Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Breaking down Buffalo Bills' AJ Epenesa, Micah Hyde, and Ike Boettger with The Draft Network's Joe Marino

Episode Date: August 27, 2020

We're on day two of our NFL crossover miniseries, and we spent the entire episode with Joe Marino discussing the four Iowa Hawkeye alums associated with the Buffalo Bills. Joe talks about why Nick Easley got cut, and why Easley was one of his favorites before going into the details about why Buffalo clearly has plans for Ike Boettger. We then move over to Micah Hyde and how he is one of the guys who makes this top defense go before ending on a nice discussion about this year's second-round draft pick AJ Epenesa and what he has to offer in his rookie season.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.ManscapedGo to Manscaped.com and use code LOCKED to get 20% Off and Free Shipping. Manscaped is #1 in men’s below the belt grooming and offers precision-engineered tools for your family jewels.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get $10 off your first order. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I thank God I was born on the good arms of the Midwest, and not on the battlefields of the U.S. It's a time of panic, and it's intercepted! It's picked off right away! Intercepted by Marty Hooker! Pick six! Eight seconds into the game! Buffen sets up deep in the pocket, goes down the field for Smith!

Oh! He's got it! Smith! Touchdown. 85 yards. High on. Touchdown, 10. Taking a shot in the end zone.

It is caught. No offense. Touchdown. That's either one or you have it. Go ahead and three. Yes. Two-point lead for the Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network.

As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade, and we have another part of the NFL series we have been doing. If you missed yesterday, make sure to check that out. Basically what we are doing is we're starting a little mini-series where we are breaking down the Iowa Hawkeye alums who are currently in the NFL, and we're chatting with the hosts of their respective teams' channel on the Locked On NFL Podcast side of things. So on today's episode, we do have Joe Marino from Locked On Bills.

He's going to be talking about A.J. Epineza, Nick Easley, Ike Bucker, and Micah Hyde. And on tomorrow's episode, we got Locked On Broncos. We have Locked On Ravens. And we got Locked On Buccaneers. All three of those shows, those three hosts are jumping on as well. To talk about the respective folks on those teams. Specifically, Michael Ojemudia, Josie Jewell, Noah Fant, Geno Stone, Christian Welch, and Tristan Wirfs, and Anthony Nelson.

So we're going to be talking about all those guys tomorrow. But again, on today's show, all about the Buffalo Bills. So if you liked what you heard today, you liked what you heard yesterday, if you like the show in general and you haven't done this already, just please make sure to like, review, and subscribe. Give us that five-star review. Spread the word about the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. And make sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

That being said, though, let's hop into the interview with Joe Marino from Lockdown Bills. All right, I am joined here by Joe Marino, the host of the Lockdown Buffalo Bills podcast, also a member of the Giraffe Network team. Joe, how are you doing today? I'm doing well, thanks. Hope you are as well. Yeah, man, doing great. I'm on a staycation this week. I took a week off just for the heck of it, and I've really enjoyed it. Been cleaning out my garage, so super fun. It's good to check those boxes. Look, I can tell you, I don't have a garage, but I'm sure I have an attic and a shed that needs some attention. So, you know, good for you being productive and hopefully you're enjoying this time off. Absolutely, man. Well,

let's hop into it. You host the Lockdown Buffalo Bills podcast and the Buffalo Bills and the Iowa Hawkeyes have a very interesting connection. We were discussing it before the show. There are three Iowa Hawkeyes on the Bills roster, used to be four. And that is tied for the most people from a certain college on the Bills roster. Let's start with Nick Easley, though, who was just recently released. The first question I do want to ask about him is, do you feel like Nick Easley would have made this roster four or five years ago prior to them building so much wide receiver depth? Well, yeah, I think you kind of got right to the point there.

