Two Bills Drive

Buffalo Bills News and Discussion

Archives for August 2020

Bills predictions: With so much starting talent, guys like Trent Murphy may be gone

‘Now that the White will-he-play-or-not drama has passed, the focus will go back to the other side where Norman and Wallace will battle it out to start. No matter what happens, the Bills have a solid top three. Johnson needs to stay healthy, and if he does he should nail down the nickel spot. Jackson, the seventh-round pick, will likely struggle to make an impact with no offseason practice, so maybe the practice squad will be his destination. As a seventh-rounder, the Bills should feel relatively safe that he won’t get signed elsewhere.’

Sullivan: Fans way off base in ripping Bills’ White

‘White is scheduled to make $10.2 million in 2021 in the fifth year of his rookie deal. If he had opted out, his raise would have been pushed back a year and his base salary set at $1.7 million. It also would have reduced his cap hit by $7.2 million in ’21, helping the Bills in a year when the cap is expected to go down.’

Jake Fromm looks to make amends after ‘elite white people’ text

‘”That’s not where my heart is,” Fromm said Friday, speaking to local media for the first time since screenshots of the conversation emerged in June. “The one thing that I want to do here on this earth is love God and love people, and I fell short of that. I want to make amends and really be better from here on out so that I can earn their trust and really bring something to this football team.”‘

Josh Norman is ‘amazed’ by his new Bills teammate, Tre’Davious White

‘”He’s doing so many things,” Norman said of White, per the team’s official website. “I’m just looking at him and just being amazed too because I’m seeing myself in him a little bit when I was coming out early on. Just seeing how he’s really explosive and how he’s taking every rep as if this was his last rep.”‘

Bills training camp’s top five 2020 battles: Who’s the No. 2 cornerback opposite Tre’Davious White?

‘Levi Wallace is the incumbent, basically. He had an fine rookie season in 2018 after going undrafted and began the 2019 season as the No. 2 corner. Although he broke up nine passes and snagged two picks, after a few games with uninspiring play midway through the season, Bills coaches decided to rotate Wallace and veteran Kevin Johnson — who’s now on the Browns. Wallace has to play more consistently to hang onto the job. And the Bills made a low-risk, potentially high-reward cornerback signing when Josh Norman was inked to a one-year deal in March. Of course, Norman rose to stardom in Carolina in McDermott’s defense but is now 31 years old coming off a career-worst season in 2019. These two will battle it out and play a decently large role in deciding the ceiling for Buffalo’s high-end defense.’

Bills roster in-depth: Defensive end

‘The Bills used their first pick of this year’s draft on Epenesa. He was thought by many to be a first round talent, but fell to the 22nd pick of the second round before the Bills selected him. The 6-foot-5, 275 pounder led the Big Ten in sacks in 2018 (10.5) and finished third last season (11.5). He ranks sixth all-time in the conference with 26.5 career sacks. Epenesa also finished 10th in the Big Ten with 14 tackles for loss last season. Analysts have raved about Epenesa’s use of hands as a pass-rusher. He’s more of a bull-rusher than one who relies on speed to get around the edge, but still has a good first step and instincts. He’ll have to learn how to set the edge as a run defender better in the NFL, but the Bills can use him immediately as a situational pass rusher.’

Bills TE Dawson Knox ‘ready to make a big leap’ in year two

‘“I feel like year one was a tough year,” says Knox. “Just because it was my first year in the league, trying to keep my head above water, it kind of felt like I was just treading water the whole time. Finally, towards the end of the season, I felt like I was able to kind of start playing faster, not really thinking about where I’m lining up and what I’m looking at pre-snap, more just playing freely.”’

For McDermott, a training camp such as no other

‘“Certainly I would like to have preseason games, but it’s been done before. Maybe not always in the NFL, but colleges do it or something similar every year. So I’ve reached out to my college coach and he certainly had a lot of success, and we’ve got a lot of smart people in this building that have come from a lot of different backgrounds that can help. I’m confident that we’ll adjust (and) that our players will adjust and we’ll have a good plan in place to get our team ready to go.”’

Bills All-Pro cornerback Tre’Davious White will play in 2020

‘“Do I want to come in here and possibly get my little 11-month-old baby sick, just coming home and trying to love on him and pick him up?” White said. “Do I want to risk that? Because at the end of the day, no matter what, my family is going to come first. No matter what’s going on or how big of a season (it is), I’m always going to put my kids first. That’s still weighing on me.”’

Josh Norman looking to add ‘a little pixie dust’ to Bills

‘”I think that when you go forward and you look at it (from an) overall standpoint, we’ve got the best secondary in the league,” he said. “I think guys really sleep on (safeties) Micah (Hyde) and Po (Jordan Poyer) back there, because they really do a great job over the top and then coming down in the box as well. They are two of the best tandems in the league. And then you have Tre, obviously, on the other side. He does a great job just keying on his man and having a guy in that position to go in, day in and day out, and make a play. And you’ve got Levi (Wallace) on the other side. He’s doing a great job. … Taron (Johnson) in the nickel.’