Smalltalk » Kyle Williams knows he’s more than capable of returnin

ORCHARD PARK Max Scharping Jersey , N.Y. (AP) — g for a 14th season. What the Buffalo Bills defensive tackle wasn’t sure he can handle is spending another spring and summer of practice and training camp watching his children play T-ball and soccer on FaceTime.The lure of being with his family overcame Williams’ passion for football in announcing Friday that he’s retiring after Buffalo (5-10) closes its season hosting Miami (7-8) on Sunday.“I love team. I love competing. But at the end of the day, it comes down to what are the most important things,” the 35-year-old Williams said following practice.That still didn’t make it easy for Buffalo’s longest-active tenured player who established himself as a respected leader and fan favorite for his lunch-bucket approach in a blue-collar community.“I don’t know if there’s ever a good time, whether it’s now or whether it’s two years from now. It’s going to hurt walking away,” Williams said. “There’s going to be a void in my life because of how much this game and how much this organization and what this team has meant to me.”And yet, Williams is pleased to be leaving football on his own terms in being healthy and showing no signs of a drop in production.What he’s most proud of is having spent his entire career in Buffalo, while also proving wrong the skeptics who questioned whether the 6-foot-1, 300-pound player was too small to succeed at the NFL level after the Bills selected him in the fifth round of the draft out of LSU.“I think the hardest thing for me is going to be … walking away from something that they said I couldn’t do,” Williams said. “I think the main thing was that I never cheated anybody a day, whether it’s our fans, our owners, my teammates. I literally gave all I had every day. And I’m comfortable knowing that and moving forward here.”Williams was a second-team All-Pro in 2010 and earned five Pro Bowl selections. He’s a Pro Bowl alternate this year, and welcomed the chance to compete if the opportunity came up to represent the Bills for one last time.Williams made up his mind to retire upon informing his wife a few weeks ago, before breaking the news to coach Sean McDermott on Monday.McDermott joked by calling the news “the worst Christmas present a man could get.”The coach then went on to praise Williams for what he’s meant to the Bills both on and off the field.“We need more Kyle Williams, although they’re hard to find Brian Burns Jersey ,” McDermott said. “You can’t replace a guy like Kyle. They come around once in a career.”Williams became McDermott’s voice in the locker room, and served as mentor for the numerous youngsters Buffalo added this offseason.Williams’ influence even extended to offensive players, such as running back LeSean McCoy, who referred to the defensive tackle as one of the better leaders he’s ever been around.“Solid career. He’s a guy that likes to go against the odds. I like him, man, I like his hard work,” McCoy said. “When I came here, I realized that type of play and attitude is what Buffalo is all about.”Even opponents paid tribute with the New England Patriots posting a note on their Twitter account, which read, “Nothing but respect.” The post was accompanied by a video of Williams and Patriots quarterback Tom Brady shaking hands following New England’s 25-6 victory at Buffalo on Oct. 29.Williams’ retirement creates a large void for the Bills both on and off the field. And it comes 11 months after Buffalo lost another influential leader, when center Eric Wood was forced to retire after sustaining a career-ending neck injury.Out of 954 defensive plays through 15 games, Williams is second among Bills defensive linemen in playing 621 of them — four fewer than pass-rusher Jerry Hughes. Williams has five sacks, his most since having 5 1/2 in 2014, and has already surpassed last year’s totals with 13 quarterback hits and five tackles for losses.Overall, he has 48 1/2 sacks http://www.pantherscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-greg-little-jersey , 139 quarterback hits and 92 tackles for losses in 182 career games.He also scored on a one-yard touchdown run in a 22-16 win at Miami in last season’s finale, which, combined with Baltimore’s loss to Cincinnati, led to Buffalo clinching a playoff berth and ending a 17-year postseason drought.Williams’ favorite moment was following being with his teammates in the locker room following the win, and watching Cincinnati eliminate Baltimore from contention on Andy Dalton’s 49-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Boyd on fourth down in the final minute.What made the moment extra special was how Williams enjoying the moment with his two sons.“They were pretty young, but I hope they’ll remember that forever, because their dad won’t forget,” he said.Williams has no firm plans on what he’ll do next, while saying he’s had a discussion with McDermott about a possible role with the team.Though the Bills have taken a step back this season, Williams believes the team is headed in the right direction under McDermott and general manager Brandon Beane, and their vision to build through youth.