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00:00this moment in time as we are happy to welcome on the west her hotline a man who's been covering
00:04the bills since 2000 you know thad brown sports director from wroc in rochester is on the west
00:10her hotline and i tend to think like all the tv guys you got the hair and you're good looking
00:16and i i feel like that means you're all in like your late 20s but you've been on the beat
00:20since
00:212000 man you've been through it and yet you still got the tv face you're doing great man
00:26dude i appreciate that man thanks for having me on and now that i won't get a better intro than
00:30that anywhere talking to people on the radio so thanks for that very much you're you're welcome
00:34um i did see a clip uh you talking on a podcast uh about the stadium i assume you were
00:42there on
00:43saturday and experienced everything firsthand i've been sort of weeding through uh all that's been
00:49going on since i i took a call in like the first hour or two of the show here thad
00:54and someone said
00:55i'm just tired of hearing about the stadium i want to talk about the games like well bad news
01:00we still got a little ways to go here we're a month or so out from the games the real
01:05games
01:05anywhere there's a game saturday but uh a preseason game with carolina the stadium i'm sure will be the
01:11subject of a lot of conversation following that as it has been since saturday night sunday morning
01:16um i don't know do you have any definitive big takeaways from the uh conversation around the
01:23obstructed view seats and everything else well i think number one i mean the stadium is way nicer
01:29and newer like one of the things that that really struck me sitting there in the building saturday
01:33night is that it felt like a road game because you know you talk about 25 26 years of covering
01:37the
01:37team whenever i was on the road the stadium was almost always newer and nicer and fresher than the
01:44building that i usually work in so to see a building like that where the bills play was i think
01:49refreshing it was it's a better building it's an advancement you know it's like it's like buying a
01:53new car you might not like how the radio is laid out or or maybe the parking brake doesn't work
01:56exactly like you want it to be but it's still a giant advancement in every other way and people are
02:01going to like it the other thing that i've been thinking too is that the stadium experience is going
02:06to be defined by game days it's going to be defined by how it feels when josh allen gets introduced
02:12it's going to be defined by what it's like when the other teams got third and seven it's going to
02:16be
02:16defined by what we all feel like when we're sitting on our hands for 15 minutes during a timeout i
02:20mean
02:21to quote one of the deepest thinkers that sports has ever offered to us the great alan iverson
02:26we're talking about practice this is not how the stadium is really going to be experienced this is
02:31just kind of an opening and and what we get from here will be far more definitive about what this
02:37building is like where it ranks in the league how much everybody likes it than what we saw last
02:42saturday night so there's still and that doesn't even go into the the part of that there's still a
02:46number of kinks that the team has to work out there were things in the media end that did not
02:50work
02:50anywhere near as well as we need them to going forward so there's a lot more important and more
02:56i think uh worthy events to judge this stadium by than last saturday that doesn't mean that
03:02the people who are are complaining about it are dead wrong and are just finding something to whine about
03:08there is the distinct possibility that things are not going to be great in this stadium i mean i will
03:13not put it past the franchise that gave us the nickel city gems to not get everything right about
03:19this stadium but i just don't think we have we have not had a game or an event yet that
03:23can adequately
03:24define what it's like even if we have been in the building one so far yeah i think you know
03:28one thing
03:29that i've i've thought of sort of been considering here that is just the amount of foot traffic there
03:35would have been in and out of sections at a practice this is where a game i think would be
03:40different
03:40it's not saying people won't be going to the restroom or going to get drinks and food and
03:45concessions whatever during a regular season game but the practice was mostly like i'm sure some
03:52super fans really wanted to sit in there and watch the bills practice as you know every every you know
03:58certain people really dig that but i feel like saturday was more for like here you get to come it's
04:05open
04:05house come see your new home and find out where everything is like i wasn't in there but if i
04:11had
04:11been but i would have walked around for two and a half hours just trying to see everything and so
04:17i
04:17probably would have been up and down more staircases and maybe in more sight lines than i would be on
04:23a
04:23game day to that point too i was kind of struck at like seven o'clock i'm looking through the
04:27stands
04:28and they said there were 51,000 people in that building it looked more like 15 there was hardly anybody
04:32sitting in the seat at seven o'clock when the thing was supposed to start so yeah that's not
04:36that's not going to be a real game day experience and to be honest i don't even think saturday or
