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00:00Sal Capaccio with us now on the West Her Hotline.
00:03Sal, how are you? How are all these drafts you're in going?
00:07I'm in four leagues, so two of my normal leagues that I've been in for a long time.
00:12I guess they've all been a little bit longer now.
00:15One I actually started myself in the late 90s.
00:17I'm still in it, but I'm not the commissioner anymore.
00:20It's down in Florida with my buddies.
00:22And then another that I had the draft last night and been in that one since the late 90s as
00:26well.
00:26And then we have this media league and Jeremy's guillotine league.
00:29That's the four that I'm in, plus I do the survivor leagues and all that.
00:33They're going okay.
00:34And, of course, February fix.
00:37February fix. I forget about that because it's fixed, Mike.
00:39It's fixed. We do that in February and we fix and we set it and forget it, basically.
00:44And I kind of forget about it until you send the updates every week.
00:47And, yeah, we had the draft last night.
00:49And this year I was kind of in a different spot drafting in all of these drafts, basically, which was
00:54kind of cool.
00:56Every night is different when it gets late like this.
00:58I wonder about my buddies in Vegas, what they'll do with A.J. Brown after last night.
01:03Like, do you just not take him at all?
01:06I mean, that's probably four weeks, the kind of injury that maybe becomes a problem all year.
01:14I don't think – I mean, there would come a point where I would take A.J. Brown.
01:18But it's probably, I mean –
01:2150% later than you would?
01:23Sixth round, maybe.
01:24Maybe.
01:25I'm trying to think of a guy that I don't like that I would take.
01:28Godwin?
01:28I think I'd take Godwin over him right now.
01:31Not that you should have a name ready, but, you know, that's what happens.
01:34And Bowers, with his injury that we talked about yesterday, somewhat the same thing.
01:39Well, last night, can we start with this game before we get into Bill's news here?
01:45What did you think?
01:46How culpable is May for the Patriots' loss, in your opinion?
01:51Extremely.
01:53You know, I came on here yesterday and I thought and I feel good about the fact.
01:58I said I think the Seahawks win a close, low-scoring game.
02:01I thought that that was the way that the Patriots would want to play it and kind of not put
02:06themselves in harm's way.
02:07And they did, for the most part, do that.
02:09But here's the problem.
02:11When you do that, you have such less margin for error.
02:14And at the end of the game, in the fourth quarter, the quarterback gave up that margin for error.
02:20He threw three interceptions on, quite frankly, three balls he should have never thrown.
02:24He didn't look good last night.
02:25His arm looked very, very weird.
02:28I agree a lot of Twitter chatter last night was, you know, there's not a lot going on there.
02:36There's a lot of floating, a lot of fluttering.
02:39And, yeah, I wonder, you know, if he's over what was bothering at the end of last year, even.
02:47I think that's the question you can get to.
02:49That's definitely extreme, I know.
02:51But he didn't look good all night, I thought.
02:54But, you know, I agree with you.
02:55And the decision-making, you know, was bad, too, on top of that, which is, you know, he is a
03:01reason, a big reason they lost the game last night.
03:03You can say the sole reason.
03:05I hate always doing it.
03:05I hate doing that because it's a football game and a lot of things happen.
03:08I mean, heck, the punter for Seattle was a reason, too.
03:11I mean, he put them in really tough spots.
03:13Here's a big takeaway I have from last night, though, honestly.
03:15Like, this team, this Patriots team, is playing football, and it goes back to last year, and I thought it
03:22would change this year, and it hasn't.
03:23And I think it's going to really hurt them and cost them.
03:26Feels like they want to play, like, the 2000s Belichicks or even before that, like, close to the vest, you
03:32know, just win close games, do what you're supposed to do.
03:36And, you know, at the end of the day, we'll be the team on top because we can win those
03:39margins, right?
03:41That's not how football's played as much these days, and quite frankly, you have a talented young quarterback on a
03:47rookie deal.
03:48You went out, and you got him some talent, and you got A.J. Brown.
