WGR

‘Fired by the Carolina Panthers from the same position last week, Shula worked with Bills’ head coach Sean McDermott and general manager Brandon Beane in Carolina. Shula was Cam Newton’s QB coach his first two years in the NFL, then became offensive coordinator in 2013.’

‘”It’s a quarterback league, and until you know you have the guy that you’re definitely going to build this team around and the offense around, you’re constantly searching,” Beane said with Howard Simon and Jeremy White on WGR Wednesday morning. “The teams that makes the runs in the playoffs consistently have a franchise guy that they lean on year in and year out. We’re still in the process of getting that accomplished.”‘

‘They also have four Exclusive Rights Free Agents, which means if the Bills offer (or tender) that player a minimum salary by March 14 at 4 p.m. they automatically retain his rights. If they don’t, that player also becomes an Unrestricted Free Agent.’

‘Now that the confetti has settled, we can take a cold look at their draft position with no hesitation (e.g., Why are you guys talking about this now?). The Bills own the 21st and 22nd picks in the first round — theirs and the Chiefs’. Maybe the draft will play out in such a way that picking 21st is just fine for them to pick a worthy quarterback prospect. Odds are it won’t. You can trade up but you’d rather not have to. Eventually the Bills will have to make a bet on all this without knowing what’ll happen in the draft, just like we do: Take your chances by standing pat, or trade up.’

‘Neither man confirmed that the quarterback or offensive coordinator would be returning, nor suggested they would be moving on from either of them, which left plenty of room for interpretation about what their plans will be for the offense and specifically the QB position for 2018.’

‘We have a lot of work to do. We’re trying to compete and win everyday. We really are. I know we said it and people drew their own conclusions of what our strategy was or what this team was or was not going to be. The great thing was this team defined itself in their prep every day on and off the field to get the results.’

‘Sunday was the first playoff game of Williams’ career. He said nothing needs to be said to the younger players, because they now know what it takes, “They realize it’s not easy, they see how the season can ebb and flow. We go through a hot start, we hit the bottom, we work our way out of it, so that’s what the NFL season looks like, so guys got a pretty good view of what this league is about and what success in this league takes.”’

‘”We gotta be better next year on offense, we know that. Gotta win individual battles more, play better as a group, and when you get in the redzone against good teams, you gotta score touchdowns.”‘

‘Well, that’s what he’s done so far so I don’t see why they would stray away from their plan. You look at guys like Micah Hyde, Jordan Poyer and just the draft class that they brought in last year. I think, when you think about high-character people, you think that you’re sacrificing talent but in those cases, I think that they got the best of both worlds. If you want to build a great team, a sustainable team and definitely a team that hasn’t won in a long time like we did this year, that’s the type of people you have to bring in here, that love the work, that overachieve, and inspire others to be great as well.’

‘The Buffalo Bills announced this afternoon that they’ve signed nine players to reserves/futures contracts.’

‘Buffalo’s playoff drought ends, but still haven’t won in the postseason since the 1995 season.’

‘The Bills really hurt themselves with dropped passes. Multiple players were culpable. And they often came on critical plays that either took away what should have been a first down or would’ve put them in a much more advantageous position to get one when they really needed it.’

‘Like the Bills, the Jaguars decided to do everything to stop the run and make the other team’s quarterback beat them. Sadly, the Bills were unsuccessful. McCoy gutted it out with 75 yards on 19 carries and added another 44 yards in the receiving game, but a Bills passing game that was the worst in the NFL during the season was awful once again.’

‘Aside from one misguided local columnist who seemed to be making the point that enjoying the Bills being back in the playoffs must mean you don’t care about a flailing city school system nor the threat of nuclear war, my sense is that fans young and old dug into the accomplishment for what it was. An end to the embarrassment of carrying around the longest postseason appearance drought in sports.’

‘Despite the season coming to a close after a tough loss in Jacksonville, many Buffalo Bills’ fans still showed up to greet their team at the Buffalo-Niagara International Airport Sunday night, just like they did one week ago after the team qualified for the pkaoffs for the first time in eighteen years.’