Sammy Watkins wasn’t shy talking to the media today about the Bills firing of offensive coordinator Greg Roman.
The Buffalo News’ new Bills beat writer, Nick Veronica, published an article loaded with quotes from the wideout, which include a discussion on his foot injury as well as the coaching-staff shake up.
Watkins shot down any speculation about his ailment stopping him from playing on Sunday against the Cardinals, saying “That’s kind of out the window. I know what I’m dealing with. The team knows what I’m dealing with. If I’m out there playing, I can’t feel sorry for myself. The foot is not an excuse.” He went on to say he felt “fine” after Buffalo’s Week 2 loss to the Jets.
Speaking about the players-only meetings, Watkins was to-the-point and seemingly scoffed at the idea that they were done secretly, or a big deal.
“I met with them plenty of times before. … I just think they wanted to see where my head was and our other guys, the leaders on the team, where our heads were.”
He also gave insight as to what transpired during his sit-down with the Peguals.
“First of all, I just told them it’s up to our play. We can’t blame anybody. We have to play better as an offense, as a team, and as individual effort. And that’s what it’s really about. We can do better, and play better. Things that we need to fix, we talked about that.”
Doesn’t sound like Roman-bashing, right?
However, as Veronica mentioned on Twitter, the most striking comment from Watkins came on the subject of Roman and how the team plans to move forward with Anthony Lynn in control of the offense.
“As I watch film, I even said we need to go to (receiver Robert) Woods more – he’s open every play. But as a wide receiver, you want to get 10 targets, you want to see what you can do. You want to help your team out as much as you can. But that goes to say Woods needs 10 targets too, he needs the ball too. Clay needs the ball too.
“The playbook is open to everyone. We got all the plays. Now we’re just trying to get back to the basics of what we’re doing, master the plays that we need to master instead of trying to trick people.”
While that doesn’t seem like an overt dig at Roman, it’s hardly a ringing endorsement.