Battaglia: Sean McDermott Is Still The Guy To Get The Bills Over The Hump

Gene, how you doing, man?

It's good to talk to you. Yeah, well, let's see. I don't think many of us had much sleep last night trying to figure this thing out. But JR, thanks for having me tonight.

Of course, of course. People can certainly listen to you and in danger on the fan. What was the fan or what is the fan consensus right now in western New York? We know there's sadness, disappointment, but is there blame being passed around?

What's the vibe? Yeah, I mean, if you're doing the blame assessment Monday sort of thing, you know, Joe Brady got a lot of run for good reason. He did some really nice things with the Bills offense, but going head to head last night with Steve Spagnolo, you know, in certain things, I know a lot of fans focusing in on the officiating and the sequence where Dalton and Cade didn't get the first down, the fourth down play. But to take that out of the equation, it still was there for the Bills at the end of the game.

And I just thought, you know, if you're looking somewhere, certainly things didn't get executed in some regards. But I just thought, as it's been in this whole series, pretty much when it really matters, the Bills just get out coached by Andy Reid, Steve Spagnolo and everybody on that staff. Gene Bataglia is here with us from the fan in Rochester. I feel like before every season and after tough losses like this, you talk about the coaching and people look at Sean McDermott and he needs to go and he needs to be replaced. What are your thoughts on their coaching staff?

Well, we get those calls, too, and I'll tell you this. Sean McDermott is as safe as a kitten because you have that alignment between the owner, the general manager, the head coach, the quarterback. I thought actually, JR, that this year was the best job that Sean McDermott has done, having to bring in new players, having to work with two new coordinators.

Now, Joe Brady took over midway through in the 23 season, but starting off kind of new with Bobby Babbage and Joe Brady. And you departed. A lot of guys left this team. So to me, Sean McDermott is still the guy, but you explore that question.

What is he going to take? And I was listening to you earlier. I mean, we're kind of like I'm trying to think of what parallels there would be in sports. Is this how like this was for the Brooklyn Dodgers back in the day, trying to get past the Yankees in the World Series? Because if it's if the Bills were in the NFC, they would have broken through by now at some point. But as long as we have Mahomes in the AFC, it has just been the roadblock for this team. And this is like the I don't want to put it in the same space, two different conferences. This is like the Lakers trying to get past the Celtics. This is this is this is tough here. You talk about the talent.

I'm going to be honest. I didn't expect the Buffalo Bills to even have the season that they had. I still expected them to get to the postseason, but not look like the best team in the AFC right there along with the Chiefs and then also the Ravens. What are they or what can they do with the talent?

We know that they took a spread it out approach. They brought in Amari Cooper. He didn't get all the targets that you would have expected him to get. What do they do with this offense moving forward, if anything?

Well, I think they need to kind of upgrade it. Maybe one of the wide receiver positions. Samuel came on. He had a touchdown last night. Amari Cooper is a free agent, so he's one of those Reynolds. I think maybe if the Bills can get him back affordably, but you know how that goes.

So that's a big question mark. You have some things you can build around, but you also need these first round picks to step up. Now, today we learned that Dalton Kincaid was playing with a torn PCL, so good for him for being out there.

But doesn't exactly explain the hands and dropping that. You need more out of Kincaid for his drum pick. You need more out of Keon Coleman. Keon Coleman was the guy the Bills settled on.

He had one catch with 12 yards last night. Meanwhile, the Bills trade the right to the Kansas City for Xavier Worley. And there he is running all over the place last night. So to answer your question, I would expect the team to bring in a receiver through free agency and through the draft. And then run it back because what the Bills have this year is a running game that they haven't had in years past. So as long as you have that running game to make sure that Josh Allen doesn't have to do this all on his own, there's no reason for me to think that the Bills can't be on top of the division once again next year. Yeah, it looked like Cook was certainly underrated throughout the course of the season.

And what a great touchdown he had as well yesterday early in the game. Gene Batagli is here with us from 95-7, excuse me, 95-7, the fan in Rochester. Over the past year, we've watched the defense change as well. We saw Milano get hurt. Well, he was hurt, came back, got hurt again.

Thank God he came back. We see that the defensive backs have certainly changed as we've had guys get retired or retire, get hurt. What's up with the defense? Yeah, there's going to be some changes personnel wise next year. Let's start with Von Miller. Von Miller's got this high cap number that if the Bills want to make him a June 1st post-designation, they can do that, and that would free up some money. And Von Miller, yeah, his best days are behind him. So maybe the Bills go back to him and say, just like they did last year, hey, we'd like to have you back, but it's got to be at this number.

