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Because people will say, oh, we should move on from him and this and that. No, not yet, not now. But he's at that age where it's like a little bit of a reset for him. Hey, everybody, welcome back to Buffalo Plus. I'm Mike Catalana. Happy to be with you for the league podcast. The league brought to you by Stellar roofing windows and siding. Expect a stellar job every time. I'm coming to you from the Connors and Ferris podcast studio. Now, look, I am solo today, but on Wednesday of this week, Dan and Jenna will be with me. We're doing our full podcast. We're going to be talking about the draft, the Bill's plan, what Brandon Bean may be doing, moving up, moving down, staying where they are. Then we'll start looking at some of the players. We're all working on our own mock drafts to get you ready for when it happens. We'll talk more about what's coming up with the draft. As always, make sure to like, comment and subscribe and share with your friends. We always appreciate that. And speaking of like, comment and subscribe, Dan and I were at the Buffalo Sabers game on what would that have been? Monday night and they beat Tampa. Great game. We were doing some work there for channel 13 and we would hear from people walking in, like, comment and subscribe, people coming up to us about the pod. So I wanted to mention a few. Trevor, nice talking to you at the game. Jake and Chris, among others, who came up and said hello. Also, I want to shout out Nick, working outside the Blue Cross Arena. I was there for Don Stevens, the legendary American Hockey League announcer for the amer. I was there one day to interview him. Nick, hardworking guy outside stopped me, said he loves the podcast, so we always appreciate when anybody says that to us. Just come say hello. We'll be at the game. In fact, Jenna and I will be at the Sabers game on Thursday covering that they make their run towards the playoffs. But no shortage at all of Bill's content here on on Buffalo plus, so I mentioned they're going to be doing that with me on Wednesday of this week, so you'll have that content. Also, I wanted to mention we've got two draft specials coming up from here in the Connors and Ferris podcast studio. We're going to be doing one on Wednesday. We'll have the exact details for you. We're talking about the day before the draft begins. That's going to be here. That's sponsored by White Claw. That'll be the night before the draft. I think that's Wednesday, April 22nd. And then we do our draft wrap up also brought to you by White Claw. That'll be Saturday evening after they completed their draft. It'll be a wrap up of what the Bills did over the few days. That'll be on the 25th. And as you know, we're going to be live during the draft, certainly preparing for round number one. We'll go on live maybe a couple hours before they pick. You know the Bills, they're going to pick late unless they make a move up and then we'll see what happens on Friday. Right now the they don't have a second round pick. So we will pop on live. It's the best way to communicate with you guys. We'll let everybody know. We'll post it on the site to be talking about what they do. Maybe they, maybe they end up in the second round, maybe they trade back in the first. And we know they have multiple picks on day number two. So we'll see what happens. But plenty of draft coverage including us getting ready for what they are going to be doing is the upcoming draft. Before I get to what I want to talk about today, I'm talking about five Bills players with some pressure this year for different reasons as the new defensive staff comes in, some coming off injuries, some a little later in their career. So five of those players that I want to talk about. But it is the offseason workouts beginning now. These are workouts. The Bills get to start earlier than other teams. These are just workouts. Joe Brady's allowed to be there but no assistant coaches. There's no football training. Does that make sense? They're not coaching during this. This is strictly for training, staff and rehab. And they get to come in early because the Bills have a new head coach. He was elevated to head coach so they have a little bit of an earlier time. Josh Allen is there, the girl dad, if you see on social media with the Bills gave the thumbs up. He he's there working out. I mean these are all voluntary for the players and I saw DJ Moore was there. That's were two of the players that the Bills posted. It's not a media invite to this. Even when we do go up there. I mean we don't go in the weight room and watch them lift. They usually send out some video that will show that we do on occasion we will get to interview players. That has not been established yet but like I said it's earlier than normal because of the change in head coaches. So that's Going on right now and also around the league. Dexter Lawrence says he wants to be traded from the Giants. He's a really good player. He's 28 years old. Two years left on his deal. I don't see the Bills being in on that. I don't think they have the draft capital. I don't think the Giants are going to trade him anyhow. I think he wants a new deal. It's an interesting dynamic for Joe Shane or John Harbaugh, who may be more in control of that franchise now. He's a really good player, but in this stage of the Giants, it would be interesting to see if they decided to deal him. It's early for a contract renewal. I think if he was traded, the other team would almost certainly redo a deal because that would make sense. You're giving up assets for him. So I guess, you know, Brandon Bean can make a call, but I don't believe that's going to be something they would do. I think the price would be pretty high. I think the Giants right now