Archives for May 2009

‘Can Dick Jauron and his staff effectively pull the new pieces together? Can Langston Walker and Brad Butler handle the tackle spots? Is it realistic to think Maybin can get five sacks as a rookie? How fast can all the rookies catch on? Who starts at strong-side linebacker?’

‘”I’m very excited,” he said. “It’s a very good feeling to be able to come back and do this, and then have the turnout we did today. I’m looking forward to doing it again next year, and having an even bigger turnout. I wanted to do something and give back (to the community). Any time you’re able to come back and give back to your hometown, and then have the turnout and support that we did today, it’s a good feeling.”‘

‘”Like I said when I first got here, I want to come up here and be successful and play good,” Stroud said this week. “I feel like I’ve got a lot of good football left in me, and apparently the Bills do also. They rewarded me, and I’m ready to get out here and play hard and earn it.”‘

‘”Oh my God, I was definitely surprised,” Corner said. “I actually geared down like it was an overthrow but as you could see he put it in third gear. It was like, wow, he caught me off guard a little bit. He can move.”‘

‘The ad features former Bills quarterback J. P. Losman, arm cocked to throw a pass, and reads, “Something exciting is going to happen. Be There.” It gives a phone number for people interested in ordering season tickets – for 2007.’

‘”Leodis has a non-football specific injury,” Jauron said. “He should be back relatively quickly. Whatever he told you.”‘

‘"It’s not that I don’t celebrate. Sometimes I get excited. But I’m not about to do a dance or anything like that," Evans said, following a recent voluntary minicamp practice. "I think it’ll be great, because he definitely brings a lot of attention. But I don’t know if it’s something that’s going to revolutionize me and what I do."’

‘”It’s fun to interact with the fans like this and I’m glad they’re excited about the season because we are too,” said Whitner. “Fans are getting to learn even more about me by playing “So You Think You Know Donte.”‘

‘”He’s doing a good job of telling me he wants certain ways he wants certain balls to him and I feel like I’m comfortable enough to tell him I want him to run certain routes certain ways,” said Edwards of Owens. “That’s something I want to get to with him, where it’s just kind of having an unspoken bond where something doesn’t need to be said, but we can see things before it actually happens.”‘

‘”I definitely keep a mental notebook on all the receivers that I play against,” he said. “Having played against (the AFC South) a little bit more (recently), I have a little bit of an advantage.”‘

‘Edwards went to Stanford, so he’s no dummy. He knows what has happened to the previous trio employed to throw T.O. passes. Yet he must put the positive spin on the Bills’ big off-season gamble, while perhaps hoping that other shoe suspended over him never falls.’

‘”I bulked up to about 230, so I put some mass on,” Lynch said after Thursday’s voluntary workout in the Buffalo Bills Fieldhouse. “I’ll see how that’s going to work.”‘

‘In other words, lack of weapons made for too many frustrating Sundays for the Bills’ offense, particularly over the final month when the team failed to score an offensive touchdown in three out of five games.’

‘"I think it’ll be good having the same people back. We’ve got a lot more depth now also," veteran linebacker Kawika Mitchell said. "We got hit with a couple of injuries last year and every NFL team does, so having those people behind some of our starters, they’ll be competing also, it just makes for a better defense and I think we’ll do nothing but improve on what we did last year."’

‘The Bills have drafted 18 defensive backs this decade, including six the past two seasons. Three were selected in this April’s draft: Jairus Byrd, Cary Harris and Ellis Lankster. Responding to NFL offenses featuring more three- to five-wide sets is nothing new, coach Dick Jauron said. "It’s been that way for a while," he said. "As a matter of fact, I can’t remember a time where it wasn’t said at some point, ‘You can never have enough corners.’ I guess you can say that about the whole secondary now, but you’ve certainly seen a lot of three-wideout sets, four-wideout sets and you see a lot of empty sets, too, in the NFL."’