Lights Out: Shawne Merriman announces retirement

BY NICK ST. DENIS

Shawne Merriman, the former elite pass rusher turned oft-injured backup, decided to hang up his cleats after spending the last three years with the Buffalo Bills.

The 28-year old announced his retirement on his official website. (photo: Dirk Hansen, Flickr)

“After a lengthy discussion with my agent, family and team, I have officially decided to put my retirement papers in today," Merriman wrote. "My retirement from the game I love so much and from the game that has brought me so many opportunities on and off the field has been decided with great thought for my future on and off the field.

Bills' defense shows up, Dolphins' offense doesn't

BY SEAN DONOVAN

If only for one night, the Buffalo Bills' defense looked like it was supposed to going into the season.

It stopped the run, was effective against the pass and forced turnovers to lead Buffalo to a 19-14 victory over the Miami Dolphins Thursday night.

Buffalo's defensive unit, led by coordinator and former Dolphins' head coach Dave Wannstedt, was expected to make vast improvements after an offseason spending spree. Instead, the group was among the league's worst in many areas.

But it would live up to it's billing on this night.

Nix: Merriman move about circumstance, not health

BY NICK ST. DENIS

Shawne Merriman said he was in the best shape he's ever been in earlier this offseason, and the Buffalo Bills had his back.

But nothing is certain in the NFL.

The Bills released the veteran pass-rushing specialist Monday in a move that Bills general manager Buddy Nix said was about giving younger players an opportunity and not about Merriman's health, which has been a repeated issue for Merriman over the last half dozen years.

"Shawne was battling for the fourth defensive end spot," Nix told the media Monday. "We have three guys there that we feel good about. We have a couple of young guys. That is the reason we made the move.

"The 'why now' is a couple of things. One, we want to give these two young guys more reps in practice and more playing time in these last two games. Two, we want to give Shawne a chance to get a job. Us doing it earlier gives Shawne a better chance to get picked up and locked on to somebody."

Merriman reportedly looked good in spring practices, but he'd been working with the second-team defense and was mostly a third-stringer in the team's most recent preseason game, an exhibition bout with the Minnesota Vikings last Friday.

"I think he struggled a little. But first off, let me say this—he can play. He did everything," Nix continued. "He has been healthy since OTAs. He had not missed anything. He is very attentive in meetings. He has worked hard at practice and he has played, in spots, really well during the games.

"He is a hard worker; he has done everything he could do. We think we have been patient but there comes a point where we felt like we needed to move on and look down the road. These young guys will get a shot."

Merriman 'like Benjamin Button,' feeling like old self

Photo: Dirk Hansen, Flickr 

BY NICK ST. DENIS

Veteran defender Shawne Merriman, who has played in just eight games the past two seasons and five since joining the Bills in 2010, feels young these days.

“I’m like Benjamin Button, man,” Merriman told reporters Thursday, according to BuffaloBills.com. ”I’m going backwards.”

Merriman, 28, is coming off Achilles surgery and was medically cleared earlier this week to be full-go in OTAs. He compared himself to Button, the short story/movie character who aged in reverse, because he says he's moving as efficiently as he was when he first entered the NFL.

“I feel very young,” he said. ”Anybody that will get a chance to watch me this year, I’m moving around as I did when I came into the league. Fortunately, that’s really all I had, the Achilles, over the last three years. Now that I’ve had that done, I’m a lot more confident.”

Bills' Merriman 'absolutely going to be 100 percent'

BY DAN BEGNOCHE

Not much has been a sure thing with Shawne Merriman since he joined the Bills, except maybe seeing his name on the injury list week after week. But according to him, that's about to change.

Following surgery in late October of last year to repair a tear in his Achilles tendon, an injury that has been plaguing him since 2009, Merriman told buffalobills.com that he is “absolutely going to be 100 percent,” and at this point it's just about not overexerting himself.

“Now I get a chance to have a full offseason,” Merriman said. “I had all kinds of restrictions and limitations with things I couldn’t do last year because of my Achilles. Now it’s a different scenario. Now by the time May comes around and runs into June I’ll be at full stride and be able to do everything and work out with my teammates. Starting today and going all the way up to the season it’s a completely different story than I’ve had the past three years.”

Merriman has only played five games with the Bills since his acquisition in 2010, struggling through both his Achilles issues and knee problems. And despite being medically cleared to play, Merriman said he's not quite where he would like to be and knows he still has a ways to go to get back to the player that amassed nearly 40 sacks in his first three years in the league.

Bills set to move forward without Merriman

Four years ago, losing a player like Shawne Merriman to injured reserve would have been a bombshell to a defense. But after years of a plaguing Achilles injury that has certainly shown in his intermittent stints on the field, Buffalo's loss of Merriman will be more of a unitary shift than a disruption.

“He had not been playing up to what any of us thought, him included,” Bills coach Chan Gailey told the media Wednesday. “We all felt it was in the best interest to let him try to get this thing completely well and we’ll just plug in some other guys and see if they can go do it.”

Gailey named Spencer Johnson, Danny Batten, Arthur Moats and Antonio Coleman as possible fill-ins for Merriman's spot, though he noted Coleman wouldn't be in this week against the Redskins in Toronto. What the Bills will ask of Merriman now is to provide his replacement(s) with insight into his career success on the pass rush and to provide a strong locker room presence.

“We’d love to have him back, he’s definitely a force and a great guy to have in the locker room, but unfortunately he’s got to fix the body and we’ll wait for him next year,” linebacker Nick Barnett said this past week. “... (He) gets guys out there pumped up pregame and everything...”

Buffalo's pass rush, still dead last in the league in sacks, may have some success in Toronto, as Washington is still trying to get its feet back on the ground after their Week 6 quarterback switch. John Beck has been efficient the last two games, averaging around a quarterback rating of 80, but he was sacked three times last week against Carolina and threw a pick in the loss.

“We definitely have some schematic things, we definitely got to get to the passer, that’s a must so we’re going to work on that and get that fixed,” Barnett said. “If we can continue to take away the ball, get some pass rush, and stop the big plays I think you’ll see our defense statistically move up real fast.”

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