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Terrell Owens first year in Buffalo didn’t go quite as planned. In fact, it blew up right in his face. It all started when Jason Peters was traded to the Eagles and their offensive coordinator Turk Schonert was fired and all of this happened before the season. To my surprise, TO didnt whine as much as he did, or at least what was reported, in Dallas. He was virtually nonexistent during the first eight games and came within striking range of 1,000 yards. That is pretty impressive for a guy that at the age of 36 to be as productive as he was on a team that utilized three different starting quarterbacks. If TO decides to stay in Buffalo, I dont expect him to be as quiet this year. He is a few years from retiring and he wants to win a Super Bowl and I am not sure if Buffalo is the place. Terrell Owens joined the Stephen A. Smith Show on Fox Sports Radio to talk about how it feels to not be a part of the playoff action this year, whether he has lost a step, whether he has ever thought about going into coaching, and what he says about the naysayers in Dallas during his time there.
On how it feels to not be a part of the playoff action this year:
“Number one, very disappointing and very discouraging. For myself I have a lot of pride in my ability and what I can bring to the table. Obviously being acquired by the Buffalo Bills I felt like with my talent and what they had done the year prior that I could be able to come in and try to get them over the hump. Pretty much a situation as I did in Philadelphia. That situation they needed a big play receiver to kind of get them over the hump and get them to that next level. I knew there were going to be some challenges. Some uphill battles with the situation in Buffalo being that I didn’t really know much about the Buffalo Bills. I was sort of not up to speed with everything that was going on but that is just me being, as I have said, confident in my ability and being able to help the people around me and with the additions of Lee Evans and what he brings to the table and the other side of the field and obviously with the stocked backfield of Marshawn Lynch and Fred Jackson. Defensively and special teams wise I kind of knew that they were solid there but as the season progressed and things started…We went through training camp and things started to happen. I never would have thought that the things that happened, happened. Again as I said, is very discouraging and very disappointing to be out of the playoffs watching guys play at this point.”
Whether he has lost a step:
“Well I think the people that are questioning it, especially if you go from a managerial standpoint, you talk about general managers, you talk about scouts… Then if they are doing that job and have that type of title, then they should know and assess the situation as to why my numbers are down. Again, you have mentioned a guy like Trent Edwards and Ryan Fitzpatrick, when I signed there the coaching staff mentioned to me and they told me that Trent was an up and coming quarterback that can throw the ball down the field, he is accurate so I took them at their word for what they said. I understood that Lee had been there and had been productive the year before. Again, there are some things that I didn’t know prior to signing there. You know like them not re-signing Jason Peters who was their Pro Bowl left tackle and you think about the offensive line and a right-hand quarterback then that is a staple that needs to be in place on the offensive line to protect your quarterback. Obviously, I felt no matter what or who the quarterback was in that situation…Stephen A.., I mean if you were the quarterback of the Buffalo Bills and you knew that you were going to be throwing to Lee Evans and Terrell Owens I am pretty sure that you would be excited about the opportunity. That is where I was and my mindset was going into the Buffalo Bills. I was excited about an opportunity to help a young quarterback grow and progress and become the quarterback that he wants to be. That was my thinking. That is why a lot of people don’t give me credit about me not being not selfish because yeah I could have been selfish and tried to wait it out and try to find some other team. That is just me again being confident in myself and my abilities. My thing is you look at my stats and look at my numbers, what 161 yards from one thousand? I barely even got the ball the first eight games of the season because of a number of reasons…”
Whether he has ever thought about going into coaching:
“Man I am smarter than a lot of people give me credit for. You can ask a number of my coaches especially position coaches stemming all the way back to my rookie year… All of these guys can tell you I am very knowledgeable about the game. Again I may not say a whole lot. A lot of things that I might say are probably not newsworthy sometimes to the fact that me being knowledgeable about the game. I am very aware about a lot of the things that go on around me. That has pretty much been the reasons for my outburst and I have said a lot of things that I have said that a lot of people don’t agree with because I know what is going on.”
On what he says about the naysayers in Dallas during his time there:
“No, I wouldn’t have been in a situation where I would have demanded the ball but I think throughout the scheme of things those are some of the things that happened when I was there. When I was there and drawing double-team coverage; you look at some of the big games that Miles had if you go back and look at those games when I was there it was a result of me being double-covered. I had no qualms or no gripes about that because I know that it is a team sport and whatever I did when it came to drawing double-team coverage it helped the team. It just so happened that they brought Roy in to replace me. So why is everybody trying to point the finger or say, OK Miles is replacing T.O.? They didn’t bring Miles in to replace me.”
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