03:51You got Romeo Dobbs.
03:53Don't do that.
03:54You don't have to do that.
03:55You need to let him play football, and it feels to me like Mike Vrabel is like, nah, we're going
04:01to run the ball, and we're going to play this close conservative game.
04:04And, guys, last year, this stuck with me the whole year.
04:07When Shaw McDermott, when the Bills lost to them last year when they came here, that was the game they
04:11played, right?
04:11They played that kind of game.
04:13Key on fumbles.
04:14The Bills have another fumble later and still takes the Patriots to the very last couple plays to win the
04:18game on a field goal.
04:19Very similar to last night.
04:20Yep.
04:21That's right.
04:21And after the game, Shaw McDermott said, we played the game they wanted us to play.
04:25They wanted to muck it up.
04:27Yeah.
04:27And I'm telling you, that's how they want to play.
04:29Yeah.
04:30And I think it's going to really hurt them.
04:31We had a caller earlier say, like, how culpable, like, how accountable would you hold the coaching staff for the
04:39play at the end, for May?
04:41And I said, Sal, and I don't know, maybe you disagree.
04:44I think the first two picks are absolutely horrendous decisions.
04:50And the first one, especially, is a horribly thrown ball.
04:54There's three defenders closing on it.
04:56The second one, he throws a decent ball, but he should have never thrown it because he got tricked by
05:02the coverage, which happens.
05:04The last one, I mean, that single coverage on Matt Collins, if you throw a good ball there, you know,
05:09it's your guy can make a play on it or it's out of bounds kind of play, right?
05:13It should have been more toward the back pylon and more, you know, it was right at the sideline.
05:19So that part he got, but he just threw it too short and left himself susceptible to the turnover.
05:23I don't blame him for taking that shot.
05:26It's single coverage.
05:27I mean, you can laugh at it being Matt Collins, but, you know, whatever.
05:30He was dependable through the best game of any.
05:32He made a bunch of, not a bunch, a couple of key conversions, including a late fourth down on that
05:37drive.
05:38So I don't mind him throwing that ball, but you gotta throw it where only your guy really has a
05:45shot at it.
05:46And he failed to do that.
05:49The one thing you can't do there is turn the ball over.
05:52They were set up to go to overtime.
05:54Now, I like the fact they tried to win the game.
05:56I think that's what you do there.
05:57You have a chance to win the game.
05:59You're in the red zone.
05:59There's 35 seconds left.
06:01You're on the road.
06:02You're playing the Super Bowl champs.
06:03Go win the game.
06:04Like, great.
06:04You know, you'd want your team to do that.
06:06You'd want the Bills to do that in that situation, not just sit on the ball and then kick the
06:10field goal.
06:10But you have the field goal in your back pocket.
06:13Even if you take a sack, you have the field goal in your back pocket because you're not going to
06:17be out of field goal range.
06:18The one thing you can't do is what Drake May did there and throw that ball into harm's way.
06:23And he did it.
06:24He's on his back foot.
06:25You just gotta throw it into the seats.
06:27100%.
06:29The McDermott point is interesting about that first game because he got smart in the rematch.
06:34He got down 21 to nothing, so the Patriots couldn't do the same thing.
06:37Yeah.
06:37Then they couldn't muck it up.
06:38There's 21 to nothing.
06:39Right.
06:40They had to open it up.
06:41The Bills had to open it up.
06:42Well, I will tell you a thought I've had about Josh McDaniels for a long time.
06:45I said this today when I was on Extra Point Show with the guys.
06:48And I believe this.
06:49And I don't necessarily have any analytics to back this up necessarily or numbers.
06:52It's just something I felt about him going back many years.
06:56I think Josh McDaniels is really, really good at creating a game plan.
07:01He is going to find a way to attack your weaknesses.
07:04I think he is not very good at all at adjusting throughout a game.
07:09And that has been something that has hurt him ever since he hasn't had Tom Brady.
