Archives for August 2017

'Bills general manager Brandon Beane told WGR 550 on Monday that Matthews suffered the injury early in practice when he went up for a contested ball and came down hard. Matthews finished the session and later left the field with a trainer. He was not made available to reporters because of the injury.'

'"He hurt it very early in practice," Bills general manager Brandon Beane told Howard Simon and Jeremy White Monday morning on WGR. "He went up on a contested ball, diving and fell on it probably in the first 15 minutes of practice. He played through it, but I talked to him last night after he got back from the doctors. He said something wasn't right, he knew something was up. You have to give him credit, he tried to fight through it. That's what it is. It's a week-to-week deal with that, and we'll let the medical guys [handle it>. It's still early. We found this out early last night. That's really all I know."'

'Almost immediately following that talk from McDermott, things started getting very chippy between players. There were several small scraps and scrums. The first was WR Walter Powell getting into it with S Colt Anderson, then almost everyone on both sides coming together doing some pushing and shoving. Then OT Jordan Mills mixed it up with LB Ramon Humber followed by DE Shaq Lawson. On the very next play two different scrums broke out. One saw WR Zay Jones and CB Leonard Johnson pushing each other away from the play while multiple people were gathered around near the line of scrimmage.'

'“For me personally I was hurting, I was hurting real bad,” said Yarbrough in an interview with Howard Simon and Jeremy White on WGR Monday morning. “I was at home on the couch watching Monday Night Football, and I’m watching defensive ends and they’re making mistakes I know I wouldn’t make. I know I’m better than that guy playing right now on TV. It was just hard for me to kind of constitute, ‘Hey, your time’s coming. Be patient, stay diligent, stay working hard.’ You know all things come to those who work hard so, just had to stay diligent.”'

'After Hughes and Taylor tried to get at each other, McDermott made the defensive end get off the field. After practice they had a long talk and Hughes said it had nothing to do with practice, “We were talking about something completely separate, an off the field issue, but it was goal-line period, pads flying, the offense wants to get touchdowns and the defense is doing our job not to let them get in.”'

'“Our job is to look at everything, anything that can help us today and help us tomorrow; you have to look at both," Beane said with Howard Simon and Jeremy White live at training camp on Monday. "You can’t look at just one year. You have to look at this year, the following year and after that. If you don’t, you’re not following a plan so to speak. Again, we’re trying to do things right this year, but we could just not turn down the opportunity to add the draft currency that we did for 2018."'

'While there is no way of knowing what "week-to-week" means, considering most their other injuries have been described as "day-to-day," that likely casts some doubt on the wide receiver's availability on the preseason, and in a worst-case scenario, potentially into the regular season — but that's pure speculation at this point.'

'It just kind of seemed like they were going through the motions a bit, and Sean McDermott was not happy about it. He called all his players to the field and had them take a knee as he addressed every last one of them. In an animated, fiery, and stern talking to, the Bills head coach said he was unhappy with the attitude and body language, and urged to his team that they needed to do things the right way at all times. He urged the leaders of the team to do just that, hold each other accountable and yelled out that some of the players needed to step it up.'

'The injury happened when he went to the ground hard after competing with a defensive back for a pass. Matthews finished practiced, but afterwards he underwent examination for discomfort in his chest and the chip fracture was discovered.'

'“We started off kind of slow,” admitted Jerry Hughes. “Some guys were asking for some plays to be repeated and he gave us a very important life lesson. Whenever you put the pads on there are no repeats in life. You’ve got to come out fast and come out ready. We understand that and also know we have to start fast.”'

'“As Kyle Williams and Marcell Dareus say, it’s not a destination, it’s a journey,” said Yarbrough. “It’s not a game of what you did last week, it’s a game of what have you done for me lately. You can’t really dwell on the past, you have to keep moving forward and keep trying to get better every day.”'

'If he stays healthy, a concern Buffalo’s management clearly had when not exercising his fifth-year option for 2018, the Bills will have lost the Watkins versus Matthews value contest on sheer talent differential.'

'“When you're able to walk into that Ray Nitschke Luncheon,” Kelly said Monday at Elkdale, “and you see Roger Staubach, Bob Griese, Joe Namath, guys you looked up to. Then all the other guys, it's all the running backs, Gale Sayers and seeing Thurman there, Emmitt (Smith), I can go on and on … Troy Aikman, (John) Elway, (Dan) Marino. It's amazing that I'm a part of it growing up in a little country town (East Brady) in Pennsylvania and being able to say I'm one of them.”'

'"Yeah, it's fair to say he did earn it," McDermott said of Peterman working with the second team. "I mean, he moved the offense and did some good things. Like all of us, a lot of work to go yet, but he did some good things and he earned that."'

'However, a team spokesman informed reporters that, because of the injury, Matthews wouldn't be made available until Monday.'