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AstroNotes8 : Bills Camp Monday August 15

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It's a pleasant 73 degrees with a cover of clouds, light breeze. One my way in, I pass Russ Brandon who's texting as he's walking. I say "Go get 'im, Russ" and he says, "Oh hi, how you doing?" Chris Brown is sitting at the other end of our row. My sidekick @CJChristiansen3 comes over, and lets me know Kroy Biermann has been signed.

 

Powell is on the field early, alone. No sign of Reggie Bush. We didn't see him all day. Powell's shagging punts from the JUGS machine with no let-up. O'Leary's off to the side doing side-bends. He's soon joined by Jim Dray, and later Jimmay Mundine (rhymes with sunshine). Eric Wood strolls in, sans jersey. Goodwin's the first of the WRs to walk in, Little second, Woods third. Little goes over to the exercise bike and Woods plays catch with Goodwin. Dray is doing some backwards steps, as is Hankerson, who can't afford to drop any today. Gragg and Karlos Williams arrive. Karlos has been cleared for practice, and he looks like he's lost the paunch from three weeks ago (I'd guess his wife and Rob Ryan are still working on theirs).

 

Tyrod enters giving hand slaps to everyone on the right-hand side. Rex signs a few autographs on the way in. Hawthorne's looking none the worse for wear from his collision in Game 1 as he walks in with Brandon Spikes. Darby, Wilder, and BabyGronk sign some autographs on the way in. Corey Graham is doing a lot of hammy exercises, then enlists a trainer to do some hammy stretches for about 10 minutes.

 

Ed Reed, sporting a white Bills shirt, red Bills shorts, and his daily camo hat and olive drab towel hung like a loincloth, saunters in. At 10:00 am on the dot, the SJF steeple bell chimes, a blast comes from the bullhorn, and the song "Lightning" (This Is What You Came For") fires up on the PA system. The song is right; it's the notes of thanks from Wyoming, France, England, and Australia Bills fans that let me know why I'm here and why I persist at writing these notes. You're welcome.

 

On the sidelines, away from calisthenics, Watkins, Lawson, McCoy and Gilmore are doing running, leg crossovers, and ladder drills. Again, no sign of Reggie Bush.

 

Calisthenics are over in SIX minutes. Think back to PE Class and how long your cal was. Mine lasted 15-20 minutes, and swim team calisthenics were 45 minutes long. We don't know what these players did inside, but 6 minutes? Really?

 

I see more evidence of diagnostic-prescriptive teaching. The PR team is practicing blocking out the gunners, and avoiding the out-of-bounds gunner penalty.

 

After 12 minutes, Corey Graham is all stretched out, hands his headphones and player to JustAGuy on the sidelines and trots out to Spikes and Preston Brown's spot. More people are in the stands today than all of last week, which was hot and humid. Today's nice in comparison.

 

It's nice to see Greg Little out there participating, but Dez Lewis, with a towel over his head, is just sitting on the exercise bike. Manny LAwson is doing situps vigorously, doing leg raises, hammy stretches. He's fine. Tyrod is playing catch with Goodwin; Watkins and Woods are talking with Sanjay Lal.

 

Some warm-ups against air begin. Tyrod fakes a handoff and throws out to 88. The setup has Kujo at LT and Groy at LG. They both perform admirably, and this is a silver lining to this cloud. Glenn and Richie get fully better and the twos get some long, hard looks from Kromer and Company. Karlos is practicing full-go.

 

Positionals start. Sammy makes two impressive catches on the far side, one using just one hand on a ball that went 25+ yards. The 10-year-old boys from a Penn Yan Day Camp in front of me just "Ooooh!" in admiration. The WRs continue with out-routes. Walt Powell still stands out to me, and, unprompted, one of the 10-year-olds turns to me and says, "Walter Powell is pretty good". A long one from Tyrod to Woods with excellent hands catch nets applause from the 2/3-full stands. Goodwin misses a 60-yarder from Taylor--how does this even happen? After EJ overthrows a WR, Tyrod throws another 60+ yarder to Goodwin right on the money. The rest of the positional drills for the WRs is spent on comeback routes, deep cuts, and post routes.

 

OL does blocking combinations. I'm not impressed with the players we have behind Wood. Velasco was a fiasco in Game 1, and he's short--not a terrible thing I guess, especially if your QB is short, but I'm not sold there. Kugler is also small, and he was beaten early and often by the twos and threes of the Colts. The only other player with OC experience on the roster is Lalk, and he's seen the trainer several times for knee injuries in his football lifetime.

 

TEs do a block, break, cut, and get a quick pass over the middle. I watch Clay and he's full-go for these drills. The TEs join the OL and do more combination blocks.

 

RB's do handoffs, work on lead blocking, then run the gauntlet. Then the RBs have giant bands put on them as they run against this resistance. They finish positionals working on low blocking. Gillislee is beginning to impress; he looks faster than JWilliams and KWilliams, but not Shady. Still no sign of Reggie.

 

On the turf field, Reid Ferguson is working with the kickers Carp and Gay, both kicking field goals. Manny Lawson is over there, doing explosive starts, running 10 yards, then doing it again and again. Seantrel is looking a bit bigger this week than last week. He's walking. Kolby Listenbee is working his way back, providing an interesting 7-man race for 5-6 WR slots. IF the season starts today I'd have it Watkins, Woods, Goodwin, Little, Powell, Dez Lewis, Salas, Boykin, Listenbee, Easley.