04:40a week from thursday two weeks from thursday is going to be like that either because even for a
04:45preseason game yeah you might sit in your stands in your seat for the first quarter or the one series
04:49that josh plays but once we get to the second half i think everybody in that building is going to
04:53be
04:53doing exactly what you said walking around doing open house where's the concessions hey maybe
04:58maybe there's a better path to the bathroom than the one i found two weeks ago so again
05:03it's not going to be a a real adequate you know stadium experience um you know and yeah i think
05:09a couple things that the team you know looked at in terms of ideas they were trumping number one
05:14the amount of fans will be covered i think we still need we have a little taste of it with
05:18the rain it
05:19seems like there might be less fans covered than than we all expected um but the one thing i will
05:23say
05:24the the wind is something that i've been kind of every time i go in that building all right how
05:27windy is it
05:28outside how windy is it inside is it less and and one of the things i was worried about going
05:32in on
05:32saturday is if you're really going to destaunch the wind on a day like that where it was 83
05:3890 humidity i was kind of bracing myself for boy this is going to be agonizing there's going to be
05:43no breeze you know just feel awful and there was still a little bit of a refreshing breeze in there
05:48so
05:48i think in terms of things the team got right it felt like they thread the needle at least through
05:52one day nicely between diffusing some of the wind but not diffusing so much of it as they make it
05:58uncomfortable yeah i think a big part as i understand it anyway that of the objective
06:02regarding the wind was to try to keep it from being a swirling mess on the field i don't know
06:08that they ever said they were going to like the whole place was going to be windproof you know like
06:13um it was just to try to minimize it on the field so that it doesn't alter you know the
06:18football game
06:19too dramatically thad brown wroc sports director in rochester on the western hotline with us one last
06:25thing on stadiums you mentioned you know you've been you're covering the team all this time you've
06:29been all around um i don't imagine you've sat in lots of seats in lots of stadiums largely you're
06:35there working and that means more than likely a press box or field level uh pregame and then press box
06:41um were you surprised to find out how many this was something that was highlighted in the in the podcast
06:48i saw a clip of on your on your social feed uh fad that because i i when i first
06:54heard of this sunday
06:55morning having my coffee i thought it's 2026 what are we doing why are there obstructed seats in a
07:02brand new stadium in this i don't understand it and then you know over the course of the next you
07:08know
07:0812 24 36 hours i'm learning that it's extremely commonplace in new builds of stadiums because the big
07:15wide open air concourses are the thing everyone is striving for and sacrifices have to be made
07:22somewhere or another and it's pretty common to have these staircases and the landing areas and
07:28the railings and all the stuff and i had no idea about any of that yeah so the podcast by
07:34the way
07:34bkl nightly we do it on a streaming channel called rochester first out of our station in rochester and
07:39the guy i talk with his name is cameron guzzo and he's got a an instagram tiktok feed it's pretty
07:45well followed and he experiences stadiums in general you know food that kind of thing but one
07:49of the things he does in a lot of places is he actively goes to find the worst seat he's
07:53been in
07:53the worst seat in like 100 buildings worldwide he did it at the olympics at the hockey arena not too
07:58long ago and and the thing that he was saying is that what he's seen picture-wise from highmark
08:03is consistent with the bad seats that he sat in and sought out in all these other places and especially
08:09with nfl stadiums this is just how it's done he was like his reaction was almost a shoulder shrug like
08:14yep yep oh some obstructed seats this is what everybody else does too and and i had the same
08:19reaction you did about like how are we doing this this year the one thing i will say with the
08:23conversation i heard that jeremy had this morning or at least that the clip that you guys posted
08:27the idea that we're cool with allowing or forcing 400 500 whatever the number of his people to have
08:35obstructed views in the name of having a concourse or why that you can see the game from the concourse
08:41to me doesn't make a lot of sense i've been in a number of games maybe not you know like
08:45you said
08:45i cover a lot of them but i've attended a number of games being in the concourse and watching a
08:49game
08:49on tv has always been sufficient for me and i would think that a large percent of fans would be
08:55fine
08:56would not be able to see the game for the concourse in exchange for those 400 500 people being able
09:01to
09:01have a clear seat now i understand that it's not just about that it's about making things wider on the
09:05concourse which everybody appreciates but it does feel like a frustrating choice that we're going to
09:10sentence one i know it's one percent but we're going to sentence one percent to an obstructed view
