Today was a nice day for practice. The Bills practiced with full pad and had some hard contact. They spent some more time on special teams work. This time, Coach Mularkey had them work on punt return coverage and some more field goal kicking. After that, the team worked on a few different drills, including the 9-on-7, 7-on-7, and then finished the day off with a bunch of different packages of the 11-on-11 drill.

The day started out like it always does, where they do their stretches and then work with the individual units. I did notice that Jason Gildon worked with the defensive line, instead of the linebackers. Following the individual drills, the team worked on special teams on one of the fields.

Special Teams started out by working on punt coverage, and punt blocking. Mike Shafer was the player who punted the ball to the returners for some reason. Brian Moorman watched from the sidelines. There were 4 different players that were catching the ball and returning it. They were Nate Clements, Antonio Brown, Terrence McGee, and Josh Reed. Brown was doing the best, but then he dropped one. Terrence McGee also dropped one. Clements did pretty good too, and he did not drop any. Josh Reed also did a nice job. Afterwards, the unit practiced on a few field goals from different areas of the field. Rian Lindell hit a perfect 3 for 3 on field goals from the 20, 24, and 28 yardlines.

The next drill was the 11-on-11 and the offenses struggled a little bit during the drill. The starting offense practiced against the backup defense. On the first play, Travis Henry had a nice block from Jonas Jennings and ran for 5 yards. Drew Bledsoe overthrew Josh Reed next, but found Sam Aiken for 6 yards. The second team offense came in next and practiced against the starting defense. On the first play, Willis McGahee ran around the left side for a gain of 4 yards. Travis Brown overthrew both Jerel Myers, and Josh Reed right in a row. However, he threw a nice pass to Tim Euhus for 5 yards at the end. JP Losman was next up and he tried to hit Bobby Shaw, and Kevin Beard, but they both dropped the ball. Shaud Williams finished the drill with a 3 yard run up the middle.

The next drill was the 9-on-7, where it's 9 offensive players against 7 defensive players. Travis Henry had two nice runs up the middle for 6 yards and 5 yards. However, he was stuffed at the line on the last play. Willis McGahee came in and did just as good. He powered through the middle for 5 yards and 4 yards, and also two nice runs around the left tackle for 6 yards a piece. Ken Simonton did not do as well. He had three runs for about 3 yards a piece, and was stuffed at the line of scrimmage on another one. Shaud Williams also struggled a bit. He had one run for 3 yards, but had one where he was stuffed behind the line of scrimmage. Mario Haggan made a great play to cause Shaud Williams to lose a couple yards on the last play. Isaac Mitchell did the best. He had one run for 7 yards up the middle and another one for 10 yards around the left side to end the drill.

Following that drill, the team practiced in the 7-on-7. Drew Bledsoe started off with a nice 5 yard screen to Travis Henry. He then hit Josh Reed for 6 yards, Moulds for 11 yards, and Henry again for 6 yards. Travis Brown came in and was almost intercepted by Rashad Baker on the first play, but he couldn't hold onto the ball. Brown then faced a blanket coverage on the receivers and made a good decision to throw the ball away. He finished off the drill with a 5 yard pass to Bobby Shaw. Bledsoe came back in and faced the backup defense. On the first play, he hit Josh Reed right in the middle of traffic for about 25 yards. He then found Lee Evans two times in a row for 15, and 18 yards. JP Losman came in and threw a nice bullet to Jerel Myers, who made a leaping grab to get it. Losman then hit Clarence Coleman for 10 yards. However, on his last try Jonathan Smith dropped the pass from Losman. Greg Zolman came back and proved why he's only the 4th stringer. He had his first pass intercepted by Daryl Towns, and then overthrew the receiver on the last one.

The final drill of the day was the 11-on-11 again. This time, the defense rotated different players in with the starters and used different packages. The first series was the starting offense against the backup defense. Bledsoe threw a screen to Henry, but it was sniffed out right away by Terrence McGee for no gain. Travis Henry then took the ball and ran it for 7 yards, right up the middle. Drew Bledsoe proved that he can avoid the blitz and hit Lee Evans right before he went out of bounds for a sweet gain of 18 yards. Travis Henry finished it off by making a nice cut to avoid the linebacker and ran for about 20 yards.

The second series was the 2nd team offense against the starting defense. Travis Brown avoided a blitz and hit Josh Reed for 18 yards on the first play. He then found Clarence Coleman downfield for 25 yards. Ken Simonton was stuffed on both of his runs to end the series.

The next package had the starting offense, mixed with a couple backups against the 2nd and 3rd team defense. Dominique Stevenson knocked the ball away from Eric Moulds on the first play. After that, McGahee ran around the right side for 6 yards. Bledsoe then completed two consecutive passes to Lee Evans for 15, and 12 yards. McGahee finished the series with a nice run around the left side for 7 yards.

The 4th package was the 3rd string offense against the 2nd and 3rd team defense. JP Losman threw a beautiful pass to Bobby Shaw, which Shaw made a nice leap to get it. Shaud Williams ran up the middle for 4 yards. Losman then scrambled around to avoid the pass rush and found Jerel Myers for a gain of 9 yards. Williams finished the series and got stuffed for a short gain.

The starting offense came back for one last time and faced the backup defense. Drew Bledsoe had two plays where he looked like the Bledsoe from last year. On the first play, he held onto the ball for too long, trying to make a big play, and would have been sacked by Keith McKenzie. He then would have been sacked by a blitzing Jason Gildon, who came off the end. Willis McGahee ran around a sweet block from Jonas Jennings for 10 yards and then Bledsoe finished the day with a 12 yard pass to Bobby Shaw.

Here's a couple tidbits that I noticed today:

1. Mike Williams and Chris Villarrial were sitting out of practice today. Mike Williams had a special boot on his foot. Marcus Price was in for Mike again, and a surprise was that Lawrence Smith was in for Chris Villarrial.

2. Lee Evans is getting better each day. He had another good day at camp and really shows his speed when he gets downfield. On some of the plays, he could have kept running for the touchdown. I think he'll be the deep threat that this team has been missing and he really reminds me of Peerless Price from when I saw him at camp. Actually, I think he looks better and faster than Price.

3. Unless Travis Brown struggles during the preseason games, or JP Losman shines, then I think that Travis Brown has the backup job all but guaranteed. JP Losman still has a lot to learn and needs to calm down a little bit, before he's ready to come is an the #2 Quarterback.

4. Jason Gildon is getting a lot of practice time working with the defensive linemen and Tim Krumrie is working with him too. I think we'll see him as the pass rushing DE that we have been missing for a while now. He will probably be used for obvious passing downs and he'll be put in on 3rd downs too.

5. I noticed that Dan Koons is getting a lot of reps as center and has worked worked shotgun several times with Drew Bledsoe in the 7-on-7 drills. He could be the player that the Bills plan on grooming to take over for Teague next year.

6. Coy Wire laid some nice hits on the receivers and backs several times today. He had looked pretty good out there, but I think Izell Reese has the starting job. But again, the preseason games could make a difference. We'll have to see.

Well, that's about it. Overall, it was another pretty good day. The practices have been slow paced so far, but I think we'll see the tempo pick up a little bit starting next week. I can't wait! I'll be back with a report from the Wednesday night session, on Thursday morning.