BillsZone Training Camp Report 7/25/2009 - PM Session

by Michael J. Thomas

 Bills Training Camp Gallery - Saturday, July 25, 2009

It's Here! The Buffalo Bills Training Camp has officially begun and this time, something was different. That's right, it was Terrell Owens' first Training Camp practice as a member of the Buffalo Bills. If yesterday was any indictation, T.O. will definitely enjoy being a Buffalo Bill. The fans came out in droves, as St. John Fisher College was packed for both practices. Many of them were wearing #81 jerseys and screaming his name or cheering when he caught the ball. The excitement from the crowd actually reminded me of a home pre-season game. All that was missing was the tailgating. As for the practice itself, Coach Jauron had the players start off slow, by not wearing pads and not allowing much contact. The team worked on a few special teams drills, individual drills with their own units, 7-on-7 and of course the 11-on-11 full team drill.

As the players filtered out of the locker room, one by one, they each walked onto the field and began to warm up. The last player on the field was Terrell Owens, who likes to make an entrance as he comes out of the locker room. He slowly walked toward sideline and waved to the fans, who were chanting his name and cheering their new player. After he walked onto the field, the horn was blown and the work began.

The first thing on the list was some basic Special Teams drills with Bobby April. The players spent the time listening to Coach April as he taught them where to line up, using special markers on the field. They worked on this for a few minutes and then the horn sounded. The next drill was some individual work with the players spending some time with their position coaches. They worked on this for a bit and then went back to some more special teams work. This time, the players took what they learned about lining up for the punt and used it without the markers on the field. Brian Moorman used the time to wow the fans with several 65-70 yard punts from the end zone. One of them was 70-yards and had unbelievable hang time. As he did this, there were several players who fielded the punts, including Roscoe Parrish, Leodis McKelvin, Fred Jackson, Dominic Rhodes and Bruce Hall. Parrish and McKelvin showed good hands catching a couple of tough ones.

Following the special teams drill, the team worked on 7-on-7 passing drills, while the lines practiced blocking. Trent Edwards started it off with a nice sideline pass to Terrell Owens for 11-yards. He then hit Lee Evans for 7-yards and Derek Fine for 6-yards. Edwards finished the series finding his new favorite weapon two more times for about 8 yards a piece. Gibran Hamdan came in with the second team and looked terrible. His first pass was knocked down by LB Marcus Buggs. His second pass was intercepted by Ashton Youboty, who made a nice leaping grab. Hamdan then recovered by finding Jonathan Stupar for 5-yards. However, he ended the series with two more incompletions. Hamdan tried to find Roscoe Parrish, but Drayton Florence batted it down. He then overthrew Parrish on his final play of the drive.

Trent Edwards came back out with the starters and found Terrell Owens for 12-yards. On his next pass, Edwards threaded the needle to Lee Evans for 15-yards. Edwards then felt some pressure from the defense and checked down to Fred Jackson for 3-yards. But the play of the day came next when Trent Edwards found Terrell Owens open down the field for a beautiful 60-yard touchdown pass. The only negative was that Owens burned Youboty badly. Ryan Fitzpatrick then came onto the field for the final series and started out with a nice pass to Justin Jenkins for 6-yards. His second pass however was intercepted by Paul Posluszny, who jumped in front of Xavier Omon. Fitzpatrick then tried to find Steve Johnson, but Terrence McGee batted it down. He made up for it with a nice pass to Derek Schouman for 10-yards. Fitzpatrick finished the drill off with a 5-yard pass to Steve Johnson and a 9-yard pass to Felton Huggins.

Following the passing drill, then team put it all together and worked on some 11-on-11 drills. Trent Edwards started it off by looking for Terrell Owens deep, but Donte Whitner came in and made a sweet leaping grab to get the interception. Marshawn Lynch got the ball on the next play and made a nice cut to help gain 6 yards. Edwards completed a 7-yard pass to Josh Reed. He then threw a screen to Lee Evans, who gained 4-yards. Next, Lynch got the ball again, but this time was stuffed up the middle. Edwards finished the series off and looked for Lee Evans downfield, but he was double covered nicely by Terrence McGee and Bryan Scott. Gibran Hamdan took the backup snaps and struggled again. He started out with 2 straight incompletions to Josh Reed, which were both at Reed's feet. His third pass was batted down at the line by Chris Ellis. Finally on the 4th play, Hamdan found Roscoe Parrish for 9-yards.