are letting this. We're going to let this play out. But interesting when a guy does that with two years left on his deal. I'm always for the players getting their money, especially coming into the final year of a deal. But we'll see. I mean, he's asked for a trade. You know, players do that. My guess is eventually they rework his deal and, and come up with something if they want to keep him long term. But if somebody calls him up with a substantial move. The Giants need a lot on that roster. So we'll see what happens. All right, let's get to the five players with pressure on them and as we do in many things that we talk about, we'll just eliminate Josh Allen. Like, you know, when we always talk about, like who's their best player or who's done the most or who's the closest to the hall of Fame. Like whatever you want to talk about, just let's not include Josh. There's always pressure on him. Those pressure on him this year with Joe being elevated to the job and changes in the organization. He lives with that all the time. He handles it really well. So we'll take Josh out of the mix here. I'm going to start on offense. I'm going to start with Dion Dawkins. I'm a big Dion guy. I love what he's done for the franchise. Starter from day one. Second round pick. He's still really good. I don't think he was great last year. I think he has said that he was a little. He wasn't in as good a shape as he needs to be, was a little heavier. And I think as you get older, especially for a football player, that extra weight's not great. I mean, he needs to be his right size. He needs the bulk. He's strong as can be. He's still really good. I know you're going to come up with metrics. I know somebody's going to be commenting that he had the most false star penalties. It's fine. Josh trusts him. He's his left tackle. Deion did. I saw there was something. I try not to pay attention to it. He was on somebody's social media and he said something about he'd play for the Dolphins if they gave him a certain amount of money. I think that's what I heard. I just dismissed it. He did an April Fool's joke about him getting traded to the Dolphins. Let's start with this. April Fool's jokes in general are idiotic. I hate them. I think they're dumb. I'm always aware of it. On that day. You see something, him getting traded to the Dolphins for, I think it was a second round pick. Maybe Dion, That's Dion. He likes to have a little fun. And maybe he has been reading some of the comments because some people are pretty harsh on him. I will say you go down that rabbit hole of social media comments on you, even the best of the best. Like, I mean, there are people all over Josh Allen. Some of them are Bills fans, if you can believe it, or at least they say they are. So if Deon goes on there and he's going to see some stuff because people will say, oh, we should move on from him and this and that. No, not yet, not now. But he's at that age where it's like a little bit of a reset for him. Maybe he's got a new offensive line coach. He knows that he's at that age where, hey, look, tackles can play a long time. I was thinking back to when the Bills traded Jason Peters to the Eagles. He's 27 years old. I was at practice one time, Trent Edwards was the quarterback and it was. Must have been a minicamp and they were doing some stuff and we were asking Trent Edwards about Jason not being there because he was holding out and he actually said to us, I, you know, I didn't even really notice. Like, you know, because I'm paying attention to what else is going on. Like you didn't notice your star left tackle has. Was basically not Showing up at minicamps because he was mad about his contract. I mean, it was kind of funny. Of course, he knew he wasn't there. They ended up trading him, and he went to The Eagles at 27. He played 16 more years now. Got a little wild at the end. I mean, he just stayed in the league. He retired officially at 43 years old, but he's going to the hall of Fame. He's. He was younger then than Dion, and he was an exceptional talent. Like he is a Hall of Fame player. Was great for the Eagles for all those years, but Dion's been pretty darn good and he's in his 30s, so it's not apples to apples, but tackles can play a long time. And I think Deion still got three, four plus more years. It can still play at a high level. So this year, you know, a little bit of changes on the offensive line. It's good that McGovern is back. They're going to have a new guard out there. I mean, we'll see how that plays out. And. And he's. He's still got, you know, Sibo and he's still got Spencer Brown, so. But there's a little pressure on him to be back to the Dion we know. And I think if he's gets himself in the shape he needs to come in this year, I think he'll be fine. But there is some pressure on him this year. DJ Moore only saying that because they gave up a lot for him. Mike Winan, about the second round pick again, but a lot of guaranteed money. He is compensated like a number one receiver, not necessarily the highest. That's maybe not fair. Number one on this roster because, you know, the guys who are at the top, top of the league make a lot more than DJ Moore, but he makes a lot. He's making more than I believe anybody else. It's Shakir's contract. You'd have to look at it. It's more guaranteed money. Expectations are high for him. He's expected to come in and in some ways transform the passing game. Right? Right. They haven't had that guy since Diggs. And I think if he is what they hope he is, he's going to make Shakir better. Maybe Josh Palmer. This is not a podcast where I'm talking about Keon. We'll see with Keon and we'll see if they draft anybody else at wide receiver. But DJ Moore should be the best receiver on the roster, and the expectations are high. He's