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00:00This is every year, the Bills opener, the league starting week one, picks, you and I
00:11love picks, we're great at it, we live for picks, fantasy, and one more thing, finding
00:20out where Ross is going to see which game, and there's been a little bit of change, climbing
00:27that landscape. Climbing the corporate ladder at CBS Sports is our buddy Ross Tucker. Let's
00:32find out. Ross Tucker with us on the West Her Hotline. This NFL Insider Call is presented
00:36by Nationwide. For your insurance and financial needs, Nationwide is on your side. Hi Ross,
00:42how was your summer? It was pretty amazing, actually. Awesome, awesome off-season on a
00:51lot of different levels, and now I'm ready to go, ready to roll, and got a pretty good
00:56one week one. I got the Bills, Bills and the Texans. I don't know, I mean, I think I have
01:02the best game of the day. I guess I'm biased, but I did my power rankings today for the Ross
01:08Tucker football podcast, and I had, I can't remember which one, but I had one of them as
01:12the fourth best team, the other one as the fifth best team, so I got a matchup of two
01:17of the five best teams in the NFL, according to me, so that's pretty good.
01:23Yeah, we were talking about you here and there in the off-season, wondering what would
01:27sort of shake out with CBS, and I even wondered if maybe they would give Bills Texans to Nance
01:36with, you know, if it matters, if he's going to be with J.J. Watt, both have Houston ties.
01:41I mean, there's a 4-25 game, which, you know, I don't know, that's how it is now, but I
01:46think
01:47Green Bay, Minnesota Bulldog, is that the game? Yeah, I think that's right.
01:49It's a CBS game, so good for you. That'll be cool to hear you on Sunday.
01:53Yeah, it's the first time we've had a chance to talk. I mean, I know I texted you, but
01:55like, in front of everybody here, I mean, congratulations, dude. Like, you must be over
01:59the moon with this.
02:01Yeah, I mean, I'm super excited. Number one, this will be the first time, I think, since
02:08I retired, I will not call a single college football game, so I'm a little bit sad about
02:14that, because I love college football, and I'll miss that, but I'm very much looking
02:20forward to doing an NFL game every Sunday, and kind of knew that for a while was going
02:25to be the case, and then found out more recently that I'm going to be working with Ian Eagle,
02:30and Ian and I have done a bunch of radio games for Western One over the years, so it's really
02:38natural and comfortable, and it's probably like you guys working together for as long
02:42as you have. It just, it gets you excited when you know you've done so many games with
02:49a guy like that already. I think he's one of the best to ever do it. I don't think that
02:54that's hyperbole. I think he's hilarious. I think he's terrific at what he does, and because
03:00we've done so many radio games together, I'm just pretty pumped that more people are going
03:07to get a chance to hear what that sounds like. You know, I already kind of have a pretty good
03:11idea of what it's going to sound like in my mind, and I know TV is different, but it's
03:16not that different, you know? I mean, it's still two guys talking about the game. The difference
03:20is sometimes I'll be drawing stuff on the screen, and on the radio, you're not, but I love working
03:26with an eye, and I think it's going to be a blast, and it looks like, you know, for however
03:30many games we get to do together, it looks like they're really good games, so it'll be
03:36fun.
03:37Yeah, too bad about the college part of it. I mean, I guess you can't have everything,
03:41but no more, we won't be able to hear reports from Ross about, like, West Point, that stadium
03:46you love, or the day trip to Hawaii, when you fly to Hawaii for one day to do a game,
03:53and
03:53then you're back on the plane.
03:54Well, Tuck Spread's content will take a hit here, Ross, because you're going to only be
03:57in one press box a week now if you're just doing the NFL game.
04:00Unless you have Monday night. Unless you have radio on Monday night. Do you have some of
04:02that?
04:04I do have some radio. I don't know if it'll be the same volume as other years, but I
04:11do have some radio. In fact, I will be in my beloved Buffalo for the home opener.
04:17Sweet.
04:17On Thursday night, so I actually have the first two Bills games. I think it's, you know, it makes
04:23a lot of sense for Westwood one to put me on that Thursday night home opener. I mean,
04:29if they're going to open up a stadium that a lot of people are saying the house that Ross
04:34Tucker built because of those 18 starts back in 2003, 2004, which I'm a little surprised
04:41how many people are saying that, but I guess I kind of understand it. I guess I kind of understand
04:46the impact that that had on the organization two decades later.
04:50Yeah. It would be weird to have to hear Solomon Wilcots describe that, you know, if you're
04:57not there on the broadcast for that game. Like, just talking about you and your career
05:00and what you've meant to the Bills when, you know, they could have picked you for it.
05:03Is he still in the game? I don't even know.
