FanPost

My four days at Bills Camp

Hello Rumblers!  It is Sunday evening and I've just returned from four fun and action-filled days at Saint John Fisher College and Buffalo Bills training camp. I am tired but excited, and wanted to get this full report up for the group's information. As usual, I had a lot of unfettered access and if nothing else, the people who comprise OBD have again proven to be the classiest, and just plain nicest folks you could want to meet.

I know this report will not address everything and every player you want to know/hear about, but this does comprise the high spots at least in my estimation.

What am I totally jazzed about? The defense!!!!  I am stoked folks, and you should be too. In my opinion we are looking at a top ten defense.  Marcus Stroud looked immense in my time there - he has a first punch that is powerful, splits the double team like an All Pro and if we had done nothing else but add him in the off-season, we would be hugely improved. I saw nobody block him 1-1, and this is NOT a knock on our O-Line. Can he keep it up? I think the simple key here is to carefully gauge his snaps and run our four man rotation regularly. If he remains healthy and fresh, he will make a BIG difference. Paul Posluszny looked terrific and bigger than I recall. Donte Whitner has stepped it up big-time - he is everywhere, and has assumed the role of a vocal leader. Love it!! 

By far the biggest surprise to me was Kawika Mitchell. I had seen him play many times, but was not ready for exactly how steady he is, how sturdy at the point of attack he is, and what a great leader he is. He is NOT a loud rah-rah guy, but in my estimation he has already become the leader of the defense. He and Poz are inseparable and he is constantly patting backs, softly critiquing and just flat out hustling. They call it leading by example. What a great signing.

In the backfield, I thought Ko Simpson looked fine and with his greater foot speed and range should hold off the heady George Wilson for the FS job.  I know everybody is thinking about LCB as am I. During my time there, Jabari Greer took all the #1 unit snaps and Will James was the starting nickel. Now I am on the record as believing that Greer's year last year was overrated, and that we somehow mistook hustle and guts for production. I believed that he is simply too small to line up on the outside.  I may be wrong. He is so quick. He has such an outstanding break to the ball that it may compensate for the lack of size against all but the biggest receivers. Time will tell - and I still will bet that at some point this year Leodis McKelvin will challenge there. I am not a huge James fan, and think that Leodis has a very strong chance to win the nickel job outright before the season starts. I watched him a lot. What is interesting, at least to me, is that he is much better in team drills (7-7, 11-11) than in individual drills. That tells me that he is hugely instinctual and athletic, but his technique needs a lot of work. I saw DB coach George Catavalos spend oodles of time with him (let's not forget it was his first week in camp) as well as with Reggie Corner. Corner was not nearly as quick as I thought he would be, but he makes plays. Just a football player. I like him. It is just so hard at this point to figure where Youboty fits - I think the coaches are pleased with him, but I am not sure how much.

In other areas of the D, Spencer Johnson pulled off a rare "hat-trick" on Saturday morning, consecutively beating Fowler, Butler and Chambers in 1-1 drills sending Stroud into fits of apoplexy. I do not believe that the coaches feel he can play 50 snaps a game, but he can be a very valuable role guy. I have no idea if he will make the team, but Marcus Buggs hits you coming off the bus, and hustles his butt off. Aaron Schobel was not there this week, and honestly Chris Ellis did not stick out in any way.  If you are worried about special teams with all of the departures, you can feel a lot better knowing that John DiGiorgio and Keith Ellison will be back on teams full-time. Along with John Wendling, Bryan Scott and some of the new guys, I would not lose any sleep on this. 

Offensively: honestly, I am concerned and it it all goes back to one thing. Jason Peters. Had he been with the team throughout the OTAs, minicamp and preseason, my optimism would be off the map. But he has not and Lord knows when or if he will come back. My latest sense is that this is NOT the agent's doing....he is not "holding" Peters out, but rather it is simply something the player is doing, for whatever the reason on his own. The feeling is that even if he were to come back on the eve of the season and in shape (a big assumption), he could not contribute immediately. Every single line call has changed under Turk Schonert as have many of the blocking schemes with Sean Kugler taking over as O-Line coach from Mouse McNally. There will be a HUGE mental adjustment for Peters to be able to play. I thought Langston Walker played well at RT last year, but can he play LT? I am not sure in the least. I do not understand why some people think Kirk Chambers is a possible cut. I saw nothing that would indicate that - but will tell you that Demitrius Bell is going to be a player in the league, just not this year. He is agile, hostile and hard-working, but incredibly weak in the upper body.  Matt Murphy is also a hard worker, but I just can't see him starting, at least at the outset of the season. I hope whatever is in Peters' head disappears. He is desperately needed.

On the plus side offensively, Marshawn Lynch looked fabulous as did Freddie Jackson. Trent looks a lot bigger and more confident. I saw a LOT of formations where Lynch and/or Jackson went in motion and lined up wide - this may well be how Turk intends on attacking the safety to keep Lee Evans in single coverage. I like that. Lee looks great and I was highly impressed by Stevie Jackson!  He can run, catch and leap. If he can find a way to contribute to special teams, he may make it to the game day 45 and surprise us. The biggest disappointment in my time there was that James Hardy did not participate in team drills at all and I have nothing to evaluate him on. I do think that the coaches like his work ethic, and attention to detail. They have high hopes as do we, but I think his time, at least until he earns more, will be situational.

I defy any of you to tell the difference between Derek Schouman and Derek Fine. They are look-alikes who both block and are sure-handed. Fine is a bit bigger I thought, but they caught everything thrown at them while I was there. Yes, I know - they are not Antonio Gates getting down the field - but we could do worse.

I have no idea what to make of the 3rd RB duel between Dwayne Wright and Xavier Omon. I was disappointed in the way both of them ran. They seemed to be thinking far too much, and simply not squaring their shoulders and getting down the field. In one blitz pick up drill I watched closely, Wright simply "fanned" on three straight blitzes by a lone rusher.  Exit Trent in a real game.  By the way, Marshawn and Jackson are both outstanding blitz blockers.

I will answer questions if you have them, but I have droned on long enough. One final point - and this was as interesting to me as anything else I saw while at St. John Fisher - the elapsed time between rookie LB Bowen going down and the signing of of Donnie Spragan (nice pick-up) was just a few hours. They had his agent on the phone while Bowen was still on campus and not the hospital. This really impressed me. Excellent teamwork and preparation by John Guy, Dick Jauron, Jim Overdorf and Russ Brandon.   Just something to noodle over. They got him while he was on his way to Foxboro to visit the Pats - never a bad thing!

Just another great fan opinion shared on the pages of BuffaloRumblings.com.