Archives for August 12, 2006

‘Marv Levy and Dick Jauron have inherited the problem. To me, the only way to fix it is to go with J.P. Find the answer to the question that has lingered into a third season: Is he the Bills quarterback of the future? The sooner you play him, the sooner you find out.’

‘”We’re a downhill team right now,” Bills linebacker Angelo Crowell said after Thursday morning’s closed practice at St. John Fisher College. “The scheme is made for linebackers and speed. So we’re a downhill team. We’ll just run fast downhill.”‘

‘"I just want to do the best I can out there. I’ve been preparing for the last two weeks for this game. It’ll be nice if I can show what I’ve learned and show the coaches that I’m picking up on everything and that I can make plays."’

‘”There’s no need to read anything else into it, really,” Jauron said of his decision to start Holcomb. “I think they’ll both get a good deal of playing time. We’ll just see how the game goes.”‘

‘”They are an outstanding team,” Jauron said. “Unless I am mistaken, they were in the NFC Championship Game a year ago, which makes them a very good football team. We’re looking forward to it.”‘

‘The Panthers brought Buffalo’s Josh Reed in for a two-day visit in March, but he chose to stay with the Bills for a four-year, $10-million pact. The Panthers weren’t offering that kind of coin for a complementary player. They were looking at the 5-foot-10, 208-pounder as more of a replacement for Ricky Proehl. Thus spurned, they turned their sights to Johnson, who signed a four-year, $14-million deal less than a week later. For not that much more money, relatively speaking, they got quite an upgrade.’

A night of firsts (Charlotte Observer)

Carter will try to seize the play (Charlotte Observer)

Five things to watch tonight (Charlotte Observer)

If you’re going (Charlotte Observer)

Backup battle (Gaston Gazette)

QB LeFors has experience going for him (Rock Hill Herald)

Carolina had its eye on Bills’ receiver Reed (Rock Hill Herald)

Trying to be No. 3 (Winston Salem Journal)

Panthers filling roster with leaders (Winston Salem Journal)

She gives the Panthers something to stretch about (Fort Mill Times)

Smith, Minter to miss Panthers’ exhibition opener (AP)

‘”Obviously, we’ve pointed all this time toward full-contact scrimmaging,” said coach Dick Jauron, who makes his debut as the 14th head coach in Buffalo’s history and fourth in the last eight years. “This is it. Really, this is almost the only chance you get to do it with a quarterback. I’ve never been anywhere that went live on a quarterback (in practice or a scrimmage), so here we go.”‘

‘”I was 31 years old and I didn’t want to be just an ‘ex-football player’ the rest of my life,” the third-leading interceptor in franchise history was saying the other day, while seated in the stands at Growney Stadium on the St. John Fisher College campus. “I wanted to forge a new path, carve a new identity.”‘

‘A fourth-year pro from South Dakota, Stamer has shined on special teams for the Bills the past two seasons. He hopes to make the same impact on defense this season. “I’m always looking for a chance to get on the field,” he said. “The more minutes, the better for myself.”‘

‘”It’s not just that I’m missing the reps, it’s that those guys (J.P. Losman and Kelly Holcomb) are getting extra reps,” he said. “But at the same time, I’m getting those reps, too, standing back here and watching if they make a mistake. I’ll try and learn from that. I’m writing down what’s going on, I’m being attentive and I’m taking all the mental reps.”‘

‘When the team signed C Melvin Fowler, it hoped for a guy who could help anchor the line. So far, he has not disappointed.’