PTI - Did the Bills make the right decision?

Episode Date: January 27, 2026

Michael Wilbon and Frank Isola break down the Buffalo Bills’ coaching move, NBA All‑Star, and Shedeur Sanders’ Pro Bowl selection Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows, and originals across every ESPN network and service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN Unlimited as part of your TV package for no additional calls. Visit activate.esPN.com to learn how to access your account or sign up, then start streaming in the ESPN app. It's all of ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now. I'm Mike Wilbon. It's national chocolate cake day Frank. What's your fave dessert? Come on. Phil and Frank favors flan. You should have. You see what you did yet. Now what's your favorite dessert?

It ain't flan. Mint chocolate chip. That's a good one. Mine is so basic. And vanilla cake. I like that. Vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce. An old-fashioned chocolate stuff. That's a Chicago specialty.

Have to eat a deep dish pizza. Dish pizza? No deep dish. You New Yorkers, stop talking about deep dish. We don't do that. Fake pizza, lasagna, that is. It is. That's why we don't eat it.

Welcome to BTI. Tony's busy doing cameos for TGL telecast. So here to do us work for him is our great friend from the starting line up on Sirius XM. Mr. Frank, I sold it. They didn't hit their mark. Go. Just don't ever mention deep dish

on this show again. Let's start today with the man the Buffalo Bills have selected to succeed Sean McDermott's head coach, offensive coordinator Joe Brady. The 36-year-old Brady has been an offensive assistant with the team since 2022 and has led the offense as the OC the last two-plus seasons. Brady is said to have a close relationship with Josh Allen. Frank, how's this higher sit with you? Well, number one, it's a great job because you get Josh You ask any guy that's going to become a first-time head coach, do you want a great quarterback? So absolutely. Yes.

Whether or not it turns out to be a great hire is going to depend on one thing. Can he get further than Sean McNermott did? Can you get to a Super Bowl? Can you win one? So clearly they think, but Brady had been interviewed with a lot of teams, Arizona, the Raiders, the Ravens. So clearly they thought they were going to lose him. They wanted to keep him in the building. But I do love the story of all the people involved with the interview, the owner, the GM, a couple of family members.

Oh, and also Josh Allen. You know what that means? Josh Allen won like this with the hire. He gave it the blessing. They were going to hire who the quarterback wanted. Mike, you know this. You can, any sport. If you have a star that big, they're going to have a lot of say,

and obviously this is what Josh Allen won't. No doubt about it. But one of the things strikes me, Frank, and that is that all this lack of getting to the Super Bowl and winning it is being blamed on Sean McDermott. I totally agree. Because the owner stops out there has that awkward press conference last week. Yep. Right?

and it just seems that they're saying, okay, you know, we can keep all these other pieces in place, which is all of them. We're not going to blame any of this on Josh Allen or would I. We're not going to blame this on the offensive play caller, even though he's been an assistant, a top assistant for two years and a cog in this thing for three. We're not blaming either one of them. We're not blaming the GM for not putting more talent around Josh Allen. we're going to blame Sean McDermott and fire him. And I'm like, wow, so you know what? Joe Brady better be damn good.

Because now there's no buffer between the two of them. It's him and it's Josh Allen, even though I still don't think that team is good enough or has the personnel. They have an entire offseason to do something about it, but I don't think it does. So under Brady, they finished second in points and fourth. They had an MVP, and they also had the guy that led the league in rushing.

So offensively, they've been. been good enough. You mentioned that about McDermott. So Pagula says he walks into locker after the game. Everyone's despondent. Yeah, because you just lost an awful loss. And Josh Allen's despondent. Yeah, because he had four turnovers in the game. The biggest mistake Sean McDermott made to this day is still the squib kick to the Chiefs. Yeah. That was the game that they should have won and they should have been playing. They should have been playing a championship game. That's right. But to sit there, clearly everyone is staying, Mike, except the show McDermott. Except Sean McDermin. That could be. That could be.

fall under the old cliche and coaches hate this. Wow. We need a new voice in the locker room. All that nonsense. But it doesn't seem like that. They took that thing hard. As they should. As they should. But there was no indication outwardly that the players who were taking it hard were blaming it on Sean McDermott. But the owner did and the GM did.

