Two Bills Drive

‘” Physically there’s no problem. It’s the mental block, not being able to throw your arm out there to make a tackle,” said Spoon, who was in on 72 tackles, 46 unassisted, as a rookie. ” I haven’t thought about my arm since March.”‘

* Best player on the field – Josh Reed, who made 2 or 3 circus catches.

* Terrence McGee also had some nice coverage. On one corner route he got great inside position and broke up the pass but got yelled at for not getting the pick. In fact I didn’t see a pick all session, but did see one or 2 forced fumbles.

* On many passing plays, DEs (Irons & Denney especially) ended up way downfield and we assumed it was part of the zone blitz package.

* I saw Marcus Jones heading for the autograph tent near the end of practice and I yelled “How’s the knee, Marcus?!”

He looked up and said “Almost there, baby!”

* Starters in attendance: Bledsoe, Reed, Wire, Jennings, Williams, Jones

‘Nice concentration here by wide receiver Josh Reed, taking in the pass from backup Travis Brown…in traffic.’

‘"This is a great way to start camp, ya know. A little bit of rain. A little bit of the weather we’re going to have throughout the rest of the season. Our guys have to learn how to execute in this stuff. There’s not anybody that has to worry about heat problems or hydration problems today because it’s been just a nice light rain. We got through it. It was fun to see them get back together."’

‘Besides lengthy public service, Kemp played professional football for 13 years, quarterbacking the Buffalo Bills and the San Diego Chargers.’

‘Jones transformed his desire by focusing on his rehabilitation, which began in early January after he had surgery a second time when doctors discovered the bone and cartilage hadn’t healed properly. Taking only two one-week breaks since, Jones considers his knee fully healed and, overall, rates himself at being 85 to 90 percent ready to play.’

”’As soon as Willis gets here is great,” Williams said. ”But I’m not going to worry about that, nor am I going to talk about him. I’m going to coach the guys that are here. You want to talk about the guys that are here, I’ll talk about that.”’

Three new versions featuring August Training Camp Schedule

‘World Airways, Inc. today announced that it has signed a contract with the Buffalo Bills for the 2003 NFL season. World Airways will provide service using an MD-11 aircraft with both business and economy seating, and will fly the Bills non-stop to eleven NFL cities for both the pre-season and regular season games.’

But not even the weather could stop defensive end Marcus Jones, who has been anxious to get back into action after missing nearly a year. Jones was placed on injured reserve in September by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, after a knee injury sidelined him in a pre-season game against the Washington Redskins last August.

‘"I expect us to get into the playoffs. If we are not a playoff team I’ll be greatly disappointed. I think that we can beat anybody. Looking at the way that we stack up against any team in the league and looking at our schedule, I think we can beat any team in the league. I would expect us to do that on a consistent basis. But in order to do that we’ve got to go prove that everyday and it starts right here in camp. We’ve got to go prove it on the practice field and we’ve got to go out and prove it every day."’

* Coy Wire, Kevin Thomas, Tony Driver and rookie Terrence Mcgee were doing drills, backpedaling diagonally – zig zagging backwards maybe ten yards and trying to catch a ball thrown their way. Nice to see our defensive players going through passing drills.

* RB Joe Burns saw a LOT of work, running and catching passes. It seemed like today was a test to see which RBs could catch. Of the RBs I liked Ken Simonton best. A lot of heart.

* QB Travis Brown saw the most action. Bledsoe and Van Pelt threw a few and even Jason Johnson saw some action.

* Chris Kelsay looked very quick, spinning off blocks and following the play. He was double and even triple teamed at times. One time after a double team, he grappled with two lineman (could not catch the numbers) and it almost came to punches.

‘"We’re really just getting started (with serious contract talks)," Rosenhaus said from his Miami office. "I’m optimistic only because of the Bills’ track record. You’ve got to really respect what they’ve done in getting their players signed. (President and General Manager) Tom Donahoe and (Vice President/Administration) Jim Overdorf are very good administrators and negotiators."’

‘When his coaches told him he was too small to play professional football, Steve Tasker didn’t let that stop him from chasing his dream. The 5-foot-9, 185-pounder went on to enjoy a 13-year career in the NFL, which included four trips to the Super Bowl with the Buffalo Bills. Tasker made whatever sacrifices were necessary to make his lifelong dreams a reality, and that’s what he encouraged a gathering of 6,000 athletes to do at Wednesday night’s opening ceremonies of the Empire State Games.’

‘He didn’t flinch when asked if he thought this could be a Super Bowl team. ” Most definitely,” he said.’