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00:01thanks for joining us mike shope and the bulldog here for our inaugural visit with bill's left
00:08tackle dion dawkins who joins us now on the west her hotline dion chris said the same thing he and
00:15yourself you and i have only met one time that we can remember it was at the eric wood roast
00:22which was a fun night but it's a few years ago now and i think i also speak for bulldog
00:27when i
00:27say that we're excited that uh you're joining us on mondays here who who put you up to this was
00:33this
00:33something that they had to talk you into you don't want to name the person that's fine
00:40oh man they they held me hostage they uh they tied me down they tickled my feet and they said
00:47uh sign
00:48the paper well thank you to whoever that was uh yeah we're glad to have you mike mentions eric wood
00:55and that being where we we met you um that was i think right before covid so like february of
01:0120 i guess that probably is yeah um and this and this spot we did this with him for back
01:09even when
01:10he was still playing um so um you know no pressure but you know reasonably sized shoes dion like you
01:16know eric did this a long time with us yeah you know i think i could hold my weight oh
01:23i'm not
01:24worried i'm just saying like you know it's a familiar spot for us i'm excited for this thank
01:28you great so let's talk let's talk about yesterday here which was a wild game to watch uh 36 31
01:36in
01:36houston josh allen made a comment that i thought was pretty revealing and ross tucker talked about it on
01:42the broadcast that like he really wanted to win in houston and i think maybe he spoke for most of
01:49the
01:49team when when he said that i don't know it's interesting that this game was first for you guys
01:54this year for it to be a team i mean they're one of only i mean how many teams in
01:58the league have kind
01:59of had the bills number for the last few years but houston i think i would have to say that
02:03so it's a it's
02:05a great win it's got to feel really wonderful yeah i mean any any time that a team can prepare
02:14camp you have the long camp and and then you have preseason and then you get into the work week
02:20of
02:20houston when you're finally allowed to and then you know like we understand what happened last year
02:26right and you know like they got after us and that's just what happened like they got after us
02:32they got the best of us they game plan better and they got the victory and for us to understand
02:37that
02:38like all right cool guys our first game of the season we have to go back down an enemy
02:43territory where the water is definitely boiling we need to go and go down there and show
02:50why we're different and why this is a different year and uh i think when you have a a quarterback
02:57and
02:58a head coach that are both offensive driven you know like you get the end results what of what
03:06and we got and when you have an o-line that and protect josh the way that we did and
03:10schemed up
03:12the way that we did you know and good things happen so i'm thankful for it i'm actually very very
03:17very
03:17excited for the season and uh it was a good outcome for the boys in blue down in houston do
03:24you know going
03:25into that game that the ball is going to be pushed there's so much that we don't know watching even
03:30if
03:30we're watching in the stadium but certainly watching on tv which is very different than watching in the
03:34stadium like what each play what what the primary target the primary goal of each play is but did you
03:42guys go into this game expecting you guys to end up i think the average depth of target in this
03:48game
03:49was close enough to double what it was on average for the season last year against that team did you
03:55know you'd be pushing the ball down the field or did it just unfold that way when josh dropped back
03:59and took a look at what was going on you know i wish that i could say that i knew
04:05exactly what was
04:06going to happen but i i do know that if people did what they were supposed to do the right
04:12way this
04:13would open up or this would open up or this would be available so like for example right like there's
04:18so many things that don't show up on a stat sheet right like from an offensive tackle set right like
04:25i can
04:25speak on that first like if i have a wide split and i have to go and get my hands
04:29on a guy quicker
04:30than usual because the ball is coming out quick right where the guy can't bat the ball down right
04:37like yes like i would know that if i do my job fast efficient then the ball can potentially go
04:44over my
04:44head quick and then for example uh as a receiver that's also not ending up on a stat sheet right
04:50like
04:51if a if a receiver has to run full speed straight down the field to open up the rest of
04:58the offense
04:59if that player is doing that then cool dalton should get open or josh palmer should get open or
05:07there should be available availability for cook to get the ball or whatever or khalil yes like we do
05:13know that part but we do know that as an offense all of our stuff is based off of everybody
05:20doing their
05:21job right and the guys really need to do their job all of the time just for us to have
05:26a chance
05:26but uh yeah i would say yes and in a small way yeah that's really interesting and and and good
