Archives for September 2006

‘I’ve actually started a little library in my locker. Between shoes, shoulder pads, and mouthpieces lies my little collection. Sure it is a mix of literary classics, homicide novels, and advice books for the dad to be, but is a collection never the less. I might start to give out library cards to guys in the locker room before too long.’

‘On reflecting on how far he has come back: I do a lot of that in my downtime. I’m pretty sure it will hit me the night and morning before we play the game. Everything I’ve been through, I have a little scrap book with pictures of the surgery when I was opened up, what it looked like after the surgery, its just steps.’

‘On dealing his mother’s death in his rookie season: It’s eventually going to happen, I have to tell myself that. At the time, I’m trying to get my career going. It’s been real tough. My younger siblings are looking up to me, asking me questions I have to answer, that I didn’t think I’d have to answer at this time. It’s a hard part of moving on up. I have a lot of big decisions to make.’

‘Craig Nall will be third on the depth chart.’

‘Patriots 20, Bills 9.’

‘Sit back and enjoy this team for what it is. Leave room for them to surprise you, and chances are, no one will come away from the season depressed.’

‘For the first time ever, they have four of their first six games on the road and four of their last six games at home. The Bills obviously prefer to have more home games the first half of the season because better weather is better for ticket sales. They also open on the road against their two toughest foes.’

‘There should be better chemistry. This is supposed to be one of Jauron’s big assets.’

‘If Losman bombs this year and Craig Nall does not turn into the second coming of Jake Delhomme, then the Bills will have to start from scratch at quarterback. That means they either will begin another long building process with a rookie or roll the dice on some free-agent veteran discarded by another team.’

‘The Bills’ offense stunk in the red zone the past two years.’

‘The Bills were worst in the NFL in red zone defense, too.’

‘Bobby April’s units have been the best in the league two years running.’

‘”Regardless of who you are and where you came from, you have to prove yourself,” Smith said. “Coach Levy has always been a coach, a head coach, a Hall of Fame coach. Now, he’s a GM. I understand people are saying, “How can he, a coach, who’s 81 years old, be a general manager?’ Well, we’re going to find out. But when you’re that studious, that smart and ask a lot of questions, you’re going to right the ship.”‘

‘Such devotion can only mean one thing: Nobody sells hope like the Buffalo Bills.’

‘”The days of saying it’s a new head coach and a new system and using that as an excuse are gone,” Vincent said. “We see first-year head coaches make the playoffs. We almost did it under coach [Mike] Mularkey. We were one game away. Nick Saban almost did it in Miami last year.”‘