And welcome back to the Buffalo Bread podcast. I'm your host, Dan Roberts, filling in for
JJ today is our friend of the pod, not friend of the bills, our noted Patriots expert, Brandon
Bennett. JJ needed to take this week off. So we have Brandon filling in here. Brandon, as always,
it is great to have you back on the pod. Nothing I enjoy more than talking Buffalo
Bill's football with a noted New England Patriots fan. How are you doing today?
Good. For the listeners, I'm surrounded by folding tables where I am currently.
The folding tables are safe. I am protecting them. But I appreciate you having me back behind
enemy lines here. That's amazing. That's absolutely amazing. I am telling you,
you were born for Bill's mafia. If you are currently surrounded by folding tables,
and you have even the slightest urge to jump through them, you serve a rooting for the wrong
team. And I will take that to my grave. So what we're going to do here, folks, given how odd
the Buffalo Bill's opening season schedule of games has been with the Sunday Sunday 1pm game,
Thursday game, and now the Monday night game against Jacksonville, this is going to serve as a
post game for the Finns and the Bill's from Thursday night. And we're also given that we
have the opportunity with Brandon Bennett on the pod. We're going to talk a little bit about
Thursday night football and the AFC East implications of the upcoming matchup between
the surprisingly sprightly New England Patriots and the New York Jets. So then later on this week on
our normal pod drop date of Saturday, you're going to get our pregame of the Monday night game between
the Bill's and the Jaguars. So one more early week pod drop, and then by the end of the week,
we'll be back on our normal schedule of Saturday drops. Brandon, are you ready to enter the
table-laden Thunderdome that is Buffalo Bill's podcast talk? Let's do it.
All right. So I'm actually fascinated, Brandon, by your take on what you saw. You are, again,
a noted Patriots fan, goes without saying, guest hosted on the pod on a multitude of occasions.
But what we're seeing here early on in the season from the Buffalo Bill's,
I would think has to be a little bit surprising for casual fans of football in the AFC East,
and then more hardcore fans like you and I who are mired in the offseason data. We pay attention to
the rumor mill, we pay attention to the trade and personnel churn mill, and no one thought
the Buffalo Bill's would get off to this type of start in the season and the way that they have,
given the roster churn that they experienced. But on Thursday, and you could credit that it is
Sean McDermott facing an opponent that he just knows how to game plan against very, very well.
You could chalk it up to Josh Allen, who had a very efficient game, but not an outstanding game
against the Miami Dolphins. But that being an opponent that he really does not sweat playing
at the stage of his career. The emergence of James Cook, there are a ton of things, Brandon,
that you could point to for the reason why the Bill's dominated that game and the fashion that
they did. Lots of rational reasons. But I don't think it necessarily takes away the surprise
of seeing how dominant the Bill's have been in the first two weeks with back to back 30 point
games and a defensive effort on Thursday that was impressive, not just because of the quick turnaround
and the injuries that they're facing, but all of that piled on to the fact that they were playing
what has historically been over the last few years, a really, really explosive offense. Brandon,
why don't you take us in through the lens of an AFC East competitor? What did you see in that game
as a Patriots fan that has you potentially scared about playing the Bill's in the future,
but also maybe where you see some opportunities for the Patriots to move up now that it looks
like the Dolphins may be looking at a decline this season? Yeah, I think the interesting thing,
kind of the last two weeks, is that the Bill's won in week one in a very, very different fashion
than the Bill's won in week two. We saw in week one sort of what Bill fans have seen many, many
times before, which is Josh Allen putting everything on his back and throwing his body out there for
some insane highlight real-type plays. In week two with Miami, kind of a completely different game.
Challenge you a little bit in terms of performance, but I don't think Josh had to
overperform as he does sometimes in games. The defense, like you said, came up really big for
the Bill's in week two against Miami, three interceptions, which I think kind of sealed the
deal for that one. Not super efficient in the passing game, 68% completion rate for Josh.
Do you know what two of his completion rate was before the Confession?
Before the Confession, he was somewhere around like 63% for that game, wasn't he?
68%. So they're tied. Josh and Tua tied at 68%. How many rushing yards, or not rushing yards,
passing yards between Tua and Josh? Do you know the difference?
There wasn't much of a difference that game. I mean, total yards passing.
Tua had a bunch more attempts than Josh to that game. Josh only checked it up 19 times.
