- 1 day ago
Jeremy White gets things started on Thursday morning by discussing a possible reason why so many in the media are questioning whether the team can win sustainably with this model that relies so heavily on Josh Allen being GREAT. Jeremy compares Allen to game-changing talents like Steph Curry, who people refuse to accept will work until they finally do, because it looks so different from what they’re used to winning.
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00:00I did want to open up, though. I want to open up with football because I want to talk about
00:03Joe
00:03Brady a bit. I was driving around last night, and I went out late because we needed something for
00:09the kids' lunches, and I popped out late and popped on WGR, and there's a national show
00:14on talking about the Bills and this model, this unsustainable Bills model. Everyone's talking how
00:21unsustainable this model is, and I have my doubts about whether or not it can win,
00:27the whole thing, that is. But I think there's a little bit of a cheat in that take, and that's
00:33that the Bills' model has been Josh Allen being a superstar and get to the playoffs and can you
00:39win a game, and the answer to that has been no over and over and over. And it's not always
00:44been
00:44Allen's fault, of course, but the Bills, this isn't the first year on the show, right? This isn't their
00:51first year on the scene where Allen's doing these things. They win 37-34. They win 36-33,
00:58and you say, can you win like this? Usually this is a conversation reserved for hockey,
01:04right? Ah, the Avalanche have won their last three games 9-6. Can they win the cup like this?
01:09My thought is probably. They seem to be pretty good. So on Allen and the Bills like this, I do
01:16think
01:16there's an element of, can they win like this, that is just a function of, well, two things. One,
01:23that there's been this over and over and over same routine, and predicting them to not win is to take
01:32the field. Anybody can do that. Anybody can take the field. And then the flip side of it is Allen
01:37was
01:38thinking about a proper comparison for him. And Allen, to me, is like a Steph Curry level player
01:45where he's doing something that we did not ever really see at that level before. And with that,
01:52we have to say that won't work like that. When the Warriors were going to do their dynasty and
01:58starting at the beginning of it with Klay Thompson and Steph Curry, there were plenty of people to tell
02:02you it was not going to work. And then, of course, it worked incredibly, and they did lots of other
02:07things great. But it was the arrival of someone that really do doing a thing that had been done
02:13before, but in a way it had not. And on a level, it had not been done before, whether that's
02:18Allen
02:19running the ball or Steph like raining threes and Thompson to a degree as well, obviously. So the
02:25whole point about sustainability, I feel like it's a, it's a October cop-out conversation and we can't
02:31really know how sustainable it is. We also shouldn't expect the Bills defense to be nearly as bad as it's
02:36been. So I want to get to that. And I also want to get thoughts on Joe Brady and what
02:40you guys out
02:41there, what I think of Brady through five games on the season. So we're going to do that, but I
02:46have
02:46the emergency line has rung and Mike Shope has called into the show. So are you on your, on your
02:52way to the airport? What's the plan here, Mike? That's exactly right. When do you leave? Saturday?
02:59Saturday. Can you stand it? I mean, it's pretty exciting.
03:03I mean, it's a stadium I've never been to. It's a city I've been to a bunch of times,
03:07but every time I go back, there's 10 new casinos. So I'm excited to see how big it is now.
03:1210 new casinos and a hundred new pools.
03:15Yes.
03:16As it happens.
03:16Yes.
03:18Well, you know, I just thought I'd offer up, uh, you know, my, um, my thoughts and well wishes
03:25as I'm on the road here. I've never been up this early in my life.
03:28Wow. Let me tell you.
03:29So how do you like it? It's dark out.
03:33It's dark. That's the problem. That's one problem. But, um, very excited to go and, uh,
03:40see you and see the whole thing. I didn't mean to interrupt your conversation.
03:43No, that's all right.
03:45I like where your head was with that Steph Curry point.
03:48Right. Is he, is there a better comparison? I'm putting you on the spot for it, but I mean,
03:54he's doing a thing that we don't really know how to put into context. And because of that,
03:59it feels like it can't work on some level. It's a little bit yesterday, we got a LeBron
04:04call sort of in the same vein. And it's a little bit where you have to go outside of
04:10football to find something that works. Yeah. I mean, you don't have it in hockey or baseball,
04:16really like no baseball player other than an ace pitcher. If he were to pitch every game,
04:22you know, like Ohtani, what about, what about Ohtani for this?
04:27Well, you know, sure.
04:29Not, not, not that he pitches every game, but when he comes right, when he comes up, it's,
04:33Oh, I'm not sure he's going to, they're going to make him pick, right? They're going to make
04:35him do one or the other, which we also thought might've been a conversation for Travis Hunter.