05:06I don't know. I do know though. I'm going to walk around and try to see where they have
05:12the statue, um, you know, where they put up, you know, where, where, where I am in
05:18the ring of honor. It might, it might be a while. I might have to get there early, but
05:22I'm going to try to find my spot in the ring of honor and try to find the statue. Just
05:27try to find all the, all the tributes to that unbelievable job. I did at right guard
05:32center and left guard. They do have five years ago. They have something called the Highmark
05:36trail, which is about a two mile trail around the stadium. And my understanding is Ross
05:41that, that you're part of that statue that you're describing, I think is out near the
05:44Walmart out near the five corners, I think is where that is. So it's at least it's there.
05:48You know what? That would be, that would be a fitting tribute for a blue collar guy like
05:55me that got it done. That got it done for two years for the, for the best, for the best
06:01team to never make the playoffs, the 2004 Buffalo Bills. Well, you must, that actually
06:06is correct. Yes. You must be full on into prep then for this game. And, you know, knowing
06:12you were going to do the game, maybe you've been thinking about and, and, and, and, you
06:16know, ruminating about the bills and what this season could be for them. I mean, we're like,
06:22what's your, what's your cold open on Sunday? Like how, how are you feeling about the 2026
06:26bills? Well, it's interesting because I feel there's a lot of similarities between both
06:33these teams, you know, like Texans fans are just so ready for them to get over the hump
06:41and get past the divisional round. They've never gotten to a conference championship game.
06:45Never. They've been around since 2002 now. And the thing is, it's like, it's one thing to
06:51never get to the conference championship game, but they get to the divisional round a lot,
06:56you know, like the last three years. In fact, they just can't kind of get over that hump.
07:02And obviously the bills, you guys are very well aware, have not been able to get back to the
07:07Superbowl in a long time, even though they've been knocking on the door. So it's weird because
07:14maybe I'll even say this, I don't know, but you know, week one is always about the optimism
07:19and the excitement and the high expectations. It feels to me a little different for these teams.
07:25It feels to me, I don't think now or never is like the right way to describe it, but
07:31there's just this general sense of like, okay, guys, it's time now. You know what I mean? Like,
07:37it's like we've been knocking on the door and knocking on the door and the bills have been knocking
07:41on the door longer than Texans, but it's time. I think the difference is, is that the bills made
07:49more drastic changes in order to try to knock the door down, you know, promoting the OC,
07:58the head coach, firing the head coach, you know, obviously the new D coordinator. So I'm really
08:05curious to see how it goes with Jimmy Leonard, former teammate of mine, and to see what Brady's
08:12like as a head coach and how they come out, you know, obviously I went back and watched the week
08:1812 game against the Texans last year, man, that was ugly. That was really, really ugly. They better
08:26play better than that. I know that much because, uh, they were fortunate to even really be in that
08:32game. The Ray Davis kickoff return cook had a long touchdown run. You know, I just think,
08:37um, the Texans defense is as legit as legit gets. And so, um, I'm greatly looking forward to it.
08:49I would think that the bills would have a better plan for blocking Daniel Hunter and Willie Anderson
08:56in this game. And they did in week 12 last year. They lost there the year before also. And that
09:03game
09:03wasn't pretty either. Allen went nine for 30, a stat line. You almost can't even believe,
09:08but that was in Houston in 2024 with Ross Tucker, who, as he told us, will be on the
09:14TV broadcast for the opener on Sunday insider calls brought to you by nationwide nationwide is so much
09:21more than a great insurance company. They're one of America's largest financial services companies to
09:26nationwide is on your side. Any particular thoughts, Ross, on the dynamic changing with Brady now as
09:35the head coach on one hand, I feel like, well, Allen is used to him. He's been here for what,
09:42three years now, if not longer already. And he's calling plays like there's, there is a sameness to
09:48it, but as the head coach, maybe this is just more a question about the defense or something. Although
09:53they have someone else to call those plays, I wonder just how different it is likely to be.
10:00Well, so there's two components of it to me that I think are equally important that maybe
10:08people aren't talking enough about. I think everyone can say, okay, first time head coach
10:14and what's it going to be like in terms of his cloth management and game strategy and who's helping
10:22him with that and how aggressive will he be? All those things. Right. I think the other component
10:28of it though, is he's obviously spending a lot more time on those duties. He's obviously, you know,
10:36there's a lot more on your plate, even just from a media perspective, when you're the head coach,
10:41does his play calling suffer? Does his game planning suffer? And that's why he brought in Pete Carmichael,
10:49who I have a lot of respect for. I think Pete can help in that regard, but I think there
10:54will be so
10:55much of an emphasis on how Brady calling the plays affects his ability to make good decisions as a head
11:03coach. What about the opposite? You know, what about, you know, Joe Brady being the head coach?
