| July 27, 2007 | « Previous Story | HOME | Next Story » | Posted at 01:06 PM |
Bills Training Camp Gallery Friday, July 27 2007
Here we go! Day 2 of Buffalo Bills Training camp. There are two practices today, as it is the 2nd of 3 double session practices. Here is what I caught from this morning's practice. The biggest news of the day was that JP Losman was back on the field practicing as it appears his back is not bothering him anymore. Also, Marshawn Lynch was on the field and was getting weaned into the drills, as he missed the first day. The players worked on a bunch of special teams drills, individual drills with their own units, 7-on-7 , 11-on-11 and even some no huddle drills. The main focus thing morning seemed to be special teams as Head Coach Jauron gave Bobby April a lot of practice time. But they did do many other things too!
The special teams spent the first part of the day working on punt coverage. They also did some practice punting the ball, Moorman didn't see much action as DJ Fitzpatrick took a lot of the reps to give Brian Moorman some rest. While they were doing this, the quarterbacks were working on some throwing drills and taking the ball from the center. Once the horn sounded, all of the players got together and worked on some 11-on-11 no huddle style drills, where they left their helmets on the ground and practiced running the ball. The Bills then did their stretching and loosened up to get ready for the real action.
The offense worked on some no-huddle again, this time with the helmets on. On the first play, Fred Jackson took the ball and ran to the left for about 6-yards. JP Losman then threw a 10-yard pass to Lee Evans, who made a nice leaping grab. Fred Jackson got the ball again and was stopped for a short gain. There was then some communication problems as JP Losman tried to hook up with Lee Evans, but he wasn't there. They made up for it on the next play when JP threw a nice bullet pass to Evans for about 8-yards.
Following that short drill, the players went back to their individual units and spent time working together on catching drills, blocking drills, throwing drills, etc. I was on the side where the receivers were working on their routes, so I watched that. Lee Evans couldn't make the sweet fingertip catch, but it was hard to get to on his first try. He did make a great catch later on. Roscoe Parrish did haul one of those passes in and made the fingertip grab. Donovan Morgan and Josh Reed also made some sweet catches, along with Peerless Price who made a leaping grab. The units then started to work together as JP Losman and the rest of the Quarterbacks worked with the wide receivers and tight ends. Losman threw a couple nice bombs to his receivers, and so did Trent Edwards as he appears to have a great arm also. The running backs then merged into the groups and Anthony Thomas caught a couple passes, along with Dwayne Wright who has some good speed.
Next up was the Special Teams practice again, as Bobby April continues to get a lot of practice time. Special Teams will definitely be a big focus this year. It's nice to see. This time the long snappers and holders worked with the punters and kickers on one side of the field. There were 3 players that were long snapping and they were the usual Mike Schneck who had some good snaps, along with Duke Preston and Ryan Neill. On the other side of the field, the gunners were working on blocking and trying to get away from the defender. April had each player paired up with another player for the whole practice. I watched Paul Posluszny, who was matched up against Ryan Neufeld. Poz put a nice move on Neufeld a few times and showed good toughness when trying to block him. Josh Stamer and Coy Wire were matched up right next to them and both of them seemed to be having a good time and it was a good matchup for both.
Following the special teams drill, the players worked on the 7-on-7 drill, while the linemen worked one some blocking drills. Terrence McGee started it out right away by batting down JP Losman's pass to Lee Evans. Losman then hit Peerless Price for about 6-yards. JP then found Josh Reed right in the hands, but Reed dropped it and it was tipped and intercepted by Keith Ellison. Losman went right back to him on the next play, this time finding him downfield for 22-yards and he made a nice leaping catch. Roscoe Parrish dropped a pass from JP Losman. Losman then went right back to him to give him another shot and Kiwaukee Thomas was all over him and he knew it. It was definitely pass interference. Next up was Craig Nall, who started out lousy by throwing a pass that was right in Mario Haggan's hands. Luckily Haggan couldn't hang on. Nall then decided to dump it off a couple times to Shaud Williams. Trent Edwards got his shot and overthrew Josh Reed right away. He then checked off to Donovan Morgan for about 6-yards.
JP Losman came back out and threw a quick pass to Sam Aiken for 7-yards. He then hit Jonathan "Fast Freddie" Smith for 5-yards. Next he found Lee Evans for about 8-yards. Losman then threw a nice looking pass to Sam Aiken for 14-yards. Josh Reed made a great catch when Losman threw a nice floater downfield for 23-yards. Craig Nall had one more crack at it and hit Lee Evans for 14-yards. But he overthrew Jemalle Cornelius right after that. Edwards had one final shot and dumped the ball off to Fred Jackson for a short gain. He finished it off by finding Felton Huggins for 8-yards, who lost his footing and was falling down, but still made a great catch.
