10-09 Sean McDermott
Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott addressed the media ahead of Wednesday's practice, as his team gets ready for a Monday night showdown with the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Courtesy of the Buffalo Bills)
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00:00Austin Johnson will not practice.
00:08And then TB, Terrell Bernard, will be limited, as will Taryn Johnson.
00:16So with that, I'll turn it over to you with your questions.
00:24What's your reaction to not having Vaughn Miller for a month after the suspension was announced yesterday?
00:32Yeah, it's certainly an unfortunate situation, John.
00:36And we respect the decision made by the league.
00:42And really, it's out of our control.
00:44And what we need to focus on is it's an opportunity for someone on our football team to step up.
00:52John, the league did not specify that.
00:54Are we to assume that it was based on the investigation from last year?
00:59I'm not in a position to go into the details on it, Sal.
01:04So you can assume what you can assume.
01:11That's where we're at on it.
01:13Was the timing of this a surprise, or did you know this was coming at all?
01:19Just as of the last couple of days, really, we were being notified here.
01:26What type of pressure does it place on a defense that you might have Bernard back, Terrell back, you might have Taryn back,
01:34but for a defense that's gone through some upheaval already by four weeks into the season?
01:39Yeah, no, the job is to move forward, right?
01:43Certainly understand what you're saying.
01:45And I've really been proud of the way the guys have stepped up.
01:50They've had to deal with quite a few situations, injuries, now in this case the suspension with Vaughn.
01:57So I expect the same, quite honestly.
02:01Somebody's going to step up.
02:02That's what's in that locker room.
02:03Somebody needs to step up, and they have to this point.
02:07To clarify, with a suspension of this nature, can Vaughn be at the facility, or is it one where he can't be here at all?
02:13Yeah, I'm not going to get into, again, just out of respect for the situation.
02:18I'm not going to get into any other details right now.
02:22Hey, Sean, with Deion's hamstring, is that something that you're just trying to be smart about with early in the week,
02:28or is there legit concern about whether or not he'll make it for Sunday?
02:34Probably a little bit of both, somewhere in between, Joe.
02:38He's getting treatment, won't practice today, so anytime someone doesn't practice, you are concerned.
02:44Came up in the game naturally, and so we had to manage things a little bit there.
02:50But I'm proud of what he was able to do in the game and push through it like he did.
02:56Brandon said, one more on Vaughn, and I respect that you can't go too much into it.
03:00Brandon said, kind of over the course of a few months, that based on what you guys knew,
03:05you were comfortable with the fact that he was still here, kind of standing behind him.
03:09Did this kind of catch you guys by surprise, as an organization and all, that he was suspended, based on what you learned?
03:16Again, just when you look at it, again, what we know of it is the league has to go about their process,
03:25and that's really where we are as a team and a club as it relates to the overall situation and how it came down and the decision.
03:34Do you see Javon Solomon as being maybe the first guy that you think of as far as an expanded opportunity here?
03:42Potentially, yeah, Jay, potentially. We'll see. I mean, again, there's no replacement for a player like that.
03:55It'll be the sum of the parts, really, and that's important overall, regardless of a situation like this.
04:02But we've got to really buy into that team-first philosophy up front on defense and help each other out.
04:10So feed each other, because that's really how it works.
04:16When one player gets penetration, he may not get the sack, but he pushes him, the quarterback in this case,
04:24to another player, and they get the sack.
04:26So that'll be important for us, for sure, in this situation, but overall as well.
04:31Hey, Sean, understanding that Baltimore is unique with the way they can run the ball with Lamar and Henry,
04:37what are some of the concerns, though, moving forward?
04:39Because obviously if Nixon plays, he's a very good runner, too.
04:43You had some problems last week. How do you rectify that?
04:46Yeah, well, it starts by being more physical and making sure we're playing better at the point of attack,
04:56and that mindset has to be there for us.
04:59And then we go into our base-run fundamentals, right?
05:02Because to your point, Nixon is a heck of a football player,
05:06and you can certainly see it when he's been healthy this year.
05:10And so we'll go out, we'll continue to hone in our fundamentals that are necessary to be better against the run.
05:20Sean, you're a month in here, and you really offensively have not found a way to get Curtis going in any meaningful way to this point.
05:28What in your mind needs to change to provide that element from him that you brought him here to provide?
05:36Just awareness, I think, overall.
05:39And again, sometimes the ball finds you, sometimes it doesn't.
05:44Game plan to game plan.
05:48So I know you guys love to talk about, look at the stat sheet and says who hasn't gotten the ball and who has,
05:53and then we get so enamored with that.
05:57It's the ball finds the guy that it's supposed to find, and the game plan has to help with that.
06:04But there's also a defense out there that sometimes determines where the ball is going to fall, right, playing and play out,
06:11or in this case, pass to pass.
06:14So you start pushing it, you start stressing over it.
06:18Awareness is important in this case, to your point.
06:21But overall, the ball is going to go where it's meant to go, and that's really how really good offenses work
06:29and decision making by the quarterback.
06:33And Josh has done a real good job to this point.
06:35Sean, what sort of challenges do you see in the way that they've used digs along with the other pieces they have offensively?
06:40Yeah, very talented.
06:42Very talented football team.
06:43Very talented in this case offensively.
06:47Extremely talented on the perimeter of their offense with the receiving core, as you mentioned.
06:54And, you know, it's really hard to stop all of them, right,
06:59because you don't have enough guys to double team all of them there.
07:03So that will have our work cut out for us.
07:06Steph's playing at a high level.
07:08He was a really good player here and competitive, as you guys know,
07:11and he's highly competitive on tape, as I watch, and playing at a high level.
07:16So it will be a big challenge for us.
07:18Sean, Cole Bishop has gotten some more reps the last couple of games, last couple of weeks,
07:23with Taylor Rapp kind of being up in the air.
07:26Where have you seen Cole kind of improve the last few weeks?
07:30Well, he was able to get quite a few reps the other night,
07:34and I think he's only going to grow from those reps.
07:37The more and more experience, just like anything else, the more experience you get,
07:41the better you get at things, the more comfortable you get.
07:44And so that was really his first what I would call true early in the game experience
07:50on first and second down, going into third down.
07:53And Cole's going to be fine.
07:55He'll be fine.
07:56He'll learn from some of the things he wants back.
07:59And, you know, I think there will be, if there isn't yet,
08:04there will be an upward mobility or upward trend to his development.
08:09You and Josh and the team as a whole have been very respectful towards Stephon following his departure.
08:16Even Josh went out of his way last week to clarify that the everybody eats comment isn't about,
08:23isn't a derogatory comment towards Diggs, but a reflection of the team.
08:27But when Steph gets to Houston and says you thrive in a space where you're loved,
08:32you thrive in a space of being around who truly care and truly want to see you win,
08:37does that seem like a knock against the Bills?
08:41How do you take that?
08:44Yeah, we respect Steph.
08:46We love Steph.
08:47And like I said, he was a very good player for us, John, and highly competitive player.
08:53And what I see on tape, he's doing the same thing.
08:55So our focus really needs to be there, and we move forward.
09:01That's really where we're at on it.
09:04And it's going to be a highly competitive game between two teams,
09:08and that's what we're looking forward to.
09:11Austin Johnson, did you mention what is he?
09:14Yeah, he's got an oblique.
09:15Yeah, he came out of the game.
09:17For those of you that didn't know, he came out of the game due to injury.
09:20And so he had an oblique strain, I think third quarter maybe.