coach of the year than Sean
07:15McDermott has had because McDermott, what's hurt him is having Josh Allen and having success every year.
07:19They have the same year every year.
07:21They win 12, 13 games.
07:22They win division.
07:23Yeah, you're supposed to, right?
07:24Kind of like John Cooper was supposed to, but actually didn't.
07:27You know, but that's right.
07:29That's what Sean McDermott, that's kind of what hurts him.
07:31I think Brady will get more of the, hey, the first-year head coach, and look how Josh Allen and
07:37company responded to this guy after not winning the division.
07:39Like, I should think he'll get a little bit more love in that regard, whether that's fair or unfair.
07:44But I'll be looking for more of the organization, the operation, how the team kind of responds in some of
07:50those moments down the stretch to say that, yeah, I think that he's doing what he's supposed to be doing
07:56here.
07:57You know, we talked about Pete Carmichael a little bit yesterday.
08:00He did some talking, and I asked you about what, like, you know, trying to just know this in a
08:08general sense, what kind of relevance he has, what kind of importance he has in the power structure.
08:12What do you know about Allen's opinion of Carmichael, if you know of any?
08:17Like, is this going to be something where Allen gives you the platitudes?
08:22Does he have a background with him, or is it just more that he's Brady's guy and, you know, Allen
08:29will have to make it work?
08:31I haven't really talked with Josh about Pete Carmichael from my memory a sense yet.
08:35Maybe a while ago we have, but there was a question asked to Carmichael about Josh and Bo Hardigree, who
08:42is the new quarterbacks coach.
08:43And Carmichael said that they've, you know, I kind of like this answer, what are you supposed to say?
08:49You're the coordinator, you're talking about the position coach and the quarterback.
08:52Of course, you're going to say, yeah, it's a good relationship, and they're getting along and all that.
08:55That's fine, but how they both kind of listen to each other, and Bo will, you know, tell Josh some
09:02things, and Josh will take it in, and Josh will tell Bo some things, and he'll take it in.
09:07So my thought here is it's the same with Carmichael, which is when you have a player like Josh Allen,
09:14you have to give him ownership, right?
09:16It's not just, these people aren't Josh Allen, but they also have a certain level of respect that comes with
09:22them in being in the game, and especially a guy like Pete Carmichael Jr., who's been here in the NFL
09:26for 26 years.
09:27He's been with Drew Brees, and he's, you know, coached under, you know, with Sean Payton, and Alvin Kamara, and
09:31Lenny and Tomlinson, and all these stars that he's had.
09:33So I would think, you know, with Josh Allen, he would have a pretty healthy respect for that, and Josh
09:38would at least listen and understand and bounce some ideas off him and take into what he has to say
09:43about it.
09:44So, yeah, I think that's got to go with it hand in hand.
09:46Sorry about the siren outside of me here, if you can hear that.
09:49But I think that that would have to go kind of hand in hand with the two.
09:53Being a good coach, I think especially these days, Mike, and, you know, I don't mean to say, like, oh,
10:00my God, these kids this generation.
10:01It's not what I'm saying, but I do think we're in a different time where I think a good coach
10:05has to be a good listener.
10:07And it's not that they always haven't had to, but it used to be more of the, and I think
10:11this is why Bill Belichick really didn't survive at the end.
10:13Bill Belichick was very old school.
10:15Do what I say, how I do it, this is what it is, I'm the coach.
10:18While there's so much more information and available technology and ways to communicate with players, I think players have found
10:25so much of their voice that as you climb up the levels now,
10:28I think you need to listen to the players.
10:30And I think players respect if you listen to them, and that's a very big part of coaching now.
10:35There really is no end to that topic that, you know, where it ceases to be interesting.
10:43I mean, you've never coached professionals, neither have I.
10:47We've both coached kids along the way, and there's always a balance, right, Sal?
10:52Well, there's always a, okay.
10:54I had a, when I was coaching a long time ago, I had an assistant who was much older than
11:01me.
11:01And, you know, usually when you're coaching kids, there are parenting aspects to it, right?
11:05Like, it's somebody's father or somebody's brother.
11:09Like, I was young when I was doing it.
11:11But my problem was that I was the top guy, but the guy who was older than me, I really
11:18couldn't tell him no.
11:20Like, that was one.
11:21I had no problem telling the girls no, but I did not want to tell the one dad no.
11:27And this is just like.
11:28Was it because of you or because of him?
11:29Because of, well, because it was up to me to do that, and I didn't.
11:32Right.
11:32And.
11:33I mean, like, did he, was he the kind of guy that would take no if you did say it?
11:36I guess I don't know.
11:38I wouldn't blame him for this.
11:39I wouldn't blame him for any of this.
11:41But.
11:41I got you.
11:41Any coach, any manager has to find that balance.
