Gray To Syracuse? The season is barely over for the Bills and the coaching carousel rumors have begin. The Buffalo News is reporting that a source has told them that Jerry Gray is a possible candidate to be interviewed for the head coaching job with Syracuse University. Gray could be a hot commodity this year as he proved he can run a 2nd ranked defense on his own.
Franchise Tag Not An Option: In answering fans e-mails on the official team site, Tom Donahoe said they would not likey use the Franchise tag on Jonas Jennings or Pat Williams. He said it is cost prohibitive to do that and would take a big chunk of the salary cap. He did feel that there is a chance they could re-sign both however. Donahoe is not a fan of the tag and has used it once in Buffalo on Peerless Price. He knew when he used it that he would then trade him. The Bills would like to keep both players but it depends on the motivation of the players and agents to get the deal done. Both players have expressed interest in staying in Buffalo. The Bills are in decent cap shape. They will be in better shape if the incentives reached this year by players can be used with the remaining money from this year's cap instead of next year's cap. That is unknown at this time.
Bills Draft Position: The Bills will pick 20th in the NFL draft this year based on where they finished. That is one spot above the playoff teams. They don't have a top pick, that pick went to Dallas for the Bills to draft J.P. Losman. That is two picks higher than they drafted him #22 with Dallas' pick last year.
Opponents Set: The Bills 2005 opponents are set. They will host Miami, New England, and the Jets and play all three division rivals on the road obviously. The other five home games are against: Denver, Kansas City, Houston, Atlanta, and Carolina. The other five road games are against: Oakland, San Diego, Cincinnati, New Orleans, and Tampa Bay. Most of the schedule was done in advance through 2009, two of the games each year are determined by the way teams finished the standings. Cincinnati and Houston were those two teams this year. The dates and times will be deterimed in early April. Future Opponents.
Bledsoe Says It's His Team: Drew Bledsoe spoke to the media yesterday in his end of the season press conference. He said he's greatly disappointed that the team doesn't get to keep playing, he really though the team had developed into a very good football team by the end of the year. He is proud of what the team was able to do to dig out of the 1-5 start. They showed a lot of character and determination to do that. He didn't have an answer to what happened against Pittsburgh, they weren't sharp and don't know why. Next year the football team has to be smarter across the board and execute without making the mistakes that hurt them. The talent is there they just need to play more consistent and smarter football. It hurts that this season is over because they have such a good team, he won't even watch the playoffs since he thinks they are better than some of the teams in the playoffs. On next season, Bledsoe said he's very proud to be part of the team and is excited about what the future holds for him and the organization. He was also proud that he was able to stay the course and lead the team through the rough times. He will lobby to keep Jonas Jennings with the Bills. He nipped any talk of a QB controversy by saying it is his team. On Travis Henry he hopes he comes back but he deserves to be a starter somewhere. He has been a credit to the Bills and will be to any organziation he is a part of. He is a great team guy who has had to swallow his pride and can run for 1400 yards a year. He praised the young players, Lee Evans and Willis McGahee saying they wouldn't have won many of the games they did win without those two guys. He thinks the team will use the disappointment of how the season ended as motivation next year. He really thought the team could have caused some damage in the playoffs and that adds to the disappointment.
Monday January 3, 2005
McGahee Expects Bigger Jump: Willis McGahee held his end of the year press conference and refused to answer any questions about the knee as he has put that chapter behind him. He will take it easy for a while and get some of that warm south Florida weather. He expects to have a bigger jump next year. On Travis Henry, McGahee expects him to be back and stayed with the line that he's Henry's backup. He feels he should be back and given a chance to fight for the job and said Henry did a great job handling the situation and he takes his hat off to him.
Bills Can Build On Next Year: Lawyer Milloy praised the coach for the way he got the team through the adversity this year. He feels the defense can even improve next year if it remains intact like it should. He thinks the team can build on what they did this year. He feels he can build continuity with Troy Vincent next year after having a training camp together at safety. He feels the defense was better this year, than last year because they finished with the same ranking of #2 but they increased the takeaways. It doesn't really matter though, since they were out of the playoffs for the second straight year.
Full Evaluations To Begin: Coach Mularkey told the players on cleaning out day to get away for awhile and recharge the batteries. He wants them to look back on what they accomplished after the start that the team had. Evaluations on the players and schemes will begin. He emphasized to the team that one play can make the difference in a season. He felt the offense improved throughout the year and the special teams was the best in the league. The defense lived up to the standard they set for itself last year. When ask about next year's QB situation, he said its too soon to talk about, it will be evaluated like everything else starting late this week after a few days off for the coaches. The coach talked to Travis Henry this morning and got no indication he was unhappy. As we reported earlier, he told the press he wants out of Buffalo. He told the team that he felt one of the better teams in the NFL is not in the playoffs. He is not satisfied with how they finished and never will be satisfied there is work to be done. They will use the evaluations to see what work does need to be done. They want to start where they finished this year, not from the beginning to put them a step ahead of last year. He was disappointed for the players that they didn't make the playoffs. The players worked hard and nobody was ready for it to end like it did.
Henry Wants Out: Travis Henry told reporters that he wants out of Buffalo as the players cleaned out their lockers after a disappointing end to a successful season. He did not complain as he backed up Willis McGahee before getting hurt, now he is speaking out. He feels he's a starter and wants to go somewhere where he will start. He will not accept a backup role with the team next year. He has one year to go on his current contract and a trade is likely. His value has dropped because he was injured a lot of the year which may make a deal more difficult. Henry emphasized that the job was taken from him, he didn't lose it.
Jennings, Williams Emotional: Jonas Jennings and Pat Williams were emotional after the loss because they both know it could be the last game they play in a Bills uniform. Both players are the biggest unrestricted free agents the team has and they know the business side of it. They both indicated they want to stay in Buffalo but money will be a factor. Williams has stated he'd play for less money in Buffalo. Jennings said yesterday he'd love to come back. Ralph Wilson said it will be tough to keep both players but praised the player of Williams yesterday saying it was his best game as a Bill. Check back to Bills Daily later in the week when we release our 2005 exclusive front office page that will list all the Bills free agents. Later in the week we will also have our final season position by position grades.
Smith Also Banged Up: Besides the abdomen injury flare up to Chris Villarial, his backup got banged up too. Lawrence Smith played for only a short time before being replaced by Mike Pucillo. Willis McGahee banged up his shoulder making a catch late in the game. None of the injuries are serious and they now have a long off season to rest them. Injury Report.
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Gray Up For Niners Job? Chris Mortensen reported on ESPN this morning that Jerry Gray is one of many candidates for the open 49ers coaching job. The Bills will be lucky if they get to hold on to Gray as he is a hot coordinator candidate this year. There aren't too many head coaching jobs open at this point in the pros or college which could help them keep him.