Two Bills Drive

Chris Mortensen writes about the Bills "No matter how they struggle with a young team, ThePrez (Tom Donohoe) will not blink. He believes they picked the right quarterback in Rob Johnson…Rookie RB Travis Henry could be the real deal…. The draft class looks pretty productive"

“You have to love this game to go though this. You have to love it with every ounce of blood and sweat to grow through this. There has to be something to drive a person to do this and let me tell you, it’s got to be about more than money. This is pain. People don’t see this part, they just see what happens on Sundays.”

Here are the players cut by the Bills.

1. RB David Dinkins

2. QB Pete Gonzalez

3. LB Donny Green

4. LB Corey Moore

5. S Carl Nesmith

6. DT DeVonte Peterson

7. WR Jonathan Pittman

8. OT Clark Roosendaal

9. P/K Jay Taylor

10. WR Corey Thomas

While talks are going on, the NFL may face the prospects of replay officials and video operators joining the on-field officials on the sidelines.

The NFLRA indicates that these "in-the-booth" officials will support the regular officials in the event of a lockout or if the NFL hires replacements. The NFL says they expect the replay people to work, saying, "We’re not bargaining with them. They are NFL employees."

‘Quarterback Rob Johnson gave the Buffalo Bills the finger yesterday.’

‘Corey Moore has a shot to make the Buffalo Bills roster this year. After all, the pass rushing linebacker started four games last year as a rookie. But as the preseason draws to a finish – the Bills break training camp at St. John Fisher College today – Moore’s odds of making the transition from outside to middle linebacker in coach Gregg Williams’ new 4-3 defense appear bleak.’

‘"The plan is I’ll play a half and maybe a series in the third quarter. I think that’s a good amount of time."’

‘"They don’t care. Nobody’s going to give you any sympathy, so we have to move on. Jerry understands that and that’s not being cruel to him. We have to figure something out and go forward and that’s what we’re going to do."’

‘Sloughing off in the classroom didn’t just cost Tyrone Robertson two or three seasons of football at the University of Georgia. "I figured it cost me about $10 million," Robertson said. Now that’s a hit to the wallet.’

‘"When you have seven players each week that you can’t dress anyway, that gives you some flexibility to carry a player you feel has a chance to get back," Donahoe said. "At some point as we go through the process (with Ostroski) and it changes, then we can always put him on IR. But we don’t have to do it now."’

‘Now it’s Morris’ turn as the Bills give each player an equal shot at winning the starting tailback job.’

‘Rob Johnson, at 6-4 and a skinny 212, seems like anything but a quick-read, quick-drop guy. But he says he’s perfectly suited to it — hell, he’d tell me that if they put him in at blocking back — so who am I to argue?’

‘"We have a lot of confidence in the people that we have here and we want to give them a shot," Bills general manager Tom Donahoe said as the team continued training camp at St. John Fisher College on Tuesday. "They’re going to have to prove to us that they can’t do it. … If that’s not the case, then we’ll re-evaluate it."’

“Well, I think we now have the best front organization that I’ve had in the 41 years I have been associated with the team. That goes from Tom Donahoe,the President and General Manager, all the way down through all of the positions. My expectation for the team, we have a lot of young players it’s going to take time to develop as it always does. We probably will be starting four rookies, which we’ve never done before.”

The Bills recently let right tackle Robert Hicks go. Hicks started seven games last year but was struggling to win the starting job. When it became clear that rookie Jonas Jennings, a third-round pick from Georgia, would be good enough, Buffalo dumped Hicks. He counted for $512,000 against the salary cap and, for the cash-strapped Bills, that’s a lot of space. Hicks could have gone down with an injury or the tendinitis in his right knee could have put him on IR. That was too much risk for GM Tom Donahoe to tolerate. As for the 6-foot-7, 330-pound Hicks, he was snatched up by the Lions.