WGR

‘With the release of Kelvin Benjamin and Andre Holmes this past week, the Bills clearly signified they are going with a youth movement at wide receiver. With Cam Phillips being promoted to the 53-man roster on Saturday, that means three rookies are among the six active wideouts on the roster. Phillips, Ray-Ray McCloud and Robert Foster. Two are in just their second season, Zay Jones and Isaiah McKenzie, who is questionable to play with a toe injury. Then there is seventh-year pro Deonte Thompson, as well.’

‘The Clemson product, taken by the Bills in the sixth round of this past draft, made the team’s initial 53-man roster back in September, but was inactive the first two weeks of the season, watching helplessly from the sidelines as the offense struggled in losses to the Baltimore Ravens and Los Angeles Chargers. McCloud finally got his chance to see the field, making his NFL debut against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 3. He then suited up the next couple weeks against the Green Bay Packers and Tennessee Titans, and even had a big catch and run on the final drive against Tennessee to help put the Bills in position to kick a game-winning field goal.’

‘“Any coach I ever played for, they know, I feed off mistakes,” McCloud told me this week. “I’ve had some of my best games off mistakes. On the first play of the game, before halftime. Some of those were the best games ever of my life. I was upset about it, like ‘dang, it’s time to show up now.’ I never got an opportunity later in the game to show that, but everybody learns from it. I made that second mistake before, and it was behind me 10 minutes later and it was time to move on and grow up and that’s just part of the game.”’

‘”This doesn’t help the quarterback. When you’re kind of going down and lessening the talent at the receiver position, to try and do that and a line that’s pretty shaky. Is that going to be best in the development of Josh Allen? You kind of wonder about that… You want to surround him with as much talent as possible, not minimize the talent. So, it was a curious thing to cut two receivers in one day.”‘

‘“But just as important for us is, I believe, is when things are no longer right for us as our football team and where we are and the vision we are trying to chase that we move forward, and that’s what we did. We’re going to continue to make every decision we feel is right, in the best interest of this football team.”’

‘Benjamin has been plagued by drops on jump balls, which is one of Benajmin’s strengths in his game, while his effort has been questioned by media and fans alike.’

‘Bodine played his first four years in the NFL with the Cincinnati Bengals, but was signed by the Bills as a free agent this past offseason to a two-year, $5 million contract after losing Eric Wood to retirement. He then won the starting center job over Groy after a lengthy training camp battle.’

‘”What you probably didn’t see was Zay Jones coming open over the middle. Josh [Allen] had to escape the pocket… Our protection broke down too early… Josh had to go off schedule… Just one of those opportunities we weren’t able to take advantage of.”‘

‘”What’s exciting is what he can do with his arm, with his legs and what he can do while on the run. Plays break down, and one spy is not enough to bring him down. He’s a hard guy to play man coverage against… He can do a lot of different things at a high level. He’s only going to get better.”‘

‘Miami’s offense didn’t get many yards throughout the afternoon, but hit the Bills where it mattered most with 3 touchdown passes from Ryan Tannehill. Tannehill was 16-of-24 for 137 yards, 3 touchdowns and 1 interception. Buffalo limited the Dolphins to only 60 yards rushing, with Kenyan Drake leading the way with 31 yards. DeVante Parker led Miami wideouts with 4 catches for 43 yards and 1 touchdown.’

‘I really felt bad for Allen who gave it everything he had in this game but came up painfully short. He will go to bed not only thinking of that final pass to Clay but I’m sure he will want the throw behind Jones in the end zone and the over throw of Foster on that bomb back.’

‘Far too often this has been an issue and written on this side of the Sticks this season. No doubt there were several calls that were questionable, to say the least (see below). But even with that said, 13 penalties for 120 yards is just unacceptable and several of those were critical blows to either the offense or defense.’

‘The last time the Bills either threw an interception or lost a fumble to the Dolphins was on December 22, 2013. Remarkably, Buffalo has not turned the ball over to Miami in eight straight games. It’s a big reason they’ve won five of those contests and have averaged over 29 points per game over the last six against their AFC East rivals. If the Bills can continue that turnover-free streak, it will give them a great shot at winning their third in a row over Miami.’

‘John Miller has officially been ruled “out” of this weekend’s game against the Miami Dolphins with an oblique injury. Jeremiah Sirles could very well get the start at right guard in his place.’

‘“Yeah, that’s real. The ‘rookie wall’ is real,” McDermott said Wednesday as he team prepares to travel to Miami to take on the Dolphins. “Just being around the league a number of years, that thing’s real. You balance it out a little bit with we try to adjust the schedule, as you guys have seen with our start time, our practices and their start time and then the reps so that we get these guys as fresh as possible this time of year. We’ve cut down our meetings as well now that the ownership then falls on them to make sure they’re doing the things outside of what’s on the itinerary to get the information they need to prepare and play well.”’