Archives for April 26, 2005

‘Buffalo will hold a pair of workouts on Friday and Saturday along with a morning session Sunday before the weekend concludes. All practices are closed to the public.’

‘The tight end out of Syracuse was signed as a free agent in January. In 2003, he started six of eight games for Syracuse and played on the team’s punt protection team.’

‘"Intelligence is very important because [as a center] he has to call the front and change and adjust the blocking schemes," Bills scout Doug Majeski said. "That’s important for any center. This is a kid who’s very intelligent and that’s probably one of his strong points."’

‘The Bills don’t comment on undrafted free agents who haven’t signed contracts yet. The players the Bills have agreed in principle on contracts with will sign when they get to town.’

‘It was Donahoe’s job to get a deal done. He overplayed his hand. The draft is done and the market for running backs has been significantly weakened. At least for the time being, the Bills are stuck with Henry, a diminished asset who has demanded a trade and says he will not play in Buffalo again.’

‘”We’ve got to be careful with numbers because we can only sign so many guys. We might be talking to five receivers knowing we can only sign two so we say to all five, ‘Look, it’s really first-come, first served.’ As soon as we get a guy, we might be out of the market for a receiver. So it’s a hectic time, but it’s a fun time.”‘

‘At this juncture, it may be in Buffalo’s best interest to wait until summer when teams suffer training camp injuries and may be forced to find another back. That could give the Bills some negotiating leverage in a league now crawling with running backs.’

‘The Titans entered the picture over the weekend and were willing to give up a draft pick for Henry, but the Bills didn’t think it was a high enough pick. Fisher wouldn’t go into specifics about the talks.’

”’Usually, young quarterbacks get thrown in on bad teams and it complicates their adjustment period,” Donahoe said, following the draft. ”But J.P. has some good people around him. And hopefully, he won’t feel and the coaches won’t feel it’s all on his shoulders.”’

‘”I’m going to have to work hard to get a spot,” Ezekiel said Monday. “It’s pretty much a tryout for me. I have to prove myself all over again, which is fine with me.”‘

‘On selecting Preston in a large pool of potential centers: This is a guy that we’ve liked for a long time. We brought him in here to meet with our coaches after the combine and his personality and intelligence really impressed them.’