And then passing touchdowns for each quarterback.
Well, I know one, one and one. It was the first time in the last, it was the first time since
Josh started playing the Dolphins, I think that he hadn't thrown for two TDs. Yeah. Yeah, that was
a longstanding record. I will say this though, about the efficiency metrics offensively for this
game. The Bill's still targeted 10 different pass catchers on 19 different attempts. Shakir
and Kincaid were featured early and often, which I appreciated. This was a clear criticism that
JJ and I had coming out of the Arizona game and that game plan that they're your two playmakers,
they're your Yacht guys, get them the ball. I loved the schemed up touches for them early on.
And their catch rate for both of them was 100% on the targets that they received. I mean,
they were just vacuuming all the balls that they possibly could. And then James Cook, my friend,
is a absolute efficiency maven at this point. He had 12 total touches for 95 total yards,
three total TDs. His rush yards after contact, absolutely absurd. 68 rush yards came after contact
out of his 70 plus total rush yards for that game. I mean, this offense, while not spectacular,
to your point that you made earlier on, was finding a new way to win, was finding a different way
to overcome some obstacles the opposing defense was throwing at them. And I think for me, that's
the most surprising part is a Bill's fan Brandon. And if I were an AFC East opponent, the most
scary part is that despite the roster churn, the Bill seemed to have a multitude of different ways,
despite the turnover and despite the injury to beat incoming teams. Now granted, it's week two,
and you don't want to overrate. And the bills have been here before. I will remind our listeners,
and I'll remind you Brandon, probably much to your delight, that the bills were in this very
same place last year. After the Miami Dolphins hung 70 on the Denver Broncos in week three,
Buffalo lambasted them in week four, to the point where there were ESPN articles that were
incredibly written that said the bills would go 15 and two for the rest of the season after that
performance against the best offense we had ever seen in our time. They then lay an egg in London
against Jacksonville, who coincidentally is the next opponent they'll face on Monday. And that
leads them into a three and five stretch over the next eight weeks, where people were literally
calling for McDermott and Bean to be fired. So things can turn very quickly. But again,
again, going back to your early earlier point, the bills seem to have multiple gears and multiple
levers they can flip to win games this season. And that's something I don't think anybody expected
based on the off season they had. Yeah, Cook is very special. As you know, from our conversations,
not on a podcast. Cook has been a target of mind and fantasy football for the last couple of years,
just because of how they work them into the passing game. Again, yards after contact,
how many opportunities and touches he gets his ability to, for the most part, stay very healthy
with a very heavy workload. So yeah, I fantasy wise, very pleased with James Cook's performance.
He is literally the reason why I think our friendship is so strong during football season.
We have this one commonality that we can root for you root for James Cook and fantasy, I root for
him in real life. And that keeps our bonds of friendship and brotherhood very strong, sir,
very, very strong indeed. All right, let's dig into this game a little bit more, we've already
talked a little bit about the offense of offensive efficiency. And again, while not a spectacular
game for the offense, one, I think that to me at least turned my head when I was really digging
into some of the advanced metrics on this. Again, we talked about concaid, we talked about Shakir,
their efficiency in catching the ball, the different targets that they were able to spread
around the field, the use of James Cook in the run game. And here's the thing that really popped
off the screen to me, Brandon, Cook's overall speed. He's always been a smooth accelerator.
His first step when he chooses to make his first step is one of the quickest in the league. But
JJ and I earlier in the seat earlier this season had talked about ironically, which running back
room would you rather have Miami, or Buffalo's and JJ convinced me to take Miami's because of
the raw speed. Last season, James Cook didn't have a single run over 20 miles an hour, whereas
Devon H and had nine. And that raw speed makes an absolute difference in the game regardless of
how good your run scheme is. But Brandon, James Cook hit 20 miles an hour on a carry this week.
And that is speed I have not seen from him yet. It was that long touchdown run he had where Poir
took the bad angle and ended up chasing him down the field, hit 21 miles an hour on that run. One
of the fastest runs here early in this season for a running back carry. Brandon, if Cook's speed
continues to develop and continues to grow in that way, to me, that's a scary element for two
reasons, the traditional run game, which Brady is screeming up so well. But also what it means for
him as a pass catcher out of the backfield, because he leaks out so effortlessly on a lot
of these schemed up touches from Brady in the past game, case in point that fourth and three that
he scampered into the end zone for a touchdown. No one around him. Great play scheming by Brady,
but you add that scheming to just raw speed and athletic ability. There's not a lot of
defenses that are going to touch that. So let me ask you, as a fantasy owner of James Cook,
how excited are you that it looks like he is in fact faster than he was last season?