Fred Jackson got the ball next and showed some nice moves to break free from the defense, gaining 8-yards. Edwards then felt the pressure from Aaron Schobel, who just barely got by Langston Walker for a "sack." Edwards continued to feel the pressure on the next play, as Spencer Johnson got close and batted down his pass at the line. Marshawn Lynch then got the ball again and this time gained 4-yards up the middle. Edwards managed to draw the defense offsides on the next play, which was called dead right away. Trent finished the drive with a quick pass to Derek Fine for 3-yards. Ryan Fitzpatrick got his chance next and hit Justin Jenkins, who made a great catch for 5-yards. Xavier Omon finished the series off with two carries. On the first carry, he was stuffed for a short loss by Pat Thomas. He then chose to go around the left tackle on the next play and gained 6-yards. Bruce Hall then got the ball next and ran up the middle for 3-yards. The final play of the drill belonged to Matt Baker, who was intercepted by Pat Thomas.

The team then went back to some more special teams work. This time they worked on field goals. Bobby April had the players line up for the kick, while Rian Lindell practiced 40-yard field goals. The team did this for a little while and then went back to 11-on-11 drills one last time.

Marshawn Lynch got the ball first and ran around the left tackle for 8-yards. Trent Edwards threw a 16-yard pass to Lee Evans on the next play. He then found Terrell Owens in the middle of the field for 11-yards. Dominic Rhodes got the ball next and ran up the middle for 4-yards. Edwards finished the series off by hitting Josh Reed for 8-yards. Gibran Hamdan came onto the field again and the result was pretty ugly. He started out with his first pass batted down. He then got lucky when Ashton Youboty had the interception, but dropped it. Bruce Hall then ran up the middle for 3-yards. Hamdan finished the day off by overthrowing Steve Johnson. Trent Edwards came back out for a final drive and hit Lee Evans for 5-yards. However, on the next play, Leodis McKelvin stepped in front of a pass intended for Owens and easily got the interception. Edwards recovered with a quick pass to Lee Evans for 6-yards. And then he threw a nice bullet to Terrell Owens for 12-yards. Edwards finished the drill off by trying the long ball, but overthrew Evans. The horn then sounded and the players went back to their position coaches and worked on a couple basic drills to cool off and then did their stretched to end the day.

Extra Points:

1. Terrell Owens was the main player that a lot of of fans came out to see and he seemed to enjoy every minute of it. Owens waved to the fans who cheered his name several times and always flashed his smile. He also gained a lot of fans after the morning practice when he hung around and signed autographs for a half hour.

2. The No Huddle is alive and well in Buffalo. I have been going to Bills camp for years and I always remember seeing the offense huddle up before the play. This year the players didn't do that. They are lining up right away and Edwards is making audibles at the line and the players are using bunch of different hand signals. It appears that the rumors about the No Huddle offense are true. But I think it's going to be an even bigger factor than people think. Edwards did a nice job running the offense. Let's hope he can do that when it counts.

3. The backup quarterback position is definitely shakier than I thought. None of the three QBs under Edwards on the depth chart did anything to stand out and Gibran Hamdan looked awful! Hopefully Fitzpatrick can step up and take the job because Hamdan is definitely not the answer.

4. Donte Whitner looks really good out there. He was used at both Strong Safety and Free Safety and made several big plays, including a really nice interception where he leaped in the air to grab the ball.

5. If Ashton Youboty can stay healthy, watch out! He may snatch the nickel back job. He covered his receivers nicely out there, had 1 interception and almost had a second one. Look for him to start getting more time out on the field. I will definitely keep an eye out on him.

Overall, it was a pretty good day at camp. The weather was a nice change of pace as the sun stayed out for most of the day and the rain stayed away. The practice itself was slow paced because it was the first day, but there was still a bit of excitement and I'm sure it will pick up later in the week.