"To have Willie back now adds a sense of calmness and also determination. I think Willie and Rudi (Johnson) play off each other as far as their approach to the game."

"It's unfortunate. We're not going to sit here and baby and cry like their quarterback did."

"This is a key development for our team. It further secures our future with one of our top players, in the prime of his career, and I want to commend Chad for his efforts in making it happen. He is showing his commitment to what we have going here."

"We're excited to have this deal concluded. We're excited to get started with David, for his and our future."

"We are underdogs. We're underdogs every time we step on the field. Don't let anyone fool you. We're underdogs."

"We have to win football games. I don't think Carson has to do anything different. The rest of us have to keep playing and coaching better. We just let him do his job. I think it's up to the rest of us."

"It's an exciting week for the city. For our football team, I'll keep them calm and let's just get ready to play the football game. But I think for everybody else it's going to be an exciting week."

"It just tells you that we have a good football team, but we need to play good at all times or that's what's going to happen. We have enough good players and a team that has some resolve."

"We don't need to spout off. Let's play football."

"I was pleased with our execution. Guys went out there and carried out their assignments the way they're supposed to."

"For me, I can't believe,"

"They'll keep playing. We didn't play well at the beginning of the game and were playing uphill. But we kept playing and hanging in there together."

"Our focus has been geared toward beginning our season better than we did the last two seasons. We get an opportunity here to write that script as we go week in and week out."

"We didn't play very well in the beginning of the game and were playing up hill."

"We dug ourselves a hole with field position in the first half. We didn't play very well at the beginning of the game and we were playing up hill."

"When you recruit in college, you do those things. Those are the things you think about. How you drive a guy around the city? What routes do you take? Where do you take him to show him? Do you involve the wife? Who's important to him? Who's going to help him make the decision? Those are all the things we talked about and were important for us to do, as we brought these guys to town. And I think that's helped us acquire the guys we have."

"He's our guy, we drafted him, we like him. When we get him here, we'll coach him up."

"I think it's the role of the offensive coordinator, the special teams coordinator and the defensive coordinator to coach the coaches as hard as he coaches the players. As hard as I push on them, they've got to push everybody else just as hard. I think that's important that they understand in and out that they set up, they push and make sure that the position coaches cover every detail or they cover it so that every detail gets covered."

"Obviously you draft a player, (and) you really, really, really like the player. You really, really want to coach him."

"He brings a lot of ability and character to our football team."

"There was (the) ability for us to take advantage of some NFL cap numbers and rules if we got this completed in time. This is a foundation, and now we're able to move on and know where certain things are spent and allocated."

"First of all, you must have the ability to run the football and take care of the ball offensively."

"I have no doubt in my mind that it's time for our team to achieve success. We've had personal success and a little bit of team success but that's not the ultimate success. The only way to get the ultimate success is to become a football team totally. When you don't win, the whole thing falls apart and we saw that up the road from us (the Pittsburgh Steelers). They figured out a way to turn it around and get it righted. We saw a couple of years ago with Baltimore."

"You're a combination of all those things, but you learn that you have to set the direction, and I learned a lot of that from Bill. You always have to adjust, but you always have to have a starting point, as far as a direction, a game plan. It all ties together."

"I think what he's been able to do is have a good plan for the team and set a direction -- set it on Wednesday and reinforce it throughout the week. Then, as the game unfolds, things that come up don't put them in a panic. They are able to stay the course."

"Your expectation of them is, 'What is their niche?'"

"As a player and a person, Carson has met and gone beyond every expectation I had for him. For myself as the head coach, I'm excited about the commitment the club has made to Carson and about Carson's commitment to the organization and to the city of Cincinnati."

"The 2005 season was a great learning experience for our franchise, our team and for me. We've established an evaluation process of free agents and college prospects. All we're going to do is get better and better at this."

"There was nothing flat about that, ... When you get punched in the face, that's what happens. That's an excuse: Flat didn't drop balls. Flat didn't miss assignments. Flat didn't commit penalties and miss tackles."