stevewin

Went to camp today with my Dad and my son. Was able to score some VIP tix, and sat in the VIP section of the bleachers to the far left. Last year we went, and we got a picture of my Dad and my son with Josh (see avatar). This year we printed the picture 8x10, and figured if we would be able to get in a position where Josh could see my son and my Dad holding the picture - he'd come right over and sign it and recreate the pose from last year for another picture. We could do it every year! When we sat down - my son said to me "That's Josh's girlfriend" - and sure enough a couple rows down she was sitting there. Upon further inspection it turned out Josh's Dad and Mom were in front of her - and also (as we would learn later) were his sister and Grandma Allen. We started joking that my son should go over and ask his girlfriend to sign the back of the picture - heck his parents too - then when we got Josh to sign it, we could show him his family signed it too. After a while of this, my son actually decided to do it just for fun. He approached Britt first, and she was initially a bit taken aback by this kid holding an 8x10 of him and Josh and an old man - but almost immediately Josh's father turned to him and my son explained he thought it would be fun if they signed the back of the picture - and Dad was all in. He passed it to Josh's Mom, sister, and Grandma Allen to sign as well. My son had some small talk with the family while the pic was getting passed around - they were all extremely kind and nice. After practice ended we set up by the VIP fence (with the entitled children) waiting for Josh to come over - my son and Dad standing together holding the picture which was sure to draw him straight over. Eventually he came over to the section of fence by us, but it was apparent 1) he was only signing for kids (and girls with prom signs - more on that later) and 2) the whole "hey look I have a picture of you that we took last year" wasn't quite as compelling to him as it was to us. There were a few times as we moved along the fence he for sure saw it - but he was focused on getting to kids and moving along, which honestly he had to do - don't fault him at all. So here's a pic of Josh and his family after practice - below it are the autographs of each person in that pic - minus the big guy in the blue shirt. At one point as we moved around we were near the girl with the Prom? sign. If you look close you can see the 8x10 being held up in the background Kudos to Josh - he started signing at the far left VIP area, went all the way over to the beginning at far right - signed all along the bleachers, then the other side by the tunnel, then both sides after going through the tunnel (where the Prom girl was) - then into the other VIP area past that. Was being super nice and friendly the whole time. Also kudos to his family for being so nice and playing along with my son. There was another kid who had a Josh it's my birthday sign which earned him a high five and an autograph. I'm going tomorrow and my birthday is Fri - thinking of making a "It's my Birthday - Prom?" sign - that would be sure to get him to sign then ?

