BillsGuyInMalta Posted August 4, 2010 Posted August 4, 2010 Met up with my parents who came in from Albany for lunch in Rochester (garbage plates galore) and then we all made the pilgrimage to training camp. I thought my GPS was trying to lead me onto the set of the Children of The Corn with how much farmland I ended up driving through, but I eventually landed in the Mendon parking lot as I was supposed to. So sadly no Stephen King-esque horrors befell me. As for the camp itself, it looked pretty full to me...maybe the earlier practices had sparse attendance but this one was pretty packed, especially for a Tuesday. It didnt come close to last year's TO-mania, but it's definitely comparable to the last few years. It was hotter than hell out there today, lots of players tossing down the Gatorade cups and a few situations of heat cramps arose. Nothing too serious. As for the particulars... QB: Trent Edwards had a pretty terrible day. He was throwing a lot of dump-off passes and a lot of times looked like he didnt know where he wanted to throw the ball and ended up just tossing it to the ground. He tried to squeeze a bomb down the sidelines but his guy was pretty well covered and it ended up going out of bounds anyways. Brohm had some serious trouble in the snap drills, he fumbled the snap 3 times from Hangartner. However he was MUCH better on the 7 on 7 and full scrimmage practices. One play in particular was quite good where it ended up being a rollout screen...got out to the flat, threw the ball perfectly to Chad Simpson who scampered for a huge gain with plenty of blockers in front of him. In the endzone drills, he lead his team to a TD all 3 times (including a beauty of a throw over to middle to Stupar) while Trent Edwards failed to punch it in during his 3 chances. Fitzpatrick had a pretty good day too, some nice over the middle slant passes. This competition is clearly going to be decided by pre-season games. RB: All of the running backs looked really good today with Fred Jackson and Joique Bell getting special props. Jackson (on a kickoff return) caught the ball over his shoulder, reversed field and would have had at least a 50 yard return, if not more. Bell is really quick and hit the holes with authority. Lynch looked good too, he seems to be hitting his stride after missing all of the mini camps. WR: Nothing really that special today as the QBs didnt give them much to work with. James Hardy probably had the best catch of the day from Fitzpatrick, pulling in a long bomb for a TD where he totally outmuscled the CB covering him. The Bills practiced A LOT of fade routes today, methinks we'll see a lot of Hardy in those situations. Chad Jackson has a solid day too, didn't drop any of the passes I saw thrown at him during the 7 on 7s or the position practices. TE: Interesting note, Jonathan Stupar practiced with the first team when they were practicing running plays and Shawn Nelson started when they were practicing passing plays. Nelson really struggles with his blocks, but he brought in some very nice passes over the middle. Stupar is his usual self, catches everything in reach and lays into people during blocks. Schouman ended up being stripped on one play for a fumble and Matthews got hit HARD by two secondary players in the endzone. It looked like there could be another fight after Matthews got up and started yelling about the hit, but everyone just walked back to the huddle and it was forgotten. O-Line: The running game is waaaaaaaaaaaaay ahead of the passing game at this point. They actually opened up some really nice holes for the running backs and all of the backs were quick through them. I actually feel a little bit better about our tackle position than I did before today as Cornell Green looked very good today, the guy was pretty much a wall. Meredith looked good filling in for Bell when he needed a rest at LT. Kyle Calloway stood up Marcus Stroud on pass rush drills when he was filling in at RT. The interior O-Line did struggle for the most part though in pass rush drills. D-Line: ...damn, this is the one spot where I was expecting very little and saw quite a bit. First off, Alex Carrington was the star of the practice IMO. In the pass rush drills, the guy was absolutely unblockable. What impressed me was that it wasnt just one move, he has a variety of pass rushing moves and even ended up throwing a lot of O-Linemen backwards into the "QB". I left camp thinking that we have a future star in Carrington. Kyle Williams has sold me on his ability to man the NT, I watched him just blow up Hangartner and storm the backfield on two consecutive rush drills. Stroud, aside from getting owned by Calloway on that one play, also got quite a bit of pressure and looks a lot less flabby than in years past. Troup got double-teamed for most of the plays he was involved in and still managed to push them back a bit which is honestly the best you can hope for out of your space clogging NT. This was the unit I was most impressed with, they look to have very good starters and (shockingly) quite a bit of depth behind them. Can't wait to see them in pre-season. LBs: Nobody really stood out to me today, Antonio Coleman has some nice outside pass rushing skills, Donovan Woods (I think it was him) caused Schuman to fumble and Reggie Torbor was constantly around the ball. Aaron Maybin didn't have a great day, he was stuffed on all of the pass rush drills and did nothing during the 7 on 7 and scrimmage drills. It looked like he was getting coached pretty hard on the field and seemed to take it well. I feel like he really wants to get better but his skills just aren't translating well to the NFL level. CBs: McGee was in sweat pants so McKelvin took over the CB1 spot and had himself a great day. Lots of pass breakups and soft hands during INT drills. As usual all of our secondary guys looked good, Byrd really does go after every single football thrown his way, even in practice. He was laying out for them even if they were out of reach. Ellis Lankster also pulled in a few nice picks during the drills, tapping the sidelines to stay in bounds, I was impressed by that. Overall, I came away feeling a little better about our OT positions and a hell of a lot better about our D-Line. The Bills ran a lot of playaction today (I couldnt believe it either, I havent seen that in years) and a lot of screen passes so I would expect to see them heavily used during pre-season to iron out the kinks. Definitely a different tempo in Camp Gailey compared to Camp Jauron, the guys are doing a lot more work and seem to be far more energetic.