Yeah. And now, okay, so this is what you got. Better make good. Yeah. So Brady had a backer in Josh Allen. He also had a good agent because he interviewed, like I said, Cardinals, Raiders, Ravens, Dolphins. A lot of places. They thought they were going to lose them.

so they hired him. All right, let's move to the NBA and Kevin Garnett's tough words for LeBron James. Garnett said on his podcast, everyone has a podcast, Mike, that LeBron fouled up the tradition of the NBA All-Star game in 2012

when he passed the ball twice in the final seconds rather than go one-on-one with the great Kobe Bryant. All right, Mike, people love to blame LeBron for so many things. Do you blame him for the decline of the All-Star game? Not at all. Not at all.

No, the All-Star game was going down. It was headed down. Now, I don't, this is one of those cases, Frank, where I'm, I never spent any time trying to figure out who to put the finger on for specific blame. The whole culture is to blame. The league is to blame and the top players, all of them share in some blame. Now, for those of us who are around that game and the aftermath, yes, Kobe Bryant issued a on court verbal challenge we all could hear to LeBron James. And I don't know why LeBron didn't take him up on it. part of the culture and the history of the All-Strike game was to take people up on it.

Yep. Whether this was, I mean, remember, we got beef going back to Jordan and a freeze-out. That's right. We have stuff with Kobe and Michael. In 98. And so it all seemed, if not in good fun, it all seemed to be acknowledged in real time. This, though, stuck, and LeBron gets the blame for this? I'm not going with that.

I think in that moment, I do understand LeBron not just going along with it. the spirit of the game. Kobe wants to go with them one-on-one. So the first pass... It's like a hockey fight. Let's drop the glove. And LeBron declined. So he throws it to Darren Williams

because they were down two. Darren Williams shoots a three. Darren Williams was eight for ten at that time. You could say it was a basketball play. If you watched the replay of it, I had a close look at it today. Kevin Durant on the other one comes over in double teams, and LeBron, that's his instinct.

That's right. So I'm not going to... The players might think that moment. I think the fans think you don't show up for the, ever in the slam dunk. Kobe and Michael did it. So now, Zion, Williamson doesn't show up for the slam dunk that hurts the weekend Mike and I think the

other thing was where's the weekend is they don't give a damn about and that and they don't want to play the game maybe that was a player empowerment thing but there's a couple years ago Lucas not trying the all-star game Nicola Yokic and then last year they turned the all-star game into a round robin and then you have the game was spent with it was a Kevin Hart celebrity roast and then we were celebrating inside the NBA because as you know they went away even though they're back this year yeah so they they everything the high the game gets high But the players need to try more.

That's the biggest issue. And the league needs to try. And the league got it wrong again. The league was scared again. It's a gutless move to put this All-Star game out there. You walk right up to the line where you can get something that people are engaged by and either two or three players or their agents. You know who I'm probably talking about.

If you want to blame people, two or three players or maybe one and an agent, they don't want do it so you don't do it. So you put something out there on Sunday. That's so embarrassing. The commissioner had to admit the following Monday he was embarrassed. A couple of years ago, they had Larry Bird and Dr. Jay asked the players to try her in the game. I've said this before.

You look at the baseball all start game. Otani might get two at bats. Aaron Judge may get two at bats. Right? The fans understand that other guys are going to play. Go to the players then I prefer the game. How many minutes you want to play? Nicole Yonkis say, I'll play eight minutes. Right. Play those eight minutes. Call the top players in the office in the offseason. It's

And see, we're not going to have an all-star game. That's an embarrassment. So participate and help us put together something that's honorable. Jalen Brunson. Instead of that garbageness out there. Jaylon Brunson, Tyrese, Tyre Salabert, and those guys would have play harder. They didn't play them last year. If the stars don't want to play, pull them out of the game.