So maybe that's one of those quiet negotiations that's just me speculating. You also have DeMar Hamlin as a free agent, so Taylor Rapp came back on a team-friendly deal, and that's one area I think the Bills have to take a good, hard look, is that where Hamlin and Rapp are good team guys, good depth guys, they're not Poirier and Hyde. That's the one area where the Bills always had great safety play. Maybe it's an area where maybe Cole Bishop takes a step forward, and they've got to get some depth to JR. Last night when Christian Benford left, and that was actually kind of a scary scene, seeing him get carted off the way they did, Kyrie Lim's is not it.

No other way to say it there, so they've got to take a look at the corner position as well, just get some depth there. Well, Gene, when you think moving forward, I guess the closest parallel might be Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. We knew that Tom Brady was the one always winning. Peyton had to wait his time and turn. Is that the closest parallel that we might have here with Mahomes and then also Allen?

That's the best that I would think that is available, and for Manning, he finally broke through the one year and he was at home, did it against Brady, and then they beat the Bears in the Super Bowl. I changed my position on this. I always said, hey, if it's going to happen, you want to do it against Kansas City just so you can lay to rest once and for all the questions about these two quarterbacks.

Now, I think I speak on behalf of a lot of people up here. I don't care how it would happen someday. Take whatever you get at this point. If Travis Kelsey retires, if the Chiefs got to have their fill, it's okay. As long as you have Josh Allen, but hey, how many more years do we have of prime Josh Allen? Yeah, you're going to get less and less here as we go along.

Gene, let me ask you this. If we're going to find some positive as the season is now concluded, do you think he's going to walk away with MVP? I know that's a real minor consolation prize, one that he probably will go, yeah, this is great at the end of my career.

Do you think he's going to walk away with it? I don't think so, just because everybody's pointed out that normally the player that is first team All-Pro, since a lot of the same voters will get voted MVP. Lamar Jackson got that first team All-Pro nod over Josh Allen. That was such a divisive topic, not only on our show, but everywhere. And I've always said, Jared, if I say nice things about Lamar Jackson, or nice things about Josh Allen, I'm not putting down the other guy.

So they're both great quarterbacks, and if Lamar gets his third, I think a lot of people are kind of getting ready for that up here. So Gene, we might as well go through a few months, six to seven months, and get ready for, it's like a sitcom that gets played every year, except for we don't know what happens at the end. It's the same old with the Bills, huh? Are you tired of it? It's kind of boring at this point.

It's like, finally do something, please. You know, our minds have a way of kind of just melting this stuff kind of away, because where the pain is right now, and we'll get past the Super Bowl, and then we'll start talking about free agency, and by the time spring gets here, Jared, there will be 32 fan bases that will say, well, you know what, maybe this is our year. That's the beauty of the NFL, is that by the time it gets warm out, we'll all be thinking nice things once again, and hey, if you're saying it's like a sitcom, sitcoms usually have good endings. I want a good ending for this franchise. Gene, you think the Jaguars could have a good ending at this time in 2026?

Well, I don't know. Maybe the coach has got something down there. I certainly hope so. Here's some more positivity. How's the new stadium coming along right next door in Buffalo?

How's that looking? We're not used to this, seeing all these cranes and everything going up. We're really excited about it. The owner, Terry Pagula, had a comment recently that, okay, the stadium is ahead of schedule, it's over budget, he'd rather have it behind and under budget, but it's going to be something that we're just not used to having, because where Highmark slash Ralph Wilson slash Rich Stadium over the years, look, it's a dump, but it's our dump.

That's the way I tell people. It's the place that we all grew up as fans, and now I've kind of went over to the media here, that side of it. It's home to many people. It's a tradition, and they're just moving across the street into something new, and we're all excited about it. And still no roof. They didn't want to pay the extra billion for the roof, right? No? Well, yeah.

It would have been nice, I suppose, but JR, it's the identity of this team. It really is. For some, why do those people want to go sit outside in the cold and the snow and everything? You know what? It's not that bad, too. It really isn't. I hope they start paying the fans more money to shovel in the new place.

I hope so. That I never did. Maybe someday, I'll do it. Listen, if you do that, send photos. Hey, Gene, I need to get up there sooner than later, maybe when the temperature goes above 50, all right?

You have an open invite every time. I want to say when you came up here, though, it was nice. It was in the summer, if I remember. It was a pl- no, it was cold.

That much I do remember. I'll be back sooner than later. I need to see you in person. Hey, Gene, where can people follow you and listen to you and all this good stuff? The Sports Bar, fill us in. Yeah, so we are the Infinity Sports Network affiliate here in Rochester.

For folks who don't know, Rochester is just a mere hour and ten minutes just to the east of Buffalo. So we are primarily Phil's talk around 3 to 6 every afternoon, Mike Danger and myself. Check us out, and we really love having, you know, we hand it off to you every night at 6 o'clock. And it's always a pleasure to tune into you guys, and I'll catch you all down the road sooner than later, Gene. Thanks, J.R., for having me.