07:13You can go out in a game and you can be up 7-0, 10-0, whatever because you have
07:17a good game plan.
07:18You can figure it out.
07:19And throughout the week you're working at it and grinding and understanding all these little things that you can do.
07:23Well, guess what?
07:24You don't have Tom Brady on your team to hide the warts throughout a game when things start to not
07:29go your way.
07:29And I think last night was an example of that.
07:31Man, and again, our guy Ryan Paganetti, former Eagles coach, today on Twitter is like,
07:36I'm just going to tell you, with Josh McDaniels, he had a whole layout about what the Patriots do with
07:42or without Mac Hollins on the field.
07:43Yep.
07:44And he's like, I mean, I know he was with the Raiders last year.
07:47He's like, I know we were terrible, but we beat them.
07:49And this is how.
07:51This is one thing we did because he put it on McDaniels that they just are so married to certain
07:58tendencies within certain formations that they become predictable like that.
08:04I'm also reading that going, they went 14-3 and won two playoff games, but they did lose to the
08:10Raiders.
08:11And last night, I think I would say to wrap on that, I think I'd have to call it a
08:16bad loss, even though it's by three at the Seahawks in the opener.
08:21I think because of 10-0 and the turnovers.
08:24It reminds me, Sal, of the opener for the Bills in 23 when Aaron Rodgers gets hurt.
08:28And, you know, a couple plays into the game, you're facing Zach Wilson, backup quarterback.
08:34Might as well be Drew Locke or worse, I don't know.
08:36But what did Allen do that day?
08:38He threw three interceptions.
08:39He's trying to hurdle over guys, even though he's six yards short of the first down.
08:43He was all wound up.
08:44It was a really weird game.
08:45It's the main reason that, like, while everybody is dunking on Drake May, and we'll see if he's got a
08:52real problem throwing the ball downfield because of an arm problem or something.
08:56And that's a whole different conversation, but I don't want to clobber May for having a terrible game in the
09:02opener against a tough opponent because I watched Josh Allen play like a donkey against the Jets in 23 when
09:08Aaron Rodgers got knocked out on the fifth play or fourth play of the game, whatever the hell it was.
09:14Yeah, the whole May discussion, you opened with it, and I'll just say, like, it is a discussion right now.
09:19And if you're at WEI in Boston doing your show today, like, this is a talking point.
09:23And I see a lot of talk about, look at what C.J. Stroud was and how that regression happened,
09:27and I don't know.
09:28I still think the kid's pretty good, but there's starting to be some evidence here that maybe, you know, he's
09:34just not quite up to what everybody thought he'd be.
09:36And I don't know.
09:37It's going to be really interesting going forward to watch this.
09:39And the A.J. Brown injury obviously impacts possibly October 4th here in Buffalo.
09:44You know, if he goes on IR, he's going to miss that game.
09:46So we'll see if they actually do that with him.
09:48Well, the one – I'm sorry, we keep going and going and going on this game here.
09:52But the one criticism, as we were talking about the game plan and, you know, muck it up and just
09:57try to win this sort of low-scoring rock fight type game,
10:01the one thing that I thought was really noticeable early is Seattle's down, Emin Worry and another safety.
10:08And so, you know, some of their superpower is missing in this game.
10:12And I thought they waited too long to get to A.J. Brown.
10:16Like, just, you know, maybe establish that right away.
10:20This is your – one of the biggest ticket acquisitions in the league in the offseason, honestly.
10:26No doubt.
10:26And just make them worry about him, you know.
10:31And they really didn't.
10:32It just – they wanted to sort of ease into the game.
10:34And I don't know.
10:35I thought they were a little too timid at the start.
10:37I'd get Seattle, you know, knock them around in the Super Bowl, and they want to be careful.
10:42But I just thought it was the wrong move considering you've got, you know, a top five wide receiver on
10:48your team now.
10:49And you just ignored him for a couple of possessions to start the game.
10:52And I thought you could have set the tone of the game.
10:55Like, all night long, you're going to have to figure – you've got to change something because of us here.
