Which Bills will we be getting tonight vs the Buccs?

Week 8 in the National Football League begins tonight, where the perpetually disappointing Buffalo Bills, even in a win at times, they did beat the Giants a couple of weeks ago.

I watched it. Woof! But the Bills will take on the, they play the Buccaneers tonight. And we'll see if the real Buffalo Bills show up. But as we bring in Brook Pryor from ESPN, who'll be a TV star tomorrow, on the network, so check your local listings, I will ask Brook, my friend, what are the Buffalo Bills? Yeah, isn't that a million dollar question?

Because I don't know that they know. Right. Because do you want Josh Allen to be Superman? I don't know that he throws interceptions, but you don't want him to be Clark Kent pre-phone booth because when he's pedestrian, why are you paying him that much money to just be a guy in a suit and be a game manager?

So you need him to like, you need to get him like, as he's turning into Superman and putting on his tape, like before he flies out, there's like a balance you have to hit exactly right. And the Bills don't have that. And part of that's because I don't think they have a great run game. I think that they are just relying too much on big splash plays, which then when you put the pressure on Allen to do that, that's when he throws picks. And by the way, their defense is not good because they're old and also they're injured. And so it's just been this like perfect storm of bad things to happen to this team.

And I just don't think that they have any real clear identity. And that's kind of the kiss of death for an NFL team, especially halfway through the season. Couple of years ago, Josh Allen was essentially the MVP of the league. I mean, I think he was the MVP. I don't even remember.

I don't remember awards from yesterday. So, but they were that close and they should have beaten the Kansas City Chiefs, right? We all remember 13 seconds away from a victory and they allowed Kansas City to kick a field goal tie and lost in overtime. But they were that close.

You never know when your time has come. Maybe that was the time, but they also lost Brian Dable after that. How, I mean, their offense, I don't know that it looks different, but their offense feels different to me.

Yeah, it does. And I think that the day ball thing is huge because they, to me, it kind of speaks to the Tomlin effect that coaches can have on teams because yeah, the schemes are similar. They're not doing anything that's wildly different, but who you have in charge matters. The relationship they have with, with their players, the relationships that players have with the coaches, the intangibles, the energy. Is he a guy that you really want to play for that communicating effectively? I mean, I don't know that Ken Dorsey isn't a player's coach, but I know that Brian Deball is, and that he's a guy that like everybody loves. Maybe not his quarterbacks when he's yelling at them coming off the field, but others in practice settings, like I've talked with Mitch Trubisky here at the Steelers because Trubisky was in Buffalo for a year when Deball was still there. I mean, he's a guy that like, they really liked it.

FaceTime him, he's smoking cigars with them. Like he's just a cool guy. And I don't think that we should discount the effects that it has when you lose a guy like that. It's hard to kind of maybe, you know, you feel like, okay, well I've, I'm losing some of that juice that I had and it's not an easily replaceable thing. So to me, that, that is a huge part. And the 13 second loss game, it feels like that game was their kryptonite and they didn't leave it in Kansas city. We're going to keep up with the Superman comparison. It's like he, it's like he took a little piece of that kryptonite and he's wearing it on a necklace around him, Josh Allen. And he just, it's like it keeps him in the bills from reaching their full potential. I mean that, that game really like the bad vibes from that I think have continued on for several years. It's this monkey that they're never going to be able to get off their backs.

At Brooke prior on Twitter. You just walked me into a Harry Potter reference. It's a Horcrux. Love it. It's a Horcrux.

That's wearing the locket, wearing the locket right around the neck. It drove, drove Ron Weasley into a apparating out of the, out of the excursion. Oh man. People, thank you very much for people who are not Harry Potter fans.

Go read the books. Brooke prior from ESPN is joining us here. The team that you cover, and I know our friend Lavelle Moten, head basketball coach at NC Central, is good friends with Mike Tomlin. He makes a trip to training camp every year.

And I mean, he's a constant tweeter of, of all things Mike Tomlin. That, that team after getting blown out in their opener against San Francisco, a lot of people thought, well, okay, they're obviously not that good. They might be, they, well, they might be good enough. They're certainly not an upper crust team in the conference, but they have three games in a row at home, all winnable games, very winnable games. They'll be favored in all three and they're already four and two. Where are the Steelers right now? Well, the Steelers are similar to the Bills in that they don't really have an identity, but as far as like a scheme goes, but Mike Tomlin said something this week that to me felt very accurate for how this team is that they are, their identity is that they're a gritty team, that they win the close games. I don't remember how many games they won by one possession, but it's like by far and away, most of the games that they're winning are these one possession games. If they can get to the fourth quarter and be within a score, I would bet on the Steelers if I were a betting person.

