34-78-83

I did notice duke preston doing some snaps with JP in 7 on 7's and there didn't seem to be any issues with the exchange. It seems to me they are using that drill to get a lot of snap reps for multiple palyers, not just Duke. However due to the nature of that drill I can't really assess his abilities as a blocker. I didn't focus on him during the full team drills.

It's in my head but I haven't figured out the rewind feature yet

I'd like to see more but so far my hunch is that we will be improved in preventing defensive penetration on running plays, and also improved greatly in short yardage situations. In the passing game we will need to be careful with lining up with the proper spacing because there has been a loss in mobility on the left side. I think the two big guards will help Teague do his job better, and that we will face more potentially disruptive pressure on the left side, where Jonas often excelled as a pass blocker. Hopefully JP's athleticism can offset this a bit. We'll see....

In the 3 sessions I attented I saw no problems with JP's foot technique. In fact it was very much superior to the previous few Qb's here. I was there for the jump throw and as someone mentioned it was a heads up move that allowed him to avoid a quick rush and get it over a defender for a short completion. It displayed an ability to adjust and think quickly on his feet. Also, throwing off the front foot is a good thing, not a negative. The problems I saw with JP were 1- him leaving the pocket too quickly at times and 2- Hesitating to release the ball on a couple plays where nothing seemed to develop. These things seem to be a work in progress though as he improved in those areas over the 3 sessions.

I was unable to see Peters well on full team drills, but there were a few "line on line" sessions in which I saw him get out in front of the outside rusher consistently well. His footwork seems to be very good. I did not see him block on rushing plays or drills though. Holcomb looked very poised out there. His best areas seem to be very deep throws or very short throws, whereas his medium range throws were a bit hit and miss. He has limited scrambling ability. Trafford looked quite good as a receiving TE. Campbell blocked very well for rushing plays and caught the few passes I saw thrown to him. He seems to be being used mostly in the outlet areas so far , and less so in seams down the field. Hope this helps...

Ok folks, following is a review of some selected players as I saw them over the course of 3 practice sessions. I attended the Saturday AM session and both of the sessions yesterday. Some of this is copied right out of a PM I had already sent but I figured I'd share with all since many are unable to make it to camp. I'll try to review the players based on all 3 sessions, not just one.... Gandy- On the first day he seemed to get beat fairly consistently by AS around the outside on passing plays, even when he knew AS was using the spin or outside rush technique. This seems to have become a bit less of a problem, though still an occasional one based on 1 on 1's today, over the course of the 3 sessions. He held up well though all around in the running game when they ran the ball to that side. He seemed to seal off the outside well on plays designed to cut up under the tacke and provided good maintained position on his defender during sweeps and pitches outside of him. I'll give him a C-- in the passing game and a B+ in the running game. Bennie Anderson- He also excelled in the running game, especially Saturday and the early session yesterday. He advanced the line of scrimmage well on plays where he was the lead into the hole. I feel much better about short yardage plays this season. He too though, showed a weakness in pass blocking, more so in the 1 on 1's, where his mobility in space was revealed to be questionable. He didn't stand out as poor in the 11 on 11's though. Straight C in the passing game, B+ in the running game. I need to also mention that this (and Gandy's) evaluation comes with the assumption that you already know we have a very skilled, potent and agressive defense that is freakishly hard to move the ball on in camp.... Tim Anderson - It took a while for me to take notice of him mainly because he was listed as # 97 in the program and Banan was also listed at 97. It turns out Tim took #77 and Sape took Big Pat's old #93. Once I finally noticed him it was the third session. He's a big solid guy and looks to be pretty athletic for the position strengthwise. He seems to use leverage and wrestling techniques well to his advantage during matchups and usually wins the LOS, though I don't see him fully breaking away from blocks very well at this point. He may be more of a plugger type who keeps his LB's clean, which is ok in my book. I didn't see any distinct advantage in him over Edwards thus far, but Edwards looked good out there too, albeit as a different stlye of player where he gets up the field pretty well. Grade- Incomplete though I'll pencil in a B- on the running game and a C in the passing game. JP - Showed improvement overall over the course of the 3 sessions. Very strong arm with a tight spiral. He is now going through progressions better than DB ever did as far as I can tell. At first I was concerned about 2 things, both of which he improved on greatly over the 3 sessions: 1. He took off with the ball pretty early on a number of plays where he didn't really need to. 2. He did the exact opposite on some early plays, sitting back and hesitating to get rid of the ball while he looked for that "perfect throw", which would have put him in big trouble. His mobility is obviously a great asset to the offense. He is very attentive to his coaches and the offensive players seem to be responding to him well. As long as he continues to progress, I think his future looks pretty bright. It may take a few real games but shouldn't take much longer than that. I'd give him a low B right now. Lee Evans - Caught nearly everything thrown his way over the 3 sessions, great hands. Frequently provided help as an outlet receiver and came back to the QB very well. Shows very good separation in space, and beat the D deep on a couple plays. Seems to be the most consistent WR in camp right now in terms of just going out and doing his job all around. A solid A Grade for Lee. Parish - Works very well finding seams and creases in the secondary. Shows great speed. I haven't seen his reported quickness demonstrated yet quite as much as flat out speed but I'm sure it's there. Has better than expected hands and will sacrifice his body to make a play. His routes sometimes look a little rounded instead of more straight and angular. Seems to lack concentration on punt returns. I see him ultimately nailing the slot WR job and putting fear into many Nickle backs and safeties on third down. Grade B- Moulds - As usual he is among the most fit players in the entire camp. His routes are still very explosive and precise. Shows great abitlity catching difficult throws above or behind him. Made one concentration lapse yesterday on what should have been an easy catch. Grade B+ Shaud Williams- Looks bulkier than last season but hasn't lost any speed or quickness. I did get many opportunities to see him run inside but he showed some great outside moves and a fair degree of power and burst squaring himself back up after getting to the outside. Made a couple nice blitz pickups. Provided a good option as an outlet receiver but didn't get much yardage after the catch. Right now he's got the #2 job in my book but there is Hot pursuit from both Lee and Gates. Grade B minus Mike Williams - obviously was limited by the hammy tweak but ended up playing quite a bit during the 3 sessions I saw. Looks to be in very good shape for his frame this year. His footwork seems better than any previous season. Interestingly, atleast in drills, he was actively involved in a lot of lateral movement plays. He pulled from RT and lead a run off LT on one that made me do a double take. Excellent up the field push in the running game. I didn't see him a ton in passing drills but he didn't stand out as a liability there. Grade B+ ... (he needs to stay healthy for us to succeed). Moorman - Not that a review is particularly needed here but we spent a good 20 min just watching him punt and it was amazing. I've never seen a Bills punter that can as consistently punt so high and yet so far at the same time. Each and every punt came off with a spiral and his placement was very good. He pacticed some goal line opunts that were simply awesome, and would have turned the field position around almost back into our favor! He has no competition of note. Well that's it for now and thanks for reading. If anyone has questions on a player that was not mentioned, I may be able to provide some additional feedback. These were the players I focussed on most though...

