On his thoughts about being back in Buffalo:
I'm excited. It's a lot of fun. It's a little bizarre. It's been 18 years or so since I've really been back here so to come back it's neat. It's neat connecting with good friends. I told Chan Gailey this morning 'old friends' and he said 'be careful calling them old' (laughs) so I said 'I meant old as in we've been together a long time not old in age' but we are getting that way also a little bit.
On his early impressions of this coaching staff:
I heard a lot of good things and for me I know a number of the guys on this staff just from being around. Some guys coached me here, some guys were on the staff when I played here, a guy was in Detroit, a guy was in Carolina, other guys I know from FCA camps and stuff. So I've met different coaches who are on this staff in my years of playing and now coaching in the league. There are a number of them that I have some knowledge of or some relationship with so that's exciting that I already have that in place. I just heard good things about what they're doing here, great things about Chan, the type of man he is, the organization that he's put together and that he's running here, so I'm excited to be a part of it.
On what he makes of this franchise since his playing days:
I think they're a team that started building in the draft. They missed on some draft picks in the past and it hurt them. When you miss on high draft picks it hurts you in the NFL. They've hit some recently and have continued to do so. I think they're headed in the right direction. Everybody is very positive here and has good feelings about where the organization and the team are headed. They got off to the quick start last year and hit a bad patch and they want to build upon the good things that took place last year. I think the feeling amongst the coaches, the organization, and I think the players is that we are going to build upon the good things that we did last year and let's go forward from here. I think it's a very positive outlook on things that are taking place.
On if he ever imagined that losing Colts QB Peyton Manning would result in the season they had last year:
We talked about it a little bit, yeah. We were so dependent on him and what he did. The whole offensive structure was built upon what he could do and how he did it. The way his injury took place, there was always kind of the thought that 'well, he could come back, he might come back, maybe the recovery time is going to be x.' So we found ourselves kind of holding out hope 'well, let's not change everything because there's a chance he's going to come back and when he comes back then we're going to run it this way.' Unfortunately, he never did come back. So we got stuck with kind of trying to change in midstream and put some things together, and the people we had trying to do some of the things that Peyton did, even then we cut it down, but obviously they're not Peyton Manning.
On if he's looked at any video of the tight ends here yet:
I have not. I saw a bunch of Bills film last year before we played New England, Kansas City, Cincinnati, a number of different teams we played that we saw the Bills play against and saw a lot of good stuff, a lot of really good stuff. They ran the ball like crazy. The offensive line was a good group. The tight ends, they did a lot of neat things and a lot of positive things that I saw on film. We tried doing some of the stuff that they did, down in Indianapolis. They've got a lot of good things going on and I think they're going to improve upon it and get better with it.
On TE Scott Chandler and being an unrestricted free agent:
I will try to talk to him or text him or however they communicate these days (laughs), but try to get in touch with the tight ends that I'm going to be working with. Hopefully we can get him back. I know the team would like to have him come back. He had a very good year last year, and try to build upon that. I would like to get some players to break any and all records that I may still be holding around here because well find somebody better than me.
On if he thinks the tight end position is back around the league when looking at TEs like (NE) Rob Gronkowski or (NO) Jimmy Graham or if those guys are just a couple of exceptions:
I think that trend … Tony Gonzalez (ATL) has caught a lot of balls over a lot of years now in the league so there's some unique talents and great players. Those guys are special players and when you get special players they're going to make plays for you if you get the right matchup. Gronkowski's 6'7 and 270 pounds or whatever and he runs well, long arms, catches the ball well and Jimmy Graham down in New Orleans, Drew Brees has unbelievable confidence in him. (Graham's) covered by three guys and (Brees) throws it high and outside and Graham jumps over the top of people and catches it. So I think they're unique talents that people are taking advantage of with the matchups and getting balls to them. Hopefully we can continue to build upon what Scott (Chandler) did last year and keep using him in those situations and stuff, especially in the red zone. Gronkowski caught 17 touchdowns this year, which is just unbelievable for a tight end, but he's a big, physical guy that they throw over the top of people and he catches the ball.
On how you stop a tight end like Gronkowski as a defense:
I don't know. If you have a quarterback who has great confidence in him and he puts the ball in the right place. You're going to stop him if the quarterback underthrows it or throws it over his head or doesn't put it in the position where only he can catch it. And if you put it in the position where only he can catch it, and he's a tough guy, courageous guy, he'll go up and make the catches in tough situations and take the hits that you're going to get – that's really hard to stop.
On the first thing he wants to do and analyze:
The first thing is I'm trying to figure out where to go in the building and not get lost and how to get in the building (laughs). Next is to find out how (the coaching staff) calls stuff, what do they call it. Everybody runs the same kind of plays in the league it's just what is your terminology, what is your verbiage for it. So just start learning that kind of stuff and then sit down and start watching film. Watch the guys play, how they play, what are their strengths, what are their weaknesses, what do they do well, what don't they do well, and let's correct the things that they don't do well and improve upon them and lets build upon what they do well.
