[FULL EPISODE] Guests Matt Bove & Tim Kawakami Talk Bills, 49ers

**James Koh** (0:01)
We've got our Taycan is loaded and ready.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:03)
Absolutely dominant on deep routes, absolutely dominant on short routes, excellent separation against man coverage. This is Reception Perception The Show.

**James Koh** (0:15)
Yo, what's cracking, everybody? James Koh here with you. Matt Harmon continues his trek across the European and Chintzy solo vacation folks. But that's okay, the show must go on. We've got a couple of great beat reporters here. We're going to be talking about the Buffalo Bills and the San Francisco 49ers. Matt Bove covers the Bills. Tim Kawakami, a long time, well-respected 49ers journalist here who has covered the NFL for a very long time as well, is going to be joining the program. All right, let's go.
I'm actually really excited to talk Buffalo Bills football here with Matt Bove, sports director at WKBW, co-host of It's Always Gameday in Buffalo.
That podcast that he co-hosts with Sal Capaccio. Matt, man, we appreciate the time, brother.

**Matt Bove** (1:02)
No, thank you so much for having me. Looking forward to it.

**James Koh** (1:04)
Man, let's just dive right into it. The big off-season acquisition of DJ Moore early on. What have you seen from DJ? Because, I mean, let's be real, he is known as a mercurial guy.
What have the first impressions been with DJ Moore?

**Matt Bove** (1:22)
I think they are definitely putting in the work now to make sure that they are on the same page come September, and that means on and off the field. So the thing about the Buffalo Bills, and one of the things that they pride themselves on, and I think when other people get here, they're a little surprised, they're like, hey, this team is super close because there's not a whole else ton to do here. Like they spend a ton of time with each other. Like the big conversation when the bills traded for Stefan Diggs was that he and Josh Allen would play Call of Duty together all the time, and they would get on the same page, and that's kind of how they became teammates, and that chemistry carried over to the field. So I think for DJ Moore, it was like, hey, let's get him in here. Let's get him acclimated as quick as we can, not just from a football standpoint, but from all of the other stuff like, hey guys, this is when we go out for pizza. This is when we go to the bar together. This is when we do this stuff. Let's build that bonds there. And then from what we've been able to see on the football fields, like they are forcing the ball to DJ Moore a lot, because I think they know he's probably going to be their number one wide receiver, and Josh wants to get on the same page as him, because for Josh Allen, especially, chemistry goes a long way. He does not throw the ball to guys that he does not trust. And I'm sure that's going to be a conversation that we have about some of the other guys down the road, but trust maybe for Josh Allen is more than anything else, more than getting open, more than how talented they are. He needs to trust his wide receiver. It's why for so many years, we saw Gabe Davis have as big of a role as he had. It's why, it's right. It's why-

**James Koh** (2:57)
Gabe Davis, bro.

**Matt Bove** (2:59)
That's what I'm saying. Like Gabe Davis who left and then really couldn't do anything and then came back and then immediately was getting thrown to again. Like for some reason he had it with Brandon Cooks last year in the little bit we saw.
We haven't seen it with Keon. We haven't seen it with Curtis Samuel. Like we didn't see it there. I think he wants to make sure that he and DJ Moore are on the same page. So far they're forcing it. There's been some good and there's been some bad, but they still have some time to get on the same page.

**James Koh** (3:25)
I got to imagine too that the familiarity with Joe Brady may help DJ Moore quite a bit. How has that transition been?

**Matt Bove** (3:32)
It's interesting because I think Joe Brady is almost overcompensating that he's not the offensive coordinator anymore and that he is the head coach. Like we were told a story from. It's interesting because like it takes that different level of like oh yeah this isn't always just about football.
So Connor McGovern, the Bill Center, shared a really interesting story the other day where I asked him a similar question. He was like for years, Joe was the support system for Josh Allen whenever he made a mistake. But Josh threw an interception during practice and Joe was celebrating with the defense in Josh's peripheral vision to let him know like, hey, I'm not just the offensive coordinator, I'm the guy who's calling the shots, I'm the head coach now.