- 30 minutes ago
Jeremy White is joined by Buffalo Bills beat reporter Sal Capaccio to recap what we’ve learned about the Bills injuries and what we saw at practice as the Bills prepare to face the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday afternoon. The guys start by sharing what we know about the injury report as both DJ Moore and Ed Oliver did not practice. They also analyze the issues in the defensive secondary, and how they should attack improving that side of the ball.
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00:03we go to california home of the ant eaters to talk to mr sal capaccio the bill's practicing
00:10at uc irvine and sal joins us bright and early from uh you how close to uc irvine are you
00:17sal
00:18well i'm in irvine it took me it takes me i think it's about a 16 17 minute drive
00:23to the campus from where i'm staying all right very good have you picked up any ant eaters gear
00:29no you know what that's that's that's good i should do that i should do that um it's cool like
00:33that's a
00:33cool name right come on that's a cool name for sure i but every when you get on the campus
00:38though
00:38you know you see the home of the ant eaters and i tweeted out a plaque yesterday that's you know
00:42inside the center where the bills are doing their media which is kind of like a little bit of a
00:48foyer of a gymnasium i don't know which i want to how you want to say it or call it
00:51what did it say
00:52here i gotta see if i can find it okay here we go ready warning you're entering this is like
00:57when
00:57you're in the gymnasium you're ready to go play them right yeah warning you are entering the ant
01:01eater's cave the ant eater is a shy and retiring beast utterly inoffensive but when attacked it
01:07will fight to the death to defend its honor i love it very good their cat that is the that
01:13is the
01:13intimidation factor of the ant eater i've learned a lot i'm i'm in a website right here that says the
01:17ant eater was suggested as a mascot in 1965 and shortly thereafter there was a tagline zot that's what
01:24they say that's their battle cry their battle cry is okay from a comic strip i don't know whatever
01:29but it's um it's an ant eater but weather beautiful you guys are there until when heading to vegas on
01:34saturday i mentioned just a short short trip from there so well the t the bills from my understanding
01:40will will head to vegas on saturday before they you know play on sunday yes um you know a lot
01:44of us
01:44in the media will be there you know by by saturday um so i'll see you there maybe on saturday
01:50this
01:50weekend yes um but yeah that that the team will still practice here today and tomorrow before
01:56heading over there this weekend yeah all right so take us through practice what we saw at practice
02:01we can get to the injury report as well the barns firm injury report as uh we break down what
02:05the
02:05bills might expect to do coming into this week from an injury standpoint and the injury report is
02:09brought to you by the barns firm if you've been injured in a car crash in a crash call the
02:13barns
02:13firm one eight hundred eight million no dj more no ed oliver it's again sales time of year a lengthy
02:20injury list but it looks worse than maybe it is yeah so from what we saw only them walking off
02:28the
02:28field it was a walkthrough so there was no media availability to actually watch the practice uh so
02:33you know this is typical after a monday night game the wednesday practice is a walkthrough because you
02:38want to get the guy's legs back under them so what the media actually saw were guys walking off the
02:42field and then i saw maybe about i don't know 30 40 yards away a bunch of students going josh
02:48allen
02:49josh you know trying to look over there and they couldn't get close enough but that was pretty cool
02:52um somebody said to me imagine being on that campus and like josh allen's just walking around your
02:56campus i'm like i know like it's not like he's just walking around but you know if you get a
03:00chance
03:01to do that so they're screaming his name we were able to you know obviously then get some interviews
03:05and then we got the injury report so let's talk about that a little bit you're right um a couple
03:09notable
03:10things here dj moore and ed oliver both non-participants but let's remember this is an
03:14estimation jeremy because it was a walkthrough right we don't know you know we'll see today
03:18today will be the bigger day obviously for both these guys but very good news that d alford was
03:22able to be limited they did not put him on ir last week so you know i would say that
03:26that's you know a
03:27good trend for him and i think for for that the fact that they did not keep anthony kendall on
03:33the 53
03:34man roster and they released him and signed him back to the practice squad is also an indication
03:38maybe that d alford is looking a lot better for this week so we'll see where that takes him big
03:42one is spencer brown spencer brown left the game with a back injury i spoke with spencer i tweeted
03:47out exactly what he said essentially he said he was sick last week he was taking ivs then he had
03:52the
