I think he may really surprise some people if he can make it out of training camp.

Hardy will probably be a year 3 guy. His knee is going to take him out of what he needs to do and that is route running. If he had hurt his shoulder, I would say yeah he’ll break out,. He needs to figure out how to be in the right place at the right time and that means running routes with Trent, something he won’t be able to do until at least the preseason.

If Johnson has a great training camp, expect him to leap from Roscoe in the passing game and become the number three receiver (barring someone else coming in)

Unfortunately, I think you may be right about Hardy. There seems to be that 3 year rule on receivers. I’m not completely sure about his injury, but it would make sense that it would hold him back. Still, I feel the Bills can utilize him in the rezone and he can have a tremendous impact thus being a “surprise player”. I don’t think his injury should limit him too much in the red zone. I mean he’s 6’5’’, has a 37.5 inch vertical, former recruit for Indiana basketball, had 16 td’s his senior year of college.

I also feel Johnson should surpass Roscoe in the passing game. If Johnson keeps improving at the rate that he has been, we are talking about a REALLY good player in a year or two.

Minus Hardy’s one great catch at Jax…….it’s like him and bowen were never here.

Buffalo is going to need some players to step up and inprove if this team is going to take a big step forward next year. Here is what I think about the guys you list and some other guys who might take a big step forward:

Ace Bowen – I would be surprised if Bowen doesn’t make the team and be an active player on most, if not all, gamedays. i would be surprised if he wasn’t a good contributer on special teams. I would also be surprised if he plays any downs on defense unless multiple linebackers get hurt. It’s tough to consider a 2nd year rookie who missed his entire first season a known commodity, but if you can consider someone in that situation to be a known commodity, then Bowen is that player.

Steve Johnson – I would be surprised if Johnson isn’t a nice contributer on offense next year. I would be surprised if he lives up to what will be unrealistically lofty expectaitions laid on him by the hardcore fans heading into 09. i’ve seen way too many people talking about how Johnson will supplant Reed as a starter to think that Johnson can really outperform many fans expectations. I remember there were people predicting Hardy would catch 8 or even 10 TDs this year and just thinking that there was no way he could succeed with people thinking like that. Nationally Johnson could surprise, but on this blog he will probably be either a dissapointment or a decent 3rd reciever who everyone blames the coaches for not playing enough.

James Hardy – This is kind of the reverse situation of Johnson which makes Hardy a great candidate to beat expectations next year. If he can get pretty healthy for the regular season and be somewhat of a match-up problem in 4 WR sets and catch 15 or so balls and a few TDs then I think he will exceed the expectations of most fans and I wouldn’t be surprised if he was even a little better then that.

John McCargo – Sometimes I feel like the only guy who hasn’t given up on him yet. Was the 2007 season where he was showing flashes of being a penetrating run stuffer that long ago? If he can show up to camp in shape and healthy then I think McCargo can make some plays and be a really solid rotational DT and considering that seemingly nobody has any expectations for the guy, that would be a nice little surprise.

Jason Peters – I think a new contract, a clean bill of health and a full offseason of real NFL calibur training can coax out Peters’ full potential and he could be the true Pro Bowl LT that we all know he can/should be.

Ashton Youboty – If/when Greer walks and if/when McKelvin looks like a 2nd year player and if/when McGee misses time or starts to lose a step, I think Youboty might end up being our best cornerback next year.

Trent Edwards – I think he can be a top 10 QB next year. Statistically he is almost there already.

Robert Royal – I know he has been a huge dissapointment, but as a reserve I think he is a nice player. I think if the Bills were to switch the names and numbers on the backs of Schouman and Royal (I know they are different races too, it’s a hypothetical) and take pre-conceived beliefs on how good both players are out of the picture, then I think every Bills fan would rather have Royal on this roster than Schouman (that is after everybody found out that they had switched jerseys).