The Buffalo News - Bills

Manuel learning as he goes

Tue, 21 May 2013 23:25:21 -0400

Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett is focused on teaching EJ Manuel proper footwork as a big first step in getting the team’s prized rookie quarterback ready for the NFL.

Manuel needs to match his steps in the pocket to the pass routes the receivers are running as he learns the Bills’ new offense.

“Footwork is tied into everything,” Hackett said after the Bills’ spring practice Tuesday. “Everything is within your footwork. It’s a very big learning process. For us, we use our footwork, we use our progression, and we move up in the pocket.”

The Bills’ offense, like many in the NFL, is rooted in West Coast offense principles. That means there are a lot of three- and five-step drop backs by the quarterback, who needs to get the ball out of his hands quickly and on rhythm to give the receiver a chance to run after the catch. The pass routes stretch the field horizontally as well as vertically. The quarterback goes through a progression across the field in identifying where to throw the ball, and his feet are moving in the pocket as he scans the field for an open man.

“It’s all predicated on the pass concept, just pairing the footwork with the passing play,” Manuel said.

At Florida State, Manuel had a lot of plays in which he had to read only half the field as he stood in the pocket or rolled out in the direction the play was going. It’s not that Manuel wasn’t taught fundamentals. He worked from under center a lot at Florida State and employed pro-style drop backs. Some college quarterbacks in spread offenses use mostly rocker-steps, not real drop backs, after they get a shotgun snap. The Bills don’t have to teach Manuel from scratch. But Manuel now has to adopt the rhythm and footwork Hackett wants as he scans the full field for receivers.

“It’s been fun to watch him come along, especially when he was first here, he was kind of a drop back and stand there,” Hackett said. “Now there’s a little more rhythm to it. You see him stepping up, working up and making plays. Those are things he’s got to get used to, things we ask him to do here.”

Hackett also has changed the way Manuel moves the ball as he’s dropping back. Manuel is putting his hands on the ball the same way he always has done, but Hackett wants his quarterback to be more comfortable. Instead of consciously holding the ball toward the left side of his chest as he’s dropping back, he’s now allowing the ball to rock back and forth a bit.

“It’s not my hand placement, it’s moreso where I place the ball in my drop,” Manuel said. “So now I’m going breast to breast, instead of in college I was holding it in one spot when I was dropping. So now it’s a little more fluid in my drop.”

It’s something Hackett saw watching film. “It was a big question I had,” Hackett said.

The emphasis is on Manuel feeling instinctive, not trying to teach him some new, unnatural way to carry the ball.

“I think for a quarterback, they have to be comfortable back there to be able to step up into the pocket,” Hackett said. “They have to be able to move. If you force anything on them, you can’t do that because now they’re thinking about holding the ball instead of everything else. Just go back there and be calm, cool, collected and go to work.”

Hackett doesn’t have to worry about the throwing motion of the 6-foot-5 Manuel. The 23-year-old has hands that are 10≤ inches from thumb to pinky finger. (The hand sizes of last year’s top NFL rookies: Andrew Luck 10 inches, Robert Griffin III 9½ inches and Russell Wilson 10œ inches.) The ball spins out of Manuel’s grip nicely, and his release is quick.

“His arm strength, it’s effortless to throw the ball,” Hackett said. “So it’s exciting to see him and try to develop him into an even better quarterback.”

Manuel has shown some touch to go along with a big arm. On Tuesday, he hit rookie receiver Da’Rick Rogers on a pretty touch pass, dropping the ball over Rogers’ shoulder 35 yards downfield. Rogers had burned the coverage and made the catch in perfect stride.

“I taught him that,” Hackett said, tongue firmly planted in cheek. “That was all me.”

...

Bills receiver Stevie Johnson participated in individual drills for the first time in voluntary offseason workouts. He has been sitting out because of a lower back injury.

“It definitely feels good to just be out there on the field, even through the little pains I have,” Johnson said. “It’s getting better every week. They gave me a six- to eight-week thing to even get on the field, and it’s only been about three, so I feel good.”

Besides safety Jairus Byrd, who is unsigned, two other veterans have not yet appeared at the voluntary organized team activity workouts. They are defensive tackle Alan Branch and linebacker Manny Lawson, both unrestricted free-agent acquisitions.

“They have things going on personally, and good situations for them, where they have to be supportive of their families,” coach Doug Marrone said this week. “Again it is a situation where these workouts are voluntary.”

email: mgaughan@buffnews.com

Serious issue is straight out of left field

Mon, 20 May 2013 23:59:37 -0400

Over his eight-year NFL career, Mario Williams has showed up on the injury report for problems with his foot, knee, thumb, elbow, groin, hip, shoulder and pectoral muscle. He was shut down one year with an inflamed hernia. Once, he was listed on the weekly report for general illness.

As Williams’ critics in Houston told me after he signed here, it’s always something with the guy. But I never could have imagined that the Bills’ $100 million defensive end would have to refute reports of mental illness.

That was the case Monday afternoon, though. An hour after the team’s voluntary workout at One Bills Drive, Williams spent 10 minutes assuring the media that he had never contemplated suicide or abused painkillers, as his ex-fiancee suggested in a series of texts made public by her lawyer last Friday.

“I mean, have you seen the notion of me needing any kind of help?” Williams said when asked about the texts. “Well, I am kind of off the wall sometimes. But other than that, no.”

I reminded Williams that suicidal people often give no outward signs of their inner anguish. And the experts say that outside parties should always take it seriously when someone expresses suicidal thoughts.

“Yeah, but in my situation, I’m completely fine,” Williams said. “I’ve never had any inclination of anything that even myself would notice.”

Williams didn’t deny anything that was revealed in the messages to his ex-fiancee, Erin Marzoucki, whose lawyers retrieved the texts forensically from her cell phone. In one of them, Williams told Marzouki he had taken three hydrocodone before the game in New England last Nov. 11.

Marzouki and her lawyer, Tony Buzbee, claim that Williams was despondent over the couple’s breakup and wrote, “there’s no telling what I’ll do to myself.”

Williams said the painkillers he has taken were prescribed solely by the Bills. He pointed out that he’s a big man and can require unusual doses of medication to relieve the pain. If he talked about killing himself, it was in the heat of the moment, in a conversation he assumed would stay private.

That changed when Williams sued Marzouki in an attempt to retrieve a $785,000 engagement ring. Not surprisingly, things turned ugly at that point. Buzbee said Williams was foolish enough to “kick ant hill,” and said you know what happens when you disrupt the ants.

“I’ve made it known, this is just going to get bad,” Williams said. “Neither of us want that, but you get what you ask for.”

That cuts both ways. Look, I can’t imagine what it’s like to buy a woman a $785,000 ring and have the relationship turn sour. I don’t know who ended it. But Williams might have been wiser to let Marzouki keep the ring and write it off as a bad investment, sparing himself this embarrassment.

Really, was it worth it to have his ex-fiancee retrieve old text messages that made Williams come off as some pathetic, self-indulgent baby? Evidently, he thinks so.

“I’m not going to say I’m excited,” Williams said, “but actually I feel a lot better that this is coming out. I’m not talking about the words or the things taken out of context, but I’m glad to see someone’s true colors and their character come out now, rather than later.”

It’s hard to feel much sympathy for either party in this situation. If you’re going to feel sorry for anyone, feel sorry for the Bills, who made Williams the highest-paid defensive player in NFL history last year and got a dubious return for their investment in his first season in Buffalo.

Almost from the start of his Bills career, Williams has struck me as a fragile character, both physically and emotionally. When he got outplayed by an obscure Jets tackle in his debut as a Bill, he began his postgame remarks by accusing Austin Howard of cheap tactics and whining about the officiating.

Williams used his wrist injury as an excuse for his poor play early last season, even though the team didn’t think it was serious enough to put on the injury report. After Seattle shredded the defense in Toronto, he deflected blame to his teammates and coaches. Hey, he was only one of 11 players.

During times of crisis, he never pointed the finger at himself and said, “It’s on me,” as a gesture to his teammates. So it’s not hard to imagine that, at a difficult moment in his personal life, Williams could have fired off messages that essentially said, “Feel sorry for me.” He comes off as a spoiled athlete with a huge sense of entitlement.

The NFL is understandably sensitive about mental health issues. A number of former players have committed suicide, including Junior Seau. Last season the Chiefs’ Jovan Belcher murdered his girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, and then killed himself.

So until Williams spoke publicly, the Bills and media were treating his situation as a potential mental health issue. Coach Doug Marrone spoke about the programs and support systems that the NFL has put in place to help players with emotional difficulties.

Williams assured us it was a tactic on the part of his ex-fiancee and her lawyer, Buzbee.

“If he wanted to fight and get in the ring, we could do that,” Williams said. “But we’re fighting words.”

A war of words over a failed romance isn’t what the Bills need right now. Surely, they don’t want their highest-paid player distracted by a lawsuit over an engagement ring.

“I was told a couple of weeks ago, this is a season for revealing,” he said. “The lawyer is a direct extension of her. So I’m glad it happened now.”

Williams says it won’t be a distraction.

He seemed combative and relieved by the opportunity to answer back at his ex-fiancee.