11:01Because we're finding a way to get this guy off.
11:03Design plays to get him open.
11:05Easy pitch and catch.
11:06And there was none of that.
11:08Well, this goes back to what I said.
11:09I think that this whole variable philosophy is let's just play a tight – establish the run.
11:14Play a close game.
11:15We'll be okay.
11:16We'll win the margins.
11:17Well, guess what?
11:18When you do that, at the end of the game, you make a couple mistakes, you lose.
11:21Right.
11:22Sal Capaccio with us.
11:24Could you see – would you put DJ Moore in the same category for this game on Sunday?
11:29Like, get established DJ Moore?
11:32Is that something you want to see?
11:34Yeah.
11:34I think that's – I think I even mentioned that.
11:36Like, if we're doing this show, like Sal said, in Boston, like, we'll be on postgame.
11:41If they ignore DJ Moore for the first couple of possessions and are going three and out and punting,
11:47I don't think that's the right thing to do.
11:48Again, it's a tough opponent, tough defense.
11:51It gave you a real hard time.
11:52But a part of the reason you went and got DJ Moore is to make this not as tough a
11:58matchup for you.
11:59So lean into it.
12:00Use it.
12:01If you've got a guy that you think can beat Stingley or Lasseter or whatever, get –
12:06That's a big if.
12:07Right.
12:08But scheme him open even.
12:09Whatever you've got to do.
12:10I wouldn't blame the Bills for thinking that they don't have – DJ Moore's not that player,
12:14but they traded for him.
12:14He damn well better be, I think.
12:16I mean –
12:16Listen, I mean, in the preseason, first game, Josh, DJ Moore, three catches, 61 yards over two series.
12:23End of the game, we go to the media room.
12:26One of the very first questions to Josh, how important was it to get that connection
12:29and go into DJ Moore early on in this preseason game?
12:32And Josh goes, listen, I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's going to be important
12:37to get him going early in every game to force the defense to adjust.
12:41That's what I'm saying.
12:43Sal, the injury report today, very similar to yesterday, but TJ Sanders went from limited to DNP.
12:50Jordan Hancock the other way.
12:52Ty Johnson still not practicing.
12:54That's the whole thing.
12:54How do you read it?
12:55Yep.
12:57So I read it as you're not going to have Ty Johnson or TJ Sanders available on Sunday.
13:02Obviously, that can still happen, but with both of them missing, especially Ty for two days,
13:06and if TJ Sanders was limited yesterday and DNP today, that means he's trending in the wrong direction, right?
13:11So let's just start there.
13:13I think with TJ Sanders as a DNP today, after being limited yesterday, this could make him an IR candidate
13:22in my mind.
13:23The Bills have six interior defensive linemen on their roster.
13:28They could shelve TJ Sanders.
13:30Now, Zane Duran is also on IR, but you could put TJ Sanders on IR.
13:34You still have five healthy bodies to play in the game, and then you can sign somebody from the practice
13:42squad to join the 53,
13:44like a Greg Dortch, and not have to use that elevation.
13:47Then you still have your elevation for Frank Gore, because if Ty Johnson's not available, you're probably going to need
13:54that.
13:55Now, you probably aren't in a situation now where you're worried about D. Alford being the only nickel corner because
14:01Jordan Hancock came back,
14:03but obviously, Jacory Couch could be in play there if that were the case, but it does allow you some
14:08roster flexibility.
14:09Now, I don't know what's going to happen with TJ Sanders here over the next couple of days,
14:13but I would think that that could be something that they could do here, guys.
14:16Put him on IR, sign somebody to 53, like a Greg Dortch would be the first guy to come to
14:21mind.
14:21Now, he becomes your main punt returner, obviously.
14:23Then you don't have to use those elevations on him.
14:26That's how I see that, and yeah, I think Ty Johnson is a big loss, as we talked about, if
14:31that's the case.
14:32Now, here's the one thing, though.
14:33It's not like this is a surprise for the Bills, right?
