Archives for August 2013

‘”The last time I saw Matt I was watching him in the Rose Bowl in the national championship playing Texas,” said Tuel. “I was, like, in eighth grade. Now here we are on the same squad.”‘

‘”I was a little disappointed, honestly,” Byrd said. “But I was hoping that, ‘OK, there will be a resolution to this.’ Just being honest, that was my initial feeling. All I knew is you play, and then you hit free agency, and that’s just the way it goes. But there’s also the business side of things, and that’s part of me developing and growing up. Now I understand that part of it.”‘

‘That leaves the Bills’ corners as Ron Brooks, he of the ill-timed penalty and uneven performances, Justin Rogers, coming off an injury, and young veterans Crezdon Butler and T.J. Heath, the former of whom has admittedly played well.’

‘”They were obviously protecting Tuel, which doesn’t say much about their expectation of him to go out and win a game. I like the kid. I’ve watched him gut it out, playing with arguably the least talented (major college) team in the country, and I think he can stick on a roster.’

‘When he became the starter in Houston, it quickly went downhill. Ten games into the 2011 season, the Texans were 7-3 with a two-game lead in the AFC South. They had the league’s No. 1 defense and the best running game in the AFC. They were on their way to a big finish, but lost quarterback Matt Schaub to a broken foot.’

‘Tuel would become the first undrafted quarterback of the modern era (which we’re defining as 1960, the American Football League’s first season) to start his NFL team’s first regular-season game as a true first-year professional.’

”’I came here to play football, and that’s what I’m doing,” Tuel said. ”It just explains, you can never expect. You never know what’s going to happen in this league.”‘

‘Coach Doug Marrone provided the update Monday, two days after Gilmore was hurt in a 30-7 preseason loss to Washington.’

‘Rogers failed to make an impact in Buffalo in a bid to make a fresh start following a troubled college career. As a sophomore in 2011, Rogers led Tennessee with 67 catches for 1,040 yards and nine touchdowns.’

‘Marrone also confirmed that starting cornerback Stephon Gilmore will miss the next 6-to-8 weeks with a fractured wrist that will require surgery, capping a trying week that has seen Manuel’s preseason cut short due to a knee injury and Kolb’s career called into question after sustaining another concussion.’

‘”I talked to (C.J.) when we landed from the Washington game and I excused him to be able to go back (home) and handle his personal situation,” Bills head coach Doug Marrone said Monday. “I don’t have anything more to report than really what I said before as far as what has been in the paper. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims as well as C.J. and his family.”‘

‘”A little bit of adversity (there),” Marrone said when asked about the team’s quarterback situation.’

‘Rogers failed to consistently impress throughout training camp and the preseason games, resulting in being one of the last few receivers to see action on offense in both practice and the games. The former University of Tennessee star was kicked out of the school for failed drug tests and then went on to play for Tennessee Tech in 2012.’

‘”Well, I think right now we’re going to evaluate to see where we are with that, to see what the ability of those players that we have out there are in these next couple days. But then I think you have to look really hard at matchups, really,” Marrone said. “Do we feel good about these matchups and how do we want to match up defensively on teams’ receiving ability. So if you don’t feel comfortable in a matchup, obviously you can cloud him, put someone behind him, because at the end of the day if you’re just having single coverage man to man they can get to you. So it’s probably more schematic about how you want to go about it which puts a little bit more planning on our part but that’s what we do. Our job is to put our players in the best position.”‘

‘What do the Bills do now? There’s pretty much one player whose shoulders the success of the defense rests upon now: Mario Williams. Without Gilmore locking down opponents’ receivers, the Bills will have to rely heavily on getting pressure on quarterbacks. Blitzing is great, but Williams was signed to a $100 million contract to get after the QB. For the first eight weeks, they’ll especially need him to earn his dollars.’