The challenge for Nick Easley is just that there wasn't a real course for him to make this roster given the starters and John Brown, Stefan Diggs, Cole Beasley, and several players, a couple of players they drafted in Gabe Davis and Isaiah Hodgins, some guys from the previous year. And so just one of those situations where the numbers weren't favorable for him to make this roster, even though he was kind of stuck around in the practice squad last year. And when you have Cole Beasley as your slot and he's under contract for the next three season, Nick Easley was always going to have that in his way. And so hopefully for Nick, he can find an

opportunity that will give him a clearer path to being a slot receiver, a team that doesn't have Cole Beasley in the way of that. But yeah, in years past, I mean, when the Bills were drafting players like Austin Prohl and Ray-Ray McLeod to be that slot receiver, that's why they paid Cole Beasley is because they had such a difficult time finding that answer. And Brian Dable, the offensive coordinator, comes from that Bill Belichick coaching tree where you know they love the Wes Welkers and the Julian Edelman type guys. You know, the Bills just couldn't find that type of player.

And the bad news for Easley is that he came when Beasley started and it just wasn't really a clear path for him. And so hopefully he can latch on because he's one of those jitterbug slot receivers that can get open, and he's really elusive and agile, and you just felt like he just needed a chance. And hopefully he can go somewhere that Cole Beasley isn't. Definitely, man. Everything I heard out of camp last year was that he was doing really well,

performing really well, not dropping any balls was pretty quick and you know obviously got cut and then signed back with the practice squad so unfortunate but definitely understand it's kind of a numbers game and when you have Cole Beasley there you don't really need a Nick Easley at that point so you know you know what's interesting is on my podcast I got a question a couple weeks ago I do a Q&A type show on every Tuesday and somebody asked me if you could pick one Buffalo Bills player to switch positions, who would you pick? My choice was Nick Easley.

I said, you know what, look, I don't think he's got a chance to make this roster at receiver, and of course he gets released a few days after I do this podcast. But I said, maybe if he were to go play on defense at safety or maybe even in the slot, he would have a better chance. So, you know, look, he's got a place in the heart of Bills fans. Everyone really, you know, has enjoyed the different workout videos that you see of Nick Easley. You like what he does in preseason games, but at the end of the day, you know, when you got one of the most proven slot receivers in the game

and in the way, you're not going to keep a backup, you know? And so hopefully he can latch on somewhere else. Yeah. I mean, I feel like that's just a, it's a perfect story for a Buffalo bills team. I mean, Nick easily being a walk on a junior college, a walk onto Iowa, going undrafted. It feels like it just makes sense for the Buffalo bills. Yeah, no doubt. So moving on to another guy who's kind of on that roster bubble, I would, I would assume. Ike Bucker picked up as an undrafted free agent, got released, then got picked up again, spent the rest of the year on the Bills roster.

The Bills have invested a lot in the offensive line. Do you feel like at this point he's a candidate to get cut at the end of the season or the end of the training camp season, I guess I should say? No, if I was making a 53-man roster projection, and I did last week in my podcast, I would make sure that Ike Bacher is included on that. You mentioned he initially came into the NFL in 2018. The Bills cut him, and he went to the Kansas City Chiefs, and he was back in September of 2018, and he's been around since. He was rostered both of the last two seasons and so talking about a player that came into the league as an undrafted free agent and you you've committed a roster space

to him for two seasons now uh you you're developing this guy you you believe there's something there and so ike bacher is a guy that can play guard and center that versatility is a big thing for buffalo they love that in in their you know their backups and you know i don't know that he has a is a guy that can play guard and center. That versatility is a big thing for Buffalo. They love that in their backups. And I don't know that he has a path to starting for this football team, but that versatility on the interior, the fact that he's been around for the last two years, says a lot for what Buffalo thinks about him.

And so I expect him to make the roster. And when you think about beyond this year, the Bills have several free agent offensive linemen. They're starting right guard John Feliciano, his primary backup Brian Winters. You even have Evan Boehm, who's a free agent. And those guys are all expected to make the roster. Who knows if they look at Ike Bacher as a value type starter, you know, given the amount of time that he's been in the system.

You don't keep guys around this long that you really didn't invest much into if you don't see something there. And I can tell you, I think that Brandon mean and Sean McDermott see something in Ike Bakker. All right. To quickly interrupt our conversation with Joe Marino to give you a very important announcement because built bar is back and it's better tasting than ever. Believe me, if you tried the old version of bill bar, you're gonna love the new version of the Built Bar. I just got my package today and it is absolutely fantastic. I tried one of their six new flavors,

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A delicious snack, again, that you can use any time of the day. All these bars are 100% covered in chocolate, and they have nut and non-nut flavors. If you like the original Bilt Bar or haven't tried it yet, you have to try the brand new Bilt Bar. And right now, go to BiltBar.com and use promo code LOCKEDON, and you'll get $10 off your next order. Use promo code LOCKEDON for $10 off at BiltBar.com.

