As another season opens up for the Bills, so does another season of expectations. For Bills fans, these expectations and preseason hype have not come fruition at playoff time. Although words and intentions cannot deliver a team to the playoffs, a no nonsense attitude about the team's history is a good place to start.
Such an approach was abundant during move-in day at Bills training camp as several players and General Manager Doug Whaley took the disappointments of seasons past head on and made the call for change.
"They should, we haven't done anything," said Whaley when asked about his thoughts on the Bills low preseason projections. "We've got a lot to prove. It is what it is."
Among the players to speak on the topic, WR Robert Woods made no bones about the situation the Bills find themselves in.
"It goes both ways," said Woods. "I see it as, it doesn't really matter, their opinion, and I also see it as that's our fault. We need to play better and it's definitely our fault we're not spoken about and we have to do better and that starts here tomorrow night."
Woods' feelings were echoed by safety Aaron Williams.
"Oh, we're not going to play any games this year," said Williams. "There's a new attitude, a new style, a new coaching staff … our expectations are high from last year."
Marquise Goodwin understands that winning over new supporters and converting the doubters will take victories, but he's confident they'll be a lot more people believing in his team besides the men on the roster.
"I like us. I like the Buffalo Bills," he said. "We've been putting work in. We're going to be putting even more work in through camp and I kind of like coming from the bottom. We're going to have to work our way up. There's going to be a lot of bandwagon fans coming out of the woodwork so I'm looking forward to it."
To Whaley, turning the team around is about proving that the Bills can change and that success is possible.
"We haven't been in the playoffs in a long time," said Whaley. "We owe it to the fans, our late Hall of Fame owner (Ralph Wilson Sr.) and everybody in this business to show we're not the Bills anymore. We want to be a playoff team and we plan to be a playoff team and that's our goal."