11:09How much does it affect his play calling, his game planning and how well the offense performs?
11:17So I think that's a critical, critical component of this. I do think that the dynamic between he and
11:25Josh Allen is super interesting because, you know, there's kind of a pecking order in every organization
11:33and McDermott had been there so long. I think we all know there's probably nobody more important
11:39than a franchise quarterback. And certainly that's the case in Buffalo, but there was a certain
11:43power dynamic or structure there with Josh and McDermott, but especially like a younger
11:50offensive coordinator, like Joe Brady compared to the franchise quarterback who was there with
11:57day ball before Brady was there, you know, the power dynamic there is a lot different. And so now Brady's
12:06the
12:06head coach. I think that those guys get along famously and that they probably have a really good
12:14relationship, but that's easy to say like in June and July and August. What about when the head coach wants
12:23to do something that the quarterback doesn't and they disagree? Or what if the quarterback convinces the head
12:30coach to do something that maybe the head coach doesn't want to do, but he wants to do it because
12:34the
12:34quarterback wants to do it. So they go for it and they don't get it. Then they lose the game.
12:37You know, these are,
12:39these are real things that happen with teams and we'll see how it plays out in Buffalo because there aren't,
12:47you know, I have our research guys looking this up. There's not a lot of examples of this. There's not
12:51a lot of examples.
12:52You know, there's examples where like Bill Walsh retires and then George Seifert gets promoted to be
13:01the head coach. There's not as many examples where the head coach gets fired and then the coordinator
13:08gets promoted. Yeah, that was definitely a big talking point when it happened was when, because
13:14there was how much time between the firing and the announcement that Brady was taking over. I mean,
13:21the point seemed to be about change. The proverbial playoff wall, as the owner put it. And then now
13:30you're promoting from within and elevating the GM to a position. Didn't really feel like that much
13:35change was really happening. That's, that's what I'm wondering is just like, how, how will it be
13:40different? There's a theory here. If you haven't already covered this, which you may have mostly at
13:44least, um, that Brady maybe couldn't do all he wanted to do in terms of the offense because he had
13:53a boss. And I think fans kind of want that to be true, Ross, you know, that, that maybe we
13:59can get a
13:59little bit more Josh Allen, even though they had the league's leading rusher last year. I think most fans
14:04feel like, you know, I'm not sure they're wasting him, but that you want he to be, you want Allen
14:10to be
14:11the central figure that maybe he was a few years ago, more so than in the last couple.
14:17Yep. And I think that's what's going to be so cool about this season is letting it play out.
14:24I will say though, that let's say they throw the ball downfield more, or let's say they don't run
14:30it quite as much. That doesn't necessarily mean that it was McDermott holding Joe Brady back.
14:37It might also mean that they have DJ more now, you know? So that's the thing about football is it's
14:44never going to be necessarily one plus one equals two, because there's always new parts. There's
14:52always new faces. Do I think that Sean McDermott as a defensive minded head coach likes when they
15:00would run the ball? Yeah. Do I think it's weird that the bills had the shortest average depth of
15:08target of any team in the NFL? Very, you know, but I do think that's a product of the receiving
15:16core
15:17they had and Shakir being so good, run after the catch and just getting the ball 10 quickly. But
15:24I mean, you've got, I think a guy most people would say is the most physically gifted quarterback in the
15:30NFL, maybe the most physically gifted, or certainly one of the most physically gifted guys we've ever
15:36seen. And he's 32nd, the bill is 32nd. Yeah. In terms of throwing the ball down the field, like how
15:43far
15:43they do it, how often that just feels weird. Doesn't feel right. No, it's never really made sense. I, you
15:49know, another little piece of this that I find interesting Ross is that while I think, you know,
15:55like Mike said, there's, I think an appetite within the fan base to like, okay, turn it loose. Now
16:00you don't have Sean McDermott saying, you know, control the clock, keep the ball away, whatever
16:04he might've been saying. We don't really know. It's all just sort of supposition here or exactly
16:09supposition. But, um, the, the other piece to that, that sort of flies directly in the face of that
16:15narrative is that there's been this, this thread through Josh Allen's time here as he's developed
16:20into this, this player that he is now that he has to do too much. You're he's got too much
16:26on his
16:26plate. Like that, that's part of the cook point. Like, well, let's get something off of Josh Allen's
16:31plate here. And the idea of Brady leaning into him more, I think is a way of saying we're putting
16:37more back on his plate. So like, which is it? Yeah. Well, I'm, I am very familiar with putting
16:46more on a plate. Um, and I can, I can speak to that. And sometimes you want more and you
16:54might
16:54even feel like you can handle more, but ultimately it wasn't the right decision. You would have been
17:02better off with a little bit less on your plate. So I don't know, you know, the reality is the
17:08bills haven't been able to get there. They haven't been able to get done in terms of getting to the
17:12Superbowl and or winning it. And so when it was Josh doing too much, it was like, you can't have
17:20it
17:20all be Josh Allen hero ball. You got to take some off his plate. Then. Okay. They did that cook
17:25had an
17:26unbelievable year. They ran the ball extremely well, but they still didn't get over the hump. So now it's
17:31back to, well, maybe we should put more on Josh. I don't know. I mean, it's back and forth, right?