14:35They have not been with Ty Johnson for over a month now.
14:38Right.
14:39Back in the second week of August when this happened and rolling into the first preseason game,
14:45I'm quite sure they knew they might not have Ty Johnson available for week one.
14:49So you know what they've been doing?
14:50Building a game plan knowing they don't have Ty Johnson for week one.
14:53Right, it's not like he got hurt in practice, right?
14:57Correct.
14:57Right, they've known for a while.
14:59I wonder what, though, you think Frank Gore Jr. is the call-up.
15:03I mean, he makes the most sense, but what about the role that Johnson plays?
15:09Like, is that too much to put on Ray Davis' plate?
15:12Does Frank Gore Jr. have that?
15:14Like, I'm thinking of, like, more pass protection than route running here because, you know,
15:20I think James Cook could run, you know, work off of Ty Johnson's, you know, route tree.
15:25And it's Houston.
15:26Fine enough.
15:27But I get right.
15:29Like, I'm worried about the guy standing next to Josh Allen in the backfield on passing plays.
15:37I don't think anybody is going to be able to do it to the level of, you know, Ty Johnson.
15:41But I will say this.
15:43When there was an uproar from fans about why the Bills did not keep Ian Wheeler on the practice squad
15:48and they rolled with Frank Gore, Brandon Bean answered that question.
15:51And he said, Frank Gore is a more complete back.
15:55Third down, pass protection.
15:56He understands the offense.
15:57So I think at least that gives you a little bit of some insight into them, you know,
16:02thinking that Frank Gore is able to, you know, handle those duties if called upon in that situation.
16:08But I think it's Ray Davis more than anything.
16:10If they get into a situation where, you know, they need, you know,
16:14they're thinking about who are we going to have on the field next to Josh Allen in those spots,
16:18I think Ray Davis is the next guy, is the first guy in line before even, you know,
16:23James Cook as far as pass protecting and to be able to do that.
16:27But you also have flexibility with your tight ends who suddenly become, you know, kind of options.
16:33You could also just go max protect up front and empty in the backfield.
16:36And you could do it different ways.
16:38We'll see how, you know, how they want to play that.
16:41They have four tight ends on the active roster if they want to do that.
16:44I'm looking back at the Jacksonville Jaguars game, which Frank Gore played in place of Ty Johnson.
16:51And he only played four snaps.
16:54He did not play any offensive snaps from what I can see the following week at Denver.
16:58So if that gives you some insight into how they would do it in that particular game, it was James
17:02Cook.
17:03This is the Jacksonville game.
17:04James Cook, 38.
17:06Ray Davis, 20.
17:08Frank Gore, four.
17:09Gore does not have an NFL rush to his credit, but he has one catch in one of those snaps
17:14against Jacksonville in the playoffs.
17:18Tonight, we've talked about this yesterday, Rams, Niners, and the two franchises' different approaches to traveling to Australia.
17:27The Rams, like, okay, this is like their approach to it boiled down.
17:33We slept on the plane.
17:35We'll land, and we'll sleep when we get there.
17:38I don't sleep on planes.
17:40I mean, you've been in these NFL planes where maybe it's just, like, your own bedroom or something for every
17:46guy.
17:47Like, is that something you can teach?
17:49I mean, is this something that's ever come across your desk, Sal, like players who struggle with that?
17:54I mean, not every bill is going to be a great flyer.
17:57And, I mean, I don't know how just, like, matter-of-fact it is.
18:01The Rams, apparently, Sam Monson was funny on this.
18:04The Rams have been sending people back and forth to Australia to test it.
18:08I mean, Sam was like, how much carbon fumes is that?
18:13But, okay, good for you.
18:14They also, apparently, went, one of their players, a tight end, went on the trip, and then they cut him,
18:20and he came back.
18:21So, that's tough.
18:22But, I don't know.
18:23That's a tough place to lose your job.
18:25I mean, we already talked about, right, we already talked about, like, the two teams having different approaches to it.
