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What they're saying in JACKSONVILLE about BILLS vs JAGS with JP Shadrick
00:24:51
Buffalo Bills vs Jags preview from JP Shadrick in Jacksonville
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- [00:01]
A
Trevor's got something at him. I don't know if I can quite put my finger on exactly what it is, but it's not nothing. And I don't think we've quite even come close to seeing what he can do as a whole in this league.
- [00:23]
B
Hey everybody, welcome Back to the Buffalo Plus YouTube channel, presented by Connors and Ferris. Please make sure to like, comment, comment and subscribe. We've got a special guest as the Bills get set for Monday night against The Jacksonville Jaguars. J.P. shadrick joins us. He is a senior reporter for the Jags. He hosts the Jags happy hour with hall of Famer Tony Bacelli. Host the Doug Peterson Coaches Show. This man knows the Jacksonville Jaguars. JP, thanks for being with us.
- [00:51]
A
Great to be with you. And you know it's, it's been, it's been a lot going on around here this season already. We're only two weeks in, but it's nice to be with you.
- [01:00]
B
Yeah, it is. And it's going to be an interesting game on Monday. We will get to the specifics of the game but you know, it's two games in. I don't know if you know this but people tend to overreact to whatever goes on in the first maybe 48 hours of an NFL season. Jags are 0 and 2. Two winnable games. Where are they right now?
- [01:21]
A
They're owing to right now to your point. I mean they've done it a couple different ways. I mean in the, in the Miami game week one they were two yards away from going up three scores late in the third and ETN inexplicably fumbles the football he's normally sure handed. At least the last year has been. It was just a perfect punch by the safety at the wrong time and then bang. As Miami does, as you guys know. Well they can score it in a heartbeat from anywhere on the field and tyreek goes for 80 and it's totally different feel even through that. The Jags had the lead after all the vortex of just the things happened in the next five minutes. But they couldn't finish the game. The defense couldn't get off the field at the right time. The offense just ran out of gas and couldn't move it and there were some concerns but okay, they're close. It's one week. Then here come the Browns to town. Jags defense couldn't get off the field in the first half. They scored every possession, long possessions, fourth down, conversions. The Browns had the ball for 20 minutes in the first half and the Jags Offense could not find time to get a rhythm and by the time they had time to get a rhythm in the second half, they didn't find it there either. So the quarterback didn't play well. The O line wasn't great against Miles Garrett and the rest of that great Browns front and it added up to another loss. And the Jags somehow had the ball in their hand on the final drive then. So finishing games, finding an offensive rhythm, defense doing just something a little extra. They haven't had a takeaway yet. Something a little extra to help this team. And that's why they're owing to right now. And this, you know, the sky's falling outside the building, at least in the locker room earlier this week, it feels like they're still together. They just got to clean some things up.
- [02:59]
B
Tell me about the quarterback. Super talented guy. Everybody's thinks I say everybody, you know, there's no consensus on all the quarterbacks, but Trevor Lawrence always gets mentioned as one of the top guys and whatever number they have a met. It's been a struggle, honestly. You know, sometimes you wait to see him take over. We saw the playoff game against the Chargers, big deficit and then he just plays lights out. And that team gave the Chiefs all they can handle the next week. We have seen flashes of this guy being the number one overall pick. Where is he this far into his career?
