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Buffalo Bills Training Camp Report: 8/6/2015

By Michael J. Thomas

Buffalo Bills Training Camp Gallery – Thursday, August 6, 2015

It was Day 6 of Buffalo Bills at St. John Fisher College. The players practiced in full pads again with some limited contact. The team worked on several different drills. As always they start out with their individual drills and 1-on-1’s. But the team also spent extra time working on the 11-on-11, doing some 2-minute drills and red zone offense. The special teams focused on punting and punt coverage for the day.

I’m going to jump ahead to the 11-on-11 drill. Both EJ Manuel and Matt Cassel started out with the starters. LeSean McCoy was back on the field and started right off with a run up the middle for 4-yards. EJ Manuel then threw a pass to Justin Brown for 16-yards. On the next play, Manuel dumped the ball off to McCoy for 12-yards. Fred Jackson then ran the ball around the left tackle for 8-yards. Matt Cassel then came in and threw a screen to Jerome Felton for 5-yards. On the next play, Bryce Brown was stuffed by Alex Carrington. He then ran up the middle for 3-yards. McCoy then ran behind the right guard for 6-yards. He then took the ball on the next play and took the ball to the outside, showing off his speed and he gained 20-yards. He might’ve gained even more than that. Tyrod Taylor then had his first pass attempt and overthrew Sammy Watkins.

Following the 11-on-11 drills, the lines went over to the other field while the offense worked on some 1-on-1’s. I didn’t take a play by play, I was taking photos. But I took a few notes down. On the negative side, both Matt Cassel and EJ Manuel were intercepted. The interesting thing is that both plays were intended for Deonte Thompson. Cassel was intercepted by Nickell Roby, while Manuel was intercepted by Ron Brooks. Both of the defensive backs made great plays on the ball and ripped it out of Thompson’s hands. The other two things I noticed were two beautiful passes by EJ Manuel. He started out with a pretty looking 50-yard touchdown pass to Chris Hogan. He later threw a nice 50-yard bomb to Andre Davis.

Next up, the linemen came back onto the field and the team went right back to work on the 11-on-11 drills. The starting offense worked against the backup defense. Matt Cassel started it out by throwing the ball at Robert Woods’ feet. EJ Manuel then threw a screen pass to Charles Clay for 6-yards. Cassel came back in and threw a screen to Robert Woods, who was popped by new Bills CB Merrill Noel. Manuel then dumped the ball off to LeSean McCoy for 9-yards. On the next play, McCoy went out wide and caught a screen from Cassel for 4-yards. Fred Jackson then came in and ran around the left tackle for 10-yards. Cassel then threw a 5-yard pass to Chris Hogan. Manuel then threw an 11-yard pass to Hogan. Cassel came back in and threw a screen to McCoy for 8-yards. On the final play of the drill, EJ Manuel was pressured by the defense, but avoided the rush and got the ball out to Robert Woods for 13-yards.

Next up, the 2-minute drill. Each group was given 1:50 to go 70 yards. Matt Cassel started out with the starters and threw a nice pass to LeSean McCoy, but it appeared to be negated by a penalty. On the next play, Cassel threw a pass to Chris Hogan for 5-yards. He then connected with LeSean McCoy for 7-yards. On the next play, Cassel threw an 8-yard pass to Robert Woods, which gave him a 1st down. He then threw at Woods’ back. McCoy then ran up the middle for 3-yards. On the next play, the defense took a 12-men on the field penalty and you heard a coach screaming at them. There was 14-seconds left on the clock and they were in field goal range. Cassel then threw the ball away because no one was open. On the final play of the drive, Cassel would’ve been sacked by Mario Williams, but he threw it away again.

Next up, Tyrod Taylor worked with the backups. He started it out with a 3-yard pass to Bryce Brown. On the next play, Taylor threw an ugly pass that was almost picked off by Mario Butler, but he couldn’t hold on. Taylor then threw a 4-yard pass to Chris Gragg. On 4th down, Taylor threw another pass to Gragg for 5-yards which gave them a 1st down. Brown then carried the ball and ran around the left tackle for 7-yards. On the next play, Tyrod Taylor threw a nice pass to Gragg about 25-yards down the field. He then threw the ball away to save time on the clock. Taylor then threw a pass to Bryce Brown for 6-yards, who didn’t get out of bounds, so the clock kept ticking. But they had enough time and would’ve kicked a field goal.

