Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

‘However, on the other side of the field at CB2, things are nowhere near settled as Kaiir Elam, Dane Jackson and Christian Benford remain locked in a three-way battle for the starting job, and no one has inched ahead of the others at this point.’

‘Spencer Brown left practice early: The right tackle got hurt late in practice and he came off the field very gingerly, looking the way you do if you tweak your back. And as we know, back problems have been a constant for him and were partially to blame for the uneven season he had in 2022.’

‘“I want to take as much of the burden off of Josh as I possibly can,” Harris said. “I want to let him go out there and play free, throw the ball, stay healthy, do his thing. Obviously, he’s a freak of nature so he does a lot of things, but if I can take some hits off his shoulders and keep his legs fresh, I would love to do that.”’

‘A betting site called Bookies.com ranked the best pregame experiences at NFL stadiums and Buffalo’s Highmark Stadium clocked in at 24th out of 32.’

‘The next thing you have to say is that Harty might be undersized, but you can’t hit what you can’t catch and through the first week of training camp he has shown off game-breaking speed which offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey hopes to utilize far more than his coaching counterparts at New Orleans did when they had Harty for four seasons.’

‘“Sean and I have worked together for over a decade and so obviously there’s a lot of experiences together, there’s a lot of dialogue that we’ve had over the years, trust that we built with each other,” Washington said. “At the end of the (2022) season, once we sat down and kind of talked about his new role and how I could best assist him, be a great resource for him, we talked about that and we decided that that was a move that we wanted to make and I was excited to do it.”’

‘“It’s just the way the universe works man; it’s truly a blessing,” Poyer said.’

‘Hamlin worked without restriction for most of the offseason program after he was given clearance, and that continued for the first four days of training camp. But Monday was the first time the team was in pads and there was much more contact as it worked through the script of plays and drills.’

‘Well, it wasn’t really a public appearance as she stayed inside the vehicle and no one could really see her. But coach Sean McDermott and quarterback Josh Allen were among those who said hello to the Fairport High School graduate.’

‘In the offseason Beane signed Deonte Harty and Trent Sherfield as free agents and drafted Justin Shorter and Dalton Kincaid – who, let’s face it, is way more a receiver than he is a tight end – to join returning receivers Stefon Diggs, Gabe Davis and Khalil Shakir. Apparently Beane is not satisfied because the Bills brought in and signed slot receiver Andy Isabella and worked out former Patriots’ first-round pick N’Keal Harry.’

‘“Everybody always says it was my height,” he said of the lack of belief so many had in him, “but you gotta make a believer out of people. That’s all it takes. I just kind of kept my head down and was grinding, just trying to do my best to get better every year. And I felt like I kind of accomplished that.”’

‘Isabella was the sixth of six wide receivers on the roster in 2021 − stuck behind DeAndre Hopkins, A.J. Green and Christian Kirk − and only had one catch while being inactive for half of the Cardinals’ games. Arizona released Isabella a month into 2022 and he landed on the Baltimore Ravens’ practice squad for the majority of the year. Baltimore released him on Tuesday. Isabella has 33 career receptions for 447 yards and three TDs.’

‘“It means a lot, the bosses are on my side at the end of the day, and they know football best for the Bills,” Davis said Thursday following training camp practice at St. John Fisher University. “You got the guys who run the team and run the organization saying that they’re on my side with things and they trust and believe in me. I mean, there’s no better feeling to have when you go out on the field that the other guys that are out there with you don’t want to replace you, they want to keep you there, and they know the potential and the success you can have.”’

‘Beyond Diggs, it’s a big season for Davis, an inconsistent player heading into the final year of his original rookie deal. Davis set career highs for receptions and yards last year, but he also mixed in far too many games where he simply wasn’t a factor and that allowed defenses to pay more attention to Diggs.’

‘It didn’t feel like he was paying lip service to the inquiring media just to get everyone off his back and close this chapter.’