Send them home. Exactly. Exactly. Won't happen. No. League didn't have the guts. Let's go to the Australian Open where Cocoa Golf went down swinging. Golf was caught by a hallway camera smashing a racket to bits

after a 6-1-662 quarterfinal loss to Alina Svidelena. Goff said she didn't think the moment needed to be broadcast because she thought she was in a private space, no cameras, and swore off breaking rackets on court in front of the cameras. A while back, are you with her? All right, so the only thing more broken than that racket is her surf. In the first set, five-double fall, she was broken five times. She had seven doubles.

The match was 59 minutes. So Sabalanka, the year before, two years earlier at the U.S. Open, I love the way Sabalinka did it. She walked into the air where players warm up and, you know, they have their physios with them. She puts the, she finished second, so they give you that silver plate. She calmly put the plate down, casually walked over, and then just smashed her racket. I think it's a very human thing to do. I can understand why Cocoa Golf is an image thing, but then talk to the tour. Tell them not to put the camera there.

The biggest issue with Cocoa Golf right now is her serve. Her serve. Her serve is terrible. By the way, I thought Cocoa Golf's explanation was spot on. And she said, I went to this place because I didn't want the kids to see this. But I needed to get this out. Of course you need to get it out. I got it out once against St. Ben's when I lost in high school and did that to the only three records I had.

Or could afford. Cocoa Golf is totally fine smashing her racket. It's the serve. She's got to get together before we get to say the French Open. Yeah. She's got a few weeks left, but that's all that matters here, and players should go to the network or televising networks and the tour and say, we need a space where there are no cameras. Exactly. You do whatever you want to do. And they have the power to do it.

But it was very similar to Savalanka, where she calmly walked over. She's not ranting and raving. And then she just smashes a racket. And I thought when it happened with Savalanka, I was, maybe Sabalinka publicly didn't make a big deal of it. But I thought some of the players were thinking, well, whoa, because there are cameras now everywhere. There are. There's a camera. And I think the players are thinking that.

And you know how it works with the locker room, too. There is a sanctity of the locker room. I know that's not the locker room, but they view that as an area, which should be. off limits. And it should be off limits. And you know, you don't need every single moment to be. It's not the Truman show. It's a damn tennis tournament. But no, everybody gives in to this. Now, let's see what the players do. And their representatives should go to the tour and the participating networks and say, figure out a space now. Yeah. Before the next ball is struck. Yeah. Six Americans on the men's and the women's side made the quarterfondas. That's the most we've had in the quarters?

It's a lot. Since the O2 U.S. Open. And quite a few Americans. Stars have gone out too. But not Coco's Gragut. We're taking a break. We're coming up. Drake made it until his lineman about the keeper that clinched the Super Bowl birth. We're going to ask Jeff Saturday about that.

We'll also ask him about Mike McCarthy's desire. Wait for it, Mike, to have Aaron Rogers return next season for the Steelers. No! No Aaron Rogers! We have some NFL questions for our great friend, ESPN NFL analyst, Jeff Saturday, and Jeff, I am still curious about Drake May running for that game ceiling first down without telling his lineman that he was going to keep it. And first, I'm wondering, does this happen often?

And secondly, how would you have felt about not knowing when you look up and see your quarterback peeling left with the game on the line? Hey, we never knew, Will, but we never knew. If Manning was going to pull that thing, he never told anybody. Wow. You pull that thing. We're going to run zone. Everybody runs zone as hard as you can. And let me tell you what it does. It stops what you call the peak, right? It's innate in all of us. You're blocking. You're blocking. You kind of want to just peek over. Hey, where is that? Did he make it? Did he get there? You know, is the crowd going crazy? Like all those things, they need a full sellout. Like just push as hard as you can, run the play called. But we never knew. I was never offended. I didn't want to know for that exact reason. I don't want to be the reason. Pulling up. on my block because, you know, Peyton wasn't Drake May. I mean, that big runs a city. He runs a 7040, you know what I mean? Seven, oh. So you got to make sure he gets all the advantages he could get. You ain't got no speed on the edge, bro. Just make it. Just get there.

