Archives for March 2017

'"Sammy's an important part of our offense," McDermott said. "And you know, the important part of it, as you mentioned, is his health. He is on schedule. No setbacks. And so we're encouraged by his progress. He's working extremely hard, attacking the rehab process, and we look forward to working with him."'

'"Yeah, you know what Doug and I are going to work on that together. As well as our teams, my coaching staff, his scouting staff and ultimately that'll be a decision made by Doug and myself."'

'"That one voice is an important approach and that's the approach that we are taking as an organization moving forward, and that voice being mine," McDermott told The Buffalo News Wednesday after addressing national reporters during a news conference.'

'“He will become a free agent,” coach Sean McDermott told The News on Wednesday. “Having said that, we’re going to stay in touch and monitor his situation moving forward.”'

'Step No. 1 would be to walk away from quarterback Tyrod Taylor and the contract option that would pay him nearly $31 million. Step No. 2 would be to part ways with high-priced veterans, someone like Kyle Williams, for example.'

'Williams, 33, started 15 games for the Bills in 2016, finishing with 64 tackles and five sacks. He has a salary-cap charge of $8.3 million for 2017, leading to some speculation that he could be a cap casualty, particularly if the Bills decided to rebuild their roster. McDermott, however, put an end to that speculation Wednesday.'

'"I'm not going to sit up here and say, 'No, it wasn't,'" a contrite-sounding Marrone said Wednesday during a news conference at the NFL Scouting Combine. "Yeah, that's definitely a big part of the learning process of wanting more time and things of that nature. You know, privately, I've talked to (Bills owner) Terry (Pegula) about that and he knows how I feel about that. I'm going to obviously keep that conversation private, but, yes, I would say absolutely (it was a mistake).'

'As the fourth or fifth receiver on an offense, Goodwin is fine – just don't ask him to do much more than that. If the Bills want to bring him back for depth on a contract near the veteran minimum, that's fine. The thinking here is that some team will fall in love with Goodwin's speed and offer more than that. If that happens, the Bills should let him go, even though they need to add numbers at the position.'

'In a league-wide context, the Bills still have a serious problem. Only seven teams have less cap space. The other three AFC East clubs, two of which made the playoffs, have more room to sign players.'

'The Bills must figure out what they’re doing with Taylor by March 11. The choices are clear: Cut him and avoid having to immediately pay him $30.75 million, or pick up the expensive option and make what amounts to a two-year commitment (due to the salary cap ramifications and structure of the contract) to him to be the starting quarterback. McDermott said the decision will likely come right down to the wire.'

'“That's definitely a big part of the learning process of wanting more time,” he said. “Privately, I've talked to Terry (Pegula) about that and he knows how I feel about it. I'm going to keep that conversation private. You learn from that. That's one of the mistakes you wish you could go back and do over. I wish I could've communicated better at that time.”'

'"A league source told me that every NFL team with a coaching opening contacted Alabama's Nick Saban," said Freeman. "All were emphatically told "no thanks." I'm not certain whether Saban told them this directly. It could have been Saban's agent or some intermediary.'

'Kaepernick would be a controversial option. Back in 2013, Kaepernick looked like one of the most promising quarterbacks in the NFL. He took the 49ers to the Super Bowl and the NFC Championship in back-to-back season and was a terror to defend with both his arm and his legs.'

'Before coming to SU, Kellington served as a graduate assistant athletic trainer for Ohio State field hockey and women's lacrosse from 2002-04. He also worked as an assistant athletic trainer for the Amsterdam Admirals of NFL Europe (2002) and athletic training intern for the Denver Broncos (2000-02) after graduating from Oklahoma State with a Bachelor's degree in health and human performance in 2000.'

'"I think you take away a lot," Marrone said. "You take away, you know, everything's a learning experience. You look back, and obviously I made mistakes in Buffalo. You look back on them, just a couple things, and you just try to grow from it and do a better job. I always appreciated that experience. I thought Kim and Terry Pegula were great coming in, Mr. Wilson was awesome when he was alive while I was there, Mary Wilson. The people in the organization, there's a lot of great people there. I think when you go back and you look back, I'll be honest, there's some things that I should have done differently. I think I've learned from that and it's made me a better coach today."'