Matt Parrino, Syracuse.com Buffalo Bills Reporter

Joining us on the other side of the line is Matt Perino. Covers a Buffalo Bills for Syracuse.com. Matt, how are you, man? Thank you for taking the time to join us.

I'm great. Not a lot of sleep the last 24 hours. You know, locker cleaned out today, so right back to the stadium after a late night. But yeah, it's not how Bills fans wanted the season to end. But, I mean, if you do think about it, you know, going back to when they were 6 and 6, they went on a pretty good run to get to where they finished. But again, we're talking about a hump that they can't get over, and that hump is the Kansas City Chiefs.

Yeah. Well, we've talked a lot about it. We've already taken tons of calls. What changes, realistically, can take place to help this team get to a championship game and maybe a Super Bowl? So, I think something interesting happened this year, early in the year, when Daquan Jones, their defensive tackle, went out.

Matt Milano, all-pro linebacker, and then Tredavious White, their all-pro cornerback. You know, they had to pivot at a lot of key positions at all three levels, and they figured it out. I mean, down the stretch, they were a top-five defense all of a sudden, again, even without some of their top-caliber players. And so, I think what that tells you is, you know, if you go younger, if you bring in some, you know, scout some games, sign a couple, maybe lower-end free agents, you're probably going to have to make some tough decisions with some veterans, Sean McNamara's going to figure out this defense somehow.

That's his specialty. But what I think you really do need to do is start investing the high-end resources where you can in the offense. And I think, when you watch this game, down the stretch, there weren't enough weapons for Josh Allen in this game. And I know that's kind of weird to say, because you look at the other side, and obviously Travis Kelce's future hall of fame or anything, great.

But it's been a down year. There's not, like, a whole host of weapons on the Kansas City side, but they got Patrick Mahomes, and he's 3-0 against Josh Allen. And I think if you're Brandon Bean, the next iteration of what this team looks like with Josh Allen, it's got to be more playmakers. And, you know, they went out and they got the first-round tight end last year. I think you ought to spend a first-round pick on a wide receiver this year and maybe even get aggressive.

Get up into the teams and maybe get one of those top-pass catching options, because it's a good draft, but the high-end talent is really good. And Matt Perino was joining us, Bill's beat reporter. You talk about wide receiver, and I want to get back to Sean McDermott at one point, too. You know, Josh Allen has run around, literally, like he's Superman, like he's had to do a lot of the work.

And I think there are a lot of areas that they could certainly improve on. We know Stefan Diggs just got his contract readjusted last year, restructured. We know that yesterday, correct me if I'm wrong, I know he didn't speak to the media yesterday. Did he talk today? Are we in for another, you know, upset season, offseason with tweets and explaining? What's the deal with Stefan Diggs?

I don't know. It's kind of hard to predict in that manner. I mean, my personal interactions with him have been great. I mean, when we get a chance to talk to him, I think he's one of the most forthcoming athletes that I've covered. I think he brings you into their world behind the scenes more so than most athletes do. I had nothing but good things with Stefan Diggs. But from a production perspective, there was a drop-off after the first six games, when he had five 100-yard games in those first six.

Hadn't had one since then. And now you kind of start to look at, all right, what does this thing look like, not only into next season, but beyond. I think you're going to have Stefan Diggs on this 2024. The financials are just crippling if they were to try to, whether it be release him, even a post-June 1 cut. I think you're looking at like $25 million in debt cap.

It's going to cost you money to move on from him, and you're still going to deal with that money. So he'll be back. I think it's just about, okay, what is the next iteration of a superstar wide receiver that maybe, for now, you can pair with Stefan Diggs. Maybe take some of the weight off of his shoulders to produce in the game. Because at times, this year it's felt like. He was getting force-fed at times because other people weren't stepping up. It was a very up-and-down season for Gabe Davis, who's also entering free agency this year. And the expectation is that he won't be back. But I think Diggs, he's getting separation if you're watching the film. He's getting open. It's just about having it work within the confines of the offense.

And that's another question. Is Joe Brady going to be back next year? He takes over halfway through the year, end up winning seven of their last nine games.

