As Midwesterners see it, if you're within 8 or 10 hours, you're pretty much home, so I'm excited to have a lot of support here. |
At the time it was kind of a slap in the face to not only this organization but the whole NFL and the way the draft works, ... Everybody knows the best guy's going to go to the worst team from the year before. If everybody had a choice and said, 'Hey, I don't want to play there,' then we'd have to (make) some major changes. |
Definitely the fans are going to be riled up, ... It'll help us in the long run. If they can make some noise and get in his head, that would be great. |
Definitely the fans are going to be riled up. It'll help us in the long run. If they can make some noise and get in his head, that would be great. |
Everybody likes to be the underdog at times. |
He's the emotional leader. His motor is always going. When you're on the field you want to be like that, too. He tells everyone to get going, you just do it. |
I think it is definitely a realistic goal; that is why he set the goal. You very rarely set goals that you don't think you can actually achieve. I think in his case he knows it's possible, and he's confident in his ability. And this offense can get him to 2,000 yards. It's definitely a challenge, but it is definitely there for him. |
It would be just one 'W', and we got a lot of season left. But it is going to speak volumes for the team, this organization. It would be a huge win for our confidence and a huge win for the city. |
That's one thing we want to do this year, start off solid right away. It took a while last year to find our identity. A lot of it had to do with the new defense. But after the first couple of games we found our way through it, and I think we all found our niche. We found our roles and fed off everyone else. |
The biggest difference is our expectation level. We were sitting at 1-2 last year, and, I think, a lot of guys didn't know what to expect. We didn't know what kind of team we had yet. |
The kid is a rookie. He's the first pick overall. Why is he being picky about where he wants to go? It should be, 'You know what, I should be counting my blessings and take this opportunity and do the best I can with it.' A lot of us went through the draft. A lot of guys didn't make it into the draft. I think it's kind of a slap in the face to the system. |
This year at 1-2, our expectations are so much higher. We know the caliber of team we have, and we know we can be very, very competitive. |
We have a little youth, a little experience, and a lot of speed. |
We knew that these are the world champs and they are just not going to lie down and die. We had to come out and match their intensity and fire in the second half. |
We're definitely motivated to beat them and to show him that we are a better team than he thought at the time of the draft. And, more importantly, the fans are feeling crazy about it and we don't want to let them down. |