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AstroNotes2: Bills Camp Tuesday Night August 2

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It was a Chamber of Commerce evening in Pittsford NY, with 84 degrees cooling to 75 over the two-hour practice. Thanks to Ryan Lasal of BillsFanatics who gave me a ticket at the last minute! I wasn't in my seat 5 minutes when a guy comes up to the top of the bleachers, far end where I sit and asks, "Are you Astro?" It was NY Nole! Five minutes after that, Jim Kelly comes by and sits to our right in the press box. Two fathers I knew from The Harley School came up there with their sons.

 

Players are now filtering in from the field house. Walt Powell is fielding JUGS machine punts, and Arenas joins him Salas is stretching his hamstrings as Cardale comes onto the field. After warming up, Cardale does waist turns, and coming around, throws 55 yards down field to a lackey. Reid Ferguson and Schmidt warm up, then Lorenzo Alexander and IK enemkpali suit up on the sidelines, joking and chatting. IK does the exercise that prevents plantar fascitis.

 

Tyrod comes out to some cheering (we're about 20 minutes from start of practice). He kneels and prays at the near pylon, then trots over to where the QB Whisperer is. O'Leary and Dez appear, and Tyrod throws it around with them. Dray is doing knee bends while Wilder does leg stretches.

 

A new number appears, #16. It's Kain Colter, our newest WR who better be better than Davonte Allen. He talks with the receivers coach, then Goodwin joins them. Albright, whose blonde afro is lighter than Eric Wood's joins with Blanton and Boykin throwing it back and forth. Miller and Kujo go to the far field. I see Ed Reed grinning from ear to ear, still wearing his camoflage hat, and now has an olive drab towel draped at his front, pretty sure he has nothing to hide. He chats often with blue-jerseyed defenders Gilmore and Duke Williams first. Ed tosses a ball at Duke as he moves laterally, then as Duke trots away from him so the ball isn't seen until the very last minute.

 

It's 5:56 and we're 3/4 full; eventually we'll be packed to the rafters.

 

Hughes enters like a prizefighter, bobbing his head as if listening to music. The horn sounds to begin calisthenics, and Shady is just coming out. Karlos Williams points to the other field, then a coach comes and points to the other field. Shady runs off, more like trots off to the grass field that runs parallel to Growney Stadium. During calisthenics our eyes are riveted on Blake Annen. He is doing every exercise, but throwing an extra level of difficulty into each one. Keep an eye out; we think he might be O'Leary's successor.

 

Punt coverage is next, with gunners Blanton, Seamster, Chambers, Dowling, and Seymour. Doing the punt returning are Reggie Bush #22, Powell, Salas, and Arenas. Powell catches 5 for 5, Arenas 5 for 5, Bush 4 for 5, and Salas 4 for 5. Crosman is yelling about "inside leverage" to those covering the punt.

 

Wastebaskets are lined up to represent the 5 linemen, and it's clear that Bush has done lots of Training Camp before because nothing's new to him. The RBs are all impressive but I have to think Boom Herron is out, Wilder's appeals are 3-fold, he's built like Karlos and Bush is more like Shady with Gillislee a poor-man's version of Shady/Bush. Through the gauntlet, we are impressed with Bush, McCoy's subtle jukes, JWilliams and Herron have some difficulty, Reggie slipped once, and Gronk is not going to replace Felton.

 

Positional drills continue with the WRs doing out patterns. We grow more impressed with Salas and Dez, but have to give a shout-out to POowell, this year's Deonte Thompson. He catches everything. Woods was too low and didn't get his hands up in time for one ball, but had a smooth night the rest of the way, including a long ball that he makes look easy. We're impressed with Colter's stop and go fake. Little is catching the ball well away from his body, Goodwin had a couple drops, and it may be a concern especially if we have to keep only 5 of these guys. He's likely my 6th man in. Dez catches a long one as does Boykin, his first impressive catch of camp.

 

Time for mano-a-mano between pass blockers and EDGE rushers, the Oklahoma drill. Ragland impressed, Dray lost, Preston won, Hankerson was overmatched with Hughes (duh), Randell Johnson gets his first kudo, and Striker too against Gragg. IK killed Wilder, Albright flashed some impressive bullrushing to stand JWilliams right up. Albright is physical, not shy; we have something there. Randell didn't do as well against Dray the blocker, Reggie Ragland just popped his man, Gronk had extreme difficulty, and Wilder held his own vs IK. Herron also had trouble. Felton is an impressive blocker, stopping Reddick and others.

