Two Bills Drive

‘”The Buffalo Bills made me feel good again,” said Milloy. “They stepped right up to the plate. They made their best offer, and it showed me how much they wanted me. All of the teams in it — Washington, New Orleans, they all gave a great shot. I was getting calls from general managers and owners and they were making me feel so wanted. I can’t tell you how much I needed that after the last few days in New England.”‘

‘Indeed, the AFC East competition also bulked up, with Buffalo adding linebacker Takeo Spikes and the Dolphins landing future Hall of Famer Junior Seau. And despite some personnel losses and an injury to quarterback Chad Pennington, the Jets return as division champions. It all adds up to the consensus best division in football.’

‘“I have very harsh feelings toward the Patriots and I make no secret about it,” the Bills fullback said, comparing the sudden nature of his Foxboro exit six years ago with Milloy’s release. “I’ve a lot of respect for the Patriot players, but not for that organization. I don’t give a damn about it at all.”’

‘Antwan Harris and Chris Akins have spent their entire careers as special team performers and part-time defensive players. Of the two, only Harris has started an NFL game, and that happened just once. Another player who may work into the rotation next to starting safety Rodney Harrison is Aric Morris, who actually started 10 games at safety for Tennessee in 2001 after Pro Bowler Blaine Bishop got injured.’

‘Seldom, however, does a coach face an opponent with a player who was with him last week. Would Belichick change the Pats’ signals and code words if Milloy was able to get ready enough to play? “You’d take that into consideration,” Belichick allowed, “considering how the circumstances are.”’

‘“I was conscious of the emotional aspect and I really felt like I did a pretty good job of coming into the games in the right frame of mind,” Bledsoe said yesterday. “The thing that happened to us in both games is that we were down by like 17 or 20 points and it put us in some difficult situations. I think that’s what caused us problems and what caused me problems.”’

‘Here we go again. Either Buffalo general manager Tom Donahoe is a better judge of talent than Bill Belichick and Scott Pioli, or he just overpaid (again) for a player who didn’t fit into the Patriots’ plans.’

‘”We’ll have to find that out as it comes,” said Johnson. “Could it be (a distraction)? It could be. But it’s up to us to not let it. Honestly, I think we have some very mentally strong football players on this team. Gritty guys. Lawyer was one, but he wasn’t the only one. I think we have power within us to block it out. When it’s time to go to work, we go to work. We may deliberate in the locker room or on our own about these things, but when it’s time to go to work, it doesn’t have a huge impact.”‘ (registration required)

‘”This is definitely a big game for me and it is a big game for our team,” Bledsoe readily admitted yesterday. “I would never tell you that is not the case. It is a division game. It is the first game of the year. You just look at those two things and it is a big game. We weren’t able to beat the Patriots last year. This is definitely a game that we are pointing at, that we need to try to do everything we can to win. That being said, if we go win this game, it doesn’t put us in the playoffs. It doesn’t put us anywhere, but it would be a good start to the season.”‘ (registration required)

‘”They are a well-coached team and I am sure that whatever they think our weaknesses are, they won’t hesitate to go after them,” Belichick said. “That is certainly what we would expect. Wherever they think they are, I am sure they will try to hit us. Talking defensively in general though, as we said at the end of the season, if you are trying to get younger on defense, then you are obviously going to be less experienced there. There is no way to meld those two together. To be younger is to be younger. To be more experience is to be older. You kind of have to make a choice there.”‘ (registration required)

‘”The way the Patriots tried to back me into a corner. It didn’t show a lot on their part,” Milloy said in an interview with Houston’s KRIV-TV. “New England tried to squeeze me with a last-minute deal, so we took a risk and went on the market.”‘ (registration required)

‘”We’re going to mix it up,” Bledsoe said. “We’d like to be balanced. I’m not going to hand off on every play, but in general, we’d love to be more consistent with our power running.” Yeah, right.’

‘Centers, who admits he has been looking forward to playing Buffalo since signing with New England, is concentrating on keeping his emotions in check. His role diminished last season as Bledsoe’s Bills begin throwing the ball more down the field. “I have to play within the scheme and not allow my emotions to become a factor, a negative factor,” he said. “If anything, if I can utilize it in a positive way to help that would be good, but I have to just go out and be a professional.”‘

‘The Redskins’ best offer was a little more than $20 million over five years, sources said, but the early part of the contract wasn’t as lucrative. Washington was set to pay a $3.5 million signing bonus and about $5 million total over the first two seasons.’

‘Terms weren’t disclosed, but the Redskins’ offer apparently was worth about half that of the Bills.’