Archives for August 11, 2015

'On Monday, Cassel might very well have had his best practice of training camp. Certainly, it was far superior to anything he did on the field during what he would acknowledge was a very rough offseason.'

'“Figuring out what the offense is trying to do and get a step ahead of the offense,” said Williams on what he must show Ryan. “As far as the studying part of the game — the mental part of the game — just take the next level.”'

'Goodwin's speed is electric, and everyone knows it. And he convinced former head coach Doug Marrone, and now Rex Ryan, that he's not a track star playing football, but a football player who also competes in track. But his inability to avoid injury, and the offseason additions of Harvin and Lewis, have ramped up the competition for roster spots.'

'"We will start him on Friday, and how much work he gets we'll see," Ryan said after a steamy practice at St. John Fisher College. "We'll get them all work through these preseason games and he'll get the first shot."'

'Ryan couldn't talk about the fight without a smirk on his face.'

'Cassel had the best day at camp Monday, but Rex Ryan has said he's looking for the quarterback who can consistently perform the best day-in-day-out. So far, that player hasn't emerged for the Bills, so there is little separation on the depth chart.'

'After practice, Cassel also noted that he feels much better coming off that foot injury than he did in the spring. The spring was Cassel's first chance to run on grass since breaking his foot. Now he's starting to trust it again, and it's showing on his deeper passes.'

'However this turns out, the good news for the winner, if there is actually one, is that the bar is being set incredibly low. Either Cassel, Manuel or Taylor will be asked to be not terrible, and anything more than that will be considered a bonus.'

'“The fans are fans, they support you and they love what you did,” said Reed, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2014. “They admire what you did and they appreciate what you did, not only for the team but for the city. It’s always good to come back and interact with them.”'

'"Rex gets it," Kelly said. "If there's somebody in Buffalo that's not excited about this season, something's wrong."'

'8-8, fourth place.'

'How much hope? 7/10. The pieces are in place to end the playoff drought. Plus, there’s a huge opportunity. The Patriots won’t have Tom Brady for the first four games of the season and one of those includes a match-up with the Bills. Buffalo needs to pounce on that.'

'Cassel has said twice now that he’d like to play the whole game on Friday. We all know that’s not going to happen, but he wants every snap he can get, “The more the merrier. I always look forward to preseason because there’s no substitution for game speed when you get out there under the lights, real fans there and you’re hitting and there’s contact. The more time that you can play, the more comfortable you become as the season gets going.”'

'Seantrel Henderson is the starting right tackle ahead of Cyrus Kouandjio and Fred Jackson is the backup to LeSean McCoy at running back, with Boobie Dixon #3. Bryce Brown is listed as the #4 RB ahead of rookie Karlos Williams.'

'“He actually comes into our meetings and is the one that installs the defenses" Bills safety Aaron Williams said during an interview on the WGR morning show. "So to hear him explain why he does and why he calls a situation and the reason the technique needs to be this way, he definitely goes into detail about why we are running this defense at a certain time in the game."'