Archives for May 30, 2012

‘Williams had Achilles surgery back in November where his tendon was detached to remove a bone spur on his heel that was rubbing against the tendon. Then the Achilles was laid back down and re-attached. The rehab typically takes four to five months then steadily conditioning is followed by strength training and football work.’

‘"I think defensively on paper it looks really good," said defensive tackle Kyle Williams. "But, that doesn’t mean anything. I think we’ve talked about that in our room today, that everything looks great on paper but we haven’t done anything yet. Nobody has made a play, nobody has done anything — no matter what you’ve done in the past years. There’s a lot of work and a foundation has to be laid. That’s what we’re doing now. That’s what we’re going to do in training camp so hopefully we hit the ground running in September. But our goal is to be a great defense."’

‘”It’s all about leading by example,” Williams said. “You don’t have to be a hooting and hollering guy. There is no limit. The sky is not the limit.”‘

‘”Training camp, training camp,” Gailey said on Johnson’s likely return date. “I don’t see him making minicamp. I’d love to say he would, but I don’t know if he will or not. We’ll see. … You don’t ever want to rush it to the point where you have a chance of injuring a guy further. We’ll try to be smart about it, but if he can work we’ll work him. He needs it like everybody else. We all need it.”‘

‘”With Andre, I know his agent, who owns a business in Cheektowaga. I told him I was getting Fred Jackson and he said, ‘Have you considered Andre Reed?'”‘

‘”(The team) felt bigger on the field. It felt quicker on the field. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but initial observations were good.”‘

”’He looks like a Madden character you create when you sit there and up-up the strength, and the guy keeps growing,” Fitzpatrick said with a smile, referring to the popular NFL video game. ”And then he’s the fastest guy on the field, too.”’

‘Coach Chan Gailey calls it unlikely for Johnson to be fully cleared until training camp in July. He provided the timetable Tuesday after the Bills held their first voluntary minicamp practice.’

‘OTA’s opened Tuesday in Orchard Park and Fitzpatrick is being taught how to throw the ball by his new quarterbacks coach David Lee, “He’s great, he stays in my ear the whole time in terms of challenging me. In terms of the completion, it isn’t good enough, it’s the ball location, even six inches off so he’s the guy that’s going to stay on me, challenge me.”‘

‘”I’ve really kind of I guess gone to another level I guess with my training the last couple three weeks or so,” he said. “I go from running to light change of directions, and the last couple of weeks really been doing some hard change direction stuff. It felt good. We kind of talked about it this morning, did some individual, felt really good and hopefully we’re on an uphill climb and we’re just going to continue to get better and better, keep going up.”‘

‘”I don’t know exactly when I’m going to be back,” Johnson said. “It’s just whenever this little pain goes away. Right now I feel good, but I don’t want to step out there and go hard and then something snaps and I have to get back further on the schedule we were on. So I’m just doing whatever they’re telling me to and getting stronger so I can be ready.”‘

‘”A lot of energy. A lot of quickness,” said Gailey. “We felt bigger on the field and it felt bigger on the field. It felt quick on the field. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but initial observations were good.”‘

‘On if he’s seen a leadership quality from Mario Williams: His work ethic has been outstanding. He comes to work every day whether it’s just lifting weights or running, whether it’s practicing out here. He’s done a good job not only fitting in but taking a little bit of leadership role. I think we’re going to be a little fortunate in that we have quite a few guys who have leadership ability.’