Pat Kirwin and Jim Miller (from TC) Note: There is no link available for the interview - How are things settling for you - You just go out there and compete every day. I got the guys in front of me, Star and big Jordan and Jerry and Trent - guys just coach me up every day and get me ready to go out there and play and help the team. I just sit back and take it all in - Kyle Williams - Yeah - it was crazy. When the guys seen him in the room it was kinda like your older brother - when your older brother comes home from school - it's like rah-rah-rah. It was a little different for me I was like Oh it;s Kyle Williams. That's my boy, that's my brother - everything he says I take to heart - What's been most important to show what you can do - It's just been stacking good days on top of good days. I had a couple good days in a row, and having and off day and then having to come back and stack more good days. I feel I didn't take a big enough step today, but that's just been my goal to stack good days and keep making a constant improvement. every day I go out there it's just one thing to get better at - Do you miss the humidity of Houston - Yes I do, no lie. Houston's very hot, but it's the type of hot you don't have to get warmed up for - you just go outside and you're already sweating and you're ready to go - Who's taking care of the horses - My Pop - back in Louisiana. He's supposed to be coming out here in a couple weeks. I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't right behind him, if they end up at my crib <laughs> - Battles with veteran OLmen - To put it in simplist terms - those guys know how to cheat. It is what it is - they got vet tricks, they been in the league for a long time - Does it frustrate you - You just got to look at it like oh - you just got to learn how to cheat too. It's just battles, it's competition. I've gotten a whole lot better, I've come a long way since I first came here. Just learning - I tell you those Olinemen cheat - they hold you, they take holding to a whole different level - they take holding and it's like they majored in it or something. It's a different type of game - Because their feet are good - so they can stay with it. A college guy gets his arm out and you can see it, not these guys - And there guys are a lot bigger and heavier. For me it's just being on my Ps and Qs and knowing what's coming - Do you get frustrated with them - I get more frustrated with myself. I know I'm the only one beating myself so I got to play up - How are you breaking down their hands - It's hard because they'll flash them then take them back, so t's just little stuff like that that come with it. They did it some in college but here it's every play they come with little ways to get you so you got to be on Ps and Qs - How's install been going - Install's not too tough, just execution. Like I said go out every day and pick something to get better at. Whether it be watching the ball, hands - just pick one thing - getting with the older guys, have them helping you in the meeting rooms, break down what you did wrong, how you can get better - any little thing. I'm like a sponge and I'm trying to soak it up - Best moment at camp so far - that you said that's how you do it and it gets done - It comes in flashes - but you have to do it every time - Give me moment though where you flashed and said I don't need anybody to tell me that was good - You want to think like that but you can't. You have to be open to corrections at all times - even when you think you might have just made the best play of your entire life - there's still probably something you could have done better - Been hard on you in film room - No No, it's just about getting better - Got spirited today - I don't know what the problem was today - everybody want to fight. this was my first practice where it was feisty like that - everybody seemed like they wanted to buck with each other and I'm like - how about we just play ball -

