Head Coach Rex Ryan
Wednesday, October 15, 2015
Opening Comments / Injury Update
Why would I have a game jersey from Tyrod Taylor? Couple guesses out there. Alright but this thing right here is being sent to the Hall of Fame. It’s actually gonna go into the hall of fame as he’s one of five players in the history of that game that threw for over 100 yards, rushed for over 70 yards and caught a pass in a game. So the Hall of Fame requested the jersey, so that’s going there. If there’s any other questions about him I don’t know what they’d be.
Q: You called that play though, so you had a part in that Hall of Fame jersey.
A: Well I did contribute to it. I appreciate you Murph (John Murphy) putting that out there. I always wanted to go…you know be in the Hall of Fame. Come on please stop, I like visiting the Hall of Fame. But when I got inducted at Southwestern…Okay, alright let’s get onto the business.
Anyway here’s the guys that did not practice today: (Marcus) Easley with a shoulder. Wood with a knee, remember that’s the running back Wood, Cierre Wood. Karlos Williams, concussion. Aaron Williams obviously neck. These guys were limited today: Sammy Watkins, calf. (Charles) Clay, calf. (Marcell) Dareus, hip. (LeSean) McCoy, hamstring. Johnson, hand – that’s Randell. Tyrod (Taylor), knee. (Cordy) Glenn, ankle. (John) Miller, groin. (Chris) Hogan, hamstring. These players, four players, were full today: (Ron) Brooks, thumb. (Cyrus) Kouandjio, knee. (Percy) Harvin, hip and (Bacarri) Rambo, quad. Alright so fire away.
Q: Any closer to a decision on who’s starting at quarterback on Sunday?
A: No, Tyrod’s (Taylor) doing good. You know is progressively getting a little better but I’m not comfortable saying that he will definitely be the guy yet.
Q: What about LeSean McCoy?
A: No, I mean he’s a lot better this week then he was last week. I think he’s definitely progressing so we’ll let the week play out and see how he looks.
Q: What happened with Aaron Williams that you decided to put him on IR?
A: Well he was sore and everything else, we all knew that after the game. But he had finished the game so I wasn’t sure of the extent of the injury. Went back, he was sore that time. Our trainers took him to the doctors and all that stuff, and they advised us that he should be out for a few weeks. That’s why we put him on the return IR deal.
Q: You’ve now had two players – LeSean McCoy and now Aaron Williams – return from injury only to be reinjured and out for a longer time than expected. Does that give you a level of concern with the decisions your training staff is making?
A: No. Our staff won the award last year for the top training staff in the league. So if anything we’re getting very sound advice. The McCoy injury, you know you’re assuming that it’s based off the same injury and all that type of stuff. Maybe that’s an assumption on your part. So I don’t think…he wouldn’t have been out there if we never thought that he was healthy enough to play. I can you promise you that and that’s with any of our players.
Q: Is the Aaron Williams injury a new injury, or the same one?
A: No it’s, you know, pretty much the same. That was a scar tissue type deal but it’s…we thought he was healthy and this thing came up. But this is something that we’re erring on the side of caution. We’re never gonna play somebody out there if we thing he’s at a substantial risk.
Q: Aaron Williams doesn’t need any surgery does he?
A: My understanding is that that’s…not at this time.
Q: So would you say Tyrod Taylor’s injury is substantial?
A: No. I think his without question…Nah he’s, like I said he’s beat up. But no I would not say that.
Q: Sammy Watkins said yesterday he will play Sunday even if his calf pops – is that something where you have to hold him back?
A: Yeah we’ll make sure that the…that is won’t be his decision obviously if that’s what he’s saying. We’re gonna make sure that, you know we’ll lean on the experts.
Q: Do you get a sense from Sammy Watkins that he has a level of frustration with not being able to go out there the last couple of weeks?
A: Well I would think he’s definitely frustrated because as a player you want to play. You want to be healthy. You want to be playing. You want to be contributing. And that I think’s his biggest frustration is that even through the training camp when he had the setbacks and all that – it’s obviously been a very frustrating year for him I would think to this point. But let’s get him healthy and get him out there competing. We’ll all be happy then.
Q: How about in regards to his (Sammy Watkins) role in the offense?
A: Well I think when his…you know he’s a number one receiver when he’s healthy.
Q: Does your offense being low at running back factor in at all with LeSean McCoy and getting him out there to play Sunday?
A: No I mean again, injuries have nothing to do with…like if somebody’s hurt or whatever, you don’t force the issue of the guy because you think you need or something like that. That’s not the case. The player’s your main concern here and…you know but if we think a guy’s ready to play, then we’ll play him.
Q: Since you haven’t added another running back, and only have two healthy on your roster, does that mean you have confidence LeSean McCoy will play?
A: Well I mean I’m cautiously optimistic. Isn’t that what we always say about McCoy? But no I mean I hope he can go. But if not than obviously the plan, it’s gonna be a little different. I mean obviously you can put…The thing about (Jerome) Felton, and I joked about it, but Felton was a half back when he originally came into the league. It’s not that he can’t do it, it’s just you’re probably not gonna have the explosiveness out of that position. But we’re deep at tight end, we’re deep at other positions that make up for it. So if Felton, will he be our third running back? If that’s the case then he would be.
Q: Is Karlos Williams around the facility right now?
