Floyd Reese Year Quotations

Kevin has been extremely durable just year after year. Kevin is one of those guys who understands what winning is and knows how to win and can help everybody along that way.

We talked about the plan last year. We went through it. We had a tough time. We purged. We got past that. We said this year we would be 100 percent better off. We are 100 percent better off.

It comes and it goes, ... He'll go out the first two weeks of the season and gain 200 yards and people will be saying, 'Well, the old Eddie's back.' You know, Eddie never left. It's overreaction and overanalyzing. He's going to be the same, and he is the same. We expect him to be as productive this year as any year.

We were still good enough that we decided let's give it another shot. But we got to this year and said it's time. Rather than try to tippy-toe our way through it, we just took it all in one big shot.

We know it can't go on forever, that's obvious. But I think as long as you have the quarterback that we have, you've got a chance. The real exciting part is that if you keep getting invited to the dance every year, then at least you've got a chance. We've got to just keep making the playoffs every year and keep taking our shot.

The old contracts we would do with somebody along these lines. You would say, 'OK, I'll give you a $10 million signing bonus, and then the minimum salary the first year and maybe the second year, and then later on in the contract really jack the salaries up.' Now, because of the 30 percent rule, you really can't do that.

The thing that is really unique about it is that this at least the third year in a row where you could go out and say, 'Well, how much can he improve?'  ... But after six games this year, he's off the charts, and yet there's nothing to make you say this is as good as he's going to get or he'll never be better. I don't know where he goes from here, but right now he's doing pretty darn good.

Thank goodness we're not where we were last year or the year before. Because it has to be a very, very scary situation to be way over the cap right now and trying to redo contracts and get your money right, and yet you're not exactly sure what effect the CBA is going to have on it. But that's our world and that's the way we have to live it.

But you know what? The system that was put in place years ago works. And it works better than it ever has. There is parity, and this system keeps everybody in it. It's still a bit early this season, but there are two or three teams that look really strong and two or three that are really struggling. Everybody else is in the middle. Last year at this time, we were 2-4 and people were burying us. But we ended up in the AFC title game. Now we're 4-2 and we're scared.

It's a sensitive topic. If you talk to most pro personnel people, they would rather have the players stay in to get the extra year of maturity.