“That’s what makes it tough moving away, because of the direction we’re moving, the young guys we have,” Williams said. “Just know that I’m always going to be a Buffalo Bill, and the main thing for those guys is they’ve got all my support.” Jon Kitna unfolded a piece of paper detailing that day’s practice plan because he thought it was a good way to illustrate why the former Dallas quarterback was back in the NFL with the Cowboys after coaching high school football for seven years.Dak Prescott‘s new position coach never stopped communicating with Jason Garrett Will Grier Jersey , who replaced the fired Wade Phillips as head coach while Kitna was starting for an injured Tony Romo halfway through a lost season in 2010. Now Kitna is on the staff of a man he calls a mentor �? even though Garrett is only seven years older.“Like, literally, I could bring one of my coaches here from the last seven years and I could hand them this, and they’d know exactly what this is and how it works and what we’re doing,” Kitna said as he held out the paper. “He gave me all that stuff.”When Garrett and the Cowboys were dealing with another Romo injury and needed an emergency backup for a 2013 regular-season finale with a playoff berth on the line, Kitna traveled from Washington state, where he was coaching his high school alma mater, to wear the headset for one Sunday.A year later, Kitna returned to Texas as coach at Waxahachie High School, just south of Dallas. After three years there, he coached at a private school in Arizona before the Cowboys promoted Kellen Moore to offensive coordinator after just one year as QB coach.Re-enter Kitna, whose playing career overlapped with Garrett’s for almost a decade �? although they were never teammates �? before Garrett became his offensive coordinator in Dallas.“At that time, I always said to myself at some point he is going to stop playing,” Garrett said. “At some point we got to get him back on board. He’s got great knowledge of the game. He’s got a great way to connect with people. The way he interacts with players. The way he interacts with coaches.”Garrett’s been known to say many of the same things about Prescott after two NFC East titles in three seasons, along with NFL Rookie of the Year honors in 2016 when he led Dallas to a franchise-record 11-game winning streak.Kitna is coming along at an important time http://www.pantherscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-christian-miller-jersey , the 46-year-old looking like the perfect complement for someone exactly 20 years younger.Viewed by the front office as the face of the franchise for the next decade and perhaps beyond, Prescott seeks his first big contract after significantly outplaying his fourth-round rookie deal. The Cowboys believe they have the pieces to end a nearly 25-year Super Bowl drought.Prescott keeps coming back to footwork when asked how he thinks Kitna is going to make him better.“He does a great job of staying on top of us every practice, going in the film room and making sure we touch up on it as well,” Prescott said. “I’m seeing the improvement. It feels great.”When he finally decided to make the jump, Kitna went from coaching teenagers to a two-time Pro Bowler looking for answers on how to get past the divisional playoffs after losing in that round twice.The difference wasn’t lost on a former player who never made the Pro Bowl, had a losing record (54-70), lost both his playoff starts and threw almost as many interceptions (165) as touchdowns (169). A career that spanned 14 seasons also included stops in Seattle, Cincinnati and Detroit.“The thing I had to get over was, and it was quick, ‘I have something to offer,'” Kitna said, chuckling at the memory of showing up with Garrett’s staff at the Pro Bowl before the Cowboys had announced his hiring, feeling as if “the staff doesn’t even know who you are.”“Especially for me, I’m a severe introvert. I set the scale for it. I just had to get over it. And Dak’s been great. I do have not only something to offer. I think I have a lot to offer. And I think we’re growing together.”Kitna has another duty in helping the Cowboys settle on Prescott’s backup. Cooper Rush had the job the past two seasons and appears in line for a third, particularly after Mike White struggled in the preseason opener at San Francisco last weekend.Rush and White were on the roster last season Jordan Scarlett Jersey , but the Cowboys might not have the luxury of keeping three quarterbacks this season. This is where Kitna’s voice becomes important again.“At the end of the day, this is Dak’s team and we need to make sure that he’s ready to go come Week 1,” White said. “I think (Kitna) does a great job of spending time with me and Coop as well, whether it was extra meeting times on the field after practice, before practice. He’s really dialed in with it all.”During his three years as a high school coach in Texas, Kitna usually took at least a day each season to bring his staff to a Cowboys practice. His last two years of that were Prescott’s first two seasons in the NFL. For Kitna, the familiarity ran deeper than that.“I don’t know that I ever stopped coaching high school kids like I was in the NFL,” Kitna said. “My high school kids would come here right now and go, ‘Oh, that’s that play. That’s that play. That’s that play.’ We didn’t have quite the volume. But we had heavy volume.“At the end of the day, you have to be able to teach what you have up here. It’s not OK to just have knowledge. You have to be able to give knowledge. I think that’s the same way as high school or here.”51<button class="view-gallery">View Gallery</button> Gallery:PHOTOS: Dallas Cowboys Training Camp In OxnardKelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports | Kelvin Kuo