Buffalo Bills Training Camp Transcript

Buffalo Bills Head Coach Rex Ryan
Saturday, August 22, 2015

Q: Who is starting at QB this week?

A: Dennis Shaw. Next question. No, we haven’t decided yet, we’re just going through practice, giving them all a lot of reps today, (Matt) Simms probably got more then all of them, but we obviously peeled the pads off our guys after we play a game, come back, and you know, beginning stages, but we’re rotating all three of those guys.

Q: You had a few guys come back from injury today including Fred (Jackson), can you comment on that?

A: Yeah, that was great we had Fred today, Sammy (Watkins) did individual, and then Kyle Williams looked like, he’s fine obviously, so yeah it’s good to start getting some of these guys back.

Q: What’s the status of Chris Hogan?
A: Well, I don’t know what the long term deal is, I still am really unsure about that, but I don’t think his availability for this week obviously I would say is highly doubtful.

Q: What about Jerome Felton?

A: Yeah, that doesn’t seem to be too big of a deal, at least to everybody else, but to him it probably is a big deal, but he’s going to be fine.

Q: Will (Chris) Hogan be back for the opener?
A: Yeah, I would think so. We’re cautiously optimistic.

Q: What about Percy (Harvin)?

A: Still cautiously optimistic. No, he’ll definitely be back for the opener. We’re hoping that he comes back and is able to play in one of these preseason games.

Q: How did Fred Jackson look today to you?

A: Looked pretty good. I was happy to see him; he was doing more than I thought he was going to do. I was kidding the other day, his twin brother was out here, and they’re identical twins, I was like,” You know what, Fred can’t play but you can play.” We’re thinking about doing that. But it was good to see him out there, heck he’s catching kicks, he’s doing everything, so I was really happy to see that.

Q: Is it a challenge for you that cuts are coming up and some of these new guys coming on due to injury still need to be evaluated? Or have you seen enough?
A: I mean, in an ideal world nobody would miss anything but, obviously we’ve been challenged with the injuries and things like that and unfortunately for some, they’ve been let go, had a couple waived injured or whatever but, it’s not what you wish upon anybody but, I feel pretty good. There’s going to be some really hard decisions that we have to make when we do get down to the final roster. And we said that from day one, we knew that was going to be, that we’d be letting some good players go.

Q: What do you think Red Bryant could add to this defense?

A: Well he’s huge, so I saw that from him. But we just threw him in there for a couple plays the other night, he hadn’t really played in a game for a long time or even practiced, so we just got him a couple plays, but he’ll definitely play much more this week.

Q: It seemed like you sprinkled him in with the first team today, is that right?

A: We just put him in there with some guys that probably know what they’re doing and then take him who’s brand new for ya and thinks,” that’s okay!”

Q: You mentioned earlier that you think you’ll keep three QB’s on the active roster?

A: Well, all three of them are playing really well so, we said from day one that we’d keep the best 53 in our opinion, and regardless of the position, but clearly you have three good quarterbacks, that’s a high, high possibility.

Q: How much does Matt Simms factor into that mix?
A: Well he so far hasn’t figured into it, it hasn’t played into that, but Matt’s going to play. Matt will probably play, I know he’s going to play the majority of the game, the last game against Detroit, and we’ll see if he gets in there against Pittsburgh.

Q: Can you say if you’re starting to put in some things for Indy?
A: Why would we put in things for Indy? You know, we’ve got Pittsburgh to play and that’s a vital, vital, preseason game.

Q: How do you think Tony Steward has been progressing?

A: Had by far and away his best game this past week, and he did a really good job on special teams as well and it’s tough, we’ve thrown a lot at this young man and we’re going to throw some more at him and have him play some mike also, which he doesn’t know about yet, but, it’s going to be good. So just when he gets here wired, you know what, you’re going to learn mike as well. So that will send him back several days I’m sure, but that’s what you do. In this league, when you’re a backup player, you’ve got to be able to fix a lot of holes and that’s what he has to understand that, you know, don’t feel too comfortable you got to make sure that you learn the defense.

