Archives for May 25, 2016

'Sure, executives have admitted the dangers of playing football. Even Goodell has done that. But hearing Whaley say it's a sport that humans aren't meant to play is alarming. His comment stemmed from a question regarding Sammy Watkins being injury-prone.'

'Whaley isn't necessarily wrong, of course. In January, the NFL released a report that revealed a rise in concussions. In total, the NFL counted 271 concussions last season. They also counted 56 ACL sprains and 170 MCL sprains in 2015.'

'“Yeah, I mean it’s just going to be a lot more fun at the outside linebacker position now, I would say,” he told reporters after Tuesday’s OTA session. “I mean, I’m really just not that traditional down-end. I’ll be standing up more, so just understanding the depths and volumes that goes into playing linebacker, I mean it opens up the game for you a lot. You can have a lot more fun I’ll say when you’re out in coverage, when you’re out coming off the edge, really just playing with that look to kind of just mess with offensive’s heads.”'

'"There's a lot of competing going on out there and it's good for us," Wood said. " Any work we can get, any chance we have to get better we will take full advantage of that. And it's fun. We have the option of being out here. Luckily with us, a lot of guys attend, a lot of guys are taking this serious and we're out there getting better."'

'Robert Blanton saw plenty of time at safety and was extremely vocal. His voice was very easily heard over others and he was constantly moving guys around and taking charge in the secondary and overall on defense.'

'“Well, he’s already elevated,” Ryan said to reporters after the team’s open practice session Tuesday on the grass field outside. “You know, kind of like we saw immediately with Ronald Darby. How we knew Darby had a chance to be special. I’m not going to put him in that class yet, but we’re close.”'

'The agency that represents Buffalo Bills second-round pick Reggie Ragland has announced that the former Alabama linebacker has agreed to a contract with the team.'

'The Bills' GM told Howard Simon and Jeremy White that Lawson could have continued to play through the shoulder injury, but the team was concerned about "flare ups" like the one that happened in rookie mini camp.'

'It’s been a popular conversation amongst Bills fans: Who will start at right tackle in 2016? The early answer to that, before the competition really gets into the swing of things at training camp, is Jordan Mills.'

'Rex or not — wherever it came from, it did not go over well on what should have been a day focused on the team on the field, and what they need to do to finally end the playoff drought. Instead, the strict new media policy is the talk of the league, fair or not.'

'Why would the team take away the very source of news and notes on the team, when around this time of year a good portion of fans like hearing about what’s going on with the team? And, if they don’t get it from me, then from one of the other writers that do a fantastic job at covering the team — fans lose out there as well.'

'But banning info on the team just because it isn't positive enough is turning media angst into child's play. That Sammy Watkins dropped one pass or that Tyrod Taylor was just 7 of 14 on his throws on a given day in May will have as much impact on this year's wins and losses as sharing what kind of potatoes they're serving in the cafeteria.'

'“(I’m) not necessarily disappointed right now,” said Taylor. “I kind of moved past that. The main thing is that Sammy gets healthy. We know he wants to be out here and he’s going to get out as soon as he can. The main thing is that we just talked through a bunch of things that happened last year. Once it’s his time to come back in training camp then we’ll get on the same page as far as getting chemistry back.”'

'“It’s good to have the guys out there competing against the defense,” said Taylor. “The defense is giving us a bunch of different looks, but the main thing is that we are going out there and competing. Guys are making plays on the ball. It’s good to have everybody out there.”'

'“The more and more we thought about it in talking about it with ownership, the head coach, the medical staff and myself and Shaq and his representatives, we said, ‘Let’s be proactive with this thing. Let’s not have an incident which may come up five months from now or five days,’” said Whaley. “So the unpredictability of when it could happen again we decided to remove all doubt. We said, ‘Let’s get the shoulder surgery done now and that’s pre-emptive and then we remove all doubt as to when this could flare up again either during the season or two years from now.'”'