One of the losses was to the Eagles by three points, and then obviously the Chiefs by three points. So this was an offense that was producing, and Josh Allen gave him a vote of confidence today. So there's just a lot of questions. What do they want to be to retool this thing? Do they want to go out and maybe get a thunder to James Cook's lightning? I think one guy that's interesting to watch is Derek Henry, who's going to be a free agent as well. Oh, that'd be a hell of an addition if they added him to the squad. We're being joined by Matt Perino, Buffalo Bills beat reporter. You talk about Joe Brady, and we've already gotten calls on this throughout the show. People saying that might be time, it might be time for Sean McDermott to go. People are saying, oh, let's bring in Bill Belichick is like, oh, can put the cart before the horse. What are your thoughts on the status of Sean McDermott?

Is there even a threat that he can go anywhere? I thought it was interesting today. I asked Josh Allen about the dynamic with Sean and whether or not he feels like his vision for what the offense should be, and Sean McDermott's vision for whether or not they're in lockstep or maybe they're fighting against each other a little bit, the ideals. And he put the kibosh on that. He was like, listen, he's never stepped foot in one of our meeting rooms in a game and tried to take us off of what we're doing. He runs the defense and listen to times. Does he want a more safer run oriented approach to get the ground game going to be a more balanced offense?

Sure. I think every coach wants that. I think you've got to take into account outside of like the national view and look at the local view a little bit closer. This is a Bills organization that went 17 years without a playoffs appearance. He comes in in 2017, gone to the playoffs in six of seven seasons. And so if you would have sold that option to Bills fans in 2010, they would have asked where to sign.

And so now they haven't gotten over the hump. But I think Sean McDermott makes a good point when he says, listen, at the end of every season, there's 31 teams not happy. He's been to two Super Bowls before he ever got to Buffalo, lost both of them.

It's hard to do. It's usually dominated by two or three teams. And right now, the Bills are trying to break through during the Kansas City Dynasty era that's led by Patrick Mahomes.

And they're continuing to come up. They've dominated the series in the regular season, but they have not been able to beat them when the lights are the brightest. And that's going to affect Josh Allen's legacy. I mean, I was a little bit harsher on him yesterday. I didn't blame him for the loss. You can make an argument that he was the best player on the field. He made some sensational plays.

The stats hold up. He was good because of Josh Allen. In fact, they were in it because of him.

But the greats, the all-time greats, like you look at other sports, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods in golf, Tom Brady in football, now Patrick Mahomes. You put the ball in their hands two minutes to go, and usually they're going to find a way to win the game. And Josh Allen had the ball in his hands.

And they ended that last drive with no points. And you're going to look back on that in five and ten years and say, you know, that could have been one. What would have happened if they won that game and got on the road to Baltimore to play the Lamar Jackson-led Ravens, which Sean McDermott's defenses over the years have had a lot of success again. So it's just one of those things that you might look at and missed opportunities have been the theme of Josh Allen's career and Sean McDermott's career in Buffalo as their head goes.

Yeah, what could have been. As we start to wrap things up, Matt, you mentioned the defense, and certainly they've dealt with tons of injuries. Milano, White, you know, Micah Hyde kind of fighting through the entire season. What adjustments do you see taking place in the offseason to help him? I mean, even Von Miller, not the guy that he was. Is he even going to be on the team?

Well, what's the deal with the defense? Yeah, so the Von Miller situation is a lot more interesting to me than the Diggs situation because it's the same financial kind of crisis. Like you move on from him and you're going to have to eat a ton of that last year of that guaranteed part of the deal. You know, he played in 14 games this season with playoffs and he finished with five tackles total in 14 games and zero sacks. And I'm sorry, he made 14 million. He's going to make 20 million next year. You try to bring in somebody else, even if it's an undrafted free agent, you're probably going to get a little bit more production than that.

And it's hard. It's hard to come back from your second torn ACL. He's going to be 35 years old next season. A guy that has held up later into his career, a high-end athlete, but I just don't know if the juice is there.

There's a chance that he can, in the second year coming back from the ACL, that's usually better. And so this defense, listen, I think with Sean McDermott calling the defense, they're always going to be an effective unit. They've got to get younger. They've got to find some pieces of different spots. Bean's drafted pretty well on defense, but share a lot of questions for sure. Yeah, it was pretty wild when Von Miller got that deal. It was like, six years?

Do they know how old he is? And here we are. I guess the chickens are coming home to roost. Hey Matt, I want to thank you for taking the time to join us. Where can people follow and keep up with you and your work? Yeah, the best place is on ACT's Twitter, at Matt Perino, M-A-T-T-P-A-R-R-I-N-O, host of the Shout Bills Football Podcast. You can find it on all your platforms.