18:30But, can the Rams just expect their players to sleep on the plane?
18:33Is that something that they would, like, help to teach them to do if that's possible?
18:37I mean, you can help them.
18:39You can give them something, I guess.
18:40I don't know, right?
18:40There's over-the-counter stuff you can give that, you know, would be, you know, legal, I guess, in that
18:46situation.
18:47Yep.
18:47Not without knowing all the ins and outs of that.
18:49I mean, you guys know, I think I said this yesterday to you.
18:52I just think that there's so much that these teams do, but yet you can't just put it on the
18:57collective like that.
18:58Everybody's different.
18:59Everybody's body is different.
19:01I'm driving in.
19:02By the way, I love the fact.
19:03Two to six for you guys.
19:04Awesome.
19:05It's really, I love that, you know, for you guys to be able to kind of have that time slot
19:09and you're done at six o'clock.
19:11And what am I listening to Bulldog talk about?
19:13Look, you're getting up and you just have to change your routine every morning, right?
19:15And you can do that.
19:16And some people are morning people.
19:18And some people are afternoon people.
19:19And some people are evening people.
19:20Some people can fly and sleep on planes.
19:22Some people can't do that.
19:23I just think that there's way too much to me in all of sports, but especially a football team.
19:29That's made up of 53 players and 17 on the practice squad and all these coaches and staff members that,
19:35you know, trying to do it the right way for everybody.
19:38When everybody is a little bit different, everybody's going to react different.
19:41Who do you like tonight?
19:43I mean, I like the Rams.
19:44I just think the Niners seem like they are very discombobulated with this whole thing.
19:48I don't know if the Rams approach is like perfect or right, but at least it seems like they're on
19:53board with it.
19:54Whereas it feels like the 49ers are kind of scrambling.
19:56Like, I don't know what we did here.
19:58We lost the day.
19:58Raheem Morris didn't have his birthday.
20:00You know what I mean?
20:01Like, you know what I mean?
20:02Like, it's weird.
20:04Well, that could also be the pregame speech.
20:07Yeah, right.
20:08Listen, everybody.
20:09I know you're distracted.
20:10I know you're tired.
20:11You see this man over here?
20:13He's put in decades in this league, and he didn't get his birthday.
20:16We skipped his birthday.
20:17We flew across the ocean, and we missed his birthday.
20:20Let's win it for Raheem.
20:22Well, listen.
20:22I mean, you know what it reminds me of?
20:23You guys have watched the movie Bull Durham, right?
20:25Of course.
20:26Believe it or not, yes.
20:27Okay.
20:28And Kevin Costner basically says, like, if you think you're pitching well because of this, that's why you're pitching well.
20:34Right?
20:35Put the gargle belt on, right?
20:37Exactly.
20:38Exactly right.
20:39Great scene.
20:40So, this is what it reminds me of.
20:42Like, the Rams, I think the Rams are a really good team.
20:46They're a better team.
20:46I would pick them anyway, probably, if this was being played in another neutral site in America.
20:51But my point is, like, it feels like they've bought into whatever their organization has done here, where maybe the
20:5849ers are like, I don't know.
21:00Did we do the right thing?
21:01What time is it?
21:01I really can't tell.
21:02Well, one place that's really not a neutral site for the Rams when they play San Francisco is their home
21:07stadium.
21:09Right.
21:10They're going to get overrun.
21:10Yes.
21:11The crowd might be more evenly split in Australia or even maybe possibly pro Rams than it is in L
21:17.A.
21:17than it is in L.A.
21:18when they play San Francisco.
21:19It's all red when they play San Francisco.
21:22Okay.
21:23Thank you, Sal.
21:24We'll talk again tomorrow.
21:25All right, guys.
21:25You got it.
21:26Thanks.
21:26That's our Sal Capaccio on the Western Hotline.
21:28His appearances are brought to you by New York's only outlet, Liquor.
21:31When you need to stock up, it's the place to buy a case.
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21:35Mike Schoep and the Bulldog here.
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