What are some of the things that you're looking forward to seeing from Houston's defense that Buffalo Bill fans need to know or any questions in general that you want to ask?

Well, I think the understanding of Houston's defense is pretty straightforward.

It's not a super complex scheme.

They just have amazing players, right? I mean, Will Anderson, Daniil Hunter, Derek Stingley, Kamari Lassiter, Al Shayer, Kalen Bullock, Reed Blankenship now part of this mix.

I really like Tommy Togei, Sheldon Rankins on the inside.

I mean, there's really good players, Jalen Petrie, all over the place, man.

They don't have to get complex.

I got Houston winning this game, but I do want to hear your game predictions and why.

Is there a world that you s- can see the Bills live in where they have better results in some of their one-on-one matchups up front when they have the ball?

Well, don't forget it was a short week on the road, [laughs] a- as well.

I mean, it was a, it was a tough situation for the Bills.

I expect the offensive line to be significantly better, uh, than they were last game.

Obviously, low bar to clear.

Uh, they gave up eight sacks, and Josh Allen, he got hit 12 times, a career high eight sacks.

But ultimately, that was not a group that was playing their best football.

H- what do you think about that piece of it and just, like, the unknown the Texans are facing with this Bills defense?

I mean, everything that we've heard and seen from A.J. Brown throughout this preseason process is this guy looks like wide receiver one on a, on a pretty solid offense that, uh, yeah, competed for a championship

championship... a season ago.

You know, I, I think you're gonna see a healthier Will Campbell.

I know that was a, a massive concern because of that performance in the Super Bowl.

Clearly wasn't 100%.

I think you see a big step for him.

I think Morgan Moses on the other side seems to be solid.

[laughs]

You know, this is a podcast by and for entrepreneurs, so tell us a little bit about, like, starting the business and some of the biggest lessons you lear- you've learned along the way.

So Ribeye is a workflow solution for, I'd say, local advertising.

So to explain it in layman's, uh, we are trying to build the operating system of local so you can plan, buy, measure, optimize, report, attribute all in one place.

And that's for digital, terrestrial media, so linear radio, and, you know, like the fringe media like email and search and social.

I kind of put that all in the fringe as well.

Uh, so that's what Ribeye is.

How we got there was I spent time at companies like MediaMath.

Are there certain principles or values that make someone, like, a great fit for Ribeye, and how has your sort of hiring philosophy, like, evolved over the three or four years of, uh, or four-plus years you said of running the company?

Would you call him your biggest influence in terms of broadcasters or media personalities, or is that more just the knowledge end of things and how he seems to know and have an opinion on every player in the draft?

Mel Kuyper, it's what he does.

He's the guy that made the NFL draft what it's become, right? He's the one that did prospect evaluation and shared opinions and made mock drafts and did player rankings.

And so I loved that and I wanted to do that.

I would say that if there's somebody who's been most inspirational for me in my career, it's probably somebody who doesn't even know that they've done this and it's chris mclean you have probably no idea who that is chris mclean has been a radio host in charlotte for a long time and he's now their morning guy i guess he's their jeremy white if you will and Chris has always been really, really nice to me.

And he would have me on all the time to talk Panthers.

We talk about the draft and our relationship became pretty strong.

for the fans, for the world, for you, if and when Buffalo pulls it off?

I think I have the most questions about them because I can see them like floundering this season because of where some of the rosters where i perceive some of the weaknesses of the roster being and i can also see them as i look across the afc and i see questions with almost every team i could really see a path in which everything clicks from a coaching perspective and i think that's the biggest x factor here probably and they become you know the the number one contender sort of an ease so my question to you i think to start with is to go back a little bit, was moving on from Sean McDermott this offseason and not moving on from Brandon Bean the right move? How do you meet that now, especially as we've gone through the offseason, gone through a draft, gone through the preseason, and we're here at the precipice of the regular season starting? How do you view that transition? Do you view that positively? Did you at the time? Do you view it more positively than you did then? What are your thoughts on that?

Yeah, it's pretty loaded.

And I like how you kind of qualified the direction of where you want me to go.

The answer with the caveat being, well, Brandon Bean stays and not only does he stay, but he gets a promotion, right.

As to kind of like the president of football operations.

And so there's a lot of things that can be true at the same time.

Sean McDermott had a terrific run as head coach.

job,

Through a couple preseason games, what you observed at training camp, are some of those concerns going away for, for you when you see some of the guys operate in this new scheme?

I think, uh, for some of them, yes.

Uh, I think about a guy like Terrell Bernard, where I get excited about Jim Leonard and what he's talked about in terms of simplifying what he's asked to do, and there's not as many checks and as many if-then type things, and he can just play fast.

