Astrobot

Peterman is like Yates and Tyrod in that they are cool as a cucumber in the pocket. They're focused on getting the ball to someone, and not worrying about the line blocking for them. And today, there was no Eric Wood. Methusaleh is drooling less, and down to 2 Depends a day.

LOL!

It's a hot one on aluminum bleacher seats, going up to 84 today. My grandson's here with me, and says it'll be 101 in Austin. So I'm not bellyaching. Got a chance to see Murph on his way to the press box. Croom, Reid Ferguson (snapper), Rehkow, Poyer, J-Will, and Sammy are over by the JUGS machine. Those doing the most work on the JUGs included Watkins, Tre White, and Ronald Darby, who both arrived later and stayed later. The ten players who were last on the field were Dareus, Incognito, Deandre Coleman, Leonard Johnson, Worthy, Mudge, Wood (no helmet; off-day), Rambo, Shareece Wright, and John Miller. Positional Drills were up first, short session. The QBs had Groy over there hiking to them. The Gill Byrd was the most vocal coach. He had the CBs and Safeties working on technique for double-teaming a WR off the line of scrimmage. I NEVER saw this at training camp in the past. At the end of positionals, Jordan Poyer gave Bradley Sylve a high five. During calisthenics, led by Asst for Strength and conditioning Coach Hal Luther, we gave Astro-Stars to Poyer, Colton Schmidt, Zak Voytek, Saxton, O'Leary, Incognito, Hodges, Dez Lewis, and Walt Powell for going "All In" on their stretching. Only 2 players dogged it that we saw: starting Guard John Miller and bubble Tackle Michael Ola. Back to Positional drills they went. Tate is doing exercises off to the side, and Colt Anderson is doing upper body work (throwing down a medicine ball, using a sledgehammer) with trainers. TEs are working on blocking. Later, I picked up the order the TEs go that seems significant: Clay and O'Leary go first, Logan Thomas and Croom go next in that order, and Saxton-Towbridge. WRs are pivoting around a tackling dummy and making a quick catch. After that, the WRs do essentially a 3-cone drill full tilt, then catch it. Zay Jones and Powell were best at this. Never saw this before at a camp. WRs have to catch a ball while being simultaneously hit by a blocking pad. Never saw this before at a camp. QBs are practicing quick outs, then hand-offs to RBs who have joined the fun. The RB Asst Coach is an excellent teacher and motivator with lots of praise when a TE "gets it". Today, Cedric O'Neal gets a "That's IT! That's IT!" from him. Jonathan Williams makes two catches where he "double-catches" the ball. That won't work in a real game. Worth watching. Daikiel Shorts makes a wonderful catch at the near sideline, securing it before he goes out. Well-coached. TEs and OLs get practice together, double-blocking one guy, then splitting to block a looping DE when the DE commits to a gap. Never saw this before at a camp. Karim Barton is getting coached up on how to handle arm moves. Castillo's coaching is direct and certainly meaningful, as Barton is listening intently. So are the other OLs around him. Over Pat Whatshisname, last year's OL Coach, this may be the biggest coaching upgrade. It appears as though Brandon Tate is getting a PT test off to the side. Hopefully he's back soon. Clay looks like he's making effortless catches, but it's his eye-hand coordination. O'Leary has this same quality of looking the ball in. O'Leary gives a high-five to Yates as they return to the line. TEs are first doing seam routes down the middle. This is an open seam which occurs often in a vertical offense. Then the TEs do an out and in pattern, where the QB throws when the TE breaks. This timing route practice is not anything I saw in previous camps, which blows my mind. With 35 seconds to go in the Positional Drills' allotted time, the defense appears. You can set your watch to it. Each QB gets one 11 on 11 opportunity, with Tyrod first, then Yates, then Peterman. It's all the same 4th and goal from the 8-yard line, and all three QBs execute subtly-different plays for a TD. Andre Holmes goes in motion and looks like the "hot" receiver. Tyrod hits Watkins perfectly in the opposite corner of the end zone for the TD. O'Leary motions with 4-wide (Butler, Powell, J-Will, and Philly). Yates is pressured hard and needs to throw it falling backwards to Philly in the corner of the end zone for the TD. Peterman has