Archives for March 20, 2009

‘Ryan served on the Bills scouting staff for 30 years.’

‘”He’s athletic, experienced, which was important for us because we thought we had to have an experienced guy for what we do and what we want to do and the difficulty of that position,” said Bills head coach Dick Jauron. “Our position is so tough on centers because of the 3-4 (defenses) and the quality of the nose tackles in our division. He played against a lot of quality players. He’s young enough to be around for what we hope will be a long time and a good run.”‘

‘At the same time, Crowell had the unfortunate tendency to operate like he didn’t need 10 teammates to end plays. Specifically, he often darted out of his assigned gap while attempting to make devastating stops. That maverick strategy rarely works for extraordinary players, much less for those who are merely above average. In that light, Crowell was more Aquaman than Superman.’

‘Thomas started the fist nine games at middle linebacker for Kansas City last season before suffering a hamstring injury that kept him out of the next four games. He finished the campaign with 54 tackles, a half-sack and two passes defensed, appearing in 12 games overall.’

‘Thomas appeared in 12 games with nine starts during the 2008 season with Kansas City and had a career-high 54 total tackles (39 solo). In his four-year career, Thomas has played in 30 games with 10 starts and has 61 tackles (49 solo).’