Take 2: 'Buffalo' Joe headlines Bills initial 53 man roster

Dust settling from Bill's roster decisions as they get their roster down to 53 players on Tuesday. Bill's general manager Brandon Bean, speaking to kind of give us some insight as to why he made certain decisions as well as us get another look on the practice field for the first time and I'd say about a week here now of the new team and a lot of encouraging things that I was not anticipating on the injury front by my gaze around the entire practice field. There's two of them out here in Orchard Park. Every single guy that's been listed on the injury report leading into this point was participating in some capacity that includes Mitch Reski that includes Marquez Valdes Scantling and Curtis Samuel Quentin Morris was out there in a non contact jersey. The safeties were all back there as well. Really encouraging signs here to make you think, hey, maybe it just that surface level stuff saying this is why the Bills maybe did or did not make some moves on roster cut day, even at linebacker, a guy like bay in Specter who's been injured out there practicing on the field. So a lot of the talk during training camp and preseason and even, uh Brandon be alluding to this about some of the roster decisions have been impacted by injuries, right? So it's good news for this team that as they approach week one, when they really need to be held, the that they appear to be heading in that direction. And a guy like Quintin Morris, I spoke to in the locker room afterwards is saying, is this what you anticipated in terms of the timeline says, yeah, no game this week. So it's a slow process to get him and probably a lot of these other guys just get their legs out there for a day or so and then give them the longer weekend off and then hit the ground running week one still doesn't mean that all of those guys will be ready and available. And that includes Mitch Trey who Brandon Bean saying not yet. No, whether or not he will actually be all the way back enough to be the backup quarterback for Josh Elm. And that's why Mike White has been brought on for the practice squad. Someone that with the rules now should crisi not be good. They can elevate him from the practice squad. A crash course for Mike White who's familiar with at least going against the Bills as a member of the Dolphins and the Jets boy is that guy funny. I want him to stick around purely because he's incredibly entertaining to talk to. Not just funny. Well, I, I want to touch on this in a second but also productive and coming out of the preseason. We felt that maybe one of the areas of weakness was backup quarterback, especially considering cbi's health. You're talking about Ben DeNucci and Anthony Brown guys who had been inside the team inside the locker room for less than two weeks. Right. Well, it now comes Mike White who, while he's also a new face to the Bills has a lot more NFL experience starting wise than both of them and more productive starting experience than both of them. Plus the added familiarity of going up against the Bills with this time with the Dolphins and the Jets. So I think when, when you take a look at the, at the roster decisions that that being in the Bills made this week, I think you can certainly say that that number three quarterback, 2.5, if he ends up being the number two quarterback position was a area that was upgraded this season now for the humor, right? Because he in, on top of being a quarterback, he's a, he's a comedian talking about how he has a piece of his ribs left on Highmark Stadium for one of the big hits he took from Matt Milano. I don't think if I was here in person to witness it, but I know in, in being around the team last year and and when Jets Week would come up, that was always a hit and in a moment that would come up, his hit on Mike White, it's certainly something that he hasn't forgotten as well because he joked around saying that one of his conditions for signing in Buffalo was that they couldn't put him next to Matt Milano. So certainly good to see a guy come over here and, and acknowledge uh the past history with the team and, and kind of be able to joke about it and seem to already be ingratiating himself with the Bills locker room. I was trying to do him a solid. I'll be honest, don't know the guy, I don't have to, but I'm going through file video from Jets and Dolphins performances, four interceptions, one game against the Bills just getting bludgeoned by guys with the relentless pass rush and another I threw in a couple of good completions to Garrett Wilson at the front end to not make it look like, hey, this guy is just a glutton for punishment here. One thing Bean did note that he really likes about Mike White. He said regardless if he's the starter or if he's inserted in the middle of a game, the dude comes out guns blazing. Absolutely no fear which Mike White added. That's not always been a good thing for me here, but someone that is smart that is really learning the playbook with Kyle Shermer really, really quickly as well as well as he can and someone that we don't want Josh Allen to get hurt, you know, that's not what, but should something happen and should Mitreski not be ready? He should be good to go. The word that comes to mind is a gamer. And you hear that said about certain players where forget what you see at practice, forget about how long they've been with the team, how much, you