04:39And they did make him basically pick one or the other.
04:43Don't even get me started on that. I mean, they, they traded up to two overall,
04:46the drafted cornerback.
04:47I know. Right.
04:49That's just terrible, but they are good. Is Jacksonville, if I may, worthy of the number
04:58one spot in the reverse AFC power rankings? Like do they, are they the best team in the
05:03conference or the league?
05:05I think that I saw the reverse AFC power rankings from yesterday and the bills being
05:09four, fourth to me was top. I think they deserve it at worst third, but I do think Jacksonville
05:15and Kansas city do have a claim to the top spot as well, as much as the bills might as
05:20well. I thought, I thought fourth for the bills was a little low. I don't know that New
05:23England deserves to be above them.
05:26Well below, but yes.
05:27Sure.
05:28And I would say this about Jacksonville at the risk of being like too much of a homer,
05:33which, you know, of course is my brand is I cannot see that guy winning a championship.
05:41I just can't see it. There's just too many plays. They were super lucky to beat Philadelphia
05:47and there are just too many plays where I just don't think it's there. We saw it in the playoffs
05:51last year. So I don't know, like they're, they're good in a lot of, a lot of ways. And
05:57I still think Houston is live. So Houston is playing Jacksonville at six 30 in the morning,
06:03our time.
06:04Oh, wow.
06:05And I don't know what to do because I don't drink bloody Mary's. It's like the one drink
06:09I won't drink. And, um, I don't know, like that's something we have to figure out.
06:14I mean, the mimosa is there for you if you want it.
06:17Fine.
06:18Yeah.
06:18That'll work.
06:18All right.
06:19Good point.
06:20I look forward to making a plan for six 30 in the morning, Vegas time to watch
06:25Jacksonville and Houston.
06:26Me too. See you there.
06:28All right. Thanks, Mike. Mike and Chris on their way to the airport,
06:31six 30 in the morning.
06:34When I think of when speaking of Steph, Steph Curry, when I think about watching sports at
06:38a strange time, that's unusual to me. I think about on my honeymoon with my wife,
06:43the NBA finals run at two in the afternoon and watching the Warriors and the
06:48Cavs at two in the afternoon and two o'clock might've been the fourth quarter.
06:52The games might've been on at noon, which is pretty great.
06:54Anyway, safe travels. Mike and Chris on their way to Vegas, Sal and UC, well, close to
06:59UC Irvine on its way to Vegas this week as well.
07:02Um, all right.
07:04Anyway, back to the point, 803 05 50 Mike called in. You can just call in. I'll just
07:08take your call. You want to talk as long as we did. We can, we can, we can introduce
07:13long form chats with people to call in, you know, questions, answers, follow-ups.
07:18I'll ask you 803 05 50. So that was the first part. The first part was the Allen thing and
07:24how I do get the sense that the national conversation about him still this many years
07:31in doesn't really know how to talk about him. I would even include that in yesterday
07:37when we talked to Mike Florio or Tuesday, we talked to Mike Florio and he referred to
07:41Allen as a hall of fame running back. He's got the numbers to be a hall of fame
07:44running back. And Tim Graham did a piece talking to some, uh, to Curtis Martin. He talked to
07:49and how Allen is coming for all these running back touchdown records. And it's incredible.
07:56Of course, I do not, of course, think he's actually a hall of fame running back. It to
08:00me, it's another example of he's such a unique figure in league history. And of course, presently
08:07in the league that we don't know what to do with him. We do. We just like admire it, right?
08:14We,
08:14we enjoy it. We marvel at it. We can't wait for home games. We can't wait for road games. We
08:18can't
08:19wait to see him. And we feel as a conversation came up yesterday, like the most important thing
08:25in the sports world is not just that the Buffalo bills win a super bowl, but that that guy does
08:31that what we see from him warrants demands that he is holding that trophy at some point.
08:39It's just different. I know every fan base out there wants their team to win. Every fan base
08:44wants the team, the players on the team to win, but I don't know how you would gauge it. Maybe
08:49Ravens fans feel this way about Lamar. Maybe Bengals fans feel this way about Burrow. And I just can't
08:54know that because I don't live in that, but the relationship between the fans here and Allen and
09:00the player that he is as well, it would feel like an injustice if he were not to get to
09:05the
09:05mountaintop and people, I think around here treat it as such. They treat it like that. Like it's the
09:11responsibility of everybody else to do their part, to get him to the top as he gets them to the
09:18top.