Shorts, Lewis, and Andre Holmes in a trips formation with Streater to the opposite side. Peterman throws a nice pass where only Streater can catch it for the TD. Punt Drill occupies all but the OL and DBs, who go work on positionals. Schmidt does all the punting (I didn't see Rehkow). The first PR is Tredavious White, followed by Walt Powell as Brandon Tate is still working on the sidelines. They are working specifically on blocking upfield for the returner, and the blocking is set up well. Powell didn't drop a punt; Tredavious let one punt go right through his arms and out, the ball bounding backwards. To his credit, Tre hustles back to scoop it up and take off with it, running it out. I love this kid. Mistakes are just lessons. Work continues at both ends of the field, with the 3s to our left and the 1s and 2s to the right. Peterman is off a little with some throws, but his WRs aren't helping him for the most part. I'm watching both ends of the field at once, which doesn't work well. Here's what I catch: At the other end Tyrod throws a slant low to Daikiel Shorts, down low where only he can catch it, and Daikiel catches it and rolls for the completion. I was a proponent of Deonte Thompson a couple years ago (now with the Bears). Shorts is better than Deonte. Yates is successful at drawing the Defensive line offsides --didn't see who, but it better not be Hughes during the regular season. Ragland knifes in for a TFL. Tae Elston and Co. stand Cedric O'Neal up for no gain. Jake Metz, a DE, teams up with Lindsey MLB to stop Croom after his catch. Jerry Hughes stops O'Neal for a short gain. The entire Defense swarms to O'Neal on the next run right. They are contentious. Vallejo stops J-Will for a short gain. Tolbert makes back-to-back runs that were impressive. If we started the season today, Tolbert and J-Will would back up Shady. Brandon Reilly falls down on an in-out route. Watkins plucks Tyrod's errant throw on a bubble screen and takes off. The pass wasn't bad but the catch was notably good. Watkins successfully ran all sorts of screens at Clemson, you recall. This shows a better use of Watkins' demonstrated strengths. Streater executes a great screen with Yates putting the ball in perfect position. Peterman does the same on a screen to Powell, and J-Will catches a nice left bubble screen pass from Tyrod. More work on Left Bubble Screens with Banyard from Yates, O'Neal from Peterman, Watkins from Tyrod, Streater from Yates, and Powell from Peterman. They move to the other end of the field and run Right Bubble Screens, the same exact trio of QBs throwing to the same exact trio. Observations: Andre Holmes stepped it up today, looking smoother on his catches. Part of this is the factor of who's throwing him the ball. If Streater gets Derek Carr and Tyrod Taylor to throw to him, he does better...but so would you or I. Zay Jones looks better and better, and gets plenty of work, evenly split between Tyrod and Yates. Nothing is being handed to the youngster. Catch of the Day was Croom's diving catch that he made look easy. He is among the lightest TEs in camp, but think of a TE-WR hybrid, and that's Croom. He's likely the 3-4th TE battling Logan Thomas. Peterman actually re-set a WR today, moving Powell in toward the OL. He then threw the opposite way to Dez Lewis for the TD. Later, Peterman's eye manipulation allowed him to hit a RB for a TD. McCoy took the day off. They're resting him so he can play into his late 30s. Swing passes to J-Will work wonders, especially when Humber looks inside too much and can't seal the edge due to lack of speed. Wonder if we'll draft a OLB with range next year. Tolbert got the same play as J-Will did, and he beat the OLB. Groy had one bad snap, but Yates' reflexes came through as he snatched it from going over his head. By then, Hughes had him for dinner, though. Jordan Johnson got some serious blocking and JJ followed them well, taking as much as the D ave him. Nice PS candidate. Tolbert got a lot of work with the ones today, and made the most of it with three 10+ runs. Want a fantasy steal? Tolbert. Tyrod was off on 3 successive passes one to Zay Jones (too high), Powell (led too far), and another WR (led too far). The Defense is stingy and is coalescing as a unit. They are stout on run and pass plays in the red zone. Banyard got stood up at the goal line and Rashad Ross couldn't get across on the ensuing play.