And while supplies last, you get a free cooler with your purchase as well. So go to BiltBar.com and use promo code LOCKEDON for $10 off at BuiltBar.com. And while supplies last, you get a free cooler with your purchase as well. So go to BuiltBar.com and use promo code LOCKEDON. I love it, man. Well, that's great to hear. Yeah, because I saw that obviously they invested a lot from a free agency perspective, getting some offensive line, some interior offensive line help, and was looking at the depth chart, and he wasn't very high on it. So great to hear.

It sounds like he has a spot potentially with the Bills. Another guy who has a more potentially with the Bills. Another guy who has a more secure spot, I would say, significantly secure, is Micah Hyde, entering year four as a starter in Buffalo. What does he add to the secondary? How does he kind of make this secondary go? And how important is he to the success of the team overall? Yeah, you know, the Bills have had a top three defense in each of the last two seasons. And if you ask me the number one reason why, I would say it's the safety tandem of Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer. Those guys work so well together. But what Micah Hyde does for this defense is really important because he's so smart. And the

Bills are very good on defense. And it's not because they have this crazy exotic scheme that is a juggernaut that has never been seen before in the NFL. They just have smart football players that are assignment driven, that do their job terms of eliminating pre-snap reads for quarterbacks. He's such a great player in terms of disguising his intentions and then responding sometimes even deep into the snap. And so this quarterback has no pre-snap read. The ball's hiked. And even initially, he doesn't tip what he's doing, which throws off the entire progression of the play for the quarterback.

Micah Hyde is that type of guy. He's baited Tom Brady into bad decisions in the red zone and picked him off. I mean, he is the key, one of the key players for this defense, a pro bowler in 2017. I'd argue he should have been a pro bowler all three years of his time in Buffalo. And you think about this Bills defense, they don't give up big plays ever. I mean, no deep touchdowns ever against the Bills, literally none last year. And that's not because they have great speed at corner. Trey White is a fabulous player, but he's barely a 4-4 guy. Levi Wallace, the guy opposite of him, runs in the 4-6s. They don't have much collective

team speed. It's because guys like Micah Hyde are playing over top of these routes, bracketing certain players and just taking away throwing lanes. And so, you know, he's proven able to take away the football, but what's what he does for this scheme, what he does to fool quarterbacks and what his role is to eliminate big plays makes him a key piece of one of the best defenses in the league. Absolutely, man. I mean, you spoke to a couple things I think resonate with Iowa Hawkeye fans. The fact that he is a very volatile, you know, versatile chess piece that you can use in a defense. He does a great job of disguising what he is doing.

And we saw that at Iowa a lot. And then the other piece of working as one 11th of a unit. I mean, that is literally what Iowa does there. Their defense is never the most athletic defense in the big 10, but everyone has a role. Everyone fills that role. And if everyone fills that role, their defense is usually top 10. And that's a tribute to, to Phil Parker and Kirk Barron. So that's awesome to hear. No, I kind of expected Mike,

your comments on Micah Hyde, we're going to be pretty, pretty high praising. Another guy that the last guy I wanted to touch on was AJ Epinesa and coming into draft season, he was, you know, he's pretty hyped up and then he tested very poorly, poorly enough though to drop him to the middle part of the second round where draft season. He was, you know, he's pretty hyped up and then he tested very poorly. Poorly enough though to drop him to the middle part of the second round where the Bills were able to snatch him up. First, I wanted to get your thoughts. What were your initial thoughts when Buffalo selected A.J. Epinesa given obviously his tape, but his, you know, his testing performance being basically the exact opposite of what you would expect or what people were hoping, I guess

