Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

‘The Bills’ letter read as follows: “We hope you and your family and friends are staying safe and healthy.”‘

‘“I’m happy that it happened now instead of come season time,” said Allen. “If this were to happen on Saturday or Sunday, who knows if I’d be playing. It sucks that I was kind of the guinea pig and whatnot, and part of that process, but I’m glad it wasn’t then, I’m glad it was now and we’re able to kind of move past it.”’

‘This is the tendency in sports, falling in love with the new guy, and in Moss’ case, it’s easy to understand why that would happen. With his unique talent for being able to mix bruising runs with ones where he’s elusive enough to make defenders miss, the 2020 third-round draft pick and native south Floridian looks like he’s going to be a fun player to watch this season.’

‘“We control what we can control,” McDermott said on a Zoom call Monday morning. “I think it’s honestly ridiculous that there will be … what appears to be a playing field that is like that. Inconsistently across the league with the different away stadiums. We control what we can control. That’s gotta be our mindset and that’s how we attack it.”’

‘Due to some irregularities in results from COVID-19 tests on Saturday that were processed in a lab in New Jersey, several teams that use that lab cancelled their practices Sunday.’

‘“I had my girlfriend, when I was out in (California) the whole time, helping me read out some plays, doing note cards,” the third-round draft pick said recently. “I can’t speak for everyone, but I know a lot of guys that were just doing a very good job of taking everything that we learned from the (virtual) meetings and then going out and just finding even our family, or you know, high school quarterbacks, college quarterbacks, whatever, and just asking them to help us learn the playbook.”’

‘“That’s a challenge when you’ve got four,” McDermott said. “It’s good to have four, don’t get me wrong, but we have a limited amount of reps. You have to find a way to get them all enough reps to evaluate them. And I think all four of them have done a nice job.”‘

‘“I was going to college in Australia, originally, and we got bored one summer and found an American football at my buddy’s house and we went down to the field and started throwing it,” Edwards began. “Back then I couldn’t really throw it so we just started punting it because I played Australian football and that’s how we moved the ball down the field, we punted it.”’

‘It wasn’t until the next day when it was revealed that living and dying with each play took on a whole new meaning. Not only was Everett paralyzed by the hit, he nearly died on the field, and only the heroic efforts of the Bills’ medical staff prevented what would have been the greatest tragedy in team history, perhaps NFL history.’

‘“I’ve seen in the past where Von Miller’s posted things about his pass rush summit that he does every year and I saw the link to it this year,” Epenesa said Wednesday. “He put it on his Instagram and said, ‘College and pro guys DM me for an invitation.’”’

‘“Well, I think that’s understandable,” he said. “Until you’re able to silence that, it’s going to continue to come up. I think at the end of the day Josh wants to prove himself inside the building first and I think he continues to do that and show his teammates who he is and what he’s capable of.”’

‘“He finally got a full year under his belt last year so he’s playing more confident than ever,” said Beasley, who in his first season with the Bills caught 67 passes for 778 yards and a career-best six touchdowns from Allen. “He’s making throws that he wouldn’t even have tried to attempt last year. He’s starting to throw guys open a little bit.”’

‘“Five-, six-hour days, working, sweating, crying, throwing up from how hard that I’m going,” he continued, trying to paint a picture of the grind he endured to make sure Monday arrived. “There was definitely some depression through there. There was definitely a lot of anxiousness, anxiety, fear.”’

‘While contact was minimal as it often is even in non-COVID-19 21st century NFL times, there was bumping and pushing and shoving, and it looked like football. Up to this point all they had been allowed to do was strength and conditioning work, and then walk-through style drills without pads, essentially touch football as they installed their systems and dug into the playbooks, mainly from the mental side.’

‘The topic: How did he and his staff negotiate the strike-shortened 1982 season and ultimately lead the Redskins to the championship. Bills defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier revealed that nugget of information Friday during a Zoom call with reporters.’