- 15 minutes ago
Jeremy White and Joe DiBiase kick are joined by Buffalo Bills beat reporter Sal Capaccio to get his thoughts on the Bills big deadline move, acquiring Titans S Amani Hooker. Sal spends some time explaining why he thinks it’s a savvy move, citing his long-term contract, veteran status while not being too old, and his fit with Cole Bishop. They also spend some time discussing why it makes sense for the Bills to make buy-in trades.
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00:01wrapping up the bill uh the bill's trade deadline acquiring a money hooker from the
00:06titans in exchange for a uh second round pick it's a second of the titans for a money hooker
00:11and a fifth that's a pick slide which is very very uh popular these days among gms the bills
00:16did that for rasul douglas way back when a lot of the trades in the draft end up being trades
00:21down to trade up it feels like the pick slide is the move sound this nets about a mid-third
00:26is the uh value chart on this one for a money hooker good morning you were there yesterday
00:32with brandon bean as uh he addressed the media and had a new player to talk about and i think
00:37sell the consensus is this is a nice move because it's a position of need like if they say self
00:43they
00:43signed this player in free agency we'd all say okay that makes total sense and instead of that they get
00:48him for a second round pick yeah good morning guys um and you know the value chart as you say
00:53mid-third
00:53so if these two teams and they will both pick roughly in the same spot next year as they did
00:58this past year i mean obviously bills fans hope it's 32 uh but they'll be roughly the bills will
01:03be at the end of the round somewhere titans will be at the beginning of the round somewhere if you
01:06did it just like that um donuts for donuts here you'd have 62 for 144 on the pick swap the
01:14bills would
01:14give up 62 they'd get back 144 which is about you know 82 spots i guess um so yeah i
01:21mean that that's
01:21if you want to put some context and you can look at that however you want now that said
01:25you you're right jeremy you could go sign this guy in free agency i'll look at it even in a
01:29different way and say this actually takes care of a spot in the draft next year you were probably
01:33going to target pretty early yeah i mean let's just kind of take holistically what this team looks
01:37like looks like where their contracts stand going into next year everybody in the offense is still
01:43locked up next year uh other than alec anderson i believe on the offensive line i mean you could
01:47take a guard the second round probably not you're going to probably concentrate on defense
01:52and given what the secondary looks like safety would be the number one need if you put on a
01:55board right now well guess what that could be an early pick now you don't have to do that this
01:59guy's under contract he's 28 he's under contract for the rest of this year and two more years so
02:04the second round pick they just gave up could very well have been used to take a safety next year
02:08now obviously that would be a rookie contract but i do think it matters here because you're still
02:12talking about a team in the window to try to win so short term you get a very impactful player
02:18that's
02:19needed right now in this defense long term satisfies an area where you are probably going into next year
02:25looking to improve anyway and to me represents true investment sal like this position if we go back
02:31just you know 14 months ago it was who's going to play next to cole bishop whether it's taylor rapp
02:37or
02:37damar hamlin or whatever mike edwards right and cj gardner johnson's another little bit of a lottery
02:43ticket one year three million whatever it was now they got as joe pointed out the 14th highest paid
02:49safety in the league this is a guy that he's a pro he plays the position and it's no longer
02:53a band-aid
02:54he's kind of part of your defensive identity at this point he is the league leader in interceptions
02:59the bills the bills have the uh second most sacks guy in the league right now and greg rousseau and
03:07the interceptions leader in the nfl now three were in one game but they all count and that's against
03:11joe burrow he also had five interceptions two years ago none last year he is 10 he has 10 interceptions
03:18since 2024 which i believe i did it yesterday i tweeted out i think it's fourth or fifth in the
03:23entire nfl
03:23over that time cj gardner johnson has nine interceptions since 2024 he's right below that
03:29and that's to me where this really kind of comes together which is you know anybody who's listened
03:36to it's always game day in buffalo matt and i would really go over this position a lot and as
03:41much as i
03:42like buddha baker as a football player imani hooker is the guy that i felt was the best fit for
03:46this
03:46defense because to me buddha baker is kind of redundancy with cole bishop you have a guy that yeah
03:51they're both versatile you can put him in the box but he's not a true center field safety the bills