05:33insight i think you know another form of this is like you get you get into a game no doubt
05:38you're
05:38confident you're talking about if we do our jobs we'll be fine kind of talk but you know the difference
05:45between what last year's game in houston looked like and this one was pretty stark was there
05:51possibly a moment either for in your own mind or talking on the sidelines between possessions or
05:56like all right we we can handle this team today this is this is going to be fine i mean
06:00was there
06:00sort of a a realization of that sort yesterday yeah i'm i mean like it was never it was never
06:07really a
06:08a time where it was like yo like we can't hang with these guys but it was just more so
06:15like
06:15who wants to play harder who wants to over uh work and who wants to outwork who wants to finish
06:21who
06:21wants to chase the the ball down and and what really matters us right like when we put out all
06:28of our focus on us you know that's the result like when you go in the games and you're worried
06:34about
06:34oh well you got the kansas city chiefs this week and they have 20 super bowls and how do you
06:40feel
06:40about patrick mahomes and how do you feel about um andy reed like when you're thinking about so
06:45many other things right and when you go in the games like it it it pulls your focus away but
06:51when
06:52you go in into a game and you literally just focused on doing your job do your job simply do
07:00your job
07:00and do your job when you're in one-on-one and you know that's kind of what that that outcome
07:07gives
07:07you know dion as you're talking about all the little dominoes that maybe will fall to make a play
07:14you know properly executed one thing i noticed i i saw josh talking on the field after the game i
07:21think
07:21to evan washburn with cbs about the game winning touchdown to palmer and how he said in practice
07:27that that ball has never gone to palmer on that he's doing what you were talking about some version
07:32of what you were talking about a guy running down the field to clear space right and just get
07:36attention away from other guys one little thing i noticed on that play is that dj moore after having
07:42left with an injury was back on the field for that final play and chips i think it's will anderson
07:49on his side i'm not positive of that you you would know better than me but chip chips the edge
07:54guy
07:55and so he's a little delayed getting into his route and i wonder if that helped freeze the safety
08:02just for a second for josh to notice that bullock is like he's kind of flat-footed he's just there
08:08he's
08:08wait maybe waiting for more could have been waiting for somebody else what do i know i'm just a dude
08:13watching a replay on on twitter but it looks to me like maybe bullock is focused on more and his
08:20delay
08:20because of the chip keeps him frozen long enough for alan to notice that and then therefore throw
08:27the ball where he's never thrown it in practice yeah i don't see now if i'm correct like i don't
08:34think that there was a chip like i had i had uh no it's not it's not on your side
08:40it's on brown's side
08:41it's it's on the it's on the other side and he chips that guy i was about to say i
08:46was i was
08:47definitely one-on-one yeah yeah will and i think the slide was away from me but uh yes so
08:54so all
08:55that stuff does matter yes so like when a chip and and basically the simple answer is yes all of
09:03that
09:03definitely did affect it which gave more space and gave more opportunity for that play to develop
09:08and happen the way that it did because there's so many little nuances that go in a play where
09:15somebody faints at a guy or or somebody just throws a hand out where it just it's a game of
09:22inches and
09:23a game of little milliseconds right that everything that you do cause a reaction and it causes the
09:30actual flow of the wave of of a play so yeah you are correct yeah believe me man our first
09:36time
09:36together i would not be trying to take a one-on-one win rep away from you uh at all
09:41just just i don't
09:43believe you just to be clear yeah right now it's the other side right right no it's it's not that
09:48but it's just me knowing that look that was yesterday and we have seen that play over and
09:54over and over and we just got done and with film i'm like well if he's talking about josh palmer
09:58play
09:58i was one-on-one the slide was away and josh dropped back and chucked the ball down the middle
10:05of the
10:05football field we'll defer we'll defer to you on that you just watched it you lived it and you just
10:10watched it uh with deon dawkins on the western hotline apologies for asking a question that you've
10:16probably been asked many times over the last several months but from my perspective hosting
10:21postgame and talking about this team every day fans just kind of wanted to find out what might be
10:27different about the bills under joe brady versus sean mcdermott are there a couple things for you
10:32that you know probably go back through camp and the whole off season and then into yesterday
10:37that stand out i'm gonna tell you the the honest truth right and i love mcd mcdermott is is is
10:47our guy
10:48but mcdermott was a defensive driven coach joe brady is an offensive driven coach and you can