Yeah, very exciting. I mean, he's 198 yards on the season. And so if he keeps that pace,
I mean, it's going to be phenomenal for you all as Bill's fans, but also for me as a fantasy
manager of James Cook. No, it's very exciting. A chance exciting too. And, you know, he had a lot
of yards in that game as well. But yeah, I think this is going to be a strong year for James Cook,
which you had to have known kind of going into it with so many new faces in that offense.
We haven't really seen Keon Coleman get super involved yet. And so, you know, I think
time will tell. But the team was going to have to rely on the returner who came back this season
in James Cook. And he's really leading the way. Yeah. And it's not like the Dolphins Brandon
weren't trying to stop him. Last season, James Cook only faced a stacked box, which is eight or
more guys in the box about 20% of the time against Miami that almost double 36% of the run looks he
faced were against a stacked box. And there was nothing Miami could do to stop him in those
particular situations. He had a success rate of 50.4% and overall yards per carry against a stacked
box 7.1 yards a carry. Now, a lot of that is due to James Cook, but also a shout out to the offensive
line that I feel like as we progress here, I become more and more wrong about and my early,
early offseason takes that the bills had maybe their biggest strength from last season. They
had decimated it by choice. And Aaron Kroemer, we trust my friend, like the way this offensive line
is playing the guard pole schemes that they're running duo dark, all of that stuff that Joe Brady
is getting into his bag with is effective almost every single time. And when I look at the AFC East,
because you guys starts with winning your division. And even when I look beyond at a team like
Cincinnati, who people think is going to be an AFC contender, Kansas City, no one is built to stop
the run. And it's a super bad sign if the bills are doing this against stacked boxes. Because that
means eventually, as this offense continues to grow and mesh, they're going to start taking some of
those open field shots down the field and really bring back the deep ball game here. So there are
layers that I look forward to seeing this bill's offense add on. But I am hesitant, hesitant to
say for sure that the bills are in the catbird seat at this point in the AFC East, because there's
still a lot of football to play. And we've been here as bills bands before. But this is all very
optimistic. Brandon, you brought up a Chan, which I think is a great opportunity to switch over to
the defensive side of the ball, which I think you and I can both agree. That's where the bills
won this game. A Jomarcus Ingram coming out party credit to Brandon Bean and Sean McDermott,
they just seem to find these undrafted free agents, these late round draft picks, Cam Lewis being
another one in the secondary that they develop over and over and over again. It has really become
cornerback university at Buffalo, add to the fact that Bernard goes down in this game and you get
Balanspector coming in, playing meaningful snaps and playing meaningful football against a really
good offense and really locking down his area of the field. And I don't think you could be happier
with what you saw from the depth pieces on this defense. But listen, man, this thing was one and
lost in the trenches. I mentioned that stacked stacked box metric to you, Brandon. What type of,
now we all know, Devon HN is going to run the ball. We know Miami wants to run the ball to set
up what they want to do downfield. Knowing this, and knowing James Cook faced a stacked box on
36% of his rushes. What do you think is the percentage of stacked boxes that the Buffalo
bills threw at Devon HN? You're really testing me here. 45? 9%. Okay. 9%. Even without Taryn
Johnson, even after Terrell Bernard went down, this was a team that was committed to too high
coverage on almost every snap on 72% of their total snap call, snap share. The Buffalo bills were in
too high coverage. They welcomed the run. And while the total yardage for HN looked great at the end
of the game, his advanced metrics weren't that great. Not only did he fail to really take advantage
of these light boxes, his rush yards over expected per attempt were a minus 1.2 yards.
He only had a success rate brain in a 40%. Again, against light boxes, where the Buffalo bills were
playing their backup linebackers, a backup nickel corner in their base nickel package, and still,
still, were able to really mitigate it. So basically, on EPA per rush, every time HN touched
the ball in a traditional run, it was a win for the Buffalo bills in the overall metric,
because it was chewing up clock. Tua could never get into a rhythm in the passing game,
because the bills were giving him so many tasty looks in the run game. And there was never any
fluidity. And there was never any consistency to that offensive game. Add to the fact that the
bills were just dropping everybody into coverage, their blitz rate against Tua, only 4.7%.