09:14so that when joe and frank and and mary are going to get a beer they can still watch the
09:19game while
09:20they're in line i mean if they want to watch the game sit in the stands and if you want
09:23to get a
09:23beer you know get a beer and then work on that it felt like a yeah not reasonable trade-off
09:27of this
09:28especially like you said in 2026 i hear you and especially to say at the same time you're optimizing
09:34fans being able to experience the game um so you are optimizing for the people that are walking
09:40around but not for the person sitting in the seat and yeah that's that can be hard to rectify i
09:45i
09:46totally hear you thad brown sports director from wroc in rochester um last thing on this it's not so
09:52much specific to the stadium although the stadium is a part of it it's been a pretty bumpy summer i
09:58mean
09:58the games can't come soon enough the stadium is the latest the week before that we had the jersey
10:03reveal and that did not go over well with the fan base i i do not think that that's just
10:09a few
10:10squeaky wheels i mean i just feel like a lot of fans are just like what what are you doing
10:15and
10:15saturday didn't help that mostly what i heard on saturday was they're very very difficult it's not
10:21impossible to see and identify who's who number wise and that when they get wet they're even worse
10:27so i just not good before that there was all this sort of the psl holder practice then the other
10:35open practice and like i never really believed that psl holders in mass were upset that non-psl holders
10:44were going to have an opportunity to go quote-unquote sit in their seats but there was enough noise about
10:49it that i'm sure the bills didn't enjoy it and that's like three separate things here in the last i
10:55don't know six weeks of summertime that have been kind of rocky you go all the way back to january
11:01if
11:01you want the news conference when mcdermott was relieved of his duties was kind of a mess too
11:06off the field's not been a great smooth ride here so far this uh this summer no and i think
11:11the one
11:12with josh allen drops back for a past week one that a lot of that will be at least moved
11:15over to a
11:16degree but i do think that's emblematic of where this franchise has been this is a team that's been
11:20knocking on the door so close and has a quarterback that you know a lot of us determined five six
11:26years
11:26ago that oh this is this is a guy that is going to not could going to take this team
11:31to a super
11:31bowl and the repeated failures i think has worn on the franchise and i think you don't just see it
11:37with the coaching staff or the players i think it filters into everywhere and i think there's
11:41there's a a squeezing going on to get it right to finally get over the hump to do everything
11:46in a level that is commensurate with as great as the quarterback is and these are still human
11:51beings i mean brandon beans are really good gm but he still you know has emotions and frustrations and
11:56pressures like anyone else as does everybody else in that organization and even though they win
12:00divisions all the time make playoffs all the time win games all the time not being able to get over
12:04that hump i think has been has been something that's worn on people and it got to the point this
12:08year
12:08where they finally had to fire the coach and whenever you fire a coach things aren't going well i mean
12:12i
12:12know number of wins playoff appearances there are a lot of teams in the bill's own division that
12:17would sign up for what buffalo's done the last five six years but in buffalo that's not good enough and
12:21i think it is to a degree kind of again filtering to the rest of the organization and there's
12:26frustration going on to the team on the field and the coaching change that how different if at all do
12:32you think they'll be on offense with joe brady now in charge and not having sean mcdermott to answer
12:37to i think they'll be different but it's because of dj more way more than sean mcdermott i think what
12:42dj
12:42more can do for the offense um at least what we've seen through two weeks of camp that really the
12:46sky's the limit i would have my doubts about him coming in off the year he had in chicago but
12:51there's nothing in camp that has gone better than 17 to 2 and it's over and over and over it's
12:57with
12:57the deep ball it's all over the field dj more has been everything the bills could possibly want him to
13:01be and if he does open up the field it should make things easier for khalil shakir it should make
13:06things easier for dalton kade the five games he's on the field it should make things easier for the run
13:11game and and it makes things easier for joe brady too because when when you have wins all over the
13:16field when my receiver is better when my run game is better when my quarterback is better well then
13:20a lot of your play calls are going to be better too so i don't know i mean i'm sure
13:23the the brady
13:24offense without mcdermott will be different than what we saw late last year to a degree but it will
13:29pale in comparison to what dj more in theory or at least what it looks like he'll bring this team
13:34going
13:34forward do you feel confident comfortable that everybody eats is dead now that they have
13:39quote-unquote a number one receiver on the team i don't know if i'd say dead you know i do
13:44think
13:45i do think that joe brady and maybe josh allen to a degree believed that it was easier and maybe