 

@CJChristiansen3 says that Shady has said we haven't seen his best yet. I'm telling you his 90% looks pretty damn good.

 

In 6 on 6, looks like the twos are out there. Striker and Max Valles are the EDGE, Spikes and Hawthorne the ILBs, and Meeks and Duke are the DBs. Blake Annen makes the first catch of the day OVER THE MIDDLE. Gragg has a drop, then Robert Blanton takes away a caught ball by Boykin on the way down to the ground. That was the Defensive Play of the Day. I know Corey Graham likely nails down the #1 job for the Regular Season, but at some point Robert Blanton will be playing with the ones.

 

Sammy goes out in traffic OVER THE MIDDLE and doesn't catch the ball. To be fair, it was high and away, but would have been within his catch radius in a real game. On the other field, Corey White makes his best play of camp, an INT. Tyrod runs a very nice swing pass play, leading Gillislee perfectly. Watkins comes back OVER THE MIDDLE, but Tyrod throws incomplete to Goodwin after waiting too long --not his fault, no WRs were gaining the separation to convince Tyrod to throw. Tyrod is now warmed up, and throws it right to Sammy at the right pylon for the Touchdown. Dez Lewis, towel over his head, comes in now to be with the ones who are waiting their turn, but he doesn't take one. Tyrod makes a throw to the left side to Gillislee for the Touchdown on the left side of the field. On the next play, you could tell Tyrod wanted Sammy deep, but dumps off to Shady, who takes it upfield. Gilmore slips on the next play, and Tyrod throws to Clay at the sideline. Clay almost takes out Ed Reed, who's awfully close to inbounds. Tyrod throws again to Clay; they are building chemistry back up. Boykin goes down hard, and we see him walking to the trainers; my guess is concussion protocol, as he came down on his head. Gilmore's on Watkins almost every play, and it's helping them both with their skills. Darby has Goodwin on a fly pattern, with very good coverage, or good enough as the ball falls incomplete. Tyrod comes back OVER THE MIDDLE to Shady, but he's stopped quickly by Corey Graham. Watkins has played some slot, but Sammy is now the "Z", with Woods in the slot, and Goodwin the "X" on the other side. Robey-Coleman defends well against Robert Woods. Note to self: find out what Arenas' number is, as I have him as 21.

 

EJ overthrows Powell, with Darby again in excellent coverage. Miscommunication on the next play causes Hankerson to run an out, while EJ throws long. I couldn't tell from their body language who was right, but Hankerson's on a short leash.

 

Shady's in a big collision, and seems gimpy, but he's right back in there one play later. Sammy's back in the slot, but Tyrod keeps it and runs. On the next play Sammy lines up in the slot and Tyrod hits him OVER THE MIDDLE on a nifty slant. Now they line up with 2 TE, 2 WR, and give the ball to JOnathan Williams, who take it upfield. He likes to run the plays out, as does Wilder. Sammy's in the slot and Tyrod hits him on an out pattern.

 

We see Richie Incognito on the exercise bike, watching the action. He looks good to go. We see Easley on the far field. We don't see Aaron Williams, and again, no sign of Reggie Bush.

 

EJ has Little and Boykin as wideouts, and Karlos Williams back in the mix. Two handoffs to Karlos, and you know he'll be back in the 3 spot come Week 5. He gets strong blocking as he zooms up the middle for good yardage. They're using Chris Martin and Marquis Lucas as LTs. Of the two, I prefer Lucas, who looks more comfortable, with better footwork and bend. They're both behind Cordy and Kujo, who are definite 1 & 2 LTs.

EJ has Watkins out wide, and he takes a slant for 40 yards. Clay's split out on the next play, but EJ opts for Woods on a roll out for 10 yards. Corey White turns in his second good play today, tiopping the ball away from a sure catch by Powell.

 

Tyrod is back in there, and Gillislee picks up a blitzing Safety well enough for Tyrod to complete the 20-yarder downfield to Powell, who lays out for the second Catch of the Day. After overthrowing Watkins, Gillisless has a nice 15-yard run, sprung by an impressive block by Ryan Groy. Jonathan Williams takes a swing pass, then Tyrod goes the other way on a keeper. Gragg now splits from the line, with Watkins and Woods out wide. Watkins hauls in a perfect pass for the Touchdown. Tyrod finishes my page of notes with a throw out to Gillislee, who's showing reliable hands today.

 

On their way out, the players I saw signing autographs included Dez Lewis, Sammy Watkins, Preston Brown, Brandon Spikes, Jarrett Boykin, Jonathan Dowling, and Richie Incognito.

 

Rob Ryan's not losing weight; his stomach reached the field house door five minutes before his butt did.

 

I'll be back at camp tomorrow, weather permitting. Right now, it's touch and go.

Go Bills!

~Astro

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Ranks, Rastro! Only four of these left.

 

Robey-Coleman changed his # to 37...was wearing it Saturday night. Arenas was cut.

Only 2 of these left for me. I won't be writing up the evening practices.

 

Thanks for the info on Robey-Coleman. What you mean is, Robey-Coleman is now #21. Didn't get the Arenas memo.

Dean

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eball

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Only 2 of these left for me. I won't be writing up the evening practices.

 

Thanks for the info on Robey-Coleman. What you mean is, Robey-Coleman is now #21. Didn't get the Arenas memo.

Dean

 

Ha -- yes, right!

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