I should say. So what were your thoughts when he was initially drafted at the second round spot? Well, yeah, A.J. Epinesa was kind of a polarizing guy, a part-time player for Iowa. I wasn't a starter, you know, two years ago. And then he gets his first chance to start and he's a solid player, but didn't necessarily take a monster jump in production. And then he didn't necessarily test that well. And it seemed like a guy that went into the 2019 college football season with this maybe like top half of the first

round type buzz just didn't necessarily do much to cement that or elevate it and of course the combine didn't help but you got to go back to watching this guy play at Iowa which I did a ton of of course preparing for the draft working for the draftnetwork.com and you have to go back to watching this guy play at Iowa, which I did a ton of, of course, preparing for the draft, working for the draftnetwork.com. And you have to remind yourself, why do guys win? Why are they successful? Why do they make plays? Was A.J. Epinesa successful and a playmaker at Iowa because he was this speedy, twitchy defensive lineman that just ran circles around blockers? No, that was never his game. He won with length, heavy hands, and power. And that stuff works in the NFL. I mean, for as much as we love to see Von Miller dip and rip around an offensive tackle and just dust these blockers and sack the quarterback, that's actually not how most sacks happen in the NFL. Most of the time, it's because

you're able to keep separation from your blocker, get on the same level as the quarterback, disengage, and finish. And that is what A.J. Epinesa can do. I would be concerned with that testing if Epinesa was the guy that ran circles around Big Ten offensive linemen. He never did that. So that's what you have to keep in mind. Why do guys win? And is the reason that they win translatable to the NFL? And it absolutely is, especially when you're starting to see this NFL where you're getting more and more of these dual-threat quarterbacks, guys that can run around and work off script. The enemy of that is disciplined pass rush,

guys that can stay in their pass rush lanes and keep that quarterback in the pocket and compress the pocket around them and not give them avenues to escape and extend plays. Epinesa gives you that. And you wish he was more athletic, of course. But when you go back to that fundamental idea, why does this guy win, you become a lot more comfortable with it. So for me, I expected him to be the type of prospect that a Bill Belichick

disciple defense would want to have, whether it was the Patriots, Brian Flores with the Miami Dolphins, even the Giants. You look at Tennessee with Mike Vrabel, Matt Patricia's in Detroit. I kind of thought because those defensive lines are typically that compression style where it's length, it's heavy hands, it's power. I expected him to go to one of those types of teams. But when you think more about Sean McDermott and the defensive ends that he's had in the past, going back to Carolina, right?

His success in Carolina is the reason he's the head coach of the Bills right now. Those defensive ends were Charles Johnson and Mario Addison and Coney Ealy and Greg Hardy. That's the type of player he wants. I know that he's had Jerry Hughes in Buffalo, but I think that could be more of an exception because Jerry Hughes is a good player that has, you know, withstood the test of time.

He's the only player on the team right now that was there before Sean McDermott arrived in 2017. So I think this is McDermott being more true to his pedigree and profile of defensive ends than maybe we remembered because we're thinking, oh, that guy's not like Jerry Hughes. And the reality is that this is the type of player that McDermott wants. And I think for all the reasons, I kind of went on a tangent there, but I think I loved it. At the end of it, hopefully you could see why this pick makes sense and why there should be plenty of optimism for Epinesa.

Yeah, I know. I absolutely loved it. I think you're speaking exactly what Iowa Hawkeye fans thought too. They're like, you know, he's not the fastest guy, but you watch him against even a Minnesota offensive line. He's just barreling through their entire interior and making – I'm drawing a blank on Minnesota's quarterback's name right now. Tanner Morgan.

Tanner Morgan. Yeah, I was like, it starts with a T. I mean, he just made Tanner Morgan's life hell at the end of that game. So as far as his performance in training camp, there's been a couple videos that have come out. And obviously you have to take everything with a grain of salt, right? You can show one clip and you look like a dominant all pro, but there's been some videos of him just tearing apart the offensive line.

Is that what it's been like consistently, or has he had some ups and downs throughout training camp? Well, yeah, ups and downs for sure. But I think it's those moments that you should cling to because when you think about A.J. Epinesa and why and how he's going to make plays in the NFL, it's in the fashion that he's doing in those highlight reel clips with, you know, with length and heavy hands and power. And so it's good to see that working for him against NFL caliber offensive lineman. I will say one other thing here is that, um, AJ Epinesa coming to Buffalo and remembering that game against a USC and him

just abusing that left tackle, Austin Jackson. Tell you what, Bill's mafia is pretty happy that the Miami dolphins division rival drafted Austin Jackson in the first round and put him as their left tackle. So we get to see that matchup hopefully for at least a few seasons if Jackson can stick on and claim that job. But, man, I'm sure Jackson's still having nightmares about Epinesa and trying to block that guy. I mean, you could argue that Epinesa was the reason Iowa won that game.