Pat Kirwin and Jim Miller (from TC) Note: There is no available link to the interview - We had a ball this AM watching your group go at it - It was a good practice - intense, spirited. Kind of what you expect this time of camp - early in the 2nd week here. I thought we did some good things - it was good to get some rain too, have our guys feel the elements a little bit - just in terms of the weather we get in Buffalo from time to time - and execute at a high level - Where are you in your messaging to your team compared to previous years. do you feel like you have to go back to page 1 , or do you feel like most of the ears have heard it and your moving on to the next thing - I believe on really doubling down on the message. It starts with a vision of where we want to go and then the plan of how we are trying to get there. I don't think you can hear that message enough - so in this case, fundamental football wins - and we have to continue to stress fundamentals. Not beating ourselves, situational football, over and over and over again - For new veterans before you signed them did you spell out what this is all about, what is a Buffalo Bill, what your going to do here, not do here - For the most part. FA is kind of a different animal these days where it's almost a race to get the guys that you want. With that said there certainly was conversation with each and every one of them early in the process, this is what we're all about, this is what it means to be a Buffalo Bill, this is what this football team means to this city and the people of Buffalo. - Incremental improvement looking to see in QB - That's the key, the incremental piece of it. I think a lot of times people want to put the responsibility for wins and losses squarely on the shoulders of the QB, and in this case a young QB. We have to develop as a football team around our young QB for him to continue to develop and have the success he needs to have - You changed to drastically different defensive scheme - how do you make that change - It's what we believe in number 1, you have a vision for what you want it to look like and fit the pieces to what you've got in terms of you fit the scheme to match the personnel you have. As you look at what we were able to do early on, with the tools and the weapons that we had - it was different. It was a 3-4 multiple defense, it did some different things, pressured quite a bit. At the end of the day I believe that players like to play in a system where they can play fast and play with a lot of freedom - within the system of course. I think you find over the course of the years players like to play in this system - Murphy and Kevin Johnson healthy - We added some quality football players this offseason. Health and availability is important. We've got to do the best we can do to keep players available. That will be key in the success our football team has this season - 2018 guys - if you study the NFL, maybe the same in college, what jumps out to us is when some guys have success their first season they don't always have success their second year. Or vice versa - if they don't experience the success they wanted to the first year a lot of times those guys go back and reset and work their tails off then all of a sudden they have a better sophomore season. That was part of our message - hey if you think you've arrived, you haven't. If you are worrying whether you can play in this league you can, just go home and work hard. There's story after story of guys who do that in the their 2nd season. So the guys who did play and have some success - it's important they go back and double down on their hard work in the offseason, and that's what we've seen. - How do you manage so many new guys - It's tough - the challenge of bringing a team, a cohesive unit, together. And in this case the OL together. People overlook continuity quite a bit. We've got to build it from the ground up and that's a challenge - How does it affect your installation - We started in the Spring then restarted it in TC. I'm a big stickler for fundamentals, and to me the important piece is establishing a good solid floor, and then go from there. If we try to walk before w can crawl, you don't get that second chance to have TC. That true for establishing our toughness in training camp, our identity of our football team, the attitude of our football team, the fundamentals. Let's make sure we crawl before we walk - Impressions of Ed Oliver, DTs - With respect to Ed he has a lot of work to do, he's a rookie - he's experiencing everything that comes with rookie training camp. With other guys we've got the pieces, now it's how it all fits together. If you look at last year we were able to affect the QB, we just felt as a staff we didn't finish enough on the QB. You've got to be able to do that - particularly in this division. You've got to be able to get there with your front 4 - Frank Gore - It's interesting to be around him. It's a different perspective when he's on your side. He came in and we talked about some of the matchups when I was at Carolina and he was with the 49ers and what he thought of our dfense and I shared what I thought of his offense. Now the thing I appreciate most about Frank is that he's a professional. He just loves football. He's passionate about it, he thinks, talks sleeps eats - football 24 hrs a day. And that rubs off on our football team - that passion. I'm grateful not just to coach this football team but be around a player like that - I rubs off on the coaches - Absolutely it does - It's everybody. Everyone thinks oh he's mentoring the young guys - I don't care who you are - Frank's out there running like he's 2- rs old - The other day someone was telling a story about Frank and they said coach you should have heard him - he's going through some of our terminology on offense - some guys might just be doing their thing and not really focusing when we're going through things - and here's pro, going through the terms over and over again. I just love that. He'll facetime us a random times hey coach what do you think about this, what do you think about that. He just loves football - Thoughts on building toughness - Very important - we believe in building on LOS back - LOS out. You have to be able to run the football and stop the run. Have to be able to protect the QB and get to the QB. That starts up front on both sides of the ball. That's where the toughness of the unit really begins. The identity and toughness of the football team to me is built with the offensive line , defensive line, OL coach, DL coach and your coverage units on STs. We take a lot of pride in those units - Important to get offense more together - We have more continuity on defensive side. We have a challenge on offensive side. want to develop continuity as fast as we can - that being said we also have position battles going on. So from a personnel standpoint let's make sure we're moving pieces around before we say this is what we have. at some point you get the pieces set so we can get the continuity we need