Q: Do you think you will give Tony Steward any of Ty Powell’s responsibilities?
A: Well that’s it, that’s a great example of you better be prepared. A lot of times when you have 45 to dress, things like this happen, you got guys playing in different positions to finish games. So you got to be able to prepare your team that way.

Q: Did you see any of Marcell Dareus’ comments on his contract negotiation, and if so what did you make of those?
A: Well I made of it that he’s probably in pretty good position, I mean when you see what the numbers were and all that stuff. I might settle for those numbers but I’m not sure, I don’t play defensive tackle though. But you know what in that, obviously that’s his business and that’s his agents and our team and things like that. I stay out of the negotiating type stuff honestly.

Q: From a personal stand point how do you handle a player having some squabbles?
A: I probably handle things a little differently than most but I’ll just leave that internally.

Q: How’s Karlos Williams feeling?
A: He’s not ready to play today I can tell you that much. He looked like Fred Sanford walking into a meeting today. But other than that he’s fine. Like I said everybody tells me that he’s going to be ready to go when we kick the thing off for real.

Q: Where’s LeSean McCoy, here or in Buffalo?
A: Today I’m not real sure, but I’m cautiously optimistic for the season opener. That’s my line.

Q: With all these running backs out, is Greg Roman installing anything new?
A: Yeah, you go in there and you learn off a tape as well. Another’s doing it, you don’t have to do it yourself – ideally that would be better but you’re still learning off tape.

Q: How do you feel about your special teams guys?
A: I feel good. I’m a little disappointed I think that we’ve had too many penalties. So those things have been killing us, especially on our punt return. We got to do a better job of that, run by guys, in front of guys. We had too many guys right on the edge, in the back or whatever. We had a holding call that (Marcus) Thigpen had a huge return and quite honestly (Andre) Davis did a great job, he was blocking the guy down and then he just took him to ground when he never needed too. So we’ve got to learn from those things and I challenge the team that we’ve got to do a better job. We had too many penalties in that game and obviously that made the game much closer than maybe it had to be.

Q: When it comes to roster decisions, how much does injuries and guys not being able to play be considered when it comes to other guys possibly taking their spot?
A: It’s going to be individual, based on the individual. But that old saying it’s hard to make the club in the tub, I think that’s true however there’s some guys that with the body of work they’ve done…I don’t think Percy Harvin’s in any trouble not making the team.

Q: What is your position on keeping the kick off specialist?

A: Well you prefer not to, unless you got to be…you better have a really, really special guy…. He is pretty good. I mean he kicks almost a five second hang time on kick offs. You know he can, he launches them. So I think his percentage is probably higher than anybody’s in the league on touchbacks. In the same type of situation you know some guy can kick it off can kick it off in Colorado, I don’t know what their deal is but if our guy did it he would kick it out of the stadium probably. So he is very talented to say the least. But yeah you have to be special if you are going to keep somebody like that.

Q: Rex have the quarterbacks in this competition played better than expected?

A: No, I think they performed better than a lot of people anticipated but not me.

DT Marcell Dareus

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Q: A few days after the comments do you still stand strong there?

A: I mean we all know how I feel. I mean we all know how the team feels. I want to be apart of the Buffalo Bills. I want to be apart of the history that we are going to make here, but at the same time it is a business and we all have to go through negations just anybody else in any other career. So we just try to do what we can and try to move forward and we will get over that hill when we get there.

Q: You made comments like you were the odd man out do you still feel that way today?

A: Like I was saying. I want to be here but at the same time it is a business. People feel someway and at the same time we are going to get over that hill and we are going to make something happen and try and get a deal done.

Q: Did talks speed up?

A: It doesn’t happen overnight. A couple words are not going to make something change.

Q: Is the Ndamukong Suh number what you are eyeing here?

A: I am not necessarily looking at Suh’s numbers. I just wanted to be treated right just like everyone else.

Q: Do you have any idea when you want to get this thing done so you don’t have to think about it during the season?

A: I am here. I am already paid up for a year. I am a Buffalo Bill, I am a Buffalo Bill and I am going to be one until they tell me my time is up.

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