00:00Hey everybody, good morning, happy Friday, football Friday, even though it's been a lot
00:03of hockey today, the Bills are on a bye week, it's how it goes sometimes.
00:06Vic Carucci's appearance on WGR, brought to you by Northtown Volkswagen, Northtown VW,
00:11Weston New York's number one VW dealer.
00:14Jeremy and Joe, Joe is off today, Owen Parker, Joe Calley hanging out, and Mr. Vic Carucci
00:20joining us here on the show.
00:22Vic, good morning.
00:24Good morning, Jeremy, great to be with you.
00:26Great to have you on, bye week.
00:27What will you do with your Sunday?
00:31Yeah, here's a shocker, I'm going to watch football, but I will try to do the preparation
00:37for winter thing around the house, right, cover stuff and put stuff away, and stuff I generally
00:44hate to do, because, you know, it makes it, it just, it's sad, it's sad, but necessary.
00:50Yeah, I'll be, I'll try to make some comfort food, maybe I'll make some stew or some chilies,
00:54the temperature dips, you know, the menu opens up, it's one of the things I do love about fall.
00:59My wife, Rhonda, I was going to say she handles that wonderfully, there will be some good
01:04dining experience through the whole weekend, for sure.
01:08Vic, five and one at the bye, I think a lot of the Bills fans would think about this team
01:11like, things are going well, but also at the same time, there are a lot of things to kind
01:16of figure out, and I want to start with the defense and what you think about how they've
01:21looked through six games, there have been explosive plays, there's uncertainty in the
01:25secondary, and Tredavious White is back on the practice squad and maybe going to be elevated
01:31to the active roster somewhat soon.
01:32So, how concerning do you find the issues they have in the secondary right now?
01:38Well, yeah, it'd be impossible to say they're not a concern or not a potential threat to the
01:46long-term thoughts that we have for this team, but the key here is that there are long-term
01:53thoughts, and those are legit because of the way the offense plays, because of an offense
01:58that's averaging, what, 33 points per game.
02:01A defense that's allowing nearly 30 points a game is a problem, but only as such that
02:09if you think that what the team is doing offensively won't be sustainable for the whole rest of
02:19the year, that's, I think, an overstatement because I think there are many opportunities
02:24for them to continue humming along with that pace, again, assuming health in the right places,
02:30especially quarterback is what it needs to be.
02:33But, yeah, the thing with the defense is more along the lines of, and I think we've had this
02:40discussion before, Jeremy, is when you get to January, when you get to postseason, what
02:46is it going to be like then?
02:47And I think a couple of things can happen.
02:50One, there can be a better understanding of how this scheme should be played.
02:57Jim Leonard gaining the experience of coaching it.
03:00I don't think some have wanted to wash him out as a, you know, this is a disaster.
03:05This is an experiment gone bad.
03:07I don't agree with that from a coaching standpoint.
03:09I still think the issue is more personnel-wise.
03:12The fact that they did bring in Tredavious White, it's not a real fix, but it's something
03:19in its experience, and it's the adult in the room thing, and he's here to play.
03:24I don't think there's any doubt about that.
03:26What kind of upgrade that'll be, I'm dubious about, and what kind of fixes they can make
03:33at this stage via trade.
03:35You know, obviously, free agency, that's the kind of thing you can do is sign Tredavious
03:41White.
03:41That's not a big fix from a free agent standpoint, and I wasn't expecting a free agent fix.
03:47The trade thing is kind of intriguing, but I don't know, Jeremy.
03:51I don't see how 4.5 million in cap room and, you know, what you're going to give up in
03:59the
03:59way of pick and so forth, or picks.
04:02Is that what you do right now?
04:04And I've got my doubts about that.
04:06Yeah.
04:07I'm waiting for more names to kind of trickle out.
04:09We've still got like three weeks until the trade deadline, so we'll see about that.