13:52more comfortable for josh to not have to rely on a receiver but i think for the most part it
13:58probably
13:58will be and again it won't even be from the point of view of okay we're gonna have a game
14:02plan that
14:02says we're gonna not spread the ball around i just think dj more is gonna win so much you're gonna
14:07want to throw it to him and and by by sheer force of his talent and ability right you're gonna
14:11get
14:12to a point where that doesn't that's not how the offense operates anymore that's kind of what i'm
14:15thinking while we're on receiver and i know the depth chart gets released and it's unofficial
14:20and every team in the league seemed like yesterday was depth chart day um keon coleman is in the first
14:27column uh all all through the spring and summer i have the our lads version of this open the bills
14:34put
14:35their own out and now our lads i think is matching what the bills released again unofficially had more
14:41palmer and shakir as the top three you know starting receivers and this depth chart the bills put out has
14:48coleman ahead of palmer i don't know do you make anything of that i mean it got my attention at
14:55least to want to ask you about it absolutely got mine too that was the number one thing i noticed
14:59on
14:59the depth chart because i think if you asked every one of us who have watched all these practices
15:03going back to the first day at fisher the rankings of receiver performance would decidedly be
15:08josh palmer ahead of keon coleman not that coleman's been bad but he's been really inconsistent and
15:12palmer's had a pretty good camp the only thing to say about that is if you really want to galaxy
15:16brain
15:17it there isn't really a receiver on this team who i trust to be a blocker in the run game
15:23the bills
15:24have always had that whether it's gabe davis or terrell shavers this year the receiving crew they have
15:29doesn't really have a guy that you like as a blocker keon coleman i think simply by sheer
15:34how big he is it might be the the best case scenario so if you really want to say okay
15:40he's
15:40the starter well the starter plays on first down well first downs probably a rundown so yeah you
15:45might see keon coleman more often on that down than josh palmer even if palmer's the better receiver
15:50that's me trying to read into it a little much yeah but who the receiver who the receiver is that's
15:55going to be a big part of the blocking game is a is a part of the mystery of this
15:58offense for me
15:59because again that that talent just isn't there right now yeah i mean i we've talked with sale
16:03about this and i'm sure you probably have too on the sidelines watching these practice that that
16:07trent shurfield was kind of the terrell shavers replacement um but as far as like you know
16:14does that mean he's going to be shavers played a lot big snapshot last year um i don't know that's
16:19interesting maybe that's a way for coleman to sort of work his way or continue to work his way
16:24into their good graces if he wants to do the dirty work that gabe davis used to do
16:28but that could turn around his standing within this team in a real hurry he's not a bad blocker i
16:34mean
16:34he can do it you know he's not uh he's certainly not a an upper level receiving blocker i mean
16:38a receiver blocker i think shurfield's better but shurfield's going to make the team you know i mean
16:43i don't even know if he's going to be on the roster so that's that's to me where i can
16:46add up the idea
16:47of keon coleman being number one on the depth chart i like it it works uh you mentioned kincaid and
16:52slid in
16:53there the five games that he's healthy for or whatever the line was what what do you want to
16:59do with him i mean it's been a pretty smooth summer so far i know back in the spring when
17:05i i i swear i
17:07heard both joe brady and brandon bean talk about you know load management and being careful because of
17:14his history with his legs especially um do a do you trust that maybe he is healthier than he's been
17:22and b do you think that'll lead to him playing more than like you know 40 some percent of the
17:27snaps
17:27it just feels like that they're working so hard to keep this guy on the field and and
17:33not that i don't have anywhere close to medical knowledge to say that there's a better option out
17:37there but normally a guy gets hurt it's either you rehab it for a couple weeks or you get surgery
17:41and he comes back and and the bills are going to try this load management thing it's just hard to
17:44imagine it's going to work for any any extended period of time look it's almost like we're playing
17:50the game we we played with joey bosa 12 months ago where hey just get him on the field for
17:54january
17:54just have him be a part of the offense then and we'll call it a win and and i don't
17:58know if you can
17:59it's a little easier maybe to do with a 33 year old pass rusher than a a third year or
18:03fourth year
18:03tight end but whatever the bills get out of kincaid right now i don't want to say it feels like
18:08gravy
18:08but it just it feels unrealistic put high expectations on him and i think that again
18:13the summer that dj moore is having makes it easier to take some of the load off kincaid and some
18:18of the
18:18pressure off of him to have to perform because it seems like the bills have this other guy then kind
18:23of really take some of the weight of and some of the lift of the passing game i just you
