Archives for June 2015

'"Yeah, I think he'll be signed," Ryan said Thursday. "We're just putting him through the individual drills. We weren't putting him out there for any team drills. Just so he gets his feet wet and picks up some terminology and things like that. Where he will have a better chance is when we get back out there in training camp. It is good for a veteran player just to get out. I think he has impressed some coaches with how athletic he is. And he looks like he is in great shape. It will be fun watching him compete."'

'In the battle between second-year offensive tackles, Cyrus Kouandjio is ahead of Seantrel Henderson, who missed practice Tuesday because of a travel issue. Kouandjio again took all of the first-team reps at offensive tackle, and Ryan said it's because of the offseason work he put in. Henderson was not made available to the media for the second-straight day.'

'"No, I wouldn't say that," Ryan said. "You guys posted every stat known to man in there, and I thought, 'That's enough. Big boys ain't in there today.' It's a little easier to function when that front four ain't in there, so we did that a little bit. When you combine talent with scheme, it's going to be pretty spectacular on the other side, I believe."'

'That competition can complicate things for an offense. When three quarterbacks are dividing the reps with the first team offense, it's tough for any of them to establish rhythm during practice, building chemistry becomes a challenge and even evaluating their play is difficult.'

'“You just have to practice it. I think it’s just making things muscle memory. Once you make it muscle memory, then you can just go out and do it, like in a two-minute drill. You have to think about what the defence is doing. You can’t think about your fundamentals. So once it becomes second nature, I think you start to play better.”'

'"I have a lot to give back to the game," Reed said. "I had a feeling I wanted to do something after I was done playing, even before that but my kids were too small and I think as they're older now I can devote more time to it if I want to."'

'"There's not going to be any separation until the pads come on," Ryan said of the three-man competition. "It's not going to be one until we get to playing real football. The No. 1 thing is to pick the right guy. Is time on our side a little bit? Yes, it is. In an ideal world would you already have your quarterback named by now? Yeah, that's an ideal situation, but you know what, we're not there, we're in an ideal situation to have competition at that spot and I welcome it."'

'Noel was an undrafted free agent the Bills signed out of Wake Forest.'

'Today in 2-minute offense, the former first-round pick made two impressive deeper throws that were complete. One was almost a carbon-copy of the one he threw yesterday to Gray. This time it was to Marcus Easley, and it went for a TD. That touchdown was the finishing touch to a 65-yard drive.'

'It couldn't have gotten any worse for the Bills on offense on Wednesday, but on the same hand, they couldn't have asked for a step forward any better than the one they got from EJ Manuel on Thursday.'

'Mulligan, 30, like a good number of the free agents signed by Buffalo this offseason has a history with Bills head coach Rex Ryan. The tight end began his career with the New York Jets under Ryan in 2009 and played three seasons in New York.'

'Manuel put together one of his better practices Thursday and has improved in a couple of specific areas with respect to his personal game. He’s much less hesitant in his decision making and his accuracy is more consistent. Perhaps the area of his game that has seen the greatest jump is his footwork in the pocket and leading up to the throw.'

'“I think the work that Cyrus has done overall in the offseason probably puts him ahead right now,” said head coach Rex Ryan. “But again, the race isn’t over by a long shot, so we’ll see.”'

'“You know, it’s six one way, half dozen the other,” he said. “I’ve definitely grown, definitely matured. I definitely did take some steps forward. But, you know, I think what this whole thing was, it really just shook me down to my core values, and really just kind of” made me think about “the kind of man I am.”'

'“A few drops here, a few protection issues,” offensive coordinator Greg Roman said when asked why the offense struggled so much to throw the ball. “There were some good plays, some bad plays. Very similar to yesterday. We didn’t throw the ball downfield that much today as we did yesterday, though.”'