04:12I do think Bills fans would be expecting there to be something if the defense still looks
04:17like this, but we'll see.
04:19Vic, what do you think about C.J.
04:20Gardner-Johnson and what the Bills have decided to do here?
04:23I mean, Joe Brady has a moment here if he wants to, you know, draw a line in the sand
04:28as behavior outside of the game that's unacceptable he could have.
04:34He instead kind of got his back a little bit, right?
04:37Had his back about wanting players like this.
04:39And while they might have wanted to sign up for players with a certain edge, I'm sure
04:42they didn't want to sign up for a player that did what C.J.
04:45Gardner-Johnson did, what allegedly Sam Franklin did.
04:47We'll find out about his appeal.
04:49Yeah, Jeremy, it went way over a line for me.
04:52And my personal sense would be if I'm in the spot of Joe Brady or Brandon Bean, he's out.
04:59I caught him.
05:00I was ready to.
05:01And in my mind, the fact that he is still a Buffalo Bill doesn't sit well with me.
05:07And I don't think it's just the one thing.
05:09I'm still very bothered by the post-Patriot game remarks.
05:13I thought those were silly, uncalled for.
05:16And again, I think you've got to stand for something.
05:19I think you have to have a standard.
05:21And I'm not saying it's all this Boy Scouts, choir boy type of team.
05:27And I heard what Joe Brady was saying about we can't have everybody alike.
05:32You've got to have different personalities.
05:34And he didn't use the word disruptor.
05:36But OK, we knew what he meant by that.
05:39The guy with the edge and all that.
05:41This went beyond that.
05:42And his play, to me, doesn't warrant hanging on to that kind of player.
05:47He's not playing well enough that you go out of your way to draw the line in the sand for
05:53that.
05:54Having said all that, Joe Brady's not crazy and not stupid.
06:00What because he certainly sees something that I won't say we because I'm not going to assume what you know
06:08on or believe on this.
06:09But I don't see he and and he is the same guy.
06:14These are different circumstances.
06:15But let's think about Keon Coleman.
06:18Let's think about the, you know, the polarizing, whatever the term is of nature of what he was about before
06:25this year or certainly in the in the infamous press conference with Terry Pagula.
06:31And he stands behind that guy.
06:33He believes something's going to turn with him or will turn with him.
06:37He made it a mission to do that, no doubt.
06:40And it's working and it's working.
06:42The guy, I mean, it's a good sample size of the Keon Coleman that from a playing standpoint that they
06:49saw the more responsible guy you would think.
06:53I don't know about him showing up for meetings and all that, but I'm going to guess it's all working
06:57out.
06:57And certainly the play on the field is working out.
07:00Same guy who's doing that is the same guy saying CJ Gardner Johnson, despite what it looks like, is a
07:06good thing for us.
07:07But I'm not a buyer on that.
07:09Yeah.
07:09And, you know, with Brady, the thing I wonder about, he's I don't know that how much you think he's
07:15still finding himself as a head coach.
07:16Back in training camp, it was Alec Anderson said he's like the fun uncle.
07:20Then the Bills kind of like wanted to get out ahead of that.
07:23Not like Brady.
07:24He has the respect of the players.
07:26When he's talking about CJ Gardner Johnson and laying out how we welcome players like that, he very quickly at
07:32the end throws in.
07:33And I'm not afraid to address it.
07:34Like he wants to be the player's coach, but he also has to let the fans know, you know, it's
07:40still my show to some degree.
07:43Yeah, he's evolving.
07:45There's no doubt.
07:46And he's still trying to find his way.
07:49And it's really hard.
07:50I mean, I none of us can really appreciate the level of difficulty that goes into that role as a
07:57head coach.
07:57And, you know, can you but can you be all things to all people?
08:02No.
08:03But the one thing I think you have to be foundationally is true to the vision, the plan, the back
08:10to what do you stand for?
08:12What is your you know, what's your core?