09:19And the first part of that I wanted to get to today is a long setup. Sorry. I wanted to
09:24ask about
09:25Joe Brady. What's everyone think of Brady so far? We've got five games. We finally have a loss in
09:31there. So you can talk about a loss. If they've been five and oh, might be a tougher conversation
09:36to have, but we're five games in. And what does everybody think about Brady so far? They made a big,
09:42bold change to their plans going forward. The safety and security of a Sean McDermott team was
09:48ditched the guy that helped the organization recover from more than a decade of laughing
09:54stockness. If they were even laughed at, because they were so irrelevant, they ditched that. And
10:00they went for a, what would be a big, bold decision, maybe not the boldest hire at the time,
10:05but they made their move and they made it confidently. And what do we think of Brady?
10:12Yesterday, I listened. I started to say this in the beginning of the segment. I'm driving around
10:16listening to the national show, talk about Alan, the sustainability. And they, the guy,
10:21I apologize, not knowing his name. He got to Brady and he was taking him apart for what he said
10:28about
10:28James Cook and Cook's fumbles. And I'm thinking, I heard what he said about James Cook and the fumbles.
10:34Is there a problem here? But anyway, Brady's a coach that's still kind of, you know, cutting his teeth
10:39as the head guy. And we're all each week getting more and more about him. Maybe there's some game
10:47management stuff we should talk about. I think that's in there. Then there's the offense. And
10:51does it open up more? Are they more aggressive? They certainly have that belief or a lot of us have
10:56that belief. They're more aggressive, but is Brady looking to you like the difference? Because the idea
11:04it was, they needed someone that would be the difference in addition to Josh Allen. So I want
11:11to talk about that with you at 803-0550. That's the only phone number. I almost said the second one,
11:16but I didn't. We'll get to that James Cook clip in a minute, but we'll get some phone calls as
11:20well.
11:21Five games in, what do you think of Brady? I think it's going obviously fine. I don't know how
11:27different it would be with Sean McDermott if they had him still for five games. I don't know if
11:32they'd be four and one. They probably would be because they always won in September and they
11:36always had a loss right around now. Concerns, clock management, maybe he's learning on the job.
11:45And then defensively, I do get the sense that we are in a spot that I thought we would be
11:52in,
11:52which is he will not get any grief for their defense. It's just the way that it tends to work.
11:59Look, offensive coaches do not hear about their defense. They do not hear about the
12:04problems they have over there or how they're responsible. Defensive coaches do hear about
12:10their offense. I think it's a reality in the league. I think we're seeing it play out here.
12:16The Bills' defense is real bad. It's part of the sustainability point, why people think maybe it
12:20can't keep going like this. And would anyone say the defense is 1% Joe Brady's fault?
12:29Maybe you would. I can't imagine saying it. It's on Jim Leonard. It's on Brandon Bean.
12:34And it's on the defensive players to find a way to fix it because it is rough. But let's get
12:40your
12:40thoughts on Brady. 803-0550 here on this Thursday. There's Thursday Night Football on the way.
12:44There's Sabres and Leafs tonight. We got a watch party out at 1812 Tavern. Me and Joe come out,
12:49hang out. I've asked to see if the golf bays are open. Maybe we can go play some golf while
12:53we're
12:53doing it because there's golf bays coming up at 1812 Tavern tonight. And join us.
12:58Luke is on his way to Vegas. Luke, what are you, driving to the airport? Are you driving
13:03yourself there in your car? Where are you?
13:05So I called yesterday about the tips and the tricks for the four-night stay. We're actually
13:10driving to Cleveland right now so that we can catch a direct flight. That wasn't $1,000 a ticket.
13:16All right. Nice.
13:18So my point was actually about the defense. And I think you could make an argument that
13:25the way that the defense is performing is a majority Joe Brady's fault because he hired
13:32Jim Leonard. Like that was his decision, apparently. I'm sure maybe Brandon Bean had some input into
13:39the type of scheme that they wanted to run. But making the decision to choose Jim Leonard
13:46or Jim Leonard was a decision to change the scheme. And I can't help but wonder if we had
13:53a Sean McDermott-esque scheme with this defense, with a healthier defense than we've had in years
13:59past that McDermott struggled with playing practice squad guys every week. If we'd be in a much better
14:07place, I'm sure there'd be some trade-offs. Like maybe Greg Rousseau isn't, you know, in contention
14:12for defensive player of the year at this point. Maybe we're a little bit worse at stopping the run
14:18and better at stopping the pass. But I kind of think that their own logic in keeping Brady as to
14:24not mix things up on the offense, they went against that in picking Leonard for the defense.