Healthy and unburdened by personal drama, he wants to be the player Bills fans expected next season. It would be great to see.

I’m just skeptical enough to wonder what the issue will be next.

email: jsullivan@buffnews.com

Mario: Texts taken out of context

Tue, 21 May 2013 00:52:27 -0400

Buffalo Bills star Mario Williams denied Monday he ever has had suicidal thoughts and said any pain-killers he took last season were prescribed and dispensed by the team’s medical staff.

Williams also gave no indication that he’s ready to give up on his court battle to win back possession of a ring worth $785,000 from Erin Marzouki, his former fiance.

The Bills’ defensive end spoke for almost 10 minutes after practice about the latest back-and-forth developments in the suit, which he filed earlier this month in Harris County Court in Houston.

The lawyer for Marzouki on Friday released a series of text messages allegedly from Williams to Marzouki and sent Nov. 11, the day the Bills played the New England Patriots in Foxborough, Mass. Among them:

• “I took 3 hydrocodones this morning and no one knows. I’m going to take 2 more on the plane and fade away.”

• “No money in the world should leave me with suicidal thoughts.” And: “I need to go back n my shell. There’s no telling what Ill do to myself at this point. I’m sry Ill disappear from now on.”

Williams did not deny he sent the texts, made public by Houston-based lawyer, Tony Buzbee. Williams called the texts “blown out of proportion” and “completely out of context.”

Regarding suicidal thoughts, Williams said: “In my situation, I’m completely fine. I’ve never had any inclination of anything that even myself would notice.”

Never in moment of anger did you suggest you might kill yourself, he was asked? “In a moment of anger, I talk about everything, I tell you that,” he said. “And I don’t know who would say they don’t. So that answers your question.”

Asked again later on if he had suicidal thoughts, Williams said: “No, no, no. Like I said, in the heat of battle, in the heat of ups and downs, things like that, you just come to somebody who you think you can just vent to, and whatever comes out comes out.

“I think that’s just a way of venting out, but obviously that’s the wrong person to vent to,” Williams said of Marzouki. “It’s just something that I wouldn’t tell anybody else – as far as venting – than the person you love or whatnot at the time.”

Regarding the use of hydrocodone, the 6-foot-2, 292-pound Williams said: “Anything I take is 100 percent prescribed and given from here. And in case you didn’t know, I’m a big person.”

Hydrocodone is a pain-reliever classified as a narcotic. Williams said he was given the medication for a painful wrist injury that he dealt with all last season. He had surgery on the wrist last October but did not miss any games.

“The whole situation happened with my wrist last year; obviously I was under a lot of pain,” he said. “I couldn’t even do a push-up or anything like that. So imagine going against somebody my size every play and battling with your hands. Yeah, I mean, the pain pills were directed from here.

“Everything you get, I get it through here and you take it as you’re supposed to take it,” he said of medication from the Bills’ doctors. “I think if you were to ask any football player or anybody who goes through injuries and stuff like that, sometimes one, two, three, it all depends on the person.”

Regarding the amount of pain medication a man his size requires, Williams referred to surgery he had in 2011 while playing for the Houston Texans to repair a torn pectoral muscle.

“I remember when I had my pec surgery, I think they had to bring in a whole ‘nother morphine machine for me,” he said. “Because stuff like that doesn’t hit me, it doesn’t affect me as far as helping out. It varies on what it is and how it is.”

In his lawsuit, Williams accused Marzouki of breaking off the engagement in January. He alleged that she never had any intention of marrying him and accused her of using their relationship as a way to get money.

Williams’ contract with the Bills – worth $100 million over six years – is the highest for a defensive player in NFL history.

As a former No. 1 overall pick in the draft, Williams was among the higher paid players in the league for six years in Houston, too. To date, he has made about $87 million in salary, before taxes.

Marzouki filed a countersuit alleging that Williams repeatedly broke up with her only to reconcile during their 10-month engagement and told her to keep the 10.04-carat ring after their final split.

A court-encouraged session to mediate the dispute between Williams and Marzouki was held Friday in Houston but proved unsuccessful. Buzbee said he filed a request to examine Williams’ cell phone, a standard part of discovery in such a case. Williams has 30 days to surrender the phone.

Buzbee told The News he released the text messages to provide a glimpse into Williams’ behavioral state when it came to his relationship with Marzouki.

“He vacillates between periods of deep lows and being very high on life,” Buzbee said. “During those low periods, he doesn’t want to be in the relationship. I feel like this is a soap opera, but this is the life he lives.

“People say, ‘She should give the ring back.’ You don’t stay with somebody for over five years and put them through all that turmoil he put her through and then file a public pleading, calling her a thief and think she’s just going to roll over.

“Our effort is not to embarrass him,” he added. “It’s to defend ourselves.”

Williams sees it differently.

“I never wanted it in the first place,” he said. “This is all the request of the other party that wanted to initiate all this. I’ve made it known this is just going to get bad, and neither one of us, you know, wants that. But you get what you ask for. But in my situation, my skin is unbreakable. It could be something next week, I really don’t care,”

Pointing to the Bills’ symbol on the team’s fieldhouse turf, Williams said: “This is all that matters to me – and that logo.”

News sports reporter Tim Graham contributed to this story.

email: mgaughan@buffnews.com

Woods, Manuel make connection

Mon, 20 May 2013 23:51:41 -0400

If the budding chemistry between EJ Manuel and Robert Woods blossoms into something beautiful for the Buffalo Bills, they can give part of the thanks to ... the New York Jets.

It was on a pre-draft visit to the Bills’ AFC East rivals that Manuel and Woods initially bonded.

“We were able to hang out pretty much the whole day or two days,” Manuel said. “It’s just crazy that we ended up on the same team, so instantly we texted each other and we were happy about it.”

Woods said he and Manuel spent plenty of time on that New York visit comparing their two collegiate programs, USC and Florida State. They’re in the same playbook now, and wasted very little time showing it.

Woods was a favorite target of Manuel during the team’s recent rookie minicamp.

“He always seemed to be open and ran great routes,” Manuel said of Woods after one of the practices. “You want to get the playmakers the ball.”

There weren’t many receivers in the draft with as much playmaking ability as Woods. His 32 career receiving touchdowns were the most of any wideout drafted in the first two rounds last month – and Woods left school a year early.

“I definitely weighed my options and figured this was the best decision for me,” he said of leaving school early, adding his decision was not influenced by the fact quarterback Matt Barkley graduated. “I’m pretty confident with our quarterbacks we have there, Max Wittek and Cody Kessler. It had nothing to do with the quarterback. I felt confident in both. It was the best decision for me and my family. They always say this doesn’t last forever, so I might as well get it while I can. I can still do school at the same time.”

Woods, who became the seventh of the Bills’ eight draft picks to sign his rookie contract Monday, has two semesters left in his pursuit of a degree in policies, planning and development. His four-year contract is expected to be worth about $4.8 million.

He missed last week’s organized team activities as USC’s class did not graduate until Friday, but was back Monday for his first workout with the full team.

“It felt good to be back on the field, but it was a lot more fast-paced on the field with the vets than it was at rookie camp,” Woods told the team’s official website, buffalobills.com, after the practice. “No huddle, a lot of fast-paced offense, conditioning and everything. ... It’s fun to be with the guys again.”

Woods is penciled in as the team’s No. 2 receiver behind established veteran Stevie Johnson.

“I do have a great opportunity, but I know these guys who have been here are not going to let it come easy,” Woods said. “There’s three to four receiver positions, one is pretty much locked up. Right now it’s just competing. We’re all competing for that same two or three spots.”

Woods bring a polished reputation into the NFL.

He started each of his 38 games for the Trojans and set a program record with 252 catches for 2,930 yards – sixth most in school history – and eclipsed 100 receiving yards in 10 games.

He’s quick to point out, however, that all that production doesn’t amount to anything now that he’s collecting a paycheck for playing.

“That’s at the college level. This is a new start, new beginning, but I’m trying to bring that with me, translate it to this level and compete against the top guys here,” he said.

Rookie receivers traditionally have a difficult time adjusting to the NFL level compared to other rookies, but Woods is hoping to buck that trend.

“It’s all up to the receiver, I would say. I’m fortunate to come from an offense where it’s quite similar,” he said. “I think that helps me play fast and adapt to the whole offense and really be more comfortable in this system.”

Woods certainly sets the bar high when modeling his game after those who have come before him – naming Jerry Rice and Reggie Wayne as his role models.

“My past coaches were in Oakland and in contact with Jerry somehow so they all have a lot of his film, which is fortunate for me because I got to see how he works. So I try and put that in my game,” he said.

...

Free agent running back Montell Owens visited practice Monday.

A two-time Pro Bowl selection as a special teams player with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Owens started four games last season in place of the injured Maurice Jones-Drew.

The eight-year veteran had 209 yards and a touchdown on 42 carries in 2012 after getting just 18 touches in his first six years.

Owens made the Pro Bowl in 2010 and 2011 and holds the Jags’ record for special teams tackles (118).

email: jskurski@buffnews.com

Ex-Jags RB Montell Owens at Bills practice today

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:43:20 -0400

By Tim Graham

Looks like former Jacksonville Jaguars running back Montell Owens, a two-time special-teams Pro Bowler, might be on the verge of joining the Buffalo Bills.