1. The pace is the fastest I've seen at camp. The running between sessions and how quickly the next session begins is impressive. 2. There are drills I haven't seen before, yes. 3. The situational football stuff is being done, and it's impressive for how early it's being addressed. BEst example, is running up to snap the ball if they think a challenge might be made. I can echo this. Watkins is the best, but Zay Jones is better than Andre Holmes. I like Streater and Shorts above Holmes as well.

I met Joe and Linda from DraftTek's Bills fan email. Nice to see you both! Terry Pegula, who stays in the Fisher dorms, was talking with McDermott and Beane, surely about Barnidge. Just kidding. There is enough TE talent on this roster; that's just my opinion. Clay looks great, O'Leary would be a sleeper late round fantasy steal, and I think the preseason will let the cream rise to the top between Logan Thomas, Croom, and Towbridge. In stretching: O'Leary, Karim Barton, Croom, and Zay Jones stood out as putting for extra effort. Miller and Mills didn't. In Positional Drills: QBs drid a ladder drill holding the football, then they had to fire that ball to an asst coach. QBs then did hand-offs to the RB who got knocked around with pads hitting them, to secure the football quickly. OL players were working on getting under the DLine player's pads. Castillo is right in there. He's hands-on, and even the vets are paying attention, meaning they're getting subtle pointers to up their game. TE are working with Bob Boras, another Posiiton Coach upgrade. The pairings remain the same as the last 3 days. Consistency. RBs were working with the QBs above, but I have to reiterate that Cedric O'Neal has a chance to make this roster. It will come down to blocking on pass plays, ST play, and receiving out of the backfield. WRs and TEs are later doing essentially 3-cone drills where they get a pass thrown to them. Impressing Joe, Linda, and me: Zay Jones, Butler, Streater twice, Towbridge, O"Leary, and Saxton. Several WR-TEs either let the ball come into their body rather than hands-catching the ball, or they double-handled the ball when catching it: Logan Thomas, Towbridge, and Watkins. Philly Brown dropped one he should've had. In 11 on 11 Drill: I spent more time watching the backfield play, so my notes are a little incomplete on the offensive side. Hyde did well following the action down the line, but at times got caught up in the traffic. We were impressed at Tre White's ability against the run; he's a versatile player as he was also back shagging KR-PR balls from the JUGS machine during that phase. McCoy can run against our backfield, although the front seven is going to be able to stop top runners --like Top Three in the NFL good. Logan Thomas made a nice catch, this time a hands catch away from his body, and got impressive Yards After Catch. YAC is so important when you try and pick a TE in the West Coast Offense. Jonathan Williams didn't have much room on the next run play; Valles-Ryan Davis-Milano (who had his best day today) were all in the mix to slow him down. Ragland made the stop of the session, picking up the RB and laying him down. He grows palpably every day in his new role. O'Neal makes a nice run off of Yates' handoff, with Yarbrough, Nigel Williams, and Jake Metz in on the tackle. Yates handoff goes for very little as starters Adolphus Washington (for Dareus) and Shaq Lawson Groy made OL line-call change on the play. The call worked, as Yates handoff to J-Williams went for 7-9 yards. Patrick DiMarco and Wes Saxton impressed on this play. Maybe we keep 3 RB, 2 FB and 2-3 TEs? The play after that, DiMarco didn't know where to line up and they huddled up again. Tyrod runs a sweet screen to Shady, and they spent several minutes after that working just on screens. I am reminded of a great stat: Sammy Watkins made over 60% of his yardage at Clemson on screens. Meanwhile, the defense is working on communication of defensive assignments and pre-snap shifts. Adolphus is still in for Dareus, with Humber at Weak-side, Preston in the middle. I didn't see Ragland but I assume he was in there. Leonard Johnson got some reps with this alignment In the second 11 on 11: Hyde was in Cover-1 a lot. They did some last-minute shifts, with S going back, or with CB coming up. IT was a miracle to behold on the 4th day of Training Camp. Holmes caught a pass for 10 yards, but parlayed it into YAC. His high drop rate vs his YAC is going to be Holmes' ticket. I counted SEVEN Bills on the Line of Scrimmage. The offense picked it up, but Tyrod's pass was almost INT-ed by Tre White. He had another near-INT later on. He's working on securing these. Towbridge makes a nice catch near the sideline from Yates. The Bills are in Cover-1, they sent 7 on a blitz, and that was enough to gum up a run play by Banyard. A Cover-1 BEater to Streater from Yates was 30 yards and the Play of the Day. Impressions: JOrdan JOhhnson won't be waived. He may be PS material. Cordy kept Tyrod clean all day. O'Leary makes impressive catches plus YAC. In Cover-1, Tyrod shot a bomb to Tolbert for the other Play of the Day. The 2's are getting to the QB. Even the 3's got some action today.JOnathan Williams had another great day. Think Shady and Karlos rolled into a one-cut shifty back with size. Hauschka drilled 6 in a row from as far as the 44 that landed 15 yards beyond.

It was great! So many eyes on the action today!Returning tomorrow. I will spend more time watching the D backfield tomorrow. He has the highest drop rate of the 12 WRs. It wouldn't surprise me.