11:45And when you're coaching millionaires, like you're saying, you better be willing to listen to them.
11:50Yeah.
11:51It's not like they get their way every time.
11:53They need to respect you, too.
11:54They need to respect that you are the final word on things.
11:59So, for a guy like Brady, who's so young for it, that's got to be pretty challenging.
12:04Listen, I agree with you, and I will tell you, there's another aspect to this, too, which is really a
12:09fascinating topic, really, where Joe Brady never played in the NFL.
12:13Joe Brady's not going to stand up there and be fake about it and pretend like he played in the
12:16NFL.
12:17He has some, what, I think college football experience, right, a little bit of that, whatever.
12:20But he, I think he's very real about who he is.
12:25And he, you know, his players respect that from him, his knowledge about the game.
12:31He's not trying to be someone he's not.
12:34Whereas I heard stories about Doug Marone and how Doug Marone played, I think, during the strike year, maybe, like,
12:40played in the NFL.
12:40I don't even think he played beyond that.
12:42And, like, he made, he tried to make it sound to his players like he was some five, six-year
12:47veteran who went through, you know, all these things that he didn't.
12:50And I respect the fact that, you know, he played, he played at Syracuse, he played in the NFL.
12:54But I will tell you, there were players that I know on those teams that just kind of thought that
13:01there was a bunch of BS and fake and, like, had no respect for him for that.
13:04That was kind of Greg Williams, too, wasn't it?
13:06I mean, that's before you were up here.
13:08But Williams, I think, had that kind of reputation.
13:11Williams took on, even though they had started losing, a Bills team that had a lot of proud veterans on
13:17it that had been on good teams.
13:19And, you know, he was kind of the type to tell them how it's going to work.
13:24And a lot of those guys rolled their eyes at him, I think.
13:27So, tough place to be for a coach.
13:29Mike, can I add this, too?
13:30I think that it is a very overlooked aspect of assistant coaches and how good assistant coaches are, what makes
13:37them good assistant coaches.
13:39Yes, you can look at numbers, right?
13:40Like, man, look at James Cook.
13:42You know, he must have a really good – Kelly Skipper did a great job, which, yes, Kelly Skipper is
13:46the running back coach for the Buffalo Bills.
13:48That's true, because James Cook was the leading rusher last year.
13:51He should deserve something for being a part of that.
13:54But you know what makes Kelly Skipper, to me, after, like, watching him using him as an example, he's been
13:58with the Bills for quite a while now.
13:59You know what makes Kelly Skipper a really good assistant coach?
14:02Because he's a really good support.
14:04Like, he doesn't try to be the head coach in every interaction I've ever had with him.
14:08He's all about doing what he can to help support the coordinator, help support the head coach.
14:12He's not trying to one-up them.
14:13That's not – that's hard to find in this league sometimes.
14:17Coaching in the NFL, I think probably in most professional sports, I said this to Sean McDermott once.
14:24I said, Sean, there was a point in my life where I wanted to be a coach.
14:28I wanted to pursue coaching.
14:29I wanted to go to maybe be a college football coach, and who knows where it took me.
14:32And then I realized I couldn't do what you do.
14:35And Sean McDermott looked at me and said, why?
14:37What do you mean?
14:38And my exact words were, because you work at a Game of Thrones business.
14:43I could never live like that.
14:46You mean ruthless in that way or a different way?
14:50Meaning you're doing whatever you can to get ahead of the person that's ahead of you.
14:55And you're not really there to support that person.
14:57You're there to one-up them and get ahead of them.
15:00And you're always looking for that next step instead of doing your best at your job that you're hired to
15:06do.
15:07By the way, Sal, you mentioned Bo Hardegree, the Bills quarterbacks coach earlier.
15:13I believe that's how you say his name, yeah.
15:15Yeah.
15:16He's been a lot of places.
15:17I'm trying to find, and maybe you know it, the connection if there were to be one.
15:21I think maybe it's John Fox.
15:23He was with Fox in Denver and then also Chicago.
15:27Because I don't really see any – I mean, LSU, but I'm not sure Brady was at LSU 15 years
15:32ago.
15:33He was still a young kid.
15:34So do you know of any sort of particular connection that they had with him?
15:39He's been like something like six teams and eight years.
15:43Well, no, but where was Coach – is there a connection between him and Ed Orgeron at LSU?
15:52Maybe.
15:52I don't know.
15:53I don't know college at all.
15:54Because if there is – like Coach O is like this big kind of web connector to a lot of
16:00these guys right now on the Bills.
16:02Meaning like Joe Brady and Pete Carmichael Jr.
16:04Like there's a lot of that.
16:06Coach O is like – at Orgeron at LSU, like he's a guy that is kind of right there that
16:12has been the connector to some of these guys through that program and now coaching in the NFL.
16:17Do we like that?
16:20I don't know.