Owens, wearing Bills team-issued shorts, spent this morning watching practice at One Bills Drive.

The Bills have not made an announcement about an Owens signing. He does not appear on the updated roster as of the time of this posting.

Owens played both halfback and fullback for the Jaguars. The eighth-year pro started his first four NFL games last season with Maurice Jones-Drew sidelined by a foot injury. Owens had 209 yards and a touchdown on 42 carries. He had only 18 touches in his first six seasons.

He was selected for the Pro Bowl in 2010 and 2011 and holds Jacksonville's club record with 118 special-teams tackles.

(Photo: Harry Scull Jr./Buffalo News)

Williams denies suicidal thoughts, but not texts

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:30:43 -0400

By Tim Graham

Mario Williams emitted a sigh when he stepped to the lectern at One Bills Drive this afternoon and then answered every question asked about an unbecoming feud with his ex-fiancee.

Williams didn't deny he sent texts her lawyer made public Friday, but insisted he never has had suicidal thoughts and takes only medications prescribed by and dispensed by the Buffalo Bills.

"It's blown out of proportion," Williams said. "It's completely out of context."

Erin Marzouki's attorney, Tony Buzbee, released a series of texts allegedly from Williams to Marzouki. In the texts, Williams told her he was taking narcotics without anyone's knowledge and suggested he was having suicidal thoughts.

Williams expressed anger at Marzouki for revealing intimate texts he believed would remain confidential.

"Me texting somebody something, especially in a situation that it was then, I think that's just a way of venting out," Williams said. "But, obviously, that's the wrong person to vent to."

Asked specifically about references to suicide in his texts to Marzouki, Williams replied, "In a moment of anger I'll talk about anything."

Williams was pressed on whether he ever has had suicidal thoughts.

"No," Williams said. "In the heat of battle, in the heat of ups and downs, things like that, you just come to somebody who you think you can just vent to, and whatever comes out, comes out.

"That's how you're comfortable with somebody at the time. You can say anything. ... This is something I wouldn't tell anybody else other than the person you love."

Buzbee told The Buffalo News on Sunday that Marzouki did not save the texts, that the law firm retrieved them from her cell phone forensically to defend his client against allegations made by Williams in a lawsuit over a $785,000 engagement ring.

In the texts, Williams allegedly told Marzouki he had taken three hydrocodone pills with no one's knowledge the morning of the Nov. 11 game against the New England Patriots and that he would take two more on the plane ride back to Buffalo.

"Anything I take is 100 percent prescribed, given from here," Williams said today at One Bills Drive. He added the pills were to help him cope with wrist surgery he underwent nearly three weeks earlier.

Hydrocodone is a highly addictive narcotic used to treat pain. Williams claimed he has a high tolerance for drugs and that when he had pectoral surgery with the Houston Texans, doctors "had to bring in a whole another morphine machine for me."

Williams also said he never has failed a drug test, then knocked on the wooden lectern. He claimed he never has gone to therapy.

"I've made it known, this is just going to get bad," Williams said of the ugliness initiated by his lawsuit. "Neither of us want that, but you get what you ask for.

"But in my situation, my skin is unbreakable. There can be something next week. I really don't care. This is all that matters to me and that logo."

QB gurus in vogue

Sun, 19 May 2013 14:03:58 -0400

EJ Manuel had one clear goal in mind as he started his preparations for the 2013 NFL Draft.

He believed he was the best quarterback available, and very much wanted to be the first one selected.

To get there, Manuel did what so many of the elite quarterbacks at every level of the sport – high school, college and the pros – now do, and employed his own positional coach.

For four months, Manuel went through intensive one-on-one training in Boca Raton, Fla., with Ken Mastrole, owner of the Mastrole Passing Academy.

The training paid off when the Buffalo Bills made Manuel the first, and only, quarterback to be drafted in the first round, using the 16th overall selection on the Florida State product last month.

“It was huge,” Manuel said of his apprenticeship. “Ken and I really set a goal when we first met. We wanted to accomplish a lot of things. Thankfully we did.”

Manuel believes his steady rise up draft boards was due in large part to the work he put in with Mastrole during the pre-draft process.

“We anticipated every drill I’d be doing at the combine or the Senior Bowl,” Manuel said.

That emphasis on position-specific training — especially at the quarterback position — continues to grow. With each success story like Manuel’s, more and more young quarterbacks are turning to “gurus” like Mastrole in hopes of landing a college scholarship or professional career.

It hasn’t always been like that.Take Bills coach Doug Marrone, for example. He considered himself a pretty good baseball player as a youngster growing up in the Bronx. He didn’t have the benefit of a pitching coach or hitting coach, just one Little League coach.

“He picked us all up in a station wagon,” Marrone said. “We all went to a batting cage. We all went out and practiced. We all walked down to the field. I think everyone can relate to that.”

Everyone from a certain generation, that is. Marrone shared the story of his 9-year-old son, who’s in Little League now.

“He has a pitching coach, a hitting coach and a baseball coach. I struggle a little bit with that, personally,” the coach said. “I think that’s what we’re seeing now. You see that at a Little League level. Kickers have been doing it for quite some time. Quarterbacks are doing it. Offensive linemen are going and training with people. I think you see a lot of people doing that.”

As a parent, Marrone wonders if it’s all worth it.

“My wife and I, we argue about this all the time,” he said. “Logistically, it is very difficult. For us, the expenses are high, too. We want the best for our children. I think that’s become so individualized. I want my son to play multiple positions and multiple sports. Be a kid and have fun. … Nowadays everything is becoming more specialized at a younger age and that’s what we’re seeing.”

It’s a trend that’s not going away. Of the four quarterbacks on the Bills’ roster, only Kevin Kolb does not work with a personal coach.

Does Marrone fear the possibility of mixed messages coming from his own coaching staff and that from those employed by the players themselves?

“I don’t think so. The player is training to a certain point, and then once we get the player, we become the coaches,” he said. “Here’s the good part about it – he’s working, he’s training, he’s trying to get better and he knows what we’re expecting now. So if one of our players left to go train with someone else, they know what our system is, and they know what our drills are, so I don’t have a problem with that.”

Mastrole said he never conflicts with what a team wants from its player.

“I always get the feedback from the athlete. Like if there are certain steps that they want them to take in their offense, well I work within those parameters,” he said. “I don’t try to go outside and say, ‘hey, we need to do this a set way. Because there’s so many different offensive philosophies.

“The NFL is ultimately timing, speed, and being in sync with great athletes. Obviously the windows are so small at the professional level and the mistakes are so magnified, so it’s important that you’re on the same page. They provide the feedback with what they do in their NFL offenses, and I just work on the things the coaches can’t get to with the players during that offseason time.”Bills quarterback Jeff Tuel has had a personal coach since he was 12 years old. It was then that he attended “Camp Quarterback,” led by legendary California coach Bob Johnson of Mission Viejo High School. Johnson has tutored more than 100 Division I quarterbacks, including his son, Rob, who played for the Bills.

“That’s been my guy for years,” Tuel said of the elder Johnson. “He actually wanted me to move to Mission Viejo and try to play quarterback at their high school, because I lived in Arizona at the time. It’s been a long-standing relationship. We’ve kept in touch the entire time. I make trips down whenever I can. It’s not something I can do every month or every week, but whenever I get the opportunity, I go get some work.”

Johnson had previously worked with Tuel on accelerating the quarterback’s dropbacks, but the offense installed by Nathaniel Hackett with the Bills calls for quarterbacks to make slower, time drops.

“It’s a lot about the timing of your drop and the receivers’ routes so I’ve slowed down a little bit, but it’s not anything huge,” Tuel said. “There are basic mechanics that every quarterback should have and work on. Those things stay the same wherever you’re at.”

Tuel plans to meet with Johnson after the Bills’ mandatory minicamp next month and prior to the start of training camp.

“You have someone pushing you and telling you, ‘hey, you opened your front side that time. Keep it closed. You open your hips up.’ He can see all that and it’s something you can’t see yourself,” Tuel said. “We’ll film it and watch it. We’ll watch tape of Brady and some of the best guys to see how they do things mechanically. All that stuff helps.”When deciding on a positional coach, Bills quarterback Tarvaris Jackson stuck with someone he’s had a long-standing relationship with.

Jackson works with Richard Moncrief, a former quarterback for Clemson University and coach at Alabama State in Jackson’s hometown of Montgomery.

“He’s going to tell me the brutal, honest truth,” Jackson said. “This offseason was some footwork stuff. I felt like I made some major strides.”

Jackson returned home after the Bills’ recent voluntary minicamp to start working with Moncrief on what Hackett is installing.

“I let him know this is the way coach Hackett wants to do it here,” Jackson said. “When it really boils down to it, it’s all about getting comfortable with that.”The world’s best golfer, Tiger Woods, has had three different swing coaches in his professional career alone. The comparison between a quarterback coach and a swing coach is one made often by Mastrole when explaining what he does.