10:56drastically feel it like it's basically in the most simplest form you it's like that's like and
11:05this is for the the listeners to to understand it's basically saying like if you're watching
11:12a marvel movie and you favor the villains over you favor the heroes simple as that if you're a hero
11:22cool you're favoring the offense if you're a villain you're favoring more of the defense and that's
11:30simply how my brain you know understands it but joe brady is just more for the offense so he's more
11:38of
11:38like you know the superman the the the like you know the the good guys the good guys the good
11:46guys
11:46you know the good guys i said it if for the record right right well it was it was noticeable
11:56to me i
11:56mean obviously you were playing in the game we're watching on tv um and uh our buddy ross tucker who
12:02does a regular hit with us uh weekly during football season was on the call um and mentioned
12:09more than once i think how alan was excited to go into a game with joe as the head coach
12:16obviously
12:17he's been his play caller for a while now but that there's now uh you know there's there's not a
12:23defensive-minded head coach at the top of the food chain anymore that joe brady might have felt like
12:28okay i got a boss that i gotta make happy now i'm the boss and i was i don't want
12:34to say i was i guess i
12:35was a little surprised to hear that because that feels like something we've been hearing a lot from
12:41fans but you know and hope maybe hoping it was going to be like you're saying like the the good
12:47side of the marvel movie uh we're going to unleash this offense and unleash the passing game and i always
12:53wondered if that was a little bit of a i don't know just circumstantially just convenient and whether
12:59it would actually be true but to hear josh telling the broadcast crew that he's expecting it i think
13:05validated any fan that has spent the last six months expecting to see a more explosive passing game
13:13no yeah exactly that and you know like like all that tree falls from brady you know coming from where
13:21he came from and then from his history at lsu and and to what like he did like he is
13:27a more explosive
13:31deep ball let the quarterback shine type of you know oc at that moment and now he's the head coach
13:39and
13:40you know and when you have a guy who who can draw up different things and be creative with different
13:47routes and with different schemes and with different you know gadgets you know it puts josh in a better
13:53headspace of i can just be free yes let me go and be the best player in the world let
13:59me go
13:59and just be josh allen let me go and just be the quarterback with all these special tools that i
14:05can go and you know if we're talking about avengers all the special tools that i can go and catch
14:12the
14:12bad guys so far so good in 2026 for this uh with deon dawkins deon how is monday a monday
14:21different for
14:21you when you're playing thursday night oh man uh
14:28they're quick mondays are are usually quick man and uh mondays are usually chill but this monday is
14:37a little bit different my my fiance uh she's walking in one of her her bigger shows in new york
14:44for
14:44fashion week so i had to come to uh new york city to support her and watch her big uh
14:51and debut for
14:52fashion week but um usually mondays are you get in work out chill and maybe get a nice dinner and
15:04keep it pushing and then tuesday right back at it practice fast and then wednesday is a day and before
15:10any game and you're winding down to explode on you know on thursday and so it's detroit thursday
15:18night the stadium is the big story or a big story the first regular season game there people have
15:23talked about the field conditions the turf being replaced um yeah will you you'll be out there i
15:29assume like wednesday or even sooner to sort of we're gonna go and test the field out yeah how have
15:35you been feeling about it so far you know like honestly like i i hate that there's even negativity
15:43or that there's anything bad about it because it's a grass field right and it's a grass field
15:48and how i see it like it's it's just more so like it's a brand new grass field the field
15:53doesn't really
15:54have its overall roots yet right like the field needs to be settled and weighed down and played on and
16:01and beat up for it to be molded for what the field is going to be but honestly me like
16:08that's
16:09out of my pay grade like like i don't know i just i just want to just make sure that
16:13it's safe if it's
16:14safe cool let's go out there and let's play some good old buffalo bills ball does amazon have the
16:21thing like nbc where the starters introduce themselves and say like college or whatever else
16:27they want to say yeah yeah yeah when do you do that i think so well we well we we
16:33filmed like
16:34all that in uh during like ota so a long time ago and then uh and then they chop it
16:40up and
16:40broadcast it so that's already you're already snow university snow university already in the bank
16:45you know last night george pickens went with drip university and i yeah i believe that's what i
16:52heard drip university i went to my son who was 16 i'm like what do you think of that he's
16:56he said
16:57he knows i play a lot of fantasy football he immediately said back to me you gotta draft
