1. Sean McDermott's pitch to free agents
Head coach Sean McDermott opened up on what he told and wants to tell future free agents about Buffalo and why they would want to come here during his weekly Wednesday press conference.
"Yeah, I mean, Brandon [Beane] does a lot of negotiating and things with, with the agents and whatnot but just overall, I would say for all the players out there that we brought in, you know, listen, we are going in the right direction," McDermott said. "I think this is a this is a great place to live, it's a great place to work. If you're a player why wouldn't you want to play in Buffalo where you've got to me one of the best, if not the best fan base, most passionate fan base in the NFL. I think that sells itself."
2. Lee Smith on Bills staying put at the trade deadline
The trade deadline came and went with the Bills not pulling the trigger on any potential trades. The locker room respects the front office's perspective that they already have what it takes to win.
"You know I can't speak for anybody but myself, but, you know, I know, I trust Brandon Beane and his staff to put together the best football team possible," Lee Smith said. "All that stuff is way above my pay grade, Brandon brought me in to be the best tight end and leader for the Buffalo Bills that I could possibly be. It's not something that I paid much attention to."
"These are the dudes that are going to be with me going down the homestretch. It's nice to know that my brothers and guys I develop relationships with can still head over my house for dinner, and that we're going to get to finish this thing together for the rest of the season so that's cool."
3. Receivers and Josh Allen getting more comfortable
Buffalo has overhauled its receiving corps since last year. Cole Beasley says the Bills are trying to get on the same level as quarterbacks and receivers who have been playing with each other for years and not just eight weeks.
"I don't even know exactly what has to happen for us to say we're jelling, you know what I mean, but we're starting to get comfortable with everybody, Josh is starting to get comfortable with seeing us run routes and knowing what it looks like our body language it just takes time," Beasley said. "There's a lot of guys that have been doing it for multiple years together so we're trying to accomplish that, we just got to keep working and eventually it'll come."
4. Dion Dawkins: No one is new anymore
The Bills brought in a plethora of new players for the 2019 season, including nine new starters on offense. Now in Week 9, tackle Dion Dawkins says there are no excuses for continuity issues.
"Anybody who has played since the beginning of the season and who has been here since camp is not new anymore," Dion Dawkins said. "I know because offense changes and we study plays, and we're all learning at the same speed at the same time."
"The rookies are no longer rookies, and everyone has a role, and they're not looked at as a rookie so if they do make a mistake it's not looked at like it is a rookie mistake."
5. Bills need to get back to fundamentals
After Sunday's loss to Philadelphia the Bills need to get back to their fundamentals on defense in order to dominate as an entire unit.
"We preach fundamentals every single week, and I think you always have to focus on the fundamentals and the basics of football because that is the lifeblood of everything else that you want to do," Lorenzo Alexander said. "Anytime you start getting away from that it's worrying. You lose your one-on-one matchups and at the end of the day, that's what football is all about, man versus man. The way you can do that consistently is having great fundamentals, great hands, great eyes. And those are the things that allow you to dominate collectively."