A: I’m not sure. He’s obviously, you know wasn’t cleared to practice. So whether he’s in the building or not, I’m not real sure.
Q: Have that advised where he is in his progress yet?
A: No they haven’t said.
Q: How did you split up the QB reps today?
A: EJ’s (Manuel) still getting the majority of the reps right now. So even today that was the case.
Q: Is it tough to hold a player back when they are so adamant about playing through an injury?
A: I think as a head coach you lean on people that are a lot more qualified then yourself. That’s what I do and obviously that’s not hard to find. We got a great training staff. We got very confident doctors so those are the guys that I mainly lean on.
Q: But does that complicate things? You want players to be tough but you also need to be smart about it.
A: Yeah 100 percent of the players in this league are tough. It’s also a sport where you have 100 percent injury. You know guys are hurt. But the difference between pain and injury – if it’s just a pain thing then absolutely you want your guys to toughen through it or tough it out. But injury’s a different story.
Q: Do you see IK Enemkpali being able to contribute this week?
A: Yes I do. I think he’ll be up.
Q: Situational pass rusher?
A: We’ll see. You know he backs up two pretty good players with Jerry (Hughes) and Mario (Williams). But I think he’ll help us.
Q: How do you access the job Kurt Anderson has done with the offensive line now that his time is almost up?
A: I think Kurt’s done an outstanding job. I don’t think there’s any doubt and the guys around him have done a tremendous job. So when Aaron (Kromer) comes back and all that, that’s fine. But we’re happy that Kurt’s on our staff we can tell you that much.
Q: How do you go about defending Tyler Eifert when you are limited at safety?
A: Yeah I mean I was surprised. I think he’s got like six touch downs or something, in five games which is obviously pretty impressive. Regardless of our situation, he’s a tough matchup for anybody. So yeah you’re definitely mindful of his ability certainly.
Offensive Coordinator Greg Roman
Wednesday, October 15, 2015
Q: How challenging is it to prepare for a game knowing that you could potentially have only two healthy running backs?
A: Well here’s what I’ve learned. Whatever happens, you try to plan the best ahead of time. Try to lay out the best contingency as you can and whatever happens you just make it work and that’s the bottom line. Nobody cares. That’s the way I look at it. So you find a way and I thought our guys found a way last week. Which was awesome to see.
Q: Do you feel like EJ Manuel and Tyrod Taylor have similar enough skill sets where you can keep everything you intend to use in the game no matter what?
A: Interesting question. You know I think each guy’s different in their own way. Certainly you can’t just say hey, we got this game plan for this quarterback, and this game plan for the other guy. Cause there’s ten other guys out there too and there’s only so much data space during the week for them to simulate a game plan, the adjustments, and all those other things. So I think there’s gotta be a middle ground that you try to achieve and you try to tailor it to one guy – no pun intended – but at the same time that there’s enough carry over that the rest of the offense can really assimilate it to a high enough level to really go out and execute it.
Q: So you don’t feel like you have to change it too much?
A: I don’t think it’s a matter of changing too much. I think it’s a matter of what box do you pick out of.
Q: Have you had to change things overall on the offensive side and how you call a game because of the injuries?
A: Yeah, I think so. I think you do that. It’s all about the players, guys. You know what players you have out there and how you can put them in good spots relative to the defense you’re playing. I definitely think that’s gonna happen and it’s week to week, what’s it gonna take to win the game.
Q: So have you had to scale back what you can do with Tyrod Taylor?
A: No comment…no uh, maybe. He certainly did a great job running last week when we needed him too.
Q: It seems like last week Seantrel Henderson struggled a little bit. What can you do at that position to get him going?
A: Yeah, I don’t think Seantrel played his best game last week. But overall he’s played very well for us and I have total confidence in him playing at a high level, as he has displayed for much of this year. I think he’s got the ability and the opportunity to be one of the best tackles in football.
Defensive Coordinator Dennis Thurman
Wednesday, October 15, 2015
Q: Are you going to start Duke Williams at safety?
A: Not sure yet. We’re gonna play all of them and you know we’re preparing all of them. So we’ll see.
Q: How is Bacarri Rambo’s health?
A: He’s better. He’s taking his fair share of reps and we gotta get everybody at safety, basically ready to play.
Q: How much does Tyler Eifert change defenses now because you can’t just roll coverage to AJ Green?
A: No, you know he’s done a heck of a job too. I believe he has five or six touchdown catches already and AJ’s one of the best receivers in the game. So it forces you to balance things up a little bit more. But we feel like we have a challenging secondary and we’ll go out and compete with them, and we’ll see what happens on Sunday.
Q: Are you confident enough in your cornerbacks to match up one on one with AJ Green?
A: We’re confident enough in all of our football players to go and matchup with their offense. So it’s…cause it’s 11 on 11. Like I said they have good football players, we have good football players, we’ll go out and play the game on Sunday.
Q: How would you assess the play of Nigel Bradham?
A: He’s done a very good job for us. I mean he’s an all-around linebacker. He’s done a better job than he did a year ago against the run. He’s still very good against the pass. He’s improved his blitzing. So we feel like he’s one of the better all-around young linebackers in football.
Filed under: Buffalo Bills
Tagged with: Buffalo Bills, EJ Manuel, Rex Ryan, Tyrod Taylor
Sorry, comments are closed on this post.