08:15What's your core belief?
08:16What's your what's your view of how this program runs?
08:21You know, wins and losses, everything else, a part of that.
08:24But there's a foundational thing.
08:25My question, Jeremy, is how was that established?
08:29Like, what were the conversations like?
08:31There were conversations, even if he was earmarked for the job, which I firmly believe that there was no doubt
08:37it was going to go that way.
08:39But that's one part of it.
08:41The other part of it is what did he say or what did he present to ownership, especially Terry?
08:49And I'm going to say Brandon Bean to another extent, because the kinds of conversations they had when he took
08:55the head the head coaching job during this interview phase are different than the ones they were having while he
09:01was a coordinator.
09:02Right.
09:03And and then there is the how much of the change has to come about that that makes this program
09:11different from Sean McDermott.
09:13And and that's the part that I'm kind of a little not sure of, because we know what Sean's behavioral
09:22standard was, generally speaking, and that it was pretty firm.
09:25And it felt to me like Joe, especially at his introductory press conference, appreciated, respected what Sean was about, went
09:34out of his way to acknowledge that he gave him the opportunity.
09:37But maybe that's what it just was gave giving him the opportunity, how much of the, quote, head coaching program
09:44that Sean put in place, seeped into Joe's thinking.
09:49And and by the way, Sean wasn't the only head coach, he's been around, we know, and the other Sean
09:54Payton, other head coaches, other influences he's had.
09:58So the I don't know, the aggregation of that, has it given him like the real sense of how to
10:04do a program where you you can be the guy the players draw energy from, but also be the guy
10:12they respect?
10:12Vic, what do you think about last night, anything come out for you, whether it's how good Caleb Williams looked,
10:18or if it's the Patriots, who I think are a good team, it was it was a good game between
10:22two good teams, to my eye.
10:24Yeah, good, right. I saw it the same way. I expected the Bears to win it. I was I was
10:30firmly of that camp. I didn't, you know, so whatever.
10:33But in terms of how it played out, I think seeing the decisive play for the Patriots, a Drake May
10:42interception in the end zone, kill 14 point swing right there.
10:46That to me is embodies what their season has been about, right? That was the Patriots before they faced the
10:54Bills.
10:54So how they found a way to beat the Bills and catch the Bills in that circumstance, you know, says
11:00something about the Bills, but it also says a lot about what they are.
11:05And it's going to be these fits and starts. They're a good team. I don't. And I think they're in
11:10their right place.
11:11I think their record is probably right where it should be. And from a they're still going to be lingering
11:16in the rearview mirror for the Bills.
11:19But the question is, how far back do they go?
11:21Yeah. Yeah. Vic Carucci joining us here on a football Friday. Vic, thanks. We'll talk ahead of Baltimore next week.
11:28Sounds great, Jeremy. Vic Carucci joining us here. Part of football Friday and Vic's appearance brought to you by Northtown
11:34Volkswagen, Northtown VW, Western New York's number one VW dealer.
11:38Everybody enjoy your bye week watching football or, you know, whatever you might do.
11:42Going to Syracuse and Niagara basketball tomorrow at Key Bank Center.
11:48We have another contest for that? We have another pair of tickets?
11:50We do. We do. Yeah. You want to do it now?
11:52Yeah. All right. Be caller number three for a pair of tickets to Syracuse and Niagara tomorrow at Key Bank
11:59Center.
12:00Games at three o'clock and 2214 WGR.
12:04Be caller three to 2214 WGR.
12:07Win a pair of tickets. And again, check out tickets for that if you want to go.
12:10Tomorrow afternoon, some basketball at Key Bank Center.
12:13Jeremy and Joe. Joe's out today.
12:16Nine o'clock. We do the Super Recreate American Football Friday Frenzy, including some Bills Bi-Week Awards and the
12:21games we'll all watch this week around the country.
12:25Coming up.
12:26All right.
12:29All right.