“When we’re on the driving range or we’re on the practice field, we go through a pre-shot routine,” he said. “You go through that mentally to get in the right place and find the right rhythm. Once you develop that rhythm and establish it, you step away. You go out on the course and let all the other elements play themselves out. Then the athlete just goes out and performs. He doesn’t think, he just lets him natural athletic ability take over. All I’m trying to do is just help to en grain those things on that driving range or on that practice field prior to competition.”

Of course, there is one big difference between the golf course and being under center: Nobody’s trying to tackle Tiger in his backswing.

That’s why Mastrole wants his clients to, in essence, forget all that they’ve heard from him.

“The thing I always tell the athlete is you’ve got to feel comfortable, you’ve got to shut it off. There are a lot of relaxation methods and focus things that I do. I think that kind of differs my program,” he said. “It really helps them once they step on the field, they can shut down all that thinking.

“EJ’s got to worry about what coverage is being thrown at him, where are his reads, his protections? The last thing I want him doing out there is focusing on ‘am I set up to the target? Am I extending my figures to the target?’ “

Mastrole, 36, started training quarterbacks about four years ago. He had a brief professional playing career mainly in the arena leagues, and also coached in arena ball for one season before opening his academy.

“I felt like I’ve got this knowledge, I can relate to kids from a high school to professional level, let me provide them everything I really didn’t have,” he said. “I put it together to speed up the learning process, which I wish I could have had earlier.”

The “quarterback guru” business is booming. In California, coaches like Bob Johnson, Steve Clarkson and Tom House have worked with some of the biggest names in the profession.

House spent eight years in the majors as a relief pitcher and started as a baseball coach, but is an expert in “motion analysis.” He focuses on how athletes turn their hips and shoulders. House counts the Patriots’ Tom Brady, the Saints’ Drew Brees and the Ravens’ Joe Flacco among his A-list clients. Manuel is Mastrole’s biggest client to date.

Given their desire to always get better, it makes sense that the kids who look up to them would emulate their path. “It’s the most sought-after position in American sports,” Mastrole said. “People gravitate to it.”Mastrole isn’t the only quarterback coach Manuel has worked with. Starting in high school, and continuing during his career at Florida State, he’s also worked with perhaps the “hottest” quarterback guru in the country, George Whitfield. A former college quarterback at Tiffin University, Whitfield established Whitfield Athletix in 2004 and has quickly risen to the top of an ultra-competitive field.

In consecutive years, Whitfield trained the No. 1 overall draft picks (Cam Newton and Andrew Luck), has tutored the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Ben Roethlisberger and is currently working with Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel of Texas A&M.

“The main reason had nothing to do with George, it was just more so I wanted to stay on the East Coast with my mom still dealing with breast cancer at the time,” Manuel said of why he switched coaches.Manuel and Mastrole met about three weeks before the Senior Bowl through a mutual friend, Tony Villani of XPE Sports. Villani works as Manuel’s speed coach.

“Tony set me up a meeting and a workout with EJ, so I got an opportunity to meet him, tell him a little bit about my program and the way I conducted things and set it up,” Mastrole said. “We kind of clicked, and step-by-step his stock continued to rise. It was just a really good fit.”

Mastrole first watched tape of every one of Manuel’s games from 2012 so that he could tailor a workout program to fit his needs.

“The things I was really looking for were that fine tuning which will take him to the next level. His base, his balance, set up and body position. Everything from his anticipation to where his shoulders were when the throws were happening,” Mastrole said. “We try to find out why he was inefficient on some of the throws. Was he playing flat footed or was he playing on the balls of feet?”

Gradually, Mastrole saw a more consistent quarterback.

“It was just a tweak here and here, like getting more extension on throws,” he said. “He didn’t do any drastic changes. He wouldn’t have warranted a first-round pick if he had to do major surgery.”

“We’ve really been honing in my footwork, getting my hips and shoulders in line so I can be accurate and have even more ‘pop’ on my ball,” Manuel said.

When the Bills made Manuel the first quarterback taken, it was a moment of gratification for Mastrole.

“It was pretty incredible. That’s what we pushed for,” he said. “It wasn’t just his on-field preparation, it was his personality and the way he conducted himself.”

email: jskurski@buffnews.com

A crack in the old-boys network

Sun, 19 May 2013 00:24:36 -0400

There was a brief silence over the telephone when I told Russ Brandon the reason for my call. For once, the Bills’ president seemed at a loss for words.

“Until you just said that, that hadn’t even crossed my mind,” Brandon said Friday. “I swear to God, on my three kids … ”

I had asked Brandon if he felt a sense of pride that, having elevated Doug Whaley to general manager, he suddenly had a franchise quarterback and GM who were both African-American.

Brandon said he was proud for Whaley, a long-time friend who worked his way up from NFL scout to GM, and who had great mentors along the way. The implication was obvious, that Whaley was a football guy who paid his dues. It’s not the color of his skin that defines him, but the quality of his character.

“We have great respect for the Rooney Rule and the implementing of the process through the league,” Brandon said. “But when it comes to evaulating individuals and talent, Doug Whaley certainly was on top. He created a high-water mark.”

It’s for the rest of us to decide what it means for the Bills to have black men in two of football’s most vital, cerebral, positions. And as Brandon was quick to point out, the Bills’ new director of college scouting, Kelvin Fisher, is also African-American.

Perhaps it’s coincidental. But just months after Ralph Wilson gave him full control, Brandon has changed the essential makeup of the organization. People are saying it feels different these days. It certainly looks different.

The Bills are younger, more vibrant and diverse. That doesn’t guarantee success on the field. The roster is still deficient in many areas. The new coach, Doug Marrone, has a lot to prove. But at least it’s a sign that the franchise is emerging from a dysfunctional old-boys network into a more hopeful, progressive era.

It’s a big deal, just as it was a big deal seven years ago when the University at Buffalo became the first school in Football Bowl Subdivision history to have African-Americans (Warde Manuel, Reggie Witherspoon, Turner Gill) in the three most visible positions in the athletic department (it just occurred to me that all three are now gone from UB).

We can pretend it doesn’t matter to have a black GM in a mythical “post-racial America.” But it does matter. It surely matters to people in Buffalo’s black community, who have watched white executives mismanage the team for more than a decade and waited since the brief James Harris experiment in the late 1960s for another black quarterback.

You can’t tell me most black Buffalonians won’t be rooting a little harder for their own.

Robert Griffin III was seen as a long-awaited hero for the black community in Washington, D.C., when he burst onto the scene as the Redskins’ quarterback last season. Black parents pointed to Griffin, as they would to Barack Obama, as evidence that anything was possible.

Griffin didn’t want to be defined by his race, either. He said, “You want to be defined by your work ethic, the person that you are, your character, your personality. That’s what I’ve tried to go out and do. I am an African-American in America. That will never change. But I don’t have to be defined by that.”

Later, a black ESPN commentator named Rob Parker suggested Griffin was a “cornball brother,” that he was “not one of us” and pointed out that Griffin “even has a white fiance.” Post-racial, indeed. Parker was fired by ESPN.

Progress is slow and complicated in these matters. The NFL instituted the Rooney Rule in 2003 to mandate that at least one minority candidate be interviewed for every head coaching and senior operations job. That was one year after Ozzie Newsome became the first black GM in league history.

Whaley is the seventh African-American to get a GM job. Six are still on the job. Two of them – Newsome and the Giants’ Jerry Reese – ran the last two Super Bowl winners. So might it actually be an advantage to have a man of color running the personnel department in a sport whose players are roughly 70 percent black?

There were 15 openings for NFL head coaches (eight) and GMs (seven) after last season. None was filled by a minority. Whaley was the GM-in-waiting since coming to Buffalo from the Steelers in 2010. He got the top job when Buddy Nix stepped aside this past week.

Nix, 73, said he would leave after drafting a franchise quarterback. He got his guy in Manuel. But it’s hard to believe that Nix was the driving force in April’s draft. Why would you let him run the show, knowing he was on his way out? As far as I’m concerned, it was Whaley and Doug Marrone’s draft.

I know Nix wanted a quarterback. He wanted Cam Newton two years earlier. But Manuel had to be Whaley’s guy. He was on the verge of taking over as GM. I suspect Whaley was the one leading the move toward Manuel, a raw but athletically gifted quarterback with tremendous upside.

Manuel was seen as a reach. He had been criticized as a passer who had trouble reading defenses, who wasn’t the quickest decision-maker on a football field. One draft analyst said he had “slow eyes,” whatever that means.

Skeptics in the black community heard “slow eyes” and wondered if it was the latest code for dim intellect. Manuel was an honor student at Florida State. He seemed bright and quick on his feet at his opening press conference. Manuel joked that he didn’t know what “slow eyes” meant, either.

Of course, even in a supposedly “post-racial” world, where Newton and Griffin are thriving in the NFL, there’s still a tendency to pigeonhole players by race. Manuel was mentored by Donovan McNabb before the draft. They had some long talks at dinner. Evidently, the subject of race came up.

Later, Manuel told a Philadelphia reporter, “They try to fit us all into the same category, as African-American quarterbacks. We’re always going to be compared to players similar to us.”

Generally, that means blacks are seen as primarily runners. The white quarterbacks are pocket passers. The league has become more open to mobile quarterbacks, but the black quarterbacks still fight the stereotype that they’re not as adept at reading defenses.