They dropped everybody back, and they were like, we're going to close down these anticipatory
windows. And best of luck to you in trying to figure that out. It was just, it was a,
I don't often say this about McDermott and Brandon, I don't think Bill's fans often say it about
McDermott, but he outcoached Mike McDaniel on that game. The scheme him and Babbage ran
against this vaunted Miami Dolphins offense was just supremely tailored, supremely tailored.
To all of the weaknesses that this Miami Dolphins team brings to bear. And it was a master class.
It was an absolute master class. What do you think from your view?
Yeah, I mean, do you think there's an element of the players coming into this game with just
sort of free built confidence because of the record that they have against Miami since Sean
McDermott came in. The number I'm seeing is 14 wins to two losses against Miami. So coming in
is it already the expectation that the bills are going to walk away with a win because they've done
it so many times and then the players get kind of juiced from that? That's a great question. I
mean, that kind of success, you don't see divisional records like that. Often, ironically,
your pets hold one over the bills and the Tom Brady era, I think he was like, what?
36 and three against the bills in his career. Frick Tom Brady, hate that guy. Anyway,
glad he sucks at announcing football right now. That gives me hope that he is, in fact, human.
But I mean, complacency can kind of set in there. I do think that's a factor,
but you also got to keep in mind what Flores was doing when McDermott first took over the team,
what Flores was doing in Miami versus what McDaniel was doing, two very, very different styles of
coaching, two very different schemes offensively and defensively. To be able to have that kind of
success, no matter who the coach is, no matter who the quarterback is, I think confidence plays a
role, but I think coaching and scheme plays even more of a role. And to me, that was on full display
in this game for sure. Yeah, the other, you know, you brought the Patriots dynasty. Belichick was
38 and 11 against the Jets. And I just remember, you know, owned the gold year's opponents.
Yeah, right. But this is what great teams are supposed to do. They're supposed to own the people.
They play the most. That familiarity should breed some sort of consistency of success.
So, I mean, again, it was on on display for your Patriots during their, their dynastic run.
But here the bills also, this run that they've had against Miami, it's not just McDaniel again,
it extends into the Flores era as well. I mean, is really astounding. Now that being said, the
Pats tend to play them closer. I will never forget that the sole fourth quarter comeback
that Mac Jones ever led against any football team was against the Buffalo Bills last season
on that ridiculous touchdown throw to Mike Gisecchi, who is my least favorite tight end in the league,
Mr. Horrible Gritty himself, right? So, but this is the thing, right? As Bills fans, we sit here,
it laid it after moments like this being like the AFC East runs through us, but the Jets and the
Patriots play us a lot closer than the Dolphins do. So that overarching, that overarching dominance
throughout the division that you guys displayed in your dynasty is still something the Buffalo
Bills are not yet fully on that level. And I don't know that they're going to get there with the
roster construction and the injuries they've faced this season, especially playing you guys so late.
If we're at the speed up now in week two, we don't play you until what's our first game against
you guys is December 22. We get you guys two out of the last three weeks of the season week,
16 and week 18. Like, maybe Milano's back by then, maybe Johnson's back by then, or what's more
likely to happen is the Bills are going to be even more beat up and have to reach further into their
roster to find answers, right? But that's all stuff for down the road, man, because right now,
I think Bills fans, we want to live in the elation. And we want to hope that what happened last season
after we trounced Miami in our first first meeting doesn't ultimately repeat itself with a game against
Jacksonville coming up on Monday. So Brandon, I want to get your take here as an overall AFC East
fan. This was, I think in a lot of ways, a devastating loss for Miami. And I don't think it
can be understated. But a lot of preseason prognostication had the Miami Dolphins and the New
York and the New York Jets battling it out for first place in the AFC East with the assumption
that the Patriots would be bad and the Bills because of the roster churn would be abdicating
the throne after four straight division titles. But after two weeks, it looks like the Jets are
still finding their way. It looks like Miami is headed for a season from hell, especially now
with two are going on IR. So which means he will not be eligible to play for the next four weeks
at minimum at minimum. So this opens the door just to Creek for your New England Patriots.
But as an AFC East fan, what do you think this means for Miami? And what do you think it means
for a potential early ascendance for your beloved New England Patriots?
