Lorenzo Alexander: ‘It doesn’t look picture-perfect right now’ for the Bills

Lorenzo Alexander gets it.

Buffalo Bills fans have suffered through a 17-year playoff drought and they haven’t seen a whole lot lately to convince them it’s about to end any time soon. They saw arguably the team’s most dynamic play-maker, Sammy Watkins, get shipped off to the Los Angeles Rams. They saw its No. 1 cornerback, Ronald Darby, sent packing to the Philadelphia Eagles.

‘I mean, it’s 17 years, still stuck with that’

Then, there was the disappointment of having Anquan Boldin and his Hall-of-Fame receiving credentials come and go in a matter of only two weeks, thanks to his surprise decision to retire.

“I understand the frustration,” the Pro Bowl linebacker said recently on The Opening Drive. “I mean, it’s 17 years, still stuck with that. You trade away probably one of the most dynamic players in this league when healthy. Darby also another young talent, a talented DB. And then Anquan decides he wants to do something different with his life.

‘I don’t expect anybody, based on the past, to be all happy and joyful right now’

“So it doesn’t look picture-perfect right now and based on the history with the team, the organization and what has happened in the past, that’s where people’s minds want to go. But we still have a lot of good football players on this team defensively. Offensively, we just have to continue to work and put it together. And I don’t expect anybody, based on the past, to be all happy and joyful right now.”

Alexander doesn’t expect the Bills to receive unconditional belief from their fans that they can defy the gloomy forecasts by many prognosticators who insist, having stockpiled draft picks for 2018, they’re rebuilding and not trying to win now.

‘It’s really up to the guys that are in that room, coaches, the staff, the players, to start putting a good, consistent football team together’

“We have to go out there and earn that type of respect and that type of calmness in the fans by going out there, playing hard and creating that type of culture,” Alexander said. “Until we start doing that, I understand why people are going to think that way. So it’s really up to the guys that are in that room, coaches, the staff, the players, to start putting a good, consistent football team together and going out there and producing on Sundays.

“And once we start doing that, obviously, winning cures all and people will start calming down, seeing that Coach (Sean) McDermott and the Buffalo Bills have a great vision as far as now and the future moving forward.”