03:55needed a true center field safety they needed a coverage guy a guy that can allow cole bishop to
04:00move around a little bit more and that's what imani hooker always represented to me and he does
04:05he can play the nickel there's no doubt he can come up he can you know play a little bit
04:08lower if you
04:08want he can get involved in the run game but that's not really his game his game is much more
04:13what cj
04:14gardner johnson was this is a cj gardner johnson replacement essentially for what you thought you were
04:18getting and it fits right into the defense and allows the bills to kind of continue the vision
04:23of what jim leonard wanted for his defense so yeah i mean look derwin james kyle hamilton if
04:28you want to pie in the sky and those kind of guys sure even buddha baker would have been fine
04:32here
04:32but i always liked hooker for this i liked hooker for give me the guy that they need in this
04:38defense
04:38to allow them to do what jim leonard's wanted them to do and then especially since cj gardner johnson
04:42didn't work out and everyone seems to think sal that this is the the right type of player
04:47and safety to pair with cole bishop for sure exactly again i mean he just it's not about like
04:55you can always get good football players everybody wants that there's no doubt and again buddha baker
04:58is a really good football player and if anybody believes the the reporting that was out there
05:02last night that they made a big push and there's some reporting today saying that it was really more
05:06hooker than anything i mean whatever it is you could put him on any team buddha baker he can play
05:11my team any day but if you want it to fit to actually go along with the pairing you know
05:16and i did
05:16this podcast last night with jordan poyer and he was talking about that's why him and micah were so
05:20good together he said there were things that micah just did better than me and there were things that
05:24i did better than him and you could just pair us up and put us in certain situations where we
05:29can play
05:29to our strengths and that to me is what this represents with amani hooker so you know i i think
05:35it's a good deal for the bills um i'm not i'm not concerned about the compensation again i think you
05:39know we know that the bills are trying to you know win a lombardi trophy so you know giving up
05:44a
05:44second round pick here is is completely worth trying to do that right and it's it's not a
05:48rental i mean the bears trade of jeffrey simmons is is not a rental the jaguars for jordan davis
05:53is not a rental jesse bates probably is but you know you've got you've got term on these deals
05:58you know sell and thinking about jim leonard here and this defense and the work in progress that it is
06:03that that's really you know the fit him with cole bishop there's what you want to do and what you
06:10feel
06:10like you can do and as jim leonard has talked about his defense being a work in progress and
06:15over the course of the first five six games he seemed like he knew he had his work cut out
06:20for
06:21him the last couple games have gone well and you know i don't think it's a stretch to say it's
06:25trending up while also acknowledging they haven't had a big test yet but they'll get those tests i mean
06:31those are coming when it's kansas city new england green bay chicago denver in a five game stretch
06:37like that's the next stage of okay what does this team really have in this group yeah and i would
06:44even say this week is a step up in quarterback uh opposition right i mean you think about what
06:49they they've had the last couple of weeks with joe fagnano and then you know i'm sorry carson
06:53wentz last week um i think geno smith you know he could still sling the ball and he's got some
06:57good
06:58receivers and i know that garrett wilson was out last week and they have issues you know on offense and
07:03coaching and things like that but you know the the this is not a uh terrible jets offense you know
07:07they they make their own mistakes but the point is jeremy you're right um they're going to be much
07:12more tested coming up and of course then you get to patrick mahomes and you get to jordan love then
07:18you get to caleb williams and as you're getting there you're getting better at what you do and again
07:24as i've said the last couple of weeks 100 you can acknowledge they have not played the best
07:30quarterbacks we know that but all you can do is control your own play and you still have to be
07:35where you're supposed to be you still have to communicate properly you still have to make a
07:40play when it comes towards you make a tackle knock down a ball make an interception like you still
07:46have to do those things and i don't think and just being around like nfl football players no one i
07:53could tell you i'm not going down there today on a wednesday talking to players they're like ah we fixed
07:57everything it's all good we can just walk on the field they're not like that they understand that