Pat Kirwan and Jim Miller (from TC) Note: There is no link available to the interview - How do you like your new receivers - I like them. Cole and John have been good for us. Andre's come in as well has looked really good. The young guys are learning. Zay had a really good offseason. We're rolling with things right now putting new stuff in, trying to figure out what works and what doesn't work. One thing I can say about the whole entire group they come in every day ready to work, ready to get better so I appreciate that from them. - Know you have a lot of confidence in arm, but in year two of Daboll's offense you seem more in command more settled, more confident. How do you feel going into year two - One thing Coach Dabs has done a really good job with is throwing out things I don't like or don't necessarily do well, and just try to implement the things that I like and that I do well. Just being comfortable with the things being put in his a huge step for me - a huge factor. Dabs calls the play, I know what he's thinking. We've been working on situational football recently - understanding what situations we can try to push the ball downfield, what situations we'd like to keep the ball kind of in the underneath stuff. It's still a learning process, I'm still getting with it - but ultimately it's the right decision making process, me being on the same page with Daboll, and then in turn being on the same page with the offense [Editor's note: Stunning to think how many light years this is away from the situation in TC last year] - You're not intending to lead the team in rushing again are you - No - that wasn't the plan last year (laughs) I'd love to get the ball into our playmaker's hands. I'm not the shiftiest guy out there, I'm not the fastest - They show that highlight a lot - and you're pretty shifty there - Yeah, when it comes down to it I can make little things happen [Ed note: So humble! ? ] but with the O line we've got in right now, we're hungry. Coach Johnson has been really great in terms of teaching the guys how to do things, technique, and in turn has opened things up in the running game in practice. You know we're not going up against a shabby defense. They got some players over there we really respect what they do. We say it last year, they were fantastic last year. We don't expect anything less from them - they're going to be hungry again. they haven't gotten a huge amount of talk in the media and they note that, they're hungry to go out there. Every day has been a battle, it's been consistent tug and pull - so we're excited - Diff QB coach - Ken Dorsey. Lot of things new, OL, receivers, TE and now QB coach - Coach Dorsey has been fantastic. The insight he has on the game from playing it - it's been unbelievable. When we put in a concept, it's something that he's familiar with because he ran it - he knows what it looks like from behind the center. He understands defenses inside and out. For him to be in the room with us and drop that knowledge onto us has been fantastic. I feel a difference, I really do - just in terms of knowing what the concept means - and how to atttack a defense - and that's in a large part due to him - What about your center - what an oppty they go out and get you a great center - Yeah. I'm pumped for it. Mitch is usually the first one in the building one of the last one out. He's very talkative, very communicative. He's very smart - that's very apparent to everyone that watches him play. Technique wise, communication with the whole offense, just his leadership ability. He's been in KC they won a lot of games last year - he's bringing that experience and that knowledge here. I think it's something that's very crucial - esp the centerpiece of the line, a guy who's been in situations and knows how to handle it, stays calm, and he's a great guy as well - You've got all these new OLinemen - getting to know these guys - And we really won't know that until we get some live reps. Preseason and the first couple games it's still going to be a feeling out process. I will say I'm excited for what we got going on right now. We got a lot of guys hungry - lot of guys who want to learn. We're still working as a group. It's not going to be perfect right away - probably won't be perfect at all times but we'll get there - Talk about how you handle - 4 new starters on OL, 14 guys in camp there first or 2nd year with Bills, whole bunch of new guys. As QB how do you go about it - what's the approach - do you use every cadence variation, run every play play in the playbook - are you throwing it all at them now or are you building slowly - I think that's one of the things Brandon Beane did, when you look at the guys we wanted to add to our team, first he looked at the physical aspects - how tough they were on the field. Secondly he went after - can they learn the offense. I think we have a lot of smart guys in our locker room. I really believe that and I appreciate their ability to come in, learn a new concept, then go out on the field and go execute. We got a lot of real professional football players here - I'm not saying we didn't have that last year, it just feels different. I think as far as from top to bottom we've got guys who are hungry, are focused, it's just throughout the entire building and I think that's a key change - What's the approach - how much of the playbook - We're putting it all in right now. We're throwing it at people, trying to figure out if they can handle it or not. for the most part we've been able to handle it. That's why I said I appreciate these guys coming in every day to work - Where are you at mechanically - what did you work on - Keeping my base the same. Many times last year I'm here - then I get here in my stance then get wide again and that causes the whole sequence to kind of be off. It's about staying here, being able to jump on my toes here, and be able to react to anything that happens. If I see a guy open throw a guy open. Being comfortable in the pocket, trusting the guys around me, ultimately trusting the receivers to get the right depth, and putting it where it needs to be - Work ethic of Frank Gore - It's unbelievable. you know I grew up a Frank Gore fan - I was a 49'ers fan. I had multiple jerseys of his - the red one the white one the black one. For him to still be playing at the level he is is unbelievable. You meet the guy you see how hard he works, you see him in practice and the type of effort he gives on every play - it's a HOF work ethic and it's infectious to everyone in the building. For me - just talking to him he's studious - he's very professional and it's all about football when he's on the field. It's unbelievable to have him -