know about the playbook when they get in the game, they compete, they play hard and they make plays and they kind of leave it all out there. And based on Brandon Bean's description, I don't know if I don't even remember if he maybe used that exact word gamer. But based on those descriptions, he said of Mike White and what stood out to him that word game or something that comes to mind can't go much farther without discussing the wide receiver position. As I mentioned, Curtis Samuel Marquez Valdez, scantly participating, change of number for MVS. He's 15 now, not 81. So this is the turn that we're going, that's maybe more encouraging. And that's when I saw the initial news of Tyrell Shavers not making the team on Tuesday thinking, ok, maybe that's a positive sign for them. I think that from what we saw in a brief time out on the practice field, you can continue to maybe feel more comfortable that they're trending in a direction to be able to suit up and contribute. However, they need to week one against the Arizona Cardinals. Speaking of shavers him and KJ Hamler make it back onto the Bills practice squad in the wide receiver room here. So Dion Kane, so five wide receivers, there was something floated out there about another guy from the Denver Broncos being saying we're, we're not there yet. We're looking into it here, but that would be a practice squad potential addition here. But I was more curious and listen, I understand Brandon Bean is not gonna be like, oh, I don't think that the wide receiver group is good, but I asked him point blank, you know, where is your confidence level with feeling where that play where that group is considering got very limited to no reps with Josh Allen in preseason action here and you've been having guys in and out with injuries says he feels good. But the best part of Brandon Bean is he's a straight shooter. He says, but talk is cheap, they gotta prove it. No. And he said that he would have loved to have seen them get more run with Josh Allen in the preseason. And like you said, I don't think he's gonna go up there and say, I don't feel confident about this group because obviously he's the one making the decision. So by the time roster cuts are finalized and he's got that 53 man roster if he didn't feel confident about a certain group, he would have gone out and made a move. There were plenty of guys out there on the waiver wire able to be picked up a guy like Noah Brown released from the Texans. We saw a guy like Jahan Dotson traded for Pennies in the division, right? So there are guys out there able to be acquired by Brandon Bean if he felt like he needed to go out there and address the position, either because he didn't feel like he had the talent in the room or if he was concerned about the injuries with guys like Curtis Samuel and Marquis Valdez Scantling. So I think sometimes when, when you listen to a guy like bean talk, even mcdermott, sometimes you have to kind of read between the lines and sometimes their actions speak louder than or reinforce, maybe even what they're saying. And I think this is a situation where we listen to what he hears in the press conference, but then you go out there on the field, you see the players that are actually out there on the field and you see all five wide receivers on the 53 man roster practicing. I think that says more than it needs to about that position. Don't want to go any farther without going into to the, the main story here of roster cut day. And that's Joe Andre and Buffalo. Joe making the team the 53 man roster and this is something you and I even mentioned after his phenomenal performance getting that surprising start in the Pittsburgh preseason game that he's not just a talking point and wasn't making a case for the roster because he went to Lancaster High School or because he played at the University of Buffalo, he was doing it on a zone accord for the actions he was having on the field, Brandon be reiterating that and let me tell you, he's not putting that guy on a really tough cut line there simply because it's a cool story. Andresen says it still doesn't feel real for him. And you could tell he got a little coached up from pr before he came over and spoke to the media because he was a little more calculated and tried not to say the wrong thing, but it's awesome. It is so awesome and I covered him in high school at Lancaster. So it's even cool for someone like me and others of us here in the media to, to know the kid in high school and watch him live out a dream here. But he's, he's in a good mind space in the fact that hey, it's the right now he still has now the work to do to stick around and keep it was cool because you, despite the coaching, there's still sort of that raw emotion that comes out just with him being a Buffalo native, a Buffalo Bills fan growing up, he said most recently, his famous player was Matt Milano. And I think there's a picture out there of him at a game in a Matt Milano Jersey. But then he kind of smiles like, oh he's my teammate now. So it's a little bit weird, but it's not weird because he grew up a Bills fan, right? So that's what makes the the story cool and embracing the Buffalo, Joe Mantra and, and he talks about how he can kind of see what it means to the community, right? Because it's been a while since the Bills had a player do something impactful on the field that is from Buffalo, grew up in the area and knows what it