Yeah, so we're seeing this really interesting thing in the NFL right now where every month
there's a newest highest paid quarterback in the league, it seems like, with the recent
Dak Prescott bag of money. And let's not even talk about the amount of money that Daniel Jones
is raking in for whatever reason, it is just so difficult to find a quality week in week out
quarterback that's reliable. So teams are willing to go broke to pay for the right guy.
And as it pertains to Miami to what with their guy, right, they put all their chips in that basket
and Skyler Thompson is not going to get it done. They'll TBD is whether or not they are going to
assign somebody to come in a veteran there's been talk about Tom Brady coming out of retirement and
it all comes back to Brady. It's just the rumor. Well, I've got to especially it's Chris Collins
worth is calling the games. But yeah, you know, some of that's conjecture, right? All the calls
for two over to retire. That is, you know, we've seen this before. So I don't think, you know,
two is done for the season. I think he'll get cleared after concussion protocol. And then we'll
stand back out there. But and then we'll see what happens from there what the recovery looked like
if he's the same when he comes back. But it's going to be rough for them with Skyler Thompson
under center. I feel bad for stars like Tyree kill and HN and, you know, waddle and all that sort
of stuff. Just because they're going to have a rough time out there. So yeah, and it's hard to
see Brandon what their path forward is. Let's say and listen, there's been plenty of conjecture.
There's been plenty of like, sort of values casting people think, you know, what people think about
Tua's future and what he should do. I don't want to get into that. That's a decision that
is between him and his family. And I hope he is getting the right console. And he is going to
ultimately make the right decision about what's best for him and his. But until that gets resolved,
you've got a big cap number tied up in Tua. You just re up jail and Ramsey, you just re up Tyree kill,
and you just resign jail and waddle to his big second contract. There is there are significant
cap commitments on the offensive side of this ball. And on the defensive side, you've got decisions
you got to make about Javon Holland, Jalen Phillips, you wonder what type of room, given how much money
the dolphins have committed to a quarterback and two wide receivers, how much room they're going to
have to really improve this team should Tua come back. Because again, he is the foundation
that this offense rests on. Mike McDaniel went to bat for him in these contract negotiations and was
like, Tua is my guy, this offense runs the way that it runs because of him. But here we are,
and under Mike McDaniel and to a tongue of a loa, the Miami Dolphins are now one and 11 against
teams with a winning record. And they are only averaging 15 points a game this season at home.
Their first two games at home, where last season that number was nearly double at 29.2.
Now Tua going on the IR, all of these cap commitments. I think if you're a dolphins fan,
once you figure out the domino that is to fall with Tua's future, you really do need to ask yourself
where and how does this roster improve? It hasn't been through the draft, because of the limited
amount of draft picks that the the dolphins have had because of that tampering scheme with the
aforementioned Tom Brady. It all comes back to Tom still ruining AFC Easteams, even in retirement
at this point. It's unbelievable. But you got to wonder if last season wasn't the season that
could have stole one from the bills, stolen a division title, gotten a home game, as opposed to
having to go on the road and minus six degree weather in Kansas City. Last year, if you're a
dolphins fan, really does begin to feel in hindsight, like the year where the dolphins could have kind
of gotten their shot, gotten their home game, their division title, and maybe a deeper than
expected run into the postseason. It feels at this point again, we got what 16 more weeks of football
here. But it feels like Brandon, the dolphins missed their shot. Yeah, not their year.
Yeah, without a doubt. Let me tell you, Brandon, whose year it might be. And I would load this if
this was if this was the actually the case. You're New England Patriots. I want to wrap here by doing
something we don't often do outside of a bills game. I want to do a pregame chat with you of
about Thursday night football, Brandon, you are New England Patriots against the New York Jets.
Brandon, I want to kick it off by this. I've got a ton of metrics, a ton of stats,
and some burning questions I want to ask you. But first and foremost, are the Patriots good?
Take it away. The Patriots are amazing. No, I don't I don't think they're very good.
I think we are seeing the the new coach bump that teams get when there's a new coach. We've
talked about this before. We saw it in Vegas last season in the middle of the season for all
intents and purposes. They looked terrific. They got a new coach. Suddenly guys are willing to run
through a brick wall for that guy. And I think that's what we're seeing in New England. Definitely
an upset win in week one against Cincinnati since he does not look good. Jamar Chase is very clearly
unhappy there, which I think is a big source of their problems in the locker room. That's
translating to stuff on the field. And then we have this Seahawks game. It was a close one.