03:52long plane ride and he said it really just was his back his nervous system his muscular system just
03:57kind of freaked out is the way he put it he said but he feels good uh the the imaging
04:02the disc
04:02imaging the mri everything came back and then he said even better than last year he said so he's
04:06feeling really good about it they have a good plan for him with the trainers and he's he's confident
04:09he's going to play this week and he was listed as limited so was joshua palmer so was the one
04:15i'm
04:16going to watch today is ty johnson because it says hamstring limited nothing happened in the game
04:22i'm i mean i i'm going to assume here that you know this is just something that he's dealing with
04:27but
04:27it is possible something happened yesterday so we'll find out today obviously and keep an eye on that
04:31all right so we have another week where joe brady he is the not concerned i like how we're playing
04:39and jim leonard is the something has to change i thought that was a strong way for leonard to say
04:46it this week that something has to change defensively because he also was the other thing he said we have
04:51to get good at something yeah it's time for us to be good at something yeah like that's a pretty
04:55strong
04:56statement from your defensive coordinator they are kind of good at stopping the run they are decent at
05:00pressuring the passer so like there are things we could highlight but for the defensive coordinator
05:04to flat out say it's time to be good at something i thought was pretty noticeable yeah and i i've
05:10said
05:10for a while i really appreciate jim leonard's candor i mean i think he's been like that since he got
05:14the
05:14job now his candor hasn't translated into you know improvement necessarily they're still giving up too
05:20many yards they're giving up too many points but it's not like he doesn't recognize it right i mean
05:23that's what you want first is you don't want someone to say oh everything's great now look at
05:27i think joe brady his nature is to just take a lot of blame and deflection and you know from
05:34other
05:34people and protect guys protect his coaches protect his players um everything on the offensive side
05:39they are leading the league in points scored but he's still going to tell you oh things got to get
05:43better right well you know we're gonna have to do better there but the reality is on the defensive
05:48side that's where they have to improve right now um and jim leonard is in charge of that side and
05:52he's the one saying you know we we have to be good at something and then he also basically indicated
05:58that you know changes have to be made if that's not the case what else did he say his other
06:03his
06:03other quote a couple days ago it's basically he said we can't pretend that we are improving um wow
06:10you know that yeah yeah right and i and i i just find it interesting that you know he says
06:15things like
06:16this so i wish i could grab that quote but anyway that's the point and i i don't know what
06:21the answer
06:21is right now and let's remember they have a bye this coming week so if they don't believe that
06:29you know they are maybe this week isn't the week after six days that something drastic changes
06:35but if it's not improvement it doesn't have to be score right don't confuse i don't think jim
06:40leonard will do this jeremy i don't think jim leonard is going to confuse scoring points with improvement
06:45or how well they're playing if they allow 20 points they may still feel oh my god we're still not
06:51doing what we need to do looking at the film i just think that it might be if after this
06:56week
06:56when anything really changes because that's when you typically do that when you have two weeks to
07:00do something like that yeah so something's got to change you know you've got fans wondering about
07:06linebacker if there could be something in the mix there joe bready spoke at length about
07:09shaq thompson what he brings as a veteran caleb e alarms or is also someone that you know had a
07:16somewhat impressive offseason if possible like whatever people noticed him and then i kind of
07:20get to safety where cj gardner johnson like he's on a one-year 3.5 million dollar deal do they
07:25think
07:25that maybe that's not working the way they thought it would because it's um it's definitely in the
07:30secondary they have to find a way to get better at defending the pass well let's start with the
07:36the safety part of it i don't know you know what they feel about cj gardner johnson i i don't
07:41think
07:41he's necessarily been a problem but he's part of the overall problem right because he's he's out
07:45there i guess the question you have to ask though jeremy is who's better you can't fix that one
07:51internally right what who are you gonna put at safety are you gonna replace cj gardner johnson
07:55with jalen kilgore i mean that's just you know obviously i don't think a smart idea um you would
08:01have to go outside the organization and maybe that's what they do ultimately at defensive back
08:07to go outside the organization at corner would be really interesting because they have two young
08:13players they invested a first and second round pick in the last two years and opposite them a
