Archives for June 2013

‘I was recently diagnosed with Squamous-cell carcinoma (cancer) of the upper jaw bone.’

‘”This will be our turn to make sure that we’re there for him with whatever he needs,” said Phil Hansen. “So this will just be a payback for all the great years and great things he’s done and the great friendship he’s had with the rest of us players.”‘

‘”We caught it in time, which is good,” said Kelly, who admits he’s still learning every day about his current affliction. “When I talked to the surgeon and they went over my CT scan they knew I caught it early enough. But just like anything you have to wait a number of months after surgery to make sure nothing comes back. So I’m very confident.”‘

‘”I’m a very physical receiver that’s not really common,” said Elliott. “I have a defensive side to me. I like going up and getting the ball and making big plays. And I don’t really mind blocking. That’s one of the aspects of my game that people don’t really know.”‘

‘”Seeing the guys coming in kind of lights a fire underneath you,” Graham said Friday. “You kind of get motivated because you know there are guys competing with you. Our receiver room is stacked now with great competition, so you’ve got to put your A game on tape.”‘

‘Buffalo Bills fans know Parker, and bemoan him, more for being the agent for Cornelius Bennett, Jason Peters and Jairus Byrd.’

‘There’s a healthy level of respect among the four full-time Bills because they, more so than the other Buffalo coaches and players, appreciate each others’ accomplishments and backgrounds. And all four played their high school home games at War Memorial Field in Doylestown.’

‘”You want to give them somebody to really look up to,” said Dareus. “We all lead by example and trying to bust our butts to show them how to do it the right way. That’s just the whole motive and the whole focal point of the whole camp.”‘

‘”Right now, I’m feeling good, man. I’m feeling the best I’ve felt in nine months. It’s just a good situation that I’m here, and now actually out here doing individual and hopefully I’ll be able to move on and go to full, strenuous practices.”‘

‘After writing a similar warning in my last observation column, I figure it’s prudent to once again point out that this is only one day of a voluntary workout that features players not in pads and having little to no contact.’

‘”I’m excited. We did a lot of things, we put a lot of people out in different areas,” head coach Doug Marrone said after the final practice. “The players now have a chance to get away for a week. We have a chance to go back through the tapes again, looking at the reps, the performances and the results in doing that and seeing where we are from that standpoint, coming in to the next phase which is the mandatory mini-camp.”‘

‘”The one thing I did like throughout the 10 days, was the competitiveness, whether it was generated from the individual player, or it was generated because we were moving people around so much. That’s the type of competitiveness I was looking for,” said Marrone. “I was able to see that. Now the goal for myself, as the head coach, is how can we escalate that competition when we put on the pads on, because the rules open us up to do more things.”‘