The Bills looked beyond the stereotypes and put their faith in Manuel.

It’ll be convenient to blame Nix if Manuel falls flat on his face. But Whaley’s reputation is the one on the line here. He has to own this pick. Marrone and Brandon, too.

Brandon promised he would take the franchise in a bold new direction when he took over on New Year’s Day. He has entrusted his personnel department to the team’s first black GM. At some point, the team’s on-field fortunes will be in the hands of its first black franchise quarterback.

After 13 years, fans can only hope the Bills got it right. For Brandon, it’s not so much about skin color but the fact that, this time, his new GM might actually be the smartest guy in the room.

email: jsullivan@buffnews.com

Inside the NFL: For success, Whaley needs to step it up

Sun, 19 May 2013 00:24:23 -0400

The stronger Doug Whaley turns out to be as a leader, the better for the Buffalo Bills.

Will Whaley prove to be a forceful, “full-service” general manager? We don’t know. You never know what you’re getting when a man steps into the GM post for the first time.

But the more Whaley asserts himself — even though we don’t know about his ability to push the right buttons — the better the Bills’ football results stand to get.

Why? Whaley’s resume is as good as you’re going to get for a first-time general manager. He’s now the man with the best eye for talent in the organization. His resume and title say that’s the case. In reality, sometimes that might mean he’s judging which of his scouts is sending the best evaluation across his desk. So be it. He needs to parlay his judgment into getting what he wants.

It’s encouraging that he brought in two of his own top lieutenants right away. The Bills hired Jim Monos from New Orleans and another Pittsburgh guy, Kelvin Fisher, from the Steelers. Monos, formerly Southeastern scout for the Saints, becomes the new right-hand man. The Saints picked five Pro Bowlers in the third round or later over that span; no other team has more than two. Fisher, a scout in the West for the Steelers, becomes the new overseer of college scouting.

A skeptic might wonder: Does this give the Bills three guys new to their positions, all of whom are in over their heads? We’ll see. But the hirings are an example of Whaley putting his stamp on the football department. He wanted his guys in place.

Good GMs have to get their start somewhere. Baltimore’s Ozzie Newsome, the New York Giants’ Jerry Reese and Atlanta’s Thomas Dimitroff all were unproven young GMs at one time. Now they’re three of the five or six best in the business.

Talent evaluation is the most important part of the job. Whaley needs to keep talent coming through the pipeline of the draft, especially in Buffalo, where it’s harder (no matter what anybody says) to woo free agents than it is in Miami.

However, the best general managers are more than just glorified scouts. The general manager also needs to have a forceful personality. The GM is operating in a world of forceful personalities, both inside and outside the organization. Administrators, coaches and scouts in the NFL all tend to be passionate and convinced their judgment is correct. Job security is tenuous in the NFL. Those realities breed a “protect-my-turf” mentality. All of that works against a cohesive, smooth-running football department.

It’s up to both team president Russ Brandon and Whaley to breed organizational trust. The coaches aren’t complaining: “We’re teaching them but the scouts aren’t getting us the right guys.” The scouts aren’t complaining, “We’re finding talent but the coaches don’t know what to do with it.” Communication among a player, his agent, his coach and the general manager flows freely. People aren’t talking behind each others’ backs.

A lot of that is eliminated if the general manager is setting a commanding tone. The Bills’ organization was in lock-step with Bill Polian when he was running it, and that was a good thing. It wasn’t just because he ruled with an iron fist. Tom Donahoe ruled with an iron fist in Buffalo, too, but the team didn’t have organizational trust.

At least when it came to his football staff — his coaches and scouts — Polian was listening to and empowering his people enough that a good consensus was reached over and over. (It helped Polian that his personality was balanced by Marv Levy in Buffalo and Tony Dungy in Indianapolis, both of whom enhanced organizational trust.)

So a good GM is a great communicator within the organization. A good GM has relationships with agents to enhance the credibility of the organization. A good GM also has a good handle on the salary cap and the true market value of players.

This is an area where Whaley potentially could be an improvement over Buddy Nix. Nix was more involved in the cap and negotiations than Levy, who took a Sgt. Schultz approach to that sphere. But the perception here is Nix wasn’t as influential in those areas as Dimitroff, Newsome and Reese. Not that Whaley should be lording over Jim Overdorf, the chief cap analyst and negotiator. But he has to be an important part of the decision-making, and he must have a good handle on planning three and four years down the road.

Whaley seemed very comfortable letting Nix be the front man and in letting Nix deliver the organization’s message to the fans. Nix was good at it. Is it a sign Whaley is too low-key? Ex-Bills executive Tom Modrak said he never saw Whaley back down from a tough spot. Hopefully that holds true. It would be good if Whaley communicated clearly and well in public, because that’s part of setting the tone inside the organization.

Nix set a good tone within the organization. People trusted him, from the players to the owner. The Bills spent money, in part, because there was faith that Nix’s evaluations were on the mark. To that end, Whaley is starting out on good footing with Brandon.

Make no mistake, Brandon holds the ultimate power in the Bills’ organization. He’s the president. He’s a forceful personality. Brandon says he takes pride in delegating power to his top lieutenants. There’s plenty of evidence that happens in regard to other Bills executives.

It’s in Brandon’s interest to see Whaley succeed. Brandon executed the transition of power from Nix to Whaley. Whaley is going to have to be very good at selling his views to Brandon, especially when times get tough. In that regard, his job is similar to that of his predecessors in the GM seat. They dealt with Ralph Wilson, who was hands-on. So is Brandon.

Is Whaley up to all that? Is he the total package as a leader?

We’re going to find out.

email: mgaughan@buffnews.com

Bills home opener game sells out

Sat, 18 May 2013 14:32:22 -0400

The Buffalo Bills Sept. 8 home opener against the New England Patriots at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park has sold out, according to a mobile alert and tweet sent out by the organization this morning.

Mario mentioned suicide, attorney says

Sat, 18 May 2013 00:33:43 -0400

Buffalo Bills pass-rusher Mario Williams made mention of committing suicide, and his ex-fiancee found the threat credible enough to plan an intervention.

That’s alleged by Erin Marzouki’s attorney, Anthony Buzbee, who released texts purportedly sent by Williams to Marzouki in November, while Williams was playing some of his best football for the Bills.

The Houston Chronicle reported Friday that in those texts Williams claims to have taken a narcotic without anyone’s knowledge.

Williams is suing Marzouki for the return of a 10.04-carat diamond engagement ring estimated to be worth $785,000. A mediation hearing was held Friday, but the parties were unable to reach an agreement.

And the saga got uglier for Williams.

“I took 3 hydrocodones this morning and no one knows,” the Chronicle reported Williams as texting to Marzouki. “I’m going to take 2 more on the plane and fade away.”

Another text read: “No money in the world should leave me with suicidal thoughts.”

Marzouki reportedly didn’t take Williams’ texts as a joke.

“You told me you’re having suicidal thoughts,” Marzouki wrote to Williams, according to the Chronicle. “Clearly me & you don’t need to talk after every mean thing you said to be, but I’m going to tell DD to call you or something BC you went above and beyond saying suicidal thoughts, taking pills. Someone that you trust needs to intervene.”

Neither the Bills nor Williams’ agent, Ben Dogra, has responded to a request seeking comment.

Seemingly in response to the Chronicle report, Williams sent out messages from his verified Twitter account: “I’m still here and always will be. I’m too strong for ridicule and the childish extremes those will do to try and taint a persons name when in reality you make me stronger, hungrier and more determined.”

“The true character of someone is always revealed in times that we don’t typically agree with. In these times it’s how you respond and portray yourself to others that shows the ethics, character and true morals of a person. What’s shown speaks for itself!

email: tgraham@buffnews.com

Video: 'Bucky & Sully Show'

Fri, 17 May 2013 14:56:58 -0400

News Sports Columnists Bucky Gleason and Jerry Sullivan host a live weekly show at 10 a.m. on BuffaloNews.com. Here is a replay of this week's show featuring guest Christian Laettner:

On possible golf outing:

On Buddy Nix's legacy

On Doug Whaley's vision

On Bills' needs

On NHL playoffs:

Leafs choke?

On Roger Neilson & rally towels:

Guest Christian Laettner:

On Mets manager Terry Collins:

On Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia:

Quick Hits:

Good Reads:

Bozos of the Week:

Whaley brings new perspective to reconstruction

Fri, 17 May 2013 01:30:57 -0400

Thankfully, in his first news conference after he was introduced as the Bills’ general manager, Doug Whaley spared everyone the bogus sales pitch. OK, so he might have mentioned aspirations of building a winner, but he didn’t make false promises or brace people for years of suffering.

Whaley kept his answers short, vague and, dare I say, boring. He cautiously made sure he didn’t say anything he would later regret or could be used against him. A few times, he stopped himself from expanding on answers, checking his swing on softball questions that a polished speaker would have hit a mile.

I’m not sure how many times he said, “The sky is the limit,” but he surpassed his limit. His reply after being asked what made the Steelers so successful: “They don’t accept losing. They set the standards of winning and competing for championships. If we instill that here, we’ll be in the right direction.”

