Archives for June 2012

‘”There are three phases of football,” said McKillop. “Usually, the team that wins two out of the three phases wins. So, a lot of people don’t give enough credit to special teams. I take pride in that part of the game because that is where the hidden yardage is, that is where you can flip the field on a team. You need some head busters on special teams and that is one of the things I pride myself on is being one of the guys to go down there and set the tempo.”‘

‘"I just go out there and throw; that’s what I’ve done my whole life," he said. "No one’s really ever taught me how to do it. Now for a guy to come in and say, ‘This is why you’re missing that throw low,’ for him to actually have evidence for me to look at and say, ‘OK. It looks like that’s something I really need to work on,’ and for a guy to be as respected as he is, to be as knowledgeable as he is, that’s somebody that I’m going to listen to every time."’

‘ "Every day we’re putting in something different. Every day it’s a different coverage, it’s a different front. It might be a different blitz and we’ve got it organized pretty good," Wannstedt said. "I think when we get to about Day 11, 12 [of spring practice] we’ll be about ready to play a game, really. And then the key will be to come back in training camp and start over again."’

‘ “I think that’s the only way you can approach a season is optimistic,” Kelsay said. “But it is different. The atmosphere around town, in the facility, everybody’s feeling it – there are high expectations.”‘

‘When Hansen was asked why he decided to enter the political arena at this time, he said, “I’m concerned about the condition of our state, and I want to do something about it – something more than just vote.”‘

‘”It’s going to be a defensive-line friendly scheme, and by that I mean we’ll be as good as our guys up front play, and that’s how it was at Dallas, at Miami, every place where we’ve run this scheme,” he said. “The guys up front, it all starts there. If we can get a good rotation going, keep some guys healthy, you know that kind of sets the foundation for what we’re trying to get done here.”‘

‘”It’s obvious that we’ve added talent,” he said. “That’s no secret, but the thing that excites me as much as anything is the talented guys that we brought in are good people that want to win and are willing to work. There’s a lot of talented guys out there that I’ve been involved with, you trade for or you sign in free agency and they have talent but their agenda is not what the team’s is. The guys we’ve signed are as good as people and attitude wise as they are in talent. I think that’s what’s most exciting to me.”‘

‘The walk-through meetings that we had prior to OTAs gave us a chance to get a little bit of a jumpstart with it. The coaches on defense have done a great job. We’ve spent a lot of time obviously going through this and the players have been outstanding and responsive to what we’re doing. And we’re not taking it too fast, obviously taking it probably at a little slower pace. I think at this point where we’re at that’s the best way to approach this thing. We’ve got competition. It’s tough really to talk much about it because of the pads and we’re not banging or doing any of that. When we get the pads on at training camp it’s obvious that we’ve got good speed on defense and the completion is a lot better on defense.’

‘"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.”‘