Bills Close Mini-Camp

Opening statement: Our offseason program goes very well. Our guys are committed to it. As you know, it starts around the first of April or the last week in March, and it continues right until now. They’ve worked awfully hard and they need to get away, they need some rest, they need some relaxation, they have to stay on top of everything and that, essentially, was our message to them today. You have to get some room, but you also have to stay fit, stay in your books, you have to know what’s going on and you have to come back ready to go. We’ve made a lot of progress, but we certainly have a long way to go. On how encouraged he was by the way QB Trent Edwards handled the no-huddle responsibilities: I’ve always been impressed with Trent (Edwards). From the very first day he was here, I thought he had command of the huddle, I thought he had a presence on the field and he’s just matured. He’s into his third year and he knows a lot more about the league and how it functions and how people play and what it takes to succeed. He’s worked awfully hard the whole offseason process and he’ll continue to work. I’m really happy with Trent and how he’s committed himself. You could say that about almost everybody here. On where the team is compared to where they were last year at this time: We’re certainly advanced beyond it, we should be. We’re a year more mature in the things that we do and knowing what we want. You’d love to believe you’ve gotten better. You’d love to believe that on the field, talent-wise. We’ve had a year to study what we did, what we didn’t like and what we liked. Hopefully we’re a better football team, on the flip side, so is everybody else, probably. We play in a very tough league and a very, very tough division. It’s really exciting when you look at the team and you look at it develop over time and I’m looking forward to this year, looking forward to our preparation and that opening game. To open on a Monday Night is huge for us and huge for our fans. It’ll be a huge test for our football team and hopefully it’ll help us get ready. Not that you need any more motivation for an NFL season, but to open on Monday Night to a division rival and a very, very talented team, is a great challenge for us. On if the team will improve in detail-oriented areas: We do. We definitely do. As you know, there are critical areas, and as a coach the night before game, you go over these things and you talk about, ‘you’ve got to win this situation.’ But the long and short of it is, and it sounds simple, because it is, but the long and short of it is, you have to win them all. If you don’t win first and second (down), your odds of winning third are not very good at all. You have to stack the statistics in your favor and the odds in your favor. Every situation you could name, it’s critically important that you win it. People talk about third down, but if you don’t win first and second, your odds are not good. If you win that, you stay on the field, and that’s time off the clock, time away from their offense, time for your offense and all of those good things. Red zone, you’ve got to put it in when you’ve got the opportunity because people are good. People are good, and you just don’t get as many opportunities as you would like. We’ve got to improve in every area. We’ve worked and they’ve worked awfully hard at it. Now, we’ll see if it’s going to bear fruit for us. On how the team gets past its string of 7-9 finishes: Win more games, clearly, and you do that one at a time. We’re certainly in no position to overlook anybody, nobody deserves to be looked past in our business. Everybody can beat us, and on the other hand, we can beat everybody that we play, but we have to play at a very high level to do that and that’s what our goal is. On how affected he was by the meeting he had with Mr. Wilson last year: I’m very affected, and there’s no answer to that question that’s any good. Does it affect you? You’d be lying if you said no. Can you let it affect you, in what ways? If you let it affect you and control you, then it’s not a very good thing. You just live with it, like everybody lives with things. I’ve been very lucky. I love what I do and I love being here, so hopefully we can do what we need to get done. On if he plans on making any changes to his training camp routine: No, we don’t. It always changes somewhat, but not that you’d notice. There are always little things that change. On how much he expects to use the no-huddle this year: We were disappointed in how little we’ve used it. It was an emphasis for us in our offseason and our OTAs. The huddle is not complicated, and so we said we’ll focus our attention on not huddling and then we’ll work on it and we need to get better at it. We need to have more confidence in it and hopefully we’ll use it more. That’s kind of where we are. We think it’s a valuable weapon and obviously everybody else in the league uses it. On why CB/KR Terrence McGee practiced this week: Well, first of all, our medical staff cleared him and he kept pushing them to clear him. Once they said he was OK, and he really wanted to go, that was it. I didn’t feel any need for him to practice. Terrence (McGee) is a player that I have a lot of admiration for, the way he plays the game, how he prepares. He loves to play, so it was good, it was very good. It worried me a little bit, he was on the ground a couple more times, but it didn’t seem to bother him, so it worked out well. On why RB Marshawn Lynch was not practicing: He got stepped on and his foot kind of swelled up. We sent him for x-rays and tests, but there was nothing broken, but it was still swollen and very sore. On the status of WR C.J. Hawthorne and OL Nick Hennessey: C.J. (Hawthorne) is in a cast right now, and will be for a few more days, it’s a leg issue. Same thing with Nick (Hnnessey). Nick got hurt in practice the other day. C.J. should be ready for camp, I don’t know about Nick. It’s unfortunate. On if Hawthorne had surgery: C.J. has had some surgery. As far as I’ve been told, he should be ready for camp. On what his expectations are for his players over the next month: Pretty much what we said earlier. We remind them that it’s a critical time of year, but they need to get some separation from us. We’re together a lot of the time and it can get old for them. They need to get away, they need to get some rest, they need to get some relaxation, but they need to stay right on top of all of the issues that are critical for them, that they need to compete when they come to camp. There’s their fitness and what they’ve learned here. They need to stay in their books; they need to stay fit to compete when they come back. They have a lot on their plates and we expect them to be ready. On if cutting practice short today was a bonus for the players: Not really. Sometimes I think one of the best periods in practice is the walk-thru, the learning. We slow it down, talk through certain things, talk about details, certain areas that you don’t have a lot of time to cover in detail at other times. We decided today would be a good day to do it. That’s what we did. We spent the whole time in special teams walk-thru, offense and defense walk-thru, situations. On if LB John DiGiorgio or WR James Hardy could be placed on the Physically Unable to Perform list for training camp: I would say that is a possibility.