After the horn sounded, the linemen came back over and the team worked on the 11-on-11 drill again. Anthony Thomas was stopped for a short gain on the first play. Losman then found Lee Evans for a 7-yard pass. Next he threw a screen to A-Train for about 5-yards. Marshawn Lynch was running with the 2nd and 3rd teams and saw limited action. But he did had a nice run to the outside for 6 or 7 yards. JP Losman then found Roscoe Parrish who made a great catch, keeping him feet inbounds at the sidelines for 24-yards. Dwayne Wright got his chance to run and showed some nice moves as he he gained 8-yards. Terrence McGee continued to shine as he stripped Lee Evans of the ball. JP Losman then dumped it off to Brad Cieslak for 4-yards. Fred Jackson then got the ball a couple times and ran up the middle for about 5 yards each time. Shaud Williams ran around the left tackle for 7-yards. JP Losman then overthrew Peerless Price. Trent Edwards came back in and threw a dumpoff pass to Robert Royal for 4-yards. He then found again, this time for 11-yards. Losman came back in and found Jemalle Cornelius for 25-yards. Marshawn Lynch had another chance to carry the ball and showed some nice burst as he ran around the left tackle for 12-yards. Craig Nall finished the drill by hitting Justin Jenkins, who made a nice catch downfield for 23-yards.
The special teams then went back to work again. This time they worked on punt returns and trying to get to the returner. They had 4 returners on each side of the field. On one side was Roscoe Parrish, Fred Jackson, Jim Leonhard and Josh Scobey. On the other side was Shaud Williams, Jonathan Smith, Scott Mayle, and Donovan Morgan. During this drill, Leonard had problems fielding the ball as they didn't catch punts, the players caught a ball that was tossed to them from the side. Also, Roscoe Parrish showed his great return ability as he had one play where he ran around to the left side and was gone. He outran everyone for a touchdown.
The team finished the day with some more 11-on-11 drills. Terrence McGee continued to shine as he made a great defensive play to force the incompletion to Peerless Price. JP Losman then found Lee Evans for 15-yards. Sam Aiken was the next target and made a nice leaping grab to get Losman's 8-yard pass. JP then went back to Lee Evans for 18-yards, near the sideline. He finished off with a couple bombs. His first one was a sweet bomb to Peerless Price for 50-yards. Then he finished it off by gunning it to Josh Reed for 27-yards. Craig Nall then threw a nice 30-yarder to Roscoe Parrish. Trent Edwards ended the drill by finding Sam Aiken downfield for 28-yards, followed by a pass to Jonathan Smith for 13-yards. To finish the day off, the team went back to individual groups and worked on some drills. This was probably used as a cooling off period and the players only did light stuff and talked with the coaches, then they did their stretched and left.
Extra Points:
1. Terrence McGee was the star of the day. He was all over the field and made some great plays, batting down a couple balls and also showed some great coverage downfield.
2. It was great to see JP Losman back out there. He continued to show why he's the leader of this team, as he seemed to have some nice interaction with the players and was taking charge at the line of scrimmage, including changing players from behind center and working on the no huddle drill quite a few times. They have definitely taken the training wheels off.
3. Dick Jauron is definitely serious about special teams. I have never seen a couple allow his team to spend as much time on special teams as he does. Bobby April sure must be excited. Roscoe Parrish was the star during these drills as he took one to the house.
4. Peerless Price participated in all drills with a bandaged pinkie and still did a good job catching the ball. He did make the play of the day when he caught that long bomb from JP Losman for about 50-yards.
5. Both of the rookie runningbacks were weaned into action. Each one had about 4-5 carries. Marshawn Lynch showed his speed and he seems to have that homerun threat that we are all looking for in a running back. Dwayne Wright showed good moves when he ran up the middle and made a couple fakes, including a big cut on Josh Stamer that made him look bad.
6. Paul Posluszny saw some action with the starting unit in a few drills, but was mainly with the 2nd team as they slowing work him in. He did get to the ballcarrier quickly on the plays I saw him.
7. Jason Webster seems to have the starting Cornerback job locked up, unless the others really shine. He showed great coverage ability downfield and was also good at getting to the running back.
8. Props go to Marshawn Lynch for coming to the fence and signing a bunch of autographs for the fans. He was there for about 20-minutes or so and kept signing when many players were gone. Derek Schouman did the same thing. Also, props go to JP Losman for coming to the fence after doing a few interviews. He was very personal with everyone and even took a couple photos with some fans.
Overall, it was a pretty good day at camp. Seeing how it was only the second day and the players still aren't wearing pads, it was a bit light and slow paced. But that should definitely pick up by next week.