Archives for August 2013

‘With Spiller becoming a big part of a rush-oriented offence, Manuel’s passing wouldn’t be a focal point. Spiller had a breakout season in 2012 with 1,244 yards on 207 carries. Hackett expects to exploit that further, playing to the strengths of an offence that doesn’t have a proven NFL receiving corps.’

‘The Bills’ intention during a two-minute session that finished after 10 consecutive long bombs into the end zone was to create an early buzz by showing off their young and speedy stable of receivers.’

‘LeGree has yet to play in the NFL after being selected by Seattle in the fifth round of the 2011 draft out of Appalachian State. He was cut by the Seahawks before the start of his rookie season.’

‘”Look it is real simple” Hackett continued. “We are going to give him the ball until he throws up, so he has to either throw up or tap out on the field, let’s just put it that way. Any team that has watched him knows that you have to stop CJ and the great thing is we have some great weapons on the outside if you do want to stop that guy. It does not necessarily mean that we are not going to make him a focal point, but even though he is a very good player there are some ways they can stop him.”‘

‘For the third straight practice, the Buffalo Bills did not have veteran quarterback Kevin Kolb on the field and it doesn’t appear they’ll have him on Thursday either. Still grieving the loss of his grandmother with his family, Kolb was excused from Monday and Wednesday’s practice, and Head Coach Doug Marrone said the expectation was that Kolb would be back at St. John Fisher College on Thursday night.’

‘When the Bills score a nice touchdown, the offensive coordinator is running around the field chest bumping the players. He just has a wild attitude, “Always has been, you should see my son, all my kids are wild, I don’t know how my wife does it. You think I have energy, you put all the Hackett’s together, oh my goodness.”‘

‘LeGree entered the NFL as a fifth-round draft pick of the Seahawks in 2011. After being released prior to the regular season, LeGree spent his rookie year on the Practice Squads of Arizona, San Francisco and the Jets. LeGree re-joined the 49ers as a reserve/future signing in 2012, and had a stint with Chicago before joining the Atlanta Falcons Practice Squad in the regular season.’

‘Obviously the other night, we had a pretty long scrimmage. We went over 100 plays in that scrimmage which is, from my experience in this league, is pretty long. And the one thing I was looking at to see is how the players came back from a day off. I thought today we came back in a morning practice, just got right back to work. I give the players credit. I told them that afterwards. I said I was proud of them with the way they came back. And I think that’s important, get ourselves into a good week and continue moving forward.’

‘Anytime you score a touchdown, it’s unbelievable. It’s hard to score a touchdown; I don’t care what anybody says. In practice versus defense, on the field, it doesn’t matter. Anytime you score, you can celebrate and you should get used to it. The more you celebrate, the more you want to do it, the more touchdowns come.’

‘A lot of those guys need those reps. We don’t want to give them to one particular guy. A lot of those positions, when we get to the third-down stuff especially, we handle it by committee. A lot of those fit into the cross-training category as well. We are making sure that different players are getting reps at similar jobs.’

‘LeGree has been on practice squad and regular season rosters of six NFL clubs since originally being drafted by Seattle in 2011 as a fifth-round pick.’

‘”We took Cordy Glenn and we moved him inside,” said Marrone. “The reason why is we’re not experimenting with him not being the left tackle. We know that down the road from now with dressing seven linemen (on game days) we’ll have a swing inside player and a swing outside. A swing tackle and a swing center-guard.’

‘The Buffalo Bills selected Antwon Bailey, Michael Grant, Matthew Scott, Jamar Nesbit and Kevin Mawae as the 2013 Bill Walsh Minority Coaching Fellowship participants. Bailey, Grant, Scott, Nesbit and Mawae assist the Bills’ coaching staff during training camp at St. John Fisher College in Pittsford, NY.’

‘”He’s kinda been moved around a lot,” said defensive tackle Kyle Williams. “Last year he kinda got settled in and got to play some and played well. I think this year it’ll be even better for him. He’s playing that big-end position for us. I think he’s gonna get to play a lot and I expect him to do really well.”‘

‘”I think it’s getting stronger, it’s getting more used to the workload, it’s going good for me,” Chandler said. “I have these built-in days off to give it a little rest. We’re trying to build toward week one, I’ve got to keep that in mind.”‘