Archives for July 31, 2008

‘”I heard coach make a comment one time last year that I probably would never be the player that I was,” Stroud said. “I don’t hold grudges, but I store it in my mental bank and use it as motivation. Like I was always told when I was young: `One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.’ So, hopefully, I can come up here and be a gem in Buffalo.”‘

‘The fans that were there were really into it, especially one group in particular. Chanting different players names etc…even mine. One of the guys in that group swore he was my biggest fan. He did have my jersey, and he professed his love for me over and over (not sure how to feel about that), but he didn’t look anything like the guy that said the same thing five minutes later. Although this guy’s friend said he had a tattoo of me. Now that’s a first. I didn’t ask to see it, and the guy didn’t deny it.’

‘”I am more comfortable in there, you recognize things about people, you know their tendencies and you know who likes to hear the snap count when you are on your way to the line of scrimmage,” Edwards said. “You know what your right tackle’s favorite food is and you know what your receiver’s favorite vacation spot is. I know it doesn’t sound like those types of things help, but they do.”‘

‘”You never know what’s going to happen on game day and you only have those three guys on game days, so we want to be ready for that,” Jauron said. “I’d definitely like to keep Langston on the right and have Jason in camp, but even when Jason comes in to camp, we’ll work all the guys on each side. What we don’t want to do is where we get to a point where we think we didn’t take a look at it,” added Jauron. “We feel the way we’re doing it will give us options.”‘

‘Kevin Everett, who suffered a career-ending spinal cord injury during the first game of the 2007 NFL season, will be the grand marshal for the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Watkins Glen International on Aug. 9, it was announced Wednesday in a press release.’

‘While this defense is built around being as predictable as marriage, coordinator Perry Fewell should be willing to spice things up on fairly rare yet well-timed instances. It’s not a wholesale change to the defensive approach but rather simply about adding an irregular, devious twist to an oatmeal style.’

‘”It reminded me of when I was younger and about 100 pounds lighter,” said the 6-foot-8, 366- pound Walker, who has not played left tackle since college. “It was good. It was a learning process. This is what we’re going to need depending on what goes on with Jason’s situation.”‘

‘”Obviously James is a big target down there,” Edwards said. “We need to utilize his height and his physical approach to the position. … It’s something we need to work on and get better at. We hit a couple and missed a couple today. That’s part of practice.”‘

‘”Last year we didn’t have any fullbacks in mind who could be impact players and we thought our tight ends could do just as well for us,” Schonert recalled. “It’s what Steve wanted to do. He thought we had tight ends who could do it and that would free up other positions (to keep depth players elsewhere on the roster). Once we got into it, it kind of handicapped us a little bit.”‘

‘”We’re kind of preparing for any eventuality as we move along. What we don’t want to do is get to a point and not have looked at it. We feel the way we’re doing it will give us options.”‘

‘Peters is three inches shorter and about 30 pounds lighter than Walker, but much more agile, making him a better fit at the important pass-blocking position. Peters played in the Pro Bowl last season and was voted to several all-pro teams.’

‘”It’s a good thing, you know?” Parrish said. “You’ve got family on the team. You’ve got somebody to talk to, somebody who can relate to your problems. I just told him the ins and outs of Buffalo , what he can expect.”‘

‘I grew up in Buffalo, where I was a cheerleader for the Buffalo Bills for three years. It was awesome cheering in front of 82,000 people. I was a cheerleader all through high school and college. You had to try out and it was grueling. There were hundreds of young women and only 32 girls made it. Every year you had to re-try out. For the audition we had to do an interview, a dance routine, and three cheers that prior girls had choreographed. By my fourth year, I had my second child and it was time to quit.’

‘"I think we’ve done pretty good the first couple of practices in pads, but it’s a long way to go and I definitely don’t think we’re as good as we’re going to be," said Kyle Williams. "We’re still developing some chemistry, but playing hard is the main thing and we’ve got some guys that can play."’