10-02 Sean McDermott

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Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott addresses the media on Wednesday ahead of his team's matchup with Stefon Diggs and the Houston Texans on Sunday at NRG Stadium. (Courtesy of the Buffalo Bills)

Transcript

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.

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