Cirrus and 62 degrees to begin practice, but it climbed into the low 70s before 11 on 11s began. I'm with my grandson, podcaster and TwoBillsDrive poster Drew, and DraftTekkers Linda, Vito and Joe. Onfield first today is Nick O'Leary, followed by Wood, Powell, Rashad Ross, Vallejo, Kyle Williams, TJ Yates, Peterman, and Andre Holmes. Getting the biggest cheer was Tyrod, who shook hands with Sammy before they went to positional warmups. You can set your clock when you see players scurrying to starting positions; it'll say 8:44. Kick coverage players and Carpenter are working on spacing for kickoffs, then everyone's stretching. Stretching is more serious this year, and all players participate. They spend longer on it, which I hope will avoid injuries. Those really putting in the effort include Towbridge, Dawkins, Zay Jones, and Tyrod. In positional drills: TEs pair up exactly the same, with Clay and O'Leary together doing demonstration of a particular block, with Croom-Towbridge copying them, and Thomas-Saxton third. WRs are turning around quick to catch a pass aimed at their backs, OLs have Henderson and Glenn just blasting out of their stances, so nice to Seantrel looking healthy. QBs have an assistant harassing them with a pad while they're setting up to throw. Peterman's unfazed. Some of Yates' passes were too high. Tyrod's throws and demeanor were on point. Ks: Hauschka nails a 50-yarder. We haven't seen Rehkow yet, but we see him today. QBs are now throwing to WRs. Peterman seems to have the quicker release. Yates is running at a slower RPM. He's off target twice. Watkins drops 2 but catches a long ball for a TD. Peterman has some overthrow issues today; 3 of his passes are high or wide. Dez Lewis has a very impressive snatch of a rifle shot throw, but then a drop of an easier ball. Powell still makes some nice catches. I think he'll be on the squad through the preseason games, as he doesn't count toward the 53. Daikiel Shorts is impressive again, especially on a throw from Tyrod. QBs now work with the TEs. Logan Thomas makes his best catch of camp, using his hands awway from his body. Clay does a good job of securing the catch quickly. O'Leary has to go up to bring down a high throw, but makes it look eeasy. Croom has two very nice catches and Towbridge has one. Darby for some reason is not out there for the start of 11 on 11s. Tre White is on LeSean McCoy, who's lined up wide. Thr play goes to Watkins for a big gain. Kyle Williams gets a TFL by nailing an escaping Tyrod. TJ Yates' pass to Philly Brown out in the left flat is complete, but Shamiel Gary's there for the immediate stop for no YAC. Rehkow comes in and nails a FG with Schmidt holding for him. It's good from 47. Peterman threads the needle for the catch of the day for Daikiel Shorts, who's running at an angle over the middle. Punting Rehkow drills it too far and it goes into the end zone. Hauschka kicks off several times, again doing it over until it's right. Marcel Dareus is down on sidelines with the DL wearing a ball cap instead of a helmet. At least it's not a captain's hat. Shady McCoy gets handoff from Tyrod and runs up inside, getting some decent yardage. Jonathan Williams one-ups Shady with a beautiful long run left side with some impressive wheels. In a race, I'd take Shady, then J-Will, then Cedric O'Neal. Hughes, Humber, and Lorenzo seal the edge and thwart a run by McCoy. J-Will gets some good yardage around the end. Id seen McCoy get the edge but not J-Will until now. Shady run for 3 yards. Our middle run defense is stout. Greg Pyke puts a good block while Peterman hands off to O'Neal for a nice run. Holmes has his catch of camp to date. It drew an "Ooooh" from the crowd. The stands are full on the sunny near side of the field. Tolbert just flattens a DB on a run up the middle. Not sure he was one of the 11 playing; seems like he was just watching from the wrong place. The D-Line gets a stop thanks to Shaq Lawson and Adolphus Washington. Peterman bootlegs, but Hughes sets the edge well. The defense and offense have separated, each now on one side of the field. At the left end of the field, Pat DiMarco joins Watkins and Holmes in a new look. Zay is out wide (a departure from his slot work at ECU). On your right, the defense is working on communication as scrub players show them changes in formations. The next 11 on 11 starts. Watkins catches the ball and immediately spins, which eludes the defender. Hand off for little gain. OL is called on a false start. Seantrel Henderson shows quick feet in taking the RDE out of the play. Deandre Coleman, Ryan Davis, and Max Valles stop the RB on a Yates handoff. Yates is sacked by Valles and Lorenzo Alexander before he can get the pass off. Streater wows the crowd with a post-pattern TD. First mention of Streater. Peterman passes to Dez Lewis over the middle. Dez is having a nice camp. Peterman's handoff is sniffed out by LBs Bradford, Ryan Davis, and S Joe Powell and BT Sanders. Peterman's pass is 3-4 yards outside. I think Holmes was the target. Another misread as Holmes runs an in route and Tyrod threw out. Tyrod looked annoyed. Tyrod is sacked by Hughes and Shaq. Hand off for a couple of yards. See the pattern? This defense is good, especially vs the run. Yates completes a pass to Powell, but no YAC, as Gerald Hodges (first time mentioning his name) is right there. Hodges is right there again as Peterman connects with Banyard over the middle. Yates' handoff to Cedric O'Neal is stymied as three defenders stop him before he can hit 2nd gear. Humber hits MCCoy while Lorenzo strips him for the defensive turnover. Holmes makes the catch at the boundary for about 7 yards. Tyrod connects with Watkins over the middle for a nice gain. Joe Banyard drops a would-be completion by Tyrod. Yates is in, and completes a too-low pass to Jonathan Williams. Yates completes one to Logan Thomas but is stopped immediately. Yates seems better at throwing right than throwing left. Peterman completes a long one to Wes Saxton for the threes, and Saxton runs it out to the end zone. Peterman makes a very nice throw and Towbridge makes an evern-nicer catch. Mano-a-Mano blocking was going on at the same time, with the most impressive winners in these one on ones being Groy, Mudge, and Marquavius Lewis. Ola wasn't as impressive in his tilt. See you tomorrow! Astro

