RP Clips: Buffalo Bills Breakdown

**Matt Bove** (0:00)
This is Reception Perception The Show.

**James Koh** (0:03)
James Koh and Matt Harmon. 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** (0:21)
No, thank you so much for having me. Looking forward to it.

**James Koh** (0:23)
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.

**Matt Bove** (0:37)
Yeah.

**James Koh** (0:38)
What have the first impressions been with DJ Moore?

**Matt Bove** (0:41)
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 are a little surprised. They are like, hey, this team is super close because there is not a whole else ton to do here, right? 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 bond 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 gonna be their number one wide receiver, and Josh wants to get on the same page as him, because for Josh Allen, especially like, 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 like 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 why.

**James Koh** (2:15)
Gabe Davis, bro.

**Matt Bove** (2:17)
That's what I'm saying. Gabe Davis, who left and then really couldn't do anything and then came back, and then immediately was getting thrown to again.
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. 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** (2:43)
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** (2:51)
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. We were told a story from. It's interesting because it takes that different level of, 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.
So it's a really interesting thing that's happening because the offensive has always raved about Joe Brady from a football standpoint and from just like a personality standpoint. Now the defensive guys we talk to are starting to say the same things of like, we didn't know how cool and laid back this guy is. The way I'll say it is it's much looser at practice right now. Now, I think we're still in a little bit of a honeymoon phase, right? I think it's no different than in life. If you're in a relationship for a long time and then you move on, the next person you get, everything seems like it's going great until you face any adversity. The Bills have not faced any adversity yet, right? This is the off season. They just finished mandatory mini camp.