Inside The Bills

Chan on the radio

Bills head coach Chan Gailey will be on the radio Wednesday morning.

Gailey will appear on the Bills flagship station 97 Rock at 7:45 am. If you’re outside the listening area you can listen online at www.97rock.com.

Outlook for Merriman good

Bills OLB Shawne Merriman talked about his Achilles problem that had plagued him for the past year in a radio interview in Washington D.C. on 106.7 the FAN Tuesday morning. But the pass rusher also talked about how he and the Bills training staff believe they’ve rectified that injury problem.

Merriman said they don’t see it being an issue moving forward now that they’ve pinpointed what was causing the strained Achilles to be re-injured.

“I had an Achilles strain early on this year and it’s been kind of lingering for the past year,” he said. ”It’s been something that I haven’t been able to take care of and I lost a little bit of explosion because I haven’t been able to push off the thing. But I’ve seen a couple of people and got some help finally and figured out what the problem was. So now it’s just a time thing.

“I’m grateful to be out there with the Buffalo training staff. They really helped me out with this thing because they brought a lot of things to my attention that I didn’t know for the past year. I’m waiting to be that guy that’s going to go out there and make plays because Buffalo is going to need me to do that come around September.”

If Merriman is able to successfully recover and put the Achilles problem behind him, Buffalo may have made one of the better investments available for a pass rush.

Merriman on decision to sign

For the first time since re-signing with the Bills over the weekend, Shawne Merriman addressed that decision among other things while appearing on 106.7 FM the FAN in Washington D.C. this morning.

Merriman was up front about being reluctant to join the Bills, but explained that once he got to One Bills Drive his whole outlook changed.

“Of course if you have your chance, your choice to pick a team you wouldn’t want to go to a team that’s 0-8 at the time,” said Merriman of being claimed off waivers by Buffalo. ”That’s just typical for anyone that wants to win football game. I really don’t like losing so it wasn’t my first choice to go there. Obviously I knew Buddy Nix. I have a great relationship with Buddy Nix. I knew a couple of guys on the team. From the outside looking in being in San Diego you didn’t have a chance to see a lot of their games.  You’re looking at their stats and looking at their record you think the team is really out there getting blown out. And that’s not the case.

“When you get a chance to be out there and you’re around the guys and around the organization it’s a totally different story. This is a team that’s going to go out there each and every day and fight their a** off. That’s one thing I loved about it. They were in just about every game this year.

“There were one or two games where they just lost the game and they were just flat out beat. But the rest of the games they were in it. They probably were a couple of guys away at the time from competing in the division. My whole mentality changed when I got out there. These are guys that I love being around that are going to go out there and lay it out on the line. They’re probably a few guys away from going out there and tearing some things up. So I told them I wanted to be a part of it and it changed my mentality toward the team very quick.”

Bills ink future free agents

The Bills have signed a pair of future free agents.

LB Jammie Kirlew and OL Jason Watkins who spent the 2010 season on their practice squad were signed to future free agent contracts for 2011.

Kirlew (6’3″ 260) was signed to the Bills practice squad on Nov. 23rd, where he remained for the remainder of the season. Watkins has been with the club since 2009 when he was first signed as an undrafted rookie. Watkins has spent each of the past two seasons on Buffalo’s practice squad seeing time at tackle and guard.

Report: Miami, Harbaugh talk

NFL Network reporter Jason LaCanfora is reporting that the Dolphins and Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh had talks this past week with Harbaugh and his college team in Florida this past week for their bowl game.

Here’s LaCanfora’s most recent comment on his report via his twitter account.

Jason LaCanfora Dolphins have had contact with Jim Harbaugh, who was in Florida last week for Orange Bowl. Continue to hear this could happen. More ahead

The interesting situation concerning the Dolphins is they still have a head coach in Tony Sparano, though that’s considered to be a tenuous situation at best right now. The San Francisco 49ers have also been reported to be interested in Harbaugh as a head coaching candidate. It’s believed that if Harbaugh does leave Stanford it could change QB Andrew Luck’s leanings, which right now are to return to Stanford for his senior season.

