Patriots past helps guide OC Brian Daboll in Buffalo
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- Deep inside the Cleveland Browns' training facility nine years ago, the sound of a racquetball bouncing against a whiteboard cut through the quarterbacks' meeting room.
Brian Daboll, in 2009 in his first season as Cleveland's offensive coordinator, wanted to quiz then-Browns quarterback Derek Anderson on his knowledge of the new offense. Daboll flipped on a stopwatch, told Anderson to write down each formation and bounced the ball off the wall -- next to Anderson's head.
"No, stop," Anderson once told his coach. "I'm trying to learn this s---."
"Hurry up," Daboll responded. "Faster. Faster."
"I used to go nuts," Anderson recalled last week. "[But] for quarterbacks, you've got to be able to process it quickly."
Daboll, now in his first year as the Buffalo Bills' offensive coordinator, has not dug out the racquetball as part of his cram sessions with Anderson since the Bills signed the 14th-year quarterback on Oct. 9 and made him their starter a week later. Anderson threw three interceptions and lost a fumble in a 35-7 road loss to the Indianapolis Colts.