14:29And making too big of a change?
14:32Yes.
14:33Yeah. Thanks, Luke. Safe travels.
14:35Yep.
14:35Safe flight on you at Cleveland.
14:37And, uh, enjoy.
14:38Yeah. You know, in the moment when they're making that change and they're selling everybody on,
14:45it's going to be an aggressive defense. It's going to be different, whether it's blitzing
14:48or whatever scheme is this. And the bills had a very predictable defense for a long time.
14:53People knew what it was. It was about, um, it was going to be good in the secondary and
14:58you know, they're going to whatever, like we, we all knew how passive it was. I guess that's
15:05the way I want to say it until last year when it tried to get more aggressive and they pieced
15:09it together. Would McDermott be better this year? Maybe. I wonder how much of the bills
15:18change is about this year. And then it's about next year because everybody's got their own
15:22timelines, right? Luke, I've got Alan who has got to win right now. Brady, who has got to win right
15:27now. Bean, who has got to win right now. And then I have Leonard who said, um, vision might not
15:33be
15:33here until year two. So he of course has to get the best results he can, but he prepared us
15:40for this
15:40before a game was played. He prepared us for this and he's the one that's using strong language,
15:47not good enough, unacceptable, things like that. I think Leonard's tone is one that fans will get
15:53behind. I do. And he said he's, he's someone that sounds mad when it's not going well. And he's got
15:59reason to be mad because it's not going well. And it's, it's just like any other, it's just like any
16:05other sports decision, you're at a, you're at a trade deadline. Should we sell pieces this year
16:10because we're not going to win it this year to be better next year? These decisions happen all the
16:14time. The bills wouldn't have, wouldn't have really got to the idea of selling, but rebuilding a
16:21defense that had been built by the same GM, but rebuilding a defense and kind of starting over again.
16:26My guess is sure. They think they could win it in year one and they might try to, and maybe
16:30they
16:30push more in, but it's not a one year hire for Brady. And it might be, it might've been a
16:37one
16:37year hire for Leonard. If he was good enough, he's, if he's great next year, it's probably a two year
16:41higher and somebody else comes in. So right now, if the defense stays this bad, it will really feel
16:50like you said that they took a year in the midst of this, you got to win now and made
16:57a drastic change
16:58that at least to this point, it does not look like they're prepared for. Eager to talk about
17:02this with Joe Marino coming up at seven o'clock. We've done it every week where, you know, whether
17:06it's scheme personnel, what's going right, what's going wrong. So we'll dig into that at seven
17:11o'clock with him, Anthony and Tonawana Anthony. Good morning. Good morning. I was wondering if you
17:17guys remembered when Tiki Barber had a bunch of fumbling issues and what he did to fix it,
17:23the way he carried the ball up into his chest and totally changed the way he runs the ball
17:27and the fumbles went away. Someone needs to tell James Cook about this. Show him some
17:31video. I think it could possibly work. What do you guys think? Thanks, Anthony. I do remember
17:36that. He carried it like way up high by his neck, way high. And the only thing about that
17:43that I would not worry about, but is he going to get punched in the neck? We are, we are,
17:50I don't know that Cook had fumble issues before the last two seasons. Let me pull up his fumbles
17:54by year. I know he fumbled his first NFL carry, which, you know, that was, that was problematic,
17:58but the bills had Devin Singletary who led the league in fumbles, right? Through his first
18:05three seasons. There you go. Through his first three seasons, James Cook had six fumbles.
18:11That's two a year. That's not that many. Last year, he had six in the year. And this year he
18:15has four.
18:16He's on pace to, well, outpace those fumbles. But fumbles by year, it's not like Cook has been a
18:24consistent problem fumbler. 2022, it's only 89 attempts, one fumble. His first. The first carry
18:32of his career. 2023, four fumbles on 237. The next year, one fumble on 207. And from there,
18:42it's 10 fumbles in his last 400 carries. So in his first 400 carries, he had six. In his last
18:50400
18:50carries, roughly, he has 10. So maybe it's about him. Maybe it's about him with the new peanut punch
19:00landscape. That's a part of it. But I will, when we come back, let's get that Joe Brady comment on,
19:06on, sorry, Cook's fumbles. Long answer. And I was telling you, the guy I'm listening to is just
19:11killing Brady for being out of touch and having the wrong message about a star player fumbling.
19:17We'll play that for you. Get more of your calls here. Joe Marino, 7 o'clock on WTR.