Archives for April 2011

‘The only way I’m going to fit in is where coach wants me to fit in. I haven’t really talked to him about physically what position I’m going to be at, but I’m going to go into minicamp and just play hard.’

‘Aaron Williams, everything goes in cycles in football and it’s gotten now to where you’ve got big receivers and you need big corners, and they’re hard to find. This guy is talented. He’s really a good athlete and he’s got some versatility. He can play corner, obviously, he can play in the slot in the nickel, and we think he can play safety.’

‘”He played sideline to sideline at the Senior Bowl better than he did sometimes on tape,” said Gailey. “We were really able to see his speed there. He made all conference and we heard some good things about him, but we also heard there were some limitations with him running sideline to sideline and we saw just the opposite. We saw him make plays all over the field and that was eye-opening for us.”‘

‘It’s the feeling that I get before a game. I can’t even put it into words. I’ve been playing the game of football ever since I was five years old and it literally means everything to me. The feeling after a victory is like no other, in my opinion. I just take that to the game and I try to spread it throughout my team and to my teammates. And I see we’ve got big Marcell (Dareus) up front in front of me so I’m going to try to get his big butt fired up before those games so he can keep the linemen off of me (laughs).”

‘That’s one of the reasons we liked him. He’s a thick guy. He’s 250 pounds and that’s why I think a lot of people thought a 250-pounder couldn’t go sideline to sideline. They thought he was a between the tackles player and we saw it a little differently once we got to know him and started watching him closer.’

‘Going forward I know there is some temptation to take a quarterback. Hear me now Buddy. Don’t do it. Second round quarterback picks are nearly a guaranteed flop in the NFL. Drew Brees (I will give you that one) and then a series of John Becks and Tavaris Jacksons. They almost always fail Skip the qb and go with defense again Buddy. Or maybe some quarterback desperate team wants to trade to Buffalo to get Andy Dalton. Steal and extra high pick from them and bulk up the lines (both sides of the ball).’

‘”He plays like a rolling ball of butcher knives.”‘

‘"He has represented the University of Alabama in a first-class way, and I’m sure he is going to represent the Buffalo Bills in the same way," Saban said in a statement. "He is a charac ter, quality guy that has a lot of physical ability and talent. I think any city would be proud to have Marcell Dareus as a part of their organization."’

‘”We really liked this guy, everybody did, and we had him really high from day one,” Nix continued. “We’re excited about having him. We wanted to take the best player at a position that we needed, and that’s what we got.”‘

‘”You guys (media) use the term ‘safe’ pick and I don’t think there is such a thing,” GM Buddy Nix said. “But I think he’s about as close as it gets.”‘

‘He won’t be as flashy as Miller, but he might turn out to be just as good. If he becomes a bust, I won’t be among the second-guessers years down the road because I like the pick today.’

‘ “The great thing about Marcell,” said Bills coach Chan Gailey, “is he played on the tight end, he played on the tackle, he played on the guard, he played on the center. He gives you a lot of versatility. We’ll play him at defensive end initially in our scheme but I can see him lining up in a lot of different spots for us as time goes on.”‘

‘”I can’t explain the way I feel,” Dareus said after his selection in Radio Music City Hall. “Since the fifth grade I wanted to play this game. I never thought it would get to this point where I’m sitting here in the first round, third pick overall, the Buffalo Bills. It’s overwhelming. I can’t even explain it.”‘

‘There were only two options with the pick: defensive stud or franchise quarterback. They didn’t reach. They didn’t panic. They hadn’t expected Dareus to be there until recently and when he fell to them, they didn’t hesitate.’

‘Ryan Fitzpatrick has established himself as the Bills starting quarterback for the time being, so if Nix wants to get an immediate impact player at No. 34 today, he won’t take a quarterback. Popular pre-draft opinion was that the Bills would pick a passer in the second round if they went defense in the first. If that was the plan, it blew up quickly when Jake Locker and Christian Ponder got drafted.’