YardRat
05-12-2007, 05:52 PM
http://www.buffalonews.com/111/story/74068.html
The Buffalo Bills will get their first look at their newly acquired talent this weekend during a three-day minicamp that begins today at the team’s training facility.
Running back Marshawn Lynch and linebacker Paul Posluszny and the other five 2007 draft picks will get their first on-field work. They will be joined by 15 undrafted rookies and six practice squad players without an accredited NFL season for two 90-minute sessions today and Monday and one 90-minute workout on Sunday.
The practices are closed to the public.
“It’s a real exciting thing for us as coaches and as an organization to have them in here for the first time,” Bills coach Dick Jauron said. “It’s an opportunity for us to talk to them about our philosophy of professional football, how it differs from where they’ve been and the changes they will need to make. And we’ll talk to them about how to practice, why we do it the way we do it.”
The veteran players are not required to participate this weekend, so the focus will be on fundamentals and individual drills.
“I’ve never been involved in a minicamp where the whole team wasn’t here, but this will give us a lot more time to work directly with our firstyear guys,” Jauron said. “There won’t be a lot of team reps, but there will be a lot of learning of the schemes and the system that they will be able to take right into the OTAs [organized team activities] with the veterans.”
The Bills scheduled the rookie minicamp this weekend because it will allow the players who don’t have to return to school to jump right into the team’s offseason conditioning program.
The Bills will have a voluntary minicamp on May 21-24, but most of the veterans are expected to attend. Jauron said this weekend is critical for the rookies to start absorbing the offensive and defensive schemes so they can keep up with the veterans. “We will impress upon them the differences between what they’ve done to this point and what’s going to happen now, and the fact that we can’t be real patient,” Jauron said. “We don’t have a long time. It’s not like your freshman year in college where we can wait for you to mature a little bit. Particularly if you’re a free agent, you’ve got to show us that you belong here.”
Jauron likes all of his draft picks and the rookie free agents that were signed, but he still doesn’t know how they will handle the demands of the NFL. He hopes the next three days will help confirm that the team made the right choices.
“I want to see if these guys are what we think, both athletically and mentally,” Jauron said. “Characterwise, we’ve tried to do our homework. It will take us longer than three days to realize that, but hopefully we won’t have any problems there either. But athletically and grasping the concepts of what we do, hopefully we come out of this minicamp feeling really good.
“And for guys we really don’t know that well — the free agents we have in — hopefully some of them really step up and give us hope that they can challenge for a job and push other people and make them better.”
The Buffalo Bills will get their first look at their newly acquired talent this weekend during a three-day minicamp that begins today at the team’s training facility.
Running back Marshawn Lynch and linebacker Paul Posluszny and the other five 2007 draft picks will get their first on-field work. They will be joined by 15 undrafted rookies and six practice squad players without an accredited NFL season for two 90-minute sessions today and Monday and one 90-minute workout on Sunday.
The practices are closed to the public.
“It’s a real exciting thing for us as coaches and as an organization to have them in here for the first time,” Bills coach Dick Jauron said. “It’s an opportunity for us to talk to them about our philosophy of professional football, how it differs from where they’ve been and the changes they will need to make. And we’ll talk to them about how to practice, why we do it the way we do it.”
The veteran players are not required to participate this weekend, so the focus will be on fundamentals and individual drills.
“I’ve never been involved in a minicamp where the whole team wasn’t here, but this will give us a lot more time to work directly with our firstyear guys,” Jauron said. “There won’t be a lot of team reps, but there will be a lot of learning of the schemes and the system that they will be able to take right into the OTAs [organized team activities] with the veterans.”
The Bills scheduled the rookie minicamp this weekend because it will allow the players who don’t have to return to school to jump right into the team’s offseason conditioning program.
The Bills will have a voluntary minicamp on May 21-24, but most of the veterans are expected to attend. Jauron said this weekend is critical for the rookies to start absorbing the offensive and defensive schemes so they can keep up with the veterans. “We will impress upon them the differences between what they’ve done to this point and what’s going to happen now, and the fact that we can’t be real patient,” Jauron said. “We don’t have a long time. It’s not like your freshman year in college where we can wait for you to mature a little bit. Particularly if you’re a free agent, you’ve got to show us that you belong here.”
Jauron likes all of his draft picks and the rookie free agents that were signed, but he still doesn’t know how they will handle the demands of the NFL. He hopes the next three days will help confirm that the team made the right choices.
“I want to see if these guys are what we think, both athletically and mentally,” Jauron said. “Characterwise, we’ve tried to do our homework. It will take us longer than three days to realize that, but hopefully we won’t have any problems there either. But athletically and grasping the concepts of what we do, hopefully we come out of this minicamp feeling really good.
“And for guys we really don’t know that well — the free agents we have in — hopefully some of them really step up and give us hope that they can challenge for a job and push other people and make them better.”