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These are all things that Buffalo Bills head coach Rex Ryan said following his team's full-squad scrimmage that took place on Saturday night.
On whether or not the quarterback competition is where he thought it'd be after the scrimmage: "I was hoping to see something else pop through there, but it didn't."
On his offense only scoring 13 points on 17 live-scrimmage possessions: "I'm used to having a great defense, and I think sometimes the defense at this stage of the game is way ahead of the offense. I don't anticipate any points, they never gives up any points in these things, going back to my Baltimore days as a coordinator. So it doesn't happen a whole lot when you have to drive 70 yards like that against a good defense. So I'm not surprised by that at all. Again guys, we're putting in plays. Our fans aren't the only ones watching these things. So again, that's something of note as well. We know there's other teams here, and so we played pretty vanilla."
On the play of quarterback Matt Cassel, who did not see much action in the scrimmage, throwing just six passes on the evening: "Matt, we were running the ball specifically with him early. Then made some throws. Sometimes when he gets out of the pocket, it’s like, ‘hey, just get rid of it.’ Don’t need him to take unnecessary hits and things. Sometimes there’s plays to be made, sometimes there’s not."
On the play of quarterback EJ Manuel, who provided the biggest and best plays on a night when the offense (and its quarterbacks) struggled quite a bit: "I really thought EJ did a nice job. Had a real nice ball early. Then he had the big run, so I was impressed by EJ."
On the play of quarterback Tyrod Taylor, who made some plays with his legs and had a few nice throws, but also left opportunities for bigger plays on the field: "I think Tyrod, I was a little disappointed in him, because I’ve seen him make those throws for a touchdown before. I think he’d like to have a couple throws back. He did some nice things, but I know he wishes he had a couple throws back."
In all, Bills quarterbacks, per highly unofficial ESPN.com stat-keeping, completed 15-of-30 passes for 208 yards, with five sacks taken, one touchdown pass (Manuel to Bryce Brown), and zero picks in the lackluster offensive outing. This was, of course, the major focal point of coverage coming out of the scrimmage, and the consensus was the same: Manuel won the evening thanks to his big plays, Taylor might have had something to say about that had he connected on big-play opportunities, and Cassel didn't have much to do.
What else did we learn last night? Let's run through the recaps.
Mike Rodak, ESPN
Bonus coverage from Rodak includes many quotes from head coach Rex Ryan, plus observations on reserve running backs Brown and Karlos Williams.
Sal Capaccio, WGR 550
Bonus coverage from Capaccio centers mostly on injuries from the scrimmage; Ross Cockrell, Mario Butler, LeSean McCoy, and Merrill Noel all left the session early with dings of varying severity.
Matthew Fairburn, Syracuse.com
Bonus coverage from Fairburn looks at Seantrel Henderson staking his claim to the right tackle job, Brown's fumbling problem, wide receiver drops, and the strong play of reserve defensive lineman Corbin Bryant.
Jay Skurski, The Buffalo News
Bonus coverage from Skurski follows similar thought lines - Brown, Henderson, and injuries - but also includes rushing and receiving statistics for the Bills' skill players.
Joe Buscaglia, WKBW
Bonus coverage from Buscaglia focuses on Brown, Bryant, and the receivers dropping passes, but also the strong play of punter Colton Schmidt and the team's entire linebacker unit.
Chris Brown, BuffaloBills.com
Bonus notes from the team's official website include praise for the pass rush and the play of receiver Chris Hogan, who caught three passes for 73 yards by their numbers.