Archives for August 2017

'The statement doesn't come as a surprise for a player who won the Walter Payton Man of the Year award in 2015. After receiving the award he said – "I realized my purpose in life was not to make it to the NFL and score touchdowns. God put me on this earth for something much bigger than that and I realized and understand what my purpose is now. … It's my prayer and my hope that I can live out the rest of my life honoring God and helping as many people as possible."'

'“I’ve been consistent in my career with being at practice and being there for my team and not missing games and everything,” said Jordan Matthews. “For that to happen not only the first practice, but the first play when the ball came to me I was kind of in disbelief. That’s why I finished the whole practice. I was like, ‘There’s no way I just hurt myself on my first day as a Bill.’ That’s not possible, but when I got done with practice I realized my chest and arm had kind of stiffened up a bit. At that point I kind of knew.”'

'“To have a plan in place and to continue to look at things, we’re going to go and move in that direction a little bit more just so we’re ready,” McDermott confirmed. “We’re cautiously optimistic about Cordy. Having said that we want to make sure we’re moving in a direction that if we need to execute with Dion on the left side we’re ready to do that.”'

'To make room for Anderson and McDonald on the roster, Buffalo released K/P Austin Rehkow and waived/injured TE Jason Croom.'

'“It’s different when it’s routes against air and everything is laid out for you,” said Jones. “When you get press coverage, sometimes it throws timing off, and sometimes it’s obviously a different look. But, that’s what the preseasons is for. You just have to keep playing and keep building, and that stuff is going to come.”'

'“I watched what he did last year on the field, and when Eric went down how he stepped in and did a nice job,” said McDermott. “He has the versatility of playing the center position and also the guard position; extremely intelligent individual, adds value in that regard, makes a lot of the calls for us. I feel real good about our depth at that position.”'

'"The Bills-Patriots thing is just impossible to understand. If I told you the Bills won 11 games and the Patriots didn't win the division, you would assume both Tom Brady and Jimmy Garoppolo were kidnapped by a crazed Rex Ryan and held hostage for months somewhere in Bristol. Nope. Brady threw for 5,355 yards and 34 touchdowns while completing 75 percent of his passes. Even wilder? Tyrod Taylor had 2,069 yards, 16 touchdowns and five interceptions. Nate Peterman had 2,051 yards, 15 touchdowns and seven interceptions."'

'Yates' job isn't necessarily safe as Peterman looks like the clear-cut favorite for the Bills' No. 2 quarterback job, but he sticks for now as he brings knowledge of the offense to the quarterback room.'

'“I am blessed,” Streater said. “God has been doing great things in my life. Through all the ups and downs, He has allowed me to be able to make plays and contribute to the team. I’m here to win a Super Bowl.”'

'"I think the biggest number that you want to get is a ring," McCoy said. "For this team, we haven't been to the playoffs in quite some time, so hopefully we get that established, we accomplish that. If I get lucky and get a ring, man, I'll start thinking about the numbers. But it's always in the back of my mind. I use that to kind of motivate me, if it's a ring or chasing different yardage. It keeps me motivated."'

'Shorts, a rookie undrafted free agent, wasn't despondent, however. He had a large rooting section of more than 20 friends and family members cheering him on. He also had several close friends on the Eagles who met him at midfield after the game to catch up.'

'"You want to be able to say it's all one area, and that's not the case," McDermott said. "There is some discipline in there, there's concentration, there's playing aggressive without hesitation so that we stay in good position, so we're not in chase mode. There's different buckets, if you will, that are factoring into the penalties, all of which are unacceptable. We need to continue to work at that, I am concerned about it, and we're going to look into bringing officials into practice, to help us in that effort. We've got to get it corrected."

'"It's a great situation for me with Sean and Leslie," Poyer said. "Sean coaches us every day, helps us get better, helps get the whole football team better. I learn something from him every day."'

'“What I liked about his play and it really showed up on the interception was he was in great position,” said McDermott. “That was clinic tape for all of our players, all the corners on this roster to understand when you’re in that type of position good things happen. He played within the system and made a big time play for us, so that was good to see. He did some other good things in the game in terms of run support and what not. So, it was good to see him get some good action and really acclimate himself to our system.”'

'"There’s a lot of factors that came into play in terms of the pressure on our quarterbacks last night," McDermott said Friday. "Technique is obviously one thing, beating the man in front of you, the timing of the offense has to work hand-in-hand with the protection, the route development, the quarterback getting the ball out in time. All those things work together in terms of protection, in terms of execution. We didn’t do a good job of that enough last night."'