WGR

‘It was just about two o’clock in the afternoon on Halloween, two hours before the NFL trade deadline. Bills’ general manager Brandon Beane’s phone rang. On the other end was Carolina Panthers’ GM Marty Hurney, who wanted to revisit a conversation the two were having just the day before.’

‘“It’s weird, because every year, not that I didn’t expect to get this far, it’s just I look at backs like Frank Gore, there’s not a lot of them,” McCoy said. “There’s not a lot of guys out there. I want to chase that and be one of those guys. I hang out with them in the offseason, a lot of the running backs like the [Todd] Gurleys, and the [Le’Veon] Bells, the way they view me is like the ‘old head baller’. It drives me. It does, because I remember being 25, 24, looking at the older guys, saying ‘I’m going to catch him, I want to be better than him’. Now, it’s like reversed. Now it’s like, ‘okay, I’m still an elite player, but the young guys are creeping on me,’ so I’ve got to continue to do better and do better. Stack my numbers up, stack my wins up. Just make that portfolio of just a baller. A solid career.”’

‘“We have to continue to go through and get to know one another and understand where one another has come from and our backgrounds respectively and build this team, bringing it together. That’ll happen over the course of time as you go through moments like training camp and where we get a chance to get away a little bit in fellowship with one another on and off the field.”‘

‘For the most part, the starters stood on the sidelines for any offense vs. defense work. The second and third-units seemed to get almost all of the reps, although all three quarterbacks rotated again.’

‘This week Allen has received some limited first team reps. McDermott said, “The first thing I look at is his poise and is he handling himself in and out of the huddle the right way, is he getting our offense to the line of scrimmage, making the proper checks and he was able to do some of that and I was impressed from that standpoint and I thought he put the ball in positions for plays to be made at times and then other times, he could’ve put the ball in a better positon, but overall, I thought he handled himself well with room to grow.”’

‘Wednesday there was another new wrinkle. Allen got the first shot with the starters when they opened their offense vs. defense portion of practice, as it started with a red zone session.’

‘”It’s never easy,” Dawkins said with Jeremy White on WGR, Wednesday morning. “It’s definitely harder because we have a whole new offense. It’s not like we’re coming in with the same playbook, so it’s a totally different life. [We’re] taking it just day-by-day.”‘

‘Clay knew Sean McDermott from their days in Carolina, so he knew what to expect from him, but that doesn’t make moving around any easier, “It was difficult,” Clay said. “But its part of the business, you can never get comfortable and you just have to take advantage of the opportunities that you do have, so I was grateful enough to be here and now I’m grateful to be here again and have a full off-season to learn the playbook.”’

‘In total, there will be 14 practices at St. John Fisher, with the opener a 5:30 p.m. start. There will be one night practice at New Era Field, and one late afternoon practice at the ADPRO Sports Training Center in Orchard Park.’

‘QB Nathan Peterman was the main QB with the starters throughout the practice and had a very good day. He made several terrific passes, including two in a row where he had to drop the ball over a defender and into a wide receivers’ arms as he was running downfield or towards the sideline.’

‘It seems like LeSean McCoy never drops off in his performance despite turning 30 next month. McDermott knows McCoy from when they both spent time in Philadelphia. He said the running back never fails to impress him, “Just to watch his habits off the field in terms of the way he takes care of his body and for a runningback to accrue the number of yards and to be as healthy as he’s been for the most part, is really a testament to the way he takes care of his body.”’

‘“We’ll just see,” McDermott said. “It’s a fluid situation. It’s all part of doing what’s best for A, our football team and B, Josh’s development overall. I’m not going to say I’m not going to do it. It’s just what’s the right thing to do at the right time based on our plan? Overall, A.J. and Nate will run with the ones and Josh with the threes.”’

‘Jerry Hughes- What has become of his double digit sack seasons? Hughes played like a man possessed in his first two years with the Bills after coming over in a trade from Indianapolis. He recorded back to back 10 sack campaigns and parlayed that into a big contract. But Hughes’ numbers have been down the last three years.’

‘“It definitely makes you feel good, but you can’t get too caught up in it,” he told me Thursday after just coming off the practice field for the team’s second-to-last OTA. “You can’t just have a feel-good story. You can feel good inside, but if it’s not the result you want then you have to keep working towards that result, and my result was (I wanted) to play on Sundays and I haven’t quite got there yet, and that’s the goal this year.”’

‘The coaches aren’t just working with Allen to make him a better passer. McDermott feels there’s a lot more to it, “In terms of communication, that’s a big part of playing quarterback and it can’t just be with the skill players, it has to be O-linemen, tight ends, they have to all be involved and as a leader, you’ve got to be a man of the people so to speak, so you can’t just be with the people at your position, it’s got to be across the entire team.”’