Archives for April 28, 2013

‘My only issue is that they didn’t address the cornerback position. I like Leodis McKelvin and Stephon Gilmore, but Ron Brooks didn’t play much last year and Justin Rogers was awful at times. Maybe a new defense will help them out.’

‘Woods can come in and compete for the No. 2 receiver spot opposite Stevie Johnson. He’s not a Calvin Johnson-type receiver, but he should put up solid numbers for the Bills. And as he showed last year, he doesn’t mind sharing touches with another receiver.’

‘The picks of Williams and Meeks add to a position that has Da’Norris Searcy penciled in as a starter, and also features recently converted cornerback Aaron Williams.’

‘It’s something to sell. This franchise needs to restore public faith in the product after a dreary, discouraging decade. Fans like it when you talk about playing fast. Every new basketball coach says he’s going to play more uptempo. If you’re going to lose, you might as well put on a show, right?’

‘”Doug is a vital cog to the process, but when it comes to football decisions in this organization, one person and one person only makes those decisions, and that’s Buddy Nix.”‘

‘He understood you. And because he did, because he bled Buffalo, his connection to people was far easier to understand than it was to define. You knew what he meant when he said Western New York was an attitude more than anything else. He knew what people were thinking in the steel mills and corporate offices and school cafeterias and dinner tables.’

‘”He made such a profound impact on me first as a person and second as a journalist. I used Larry as the model for how you should be in this business. A man’s man, a friend to so many. I always knew that Larry was in my corner and that he cared about me as a person and did everything he could to make you better. He would challenge you and advise you in ways that if you took that advice, you couldn’t miss.”‘

‘Tasker and Kelly had some really good chemistry in the opening episode, which bodes well for “No Huddle.”‘

‘But I do know this: the Buffalo Bills just got a lot more entertaining with the potential to be better with the selection of a big, fast quarterback, two really fast wide receivers, a linebacker and two safeties to fortify the middle of their defense and a couple guys with a rap sheet to assist with any attitude adjustment new coach Doug Marrone has in mind.’

‘What the team did well, though, was putting itself in a position to draft targeted players. Obviously, Manuel was Buffalo’s guy. But by trading down and picking up an additional second-round pick, management was able to fill three needs.’

‘Is it fair to write off anyone for a dumb thing, or things, they might have done at age 19 or 20 or 21? There is no one-word answer. All depends on the circumstances, and, as Bills GM Buddy Nix once told me, your “gut feeling.”‘

‘”I met with them twice,” he said. “My first time meeting with the Bills was at the East-West Shrine Game. I had an interview with the scout. He was real impressed with my film. He loved me as a player. That was the first time I met with them. I think I had a brief sit-down with the Bills also. It was one of the teams that they told me if I’m up on the board they were going to take a chance on me, so they did.”‘

‘”Nothing was ever given to me,” Meeks said. “No five stars. No red carpet. No true freshman starting role. I always worked. So, coming into this same process, I was like, ‘Here we go again.'”‘