EJ Manuel worked out with the third team unit. Karlos Williams started it off by running up the middle for 8-yards. EJ Manuel then threw a 7-yard pass to Dezmin Lewis. On the next play, Manuel threw a nice pass to Chris Hogan deep, but he tripped on his own feet. Manuel then connected with Andre Davis for 5-yards. On the next play, Manuel would’ve been sacked by Alex Carrington. Manuel then threw a 7-yard pass to Karlos Williams. For 4th down, EJ Manuel took a timeout. Then he threw a nice strike to Justin Brown for 5-yards and the 1st down. On the final play of the drill, EJ Manuel threw a beautiful 41-yard touchdown pass to Andre Davis with only 24-seconds left on the clock.

Following the 2 minute drill, the team went back to work on special teams. They spent time punting the ball and working on their punt coverage team. Colton Schmidt showed off his leg with several beautiful punts. He was kicking them long, high and far. I was impressed with how much hang time his punts had. I counted about 6-8 seconds of hang time. He also had good distance on them and punted them about 50-60 yards down the field. He also had one that was over 50-yards and he did a coffin corner kick that went out of bounds inside the 5-yard line.

After the special teams drills, the team came right back to work on more 11-on-11 drills. LeSean McCoy started it out by showing off his burst as he flew around the left tackle for 15-yards. Matt Cassel then threw a 6-yard pass to Bryce Brown. He then connected with Marquise Goodwin for 12-yards. Cassel then overthrew Percy Harvin. On the next play, Cassel spotted Robert Woods who burned Rod Sweeting badly and hit him for a long touchdown. The backups came onto the field and Karlos Williams ran up the middle for 4-yards. He then ran around the left tackle for 5-yards until he was hit by Jimmy Gaines. On the next play, EJ Manuel floated a pass to Charles Clay that was intercepted by Kenny Ladler. Karlos Williams then ran up the middle for 3-yards until he was stopped by Jimmy Gaines. Bryce Brown then ran up the middle for 6-yards. Manuel then threw a pass to Chris Gragg for 16-yards. Brown then ran up the middle and only gained 2-yards after Stephon Gilmore tackled him. Tyrod Taylor came in next and threw a 15-yard pass to Robert Woods. On the next play, Taylor was pressure by Corbin Bryant, so he took the ball and ran up the middle for 13-yards. Karlos Williams was then stuffed at the line of scrimmage. On the next play, Williams was tackled behind the line by Randell Johnson. Taylor then overthrew Justin Brown. He then hit Marqueis Gray for 11-yards. On the final play of the series, McCoy ran up the middle for 5-yards.

For the final drill of the day, the team worked on red zone 11-on-11. I paid attention to EJ Manuel who was working with the backups and Matt Cassel who was with the starters. EJ Manuel started it out with a QB keeper and ran up the middle for 10-yards. Matt Cassel then threw the ball behind Percy Harvin. Bryce Brown then ran up the middle for 3-yards. EJ Manuel then connected with Karlos Williams for a 7-yard touchdown. On the other side, McCoy was stuffed at the line by the defense. Manuel then threw a 5-yard touchdown to Justin Brown. On the final play of that drill, Karlos Williams ran up the middle for a 5-yard touchdown.

Extra Points:

1. EJ Manuel won the day. He had several great passes and his 2-minute drill was the only one that resulted in a touchdown. Sure he had the interception, but he did a great job moving around in the pocket and showed quick decisions. I have noticed a big difference from him today compared to the other days. Hopefully he can keep getting better.

2. On the other hand, Matt Cassel was terrible. I thought he had his worst day yet. He was off on several passes in the individual drills and the 1-on-1’s. He was underthrowing and overthrowing several times and just didn’t look good. His deep ball is by far the worst of the 3 quarterbacks.

3. LeSean McCoy was back and he embarrassed the backups. He was running past the other players like they weren’t even there. I love watching him used in screens. He has the speed and in space, he’ll break many of those long runs.

4. Nickell Roby was a player that caught my eye. He was all over the place. He had that interception in the 1-on-1’s where he literally ripped the ball out of Deonte Thompson’s hands. He also broke up a few passes and showed good coverage in the 11-on-11 drills.

5. I noticed Jimmy Gaines a few times and he was right in the play several times. I’m interested to see him more when the real tackling begins.

6. Colton Schmidt is fun to watch. His punts were all longer than 50-yards and he had excellent hang time on them. I was also impressed by his coffin corner kicks. Hopefully we see a bunch of those during the season.

Overall, it was another good day at St. John Fisher College. The weather was gorgeous again. The stands were packed were people and the action on the field was entertaining. I loved seeing the offense step it up today. Hopefully they can keep getting better. Tomorrow brings live tackling to the mix. Can’t wait for that one!