means to grow up as a Bills fan. So I think that's why a lot of people have been able to gravitate towards the story, but the story doesn't hold weight if he's not producing on the field, right? If he was just out there in the preseason, kind of not getting run until the fourth quarter, not doing a whole lot and, and just makes his way to the practice squad or gets waived and then, you know, playing in, in spring football league sometime next year or whatever, doesn't carry as much weight as him making the initial 53 man roster. And like you said, he wouldn't be on this roster if the Bills didn't feel like he would be able to contribute. And I view him within that whole room of the linebackers though, as the main backup to Terrell Bernard, right, because Terrell Bernard is the one calling, the defense relaying the defensive signals, the one with the green dot based on what we've seen out of this preseason, if Terrell Bernard goes down, which is something no one wants to see. But you have to talk about these things when you're constructing a roster. If he goes down, who's the main backup based off of what we've seen, it's Joan Dreessen. And in those preseason games, he showed an ability to handle those responsibilities, kind of mentally while also being able to physically go out there and make plays. So again, a great story, he still has a lot of work ahead of him left. But going into week one, I it's all about sort of benchmarks right. In order to be able to play in week one, you got to be on the 53 man roster and Brandon Bean, I think said it, he's sort of a guy who's checked all the boxes along the way, rookie mini camp, impress, training camp, impress preseason, impress. Well, now he's on the 53 man roster and he's gonna get his chance to make a mark. Now in the regular season, going back to the Pittsburgh game, in particular, Brandon Bean, noting that one of the questions about Andreen coming out of college was his ability to make plays in space, maybe that's a size, maybe that's an athletic, whatever it may be. That game certainly showed it when you can make open field tackles against Justin Fields. And Jalen Warn of the Steelers, that shows that you can do that. Sean mcdermott also said something about how we measure 40 times. We measure verticals, all that stuff, but the players are putting out on the field are not track and field athletes, they're football players and they have to be football players. And he said, use these words to talk about Joe Andreessen. He's a football player. So when you get that sort of praise as a rookie from Sean mcdermott, I think it speaks a lot pretty cool three University of Buffalo players on the Buffalo Bills initial 53 man roster, Joe Andreen Jamarcus Ingram, who's another great story here and Cam Lewis and their paths all kind of seem the same way undrafted guys who get their opportunities and, and stick around Joe actually make it on the 53 from the, from the jump here. Cam and Jamarcus had to work their way up from the practice squad. Let's go over to the safety position because we mentioned encouraging signs on the health front with all of that, Mike Edwards out there, Cole Bishop still in a non contact jersey, DEMAR Hamlin out there. Obviously, Cam Lewis kind of in that mix. Taylor Rapp obviously is going to be a starter there. I'm actually really curious once we get back out here in a week to see how the reps are divvied up, see where everyone is because Damar Hamlin to me remains the front runner to start against the Arizona Cardinals. Because even if Mike Edwards is now healthy, that guy hasn't been out there at all and DEMAR has been in the system defensively, he can make the calls. He's been working next to Taylor Rapp throughout all of the past few months here, Mike Edwards may eventually be the starter, but I think DEMAR Hamlin if he's healthy enough is probably alongside Taylor week one. And in the absence of a ton of information about the present, right? We the best we have to go off of is the past, right? The last time we saw sort of all of these guys healthy together at the same time was the start of training camp and who was the first guy to get those first team reps at the start of training camp? It was Lamar Hamlin, you know, Mike Mike Edwards was healthy. Cole Bishop was healthy and coming in as a second round draft pick, right? That if one of those two guys got the first team reps over DEMAR Hamlin, I don't think it would have been scrutinized. I think a ton of people would have understood, but I think it spoke to the plays that we saw DEMAR Hamlin making OTAs and, and mini camp and his knowledge of this defense that he was the first one out there getting the first team reps in training camp since then. Just none of the three have been healthy at the same time. So almost how we talk about how it's difficult to evaluate the wide receivers and how they played with Josh, it's difficult to evaluate sort of in the race for that second starting safety spot where all three stack up because they've never been racing almost at the same time. So again, go ba just based off of that factoid from training camp. I'm with you. I think DEMAR Hamlin would be the favorite to be the starter going into week one against Arizona. But at the same time, I feel like if we're back out here next Wednesday and it's Mike Edwards, right? Because Cole Bishop is still in the red jersey, right? But if it's Mike Edwards getting