08:01it doesn't matter who they're playing every week they have a challenge in front of them and they
08:05have to continue to get better geno smith this week is kyle mccord a part of that test for you
08:10hey guys wear the serfuse hat on purpose tell joe to respect kyle mccord it's been three teams come
08:16on he slings it he can sling it he slings it respect kyle mccord team in 10 months he slings
08:24it i think
08:24the bills listen i think the only missed opportunity this deadline was not going to get
08:27kyle mccord as your backup right go get by the way how how quickly do we have any indication
08:33say i mean really we just look at past yeah yeah examples right of like how quickly hooker could get
08:37in i saw pointed out that rasul douglas played immediately but that's corner you get a pick in
08:44his first game i feel like douglas right away showed up and made plays you know i think you might
08:48you think you're right about that um amari cooper showed up and played week one but maybe like
08:53communication's been talked about i feel like every week with this defense this year so i don't
08:57know like well go ahead i i it's okay i think it's a really good question and we kind of
09:02talked a
09:03little bit about that with brandon bean yesterday but he said it's more of a question for joe joe
09:07brady and jim leonard you know they'll they'll dig into that and and see i would say this i would
09:12expect him to be active i don't know about starting i don't know about playing right away but be active
09:16and you know you could put him in if you're if you're in a third and long hey imani go
09:21play the
09:21deep half like he can do that right he becomes a bit of an eraser on that half if you
09:24want or
09:25right you know i guess you know he can he can try to play that role so i think that
09:28that can happen
09:29and then as you go forward here over the next couple of weeks he gets a little more acclimated
09:35excuse me and then you play this other you know tough stretch you know one thing that's going to help
09:41is he already prepared and played the jets this year like he knows he he he can just go back
09:46to
09:46oh yeah i i'm i'm good i'm playing the jets i just did this in week one yeah i prepared
09:51for their
09:52offense i saw them and then did they play that did they play miami already do they play miami uh
09:58not
09:58that i have they don't play miami right okay i don't think so i think that's a crossover i don't
10:02think
10:02so yeah um the other thing is too i was thinking about i'm not saying you make the deal for
10:06this reason
10:08i mean if you play the bangles in the playoffs he has played the bangles they had three
10:12interceptions if you play the jags in the playoffs he went twice last year he didn't play in one game
10:17but he's prepared twice for a liam cohen jaguars offense twice already in his career i mean like
10:23little things like this can add up and be little margins so joe i mean to your question of can
10:28he come
10:29in and play he just had a bye week he's probably fresh comes in fits in um already played this
10:36team i
10:36would not rule out at all that him him being on the field sunday so capaccio on the western hotline
10:44all right so thank you we'll chat uh tomorrow we'll you know get closer and closer uh injury
10:49designations all that players to watch deon dawkins alec anderson and deon by the way we all you guys
10:56know i mean there was a uh restructure on that to make it happen there was some confusion i think
11:01on
11:01how that had to play out it did happen yesterday if you're going to trade the player that had to
11:05be
11:05done by monday at four the bills had till yesterday or anybody to restructure anybody who's staying on
11:10your team to create room that's what they did my understanding it's not an extension it's just
11:15moving base salary uh over to a bonus which increases his number next year and his dead
11:21number next year which increases his chances to still be on the team if anybody was wondering if
11:25there was a question about that as he went into a contract we've also seen pointed out they could
11:28have created 5.6 million but they didn't necessarily need to use all of it like you that is correct
11:34that's a good point so he had about 15 million base so what about 8 million left on it right
11:40whatever was left on that they could have taken whatever they needed to convert it didn't have
11:44to be the whole thing so you're right about that show yes right thanks al you got it guys we'll
11:48talk
11:48with sell tomorrow injury designation see how things go jeremy and joe when we get back uh
11:54oh top of the hour doing bell nap heating hot and cold yeah there's a crazy new trade report from
12:00the giants i i was just gonna mention that all right we'll do that we had a couple team
12:05reports of this amazing player got asked about yeah well good deal this is where you give the gm
12:12credit for asking hey can't hurt to ask what would your well never mind the bills of james cook
12:18never mind right now for bchon wouldn't have worked 803 05 50 nwgr
12:23you