18:28know to
18:29your question i i don't i can't believe it and we've seen two years where kincaid has not been
18:33consistently out there he's a good player don't get me wrong i i always am remarking
18:38when i watch on film how much different it is watching kincaid run tight end routes than
18:43dawson knox or jackson halls or quentin morris where else the bills have had but it's just it's hard to
18:49with what we've seen the last two years believe that he's going to be on the field more than it
18:53was last year maybe maybe this is the right plan they have but sitting here right now i can't i
18:57can't
18:58put much stock in it for sure we didn't save a lot of time i didn't save a lot of
19:02time for the defensive
19:03side of the ball and there's a there's a lot of new there obviously new scheme new coordinator a
19:09lot of new personnel um i don't know do you have an overall takeaway on defense and then if we
19:14have
19:14time we can squeeze in a couple of specifics not not so much maybe the defense in particular but
19:19one thing that i have noticed about this training camp is that the rookie draft class by and large
19:25has had a good camp it feels like everybody's been a plus tj parker a little more wiggle than i
19:29expected a plus davis and igbin ocean physical as advertised a plus jude bowery another defensive
19:34player but he's looked good skyler bell might be the only one i'm a little shaky with obviously
19:38caleb alarms or has been fantastic even jalen kilgore so for a team that has a lot of money spent
19:44on the
19:44offense right now between receiver and quarterback and running back and the offensive line you got a
19:49hit on those defensive draft picks and again we're two weeks into the season or whatever it's august
19:5512th but so far a lot of these guys look like they're they're doing better than expected whatever
20:00the line of neutral is they're all above it and i'm really excited to get a chance to see them
20:04on
20:05in a game on saturday because there's been limited padded practices even the practices themselves have
20:09been a little shorter than maybe you know the bills done typically other teams do so that to me is
20:15the
20:15number one focus for for saturday what is alarms or look like what does parker look like what is
20:19igbin ocean look like and i think you know there's a good chance we would see pretty extended snaps of
20:24those
20:24guys too so the overall camp for those guys i think has been better than worse for sure do you
20:30think there's a starter battle at linebacker and or corner i i i might be forcing it with igbin ocean
20:36uh but it's notable to me that they drafted i know they needed them uh but a physical longer outside
20:43corner after drafting harrison uh in the first round last year do you think there's a battle there too
20:50no i really thought there would be and it hasn't gone that way max harrison's been the number
20:53one guy for the most part and to harrison's credit he hasn't been fantastic but he's certainly not
20:58doing anything to lose the job so that's a one two with the linebackers there's a battle but i
21:03think that there's a good chance we're going to see both dorian williams and alarms or a decent
21:08amount and i think especially in the three four defense i think there's a little more room than
21:11there was what sean mcdermott did to use linebackers in different kind of situations and look alarms or
21:16has been too electric to not want him on the field i don't know if i trust him in a
21:20coverage
21:20scheme right now just dropping back and like patrolling the flat you could probably put dorian
21:25in to do that a little bit better but the athleticism with alarms are so good they will
21:29find ways to use him in different situations fad what do you got uh besides the podcast that you
21:34want i know you're are you still a part of the the the wivb channel four game day show yep
21:40yeah we'll
21:40be on uh noon to one before the game on sunday uh right from the field uh bills kick off
21:45live and
21:45then we'll also have a post game show after the game as well and then again bko nightly on rochester
21:50first streaming plus uh thad brown seven on every social media feed they've dreamed of so far all
21:55right man sounds great appreciate the time very much and uh hopefully we can uh hook up again and do
22:00it again sounds good chris appreciate it myself all right thad brown sports director wroc in rochester
22:06been on the bills beat since 2000 i mean you know mike and i we sit in here sometimes like
22:11we're the
22:11we're like the gatekeepers of the drought or something and like this this guy predate me
22:17and mike didn't start working together until 2003 i mean i i was i was on the air since 95
22:22and mike was
22:23before 2003 too but then i used to touch base with a tv guy that goes back that far um
22:28all right good
22:29deal good stuff um the stadium any more on that you want to get something off your chest uh we
22:36had a lot
22:37of people that got through but i didn't get to uh because just you know there wasn't time uh so
22:43lines are open now if you got anything to say about that i'm selfishly sort of trying to squeeze this
22:49conversation in because after today i won't be back until two weeks from today and i i suspect that
22:57we'll probably be on to other stuff by then uh so just want to want to get your thoughts if
23:03you have them
23:04at 8 0 3 0 5
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