12 unexpected results

Chan Gailey was asked about what took place in his first season with the Bills that was unexpected. Buffalo’s head coach had a pretty straightforward answer.

“Four things went as I expected. Twelve went as I didn’t expect,” he said in reference to his team’s 4-12 record. ”That’s kind of the bottom line, and we’re a bottom line business. There are some other things that are positives. There are some other things that are negatives but we’re a bottom line business.”

Gailey showed in year one that he’s a no-nonsense head coach that gives it to his players and the media straight, no matter what the subject matter concerning his team. He and his staff laid a foundation in year one. Still he’s far from satisfied with the won-loss results, which is why he was anything but thrilled to have the third overall pick in the draft.

“I didn’t want it this year, by the way,” he said. ”But that’s the way it ended up and you deal with what happens. We should get another very good player at that pick. You always look forward to infusing your football team with good athletes, good players, hopefully future stars. That’s what you hope.”

Surgery for Howard

Since most of Buffalo’s players in need of surgery had their procedures performed prior to the end of the season, the Bills do not have many players headed for offseason surgery. One offensive lineman however, will need some work done.

Rookie Cordaro Howard, who played through a painful shoulder injury up until the last two weeks of the season when he was placed on injured reserve will have shoulder surgery according to Chan Gailey.

Howard, an undrafted rookie, started four games as a rookie including three at right tackle and offers promising depth on Buffalo’s offensive line heading into 2011.

Evans future

Lee Evans, who had his season cut short by an ankle injury from which he’ll fully recover, is considered by some outside the organization as expendable in light of the emergence of several other receivers on the roster this season. Head coach Chan Gailey doesn’t see it that way.

When asked if he could see Evans not on this roster in 2011, Gailey didn’t see that being the case, but he did not completely rule it out.

“Well I doubt it,” said Gailey. ”But I’m not gonna say anything’s impossible. But when you look at it, to me that group that you mentioned, including Lee Evans, gives us a quality receiving corps going into the season. It’s going to be hard for, if all those guys stay healthy and all of them do what we expect them to do the advantage is they can’t lock in on any one guy.

“The disadvantage is nobody’s going to have any great stats because the ball’s going to be spread around. That’s what happened. They go over and double cover Lee the first half of the season so the other side gets all the catches. That’s kind of what happened. I don’t know how it’s going to work out next year. I just know it’s a much better position we’re walking into this year than we were walking into last year ona lot of spots on the offensive side of the ball.”

Perhaps the reason Gailey is leaving the door open by saying “nothing is impossible”, is because wide receiver has suddenly become the deepest offensive position on the roster with all the young wideouts emerging. Add in the fact that Marcus Easley returns healthy for 2011 and the thinking could be that with so many holes to be filled on the roster at other positions, perhaps dealing from a position of strength could help the team fill a need somewhere else.

I don’t see that coming to fruition, but it would be tough to say anything is certain with a team that still has a lot of roster shaping to do.

Bills ‘D’ to be multiple

Season one under Chan Gailey was going to be one of transition, particularly on the defensive side of the ball where the transition to the 3-4 was going to be a significant undertaking. So much so that Gailey and defensive coordinator George Edwards knew that a hybrid form of the 3-4 would likely take shape knowing there was personnel still on the roster that had been entrenched in a 4-3 system. Now after witnessing a transition that proved more difficult than most anticipated, Gailey is leaning toward being a hybrid defense permanently.

“There are a lot of people that are called 3-4 fronts,” said Gailey in his season wrap up press conference Monday. ”I think we’ll probably end up being a true multiple front team instead of a true 3-4 team just because our personnel dictates that. I think we’re probably a little bit better suited. I’ve not talked to the defensive staff about this, but just looking at it on the surface right now, I’d probably say we’re going to be multiple front rather than a Kansas City which sits in 3-4 no matter what, or Cleveland which sits in 3-4 no matter what. I don’t see us being that team. I see us being more of a multiple team.”