Beautiful day in Rochester. Grandson picked out several players by number today, as he doesn't know the names: Zay Jones, O'Leary, and Cedric O'Neal for the offense, and Ryan Davis and Marcus Sayles for the D. We arrived right after stretching. Groy is in orbit around Wood, always the closest to him. Tyrod was throwing to Watkins, Shorts, and Zay Jones, later to Streater and Holmes, and finally to Tate and Philly Brown. . Of the five, Holmes looked the most awkward catching the ball, and Tate gained applause for his one-hander. He got another round of applause for a very nice catch in the same session. TJ Yates threw second, throwing a deep one over the middle to Reilly, perfectly thrown over his outside shoulder as he crossed the end zone. Tyrod threw nice crisp ones to Croom and Clay, then Saxton makes a superb hands catch away from his body, duplicating the hands catch in the same session. Yates ended the session with the poorest throw, behind Saxton, but Saxton reached back and brought it in. In the Positional Drills, I looked for Metz, as I was asked about him. His form is perfect. OL guys talk about sitting in your chair; Metz was doing it extremely well. He's 6-6, 265 in the program which seems light. Get the guy some wings. Peterman's arm was questioned. I watched him put an on-the-money throw right to Clay diagonally across the field 30 yards up. For you liberal arts majors, that's a hypotenuse of 40 yards in the air, right in the spot only Clay could catch it. In the first eleven-on-eleven drills: Tyrod is hurried with interior pressure from Kyle "Methusaleh" Williams, and had to hurry his throw, incomplete. Yates gets it out quicker to Philly Brown, who gets some nice YAC yards --very important in the horizontal game Rico Dennison is installing. Peterman gets a nice block out of Ola, who pulled quickly to be out front of Peterman. A Punting Session quickly followed (again, lined up and firing in 30 seconds or less). SchmiddyKicker booms punts of 65, 64, 65, 50, and 61 yards. Everybody and your uncle are being used as gunners. This included Shareece Wright, Tre hite, Streater, Zay Jones, Holmes, Darby. In the next eleven on eleven: McCoy dodges Lawson, but Lawson holds his hands up, saying, "I got you in the backfield, Shady". Lawson is going to be a beast, and if they double him, Kyle Williams is Pro Bowl. Tyrod keeps it and moves left for a whole lot of yards, assisted by a sweet block on Hughes from Cordy. He's back. Jonathan Williams doesn't get much of a hole there, this defensive line is stout vs the run. Adolphus and Jerel do nice work battling inside for not much of a gain by the RB. Ryan Davis makes a great play, knifing in for a sack vs TJ Yates. Banyard gets low and battles through the traffic. He secured the ball better than Shady, but then again, who doesn't? Peterman is protected well and hits Dez Lewis at the sideline for a big gain. Peterman hands off to Tolbert, who has more success than the other RBs. He's short, experienced, and 250, which helps. He's making this team. Jordan Johnson, not to be outdone, shows some nice running. Peterman hands off to McCoy, who looks like he's going inside, but bounces it outside for a big gain. Matt Milano INTs PEterman and runs it out to the end zone. Yates hands it off to JOnathan Williams, who has more success this time. Yates shows his veteran savvy. He's covered by the OLB on a bootleg, and he throws it out of bounds to live another day. Back to Positionals. The team sends out the same first string as last night except for Patrick DiMarco. They practice TE and FB screens, a big staple of the Dennison WCO. A shout-out to Michael Ola, who secures a nice block which would have sprung O'Neal for a nice RB screen play. The team segues into 4-wide, doing bubble screens. They even used Jonathan Williams as one of the 4-wides, which is a nice wrinkle. The next wrinkle was throwing deep over the middle and on the post out of the same look. Shout-Outs: For a Watkins grab before going out of bounds with 3 men covering him, making it look easy. Holmes tried the same play and made it look harder. JOnathan Williams showed off his speed on a one-cut, leaving Jerel Worthy in the dust. Zay JOnes had the seconds blocking for Yates when he pulled in a 15-yarder which he parlayed into a nice YAC play. Groy at OC, with Voytek at LG and Seantrel at LT did some nice blocking for Yates. Peterman led Rashad Ross just a little too far but it was a nice ball. Cedric O'Neal is very quick and fast. Impressed me again today. Yates had to cover his ear-holes as the DJ cranked it up. They're trying to make communication difficult. It's only the 2nd practice! The backup RB remains to be seen, but none is really a good blocker. The FBs do nice work, though. Walt Powell catches a nice deep pass down the sideline from Yates, who put it on his inside shoulder. Saxton made a serious miss from Peterman. The ball was right. there. and. he. dropped it. Sylve can play. He was on Towbridge immediately after he caught the ball. Perfect position. On the very next play, he adds a PBU by slapping a ball intended for Shorts. Leonard Johnson duplicates Sylve's efforts by immediately tackling Zay JOnes on a pass by Tyrod. To be fair, Tyrod looked Zay down too long. Sayles made a nice play to break up a pass, but Tate was wide open on the other side. Kicking myslf for not noticing the QB. Somebody only looked at one side of the field. Philly Brown had a nice snatch, turn, and run on a pass by Peterman.