We'll all be happy. That was a great baseball moment. That was a great improvised play. All right, let's stick with the Patriots offensive line. How concerned should they be about their rookie left tackle, Will Campbell? Yeah, he's struggling, Franklin. I mean, and here's the deal. This is not going to be solved. right. I mean, he hasn't, I mean, he hasn't taken this large leak come playoff time. And the truth is, he's played some vicious defensive ends. Like, if we're being honest, this isn't like just run-of-the-mill guys are coming and just beating the brakes off the guy. He's facing the best of the league, like all through the defenses they face. And the playoffs have all been

legitimate and all had good pass rushing edges. It's part of being a rookie left tackle. And I love the fact that he's fighting out there. He's doing the stuff he's trying to do. He's trying to work his technique. Sometimes it's good. Sometimes it's not. I will say this, though, from Drake May's perspective, he has to be aware of that and understand most of the time in Campbell's problem, he's getting pushed in the pocket. So meaning he doesn't necessarily just with, but the guys putting power to him and driving him back. May's got to know that, keep two hands secure the ball so that guys can't reach over the back edge and knock the ball over his shoulder. That's the biggest thing that you get concerned with getting driven back as a left tackle. Obviously,

the Nolan Ryan is a no-no, right? You're a no hitter out there. He's going to kill the quarterback. But to get in pushback, you know, you can limit some of that. I like that analogy. All right. The Patriots defense, they've been strong against the run this year. If you're tasked against, you know, running against them, what would you tell your line mates? Yeah, creativity from the run game, right? Understand that like inside zone, outside zone. Can we get some motion. Can we get some things that take some make some eye candy? Like like get linebackers looking, maybe get them rocking, maybe get them stepping out of a gap so you can catch an edge. But the biggest thing about run game, it's leverage the man that you're blocking and leverage

the play. And so from Seattle's offensive line, that's exactly what they're going to be coached on. Make sure their hats in the right place where you're leveraging the play and let Walker or whichever running back is do the rest. You're not just going to take and physically dominate play out. after play. But if you get enough, and that's the one thing about Seattle, even when they weren't efficient in the run game, they stayed true to it. Mike McDonald, he didn't bail off of it. He's like, well, we're to keep doing it. They've gotten better as a season's progressed. So you got to like, they're going to stick with it, even when it's not efficient. Well, let you go after we take you back to the end of your playing days. You played, of course,

one season under Mike McCarthy and with Aaron Rogers. McCarthy said today, or indicated today, he wants Rogers back next season if Rogers wants to be. with the Steelers. Jeff, it seems awfully short term and not really resolving anything to me, but how do you feel about this? Yeah, I think from McCarthy's perspective is it buys them a little time, right? I mean, you're replacing the guy, right? Mike Tomlin is the guy. The only knock on Mike Tomlin has been winning in the playoffs. So for him to draft a quarterback and go win in the playoffs, especially in that division he's in to get in the playoffs is going to be work enough. I think he would like to be able to kind of lean on that vet, right, being Aaron Rogers.

But the truth is they're going to have to figure something out for the future. Aaron Rogers is it in the future. And the why you brought Mike McCarthy in, right? At 62 years old, going to the Steelers is to develop a quarterback. So you've got to trust that he can do it, get the right guy, find the right timing of doing it, whether it's mid-year or even watch for a year and come in the second year. But I think that's really why he would appreciate Aaron Rogers being. there for another season. They're very comfortable

knowing the offense, of knowing what each other's thinking. So obviously there's some familiarity there, but being able to develop a guy under that, I think, is really what would benefit him the most. Only part that scares me is another season having to talk about Aaron Rogers. Thanks, Jeff. We appreciate it.

Appreciate it, fellas. Thanks, Jeff. Let's take one last break. We're still to come. The Pro Bowl weekend is diminished, but so much that Shudor Sanders deserves an invite. And how fortunate was Arizona to escape BYU last night. That was a good game.

