Archives for December 11, 2015

'"A lot of the decisions we made here the past two years have been about money. It's not that we don't think these players are good players. The running backs we have here their salary cap hit is $11.1 (million). His was going to be $11.9 (million). So it's how do you want to do that.'''

'"When we traded Sam (Bradford) for Nick (Foles), it was a great situation," Kelly said. "(Head coach Jeff Fisher) and me were both on the phone together, we said 'When are you going to make the call. Let's call now.' He then called Sam, I then called Nick. That's the way (the McCoy trade) should have been done."'

'“And every player that's ever left this team, I've talked to personally, myself. Everyone that's in town, we talk to individually here in our office. I talk to them, a coordinator talks to them, the position coach talks to them. We have a way that we do it that I think is the right way to do it. And it wasn't exercised in that way. And I understand why he's bothered. He was the all-time leading running back here, he felt like he was disrespected. He was wronged and because I was part of it, then it's on me.''

'“I know it means a lot to him,” Fletcher Cox said. “He’s from the state of Pennsylvania. The Eagles drafted him. I know he’s looking forward to coming back into the stadium. It may feel different for him for the first part of the game, being on the other sideline, but he understands this is business and, of course, they’ve got a game to try to win too.”'

'“It was a tough decision with all those guys we let go last year and in my first two years here,” Kelly said. “Those decisions were made by money. Those decisions weren’t made because we don’t think they were good football players or we don’t think they’re good people. I think people kind of forget that. We look at it. That’s a lot of money. We have three running backs this year who their salary cap hit this year is $11.1 million. We had one guy making $11.9 million.”'

'“Instead, with the passage of time, I think it’s now a tale of epic heroism in the face of failure. If there’s a way for a sports documentary to be heroically tragic, this is it.”'

'"I think he contributes by being here," Rex Ryan said. "I think the guys love the fact he's here. There is a lot of respect for him. It's good to get him out there. … I know Rob's had a great time being around it. Obviously, he misses being around this type of atmosphere. He's been impressed with this team, I can tell you that much."'

'The 6-2, 241-pound Stanford product originally came to Buffalo as an undrafted free agent following the 2015 NFL Draft.'

'"We were told that the trade wasn't initiated and wouldn't be initiated until the next morning so there were no phone calls to be made. And then all of a sudden, I'm driving to an event and he's been traded. I felt bad that I didn't get a chance to talk to him. I called him. He didn't answer my phone call. I know he was pissed. And he should be pissed. Rightfully so," Kelly said.'

'Bills 27-21.'

'“It’s fun,” the Bills tight end told me after he was signed to the team’s active roster after spending the first thirteen weeks of his career on the practice squad. “I’ve been working to get here and now that I’m here I’m not going to take anything for granted. Just going to go out and do what I can do.”'

'Right guard John Miller was working with the first-team offensive line. Miller has been out since he injured his ankle Monday night, November 23 at New England.'

'"Coming from not feeling your whole left side to maybe not playing the game again and being able to move your neck, then being able to work out and have an opportunity to be out on the field it's definitely an experience I will never forget,” Williams said.'

'That would shift Ronald Darby in the top role — which is nothing more than ceremonious considering how the Bills utilize their boundary corners — and it would also mean Leodis McKelvin would make his first start at cornerback since 2014.'

'"We've got to continue to mature and play with a greater level of consistency and that requires greater focus and concentration,” said Roman in an interview on Bills flagship station WGR Sportsradio 550 Thursday. “If we can do that the sky is the limit because at times I think we're probably as hard an offense to stop as there is in the league. We've got to learn to play with more consistency throughout the course of a game and see what that looks like."'