And I think that'll help a guy like Terrell Bernard, who you could tell he really took a lot of ownership in the defense and the way he communicated or the way he has always communicated with his teammates, and it, it was, I wouldn't say excessive, but he's very intentional.

And I think maybe just taking a little bit off of him and letting him play more free will help, and getting him into situations where, you know, there's those five-man fronts in front of him.

I think that'll help, uh, him overcome some size limitations, and so I feel better about a guy like that, where maybe on the other side of that, T.J. Sanders, I, I find myself a little bit concerned with.

You know, he's a really quick and explosive player, but the power elements of his game haven't really showed up, and now he's gonna have to be more of a gap control player as opposed to a penetration style player.

Is that something that you would maybe shy away from or do you like that idea to kind of get his feet wet in those situations?

He's the real deal, it looks like.

Yeah, I think it's okay to get excited.

He's earned that through these practices.

And, you know, today was really, I feel like, the culmination of what's been kind of brewing with him and Josh Allen and their chemistry, you know, blossoming right before our eyes.

And he's doing the stuff, man.

He really is.

He's...

What's the rest of the week looking like for you, for your bouncing head back home?

Can you talk about the carbon dating of the shroud, um, a- and maybe some of the patchwork that's been done and how that was taken in the '80s? And can you, can you kind of lay out the carbon dating situation with the shroud?

First of all, it's, it's important to note that the, um, carbon dating method was invented only in the, in the '50s, and at that time it, it required like a handkerchief, uh, s- size piece to date.

Later on, they did some refinements and came up with a new method called AMS, accelerator mass spectrometry, and they could use threads.

So, and that was only invented in the late 1970s, and the, the shroud was actually dated 1988.

So at the time of the dating, um, that particular method of, of C14 dating was only about 11 years old and was really pretty much unproven with cloth.

Had a meeting in Turin in 1986, a three-day meeting with the Cardinal of, of Turin to try to plan the protocol, and unfortunately, um, almost all of the major, uh, dictates of, of the proposal were ultimately, um, ignored.

And, um, they came up with several other protocols along the way and, and, uh, just ignored several others as well.

Is that correct?

Kathy told me earlier, she's like, I told me five minutes earlier.

Yeah, she did.

She told me too.

She told me too.

But I'm there defending and not in an argumentative way of, hey, you gave us a system.

We follow the system.

We documented the system.

They keep putting it off.

Tell us.

It's, so, um, I think that there are a lot of different types of reporters.

I don't think crime reporter is like a real...

It, it's not, it, it, it doesn't really tell the story.

You know, I, I think that most crime reporters are really good general assignment reporters, and that's what I started doing when I started at the Post.

Everybody starts the same way.

You're a general, a, a general assignment reporter.

Yeah.

Eine Inszenierung für die Fotografinnen und Filmkameras.

I will-- It was absolutely unprecedented to see the suspect of a New York City shooting homicide escorted off of a helicopter with the mayor of New York City, flanked by heavily armed cops.

It, it was certainly something that was highly, äh, dramatic and unusual.

Und darüber entscheiden, ob Luigi Mangione schuldig ist oder ein Held.

Because that is a crazy world.

Is it you? Do I get to decide? Is that a world we can live in? I don't know.

Who did you pick?

Wow.

All right.

So my 2025 haul, I stuck with Max Hairston as my top pick, and I'm excited about Max.

I thought he did some good things as a rookie.

Obviously, the injuries were not great, but, um, I thought you saw physicality.

I thought you saw some good sticky coverage.

Mm.

[laughs]

Um, not a very spectacular player, but just eats a lot of meaningful snaps.

And, uh, he signed, he signed a decent deal.

They, they paid him a three-year, $24 million deal coming, uh, into 2024.

He played two seasons on it.

It was probably his worst two years, right? So he got paid and didn't quite, uh, live up to that contract.

He was released, uh, this off-season.

Right.

So for you, was going with an edge the right move at 35?

I definitely thought the Bills would be addressing the defensive front seven in some way with their early selections.

Of course, they traded out of the first round, and so this is their first pick.

And so I'm not surprised that it's a defensive front seven player.

Maybe I'm a little surprised that it's an edge rusher, because the depth of this edge rusher class is so deep, and-

Yes

... about T.J. Parker, is that he's young, he's 21, he doesn't turn 22 until some- until September, but he gives you, at 263 pounds, over 33-inch arms, uh, that's not gonna provide a player that really limits the defense.

Now, he's gotta do a better job of learning how to make sure that his physical upside leads to physical advantages when he's going one-on-one with players.

So for you, was going with an edge the right move at 35?

I definitely thought the Bills would be addressing the defensive front seven in some way with their early selections.