It was difficult to determine whether he was shy, extremely cool or trying to blanket his nerves, but there somewhere was elegance to his guarded answers and direct message. Whaley has a quiet, unassuming way about him. You can only hope he has enough intelligence and confidence to make the right decisions.

Whaley isn’t going to become a motivational speaker any time soon, but that’s not what the Bills needed in their new general manager. They needed a young, motivated executive who can evaluate players and restore credibility. He has been atop their list for years, which made Thursday’s announcement little more than a formality.

“Our main goal is to give the fans of the Buffalo Bills a team that consistently competes for championships,” he said.

Zzzzz.

Whaley showed a different side to his personality once the cameras were turned off and the assembled media began heading for the door. Reserved throughout his news conference, his voice began cracking with emotion later when he talked about telling his father he was named an NFL general manager.

It’s an accomplishment for anyone, a greater one for an African-American kid from Pittsburgh who never played in the NFL.

Whaley, who started as an assistant in the Steelers’ personnel department 17 years ago, becomes the sixth African-American general manager in the league.

Bob Whaley told his son it was one of the proudest moments of his life. Coming from him, that’s saying something.

Bob Whaley earned a football scholarship to Michigan State. He transferred to West Point and was among the first black football players. He graduated in 1967 and was an Army Ranger in Vietnam.

“I have the utmost respect for him,” Whaley said. “The things he’s gone through makes me being a general manager seem like nothing. For him to say he was proud of me in his lifetime, for lack of a better term, it’s a crushing blow to my ego. It was emotional for him to say that. Everybody is looking for acknowledgement of their parents.”

You get a better sense of Whaley when you hear him talk about his parents. You understand how he built a reputation as a bright young scout who was destined to manage his own team someday. You can see that he’s a selfless, team-first guy who knows the meaning of hard work and sacrifice. He knows the importance of intangibles.

His mother, Gaynell, was a school administrator who offered a soft touch. A few days ago, she was still telling him to remain humble and stay true to their family values. Bob Whaley spent 30 years in management, overseeing a highway-construction company. Doug grew up tarring roads in the Pittsburgh area.

“Hard work. That’s where I got it from, every summer, working with him,” Whaley said. “We did road construction, heavy highway draining and sewage, laying asphalt. Did you know that asphalt comes off the truck at 220 degrees and you can only stay on it for six minutes before your feet blister in the summer?”

Um, no.

“It was hard manual labor, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world,” he said. “It taught me what work was all about. In the construction business, there’s a tangible asset that you see that you accomplished. You feel like you accomplished something. You look at the long road, absolutely. And when the alarm rings, you answer the bell.”

Whaley has a long road ahead of him with the Bills, who haven’t made the playoffs in 13 consecutive seasons. That, alone, is alarming when you consider how many teams have gone through the cycle of success. The Bills have been stuck in the same ditch with five coaches, counting Perry Fewell, and four general managers.

It’s time for Whaley to answer the bell.

He has remained mostly behind the scenes over his 17 seasons in the NFL after playing for the University of Pittsburgh. He spent a dozen years with the Steelers and showed an eye for personnel before climbing the ladder. The Steelers hoped he would continue growing with them, but he jumped to become an assistant GM under Buddy Nix.

Whaley was Nix’s top aide, which is enough to make any Bills fan leery. Nix made his share of mistakes with Whaley at his side. It was enough to make you wonder whether Whaley played a role in a few blunders along the way. Russ Brandon made it clear that the general manager ultimately makes the final call.

Now, that responsibility falls on Whaley.

Nobody knows for sure how well he will perform when faced with the same pressure, and it will be interesting to see how he handles the responsibility. Five months ago, I suggested that Whaley be given a chance to run the show. I’m certainly not backing off now.

Whaley, 40, brings a new perspective and closes the gap between the old ways of building teams and the new ways of today’s game. Bill Polian was an unproven 44-year-old when he climbed aboard in 1986. I’m not suggesting Whaley is the next Polian, the best general manager of his time, but there’s only one way to find out.

At least the Bills are trying something new, unlike the other major professional sports team in town. Brandon has been given full control of the organization. They hired a new head coach in Doug Marrone. They hired Whaley, who immediately hired Jim Monos as director of player personnel and Kelvin Fisher as director of college scouting.

And they have a rookie quarterback in EJ Manuel.

Bills fans are hoping they can grow together and get this thing turned around. The answers will eventually be revealed in the results.

Let’s face it, there is no better time for a new regime to talk about the sky being the limit than when it’s sitting near the bottom. They might as well start with someone who knows how to build a road.

email: bgleason@buffnews.com

Whaley adds talent evaluators in Monos, Fisher

Fri, 17 May 2013 01:30:41 -0400

Doug Whaley wasted little time in putting his stamp on the Buffalo Bills’ football operations department.

In one of his first moves as the team’s new general manager, Whaley hired Jim Monos to be the team’s director of player personnel and Kelvin Fisher as the director of college scouting. Neither Monos nor Fisher were made available to the media Thursday by the team.

Monos steps into the role that Whaley previously held, overseeing both the pro personnel and college scouting departments.

“I’ve known him for a while. He’s an incredible talent evaluator and he will be important for us on the road, seeing the top talent,” Whaley said of Monos, who comes to the Bills after spending the past eight seasons as a scout with the New Orleans Saints.

“I have not worked with him, but I have been around him,” Whaley said. “I’ve seen how he conducts himself on the job and off the job.”

With the Saints, Monos was responsible for scouting the Southeast region, an area the Bills have targeted heavily in the past four years. Over that time, the Bills have used 27 of their 35 draft picks on players from that part of the country.

In his role with the Bills, Monos will collaborate with Tom Gibbons, the team’s director of pro personnel, on evaluations of free agents. He’ll also scout college prospects.

Monos is credited with urging the Saints to draft guard Jahri Evans in the fourth round in 2006. Evans has been a Pro Bowler for four straight seasons and in 2010 signed a contract extension that made him the highest-paid interior offensive lineman in NFL history.

Monos’ father, Jim Monos Sr., was the offensive line coach at Bloomsburg (Pa.) University while Evans was a player there.

Prior to joining the Saints, Monos was an area scout for the Philadelphia Eagles from 2001-04, focused on the Northeast region of the country. A native of Palmyra, Pa., Monos played quarterback at Lebanon Valley College in 1995 before transferring to Bloomsburg.

Fisher has spent the last 13 years with the Pittsburgh Steelers as a college scout. Fisher started with the Steelers in 2000, a year after Whaley.

“I’ve been with him for a long time so he knows the process that I’m going to implement,” Whaley said.

Fisher scouted the Western region of the country for the Steelers. The native of Ambridge, Pa., was a four-year starting fullback at Arizona State from 1988-91.

His son, Kelvin Jr., is a defensive back at the University of Arkansas.

Both Monos and Fisher come from Super Bowl-winning teams.

“We are excited to add two well-respected and innovative personnel professionals to this organization,” Whaley said.

Fisher replaces Chuck Cook as the director of college scouting. Cook, who was hired by former General Manager Buddy Nix in 2011, will now serve as a national scout. Cook is entering his 30th season in the NFL in 2013. He spent 24 years with the Kansas City Chiefs, including 11 as their director of college scouting, and three years as a regional scout with the Miami Dolphins from 2008-10 before coming to Buffalo.

Additionally, the Bills promoted C.J. Leak from BLESTO scout, a job he’s held the past two years, to a college area scout. Pete Harris, who worked as a scouting assistant the past two seasons, was promoted to BLESTO scout.

BLESTO is a scouting service that last season was used by seven NFL teams – the Bills, Steelers, Jaguars, Redskins, Lions, Vikings and New York Giants.

Doug Majeski, a 24-year member of the Bills’ scouting department and current coordinator of college scouting, also added the job of national cross checker to his duties.

email: jskurski@buffnews.com

Commencement day at One Bills Drive

Fri, 17 May 2013 02:28:52 -0400

Doug Whaley’s resume says he’s as ready to succeed as any first-time NFL general manager could reasonably hope to be.

Even though you never know how someone is going to perform when the buck stops with them for the first time, Bills president Russ Brandon says he’s confident Whaley’s 18½ years in the NFL show he has the right stuff.

“He deserves this opportunity,” Brandon said Thursday at a news conference introducing Whaley as the Bills’ new general manger. “Doug has every quality you look for in a leader. He has great work ethic. ... He is one of the most humble guys I have ever met, and everything is about us. It is about us. He has been in the trenches. He has been scouting his entire career on the pro and the college side.”

Whaley, 40, groomed for the job for the past 3½ years as Buddy Nix’s right-hand man in the Bills’ organization. Before that he spent 12 years working mostly in pro scouting with the Pittsburgh Steelers, one of the winningest organizations in the NFL. He also spent three years scouting for the Seattle Seahawks.

The Bills are about to find out if all that training can help lead them out of pro football’s wilderness.

“Our main goal is to give the fans of the Buffalo Bills a team that consistently competes for championships,” Whaley said.

Why does he think the Bills’ are committed enough to winning after 13 straight non-playoff seasons?

“I’d say the shared responsibility from Russ all the way down to everybody in this organization to realize that what we’ve put there recently is not what we want to be known for,” he said.

