Archives for January 2011

‘”I would definitely give it to him,” said Fred Jackson. “He was a guy that got us in the right places. Being able to see where blitzes are coming from, knowing where his hot routes are and things like that. Any time you’ve got a guy like that leading it’s definitely going to help you as an offensive unit. He was our catalyst and when he came in you could start to see our offense perform a lot better.”‘

‘"We had some challenges with injuries," right guard Eric Wood said. "For us to get better on offense, it has to start with the line. We have to get better."’

‘After learning about All Sports and its non-profit missions, Kelly told the club that he was “really impressed.” He also expressed enthusiasm for the Sunshine State. “My University of Miami days make me a Floridian!” Kelly wrote to All Sports. “Moving on to a Hall of Fame career with the Buffalo Bills, I have spent a lot of time speaking about my passion for sports and the importance of giving back. I look forward to seeing everyone on Feb. 18.”‘

‘On this year’s draft, he stressed the importance of drafting for need, “if it was me, I’d look at an impact player, somebody who’s gonna play right away. Whether its a serious pass rusher, somebody on defense, I haven’t really studied right now what’s out there as far as offense and defensive linemen, but either two of those positions I think has to be something we’re really looking at unless there’s a wide receiver out there that’s so unbelievable that he would may be an impact player in the first round. Don’t go for a guard, don’t go for a center, don’t for a running back, don’t for a quarterback, but there are positions I think that can help our team right away.”‘

‘”We do have a long way to go. I don’t think that that’s something I can try to make look better,” said Gailey, whose team lost its final two games against division rivals New England and New York by a combined 72-10 with 13 turnovers and no offensive touchdowns. “However, at the same time, I’m not sure we’re as far away as it seems like we are. I think we’re probably closer than our record shows, but I don’t know how close that is.”‘

‘Posluszny had a career year with 151 tackles, Ayodele (106) was a nice free-agent pickup and rookie Moats was a nice addition as a pass rusher. But Buffalo’s 32nd ranking against the run and rampant injuries overshadowed any good news here. The Bills expect to get all of their injured players back in 2011, led by Merriman, the former San Diego superstar who despite falling off the map as an impact player, milked a two-year deal out of the Bills that guarantees him $2.5 million next year. If he can return to his old form, Buffalo has a steal on its hands, but nobody’s counting on it. Posluszny, meanwhile, is a free agent. Look for him to re-sign at a reasonable number.’

‘”It’s disappointing that we’re in this position, but it’s reality. We know that we’ve got a lot of stuff that we need to accomplish in the offseason, personally and as a team, and we’ll go from there. The bad part is we don’t know when we’re going to get to report back here and get ready for 2011. So, that’s going to be tough.” — LB Paul Posluszny on Buffalo missing the playoffs for an 11th year, his impending free agency and the prospects of a lockout of players.’

‘The 2010 season was the 11th straight year that the Bills missed the playoffs. Unlike 2009 however the team has a GM and coach in place that they feel will complete a rebuilding project. They have a long way to go so look for another huge turnover of the roster in 2011. Now for the 11th year in a row we do our position by position final exam grades as well as individual player grades for key players at each position.’

‘”I think our guys came to understand exactly what we were trying to get done,” said Gailey. “We saw the coverages that we expected every week and the receiving corps gained familiarity with the quarterback and the quarterback gained familiarity with the receiving corps.”‘

‘"Outside of the last two weeks, we played a lot of great football this year," Jackson said. "With the three overtime losses and even the six-point losses here and there — I think there’s a lot that we can take from this year. I think there’s a lot of people in this locker room that feel this way and feel like we’re going in the right direction. We’ve just got to go back and clean up a bunch of little things. Hopefully we can start out a lot faster than we did this year. … I think we’ll have a chance of improving our record a lot."’

‘Through the lens of childhood, Gilchrist was the Bills. I remember the awe in the voices of my brothers when they spoke of him. I remember that he was loud, and confident, and a true character. I remember that he made me feel as if Buffalo was the absolute best at something, a feeling we’ve all been searching for – with all these Upstate cities – for many years.’

‘”It’s very important for me to finish up my degree, because what I stand for is being a man of standard – that is academic first, and sports second,” said Moats. “In order for me to pursue my goal and keep my image out there, I need to be a man of my word and get that degree.”‘

‘"Jim Brown was the great back during that era, but I have often said that I thought Cookie was every bit as good as Jim Brown," Bills’ Wall of Famer Butch Byrd once said. "The Buffalo Bills weren’t the team that the Cleveland Browns were at that time, but taking nothing away from Jim Brown, man for man, talent for talent, Cookie was right there."’

‘"I think it says a lot about the guys that we have in the group, just with the amount of uncertainty," Fitzpatrick said. "We knew some guys were going to get thrown in that really hadn’t had much playing time or no experience at all in the NFL. Between what Stevie did this year and Roscoe having the year he was having, and David and Donald stepping up and really doing some really good things, we’ve got a lot of talent at that position."’

‘"If he had played his whole career in the NFL, absolutely, he’d have been a Hall of Famer, no doubt about it," said former Bills tight end Ernie Warlick.’