Of course, they traded out of the first round, and so this is their first pick.

And so I'm not surprised that it's a defensive front seven player.

Maybe I'm a little surprised that it's an edge rusher, because the depth of this edge rusher class is so deep, and-

Yeah.

Now there was a lot of ideas that the Bills could go with a bursty, bendy, kinda undersized pass rusher, but they prioritize guys that can play on every down, and that's what I like about T.J. Parker is that he's young, he's 21, he doesn't turn 22 until some, until September, but he gives you at 263 pounds, over 33-inch arms, uh, that's not gonna provide a player that really limits the defense.

Now, he's gotta do a better job of learning how to make sure that his physical upside leads to physical advantages when he's going one-on-one with players, but there's a lot of ceiling here, and you definitely get a player that can help you on every down as opposed to just a designated pass rusher type.

... you really have to look at and hope that DJ Moore can regain his form with a coach and a group that he's familiar with from Carolina

It, it's kind of wild.

You know, guys, like, you, you guys know me.

I'm all about this position, this conversation.

I'm just in my, in my head running through some of the math.

Again, we're all kind of reacting freshly to this.

The Bills have, in the first four rounds of the draft...

It, it's a lot with this franchise and the situation they're in.

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If you're gonna give him that, let him have it." That's where I think this game is gonna be won or lost is in the trenches and in the running game.

I'm gonna hire a better offensive coordinator than the Jets have, and we're gonna get more out of him.

I like that a lot, especially with A-chan as your running back.

Like, you could put Hall as your running back and A-chan as your flex.

Have a lot of versatility there, so I, I love that.

Um, okay.

I'm gonna...

Hmm.

Irrelevant.

Mm-hmm.

All right, here's what I have for the Bills to, to get this win and, you know, maintain their chances of winning the AFC East and forcing New England to, to beat Miami.

Uh, number one, it, it's got to be really about population of the ball when Saquon Barkley has it.

I'm very concerned about him hitting explosive runs against this Bills run defense.

And, you know, 25% of the runs for Saquon this year go for less than a yard.

Th- the Bills need to live in that world.

Like, how do they, how do they do that? Right? You know, they got to build a wall.

Right.

(laughs)

... wouldn't do that.

And, and I think there's been times where you could probably say that's happened.

The Bills really...

They're, they're a really good December team.

I think they have, like, a 26 and four record in December going back to, like, the last four years.

They, they really do kind of focus in and handle their business.

Yeah.

Sure.

...

I think metrically it's been very, very poor.

It has turned around significantly over the last three weeks, and that coincides with Shaq Thompson starting at middle linebacker over Terrell Bernard who's been injured.

Weeks one through 11, the Bills were, uh, 31st in rush yards per game, 31st in yards per carry, and 32nd in missed tackles forced per run.

Over the last three games, the Bills are third fewest rush yards per game, fifth fewest yards per carry, and seventh fewest missed tackles per run.

And so I can't make any promises for what it's gonna look like on Sunday, but it has been a lot better story to tell of late.Uh, number two for me is you gotta win third downs on defense.

Yeah.

Hmm.

We're, we're expecting both offenses to move the ball a ton, but if you're not scoring touchdowns-You're leaving a lot of meat on the bone, and you can't leave meat on the bone, where we're expecting a lot of points.

Uh, the Bengals D has given up the most points in the NFL, and the most first downs.

Uh, they're 28th in the red zone.

This can't be a week where the Bills offense is not clicking.

They can't be flat, they cannot be flat.

And you gotta finish drives.

Oh.

(laughs).

Um, they, they are not very firm up front with their defensive tackles.

It's a group that gets worked off the ball.

Not having out Oliver is a big loss.

You know, DaQuan Jones is a, is a very serviceable defensive tackle.

But after that, it's really, there's really not guys that need to be on the field.

Uh, Jordan Phillips can't anchor.

I am not letting you just run the, run me over with this rushing offense knowing, because that's what the Steelers would like to do.

So you have to continuously run the ball because at some point you're gonna start to break off chunks and that's when you're gonna be able to control the clock and start to break down this Bills defense.

Yeah, one of my big keys in this game is don't let the Bucs rushing offense come to life.

You said it, the Bills run defense is really, really shaky.

They're 27th in EPA per run.

They allow an explosive run, which is 15 yards or more, 8.2% of the time.

That's fourth highest in the NFL.They don't tackle well, they allow .21 missed tackles forced per attempt.

That's number two in the NFL and you can get a lot of yards after contact, 2.91 yards after contact per attempt.

They can drop more guys into coverage and force him to be a statue when his accuracy has been off because of the obliques, so i- the, the recipe for this one is you have to run the ball.