 

Time for the Session 4, and here's what's new. Gragg, Felton, Dray, and Shady all in on the same play. There is lots of pre-snap motion, which we're impressed with as we haven't seen this much in a loooong time. We saw Goowin confused on three occasions tonight. Bush is faking it very well. Salas was used in the slot at times; Colter was out in the Z position, as was Woods.

 

More new stuff: Striker was playing some OLB with Hughes on the other side at strong side.

 

In the 6 on 6, Tyrod had some difficulty. He threw one too hard, it bounced off the receiver's hands straight back, and Ed Reed caught it. Crowd went wild. Dray catches a nice ball OVER THE MIDDLE, then TT threw behind O'Leary who couldn't bring it in. Dray catches the ball on an out pattern, then Striker gets right on JWilliams preventing the reception. IK showed good coverage on O'Leary on the next play. Dray makes another sideline catch. Cardale came in and showed his quick trigger finger and rifle-like arm, getting it to Powell then Salas for two quick first downs. Manuel had Dezmin, Goods, and Woods in the lineup, and made the throw, but threw way over Powell's head then was relatively late throwing to Powell again, with impressive blanketing by Duke Williams, who's making this squad. Tyrod came back in and threw a TD to Powell, Cardale kept up his quick decision making connecting with Little covered by Nickell Robey, then an underneath route to Dez. Hughes then jumped offsides and had to run around the field, getting the business from the luxury boxes on the far side.

 

In the 11 on 11, Tyrod was given a lot of pressure by our defense. He evades the rush and throws to Woods. Aaron Williams has his first neck-testing slobberknocker and breaks up a pass fpr Blake Annen. McCoy gets a draw which minimizes the rush, but Worthy gets a would-be sack--I think he's made an impression so far. Jordan Mills is called for offsides and has to do the Lap of Shame. Reggie Bush has his best run of the night, likely a 15-20 yarder, but NYNole notes that Striker was pushed out of the way, which could be a problem with Striker especially on run downs. Striker's very good in coverage. Manuel throws too high to O'Leary; these QBs aren't doing him any favors. EJ has a nice ball to Salas, then a nice draw play to JWilliams. Gilmore deftly defenses a pass and it goes incomplete, and Wilder gets a handoff up the middle for a short gain. Tyrod is back in, and passes OVER THE MIDDLE to Gragg, then buys time with his quickness and passes to Dray. Tyrod throws OVER THE MIDDLE to Gragg, and Ragland takes Gragg to the ground. Powell is overthrown and on his final play, TT throws deep but Darby makes his first impressive play of camp. EJ came in and throws to Hankerson and Seamster slips, Hankerson scores. EJ throws OVER THE MIDDLE to Dray again, who's auditioning for all-round TE tonight. The ball was a little high but Dray climbed the ladder. EJ completes his last pas to Woods who gets YAC; I don't think his knees touched and he kept on going. Watch for that this season. Cardale's final quick throws were to Salas OVER THE MIDDLE and a swing pass to Wilder.

 

Carpenter and Gay had a FG contest. Carp was 3 of 3 from the 24, missed from the 25, and made one from 30, 35, and two from 40. They did a fire drill FG in 10 seconds which Carp hit from the 35. Gay hit from 25, 30, and was 2 of 3 from the 37.

 

I've run out of time, but highlight players in Session 9 were the DLine pressure, Shady draws, Wilder's effort, a sweet Reggie Bush screen, Lorenzo Alexander blowing up Wilder, a nice O'Leary reception and an INT when Woods stumbled. Adolphus and Preston were in on many plays, Boykin climbed the ladder for a high EJ pass, and EJ's handling of an all-out blitz getting it to Hankerson for a 20-yarder. Cyril Richardson was offsides and ran the lap.

 

Session 5 had 5-wide in shotgun, with TT having Salas, Woods, Dez Lewis, Gillislee and Dray all running patterns. Corey White made a strong play on the other end of the field, and both EJ and Tyrod scored QB draws at the exact same time, EJ following it up with one more QB draw.

 

Go Bills!

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[i'll remove this when I'm done around (9:15 EST)]

 

It was a Chamber of Commerce evening in Pittsford NY, with 84 degrees cooling to 75 over the two-hour practice. Thanks to Ryan Lasal of BillsFanatics who gave me a ticket at the last minute! I wasn't in my seat 5 minutes when a guy comes up to the top of the bleachers, far end where I sit and asks, "Are you Astro?" It was NY Nole! Five minutes after that, Jim Kelly comes by and sits to our right in the press box. Two fathers I knew from The Harley School came up there with their sons.

 

 

 

 

Oh dis gonna be good!!!

 

*gets popcorn*

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