17:37Yeah. It's, it's like the teams always end up hiring a coach. It's the, you know, if they had a
17:44disciplinarian, they hire a player's coach. If they had a player's coach, they hire a disciplinarian,
17:49you know, that guy might not be the right guy, but that's, that's the reaction. That's the,
17:54the yin and the yang of trying to always, um, account for whatever you feel like might've been
18:03the issue previously. I think ultimately, you know, what happened, what matters is what you do
18:11in that game that day. We've talked about it a lot. They need to decrease their degree of difficulty
18:19in the post season. They need to not be going to Jacksonville, then to Denver. I know they can get
18:26it done, but man, it'd be a lot nicer if they could find a way to not lose some of
18:32these regular
18:33season games that they typically lose like in Houston and have it affect their seating later in
18:41the year. Ross, before you go, have you got a team or two around the league that maybe you think
18:47that people are largely missing the point about either as a, you know, a surprise good team or the
18:54opposite? Yeah. I mean, I, I think, uh, kind of like the new Orleans saints to win the NFC South.
19:03That counts. I'm not hearing that from a lot of people. So I kind of like the saints to win
19:06the NFC
19:07South. I'm not really as high on the Ravens as a lot of people seem to be, you know, they
19:13have a lot
19:14of moving parts, the first time ever play caller, first time head coach. So I don't know that I'm
19:20feeling what everybody else is feeling there. You know, I, I, I think the Broncos are really good.
19:27You know, I have the Broncos, I think on my predictions episode, uh, them going to the Super
19:31Bowl, you know, they have, you know, one of the two or three best offensive lines, one of the two
19:38or
19:38three best defenses. That's a pretty good place to start, you know, those two. And I know they
19:44didn't get done last year, but their quarterback broke his ankle and couldn't play in the AFC
19:48championship game. I don't know. Anybody that doesn't think the Broncos would have won that
19:52game if Bo Nix was in it. So, um, I think the Broncos are still a little bit under the
19:58radar.
19:59Um, I, you know, I don't know if this counts, but I kind of think the Vikings, you know,
20:04that NFC North is wild and that you could put all four teams in a hat and pick them out
20:10and say,
20:11that's the final order. And I would believe you and think it's okay, but they won nine games with
20:16bottom three quarterback play in the NFL bottom three. If Kevin O'Connell can just get Kyler Murray
20:23to play average, just average, you would think that the Vikings would win double digit games. And it feels
20:31like they're kind of going under the radar with all the Chicago love. Well, Ross, good luck finding
20:38that statue next week. I mean, I don't know if Bulldog was trying to lead you astray or just what
20:43that was, um, but excited that you'll be up here and even that we'll hear you on a, on Sunday
20:49afternoon
20:49this week. Well, if, uh, if I can't find it, I will at least be able to find some Labatt
20:56blue light.
20:57And, uh, that's where you can find me. Maybe they'll make a statue of me drinking a Labatt blue
21:01light. If there's no actual statue of me anywhere around the state, I'm just trying to the ring of
21:07honor. I mean, come on, can I at least make what we need a secondary ring of honor. We need
21:13like a
21:13WGR ring of honor. That's what you guys should do. You guys should in the off season when you got
21:19nothing to talk about other than like the Sabres fourth line guys come up with like a WGR, uh,
21:26hall of honor there. You guys can be, you guys, you guys can both be in it. Uh, Howard can
21:31be in
21:32it, but then you gotta have been a separate wing for the guests. Ring of compliments. The guests
21:36wing of ring of, uh, station's old enough. I mean, it has been a hundred years, so there's probably
21:42some deserving names for that. Ring of all right. We'll come up with that. I'm work, I'm workbooking
21:48here. I gotta come up with something. Thank you, Ross. We'll talk next Tuesday. Sounds great. See
21:54you guys. All right. There you go. Um, you first, I've got, why don't you do the nation? We got
22:01nationwide open there. I do do that. This NFL insider call is presented by nationwide for your insurance
22:06and financial needs. Nationwide is on your side. And Ross Tucker's appearance with us on WGR's
22:12also brought to you by Northtown Volkswagen, Northtown VW, Western New York's number one VW dealer.