Oh MY GOD! I forgot to credit you in my post. Crap. Will fix that.

Great stat! It's why I call him Zay Jones Lite. Shorts is likely battling with Reilly for PS or WR6, but moving the chains is so important in WCO that we could see Shorts edge out guys like Walt Powell and Dez Lewis. He's likely the slot position but he ran from out wide several times last night. Will pay attention to where they play today.

Agree big-time on Daikiel Shorts. He's Zay Jones Lite!Hope to see you in the far right corner tomorrow! Didn't notice Hodges...Ragland, yes. Watkins got the most applause, Tyrod second, Shady third. Says he with his 74th post to the guy with 52,000.

*** Many thanks to Jamie Nails of TSW for the tickets!*** We had a gutter-gusher of a rainstorm in the early afternoon, so I wasn't sure I'd be taking my wife and grand kids out to the Bills' first practice tonight, but this is a new GM, a new Head Coach, and new OC/DC. The weather gods cooperated and it was a great beginning for the undefeated 2017 Bills. Out earliest on the field were Walt Powell, Joe Banyard, Cedric O'Neal, and Jonathan Williams. Nick O'Leary was playing catch with an asst coach on the sidelines while Banyard and Williams tossed the pigskin around. Jordan Mills is being stretched by a trainer. The QBs begin coming in, with TJ Yates appearing first. We notice that the kickers also are wearing red--Hauschka, Rehow, and Schmidt. My wife pronounces that the WRs who are wearing white tights look too girly-girl, especially against the green Astro Turf. I remind her why it's called "Astro" turf. I'll be making the main portion of comments. Powell is first to catch punts from the JUGS machine. The punt returners were Powell, Philly Brown, Rashad Ross. The kick returners were Brandon Tate, Rashad Ross, and Philly Brown, in that order. There is an urgency for players emerging late from the field house to trot (more like canter) as we near 5:30. You feel the urgency. On The Dot, right exactly at 5:30, the air horn sounds and players immediately begin kickoff drill. Like within 30 seconds. Hauschka got first kick, but Rehkow also got work. Best blocks on KR were Ryan Davis, Nick O'Leary. We see McDowell high-five BT Sanders as he says something to him. Period 2 is Stretching. Players seem to know EXACTLY what to do, even the precise order of stretches. There is a brisker pace, with the end of one stretch melding right into the next. The music is louder. The bass is louder still. The offense is to my right, moving left with each stretch, closer and closer to the defense. My grandson, age 10, remarks that 79 doesn't seem to be putting his whole self into the stretches. He's picked out Jordan Mills. Players that seem to be putting it out there included Cordy Glenn (PHEW!), the new OL #71, Watkins, and Banyard. A shout-out to Anthony Harrell who sprints when the last stretch is done...he just went in the wrong direction toward the offensive positional drills. Positional Drills began within 25 SECONDS of the end of stretches. #33 (who I'm assuming is Rambo) is over working the ropes with a trainer, possibly in his PT test. Cedric O'Neal is impressing me. He's agile, and really sticks his moves; I have underestimated him. The QBs are in the middle of the field practicing their play-action fakes--either throwing the swing pass after faking to a back, or handing off then faking the pass. Yates impresses the most right now with his eye manipulation. The TEs are working at the near sideline, with O'Leary and Clay demonstrating as the #1s, with Croom-Towbridge trying it, while Logan Thomas and Wes Saxton watch....Later on, the order of appearance is Clay, O'Leary, Thomas, and Croom. I think they're the top four TEs right now, although Towbridge seemed to acquit himself well tonight. It's early. Players run to the next play constantly. "Brisk" is the best word for it, but in an orderly way. Some QB-WR combinations that worked well in positionals were Tyrod to Zay, Tyrod to Sammy, Tyrod to Brandon Reilly (who digs into his break better than any, gaining separation --good for WCO timing routes), and Tyrod to Dez Lewis, who was noticeably improved. I wonder why Walt Powell is getting so much work. He won't even count toward the 53. Wood is standing with Groy a lot. I think he's the heir apparent when Wood's contract is up next year In the 11 on 11s, Yates always comes after Tyrod and before Peterman. . The first team trots out. and it's Mils, Miller, Wood, Incognito, Glenn, a pair of TEs (Clay-O'LEary), MCCoy the single back, and Watkins-Holmes as