- [03:35]
A
Well, I'll tell you one person who believes in him, and that's the owner shot Khan, who's paying him $55 million a year. So he's going to be the guy around here for a long time, no matter what happens around him, you know, and even that playoff game, remember he threw four interceptions in the first half of that game. It's not like he was not at fault for the deficit, like he was the guy. So they had to push it down the field and they had to hurry up. And in those instances throughout his career, when they're hurrying up and pushing it down the field in the passing game, he's had some success if he has the time to do that on the offensive line. So last year they were off to a great start. 8 and 3. He got the injury bug. Four different injuries over the last month and a half of the season. Missed a game. First time in his career which wasn't the same guy. They had some other injuries around him as well. The O line was a rotation. They had guys coming and going and it just wasn't right. But Trevor's got something at him. I don't know if I can Quite put my finger on exactly what it is, but it's not nothing. And I don't think we've quite even come close to seeing what he can do as a whole in this league. I think the way he responded to the loss last week. Just hope so. How inept the offense looked at times from the play calls, getting in late to short yardage, miscues to 1 for 4 in the red zone to, you name it, they had issues. Yeah, I mean, we suck right now, so I don't. Pretty shocked. You know, obviously this isn't. We had a great off season, great training camp and we got to figure it out. So we know we, we got a good group, we got good players and we can be a good, really good offense, but clearly we're not. So everybody's got to take accountability. Oh, accountability. Look in the mirror and fix it. You know, I got to play better leader of this offense. It's on me. And the way he responded was so honest and it was his almost his most raw post game press conference we've ever heard. And we heard a lot in his rookie year during the Urban Meyer season. Right. This is totally different tone, like, guys have had enough. I've had it up to here. We've got to stop this now. And it starts with me. And he was. You could see him on the sideline during the game even doing that. And that, that's not really his normal personality. He's a laid back kind of personality, at least on the outside. Okay. How does the team respond to that? To get response to that though, you have to have some equity built up of strong play. So there's a balance there. I think that's the, that's the pivot point of this team this season. If they respond to him and follow him the right way, I think good things can come.
- [06:16]
B
Yeah, he was honest and you hear him take some accountability himself, but he spread it around too, and I think that's fair. You mentioned some of those issues with the coach. You do the Doug Peterson show.
- [06:28]
A
I do.
- [06:29]
B
He's a Super bowl winning coach. He's one of those guys that is really light and I think respected around the league, but it's not going the way you want it. Where is Doug right now?
- [06:43]
A
Doug's, I think in an okay place and he. They feel some pressure now. When the Jaguars owner we mentioned Shot Khan comes out before training camp in front of a team meeting and says, I was not misquoted in the media. The time to win is now. That tells you everything you need to know the pressure is on around the organization. That clip got out on the Jaguars internal show, behind the scenes show, the hunt that they do every week. So it's out there. It's public, it's out there. I think it was purposely put out there so they feel pressured. I don't think there's any doubt about that. I don't know if he's been down quite this road this early in a season before and had to rally like this because there's just a lot going on in the offense right now, like we said, like the operation of it, getting the plays in. It seems a little awkward. There's a new defensive coordinator, communication there, how they handle that. He's kind of a little more hands off there than he was in the year before. I think he understands that it's a long season. I also think he can't wait for November to start making changes now. You got to start making changes now, especially with all these AFC games. They've already lost two AFC games. Bills this week at Texans next week, Colts home after that. That's five in a row against a lot of teams who should be wild card contenders at the very least. And if you lose them and have tiebreaker losses later, if you happen to figure it out, it's too late times now because. And he'll. He'll press that issue. He's. I don't. I don't think he's scared to do that. Obviously he knows how to get a team back on track, but this is a. This is a little different feeling after two games.
- [08:22]
B
Let's talk about the weapons that Lawrence has and two guys that are, I'll say, connected to the Buffalo Bills, one being Gabe Davis and the other being Brian Thomas, who a lot of Bills fans were hopeful or looking at that maybe the Bills would draft him. They ended up with Keon Coleman in the first round or in the second round. Let's. Let's talk about Gabriel Davis. First good player for the Bills. Never evolved past a certain point. They were hoping he would take that next step, then signs a relatively large contract based on, you know, production. How's he been so far with the Jags?
- [08:58]
A
You know, I think coming in, it's got to remember what happened around here, right? Calvin Ridley. Were they or were they not going to resign him? Was the story there. They ended up not doing it because Gabe came in and they got him instead. Is it the same kind of player? I don't know. I mean, I don't know if Gabe Davis is as explosive. I Think Gabe's a crafty, solid, veteran route runner. Like he knows how to find an open spot and get open and that's kind of what they need in this offense. And so far he's been, he's made some big catches and some big moments. Hasn't been results yet. That's, that's a team collective issue. And then Brian Thomas Jr. The story on him coming in was, okay, he's tall, he's fast and he's smart. Let's start with that. Well, he's been a little bit more than I think they anticipated. Some of his route running has been a whole lot crisper and, and smarter than you thought. Maybe we could teach this stuff a little bit early. There was a touchdown in Miami where he had to weave through two labors layers of the defense and be at a certain spot at a certain time. Balls in the air, he turns around, bang, back line of the end zone. Touchdown. I mean, so those are two great additions, but the problem is that this offense is designed to run through Christian Kirk and Evan Ingram.