Whaley is a Pittsburgh native who played safety and linebacker for the University of Pittsburgh. He was a team captain, along with Pro Football Hall of Famer Curtis Martin, as a senior. He spent nine months after college working toward becoming a stock broker on Wall Street when former Bills personnel chief Tom Modrak lured him to the Steelers. Whaley has been scouting ever since.

“Doug Whaley, to me, has paid his dues,” said former Steelers head coach Bill Cowher.

“His body of work is in a lot of different areas and circumstances – player, intern, scout – he didn’t go to the end of the movie first,” said Modrak. “He went through the whole process. I never saw him back away from a tough circumstance.”

Asked what quality Whaley possesses that gives him an eye for football talent, Modrak said: “His core is he knows people. He has a feel for the room. He has a sense for what’s right and what’s wrong, and I think that all carries over when he analyzes players.”

Like new Bills coach Doug Marrone, who was pursued by other teams, Whaley would have been an attractive GM candidate if he was on the open market. The Bills signed him to a contract extension in February in anticipation of promoting him to GM. Whaley becomes the sixth African-American GM in the 32-team league. Seven other teams hired GMs this offseason, but all seven of those jobs went to white candidates.

John Wooten, executive director of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, compared the Whaley hire to how the New York Giants handled the transition from esteemed GM Erie Accorsi to then-coveted aide Jerry Reese six years ago. (The Pollard Alliance works with the NFL to promote diversity in front offices and among head coaches.)

“There was quite a bit of interest in Whaley,” Wooten said. “That’s why Buffalo stepped up to say, ‘Hey, we’re going to give you that position. Just stay here with us rather than take an interview.’ ”

To a large degree, the die already is cast on Whaley’s short-term chances for success due to two big decisions he helped Brandon and Nix make: hiring Marrone and drafting quarterback EJ Manuel in the first round.

If Manuel succeeds, Whaley is going to be in line for a pay raise and a contract extension three or four years from now.

If Manuel fails, Whaley probably will be on a hot seat.

“When you spend two minutes with the guy, you know this guy has a presence,” Whaley said of Manuel. “He has a presence on and off the field. We are excited for everything EJ brings to the table, as well as the rest of our draft class. We think the sky is the limit.”

Whaley wasted no time putting his own stamp on the organization.

The Bills announced the hiring of Jim Monos as director of player personnel and Kelvin Fisher as director of college scouting.

Monos spent the past eight years serving a key role as Southeast college scout for the New Orleans Saints. He becomes Whaley’s right-hand man, overseeing pro and college scouting.

Fisher, who spent the past 13 years as a college scout with the Steelers, becomes the Bills’ new director of college scouting. Chuck Cook, who held that title with the Bills the past two years, gets demoted to the role of national college scout.

Whaley was not as colorful as Nix or as expansive in his answers as his old boss during the news conference. Nix was among those whom Whaley thanked for getting him ready for the promotion. Whaley spent a lot of time scouting top college prospects the past several years.

“In 2010, I had an extensive background in the pro personnel department,” Whaley said. “The last couple of years I’ve been able to manage the draft process, so I think I got a handle on the complete football operation department.”

“This is a culmination of a lot of hard work,” Whaley said. “When anybody says hard work does not pay off, I am going to have to say look at me because I believe it does.”

email: mgaughan@buffnews.com

Video: Whaley takes over as Bills' GM

Thu, 16 May 2013 09:21:28 -0400

The News' Bucky Gleason and Mark Gaughan discuss Doug Whaley's progression to become general manager and what it means for the Bills:

FROM THE ARCHIVES:
Whaley's contract extended (Feb. 24, 2013) | Jay Skurski's profile of Whaley (Jan. 1, 2013) | Mark Gaughan's profile of Whaley (Feb. 29, 2012) | Director of player personnel added to Whaley's title (May 7, 2011) | Whaley on hiring as assistant GM (March 2, 2010)

Bills hope Hughes can fill a void

Wed, 15 May 2013 23:57:25 -0400

New Buffalo Bills linebacker Jerry Hughes produced 26.5 sacks, 36 tackles for loss and eight forced fumbles in his last two years at Texas Christian University.

Over the past three years for the Indianapolis Colts, he managed five sacks, eight tackles for loss and no forced fumbles.

He says he has not forgotten how to play like the man who terrorized offenses at TCU.

“Absolutely, I’m still the same guy,” Hughes said after the Bills’ practice on Wednesday. “If anything, those first two years in Indy gave me the chance to rest up and learn. So now I’m an eager, fresh, hungry, 24-year-old, ready to get out there and get playing football.”

Hughes has a fresh start after being traded two weeks ago for Bills middle linebacker Kelvin Sheppard.

The Bills could use some of Hughes’ old form, because they do not have a surplus of proven pass rushers. Mario Williams and Mark Anderson are the Bills’ main threats off the edge. Williams had 10.5 sacks last season. Mark Anderson is back after making only five starts last year due to injury. He had 10 sacks in 2011 and has 36.5 for his career.

After them, the Bills’ depth is questionable. Starting strong-side linebacker Manny Lawson has pass-rush skills. But he has averaged only three sacks a year over six full seasons in the NFL. Despite his limited production, Hughes is the Bills’ next best credentialed edge rusher.

Buffalo ranked 13th in sacks per pass play last season, but that figure was misleading. The Bills did not get enough pressure on the QB, as evidenced by the fact they ranked 31st on third-down defense.

So production from Hughes would be welcome.

After being drafted 31st overall in 2010, Hughes saw almost no playing time his first two seasons. He was stuck behind the Colts’ two Pro Bowl defensive ends, Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis.

The Colts switched from a 4-3 front to a 3-4 scheme last season, which prompted Hughes to be moved to outside linebacker, a position he never had played. Freeney and Mathis both missed some time. Hughes played about 55 percent of the snaps.

He finished with four sacks and unofficially had 17 quarterback hurries, according to Profootballfocus.com. (The Bills’ Williams, by comparison, had 38 hurries). The Colts decided he was a disappointment and drafted an edge rusher, Bjorn Werner, in the first round last month. They made the trade two days after the draft.

“It definitely caught me off guard,” said Hughes, who was informed of the deal by Colts General Manager Ryan Grigson. “I didn’t know anything about it. We worked out that morning. Grigson pulled me into his office and let me know the news. I said thank you for the opportunity and I caught the next flight out that night.”

Hughes thinks he can build off the playing time he got last season.

“I look at last year as a rookie season for me,” he said. “It was my first time playing a full NFL season. It’s definitely a confidence builder. Now I can take that. I know what to look for. I know more of the game. … You learn a lot more playing versus watching.”

Hughes, 6-foot-2 and 254 pounds, was viewed as a “tweener” coming out of college, a little light to hold the point of attack as a 4-3 defensive end but with no experience to drop into coverage as a 3-4 linebacker.

He says last season was good training for making the transition to outside ‘backer in the Bills’ 3-4 front.

“Absolutely, it prepped me for here, so it’s not a deer in the headlights look when I’m back there communicating with the DBs and linebackers,” he said. “I’m able to make that transition better. … It’s nothing I can’t do. I’ve been in space. It’s about going out there and playing football.”

In a perfect Bills world, Williams and Lawson play well and stay healthy, and Hughes contributes as a part-time rusher in passing situations. That’s presuming he builds off last season and wins a roster spot.

Hughes, a Houston native, doesn’t know a lot about Buffalo or the Bills yet, but he’s glad to be somewhere he’s wanted.

“Being from Houston, I know Buffalo has the greatest comeback in NFL history,” Hughes said. “I know very little about Buffalo, but the times I’ve been up here the past two weeks have been great. We have a long way to go but we’re taking the right steps to get there.”

...

Second-round draft pick Kiko Alonso, the linebacker from the University of Oregon, signed a contract with the Bills. The four-year deal is expected to be worth $1.1 million a year. Alonso becomes the sixth of the Bills’ eighth draft picks to sign. The remaining unsigned picks are first-rounder EJ Manuel and Robert Woods, who was taken in the second round five picks ahead of Alonso.

Alonso, 6-foot-3 and 238 pounds, has a chance to start right away in the middle of the Bills’ defense. In the 3-4 front, Nigel Bradham is one starting inside linebacker. The other spot is open. Alonso started 17 of 36 games for Oregon. As a senior, he had 81 tackles in 12 starts.

email: mgaughan@buffnews.com

Bills think young corners have it covered

Wed, 15 May 2013 00:55:41 -0400

Leodis McKelvin is the oldest cornerback on the Buffalo Bills at age 27, and he’s the only cornerback on the roster with more than two years of NFL experience.

“It’s a new role for me, as far as me being the oldest,” McKelvin said after Tuesday’s practice at One Bills Drive. “We’re young but we have guys who have showed they have the ability to take a leadership role by what they do on the field and their playing ability.”

The Bills would like to think they are young and talented at cornerback.

Buffalo needs some young guys to learn quickly, however, or the cornerback unit will be known as young and dangerously thin.

McKelvin and second-year man Stephon Gilmore form the starting duo. Gilmore is coming off an excellent rookie season. McKelvin has been in and out of the lineup over five seasons but earned himself a four-year contract extension from the Bills in February thanks to a capable four-game starting stint late last season.