WRs. First into that mix were Jonathan Williams, Zay Jones, and Jason Croom,. with Banyard-Tolbert-Powell in after them. On the sidelines, Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer are moving down the sidelines tossing 2 tennis balls back and forth at the same time. The eye-hand coordination is otherworldly. Darby's doing the same with an asst coach. Poyer's taller and lankier than I thought. They are now turning around at the last minute to catch a fairly-fast-thrown football. On the field, Rashad Ross fakes inside, then dekes to the boundary, fooling everybody. IF he can catch, he's already better than Goodwin. Shaq Lawson is my defensive feature player. He and the other DL are practicing a pretty savage under move, lifting the would be Tackle's outside shoulder. In the 11 on 11's that come next, he just abuses Mills and he and Dareus are in on Tyrod lightning fast. Hughes is offsides on the second 11 on 11 play. The OL is able to hold off the intense DL pressure on the next play, but Tyrod has nobody to throw to. The fourth play is a completion to Tolbert, probaably my offensive feature player. Tolbert makes an awkward catch while backpedaling out of bounds. He makes more nice grabs later. Yates comes in, and hands off You note Jonathan Williams' shiftiness on a nice long run. He's more North and South than Shady, but that may be a good thing. On the second Yates play, Ryan davis scoops aup a ball going the other way, running it down to the end zone. Eddie Yarbrough comes in at DE as the substitute Lorenzo, I believe. Peterman comes in. You notice the downfield vision, and his first pass is a long one ti Daikiel Shorts. Peterman's handoff to Jordan Johnson shows us that Johnson can get lower than Shady or Jon Williams, and relies on patience and blocks unfolding in front of him. The DL looks stout, certainly a strength along the starters, but even some nice work from Nigel Williams and Jerel Worthy. Yarbrough also was noticed. The DBs are moving all over pre-snap. Fluidly, the team goes back into positional drills. Jason Croom drops a sure catch by taking his eyes off of it. Dez Lewis runs nice routes and secures the catch; you can tell he's been working hard off-season. Some Looks: -Watkins looks healed and slippery. -Streater looks spindly, loping, and Lofton-like. -Clay looks healthy, sure-handed, and unfazed. Reilly looks quick to turn upfield, quick and agile. Daikiel Shorts looks skilled with his hand. Zay looks fast, but could use some weight-room work on them spindles for legs. He's taller than I expected. Towbridge looks the part over the middle. Jon Williams looks like the love-child of Shady and Karlos. In the second 11 on 11, Ducasse and Dawkins are able to hold off serious D-Line pressure. Holmes looks disappointing on an incompletion deep, and gets dinged up on a second deep pass. PReston Brown mixes it up with the defense (didn't catch the guy's number), and Yates throws a sweet 30-yarder to Zay Jones. Yep, he'll be all right. Banyard shows some agility but the defense (especially the line) isn't giving them anything between the tackles. Dawkins will be all thaqt Mills can handle; I noticed Dawkins having his way more than Mills was. Jordan Johnson is one feisty RB. Peterman threw a little high on a great rollout to Towbridge. Peterman was INT'd on a tip right into the hands of Charles James, and Tre White scoops up a loose ball. Nice swing pass to Shady nexts a long run, with Ramon Humber too far inside. Nigel Williams looked good on a defensive stop, we had another false start (this one's on the OL). Yates threw a spot pass to a spot on the field, but nobody (Jeremy Butler?) was close by. Ragland was calling the D signals by now. Petrerman threw a bomb to Rashad Ross, pretty nice throw, but incomplete. Another bomb to Holmes falls incomplete and Holmes leaves the field and gets looked at. Yates throws a pass behind Banyard, a bowling ball shaped back. He catches it. Croom recovers his own fumble ond then snares a Peterman pass; he looks good. Tolbert, my offensive player of the day, looks especially good on the edge after catching a pass from Peterman, I'd have called PI on Marcus Sayles for the second to last pass; he was all over Butler. The last play in 11 on 11 was the best, a Peterman-to-DiMarco deep completion, which drew the most applause. I left after that, as it looked like the grandkids had had enough. Hope you have, too. I'll see you tomorrow. -Astro

^^^^^ This. That nonverbal from Dareus spoke volumes. Not so sure he'll be dining at the Waufle House.