And if that probably didn't go against my job rules and things in my contract, but that's how I w that's what I would do because this team is really good at winning the close games. They have that X factor that intangible. I mean, Kenny picket was seven for seven for 138 yards in the fourth quarter and was awful. The first three, this offense put up over 200 yards or almost 200 yards in the fourth quarter alone. And in the first half, they only had 91 yards.

So there's something that turns on. It's the switch that flips late in games that keeps them in this. And I don't know that they're a good team, but they're a team that's winning. And I, it's weird to say that I don't think they're good, but they're winning, but like, that's the case. And I think Marcus Spears had the best analogy earlier this week on get up that the Steelers are like that smelly kid in school that you're not going to pick a fight up fight with, like, you can talk bad about it and say, Oh gosh, this guy really thinks I don't want to be near him, all this stuff, but you know, better than to start throwing punches. Cause he's going to fight dirty and he's going to win every single time. You just kind of keep your distance from him. Like that's, that's how the Steelers feel.

They're a very dangerous team because they're, they're not perfect and they're scrappy and they're gritty. I'd like to ask Marcus Spears, uh, what he experienced he had with the smelly kid, uh, in school, because that is oddly specific. Like the smelly part is almost gratuitous.

So it's oddly specific. It must've happened to Marcus, uh, a long, long time ago. Is there something rotten in Cleveland because Deshaun Watson seemed healthy. They won a game that all of a sudden he's not playing. Now he gets hurt. Like, I'm not saying that he's faking it at all at all, but we're getting so many mixed signals out of Cleveland.

He's not going to play this week. It'll be PJ Walker again. Uh, Cleveland's got an amazing defense. They just need their offense to do a little bit, uh, and they can win games or just get the referees to help them out. Like they did in the Colts game, uh, with two horrific calls at the end that really robbed the Colts of a win. Uh, but what is the deal with Deshaun Watson?

You know, he was talking today and saying that he, he doesn't want to play until that shoulder is a hundred percent. And I get it, but it kind of feels like when you get out of a relationship and you want to see your ex, but you want to like, make sure that like, you look great. You've got the revenge body.

You've got the good outfit. Like you want to make sure that the next time they see you, you are at the top of your game. And since Deshaun Watson sat out the year in Houston, sat out the time for his suspension, he has not looked good. And the first year it was kind of like, wow.

Okay. He's, you know, trying to get back in football shape. He's trying to get back into the rhythm of the game this year. He starts out, he doesn't look great.

He doesn't look like he's worth all that guaranteed money. And then he gets hurt. And now he kind of has this excuse to be like, okay, well, I don't want to come back until I'm a hundred percent because I don't want to risk looking bad. So I'm now going to take my time, make sure, you know, I'm getting in the gym.

I'm doing all the things to have that revenge body so that now I can come back and I can remind everyone why I'm so good, but I want to make sure that there's no excuses when I come back. So, but it still feels like right at this point, it feels like this is going down is the worst trade in NFL history between what Cleveland gave up the money that they paid him and the returns that they're getting. And you, you hit the nail on the head. They have a championship defense. They were in a very similar situation to the jets where this is an elite defense, but they don't have the offensive support. And unlike the jets, their guy is, I mean, Aaron Rogers would kill to only have a shoulder injury. He would be out there slinging at John Watson play through a torn ACL at Clemson.

They would love to have that as their problem. Cleveland hat, like their, their quarterback that they've spent all this money on all these resources on is in the building. He's walking around in theory. He could probably play, but he just isn't the guy that he was when he came out in college.

He just, he isn't. And I think that that's a really tough thing for him to accept and for the franchise to accept because he's still got several years of guaranteed money on that contract. That's really going to hamstring them as far as what they can do going forward and what moves they can make to add to this team.

Yeah. They can't trade him. I know I saw somebody speculate that. Well, maybe they'll trade him. Nobody's taking that contract. Nobody's got the cap room to take that contract.

I don't know. I mean, I, I think you can eat some of it. I think there are rules that would allow the Browns to, you know, retain some of the money, but man, they it's the contract that nearly wrecked quarterbacks and nearly wrecked the Baltimore Ravens. And there's no direct correlation between Deshaun Watson and the Baltimore Ravens because it, it forced Lamar Jackson.

And I, I agree with him to hold out for the best possible deal that he could get. And by the way that we're in the part of the season where Lamar Jackson looks like he's worth all of it. He Lamar Jackson is playing incredibly well. I mean, the, the game they had against Detroit was one of those games where you say, Oh yeah, that's right. Lamar Jackson has been an MVP.

He can be it again. Yeah. He's worth Deshaun Watson's contract and Deshaun Watson is not worth his contract in the slightest. You could put a free and forced, you could put a free to, you know, a good home sign on him and put him out on the curb and nobody's taking him because they know it's not really free. It's like you buy a Peloton bike from somebody and then realize, Oh, I have to pay this insane monthly fee to be able to use it.