I mean, I watched that game and Iowa was tied, you know, basically tied with USC, but it felt like it was USC's game to win until he took out their quarterback because he was just dominating the defensive or the offensive line over and over again. So, yeah, I mean, that was, that was a crazy game for Epineza. What a way to go out. My final question to you, Joe, what are the expectations then for Epineza? I mean, I can't imagine he's going to be a starter in this sense, but more of a rotational defensive line player.

What would make a successful season in your eyes for AJ Epinesa this year? Yeah, I think you nailed it there. Epinesa is expected to come in and be part of this defensive line rotation. The starters are set. I mean, we're talking about defensive end. It's Mario Addison. It's Jerry Hughes. And, you know, right now Trent Murphy is still in the mix.

We'll see. He's got an $8 million salary that is waivable for the Bills. They could choose to move on from him. And, you know, obviously with the cap going down and those types of things, that $8 million could provide a lot of relief that they're going to need with the salary cap. And really that comes down to whether or not A.J. Epinesa is able to claim, you know, the reps as the defensive end three for this football team.

I think with or without Murphy because Epinesa, and I know he didn't do it a lot at Iowa, but they're viewing him as a player that can kick inside and play on the interior on some downs, particularly on passing downs. So that'll be an adjustment for him. But if he can do that, I still think he's going to play somewhere between 30 on the low end to 40% of the Bills' defensive snaps. They like to rotate players. That versatility will be meaningful for Epinesa. And so just come in, be his 111th, right, as I'm sure he's heard at Iowa, which he's heard in Buffalo for sure.

That's one of the buzzy phrases that Sean McDermott likes to detail. And so if he can do that, I think that there's definitely a path forward for him playing about a third of the snaps on defense. I love it, man. Well, I'm an Iowa Hawkeye fan. I'm also a Denver Broncos fan, but if I had to pick a second team or a third, I guess, team overall in football, it'd probably be the Buffalo Bills at this point, given the fact they seem to love the Iowa Hawkeyes. Joe, I kept you on for a little bit longer than I think you were expecting and that I want to. I know you have a busy schedule as well, but where can the folks find you at? Yeah. I appreciate it, man.

You get me all fired up talking about these players. That's my fault. I talked long. So, so I'm trying to be cognizant of your time. And I get fired up, man. I love this stuff. So if you want to keep up with any of the work that I do, Twitter's the spot at the Joe Marino is my handle. All the written work is on the draftnetwork.com. And then if you're interested in the Buffalo Bills, Lockdown Bills podcast.

Awesome, man. Well, Joe, I really appreciate your time. Have a great day, man. We'll have to have you on maybe later in the season to see what the check-in is with A.J. Paneza, Micah Hyde, and Ike Bucker. Yeah, I would love to do it. Thanks so much for having me. Awesome.

See you later, Joe. All right, and that wraps up our show today. A big shout-out to Joe for hopping on and talking about those Buffalo Bills. I was only planning on taking up, you know, seven to 10 minutes of his time, but he was such a gracious guest. He wanted to, you know, jump in and really talk about those guys. And I thought he gave some really incredible analysis about how each of those guys fit into the Buffalo Bill scheme and what they mean to the organization. So I hope you appreciate that.

Please make sure to go check out Joe Marino on Twitter at TheJoeMarino and check out the Draft Network as well where he works. Those guys are absolutely great to work with, and they are really my source, my go-to for draft coverage outside of some other analysts. They really are the kind of go-to source I go to. So again, thank you all for tuning in to today's episode. Make sure to check out tomorrow's episode where we continue this mini-series talking to the NFL hosts about the Hawkeye alums currently playing in the NFL.

And again, if you like the show, please make sure to like, review, and subscribe. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And as always, Hawkeye Nation, I hope you have a very fantastic Thursday. And let's go Hawks.