Went to overtime, you know, and the Patriots couldn't couldn't figure it out.
Huge game by Hunter Henry. He looked fantastic. I think if the Patriots are going to ask,
he's your best best catcher by a lot. 100%. You know, and I made a comment earlier about
Keon Coleman on the bills not being super involved. I don't know what's going on, but Pop Dogless
has not been super involved in the passing game for New England. So, you know, Remandry has been
doing a lot. He looks excellent. You know, I'd be actually curious if we were to do a stat
comparison between Remandry Stevenson and your James Book. Because I think, you know, they're
comparable in terms of last two weeks for the season. But yeah, I mean, they're going to have to
get the rookie Jalen Polk involved. They're going to have to get Pop Dogless involved. They're going
to have to keep being Hunter Henry the ball. And all of those were short passes for the most part,
right up the middle. And yeah, just a lot of efficiency there. But yeah, no, to your original
question, I don't think the Patriots are good. I don't think this is a winning season. I think
they're probably looking at seven wins. I think that's the feeling. So.
And yet, based on point differential, if the season were to end today, the New England Patriots
would be the six seed in the AFC playoffs. So there is always hope, my friend, there is always hope.
But let's break this down because listen, is a Bill's fan base, Bill's mafia, we have a we have
a keen interest in this game. Everyone has been saying the the Jets and the Dolphins are two top
opponents in challenging for the crown of the AFC East. And the Jets, you know, have looked different
this season. It's not just because they have a competent QB under center and Aaron Rodgers.
But the defenses look different here and in a bad way. Now granted, that was a rough matchup to
catch San Francisco week one in San Francisco, the way that they caught them. But there were
some troubling trends, I think, with this new New York defense Brandon, that JJ and I talked about
in the preseason, most specifically around their pass rush. Now, here's where I think you all have
an opportunity. Your offensive line by every metric is still not great in New England. It's
31st and pressure rate allowed. It's 32nd and pass block win rate. These are not best improvements
over last year. And you guys are still really banged up. You're just searching for depth literally
off the street for your offensive line, which is why when you're given the opportunity, you guys are
going to the quick game so much. The problem is percent doesn't have a lot of time to throw normally.
He's faced a pressure rate of 42% this season. So almost half his dropbacks, he is almost immediately
under pressure. So he's trying to buy as much time as he can. But the Jets Brandon, their defensive
line, this is a team that rushes for drop seven, pretty consistently, they're only 25th and pass
rush win rate. If there were a get right game for your offensive line, and I hesitate to go on record
with this, but I think I'm going to. It might be this game, Germain Johnson for the New York Jets,
now lost for the season. They've got Will McDonald, who's been doing some things for them off the edge.
But all of a sudden, a really deep defensive line unit that was the pride and the foundation of this
New York defense now looks really, really depleted. And frankly, that couldn't come at a better time
for you guys coming off of a short week after a really rough road game. Now you guys are at home
for this one too, aren't you? This is a home game in New England on Thursday. That sounds right.
Yeah. Okay. I can't remember. I'll check and I'll put the correct thing in the show notes.
But regardless, home or road, this could be a game where you guys get to figure some stuff out in
both the quick pass game and in the run game too. Brandon, what are some of your keys to victory here
if you're New England Patriots are going to pull it out on Thursday night?
Well, I think Raul Andreis Steven Finn is going to have another heavy workload in that game.
I think the Jets have shown that you can run against them. They still have a very strong corner,
the Jets do. So certainly, yeah, questions about the passing game. It's really hard to say.
I think the Patriots have an opportunity to be two in one. So yeah, we'll see. I do think the
Patriots are at the New Jersey Jets. It's a road game. Road game. I just looked it up.
So yeah, I agree. I think you guys are going to want to run the ball. They've been trying to work
the quick game with Berset, surprising advanced metric and quick game efficiency. You guys are
number three in the league after two weeks. The problem is, there's not a great amount of protection
for Berset. So he doesn't often, he isn't often able to get it out in under 2.5 seconds. I think
it's total time to throw this season is over three seconds, but it's usually because he's running for
his life trying to extend the play. But if you guys, yeah, if you guys can give him some protection,
I actually think your pop Douglas comment from earlier is because listen, Douglas is a speedster,
but he's not a great round runner still. He needs time to get separation and get open. I just think
his lack of involvement is because they don't trust him over the middle and the protection
isn't holding up long enough for them to use him in the deep passing game. That could potentially
change if you guys are going up against a depleted defensive unit in New Jersey. So Brandon,
let me start with this because I got some burning questions that I want to get to about your squad
for you. But before we get to that, who do you got on Thursday? Pats or Jets and why?