17:00george pickens if he's going to rip university but also dion he had a couple of drops yeah he
17:06wouldn't i mean you could easily just change one letter um wow talk it drop talking talking to eric
17:14wood over the years because with those intros would come the pff rankings like you know most fans don't
17:22know the offensive line too well and then you see a guy 122nd out of 125 like ouch this year
17:29they got
17:30rid of that i don't know exactly why but you think so i'm gonna i'm gonna tell you why right
17:36and it's no
17:37and it's no you know hatred towards pff but pff doesn't really do the job that they're supposed to
17:46right like like i've seen like like pff give grades to guys that have played maybe five reps
17:53on the field and they have a the best score that a offensive lineman has ever had but it's because
18:00the the guy has been in a game for five reps right so so like it's like a computer glitch
18:06right and
18:07realistically to really grade out guys the right way you really have to have somebody who is a is a
18:14film
18:14junkie that can really sit and dissect everything because like for an example right like a pff grade
18:23for some players like could be bad right like but you have a player that might have and i'm talking
18:31about for an offensive lineman right like you could have a player that has a quarterback like josh allen
18:37where we're dropping back 55 plays in a game and we're only running 20 plays in a game right so
18:45yes
18:45our percentage of holding calls our percentage of of of sacks or something should be higher because we're
18:56in more passive situations than not when pff doesn't really care about that they're just like oh
19:04a pass is a pass if somebody has 20 passes and somebody has 60 passes well you should block them
19:10all well all right well then take 60 free throws on a bass basketball court and grade yourself against
19:17somebody who shot 20 right like it just doesn't make sense so yes i'm glad that that that is not
19:24there because honestly like it could give guys a bad rep but you know i've been blessed that mine has
19:31always been fairly great you know because i'm a great player and as well as my other guys but
19:37you know it's just something that i'm glad you know and we're starting to push away from i mentioned eric
19:43because i remember eric being feeling likewise about those just you know so too many things that
19:48they don't know you got to know what the what my assignment actually is and you don't really know
19:52that i mean you can guess but you're still guessing there's no there's no definitive way to know
19:56real quick before we part ways how to go first time in a real game with a new left guard
20:01next to
20:01you oh man i'm gonna tell you the truth i was i was nervous i was nervous i was very
20:08very nervous man
20:08and uh and to have a new guard in year 10 you know it's just always regular jitters of a
20:18pro
20:18but alec alec is alec is my dog that is my that and that is my bro he's little bro
20:25that is my that is
20:26my little little tasmanian devil man and and me and alec we mirror that same energy and i'm blessed to
20:34have him you know and he played well alec played it very very well and i'm blessed i'm blessed to
20:40have
20:40him and uh this is gonna be a fun fun fun season man if everything ends out right on the
20:46back end
20:46uh this will be a great season we'll get the credit some will give us the credit if it actually
20:53turns out we get to the top uh i'm excited about this i'm sure bulldog is the station is i'm
20:58excited
20:59about your connection to fashion week by the way which i did not know about until today that's kind
21:03of cool so yeah lovely lady man congrats on all of that we'll talk to you next monday unless you
21:10want
21:10to go friday because the game is thursday night that'll be your call for sure all right thanks dion
21:17there you go that is bill's left tackle dion dawkins his appearance here on wgr is brought
21:23to you by triple a score your exclusive triple a bills mvp membership today at aaa.com slash bills
21:32by treasure cave the official cheese of the buffalo bills by catholic health the right way to care
21:38and by north town kia western new york's number one kia dealer i don't believe i have the authority to
21:44offer him a change in the schedule we're just here planting flags on football monday and like
21:52hey you want to do friday instead with eric we would always sort of move around i don't i don't
21:57believe i had the authority to do that so i'll uh rescind yeah our people our people will get to
22:03his people and we'll figure out it's gonna be monday we're gonna do exactly okay good good plan
22:07let's just do it monday okay candidate for best interview of the day i mean still got sale coming
22:15up i i mean this in such a certain way he is just lovely dawkins isn't he he's just yes
22:20so many years
22:22i've enjoyed listening to his little clips and you know a lot of guys hate doing those but dawkins has
22:27the way where he i don't know what would sal say i'm not sure he always enjoys it but there's
22:33he's
22:34always interesting he presents as though he always enjoys it that's the you know that's the ball game
22:39right there yep all right very cool sal capaccio will join us at five bills win in houston your
22:45thoughts 803 05 50 mike show open the
22:482
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