Two Bills Drive

‘McPaper gives Donahoe and Co. a B+…’

Big thumbs up to Tom Donahoe and Co. from Dallas Morning News’ Rick Gosselin. He rates Bills with second best overall draft in the league, behind Seattle. Better than the Rams, the Pats, the Bears and – Ralph Wilson is lovin’ this – the Chargers: “Buffalo and Seattle had a league-high 12 picks apiece. The Bills had plenty of quality to go with their quantity with the best second day of this draft. Spoon, Sullivan, Driver, O’Leary, Williams, Germany … all good players. A”

‘The most intriguing acquisition made by the Buffalo Bills last week snuck onto the roster under cover of pre-draft hype. He is Kris Farris, former Outland Trophy winner, 1999 draft pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers, a player who has the instant adoration of head coach Gregg Williams because he’s hit town with a monster chip on his shoulder.’

‘At Boston College, Hasselbeck threw for 29 touchdowns, fifth most in BC history, and 3,890 yards, sixth on the school’s all-time list.’

‘Fifteen teams including the Buffalo Bills were dropped Tuesday from a $1 billion lawsuit in which the Oakland Raiders claim the NFL forced them to leave the lucrative Los Angeles market.’

‘Haslett set school records with 20 sacks and five fumble recoveries in a season before becoming a second-round draft pick of the Buffalo Bills in 1979. He was the AP’s defensive rookie of the year and played for nine years before going into coaching.’

‘There was a typo in the AP article – Ronnie Jones was NOT Special Teams coach in 1999 – he was paid to be a coach in 2000 as all Bills fans know.’

‘Ruben Brown… has no idea of the fuss his prime, center-court 76ers season tickets have caused… QB Donovan McNabb and DT Hollis Thomas, have complained more than once this year about their seats at the First Union Center… Brown, a loyal fan, flew in from Buffalo (offseason conditioning) for Games 1 and 2.’

‘Last season, Dinkins led all of Division I-AA in total offense and points responsible for, ranked second in scoring, third in rushing, 18th in all-purpose running and 26th in pass efficiency.’

‘Former WVU placekicker Jay Taylor, who spent last year in the XFL with Orlando, was signed by the Buffalo Bills.’

‘Boston College quarterback Tim Hasselbeck, brother of the Seattle Seahawks quarterback and son of a former New England Patriots tight end, is among 15 undrafted free agents signed by the Buffalo Bills.’

‘A hearing on the contract dispute between Wade Phillips and the Buffalo Bills has been rescheduled for May 16, the National Football League reported Tuesday.’

Yesterday the Bills signed undrafted free agent Center Randall Cummins who played for Kansas State. This is a pre-bowl profile on the kid once nicknamed "Ogre" by his middle school teammates. Cummins was a horse for the K-State offensive line, starting at center in his sophomore, junior, and senior years while earning All Big 12 honors.

President and General Manager, Tom Donahoe, announced that there will not be any practice sessions open to the public this weekend. However, there will be an open session at the next minicamp in June.

We were the first public group to meet the new President and Coach. They were both very informative and gracious in answering questions and telling us the "why’s" and the "what’s" to expect. We even received a Rob Johnson update regarding his arm strength and speed in decision making (it looks very promising). Donahoe also told us about the players who gave up some serious money to help out with the dreadful cap situation and how they wanted to remain Buffalo Bills.

Williams stressed was that participation this week is NOT a mandatory, until this weekend for three days. There will be another mandatory camp in June. He is very pleased with the attitude of the players and demands quick resonses from all around him. He gave the players a week off, but warned them not to go off the diet and conditioning program and come back fat.