Dick Jauron Quotations

With Willis and our young right tackle Jason, we feel like we can help our quarterbacks mature, make the game a little easier for them, if we can run the ball successfully, play-action pass, keep some people really honest and fearful of what we're going to do running the football.

We need to play as well as we can play, perform as hard as we can perform and see what we can get out of it.

There are only 32 of these, and it is a position that I love being in. Yes, I would like to be here.

Perry has some ideas of people he likes and feels comfortable with, and we're going to look in that direction. I think it will be a win-win for everybody. It's a unique situation, and we feel good about making it work out. It doesn't happen very often in this business that a coach gets to go home and his family gets to go home, too.

I'd like the players to know that to some degree they won't be judged on what they did. To some point they will. I want them to know they're going to have a shot to show us they deserve to be on the field.

I don't feel like it has any reflection on our friendship to take this job. This is just business. I felt it was in the best interest of our players and our staff for me to accept this job. That was the reason I took it.

I believe (the NFL) is the best sports league in the world and it has the most passionate fans. Every place is a little distinct in their passion and when you lose, they're going to let you know. The bottom line for us is working as hard as you can, working together, and working to create a winner again. We do that and the fans will be passionate in a positive way.

I have a relationship with Perry from Jacksonville and have kept in touch with him and watched him develop. He's a very smart guy, a very straightforward guy, high energy. I like all those things about him. He's a very honest guy.

I don't think it makes any sense for me to predict where anything's going. We all know things are not predictable.

He was disappointed, we were disappointed. As soon as he heals he'll be back out working.

He has been a credit to the game for a long time. The way he plays it and then his personality outside of it He brings joy to the game and I have always liked that.

He is a terrific return man. We knew that. We certainly had worked on not letting that happen, so that was a big disappointment. But there are some times when they just executed better than we did, and that was one of them.

What I learned is you better win. When you win, you're pretty smart. When you don't, you're not.

He's been in positions with teams that run a scheme that I like. I've always had a lot of respect for it. It's specific. It follows a teaching progression, I like that. You play fast in it, I like all those things. I trust Perry. It's time for him. I think he'll do a tremendous job.

The only thing I will promise is that I will do everything in my power to bring a winning team back to Buffalo.

I thought our guys really fought hard. We just made the mistakes that have kind of set us back all year in critical areas.

It has been a very difficult year for them. I don't know how to imagine what they have been through.

I think that they'll still play in our scheme because they have to play in the scheme. When they don't play in the scheme, you get situations like we got on Thanksgiving Day - different people at different times freelancing to some degree. And when everything goes bad, as it did on that day, the other team seems to find those breakdowns.

I will say on the first day of camp, there's a first team penciled in there, but if somebody beats you out, they're going to get the job.

I thought Joey played a good game, a strong game and he handled things well.

Jimmy's the guy, he's the man. And hopefully, ideally, Chris wouldn't play. If it's working, and everybody's healthy, then we go and we continue to win.

That's the kind of players we targeted. There's no law that says we can't or won't bring in older players here. But we were looking for guys who, if we're right about them, will be with us for three to five to seven years.

You'll hear me say, 'We've had a terrific draft.' Because you always take people you like and feel are good. But truly, you have to wait and see how it pans out. You may not know how good you did until five years later.

You like to have the numbers. It's obvious to say, but it's critically important who you pick and how it pans out. You've got to be a little bit lucky because it's not an exact science. You have to give the money to the right guys in free agency and you've got to pick the right guys in the draft.

We have to look out for each other. We're all we got.

We need to take these next five weeks, and we need to play ... and see what we can get out of it. I don't have plans other than the next game.

We'll do all we can to work together to get this thing where everybody wants it to be. The fact is that you have to be multiple in whatever you do. The name of our game is to win.

We are not going to install much here in a five-week period. We can lean in one direction or another for what is already in, but in a five-week season, which is essentially what we are looking at, you are not going to significantly change anything and hope that they can function. Our practice time is limited.

When you win, the odds are you're not making any changes. But I'm not going against my Wednesday decision-making process here. But I think you could probably guess.

We are just trying to see if we can jump start and get a win somehow.

We'd like to have him in, but we also understand his position in this thing. It'll straighten itself out over time one way or the other. We obviously value his abilities a great deal.

We'd like to have him in, but we also understand his position in this thing.

We knew we had enough time to kick it. It's the way it should have been. Thankfully, we have Jason.

This was a long day. It started from the opening kickoff. All the things we didn't want to have happen -- they happened out there.

The only thing I'll promise to do is everything I can to fulfill my obligation to bring a winning team back to Buffalo. There's a great winning tradition here, we know the fans are very passionate and it's something we're very passionate about.

We love Willis. We'd just love him a little more if he had been here. We know this, he is down there working. We'd just like to get him with our team and working with the guys on those occasions when he can make it.

We love the way he plays the game. We're looking for somebody who can knock people off the ball for us and that can also stretch the field a little bit. He's very athletic for a big guy. He's got that speed, and that will keep some people honest. Primarily we liked how he knocked people off the ball.

First, it is hard for me to picture that as a pass -- it looks more like a fumble. On the holding call, I'm probably seeing what I want to see, but it looked to me like it was in the end zone.