We used to call them "Polish Porches" - annual rite of summer was people pulling out their screens to put over their garage opening. My family didn't have one but I would say the majority of people on my street did

Fair enough - but still doesn't excuse the whole "slow" argument so many were complaining about based on a 40 time - less than one minute of watching his highlights you see he has speed, acceleration and quickness in spades where it actually counts for a RB

But But But he's slow... I feel the mea culpas for horrible post draft takes on Singletary this year might rival those for Josh the year before

There was an article this offseason where he said he got hurt at the beginning of the year last year and never really got up to full strength - said he is bigger/stronger this year

Beasley seems like he has a high motor mouth - not in a bad way, more a hyper little brother who won't stop talking way Maybe he's a dope dope

You could put your high motor in there

Where's his lunchpail?

Tim Anderson approves

Can't remember which one - but Allen admitted in one interview that he basically didn't know what he was doing his first game against the Chargers - messed up calls etc. - and the down time from his injury and working with Anderson really helped him as the season went on. Can't wait to see how much he improves after a full offseason.

In the 80s I met Darryl Talley at the Brick Bar - think it was after his rookie year he was still kind of obscure at that time. It was a very memorable night - my last night in town before going off to Boca Raton Fl for my first college internship. Other luminaries that were there that night included the Earl of Bud ("You got one!"), also the guy who used to play trumpet on the bar caught fire. Those were the days. Matt Kofler used to be married to a girl I went to high school with - had some drinks with him once long ago. He had some stories - Ben "Baby" Williams was a favorite of his. In the category of not obscure player but obscure way to meet - back in the mid 90s I used to live across the street from the golf course(s) that the annual Jimmy V Celebrity Golf tournament used to be held. One year it was like 100 degrees and I was was a spectator and I saw James Lofton on one of the holes. I told my wife "I'm going to run home and get our camera to get a picture with him" - so I took off running, and soon realized it was very hot, and a lot longer than I thought. I had to hurry though because it was getting late and they were winding up. So by the time I get back to the tee were Lofton was I was a heaving, sweating mess. I'll never forget the look of horror/confusion as I approached him on the tee - I'm pretty sure he started gripping his club a bit tighter just in case he needed to use it in his defense against me. When I got to him I breathlessly blurted out "JamesIusedtowatchyouatRichStadiumCanIhaveapicureGoBills!!!" He was very nice, and took the picture - not sure if he thought maybe I was a "slow adult".

You can dodge a wrench, but can't dodge death. At least he didn't die from getting crushed by two tons of irony. RIP Rip

From thread title I was sure this was going to be related to ranch dressing and chicken wings

TB12 shakes are chock full of delicious COL1A1

This might be one of the most ridiculous things I've ever read

Have the tickets for Fri 8/2 at Ralph not gone on sale yet?

Or wait to grab a piece when fans storm the field and rip up the carpet and take down the goal posts when the Bills win the AFC championship game this year

Yes - some workout vid of McKittrick busting A would be even more hype

Always thought Beebe waa hugely overrated. Honestly the lett play did nothing to raise him to hero status for me. I just remember him for having kelly's perfect bombs bounce off his hands time and time again I used to call him to my friends "The deep threat that can't catch the long ball"

Seven children, dang. He could catch travis if he commits going forward

Wife and I went to Toy Story just bc nothing we really wanted to see - no expectations. Enjoyed it more than any movie I've seen this year - including Avengers (which I have to admit I actually fell asleep to at one point). Wish I had looked up who the voices were before the movie. I was thinking the whole movie "Man the guy voicing Forky is really good" (a sentence I never thought I'd type). Love that it was Tony Hale.