08:17player they just paid a lot of money to a couple years ago so that one to me is a
08:21lot more tricky
08:22safety you could do it but i think that they kind of feel like you know they really like having
08:28cj
08:28gardner johnson for everything he brings i would like to see i wonder what the internal thought is of
08:33why cole bishop hasn't maybe taken that step i'm not telling you he's been necessarily bad or the
08:38problem again but again it's the overall piece of it where he was expected to take another step and
08:44that clearly hasn't happened and the secondary is struggling and you need all these guys to play
08:48better i go more to linebacker now you as we sit here today um on october 15th and you say
08:55to me
08:56where do you think they could really stand to improve to look at the trading deadline
09:01i look more at linebacker than i do at corner or safety and again it's not because i think that
09:08corner or safety aren't like doing great like they're doing great that's not the reason i just look
09:14at what they have on the roster what they feel about things and how this team probably needs to
09:20improve i think they need better linebacker play and i could see it an easier get an easier
09:26transition an easier move for them to move off of someone at linebacker and replace them
09:31than it could be in the secondary so capaccio joining us on the western hotline what have you
09:37learned about the raiders this week sal they're they're they're not the old raiders right clean
09:41kubiak's i think done a pretty nice job and their injury report has a lot of names on it as
09:45well
09:46and while there's no number one receiver it's it's it's really brock bowers right here's the he's
09:50their number one weapon can they slow him down can they have a plan for him um and kirk cousins
09:56is
09:56what can i say he's of the matthew stafford mold he's not going to run and he can throw the
10:01ball a
10:01little bit he's not nearly as good as stafford but um it looks like an opponent to be taken
10:06seriously where in years past of course the raiders have not been that yeah so good uh good way to
10:12plug
10:12i'd had vinnie bond senior on always game name buffalo uh obviously you know matt bovay congratulations
10:17to him and andrea they had uh their daughter and so matt you know is taking a little time away
10:22and
10:23so you know he's not out here covering the team or doing the pod so i did that with vinnie
10:27bond senior
10:27vinnie covers the raiders and does a really good job and i had him on always game day in buffalo
10:32so
10:32people want to like listen to a good you know 25 minutes on the raiders and all the big picture
10:36and
10:36small picture stuff i really encourage you but i'll summarize summarize a couple things he said here
10:42um the biggest thing with the raiders is you're right jeremy they're playing better
10:45they might be a tiny bit ahead of schedule you know in his words basically but at the same time
10:50maybe they played a little over their heads the first three weeks and they're coming back down
10:53to earth so i think at the at the end of the day at the end of the season they're
10:56probably in a
10:57situation where hey we were okay and guess what the way he put it this is funny they have this
11:01big
11:02christmas gift under the tree they don't they don't know what's in it yet but it's really exciting
11:05and that's fernando mendoza right when do you open it you know the big gift under the tree like
11:09oh baby when do we get to that thing we don't have to open it yet we don't we can
11:12leave it there
11:13but when we open it how good is it going to be for us how cool is it going to
11:16be and i think that
11:17that's where they're kind of living right now as a fan base and um you know whenever that happens
11:23it's going to be interesting now they won their first three they lost the last two they are having
11:27trouble running the football he said they can't run the ball and they can't really stop the run um
11:33so that's been an issue for them um and you know that to me you know ashton jenty the player
11:39he was
11:40coming out of college had some nice moments last year he had that ankle injury that's a big one
11:44for them right now that that injury to ashton jenty is kind of they've talked about sitting him they
11:49haven't done that he was a full participant at practice yesterday he's going to play again this
11:52week he's got that ankle injury but that's been a big issue for them and then they don't have anybody
11:57as you mentioned to compliment brock bowers on the outside brock bowers is amazing and you know
12:04they're going to keep feeding him all day they don't really have any receivers to compliment him to take
12:08to take anything off of him so capaccio ahead of bills raiders we'll learn a little more today
12:15right i mean today is uh thursday so um you know practice you mentioned it was a virtual practice
12:21yesterday so today maybe a little bit more information to come as we uh gear up for bills
12:25raiders sunday from vegas thanks sal all right you got it man so capaccio live from irvine uc irvine
12:33is where the bill's been practicing
12:33you