Archives for April 2013

‘”He can throw the football vertically down the field,” said Bills coach Doug Marrone. “He has a good arm. He can get himself out of trouble. He can create things with his feet. He has good presence in the huddle, he’s accurate and we’re excited to have him.”‘

‘The Bills are still trying to recover from their draft blunders of the past 13 years. You don’t undo a decade of miscalculation in one weekend. But this is how you do it, by taking advantage of the desperation of other teams and using it to your advantage.’

‘”I don’t think I’d use the word conflicted,” Marrone said when asked to share his feelings about passing on Nassib, who many draft experts felt was the ideal choice for Buffalo solely for the familiarity factor. “At the end of the day there were a lot of good quarterbacks in the draft and we took the quarterback that we felt fit our situation best in Buffalo.”‘

‘Manuel provides the Bills with that identity. Like the hiring of Marrone, the selection of Manuel signifies the turning over of a new leaf in Buffalo. The duo provides Bills fans not just with that identity, but a fresh, entertaining one.’

‘Ultimately, it will take a few years to determine if this pick was the right decision for Buffalo. We’ll see how long it takes him to win the starting job going up against Kevin Kolb and Tavaris Jackson.’

‘Most people figured the quarterback-desperate Bills would pick a signal-caller, but the club got creative in doing so.’

‘But in the end it wasn’t so, and it wasn’t even that close. The Bills took a quarterback ranked outside the top three prospects at the position by most analysts, and Nassib was left to wait until Friday to find out his future employer.’

‘The Bills had plenty of other needs, but the biggest question entering the draft was whether first-year coach Doug Marrone believed his franchise quarterback was on the roster. We got our answer.’

‘”This guy has leadership qualities and he is smart,” Buffalo general manager Buddy Nix said. “His knowledge of the game was further along than most. … And you need to be able to play in the wind and the cold. As far as arm strength, there is no question. He’s a huge man.”‘

‘In addition to being the first FSU player taken in the draft’s opening round, he also was the first quarterback selected, bypassing West Virginia’s Geno Smith, Syracuse’s Ryan Nassib and Southern Cal’s Matt Barkley, among others. He entered the draft with mostly second-round projections.’

‘”I’m just so proud to be a Buffalo Bill, I can wait to get started. Get working.”‘

‘”I was thinking about my mother, what she’s battled through. She’s in remission and cancer-free right now,” said the quarterback, who compiled a 25-6 record at Florida State, third best in school history. “I’m proud of her. She’s been working the past four weeks, even though she’s been undergoing some more radiation treatment.”’

‘Manuel became the first quarterback selected on Thursday, and filled a big need for a Bills team that’s rebuilding under new coach Doug Marrone. Manuel was the most accurate passer at Florida State, where he completed nearly 67 percent of his passes.’

”’I love having a chip on my shoulder,” he said.’

‘”As you know, we did a lot of work on these guys and we felt we knew him as well as you could from a distance,” Nix said. “This guy, to us, has the upside to be whatever you want him to be. They all had good qualities but this is a guy who can do both (run and pass). It’s up to Coach Marrone and his staff how they use him, but this guy can do both � and he’s a winner.”‘