Archives for February 2015

'Younger Bills fans don't remember what it's like to grind for your team in a big game for three solid hours. It's not easy and it's not fun.'

'At midseason the Bills did rank first in the league in toxic differential with a mark of plus-20 thanks to a fast start in the takeaway category with 18 in the first eight games. They also had 35 explosive plays on offense, which was fifth-highest in the NFL at the time.'

'This season marks the second occasion Buffalo has been honored as the staff of the year. The Bills athletic training staff also won the award in 2007. The honor is voted on annually by NFL athletic trainers and has been awarded since 1985. PFATS recognizes one athletic training staff for their distinguished service to their club, community and the athletic training profession.'

'“Rex was a candidate that we put in there because his name was all around and he was a candidate who was available,” said Pegula. “We really didn’t give much thought to him and we had interviewed a lot of people before him.”'

'Years from now, it would be nice if we talked about the Bills and Sabres the way Boston celebrates its teams. It will depend on the effectiveness and efficiency of their top executives, Terry and Kim Pegula, who connected the Bills and Sabres with money and could bridge a generational gap with sports.'

'According to the team's official website, McKelvin hasn't been cleared for action but expects to be cleared by the middle of March. MeKelvin, who fractured his ankle during the Bills' Week 11 loss to the Miami Dolphins on Thursday Night Football, finished the season with a career-high four interceptions.'

'Ryan is a 11/1 bet to win the most games among new coaches (the Bills went 9-7 last season). He's a 5/1 bet to end the Bills' 15-year playoff drought, and he's the second-most likely among the coaches to be fired first at 7/2.'

'The Steelers waived Brown to make room for running back Ben Tate, whom they signed after Le'Veon Bell suffered a knee injury in the final regular season game against the Cincinnati Bengals.'

'Brown joins Sammy Watkins, Robert Woods, Marquise Goodwin, Marcus Thigpen and Deonte Thompson as the wide receivers officially under contract with the Bills. Marcus Easley is an impending unrestricted free agent, Chris Hogan is an exclusive rights free agent, while both Caleb Holley and Tobais Palmer were signed to reserve/futures contracts shortly after the end of the regular season.'

'Brown entered the NFL as a sixth round (186th overall) draft choice of the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2013. The 6-3, 209 pound Oklahoma product has played in eight games for Pittsburgh (2013-14), recording 12 catches for 94 yards. Brown, 23, was waived by the Steelers on December 30th.'

'“It really doesn’t matter,” said Kyle Williams of the scheme change. “We’re going to do a couple of different things. If you watched this past year we played over (front), under (front), we played a couple of odd fronts, we’ll do the same thing in this one. The verbiage might be different and we might see a few more blitzes out of some different looks, but we’ve played in the scheme and it’s basically the same. It’s not a zero, two-four, two-gap type of defense. So if people are worried about us changing schemes again it’s really not that big of a deal.”'

The coach had the tattoo altered at a tattoo parlor called Old Town Ink in Scottsdale, Ariz., while he was in town for the Super Bowl.

'He already had turned the page on Sanchez, however. According to reports, the No. 6 had been filled in with black before he arrived in the Scottsdale tattoo parlor.'

'He took 20 minutes to shade green into blue, while Mr. Ryan and all the tattooists made small talk and watched the documentary series "The First 48 on TV." Mr. Verhoek said he charged the minimum rate, $80, and Mr. Ryan tipped on top of that.'

'The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Ryan, in town before the Super Bowl, has ditched all of his old New York Jets apparel and needed to freshen up his body art.'