After finishing last in the league in run defense, and a handful of players performing in the multiple fronts once the Bills played their heavier four man front more often, it appears that being able to have both defensive looks at their disposal is seen as an advantage by Gailey going into 2011.

Whitner’s exit

Bills free agent safety to be Donte Whitner was nowhere to be found during locker clean out at One Bills Drive Monday. The former first-round pick looked to be long gone with his locker completely bare including his name plate at the top, which was disappointing to see as far as his head coach was concerned.

“Tenuous would be a word you could use there,” said Chan Gailey when asked about Whitner’s future with the organization. “I didn’t realize that until I was told that a few minutes ago that that had happened. He’s a really good player. You’d love to have him on your football team, but we’re in a business where that doesn’t happen every time. We’ll wait and see what happens.”

When asked Whitner’s apparent intentions to exit quickly Gailey said the following.

“You don’t what kind of advice these guys get,” he said.

Here was Whitner’s bare locker late this morning. It’s the one on the left.

Maybin’s standing “tenuous”

Bills OLB Aaron Maybin was not happy that he couldn’t contribute more and is determined to do better in 2011. According to head coach Chan Gailey, Maybin doesn’t have a lot of time left to convince the coaching staff that he can make more of an impact.

“Right now he’s on the outside looking in,” said Gailey. ”That’s where he is. If he improves, he’ll improve his status. But if he doesn’t improve his status he won’t find playing time on this football team.”

When asked if it would be fair to characterize Maybin’s place on the team as tenuous, Gailey offered the following.

“Yes, that would be fair to say,” said Gailey.

Maybin meanwhile sounds determined to turn his young career around after seeing limited action in 10 games this season.

“As far as my role on the team this year in my mind I didn’t have a prominent (season),” he said. ”My whole issue is until I can say something other than that, my focus needs to be getting to the point where I’m a major contributor. At the end of the day all else really doesn’t matter. Getting on the field, getting the snaps and making sure the production is there once I get the snaps is the main goal.”

Update on Fitz’s knee

Ryan Fitzpatrick’s knee injury, which kept him out of the season finale Sunday, is fortunately not going to require surgery. Fitzpatrick provided an update on his prognosis.

“As of right now it’s just going to be rest and hopefully it will get better with time,” he said. ”I’ll probably go and get another look at it just to see how it’s doing and what the issue really is. But as of right now it’s just going to be time, no surgery or anything.”

Fitz’s beard is history

Ryan Fitzpatrick said all along that when the season was over his Civil war era beard would be sheared. True to his word, Fitzpatrick made his way to a local barber shop following locker clean out at One Bills Drive.

Here is Fitz right after the deed was done with the barber that gave him the shave a short time ago. Jon Corto took Fitz to his uncle’s barber shop. Looks like a different guy. Somewhere his wife Liza is celebrating.

Whitner emotional

Bills SS Donte Whitner was emotional after the season finale Sunday. The loss was bad enough, but the uncertainty of his playing future was already affecting him.

“It was really emotional even before we got to the stadium,” said Whitner. ”I love these guys in this locker room, and I love this staff.  This is the only place I’ve ever been.  I’ve spent more time with these guys than I have with my actual family, so it makes it tough.  It all comes down to the emotional side of the game. We don’t know where were going, but like I said, I would like to be back here.  Now it is the off season, so we will see what happens.”

Whitner is a player that is passionate about the game and wears his heart on his sleeve. It was evident to those that interviewed him after Sunday’s season ending loss.

Poz would like to stay a Bill

As the 2010 season came to a close on Sunday the focus shifted to the impending offseason and some of the Bills more notable free agents, namely Paul Psoluszny.