aristocrat Posted August 4, 2010 Posted August 4, 2010 good stuff. i'm liking our d line more and more. with a nice secondary and solid d line our lb's could play better.
Coach Tuesday Posted August 4, 2010 Posted August 4, 2010 Good stuff, thanks. Don't forget Carrington and Co. are practicing against the Bills' o-line... just sayin'.
NishP Posted August 4, 2010 Posted August 4, 2010 Good stuff, thanks. Don't forget Carrington and Co. are practicing against the Bills' o-line... just sayin'. Damn man can we be excited do you think we dont know who they are practicing against! Negative nancy up thier! LOL jk but seriously our D-Line is gonna be really good.
Zulu Cthulhu Posted August 4, 2010 Posted August 4, 2010 Nice to hear some positive feedback from someone that actually went to camp and saw the team first hand. I wish there was more of these, but the board is currently clogged with whiny trolls. Especially encouraging were your observations of Hardy - I'm curious to see how his role will evolve this season. Carrington does seem like a potential home-run based on his perfomances so far.
vincec Posted August 4, 2010 Posted August 4, 2010 Always great to hear first hand training camp reports. I was never that worried about the DL. The Bills had 2 pretty decent linemen (Williams & Stroud), traded for another starter and then drafted two linemen in their top 3 picks. That has to translate into at least 3 solid payers.
koozyburger Posted August 4, 2010 Posted August 4, 2010 Good stuff, thanks. Don't forget Carrington and Co. are practicing against the Bills' o-line... just sayin'. I totally agree. the oline is one we need to address before we start the season. Hangartner gets blown off the ball by safety's. Not sure why we didnt go after flozell adams. Hopefully a decent left tackle is released before the season and also a lb.
cliffordhicks Posted August 4, 2010 Posted August 4, 2010 great report! sounds very positive. except for our qb position, but hey who needs a qb, right?
PromoTheRobot Posted August 4, 2010 Posted August 4, 2010 Fluffhead said Trent was awesome in his report, so who is telling the truth? PTR
Turn Down For Watkins Posted August 4, 2010 Posted August 4, 2010 Thanks for the report! I'm starting to think were gonna have to be a very run heavy team to put up points. I'll be sure to post some kind of a report also when I go to one of the practices within the next couple weeks.
theranter Posted August 4, 2010 Posted August 4, 2010 Fluffhead said Trent was awesome in his report, so who is telling the truth? PTR A guy (MRW) @ B-rumb. sez trent played well as well....funny.... GO BILLS!
CarolinaBill Posted August 4, 2010 Posted August 4, 2010 "but, but, but duh... carrington played at a small school, and uh, so did troup, they cant possibly be good and kyle williams is too small, duhhhh, we're gonna suck, duh, i love the bills" sorry, i was waiting for that response, glad to hear the DL is shaping up and brohm is looking better (aside from the snap exchange)
SDS Posted August 4, 2010 Posted August 4, 2010 Fluffhead said Trent was awesome in his report, so who is telling the truth? PTR he said he was accurate. Accurate dump offs?
Mr. ChumChums Posted August 4, 2010 Posted August 4, 2010 I don't mean to be a downer or anything, but the thought just occurred to me. Could our O-Line's ineptitude be making our D-Line look awesome?
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