I have to take the Patriots. I don't think Aaron Rodgers is the same quarterback that he was
pre injury. I don't think he's been the same for a long time. Again, I think the best years are
behind him. And at this point, he's just cash in checks. So this is this is Breece Hall versus
Ramon Andre Stevenson, not Jacoby Brissette versus great Aaron Rodgers. And so there's going to be
a lot of check downs to the running back position. Probably a back and forth game. I don't see it
I don't see it being super high scoring. So I'll say Patriots 24 Jets 21 Patriots 24 Jets 21. I like
that. I like that. Yeah, these Thursday night games are always super weird, but I agree with you.
I think that running game travels and I listen, I don't know if it's because of their own offensive
line deficiencies, despite the improvements they made, or if it's because of Rodgers general health
right now as he recovers from his Achilles stare. But dude, they are they're dialing up the quick
game in New York. Like it's nobody's business. Roger's time to throw this season is very
to a like it's 2.26 seconds. They do not want him taking hits in the pocket for obvious reasons.
And Nathaniel Hackett is scheming up a lot of quick stuff to try to get the ball out of Roger's
hands as soon as possible after the snap. I mean, Garrett Wilson, Brandon has 10 receptions this year,
eight of them have come on a time to throw of under 2.5 seconds. That's great for the health of
Rodgers. But you've got a really dynamic weapon in Wilson that you're really just using as a
check down Charlie right now. His average depth of target is just under seven yards, seven yards
per catch. I mean, it almost feels like an underutilization of Wilson and his skill set to have
him inserted into the game plan in this way. But I don't think the Jets have a choice right now
based on what they're given a quarterback. Now that may change. Rodgers may get healthier as the
season goes on, may get more comfortable. We got to remember he didn't play football for almost a
calendar year. But right now, it looks like the Jets want to do anything but let Rodgers spend time
in the pocket and look for a deep shot down the field. Yeah, I just, you know, bring back the
game against Seattle this past weekend. The backup running back for Seattle, Zach Charbonnet,
he had like 100 rushing yards or something like that. And so Patriots and Jets have shown that
their defenses can be run on. So there's going to be a lot of rushing yards this game.
Old fashioned slobberknocker on Thursday night. That's what we want to see. But you got the
Pats pulling it out 24-21. All right, you are now on the internet forever with that take. We'll see
if it comes back to haunt you. Trust me, it almost always does. All right. So Brandon, before I let
you go, I just, I got a couple of quick hit questions I want to get to you because I don't
know when we're going to be back on the pod next. So we have mentioned kind of the offensive,
the offensive scheme that New England is running out there. And there's a lot of deficiencies on
this roster. But there have been a lot of fans clamoring to sit bursat because of the lack of
explosives in the New England offense and bring in the Prince who was promised Drake May into the
starting fold sooner rather than later. What do you need to see Brandon in order for Berset to
keep May on the sideline on Thursday? First of all, I love the Game of Thrones reference.
Prince, that was promised. That's a good one. I don't think it matters. The O line is not good
enough. Berset just needs to be healthy. As long as Berset stays healthy, I think he's going to
keep starting games. I think the plan is for Drake May to continue learning, right? I said in a
previous episode of this pod that I didn't think we'd see Drake May before week eight. So as long
as Berset continues to scramble and stay out of harm's way, get the ball quickly out of his hands,
I think the job is going to continue to be his. Boring, again, absolute disaster. So
yeah, we'll see. Yeah. And I agree with you. The rookie QBs that are currently starting,
Bonix, Jane Daniels, Caleb Williams, have exactly as many passing touchdowns combined as Drake May has
sitting, and that is zero. And this isn't always an ongoing debate with rookie QBs at this point in
the season. Be a stardom and give them the real game development, or do you sit them and allow
them to learn? And I think we've seen success going both ways. But I think CJ Stroud and his
coming out party last season as a rookie really kind of muddied the view of what rookie QB success
really looks like. Stephen Ruiz, who is one of my absolute favorite quarterback commentators,
quarterback evaluators, works for the ringer. Highly recommend looking at his QB rankings on a
weekly basis. You know, he was like, rookie quarterbacks by QBR are basically on average,
the 26th best quarterback in the league every season, when it all is said and done.
