Archives for August 19, 2013

‘”You see a lot of guys, watching them move around, seeing them stand up in two-point stances, you never know who is going to come,” the eighth-year veteran said. “I wanted to be part of that. I thought I would fit well because I can play anything from defensive end to linebacker to safety.”‘

‘"I think that we’ve seen that he’s gone in there and he’s really done a nice job. At the end of the day, do I really want to say he’s in competition with that? Obviously I do because I want all of our players, not just Jeff, to understand that no matter where they may stand on the depth chart, they’re fighting for the position to be a starter. I don’t want our players to think ‘Hey I’m fighting for this position, he’s the starter, maybe I could be number two or three.”

‘”I really view this procedure as minor. I don’t view it as something that, ‘Hey, we’re not sure.’ This is a very, very minor procedure so I’m not really concerned about it,” coach Doug Marrone said, without revealing the exact nature of the injury. “I have the information of exactly what it is, but at this time, the consensus of what we’ve talked about was to just say that it’s been a minor surgery, so I just want to tell everyone the truth there.”‘

‘”It’s a mind-set,” he said. “Since I’ve been here, this is the first year where we’re going into the preseason saying, ‘We want to win these games.’ It’s the general mentality every time we step on the field. We’re coming to win football games. Everybody is feeding off of that. The whole mentality is different.”‘

‘For that matter, we still need to see Kolb and Jeff Tuel stretch the field too. Kolb was clearly rusty Friday night against the Vikings and heard it from the crowd in the Ralph. He has to get up to speed fast on the assumption he’s playing against the Patriots.’

‘”You hate to see a guy go down, but if you’re doing anything in life, the more you do it, the better you’re going to get at it. It’s just a fact,” Tuel said. “I was really blessed with the opportunity to run with the twos and get those extra snaps in. I think it helped my game tremendously.”‘

‘Veteran Rian Lindell went 4 of 5 on field goals Sunday, missing wide left from 37 yards out and making kicks of 37, 45, 46 and 51 yards. Rookie Dustin Hopkins was 5 of 5, hitting from 31, 34, 42, 43 and 49 yards away.’

‘”During the course of the game we didn’t get anything communicated from him or anyone else about what might have occurred,” said Marrone. “After the game was over, he said he felt a little bump. Checked it, the stability was good, and then the next day, there was a little bit of swelling. Then you get concerned, so he had an MRI and went through a minor procedure.”‘

‘He needs to play for the Bills to win now, because he’s their best option. But he’s also the face of a franchise with a first-year head coach and a first-year general manager. They’re trying to win but they don’t want to sacrifice their “guy” by forcing him into the lineup.’

‘Manuel told Marrone that he believed the injury occurred on the QB’s sixth play of the game when Manuel scrambled to his right for a five-yard gain. That play was called back on a holding penalty. Manuel finished that series, leading the Bills on a 14-play, 80-yard touchdown drive and would play two more series before leaving the game as planned.’

‘Buffalo Bills rookie quarterback EJ Manuel had minor surgery on his left knee Sunday morning in Buffalo.’

‘”I’ve said this from the beginning: I’m going to prepare like I’m No. 1,” said Tuel. “That’s the best way to approach this.”‘

‘So is the quarterbacking competition now over or will it resume when Manuel’s back? Marrone said, “I don’t know. Again, that’s something I was trying to give you a frame of reference to how I think. There are a lot of variables that go into that: how Kevin is doing, how he is playing, how EJ comes back from the time off, a lot of speculation on that. I think I’ll be able to answer that question once we get to the day-to-day and he’s out here practicing.”‘

‘Leodis McKelvin alternated in and took some reps and hopes to play Saturday in Washington. LB Kiko Alonso was full go and T.J. Graham was back on the field, but was very limited.’

‘”He’s a guy that can make plays for us,” said Fred Jackson of Manuel. “But we’ve also always felt we want to make this thing go through us as running backs. We have all the confidence in the world in Kevin (Kolb) and we’ll do whatever we can in that running back room to help make that situation a lot better for everybody in that quarterback room to make it easier for them.”‘