1. Jerry Hughes on giving back to Buffalo
Bills defensive end Jerry Hughes has always spoken his mind and thinks all players should use their platform to make a change. He is an advocate for social justice and said that this team is trying to come up with solutions to big problems. Hughes and his teammates have a plan to start helping and giving back which begins in week one. A lot of kids in the city of Buffalo do not have a solid internet connection at home, and with school being mostly online in the fall some students can't get the proper education they need. Hughes and the Bills organization are going to try and help solve that problem.
"As a team, we talked about one thing that was on our mind," Hughes explained. "we noticed that the kids here in New York, especially in the city of Buffalo do not have internet. The school year is getting ready to start soon so we decided week one that we would pull together some of our funds, as well as our owners, they decided to contribute as well. We were going to go out and get, I think it was 4,500 teachers and students who don't have internet. It was something where we were able to get onto the Zoom Teleconference with Mayor Byron Brown and he expressed some of his interest in the city of Buffalo. For us as a team, we're looking for any way that we could help out.
Hughes added, "with what Colin Kaepernick started back in 2017, bringing awareness to the fact that African Americans are still getting treated unjustly by the police here in America. I think for us and with this team, we're trying to think of solutions. What can we do as the Buffalo Bills, to help not only low-income families but people who look like us, and look like me. People who are part of this systematic racism that just need some help and so we felt like the one thing we could do is help with the education process. Helping those kids with the internet for the school year is something that's been on a lot of guy's hearts and so we're excited for week one to come around so we can contribute to that."
2.** Reggie Gilliam earned a spot on this team.
Reggie Gilliam was the only one of the Bills undrafted free agents to make the 53-man roster. He worked extremely hard in training camp and even changed numbers and positions. He came in as a fullback but is now a tight end for the Bills. McDermott thinks that he has a bright future and said that he can't have enough players like him.
"Reggie's done a good job," McDermott stated, "in particular in the last couple of days, where he really surged. He's done some good things from the tight end position and we think he has a bright future. You can never have too many good football players, and we feel like he's a good football player that is only going to continue to learn, grow, and get better."
At Toledo, Gilliam played multiple positions all around the offensive side of the ball. He is one of many versatile players on this team, and Bills fans shouldn't be surprised if they see Gilliam lined up at multiple positions this season.
"To me," McDermott added. "the biggest thing that has stuck out about Reggie is his unselfish approach. He continues to show that he puts the team first and continues to work hard every day. He is a very focused, and very diligent young man. He is ready to help the team in whatever way he can, whether it's offensively defensively or on special teams."
3. ESPN predicts this record for Buffalo's 2020 season
ESPN ran 20,000 simulations of this upcoming season; they chose simulation #3,869 to predict the whole season. They run through every game week by week and even layout some predicted player stats for the season. The simulation has the Bills having a very successful season winning eleven games in the regular season and winning a home playoff game. The biggest thing that stood out is that in this simulation the Bills ran away with the division, with the Jets and Patriots having 5-11 records, and the Dolphins were 4-12.
"Each preseason, we run 20,000 simulations of the entire slate with ESPN's Football Power Index (FPI), our projection system. A lot goes into it, including expected starting quarterback, past performance, returning starters, and projected win totals. The culmination is a strength rating for all 32 teams that help us predict outcomes."
"Some creative license went into the storylines, and yes, this is just one of the 20,000 outcomes we found. But the season will ultimately happen only one way, and this is the one we chose to explore."
