Archives for February 2014

‘Sources said at the combine that the coaching staff is weary of Carpenter’s old-school methodology. These sources believe Carpenter’s “stim and ice” therapy is too outdated for today’s athlete.’

‘”People ask me when I knew Thurman Thomas was going to be a special player, and I tell them it was when I saw him play for Missouri City Junior High,” said Neal Quillin, Thomas’ coach at Willowridge. “I knew then he was going to make a huge difference for our team.”‘

‘Pettine’s second and third questions on Saturday at the NFL Scouting Combine were about the Harbaugh report.’

‘”We’re very happy with Thad Lewis,” Whaley said. “One of the things that Russ Brandon said that John Butler always told him is, ‘In your backup quarterback, you want a guy to go .500.’ Now, he went 2-3. Is that good enough? Obviously not. You’d rather him go 5-0.’

‘The Bills announced they will meet with Jairus Byrd’s agent today to discuss what it will take to re-sign the Pro Bowl safety. Bills General Manager Doug Whaley wouldn’t say today whether the club has decided to use the franchise tag on Byrd for a second straight year.’

‘If the talks do not go well between the Bills and Parker about Byrd, then Buffalo’s likeliest course of action would be to franchise tag the safety for the second consecutive year. This time around, however, it would be in an effort to not let Byrd walk out the door of One Bills Drive without any compensation for a player that is considered to be one of the best at his position.’

‘”We don’t know exactly which way teams are going to go, but if those quarterbacks go before us that’s a positive in pushing some of that talent down to us at nine,” Bills GM Doug Whaley told Buffalobills.com.’

‘”Russ Brandon and Jim Overdorf do a great job of meeting with all of our prospective free agents here at the Combine,” said GM Doug Whaley, who will also be part of contract talks with player agents. “Before we got here we set a priority list and set the parameters of value that we have on each of these guys and we’ll go from there and see what they think.”‘

‘”I’ve been getting a lot of questions about 3-4 and 4-3, and last year, if you look at what we were, we really played an under defense,” Marrone said. “We really had four down linemen in the game the whole time. We had an outside linebacker on the ball and we played with two linebackers on the line of scrimmage."’

‘"I wound up texting Stevie and he got back to me, we had a great conversation," Marrone said. "I told Stevie, ‘Listen, I’m excited about getting started with you. I’m excited about you coming in and being healthy and getting this team going. Whatever else you’re hearing is not coming from me. But if you hear anything else make sure you call me.”

‘Both worked as Georgia Tech, where Marrone introduced O’Brien to his future wife Colleen. The two worked together as assistant coaches on offense before parting ways. After two more college coaching positions, O’Brien and Marrone reached the NFL as assistants. They moved up the ranks to offensive coordinator jobs, Marrone with the Saints and O’Brien with the Patriots.’

‘”I think the biggest insight that you gain is the origin of these players, meaning that you’re able to go back and to go into high schools, going into homes of these players,” Marrone said when asked about the differences going from a college program back to the NFL. “We don’t have that opportunity here obviously, we get them at the NFL combine. When you get into more of the background when you’re in their homes and you see the challenges that they have or the adversity that they had to overcome.”‘

‘”Especially having myself come from the offensive side of the ball most of my career, I look at people and I say to myself, ‘Who did I not like going against?'” Marrone said at the NFL combine at Lucas Oil Stadium.’

‘"After the season was over, my evaluation, I told [Jairus] what I was gonna go to management with," the head coach said. "I told Jairus, I have nothing but great things to say. I have nothing but great things to recommend. And then now, that goes to Doug Whaley and then it goes to management and then they try to come up with something and try to see what’s best for both parties. But, I love him. I really do. He did an outstanding job for us."’

‘”From my perspective, this is the deepest and best draft class I’ve seen in probably 10 years. That’s been reinforced by most of the general managers and scouts I’ve talked to throughout the league,” said NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock, one of the most respected national talent evaluators. “I had one GM tell me the other day that having a top-20 pick this year is very similar to having a top 10 pick last year.’