- [10:10]
B
Yeah.
- [10:11]
A
And they haven't done a darn thing yet this season. Christian Kirk has like four catches. He had one for minus one yard last week. Evan Ingram had a pregame hamstring injury last week and was only targeted like three times week one. That's what this design is designed to do. And those guys in theory are complementary pieces or spread things out or take. Take a deep shot a couple times to Thomas to open it up for these. That's the concern on offense right now. The new guys are great, but they need more than that. They're supposed to spread it around every week. Different guy every week and they haven't had that yet.
- [10:47]
B
Yeah, Ingram, I mean, he's put up some big numbers.
- [10:50]
A
He nearly set the league record for tight end catches last year, like four catches.
- [10:55]
B
Pregame hamstring is tough because you're out, you've game planned and now he's gone. I know it's early. I know you were in the locker room on Tuesday. What are you sensing for him this week? It's. It's early in this case. But hamstring, usually teams are pretty cautious at the beginning of the year.
- [11:14]
A
Yeah. And there's such a long season ahead. Right. And Doug Peterson said that earlier in the week at us day to day. We're not gonna. He never puts timetables on hamstrings. I get that. I saw him walking around at least. Seemed okay. I didn't get a chance to talk to him about it. Brenton Strange Though got an opportunity young second year tight end out of Penn State and didn't have a great rookie year. But hey, guess what, Britain, here we go. Enactors are already in. We got to scratch this guy too. You're playing and you're starting and he had a solid day. He's a good blocker and had a few catches in the passing game. They need Evan Ingram, they got to have him. So if there's any risk at all, I think you set him down for another week. But you got to have your best horses out there to go play. And, and I think knowing Evan, he's a guy that gets out there super early every single day. He goes through this wild warm up for practice. Not wild, I mean wild for me, the fat guy. But like the wild for him is just something before. About 30 minutes before practice he's out there running all these things and it's just, he's just a different built guy. I have no doubt he'll be at some point ready whether it's this week or not. It's just a little too early to tell on Tuesday.
- [12:23]
B
Yeah. And you mentioned already ATN and his ability and I think it's Tank Bigsby. Where's the run in the time it.
- [12:33]
A
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- [13:03]
B
Game now for this team and how much can that play into it? The Bills defense has been really good, but they have been susceptible to the run in both games. I think they gave that a little bit to the Dolphins to try, try to take away the big plays. But where is the run game now for the Jags?
- [13:18]
A
Well, ask. Remember last year in London, right, with what Travis ETN did to this Buffalo team. They have a lot of the same offensive linemen around for the Jaguars this year and they've just got to play a little bit better to do that. I think they like the idea of the one, two punch, two different styles. Tank Bigsby dropped the ball a good bit early last year. He seems to be back in good graces. He dropped a Kickoff return last week and got a shoulder hurt, but in theory should be coming back. And. Okay, this week he has more of a power style. I wouldn't necessarily, you know, say it's his true nickname, Tank. He's not going to be plowing through the middle of the line, but he's more apt to be able to do certain things like that. Well, ETN is an airbag. Like, he's. He's the guy that needs to run wide and find space and, you know, and. And in the passing game, they want to get him involved more. So they like the idea of those two. And they'll have them on the field together sometimes, too. I mean, and you got to figure out how as an offensive coordinator and play caller, you want to utilize those guys without giving up. Okay, Tanks on the field are running. Travis on the field or not. I mean, there's some. Some gamesmanship that has gone into that and they're trying to balance it out still, but if they don't have the line to block, it doesn't matter. A lot of times he's back there doing it. And that's the question mark right now.
- [14:37]
B
You mentioned Christian Kirk. You know, he's Josh Allen's golfing buddy. I mean, Allen mentions it all the time. I don't know how much golf they actually play. Josh likes to play a little golf, but I know Kirk is his buddy.
- [14:49]
A
They play a lot of golf here because there's a lot of golf here to be played in Jacksonville. So we all kind of play a lot of golf around here and about 11 months a year, you're 12 months a year, you're on the course here. So I know Christian plays a lot, certainly in the off season, and Trevor Lawrence has gotten into it. I don't know how good he is, but. Yeah, but they. I think we're all together out in Tahoe maybe. Yeah, there's a lot of that stuff.
