Brian Billick Player Quotations

I saw a tremendous player in Dwight Freeney playing at the top of his game and as dynamic a presence on the outside rush as there is in the game.

Mark brings the unique perspective to the position that only a former player can bring. Mark will bring the same toughness and tenacity to this staff that he brought to his teams during his 11-year career in the NFL.

You give a coach, any coach, a player for two years, let's say,

Fault? For what? They said they got the player they wanted. We got the player we wanted, plus. Sounds like life turned out pretty good.

Some people like what he does, some people don't. We were being very aggressive about taking the next step for this team to win a Super Bowl, by recognizing what we were going to have to deal with in what was arguably the best player in free agency. Rewards are usually proportional to the risk you take. Yeah, this is a risk.

Any player you bring in, you have to be concerned about team chemistry. It's not necessarily the guy may or may not be a bad apple. It's just in terms of demeanor and work ethic. We have very good team chemistry. This team has been together for a while and has developed a certain camaraderie. You don't want to disrupt that.

You don't want to put a player at risk. He feels good. We just have to make sure everyone else signs off on it.

It's huge, but you gain some things when you lose a player of that caliber. There are people that have to step up; we did it in 2002, we have this year. We'd prefer not to go through it, but we'll focus on the things we've been able to do with Ray Lewis and the people we have out there, and we'll get a much better idea of what their abilities are.

I've got to get back to being a head coach. That involves the relationship with your players, albeit understanding the relationship between player and head coach is well-defined. That doesn't mean you can't pull yourself back into that environment more effectively. I have to be more responsive and helpful to my assistant coaches, to give them the platform and the resources they need to be successful.

Oh, it's huge, it's huge. But you gain some things when you lose a player of that caliber, because other people have to step up.