16:21I mean, I think, again, like you can go back and look at his record or whatever.
16:26I think the things that I've heard about him are pretty – really good from a like relationship human being
16:33standpoint.
16:33You know what I mean?
16:34And I think that's kind of why these guys kind of have still to this day connected with him.
16:40Well, I certainly don't want to assume anything of, you know, negative about this hard degree.
16:46But if you look at the teams where he's been a quarterbacks coach and an offensive assistant working backwards, Tennessee,
16:52Raiders, New England, Post, Brady, Jets, Miami, Chicago, Denver, none of that's good.
16:59I mean, these are not teams that, you know, lit it up at all going back more than a decade.
17:04But, you know, whatever.
17:05Josh Allen's going to be Josh Allen and that doesn't mean this guy can't – what was Brian Dable?
17:08When the Bills brought in Dable, that was my problem.
17:12He was offensive coordinator, not even like a position coach.
17:15I'm like, well, okay, but I'd like to be able to look at one team where he was an important
17:20decision maker that was good.
17:22And you couldn't do it.
17:23I mean, the best you could do was background coach on Brady's Patriots and like, well, he's got that.
17:28But there would have been – like that's Adam Gase with Manning in Denver, you know, just – that doesn't
17:33have to tell you anything meaningful.
17:34You know what that is, Mike?
17:35Like that's the whole, you know, Belichick pixie dust.
17:38That's McVay pixie dust, right?
17:39Like if you're around them, people think that you can be them.
17:43And Brian Dable was with Belichick and then he went with Saban and won a national championship.
17:50I mean, come on.
17:50You're with Belichick and Saban as an assistant and you have success?
17:55Like, why would you not – to me, I understand why an organization would want to dip into that.
18:01Like the knowledge that those people have that have learned.
18:05But, man, again, it goes back to you've got to be your own person and be real.
18:09You can't try to be someone else.
18:10Don't try to be fake about it.
18:12Be who you are.
18:14Coach authentically.
18:14And I think that players see when people don't do that.
18:20Sal, one player that you've brought up a few times here in the offseason that's important not only to the
18:26Bills season eventually,
18:27but just kind of like to give us a roadmap on what they might want to do with their roster
18:31is Michael Hoyt.
18:33And yesterday, did you talk to him?
18:36Yes.
18:37So where is he at?
18:40So he's still working with trainers on the side.
18:43He's not working with the team, you know, in practice and drills and things like that.
18:49I mean, three weeks ago, I think it was, whatever, the first day we were out there for OTAs, excuse
18:54me,
18:55he was doing like explosions with the medicine ball and he was sprinting and using the resistance bands.
19:01And then I've still seen all that and doing some, you know, ladder drills.
19:04So he's working hard.
19:07And then after practice, several of us spoke with him and he said his goal is to be ready for
19:13camp.
19:15But honestly, like the real timeline is to make sure he's ready for week one.
19:19But he wants to be ready for camp.
19:21Now, I'll say, Mike, this year camp is a lot later than normal because the NFL calendar is normal.
19:27The Bills' first practice hasn't been out there yet, but it's simple math if you want to do it according
19:31to CBA.
19:32The Bills' first practice will be on July 29th.
19:35That's late this year.
19:38So you think about the time they'll have between the time they break mandatory minicamp next week on June 11th
19:44to July 29th.
19:46Like, that's what, a good six weeks, healthy six weeks.
19:50And what can he do between now and then?
19:53That's going to be really interesting to see if he's able to be on the field day one.
19:58If he's not, you know, training camp isn't one day.
20:00His goal is to be on the field at camp.
20:03His goal is to be ready for camp, he said.
20:04But maybe at some point they do that.
20:06And if not, then you get into the roster mechanics of POP versus IR and all those kinds of things
20:11that you can do that we can talk about.
20:13But, Mike, I think that if I'm going to do, if you ask me right now, Sal, give me a
20:17projected 53-man roster for the Bills against the Houston Texans on September 13th,
20:23I think I'm including Michael Hoyt on the active 53-man roster.
20:26Okay.
20:28Are they having, they are, right?
20:30They're having a joint practice this year with somebody?
20:33Yep.
20:33They're going to Cleveland.
20:34That'll be preseason week two.
20:37So that'll be around, around, we don't know the full schedule.
20:40I think, what's that Saturday?
20:42The 22nd, I believe, is that Saturday.
20:44So the 8th is a Saturday, 15th.
20:45Yeah, 22nd is a Saturday.
20:48They play Cleveland.
20:48We know that.
20:48So my guess is the joint practice will be on the 20th, which is the Thursday.
20:53So that'll be that second week of the preseason.
20:55In Cleveland, by the way.
20:57They'll have the Friday off or walk through or whatever and then play Saturday?
21:00Yep.
21:01Yep.
21:01Do you?
Comments