- [15:12]
B
Nice life they can. They can have sometimes. Speaking of Josh Allen and your job, it's Josh Hines Allen now, right for your pass, rushing linebacker, defensive end. He destroyed the Bills in a game a couple of years ago down in Jacksonville. He's been impactful all the time. Bill's fans, it's sort of the, you know, it's another Josh Allen on the field. How's he look so far? I think he's had four quarterback hits, had a sack as. What is his impact been? Obviously, so much is expected of him in this defense.
- [15:49]
A
Yeah, he signed the big contract in the off season, too, so a whole lot expected from him as well. And you know he's going to go about his business the right way. He always has the great mindset on and off the field about wanting to be an elite pass rusher and defensive lineman in this league. There's no questions about that. And last year, in a contract year, he went out and performed statistically and got the job done. You guys know firsthand that was the nine to six game back in 2021 down here where he just kind of took over the game, intercepted a pass and all this stuff's going on. And at the end of the game he's on CBS saying, I'm the real Josh, all that stuff. And then last year he actually had an impactful game in London, too. Now, remember on the deep pass interception by the Bills, Josh Allen, I mean, he was right in face of him and made a move inside and kind of rushed the throw and had to under throw it down the field. Intercepted. There was a couple plays like that. There's always a number of plays. He's always around the ball in the backfield. I feel last week was pretty good for him. Four quarterback hits is cool. You know, he can run. He's. He's put on a little bit of weight this year, 10, 10 pounds or so. So he's playing about 280 or 285, but it's a powerful and fast 285. And he's a guy that's always going to be back there and impactful. I think last week, the pass rush as a whole, they felt like would be better with the Browns using two backup tackles and Trayvon Walker's on the other side. Right. He's the first overall pick. So if those guys are in tandem together, playing well, that's a good sign. I don't think Walker had his best game last week. He did back in week one looked pretty good, but I think as this season grows and they grow together on the edges, it's only going to get good things for Josh and for Trayvon Walker.
- [17:35]
B
You mentioned the game down in Jacksonville a few years ago, the 96 game. So Dan Fates, who does the show with me along with Jenna Cottrell, we always talk about that game. And the joke is I still think the Bills are going to win it because that was. They were horrendous in that game and Jacksonville just kept making defensive plays. And even at the end, you remember Bills are starting to try to drive and they just couldn't get it done. And I mean, that was in the Urban Meyer season. And all the other problems that they had. I think these two franchises have had some pretty, I would say, wild games. I think the Bills fans in general, when they hear the name Jacksonville Jaguars, they take a step back. Because most of the history between these two teams, to me, is on Jacksonville side. If you think of some of the games.
- [18:28]
A
Yeah. Especially in the most recent history. But I mean, let's go back a while. Right. I mean, I have Tony Boseli, who you mentioned on some of these shows. Right. I mean, he's wearing a gold jacket. Big reason why he's wearing the gold jacket is what he did against Bruce Smith.
- [18:43]
B
Hates that.
- [18:44]
A
I know he does. That's why I said it. He can't stand it. It was actually big news a couple of years ago when Bruce Smith talked to one of our reporters on Jaguars.com. i got Tony beside. Got him on the record talking about Tony being a great player. Couldn't believe it. But no, that's. So that's how far it goes back. I mean, goes back to the mid early, you know, mid-90s, mid late 90s.
- [19:06]
B
The Jags ended. That was the end of Jim Kelly's career. In the playoff game. Jags knocked him out of the game and beat him in the playoffs.
- [19:15]
A
Jaguars is a franchise. Our hall of Fame quarterback, career enders, Dan Marino's last year. The Jags. Right. A few years later, crushed him.
- [19:22]
B
Right. Yeah.
- [19:22]
A
Yeah. So, I mean, but. And then, you know, the playoff game after the 2017 season, down here as well, a 10, three barn burner. Right. Fourth quarter, fourth down, touchdown to Ben Koyak, who was out of the league like a year later. So I mean that there have been some big moments, big games for these teams. And I, you know, I, I like it because I mean, the Bills are set up for success and have been for a number of years now. And the Jaguars feel like they're on the cusp of being that. So maybe this is another, you know, AFC postseason style, team rivalry for the next five years or so.