We gave them a game, gave them a little scare, but it wasn't enough.

You hope one of them rises quicker and takes the job. It'll be interesting to watch. We'll be watching, you'll be watching, we'll be talking about it I'm sure.

You have a veteran quarterback in Kelly, who is comfortable with his game. J.P. is a young quarterback and plays like one. ... He needs to be better for what he went though last year.

You gotta get lucky, in some terms. You gotta get on some players who maybe don't think they're that good and they play a lot better than they are. You gotta get on it in terms of injury, and then you have to make the right choices personnel-wise. The ones you think are going to be players, they all gotta be players and they gotta play up to it, so it's possible, definitely possible.

We wanted a three-man push there, thinking that the three of them would bring the level of play up of all of them a little bit higher and then one of them will surface (as the starter). At some point, we'll have to start changing the reps, because somebody hopefully will take the job. It'll be interesting.

(Bettis) is the kind of player that the game needs, the game thrives on, and the game grows around.

Every position is competitive. Whether you have Jim Kelly or Bruce Smith, if there is a better player that can take those jobs from those guys, then God bless us, we've got a heck of a football team in the making.

It was a numbers thing. Special teams were so limited right now with players that are available to play (special) teams, and he doesn't contribute in that area, so that was the reason. It wasn't really for anything he hadn't done. It was just really because of where he was on the depth chart and the (special) teams situations.

I've never felt like it was a hindrance as a coach, I've never felt like it was a problem with a player. Never felt like it made any difference in a meeting. I've never felt like I lost a team in a meeting talking to them.

I've always had a strong feeling that they just want to win. For whatever reason, it hasn't worked out for them.

Offenses are spreading you out all over the field today. You see four and sometimes even five receivers on the field. The game is a little bit different - a lot different - than it was a number of years ago.

Somebody will be named heading into camp, but there is always going to be competition. We'll try to name that guy going through the spring, but if we don't, we don't. We hope to have a feeling.

Coaches and players are pretty exhausted by this point, but you never look forward to it. You work so hard, and it seems like it goes so quickly and that last practice is on you, and you want it to keep going. You like being around a team. You like being part of a team.

A very tough guy, hard working guy, loves the game, studies the game. He's very, very into football. It's important to him.

That's what you fear against a team like that.

This is his third year and the third year is kind of a critical one for a young guy. We need to keep advancing and keep going forward.

They (Steelers) had everything to play and they performed well. I thought our guys performed well. I thought our guys fought hard. We had the same kind of mistakes that set us back all year.

There's always going to be movement in personnel, so your schemes, whatever they are, have to fit your present people but they also need to fit who's going to come in. They can't be so complicated that you need four years to teach it and three or four years for guys to develop.

Absolutely. In our league, when you go to a game, you see five receivers on the field, a lot of four, three receivers. You see empty (backfield) in every situation. So if you don't have at least three really good (corners), it'll be long Sundays.

It's a bad rule. When he explained the situation, a ball carrier is a passer when he's behind the line, and he can throw the ball, he has all the protection the quarterback has. If he's out of the pocket, he doesn't have to throw it near anybody, just to the line.

It's hard for me to stand up here in this position because Steve is a friend.

Not enough to talk about where it's going to be at the beginning of training camp. I'm certainly aware of him. I didn't study him out of college because at that time I wasn't a head coach and only worked on the defensive side. So I am behind in that regard. But he will be part of the personnel study as we move forward. Every position we have will be competitive and open to competition.

I love this position. I'll wait to see what occurs.

I like Steve because I like his background. I like the variety of ways he's coached. I'm a big believer in the fact you've got to do it all to win in our league. You've got to be able to throw it creatively but you've got to be able to run it. He's had a background in both.

In our business, it comes out in wins and losses. And if you win, it was a great decision. And if you don't win, it was not a great decision. And we know that our back is against the wall to win.

In order to have the best chance to win, you've got to be disciplined. If we lose a player in a brawl or fight on a game day, that's not giving us the best chance. If we lose a player in practice, that's certainly not giving us the best chance. We talked about it, and they're aware of it.

I remember more the players than all the other stuff, but it was a wild day. It obviously ended up being a terrific draft for us.

I haven't even thought about it, and we haven't spoken about it.

In the present day NFL, you're going to have changes in your personnel every year, so your scheme - whatever it may be - is going to have to be flexible. You can't have a system that needs three or four years.

I guess I would say hopefully not, which would mean things will go well on the field.

I guess the answer would be that we didn't win. That's probably another way of saying Jeff lost it. Saying it that way is a little bit harsh on that person. I can't say enough about Jeff as an unbelievable competitor. It wasn't easy when we talked.

He's very good. Very solid in the pocket, very comfortable, doesn't seem to rattle, strong arm.

He's a high-quality player and clearly has had a lot of years of high-level play. He's been an integral part of (the team) for a long time.

He's not a guy who runs with the ball. He's not a guy who gets tackled.

You certainly invest a lot of time and money into gathering your information, so it makes no sense to be free with it or give it away to anybody. Particularly at the top of the draft, people are pretty close.