Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

‘As it pertains to Saturday’s second preseason game against the Steelers, the Bills need DiNucci to get up to speed quickly because they certainly don’t want to risk playing Allen and Trubisky too long in the game. The QB situation is the first of four things I’ll be watching.’

‘Reading too much into a preseason game is foolhardy, but there was no doubt Buffalo’s play left a sour taste in McDermott’s mouth, so fans should expect to see a crisper, more focused performance against the Steelers.’

‘“It was just a tackle drill, he was tackling on a bag, and he hit his arm,” McDermott said with an obviously sullen demeanor before the Bills and Steelers took the field at Acrisure Stadium for a joint practice. “We’re all human at the end of the day, Matt’s a heck of a football player, but if we back up, he’s also a tremendous young man, good head on his shoulders.”’

‘The Bills will have to rely on vastly inexperienced second-year player Dorian Williams, unless they want to turn the job over to one of their veteran offseason free agent signees, Nicholas Morrow or Deion Jones.’

‘“I was telling our chaplain that (the other day), and I just think about that little kid that would love to be here,” Solomon said, looking around at his surroundings on the final day of practice at St. John Fisher University. “That little kid that was dreaming, that was praying every day to possibly be in this situation that I am now. And so I think about when I was seven, when I was eight, striving to get here.”’

‘“So, that’s where the challenge comes in. We’ve got to embrace that challenge. We’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ll look at the film, obviously, and it’ll hit us right in the face in terms of what we didn’t do well, and that was a big one right there. When you don’t control the line of scrimmage, it makes it hard to win.”’

‘Cook and Ray Davis combined for three yards on six carries behind the starting line which could not create any space. It’s nothing to be alarmed about, yet, but it was not a good first look with Mitch Morse gone, Connor McGovern replacing him at center, and David Edwards at left guard.’

‘The Bills were terrible in every way imaginable, and coach Sean McDermott admitted, “If you’d had a blood pressure cuff on me during that game, it would probably have exploded.”’

‘Cable TV: NFL Network, with the exception of the local Buffalo market.’

‘“There’s a number of new faces on our offense also, including his receiving corps and so some of that is baked into this,” McDermott said of the decision. “But the biggest thing is individually we’ve got to get ourselves ready to go and go from there.”’

‘“I think the more years go by, he might start to realize, like, you probably don’t need a fight every day,” offensive coordinator Joe Brady said with a wry smile on the second day of training camp at St. John Fisher University. “But if I had to put money on Day 1, it was going to be him. But he doesn’t blink. It’s his personality. It’s way easier to tell a guy to back off than to bite. I never have to worry about him biting.”’

‘However, Hardy has one ace up his sleeve as he battles through training camp at St. John Fisher University, and then in the coming weeks when the team moves back to One Bills Drive and starts playing preseason games. He can return punts, and he might be able to return kickoffs.’

‘“We need Greg Rousseau to be the best version of himself. That’s it,” Babich said Monday before practice at St. John Fisher University. “I’ll never put an expectation on players. I think the thing you’ve got to do is you’ve got to find out what the player wants. There’s no heightened expectation, there’s a maturation process in this league and as long as we go out here and we put in the work, we’ll be in good shape.”’

‘“Sean (McDermott) wants a physical brand of football, and I guess this is an old-school term,” Babich said. “But this is something, as you see (on the shirt), that was established in 2019. Every week that we win, we give out the most physical hit of the game. These guys make a lot of money, but they get very excited about this T-shirt.”’

‘Most pressing is the situation at safety as Mike Edwards (hamstring) and Cole Bishop (shoulder) are not going to be back for at least a couple weeks, maybe more. That has meant players like Taylor Rapp and Damar Hamlin have had to take on additional reps, especially with the first-string defense.’