- [19:59]
B
Yeah. In London we had the EJ Manual game where he turned it over, I think three times in four plays.
- [20:06]
A
Yeah.
- [20:06]
B
So you beat EJ Manuel in London and then beat Jim Kelly. I mean, excuse me, be Jim Kelly in his last game. Be Josh Allen in a game in London last year. But the Bills still have the Doug Flutie game, if you remember, a little fake handoff. And Flutie, I think, was the only guy on the offense who knew he was going to keep the ball because Doug liked to do stuff like that and ran it in the end zone to beat him. So that was one of the rare.
- [20:30]
A
Times and we didn't even mention at least the head coaching connections like teams. You know, Mike Milwaukee has been at both places. Doug Marone's been at both places. I mean Bob Babich was down here as a D.C. i mean there's a lot of connections going on between these franchises. All right.
- [20:47]
B
I always ask this stadium's coming like it's a. Oh yeah, yeah, exactly. I always ask this because, you know, Bills will be favored in this game by a bit. They're, they're at home. If you're thinking for on the Jags perspective, what's it take? They're owing to. They've been in both games, they've had chances in both. What kind of game do the Jags need this to be to knock off the Bills and get their first win?
- [21:13]
A
Jaguars have to run the football and I think control the tempo of the game offensively and they need early success to be able to do that. They can't wait until the third quarter to figure it out. Offensively you got to keep Von Miller and Russo and those guys off balance. So first down success, 5 to 6 yards in theory sets up second and mid range and then I think the play action game comes into play and that's something they try to utilize. They haven't been, you know, really successful this year doing it. Then you got run pass options. You can do all kind of things out of that. Whether it's under center in the gun or the pistol, whatever they decide. There's all kind of different formations. That's I think in theory the best way for this Jags team to do it. 8, 10, 12 play drives and keeping them off balance, doing that and keeping the Bills Josh Allen on the sideline at the same time, he's a guy that's, I mean right there you talk about elite quarterbacks like we were talking about earlier. He's right there near the top of the NFL. He can throw it anywhere on the field. He's got the running ability and the size so you have to gang tackle him. If he does get outside and run or even in the pocket, you guys just got to get him to the ground somehow. He's a big body and don't let tight ends beat you. This is quite honestly the last few years. It's a new defense this year, new coordinator, but this is a defense that historically and no matter who's coordinating it has issues with tight ends. I mean they, they haven't seen a lot of that. Yet this year tight end playing Buffalo is good. This year their running bank game is stout. There have been some questions about the D, the interior D, line up front, the tackle play and how do they stand up against the run. I think we'll find out this week. So that's for the Jaguars. For me, that's the road to victory. Run the ball, stay on the field, keep them off balance and then play good sturdy run defense and get them in some third and longs and see if Josh Hines Allen and Trayvon Walker can turn up the heat.
- [23:19]
B
Yeah, that sounds like a plan for the Jags. The Cardinals did a little bit of that early and really had success and then and then Josh Allen played superman role and they ended up getting the win in that first game and then the Cardinals look great the next week. Hey JP we really appreciate you being on if people from the from Buffalo want to be following you as the week goes along. Where can they see you? Where can they read your stuff on social media?
- [23:42]
A
Jaguars.com is the official team website. All of our shows air there will be on Wednesday, Thursday and then on game day. Of course we've got three hours of pregame radio, two hours of post game including phone calls which are quite interesting. The Doug Peterson show almost said Doug Marone. The Doug Peterson show is Thursday at 5 o' clock Eastern and you can catch that on the Jags YouTube as well and at JP Shadrick on X. Great.
- [24:11]
B
This was great insight. We really appreciate it and who knows, maybe we'll catch up again in the postseason depending on how these teams do.
- [24:18]
A
See, that's positivity. We do that around here. We'll use it.
- [24:24]
B
Yeah, it's easy to do from a distance. All right, JP Shadrick, thanks very much for being with us and thank all of you for watching. Please again make sure to like comment and subscribe and we'll see you next time on the Buffalo Plus YouTube channel, presented by Connors and Ferris LA.