Buffalo News

‘Interestingly, Hochuli’s crew is among the tops in the NFL in penalties called per game heading into Week 8 at 16.8. The league average is 13.8.’

‘GAME TEMPERATURE: 45-48.’

‘What probably stands out – and should – is how few passes Taylor has made outside the pocket through six games. He’s been utilized on a variety of play-action bootlegs – designed out-of-pocket throws – and only a handful of his passes outside the pocket have come after scrambling improvisation behind the line of scrimmage.’

‘Dareus is scheduled to fly to Florida to take a physical to officially complete the deal.’

‘The trade was a classic case of addition by subtraction. Buffalo exchanged Dareus’ massive contract for long-term cap relief. They swapped his apathetic attitude for an opportunity to reinforce the notion they value players with high character. And they sent a message to their own players that they can win without him.’

‘By dealing Dareus prior to Week Eight, the Bills avoid paying the remaining $5.735 million in base salary due to him over the last nine weeks of the season. Dareus will still count $10.66 million against this year’s cap, but that’s down from the $16.4 million he was scheduled to take up. As of Friday night, NFLPA records had the Bills with $7.332 million in space under the salary cap, which ranked as the 16th most in the league heading into next year.’

‘Dec. 29, 2013: Dareus is benched for the entire first half by coach Doug Marrone for chronic tardiness to team meetings. The benching comes a week after he sat out the first quarter against the Miami Dolphins as punishment for the same issue. The trade reunites Dareus with Marrone in Jacksonville.’

‘The Bills sacked Jameis Winston only once in last Sunday’s 30-27 victory against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and had only six quarterback hits. For the most part, they were sending four rushers after him while keeping as many defenders in coverage as possible in hopes of forcing him to throw into tighter windows. The strategy did result in one interception and nearly two others, but Winston still managed to throw for 384 yards and three touchdowns.’

‘”Still just day to day right now,” Poyer said. “I could wake up (Saturday) and feel one hundred percent, ready to go. I want to be out there with my teammates. At the same time, I want to be smart for the team. I know it’s a long stretch of games after this. I just want to be able to be healthy and be out there and help this team win football games.”‘

‘”We really don’t care,” Brown said. “He’s one of my favorite players of all time. Great guy. I mean, if he wants to continue playing, that’s great. If he doesn’t want to play here, that’s cool. We’ll hopefully get something else for it.’

‘Gilchrist was a great player. The late Larry Felser called him the best football player he ever saw. But Cookie said the boycott was “better than anything I did playing football.”‘

‘”The people in this organization are amazing,” he said. “We’ve had nothing but love and support from everybody in here, anything we’ve ever needed. There’s a couple of people who have gone through the same thing we have, so just being able to lean on them has been nice.’

‘“It’s exciting. I mean, anytime the Buffalo Bills are playing winning football it’s a great time for the NFL,” Brown said during an interview on the Jim Rome Show. “So everybody here at Orchard Park is having a great time, and we are just trying to keep this winning streak up.”’

‘Every decision from a roster standpoint you make, Vic, definitely you have to consider what it does to your cap immediately and what it does in future years, so I’d be lying if I didn’t say that was not in the equation.’

‘Opening statement: I want to start off by mentioning my heartfelt condolences, and our heartfelt condolences, to Logan [Thomas] and the Thomas family, on the loss of his daughter. [It] offers great perspective, again, for where we are and what we do. We know how important it is, and it seems like the only thing at times, but it’s certainly not the only thing. We’re going to offer our support, our love, and wrap our arms around the Thomas family at this time for as long as they need it. With that, I will open it up to questions.’