those 1st, 1st team reps, I don't think we'd be surprised just because of his resume of playing in the NFL and one little wrinkle here. I'll be curious, week one out the gate with no Matt Milano. We saw a year ago bills going some dime packages bringing in a third safety. Could that be a way to maybe slowly integrate and acclimate a guy like Mike Edwards or is it going to be a Cam Lewis? Someone who's played in a position like that in the past? Just one little housekeeping note. Always gotta ask Brandon Bean about Micah Hyde every single time says haven't communicated recently, door remains open here. So I think a room though with four and if you want to conclude Cam Lewis five safeties, unless the injury bug really hits that room. Once again, it just doesn't really seem like there's gonna be a spot for Micah Hyde. I would like to stay at the defensive back position here because Daquan Hardy was one of the more surprising cuts on Tuesday look like, hey, it's not gonna be KJ Hamler Darren and Evans gets hurt who in the world is going to be. This team's return man, Andy Isabella got cut and so it just seemed like Hardy was going to be the guy Sean mcdermott even with some good, hey, he's made some good improvements. He said the last decision making in the last game against Carol 100% lo and behold, he gets cut. They make a trade in the division. It's something very, very rare with the Jets to bring in Brandon Cod and Tin who was here. Day one said, I kind of thought I was gonna get wived and make my way to the practice squad with the New York Jets. Lo and behold, they trade for me here if you saw any of his highlights from the preseason in the return game. This dude is a stud. He's got some juice and I think I read Ryan Talbot put out there 15 broken tackles on all of these returns. This guy really brings it here and he looks at it as something. Hey, I led my state in high school in kick return stuff. It's something that I just have a knack for. He looks at the new kickoff rules as if maybe more of an extension as a punt return. The dude has the juice. I'm excited to see him in game action and he talked about his kind of um, what he did in high school if you look at his collegiate stats too, especially his last year at NC Central, I think, handful or something like that of, of big time returns. Like it's that college pedigree, especially as a return guy that translates to the NFL and the best part for the Bills, right? The, probably the, the thing that made them go out and acquire him was what they saw him do in the preseason. I think a few of those big time returns were against the Panthers. So it almost makes you wonder, hey, they're not studying too hard for the Panthers in the final preseason game, but they're gonna turn on some tape and see what they've done watching them go against the Jets. You wonder if he was just a guy that stuck out and then they're thinking, hey, this is a guy that we can come in and bolster our return game. The best part is that you feel you felt like with what Daquan Hardy had done, maybe he was a guy that if they cut him a team out there also in a situation where they needed a return man, maybe they go out and sign him to their 53 man roster. That doesn't happen. The Bills are able to bring him back onto the practice squad. Brandon Bean says they still like him. He just wasn't up to speed to where they needed him to be for week one. But now in the practice squad, they can take their time working with him both in the return game and defensively because they like things about him at both of those positions. And Codrington also spoke about how yes he has these abilities as a return man, but he's also focused on improving as a defender as well because outside of being a return man, he has a defensive back. They're kind of the same player. I'm gonna be completely honest with you. They're 5 ft nine a buck 80 or so undersized corners who are better suited in the slot, the backup nickel position who were really brought into the league for their return abilities. They're able to do both right now, have one on the 53 have one on the practice squad and just kind of let it play out however that may be, but I, I don't know if on the main, main roster, there's room for both of them at any point now or in the future here. So now we kind of take a little break. We're looking forward to it. I certainly am before we, we hit the ground running here. And it's just, uh, it, it'll be an interesting time to again, see how guys get healthy when we return in a week. Next Wednesday is when I'm assuming the bills will, will really start getting revenue roaring for the Arizona Cardinals. You've been around for all of it. OTAs mini camp anything as we kind of turn the page from the off season and look ahead to the regular season. How do you feel about this team and has it changed at all from maybe where you did beginning of May after the draft? I'm going to be completely honest. My opinion of this team hasn't changed through all, all of this. There hasn't been someone break out in a big way where I say, oh, this guy is going to be a game, maybe the guy closest to that would be Greg Rousseau. I feel maybe a little bit better about what he might bring to this defense than how I felt about it maybe in March. But other than that, I don't think they've brought in any game breakers. I think Keon Coleman is, can have the potential to have a fantastic