I think that is an argument exactly in favor of what the Patriots are doing, which is sitting
Drake May, keeping the wear and tear off of his body, allowing him to learn the game as they
continue to build the roster in the next couple of seasons around him. Now, I wouldn't advocate for
sitting him beyond this year, because I think you want to get this party started while he is still
on that rookie deal. So don't Jordan love this guy. But I think I'm sit as opposed to putting him
in a situation where you know he's not going to be successful. I think is absolutely the right way
to go. All right. My final question for you. And you've kind of alluded to this already, but you
guys were very competitive against two projected playoff teams in your first two games. You beat
Cincinnati, who is now 0-2 on the season after losing to Kansas City. And you came close in
in a really, really kind of physical game against an up and coming Seattle team that was getting
great QB play out of Geno Smith has a much improved defensive line. And you guys put up a fight in
that game too. What do you think Brandon is motivating your guys roster right now is depleted
as it is from an injury standpoint on the offensive line? What's motivating this roster to play with
this level of toughness? Yeah, I think I mentioned it earlier, but I think it's that that new head
coach, Bill, and that they're getting Berset is he's been around the league for a while. So I do
think he is, you know, leading the locker room in that way. So, you know, I think it's the players
that are playing for each other and trying to bring back, I think, some of the Patriots name
that's kind of been tarnished over the last couple years. It's been embarrassing, right? It's been
bad. The drop boss. I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know what you're talking about.
I've loved you. You guys just keep doing this. You know, but again, like, I think
the team, the identity of the team needs needs to prove that they can win without Tom Brady.
And I think they're trying to figure that out. So that is, you know, how sustainable that is
as TBD, right? As injuries happen. I think we're on our third string left tackle right now. So
yeah. And if Berset gets her, and Drake may gets forced in early, I think it gets ugly from that
point. So yeah, yeah. Well, listen, at least right now, you guys got a lot of reasons to be
optimistic. It's been a better than expected start for you all. And listen, you have it, you have a
chance to set the set the new New Jersey Jets at one and two to start the season and really assert
yourself with an early season lead over a divisional rival. So listen, man, best of luck on
Thursday. I don't mind rooting for you guys when you don't play against the bills and when you can
hurt one over other divisional rivals. So I'll be watching that game with great interest. Brandon,
listen, man, thank you for filling in today. I know it's not easy to come on the pod with
short notice. But as always, you have done an absolutely sterling, sparkling job. And we really
appreciate it. Well, I'd like to try something if you're open to it. It's something I'm going to call
10 second take. And I'm going to give you 10 seconds to give me a take. All right. Oh, dear God. Okay.
Here's the first one is Sam Darnold. Good. You have 10 seconds. He's not good. No. But he is in a
great situation. He's always had the physical tools to be a really good QB. He's never had the
coaching. I think he's ingrained too many bad habits. All right, time's up. It's really good.
Next one, you have 10 seconds. Bryce Young is going to be benched for the great Andy Dalton.
Can Carolina win games with Andy Dalton? Yes, Andy, Andy Dalton's won games in this league.
Andy Dalton and Bryce Young are not the reason why that team will win or lose. It's the rest of that
roster and the poor construction and personnel and coaching turnover they've seen. Okay, this is your
last 10 second take. The end of the Chiefs Cincinnati game ended with a very controversial yet again
pass interference ball in favor of the Chiefs, who then responded by winning the game. What's going on?
We all know what's going on. The script is the Chiefs will repeat the season because this is what
the NFL wants. No, I mean, listen, Mahomes and the Chiefs, they're Jordan. Jordan, by the end of his
career, got all the calls because he was the goat. Same thing is happening to the Chiefs. Is it great?
No. Is it fair that it's on display every single Sunday on nationally televised games? No. But it's
a credibility that they've earned by being as good as they are for as long as they are. If somebody
doesn't like it, beat them. That's all I got to say. Thank you so much, Dan, for your 10 second
takes. And thank you again for having me back on the ball. Not prom. And thank you for all of you
listening at home. Like, share, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts soon to come YouTube,
Apple and Spotify. And as always, go Bills.