Great News! I have received DMs from Jamie Nails and Ghosts of Bills Past, and I will now have tickets to the July 27 and Aug 4 practices! Many thanks to these gentlemen. I am so grateful for their generosity. Astro

Hi Wallers! EDITED: Good News: I'm still vertical. I plan on writing up my "Astro-Notes" on several Bills Camp dates: July 27 (thanks to Jamie Nails); 28, 29, 30; Aug 1, 2, 3; Aug 4 (thanks to GhostsOfBillsPast); Aug 6, 7, 8. Bad News: It won't be as many as in years past. My wife's Mom died last week, canceling our pre-camp visit to see grandchildren, and we'll be flying out to see them during the last 3 practices, Aug 13, 14, 15. I also can't get tickets for the 5:30 first practice on July 27 and Aug 4 (if you have an in, let me know). Go Bills! ~Astro

I live 5 minutes from Training Camp. The closest place for tickets is Crosby's - 4614 Lake Road, Brockport, NY 14420 35 minutes away.

Get ready for a crapalanche. I needed tickets for the Thursday, July 27 at 5:30 p.m. I signed on to MyOneBuffalo on my PC. No Tickets tab. I called MyOneBuffalo and they thought I was crazy. They advised trying on a cell phone or tablet. From my iPad, I tried the app store. No listings under iPad for MyOneBuffalo. Finally, I tried listings under iPhone and found it. Downloaded it. Hidden in the app under New Era Field (not where Training Camp is) was the application. I filled it out. It didn't recognize my town of Penfield. It doesn't put "New York" in the State field when you select New York from the drop-down. I hit Done and it says I have successfully completed my Application. No indication if tickets are being sent to email, hidden in the app, or if I should wait. AAAAAnd...it's tickets to the wrong date, not Thursday, July 27!

Hope to see you there!

Looking for my clipboard now. If you come out to training camp, come over and say hi. I'm always top right as you face the stands. Astro

Excellent post. Caring for others when we don't directly benefit is the mark of a true humane being.

Hi Gang. I'll just drop this right here. Based on Visits, mainly. 1 or 2-----Starting WILB (Foster, Reddick, Davis, Cunningham) 1 or 2-----CB and later, a UDFA Dev. CB (Awuzie, King, Jackson, Humphrey, Witherspoon, Lawrence, Stribling, Cutrer) 2 or 3-----WR with separation (Zay Jones, Chris Godwin, Samuel, Westbrook, Stewart, Darboh, Etta-Tawo, Rogers, Hampton) 3, 4, 5, 6-----DL3-tech (Tomlinson, Wormley, Brantley, Watkins, Jarron Jones) and/or EDGE (Carl Lawson, Demarcus Walker, Rivers, Willis, Fields, Cox, Wise) 3-UDFA -----Safety, esp Box and/or Blitz (Adams, Peppers, Baker, Maye, Fields, Clemons, Hill, Johnson, Tedric Thompson, Jones, Nicholson) 3-UDFA-----Developmental QB (Peterman, Kelly, Evans, Beathard) 4-UDFA-----RB (Connor, Yearby, Dayes, Gipson, Owens, Muhummad, Green, Yearby, Chris Carson, TJ Logan , I'Tavius Mathers) 6/UDFA-----RT (Collins, Myers, Norton, Skipper, Gennesy, Moton, Seaton, Cooper). 1 or 2-----Starting WILB (Foster, Reddick, Davis, Cunningham) 1 or 2-----CB and later, a UDFA Dev. CB (Awuzie, King, Jackson, Humphrey, Witherspoon, Lawrence, Stribling, Cutrer) 2 or 3-----WR with separation (Zay Jones, Chris Godwin, Samuel, Westbrook, Stewart, Darboh, Etta-Tawo, Rogers, Hampton) 3, 4, 5, 6-----DL3-tech (Tomlinson, Wormley, Brantley, Watkins, Jarron Jones) and/or EDGE (Carl Lawson, Demarcus Walker, Rivers, Willis, Fields, Cox, Wise) 3-UDFA -----Safety, esp Box and/or Blitz (Adams, Peppers, Baker, Maye, Fields, Clemons, Hill, Johnson, Tedric Thompson, Jones, Nicholson) 3-UDFA-----Developmental QB (Peterman, Kelly, Evans, Beathard) 4-UDFA-----RB (Connor, Yearby, Dayes, Gipson, Owens, Muhummad, Green, Yearby, Chris Carson, TJ Logan , I'Tavius Mathers) 6/UDFA-----RT (Collins, Myers, Norton, Skipper, Gennesy, Moton, Seaton, Cooper).

I sure hope one of them can play WLB.

Added Key, Now adding Official Visits so far.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eSDBXw1d0DstcqMTUJyRylPiEW7gC13otZX8FWxGP3I/edit?usp=sharing We hit the top 3 Bills' picks by doing this last year, and 2 the year before. As I find out about other visits, I'll color them blue. Astro

Yes. Unless you think Ragland can play WLB, which I don't.