It was. Good in. Lock shot. Time to get happy people. Happy 74th birthday, Billy White Shoes, Johnson. Johnson was best known as the premier punt and kick returner of the 1970s. Over his first four seasons in the league for the Houston Oilers, Johnson returned five punts and two kicks for touchdowns and scored 12 touchdowns in his role as receiver.

punctuating so many of his scores with his rendition of the Funky Chicken. A knee injury in 1979 caused Johnson to miss his sixth season. He spent a year in Canada before returning to the NFL with the Falcons and winning the 1983 comeback player of the year. Johnson is the only member of the NFL's 75th anniversary team, not in the Hall of Fame. If Devin Hester, if the Bears is in, damn it he should be, then so should should shoes fright. How much fun was Billy White's

Johnson. We'd go to the park, he'd score a touchdown, and everyone would do that dance that he did the perfect play. You know, he played two games in 79. He was not in that AFC championship game. That was the Mike Brentrow play in the corner of the end zone, which should have been a catch. Houston should have tied the game. Dan Pastorini threw that ball. Good memory on your part. All the way. Happy anniversary, Terry Bradshaw. On this day, 56 years ago, The Steelers selected Bradshaw with the first overall pick in the draft.

Pittsburgh had landed that pick by winning a coin flip with my bears. Bradshaw told me a couple of Super Bowls ago he was so certain he would be drafted by the bears. He told his dad, quote, by tonight I'm going to be a teammate of Dick Butkus and Gail Sayers. Bradshaw was so excited. And then he went fishing. Wasn't until he returned home that he learned the Steelers had drafted him, not the bear, So while Bradshaw led Pittsburgh to four Super Bowls, Bears fans dealt with a succession of quarterbacks through the 70s. That included Bobby Douglas, Gary Huff, Bob Avalini, Mike Phipps.

That's a list. All right. How about this? Pittsburgh, in that same draft, third round, they take Mel Blunt. The following year, they take Franco Harris. Then in 74, four of the five guys they draft. All these guys are Hall of Famouss. Lynn Swan, Jack Lambert, John, Stalworth, most underrated wide receiver at all time.

And Mike Webster. They mastered it. They killed it. Starting with Terry Bradshaw would have just looked great in the 12th, Midnight Blue uniform. Happy trails to the Pro Bowl games for Drake May. The Patriots quarterback will be focused on the Super Bowl, so he'll be replaced by, wait for it. Shoulder Sanders. Sanders threw seven touchdowns and 10 picks this season for the Browns, but he gets the nod to join Justin Herbert and Josh Allen, because alternate's Patrick Mahomes, Daniel Jones, and Bo Nix are out for the season,

and Trevor Lawrence opted to not participate. Frank, this game is so bad. They got rid of it. So why are they inviting players and substitutes to a flag football game? It's a television show, and a lot of people like Shador Sanders. What's the big deal? All right, so he made the Probo. There's a difference between all pro and pro bowl.

Let's not blame Shador Sanders. I'm not. I think people want to see it. officials. One omission, Bill Belichick was not elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on the first ballot. You're surprised. He didn't win enough Super Bowls, Mike, maybe. Come on. We're running out of shoulders, get to the big finish. The Titans who reportedly hired Brian Dayball is their OC. You like that? And their head coach is a former Jet Head coach. Robert Salah. I don't mind at all. Number one, Arizona survived to scare from number 13 BYU last time. I know you were watching.

The Bons is amazing to watch for Arizona. Really tough out the rest of this season. Duke and quarterback Dary and Minta settled their dispute, he'll be allowed to transfer out. Does that make sense? Yes, it makes sense because college football doesn't make sense. Max McClung will not go for his fourth slam dunk title in a row. You disappointed. Yes, I'm not going to see him like in the NBA playoffs. I want to see him. Last one, women's soccer-friendly tonight. USA versus Chile, are you intrigued? One of those South American teams are getting better. Trini Robben played the other night. She was the captain. I got that big contract with Washington. We're out of time. Thanks for watching. I'm Frank I soul.

I'm Mike Wilbon. Same time tomorrow. We can call that rule for some. Ashley Rockets, the McInroe Rule. That's a great name for, right? Johnny Mack, not for you.