Archives for June 1, 2012

‘"You know, it’s the first day of practice, for me anyway, in a long time," Merriman said. "So I had a lot of time off and got a chance to go back out there with the guys and put on a helmet again. … It felt pretty good, man."’

”’I feel young,” Merriman said. ”Anybody that will get a chance to watch me this year will see I’m moving around as I did when I came into the league.”’

‘”I think expectations are higher but I know that the guys in the locker room expect more out of our team than anyone body on the outside, Fitzpatrick said. “That’s the most important thing for us.”‘

‘There’s a feeling around the NFL that the talent is finally in place for the Bills to be a contender. All that’s left is a summer of hard work in practice and in the classroom to hopefully turn all that potential into results.’

‘”I don’t even think about anything else but going out and working and then day by day and game by game,” said Williams, downplaying whether his first on-field practice with the Bills was extra special. “Honestly, the significance is just us coming out here and performing together and fixing the things that we need to fix and working hard. … Technically we’ve already been in here working out. We’ve already been here studying and things like that. That was my first thing, getting in here and getting into the books and talking to the coaches.”‘

‘OK, so it was only late May and the season doesn’t kick off for 3 1/2 months. The first day of organized team activities did offer a glimpse of what the coaching staff is thinking in terms of positions and their depth chart.’

‘”I don’t have the tats (tattoos) that he does,” Fitzpatrick said. “He’s 6’5. He’s a big guy. We’re actually similar personalities. He’s a real nice, easygoing guy. Obviously the relationship with him, with a lot of the other new guys, it will grow as we get going. It’s a good quarterback room with Tyler (Thigpen) and Vince and Brad (Smith). We all get along well. That’s something that’s important. You want to be able to be there for each other. That’s kind of the No. 1 thing you look at in a quarterback room as a quarterback.”‘

‘”I feel very young,” Merriman opined. “Anybody that will get a chance to watch me this year, I’m moving around as I did when I came into the league. Fortunately, that’s really all I had, the Achilles, over the last three years. Now that I’ve had that done, I’m a lot more confident.”‘

‘Kelsay wouldn’t say anything bad about playing LB because that’s not his style, but he did say, “I’m super excited to get back to the 4-3. That’s what I played my first seven or eight years in the league. To be able to put your hand on the ground and just play football. When we were running 3-4 and I was an OLB there was a lot of thinking that goes into it, there’s a little bit of a learning curve and having only played it a couple of years, it was tough, but we played different packages and I could put my hand on the ground and didn’t have to think of things, that’s when you get the most out of your players.”‘

‘Just continue to work. Obviously I have high expectations of myself. I want to go out and say I’m going to get this many sacks or I’m going to have this type of year but I’m really ready to do that. I’m really ready to go out there and show it, not really answer the questions on what kind of year I’m ready to have. The type of work that I’ve put in this offseason my body’s ready to have that year.’

‘”I felt pretty good,” said Merriman following Thursday’s practice. “It was the first day of practice for me anyway in a long time. I had a lot of time off and got a chance to go back out there and put on a helmet again.”‘

‘To make room for Green the Bills released undrafted rookie LB Garrick Williams.’

‘”I know why they brought me here, and I know what I’m capable of doing for my team,” Merriman said. “The additions we made with Mario and Mark and all the other guys that came in, it’s going to be huge year. But we don’t want it to be a huge year on paper. We want to go out and who people it’s going to be a huge year on game day.”‘