I was just going to post a question about this guy. I wanted to know if he was that good.
ENTRENCHED: Crowell is solidly in Bills' lineup
Sunday, August 13, 2006
By John Delong
JOURNAL REPORTER
Angelo Crowell's first appearance at Bank of America Stadium as a member of the Buffalo Bills didn't last as long as he wanted.
Crowell left the game early in the second quarter and watched from the sidelines the rest of the night as the Carolina Panthers beat the Bills 14-13 in the preseason opener for both teams.
"I wanted to go another series," Crowell said afterward. "I was just getting into the groove."
But the brief appearance was actually good news in many ways for Crowell, a former North Forsyth star in his fourth season with the Bills.
He is firmly entrenched as the starter at weakside linebacker, and all the starters were being pulled at that point. And despite the early exit, he finished as the Bills' second-leading tackler with four.
"It was just good to get out there and get some real live action," he said. "We didn't game-plan, so it was just a matter of going out and reading your keys, and just getting out and playing.
"And it was really good to come home. To come home and have my family here supporting me and put on a good show, it definitely felt good. I had 45 tickets, so I had a lot of fans and family here supporting me, and that was nice."
The Bills made a significant commitment to Crowell recently.
Last week, they released veteran Jeff Posey, who had started 47 of 48 games at weakside linebacker during the past three seasons, to clear the way for Crowell to become the starter.
Perry Fewell, the Bills' new defensive coordinator, said that Crowell had progressed to the point that Posey was expendable.
"We really like Angelo," Fewell said. "He has size, speed and athletic ability, and when he arrives at the ball carrier, he has violence.
"I was looking for an athlete such as that. I said, 'Hey, I'm going to give you an opportunity to play,' and he said, 'I want to play.' And he made the commitment during the off-season to come in and learn the defense and do the things we asked him to do. He had to learn two positions, and he did that. And I thought he was ready to step up and take that challenge."
Crowell is playing alongside London Fletcher-Baker and Takeo Spikes.
"If we can get them to jell together, we can have a good linebacking corps," Fewell said.
Crowell, a third-round pick in 2003 after a solid career at Virginia, played sparingly as a rookie and then played mostly special teams in his second season.
Then last season, he stepped in when Spikes suffered a season-ending Achilles injury in the third game. He started the final 13 games, and finished fourth on the team in tackles with 125.
He had four games of 10 tackles or more, including a career-high of 15 against Kansas City.
"Coming into the league, I was behind a lot of veteran guys," Crowell said. "I just treated it as a learning experience, to prepare me for when the day would come. I just wanted to take that as a positive note and learn as much as I could, so when my opportunity came I would be prepared.
"I got my big break last year, and I was able to go out there and show what I could do. I owe it to preparation. If I didn't prepare myself like a starter, it would have taken me a lot longer to go out there and play. Toward the end of the season, I was just able to let it go. I felt like I was back in college again just out there playing and getting in the flow of the game."
He wasn't in the flow of the game long last night.
But under the circumstances, that was great news.
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