Archives for July 14, 2013

‘With Danny Crossman now manning the helm of the special teams unit and an influx of young talent, the Bills will undoubtedly look to duplicate that success in the 2013 season. The question is will it be one of the veterans holding the primary return role, or will one of the new faces step up and claim the job? Four players have been in the mix through spring practices and will continue the competition in training camp.’

‘”People talk about changing the culture, and that’s the reason we’re here, and we have a great challenge in front of us,” he said. “I’d rather go after things like that rather than something that’s not as challenging."’

‘”It’s going to be an open competition, which is what it’s been throughout my career. It’s nothing new to me,” said Kolb. “Training camp gets ramped up pretty quick. You have to be ready to go and in great shape. I’ve been around long enough now to know what it takes.”‘

‘”Once I married my beautiful wife and once our child was born, I give all my credit to them, because once I had three people to take care of instead of just me, there was no choice,” Smith said. “I had to man up and do things right, and there’s just no option to making a mistake or do something that could affect their lives. I will never make a decision that could crucially affect my wife and children. That wouldn’t be fair, and they count on me too much to do that.”‘

‘”It’s always good to come back home and give to the community, especially when its kids,” said Butler, 26, who will be competing for a starting cornerback job with the Buffalo Bills after stints with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Washington Redskins and Arizona Cardinals.’

‘The bottom line is the gap doesn’t seem that troublesome. Perhaps $1 to $1.5 million a year over the life of a four or five year deal? On a team that has a payroll of more than $100 million on an annual basis, what’s another million or so between friends? Just take it out of the cash windfall you receive from selling home games to Toronto!’