Archives for April 17, 2005

‘The crop of blue-chip quarterbacks available in the NFL draft April 23-24 is piano wire thin, with only Utah’s Alex Smith, Cal’s Aaron Rodgers and maybe, Akron’s Charlie Frye, deserving of selection in the first round. That makes the Buffalo Bills feel good.’

‘Unrestricted free agents: LS Bradford Banta; WR Drew Haddad; QB Shane Matthews; OT Marcus Price; OL Mike Pucillo (not tendered as RFA); FS Izell Reese.’

‘”You could do a lot of things with him, create all kinds of mismatch problems. With Coach Mularkey’s scheme, he likes to throw wrinkles into his offense and he’s a kid he’d love to have. With his size and speed … he can create nightmares for defenses trying to scheme him. He’s one of the fastest players in the draft, and one of the tallest, so with that combination, he can get down field and make plays, just get him the ball anyway possible.” – Bills scout Shawn Heinlen on Arkansas’ Matt Jones, a 6-5 QB who is projected as a WR or TE at the NFL level.’

‘I rate the following eight backs a notch above McGahee, based on their past production and projections for this season: Shaun Alexander, Ahman Green, Priest Holmes, Edgerrin James, Jamal Lewis, Curtis Martin, Fred Taylor and LaDainian Tomlinson.’

‘”The toughest part for me since I retired is not being around my teammates, Jim and Bruce and Andre (Reed) and Darryl (Talley),” Thomas said. “We were a family for 16, 17, 20 weeks out of the year and that’s probably the part that’s hardest for people who haven’t played to understand. That’s what makes these types of events fun, and even though we may have lost four Super Bowls, we were still one heck of a football team and a heck of a lot of guys that still care about each other.”‘

‘”I was always one of the littlest guys around,” Tasker said, “and that’s one reason why dads bring their sons up to me and say, ‘See, son, you don’t have to be a giant to play in the NFL.’ Or they say, ‘If he can play, you can.'”