Archives for August 27, 2013

‘Leinart has a little history here. In 2006, coming off a 5-11 season behind quarterbacks Kelly Holcomb and J.P. Losman, the Bills had the chance to draft him. They had the eighth pick. Leinart had a Heisman. He was the toast of the talk show speculation circuit. Buffalo, though, chose defensive back Donte Whitner.’

‘I don’t think the Bills got markedly better this offseason, but neither did the Jets. And for what its worth, I’m not sure the Dolphins did either. The Patriots, even in a down year, are still the class of the division, but there is no reason the Bills can’t be the second-best. But there is just one playoff team coming from the AFC East and that is the Patriots. So if the Bills don’t make the playoffs, does it really matter whether they finish in second or fourth?’

‘Don’t judge this team by their record in 2013. They just aren’t ready for a full-blown turn around. I could see EJ Manuel throwing for 2,800-3,000 yards and 18 touchdowns with an eye on the future.’

‘”It’s a little whirlwind right now and that’s part of our business and we have to be able to adjust to that,” said Fred Jackson. “I think the guys that are coming in are doing a tremendous job to try to pick up things so they can get out there as fast as possible. The guys that are here are making adjustments and that’s all we can do and if we continue to do that I think we’ll be fine.”‘

‘”I came here to play football, and that’s what I’m doing. Anybody that comes to a team thinking, ‘I want to come here and just sit on the bench,’ is wrong,” said Tuel, an undrafted rookie free agent out of Washington State. Tuel said his biggest challenge in getting ready for the Patriots will be earning the trust of the team’s starting receivers.’

‘”I’m going to leave the private matters of the business side between us,” he said. “I don’t really want to comment on other things. I’ll let coach Marrone talk more about the team aspect and what they’re doing upstairs. If you want to talk to Doug or whoever, I’m not in that position to talk about that stuff.”‘

‘You know it’s bad when the Bills are scrambling to sign Leinart and making a trade for Lewis, adding two L’s to a roster that should prepare for many more. Leinart has played a grand total of four games in three years. The Bills are his third team in three years, four if you include about 15 minutes he spent with the Seahawks in April.’

‘The Bills are thin at cornerback. Leodis McKelvin, the presumed starter opposite Gilmore, has been limited much of the summer as he returns from offseason groin surgery. With McKelvin out, the Bills have tried Ron Brooks, Nickell Robey, T.J. Heath, Crezdon Butler, Justin Rogers and even the since-released Don Unamba as a starter.’

‘Marrone explained that star running back C.J. Spiller has left the team to go to Florida to be with family after the weekend tragedy in which his step grandfather, Hubert Allen, murdered two people, wounded two others, and then took his own life. Spiller’s return to Buffalo is uncertain.’

‘”The last time I saw Matt I was watching him in the Rose Bowl in the national championship playing Texas,” said Tuel. “I was, like, in eighth grade. Now here we are on the same squad.”‘

‘”I was a little disappointed, honestly,” Byrd said. “But I was hoping that, ‘OK, there will be a resolution to this.’ Just being honest, that was my initial feeling. All I knew is you play, and then you hit free agency, and that’s just the way it goes. But there’s also the business side of things, and that’s part of me developing and growing up. Now I understand that part of it.”‘

‘That leaves the Bills’ corners as Ron Brooks, he of the ill-timed penalty and uneven performances, Justin Rogers, coming off an injury, and young veterans Crezdon Butler and T.J. Heath, the former of whom has admittedly played well.’

‘”They were obviously protecting Tuel, which doesn’t say much about their expectation of him to go out and win a game. I like the kid. I’ve watched him gut it out, playing with arguably the least talented (major college) team in the country, and I think he can stick on a roster.’

‘When he became the starter in Houston, it quickly went downhill. Ten games into the 2011 season, the Texans were 7-3 with a two-game lead in the AFC South. They had the league’s No. 1 defense and the best running game in the AFC. They were on their way to a big finish, but lost quarterback Matt Schaub to a broken foot.’

‘Tuel would become the first undrafted quarterback of the modern era (which we’re defining as 1960, the American Football League’s first season) to start his NFL team’s first regular-season game as a true first-year professional.’