leaving Chicago, where he kind of was. That guy and then they sort of drafted by him, got younger and they hope better. But now he comes to Buffalo and they're looking for him to be that guy, a high volume, high target player, so that the expectations are high. Let's go to the defensive side of the ball. I got Ed Oliver here. I like Ed a lot. I think he's a really good player. He's got to stay on the field. He's had bad luck with injuries. Last year he got off to the incredible start in the Baltimore game that he gets hurt. Then he got hurt again while training. It was tough. He came back, but he wasn't even close to what he is when he came back and played. Technically, I guess you'd say it's going to be a new position, definitely a new scheme. Maybe it frees him up, you know, because he's at that stage. He was drafted in 2019. Like, I think they're expecting a lot from him. I think he's going to play a similar type role in terms of penetrating. He's just going to be doing it probably from the outside, more on the outside than he is in the middle of the defense, at least on first downs. So I think there's pressure on him because he's gotten paid here. And the question is, you know, what will Jim Leonard see in Ed Oliver? Will he see that disruptor that he needs in that position? So. And let's see if he can stay healthy. If he can, I think he can still be a really good player for them. Greg Russo is going to play stand up linebacker. That's where he's going to be. And it's a new position really for him. He's had moments where he's done that, but that's not really the way he plays. Is it going to free him up as a pass rusher? Look, he had those responsibilities. Setting the edge, stopping the run. We joke about it all the time. He's good at that. That's what he's good at. He is a long, armed, tough player. That's good against the run and an okay pass rusher. Does this open him up? Does he become a. A more. I don't even know if I'd use the word explosive, More effective pass rusher. Is he constantly putting pressure on quarterbacks from that position? We'll see. By the way, I think we're going to be set up to have Greg come on the podcast with us soon, but we'll tell you more about that coming up. And then the last guy I wanted to talk about is Max Hairston, Jenna and I talked about him being penciled in as the number two corner. I feel that way. They don't have another guy right now that could take his place, but I don't think Jim Leonard or Joe Brady is going to sit there and just say, well, you got it. He didn't really play as a starter last year. He got hurt a couple of times. Trey was better than him. He's a veteran. I know. I think he learned a lot from Trey, but he was drafted. I. I didn't know how great of a scheme fit he was for McDermott's defense. Maybe he's. Maybe this is a better defense for him. I know. I know they're going to want their corners to be physical. I don't know if that's Max's strength. He's not a big guy, but he's not afraid to make a tackle. He's made a few good plays. He made a couple plays in the secondary, but I think that penciled in is a. Is a full on number two pencil here. They want him to be that guy, but I don't think anything is just handed to you. Let's see. I saw some drafts that had the Bills taking a corner in the first round. I think one of ESPN's drafts had that. I think they need another corner, but I don't think they're drafting one. If they were drafting outside corner in the first round, that would tell you a lot about what they think about Max, right? I mean, I would think, but I don't. Sometimes those guys just look at their own list. I don't really believe that's the case for the Bills, but I do think there's some pressure on Max Han to come in, to be healthy, to be ready to be that playmaker. We've seen, you know, we saw him make a few. We've seen the speed that he has. You know, he gave up a couple of big plays. That happens. Jalen Waddle got him down in Miami deep on that one. That's a. He's a heck of a player, but let's see how it plays out for him. That's just my idea of five guys that I think have a little bit of pressure to either perform really well as a starter like Max for the first time, for guys like Ed and Russo to develop and maybe exceed what they've done in a new system, for Dion to maintain and maybe even take another notch from what he was last year, and. And then for DJ Moore to show up, be the guy he's been in this league and do it for Josh Allen to open up the offense and open up the passing game. So, all right, remember Dan and Jenna with me. Wednesday, we'll be posting that. We're going to talk about the draft. We're talking about what Bean's plan could be. We're going to want all your comments. Also, hey buffalo/gmail.com life advice. We've gotten some great ones before we answered them. Send us an email. You can send us comments too, but send us an email. Anything going on, dealing with somebody, somebody at work giving you a hard time or not sure how to approach somebody or family. Things like, you know, there's a big event coming on or everybody wants to go on vacation and your family doesn't and how do you handle it? Send it to Buffalo plus we'll have an opinion. Dan will be wrong, but we'll all have an opinion on it. So that's hey buffalo plus gmail.com all right, that's going to do it for me for the League Podcast brought to you by Stellar Roofing Windows and Siding. We are coming to you from the Connors and Ferris Podcast studio. Remember, we got all these podcasts coming up in live coverage, so make sure around as always, make sure to like, comment, share and subscribe to the Buffalo Plus YouTube channel. For Dan Fates and Jana Cottrell, I'm Mike Catalana. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time on Buffalo plus Buffalo.