So that's kind of what Deshaun Watson is. He's a, he's a free Peloton bike on the curb that nobody's going to take because they don't want to have to pay the monthly maintenance fee and, you know, Jim's subscription fee. Uh, the Peloton, I don't know. I don't, I don't want to compete on, on the, I just want to get my work done and go.

I don't, I don't, I don't want to have to, uh, to prove it to, uh, to anybody. Brook Pryor is joining us here before we, uh, we let you tell everybody where you're going to be on TV tomorrow. Uh, because we kind of hinted at the trade deadline. Uh, do you think there's a big piece that is going to move in the next week?

I mean, I don't know. I don't really feel like there is because it seems like, I mean, the Panthers, it feels like are the most likely team to move something because they're starting out Oh, and six, and they need to, you know, get a first round pick, but you know, it seemed like the Minnesota Vikings, I thought could, you know, maybe part with like Kirk cousins or something to the jets. I know that was, that was a source of speculation a week or two ago, but now they're winning. So do you really want to trade anything away? The giants have told take one, they're not trading him. Devante Adams, it seems like he would like to go somewhere.

He also seems like a guy that's, that would be on my most likely if there's going to be a move, it will be him. Um, but it just right now at this point, it doesn't feel like we're gearing up for any sort of splash unless, you know, this is the way that the NFL walls us and do this sense of, you know, Oh, nothing's going to happen. We're just going to be here and just kind of coast on and the trade deadline is going to come and go, and we can all go trick or treating with our friends and family. And then all of a sudden we're going to be in the middle of putting on face paint and Devante Adams is going to go to Dallas. And now we're writing up a news story with like half a clown face on. So, you know, just, just normal things in, in the NFL world. Did, did you just tip your hand on your Halloween costume, Brooke prior?

Unfortunately, no. Um, as creative as I can be, when I write, I lack that when it comes to Halloween costumes. So I am a Halloween costume appreciator.

I like looking at what everyone else has done while I wear like a Halloween themed sweatshirt and pass out candy and call it a day. Beautiful. Beautiful. Right. Final thing is we have our rookie quarterback bowl because people here, uh, and in Charlotte have completely decided that the Panthers have already lost the draft, even though we are six games into both careers, CJ Stroud and Bryce young, um, your thoughts on this game and ultimately what it means.

I mean, look, we, we love a snap reaction, right? I mean, I think that I was never a fan of Bryce. Young is the number one overall pick. I said from the beginning, I thought he was too small and so many things had to go right for him to make an immediate impact.

And I was looking at guys like a Kyler Murray recently, who obviously is still injured right now, working his way back as, as a sign, you know, I want to take somebody that I think will project to be more durable. And I really liked Anthony Richardson and look at how much I know because he's now done for the year. Um, but I do think that it it's too early to say that the Panthers lost the draft, but gosh, extrapolating out from their, you know, small sample sizes, TJ Stroud is really, really good. I saw him in Houston, uh, when they beat the Steelers and put on an absolute clinic and it was really impressive. And he was doing it with like backup on backup on backup offensive lineman. I mean, he had guys going down in the game.

He had guys on IR to start the game and yet he looked so poised and was playing like a much older player and just like the savviness of, of his moves. And so, yeah, I mean, I think this is going to be a painful one for Panthers fans, um, to keep an eye on because it's going to be the, what if bowl that we could have had this, if we, if we had just done one more thing, if we just had a different evaluation, we could have had that guy. Um, and I, you know, I feel for my friends who are getting married in Charlotte on Saturday, big Panthers fans, they are having their day after wedding brunch at a sports bar to watch the Panthers game. So, um, thoughts and prayers to that, that is a Rocky way to start off a marriage. That is, uh, that's an interesting after the wedding, uh, idea. Um, I would, I would simply say, and I said this at the time they did it trading up from nine to one in this draft. Okay.

That's a choice. Uh, when, when Drake may, the Charlotte kid is waiting in the next draft, but that's okay. That's uh, that's and Caleb Williams too.

Uh, you know, some people think as generational prospect, I don't think anybody thought these kids were generational prospects, but good ones. Frank Reich says he liked all the quarterbacks. Well, I mean, he's going to say that, uh, w when are you on TV tomorrow, Brooke? I will be on ESPN from eight to 10 AM on get up.

And I am very excited to be joining my friends in the seaport. So I got to watch, uh, Thursday night football, send them all my notes on the Baker, Josh Allen bowl. And, uh, yeah, I'm excited Baker Mayfield's a guy I know very well from covering him at OU. So I'm excited to talk about him and, uh, whatever the bills decide to do, whatever version Superman that shows up for Josh Allen, the Superman with the glasses still on, we'll be watching it in the studio because ESPN is on all day. Hey, Brooke prior. I appreciate your time as always.

I'll talk to you soon. Absolutely. Thanks guys. Thanks. Brooke's the best.