Poz was asked about his thoughts as he enters an offseason minus a new contract.

“That’s a good question,” Posluszny said. “I don’t know. I would like to stay in Buffalo and see this thing through, but that’s up to Buddy Nix and Coach Gailey and I’ll see if they want me to be a part of this thing or not.”

Players have their exit physicals Monday morning and in all likelihood their exit interviews with the coaching staff. It’s then that Poz may get a better handle on his future.

Bills 2011 opponents

The Bills list of 2011 opponents is set. Here’s the list of home and away opponents.

HOME
Denver, Oakland, Philadelphia, Washington, Tennessee, Miami, New England, NY Jets

AWAY
Kansas City, San Diego, Dallas, NY Giants, Cincinnati, Miami, New England, NY Jets

Bills will have 3rd overall pick

Thanks to the Colts, Chargers and Texans the Bills will have the third overall pick in the 2011 NFL draft.

Carolina had the top pick sewn up. Denver was locked into the 2nd overall pick after their loss to San Diego. That left Buffalo and Cincinnati tied with 4-11records to fight for the third overall pick.

Using reverse strength of schedule Buffalo needed Jacksonville to lose to Houston, and San Diego and Indianapolis to both win to give Cincinnati the stronger strength of schedule.

All of those things happened meaning Buffalo’s opponents had a total of 148 wins, while Cincinnati’s opponents had 149 wins.

So the Bills will have their highest draft choice since they made Bruce Smith the 1st overall pick in 1985.

Cincinnati will pick 4th.

Jets run too much

The NY Jets ran 66 offensive plays in Sunday’s win over the Bills. On 50 of those plays they ran the ball.

Fifty rushes is the most the Bills have faced in a game since Nov. 15, 1993 when the Steelers rushed 50 times against Buffalo.

The Jets totaled 276 rushing yards, which is the most since the same Jets team rushed for 318 against them last October.

Jets had answer for empty

Whenever the Bills went with an empty backfield early the Jets had an answer.

New York would sent six pass rushers when they saw Buffalo go five wide and more often than not they got to Brian Brohm forcing a pair of turnovers.

“It was something we noticed early was any time we went to empty they were going to bring the extra guy that we couldn’t block,” said Fred Jackson. ”We had to be aware of where the hot was and try to get it to him and we weren’t successful at that today. You’ve got to give them credit they made the plays.”

Brian Brohm faulted himself for not getting the ball out quick enough as in one such instance his throwing arm was hit as he tried to pass sending the ball straight up in the air before it was intercepted and returned for a touchdown.

“They’re a good team,” said Brohm. ”Obviously they’re going to the playoffs, but it also falls on us to get the job done, get the guys blocked, get the ball out of my hand and make sure it doesn’t happen.”

What Brohm has to show

Brian Brohm makes his second career start today against the Jets and first under Chan Gailey. Suffice to say his head coach will be looking for progress from Brohm from his preseason play.

“I hope so,” said Gailey when asked if he expects progress from his backup quarterback. ”I don’t know if that’s unrealistic or not. He hasn’t had a rep in a game. It’s hard to say, ‘Yeah I expect to see a huge amount of progress.’ I hope to see progress. I hope to see how much he has been able to get via osmosis of standing there, sitting in the meetings, taking some reps in practice. It’ll be interesting to see.

“That’s the question mark that everybody has right now. I’m not sure anybody knows. He’s got a good arm. He’s got a good head on his shoulders. He’s made some good throws in practice, but I think we’re all waiting to see what it’s like in a game and can he go out (and do it). He’s had practice all week so that’s been a plus for him.”

If Brohm can put a solid game together it figures to go a long way in determining his future with the Bills as his contract is up after this season. With no new CBA in place, it’s uncertain, but he’ll most likely be a restricted free agent this offseason.

When asked about his future, Brohm chose to worry only about the Jets.

“I’m really not thinking about next year,” he said. ”I’m just thinking about this game.”