Maybe he needs some better cardio work. I am cetainly not denying what you saw on the television report either. FWIW he has been moving well during actual plays. I even saw a play today where he ended up pulling from RT and leading the play between LG and LT. Talk about a "lookout!" block.

Take it for what it's worth from a guy who's been to three sessions this year... It's not his "gut". In fact, for a lineman his "gut" seems to be in better shape than any of the other 4 starters on the team. Other than his out of shape experience at the beginning of last season, this theory abot MW's physical shape has largely been fictional.

Rock, I was there for both sessions today. It's a bummer to have missed you out there. I supposed my buddy from work and I were pretty stationary in the bleachers for the AM and along the fence for the PM... Glad you made it out though and thanks for your report.

FWIW I was at the AM practice and atleast what I saw of him he didn't look rusty at all throwing. He did get out of the pocket a little quick on some plays which troubled me but he accurately completed just about every pass play that was attempted in the 7 on 7's, 11 on 11's. He can really fire the ball in there as well.

So I must wonder what flaw it is of McGahee's that keeps him at 78? Do they factor in experience into the rating heavily or something?

This feels like Deja-vu somehow but I'll say anyway ..... now is the time where I bring up stellar De's playing on the left side or atleast switching back and forth such as Peppers, Strahan, Taylor, etc.... You may also want to check out MW's impressive effectiveness in the running game and think about how a Tight End Seal as a bonus on a run to the right makes a most dubious situation for most any defense.

To me since he's been here, it's always been London Fletcher.

In another perspective, one might consider the RT position in the Bills to be atleast as important as the left considering the power running game utilizing the TE along with JP often rolling to his right by design on passing plays. With that said I would expect MW to continue his improvements made from last season (from about game 5 on) and be a real force out there as a #4 pick. LT is certainly going to be a concern this year w/ Gandy but I don't see it as more of a concern than RT.

Being Hated and having an opposed opinion are two completely different things KH. There is no need for you to make promises about not posting negatively re: TD because then you would be just masking your opinion, no?. A better suggestion might be to post about something you feel good about the Bills occasionally... like you did recently in this very thread. Mix it up a little... But of course I am no central authority on this myself.

Sorry, I prefer Shirts.

Just a Bravo for the civility shown on this thread where it could have easily gone another way.

Jzmack secretly admired Dan Marino from afar...

Bingo... There's your answer Kelso. Many of us have also laid out examples multiple times as to why TD is an above average GM. I suppose you may be right calling us lazy not to post it over and over again. And Kelso, maybe you could make a post just once about how good you feel about our D or special teams as you mention. If you have done so I appologize for missing it, but I fear it has become "cool" to be negative and overly critical, or rather "uncool" to say anything that shows (homeristic) support. I mean C'mon, no fan of any particular form of entertainment just sits there and criticizes it all the time. This "homer" by the way is seriously concerned about the left Tackle position, TE position, Kicker, backup LB, and somewhat DT and QB. It's not all peachy in my world either.

Stop making sense!

You have lots of nice convenient little categories for your different "types of fans" you can scoff at don't you? That's so cute. While you , sure as the rising sun, come up pessimist and negative each time. I think most fans here at some point have realized that you are not actually a Bills fan but get your jollies on being unrealistically critical of the team. 2003 was a mess that begins with the word Gilbride and ended with GW being in over his head.

Because you said so? Oh I see. I certainly can't name 5 I'd rather have. Let me go back to my thumb sucking now.

I like that suggestion a lot. Mark me down for that as well...

Kelly, I'm pretty sure I've always agreed with your outlook on assessing GM's, and this thread is no different. In an abstract sense, they provide their teams oppurtunities and open pathways and doors through their efforts. I've never agreed that the sh-- all runs uphill like some people tend to look at it. Put simply, I am always going to happy with a GM who in my estimation has , within the salary cap structure, provided my team with a talented group of players and coaches who have the potential to work well together and be competitive with the rest of the league.

He's the Regis of Football announcers...... 'nuff said