After them? The competition is wide open.

The next two on the depth chart are speedy Ron Brooks, a fourth-round pick last year, and Justin Rogers, a seventh-round pick in 2011.

After them it’s Crezdon Butler, T.J. Heath, Vernon Kearney, Kip Edwards, Nickell Robey and Jumal Rolle. Never heard of them? Don’t feel bad.

Asked about the youth at corner, coach Doug Marrone said:

“I like it. I really do because sometimes when you come in and you are teaching new concepts … it is good to get them when they are fresh and they are not locked into a certain technique that they are doing. So I like a lot of those young guys back there.”

It was a bit of a surprise the Bills did not draft a cornerback. An ideal time to pick one would have come with the 78th pick, in the third round. But five corners were taken between picks 60 and 71. Buffalo picked the fastest player in the draft, receiver Marquise Goodwin, instead.

The Bills’ depth at safety may make the cornerback unit deeper than it appears. Aaron Williams, starting at free safety with Pro Bowler Jairus Byrd unsigned, is a converted corner who could drop down and cover a slot receiver. Rookie fourth-round pick Duke Williams has the ability, the Bills think, to cover slot receivers. Byrd has coverage ability, as well.

New defensive coordinator Mike Pettine liked to use a three-safety nickel scheme (with two cornerbacks) at times during his tenure with the New York Jets. Most teams keep six cornerbacks on the roster.

McKelvin said it’s important for the Bills’ defensive backs to work together, especially since veteran secondary leader George Wilson left in free agency.

“Everybody’s got to take an extra step,” McKelvin said. “There’s not that somebody who’s like George. He was a real big brother for all of us.”

“All of us have to pitch in and contribute as one group,” he said. “We do things off the field. We get together, go out to eat, try to be a tight group. We want to communicate with each other and talk with each other and keep that brotherly bond that we’ve always had.”

Brooks, a Louisiana State product, ran a 40-yard dash time of 4.37 seconds before last year’s draft. That’s the best time of any corner on the roster. He missed the first half of last season with a foot injury and played only 153 defensive snaps over a five-game stretch late in the season.

Rogers, who has a slighter build than Brooks, played 537 snaps, or 49 percent of the defensive plays last season. He ran between 4.45 and 4.50 out of college. Butler, who the Bills liked out of Clemson in 2010, entered the league as a fifth-round pick but has barely played. He has tools, as well. He ran a 4.43 time and had a vertical jump of 39.5 inches, among the top 10 at cornerback over the past four years. Heath ran 4.46 out of college. Robey is a fine athlete, too, although he’s only 5-foot-8, 165 pounds.

Can any of them cover as well as they run? The Bills have until September to figure it out.

...

The Bills claimed tight end Mickey Shuler Jr. off waivers from the Oakland Raiders. Shuler, 26, is a former seventh-round draft pick of the Minnesota Vikings in 2010. He played in six games with Miami in 2010, spent part of the 2011 season on the Vikings’ practice squad and spent 11 weeks last season on the Raiders’ practice squad.

The 6-foot-4, 247-pounder made 13 starts in his college career at Penn State but was used by the Nittany Lions mostly in a blocking role in two-TE sets. Blocking was viewed as his strength coming out of college. He’s the son of the former Jets’ All-Pro tight end. The Bills released receiver Kevin Norrell.

email: mgaughan@buffnews.com

Mario Williams’ ex-fiancee pushes back with countersuit

Wed, 15 May 2013 00:52:43 -0400

Mario Williams fired the first public salvos against his ex-fiancee, essentially calling her a gold digger in a lawsuit to recover a 10.04-carat engagement ring worth $785,000.

It was only a matter of time until we heard what a lout she thinks the Buffalo Bills pass rusher is.

Erin Marzouki has filed a response and counterclaim against Williams in Harris County, Texas. She alleges Williams repeatedly broke up with her only to reconcile and told her to keep the ring after their final split.

For the first time since Williams filed his lawsuit, he spoke with reporters but didn’t have much to say about the case.

“It’s just something that happened, and it is what it is,” Williams after Tuesday’s practice at One Bills Drive. “When we’re here, playing ball and inside this facility, with this family, it’s all about us; it’s not about anything else.

“Anything personal is personal. You don’t mix that with what we’re trying to accomplish here.”

Marzouki’s attorney, Anthony Buzbee, declared in an interview with the Houston Chronicle that Williams was foolish to file his lawsuit.

“This is a stupid lawsuit because it has no legal merit, and it’s a stupid lawsuit because it’s not going to be good for his career,” Buzbee said.

Buzbee also told the Chronicle that Williams “is a victim of his emotions and of bad legal advice. What he’s done is kick an anthill, and you know what happens when you kick an anthill.”

The counterclaim asserts Williams is suing to “harass and scare Ms. Marzouki.” The ring is located in a security-deposit box, and she has no intentions to dispose of it.

Marzouki’s counterclaim also says:

• Williams “made statements in a sworn, verified petition that were clearly false, and Mario Williams knew they were false.”

• During their 10-month engagement, Williams broke up with Marzouki at least five times, including two days into a family trip to the Bahamas to celebrate their engagement. Williams “chartered a private plane and left the Bahamas.”

• Williams told Marzouki to keep the ring after their last breakup in December.

• A part of Williams “wanted to continue to live the life of a wealthy bachelor who could do whatever he wanted, with whomever he wanted, whenever he wanted.”

• There are 200 pages of text messages as proof.

• Most of the $108,000 in charges made on an American Express card were not for Marzouki but to furnish Williams’ new home in Orchard Park and renovations on his home in the Houston area.

The Chronicle reported that a court hearing on the matter will be held Friday.

Williams rejected the notion that legal proceedings could be a distraction on the football field.

“When I’m here, this is my haven,” Williams said. “This is family, and this is what the most important thing is for me. Being around these guys, this is my R&R.

“I come here and I work, and we’re trying to get better and climb that mountain. There’s nothing that would ever distract anything that’s going on in this building.”

email: tgraham@buffnews.com

Waterfront stadium group offers NFTA $500,000 for outer harbor land

Tue, 14 May 2013 22:23:38 -0400

The group promoting a new waterfront stadium for the Buffalo Bills has offered $500,000 to the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority for an exclusive option to negotiate purchase of 150 acres of outer harbor land.

But even with the Greater Buffalo Entertainment and Sports Complex firm putting money behind its offer, the NFTA is responding with a firm “no, thank you.”

“We’re going to stay the course,” NFTA Executive Director Kimberley A. Minkel said late Tuesday.

“We’re in the middle of negotiations with the City of Buffalo and the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. with a goal of maintaining public access.”

Minkel also said the authority cannot enter into the negotiations proposed by the group without launching a competitive bidding process.

The group, which proposes a new stadium for the Bills, a convention facility and an offshoot of Rochester’s Strong Museum, has been making a concerted effort to gain NFTA attention for its offer to buy the land – this time with half a million dollars attached.

They submitted their offer Tuesday in a letter sent by attorney Daniel L. Schoenborn.

But the NFTA has made it clear throughout the process that it has no intention of discussing a sale with the group.

It is expected that an agreement governing transfer of 384 acres of waterfront land will be negotiated soon among the authority, harbor agency and the city.

email: rmccarthy@buffnews.com

Video: Gaughan, Graham & Skurski assess Bills OTA

Tue, 14 May 2013 15:52:52 -0400

Williams' ex-fiancee pushes back with court filing

Tue, 14 May 2013 15:21:17 -0400

By Tim Graham

Buffalo Bills pass-rusher Mario Williams fired the first public salvos against his ex-fiancee, essentially calling her a gold-digger in a lawsuit seeking to recover a 10.04-carat engagement ring worth $785,000.

It was only a matter of time until we heard what a lout she thinks he is.

Erin Marzouki has filed a legal response and counterclaim in Harris County, Texas.

"This is a stupid lawsuit because it has no legal merit, and it's a stupid lawsuit because it's not going to be good for his career," Marzouki's attorney, Tony Buzbee, told the Houston Chronicle.

Buzbee added that Williams "is a victim of his emotions and of bad legal advice. What he's done is kick an anthill, and you know what happens when you kick an anthill."

And Williams thought he had his hands full with New York Jets tackle Austin Howard.

The counterclaim asserts Williams is suing to "harass and scare Ms. Marzouki," that the ring is located in a security-deposit box and that she has no intentions to dispose of it.

Marzouki's counterclaim also contends:

Williams "made statements in a sworn, verified petition that were clearly false, and Mario Williams knew they were false."
During their 10-month engagement, Williams broke up with Marzouki at least five times, including two days into a family trip to the Bahamas to celebrate their engagement. Williams "chartered a private plane and left the Bahamas."
Williams told Marzouki to keep the ring after their last breakup in December.
A part of Williams "wanted to continue to live the life of a wealthy bachelor who could do whatever he wanted, with whomever he wanted, whenever he wanted."
Most the $108,000 in charges made on an American Express card were not for her but to furnish Williams' new home in Orchard Park and renovations on his home in the Houston area.
There are 200 pages of text messages as proof.

The Houston Chronicle reported a court hearing on the matter will be held Friday.