Archives for August 2011

‘"We’ve tried to stay a little simpler, because we want the young guys to be able to have some success," Gailey said. "We could probably move a little faster with our veteran players, but we are trying to keep it simple so the young guys can figure out if they can play or not. If it’s all mental mistakes, you don’t know if they can play or not. So that’s the theory going into the game. It’s just simplify what we’re trying to get accomplished."’

‘”I’m really excited about it,” Evans told The News. “You look at their team and what they’ve done over the years and the personnel that they have. I’m really excited to get over there and be a part of what they have going. I’ll do anything I can to try to help them win.”‘

‘”The one thing I know is that if they go out and you get guys hurt because you left them out too long and they’re not ready to play Sept. 11, that’s not a good thing,” said Gailey.’

‘Evans, a former first-round pick of the Bills in 2004, had one great year with the team, but for the most part, rather under-performed given his first-round status. He had only two seasons of 1,000 yards receiving or more, only one year when he caught at least 80 passes, he has never surpassed his rookie output of nine TD receptions in a single season.’

‘While the Bills are selling it as an attempt to make the club better by giving their young receivers playing time, it could be viewed on the outside as just more cost-cutting by parsimonious owner Ralph Wilson.’

Ravens bolster receiving corps with speedster Evans (Baltimore Sun)

Ravens move quick in landing Evans from Buffalo (Baltimore Sun)

Ravens acquire wideout Evans from Bills (Carroll County Times)

Ravens trade for Bills WR Lee Evans (CSN Baltimore)

Ravens Trade For WR Evans (BaltimoreRavens.com)

‘”We have six or seven really promising young receivers. We’d like to see those guys develop and we want to give them that opportunity,” Bills general manager Buddy Nix said, before the team traveled to Chicago to prepare for its preseason-opener on Saturday. “Unless somebody got hurt, you were going to have a good player that you were going to have to let go.”‘

‘The 30-year-old Wisconsin product has twice been a 1,000-yard receiver. He set career-highs of 82 receptions and 1,292 yards in 2006 and two years later also eclipsed the 1,000-yard plateau.’

‘”I want to say thank you to Mr. Wilson and the Bills organization for everything over the last seven years. To the great fans who make Buffalo special, thanks for always supporting me and my family. I’ll always have ties to the Buffalo community as I’ve met a lot of great people who will remain friends.”‘

‘He’s 30-years old and beginning to hit the downside of his career.’

‘”I think we’ve had a lot of good work since we’ve been (at camp),” said Fitzpatrick. ‘The good thing about these preseason games is to figure out where you’re at. That’s some of the excitement for this first game as well. We’ve got a pretty good group right now and we’ll get a chance to go out there and kind of see where we are.’

‘If Ryan Fitzpatrick suddenly becomes a top-15 quarterback (like Jake Delhomme for the ’04 Panthers or Derek Anderson for the ’07 Browns), and one or two new forces show up in the defensive front seven, the Bills could suddenly be a breakout team. But all we have to go on is this club’s recent history. And that recent history says don’t count on it.’

‘”I think games are the way if you find out if the team has jelled,” said Chan Gailey, Bills head coach “I don’t know if you can tell that in practice. You can feel good about your football team but at the same time but you don’t know until you play against someone else. We will see how we do in the next four weeks.”‘

‘"Like everything else, it’s all speculation," Nix said during the Shredd and Ragan Show on 103.3 FM The Edge. "Lee is a Bill — we’re counting on Lee to be here. You never know what will happen on any guys. … I guess I’ll say that nobody is untouchable, starting wherever you want to start. If it upgrades us and makes us a better team then we’d look into doing it."’

‘"I feel good, I felt really good [Wednesday]," Easley said. "I’m staying optimistic and hopefully I feel my best so I’m allowed to play this Saturday."’