career. I don't think he's gonna be out there lighting up the stat sheet week, one week two or whatever. So in, in my opinion, this team still has maybe a ceiling of repeating what they did last year with the likelihood they maybe being closer to maybe their one or two wins less on the schedule this year than what they were last year. They still have a very talented football team in certain spots. You still have Josh Allen and a quarterback like that is always gonna give you a chance to be in every game. And I'm not saying they're, they're not gonna win the division, but I think when, when you kind of try to forecast, which is what we're doing here right now. It's just tough to envision this roster with even Brandon being saying this is a transition year as being able to go any further than what they did last year, which was the divisional round losing to the eventual Super Bowl champion Chiefs. For me, it goes way beyond just the wide receiver position. I gotta see it from the team. I mean, we know Greg Rousseau, but you need to see that next level. We know Ed Oliver. We know Josh Allen. Well, I'll just throw in there the overrated story II, I didn't even want to acknowledge it because it's so idiotic. It just is so stupid. It's 11 people out of 103 when there's almost 2000 people that play in the national football league. It's just, it's so stupid. Josh Allen is not overrated. If anything, I think you just kind of take for granted how good he is around here. Simply because he just does the really, really good, so easy. That's just, just imagine the perception of him if he cuts down on the, because I think the turnovers is the thing that everyone has, they haven't made the AFC championship game beyond the, the one year, but he led the league in, in total touchdowns. So, so it's like kind of those things where, like, if you're gonna, like, really hang your hat on one thing, you can't completely ignore the other thing, right. Which is why I think it's ridiculous if someone wants to say he's overrated, that's their prerogative. But for this, the result of this survey, for him to be the most overrated quarterback in the NFL I think is something that's difficult for me to believe just again, because we're here every week, we see him in practice, we cover all of their games and you see the impact that Josh Allen has on the football field even in spite of the turnover. So that's what I'm saying. Imagine if he had 18 interceptions last year, imagine if this year that number is cut to 12 even just keep the touchdowns the same. Anyone who's peddling that overrated narrative would immediately be laughed at just because the, the one thing that they would have their to hang their hat on with the turnovers wouldn't be there anymore. I think even the most elementary football people can say he's not overrated. I'll just wrap up my point about the team. I'm with you though. I, I need to see it. I need to see what the wide receiver group looks like. The offense as a whole. I need to see how Josh Allen operates without having a funnel. 100 and 50 100 and 60 targets to a superstar wide receiver. I need to see this defense with Sean mcdermott or Bobby Babbage calling the plays with a lot of turnover at key positions like the safety position, like a new middle or a new, uh weeks linebacker because once again, you don't have Matt Milano, some new guys trying to amp up the pass rush. I need to see all of it. Boy, are they going to get tested out the gate? The Arizona Cardinals, one of the easier on the schedule. And I think they're very formidable. I, I think Kyler Murray and Marvin Harrison junior and James Connor, like these are not slouches here over there. I it's gonna be a tough sledding and I think you're gonna have a good idea of doom or gloom after maybe the 1st 67 weeks of this season. It just feels like there's a lot more question marks going into this year than there was last year, last year. I remember going into a week, one of my first year covering the Bills. The major question mark going into that first game was who's gonna start alongside Matt Milano at linebacker and, and, uh, it was the, the, the camp battle and the preseason battle between Terrell Bernard and Tyrell Dodson. And even though Bernard was injured here, uh in and out, in and out, he ends up getting that job week one and then the rest of history, right. He ends up having a fantastic season even after Matt Milano goes down. Well, this year, you're talking about Dorian Williams sliding in next to Terrell Bernard with Matt Milano. Not in the picture. Matt Milano was already the veteran, main stay sort of on that defense alongside Von Miller. You've lost just so many veterans on this team all around the team. Mitch Morse Jordan Po and Mica Hyde in the same position room, right? So Stefan Diggs and Gabe Davis, where I know the end of the, of the season that they had last year didn't leave a, a good taste in the mouth of, of Bills fans, but you couldn't deny the production that they had over their career in Buffalo and the leadership that they brought, they were team captains, right? So just a lot of different position groups with more question marks, it feels like than we had for this team going into last year. So you guys can all debate it at home, continue to discuss it and then we'll hit week one and start talking about the Arizona Cardinals with Jonathan Acosta. I'm John Scott for channel two sports