Archives for May 25, 2012

‘”The whole year was just brutal,” said Troup. “The Jets game on the road was the point where I couldn’t take it anymore. I fought through it the best I could all the way through the season up until that Jets game. Coach Gailey came up to me in the locker room and said, ‘Don’t worry about it. We know you’ve been fighting all year and we know you are resilient so if you can’t go we know there’s something wrong. You should stay back here and lay down and relax.’ It was definitely heartbreaking not being able to finish the season with my teammates was horrible.”‘

‘"No, he’s not a guard," Nix said. "He started 50 games, the last 16 at left tackle. We put it out there, we tried to spread the rumor that he was a guard and hoped somebody wouldn’t take him."’

‘"You try to see the effort that a guy gives. You want to see if a guy is a lazy guy or if he is a worker. You’re trying to figure that out," he said. "You try to figure out does a guy retain what you teach him? Can he hold his own from day one to day two? Those are the two main things. They’re talented guys or they wouldn’t be here to start with. So they’ve got talent. It’s a matter of trying to evaluate right off the bat. What level of talent a little bit, but really work ethic and retention."’

‘The Bills have signed all but one of their nine draft picks. Third-rounder T.J. Graham, a wide receiver out of North Carolina State, was the only rookie not under contract as of May 24. It’s not entirely surprising. Under the NFL’s rookie wage scale adopted last year after the lockout, first- and second-round picks are guaranteed to receive strong contracts but deals for the fourth- through seventh-rounders aren’t so lucrative and not really worth their slot value. Third rounders are left in the middle between good deals and bad ones so negotiations between agents and team bean counters are taking time. Linebacker Kelvin Sheppard, a third-rounder, was the last to sign with Buffalo last year.’

‘Scott Brown: "Do you think the problems you’re suffering from are directly related to your time playing football?" Harry Jacobs: "No doubts in my mind. I never had car accidents, but I played 22 years of football. It was exciting, though I didn’t know any of this (concussion) stuff.’