Buffalo Bills training camp officially reached its conclusion on Thursday with the final camp practice of the 2011 season. Just how busy have these past three weeks been? Take a look at the big stories emerging from camp this season.

Player Personnel Moves
Chan Gailey: Eric Wood To Center, Brad Smith At Quarterback
At the outset of training camp, Chan Gailey announced that Eric Wood would be his first-team center, and that free agent signee Brad Smith would be working as a quarterback during camp...

Chan Gailey, Bills To Practice Arthur Moats At ILB
... then he confirmed GM Buddy Nix's statement that second-year pass rusher Arthur Moats would be moving to the inside linebacker position.

Bills Training Camp: Alex Carrington Gets Reps At OLB
The most surprising personnel decision the team made during camp was to give 304-pound defensive end Alex Carrington work as an outside linebacker. Even more surprising: the experiment may actually be working.

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Buffalo Bills training camp officially reached its conclusion on Thursday with the final camp practice of the 2011 season. While the Bills pack up and head back west to Orchard Park, we'll recap the biggest risers and fallers of camp. In our view, there are five players who saw their stock soar at St. John Fisher College, and five more who didn't do so well.

Five Risers: These five Bills players saw the most significant gains in the court of public opinion over the past three weeks.

• WR Donald Jones. When camp began, Jones was a low-end depth chart guy - a fifth receiver at best - that most believed would stick thanks to special teams prowess. Now he's the front-runner to be the team's No. 2 receiver after the trade of Lee Evans. You don't make bigger training camp gains than that, folks.
• LG Chad Rinehart. Chan Gailey may not be pleased with the goings-on up front, but there was a very real chance that Rinehart might be on the roster bubble when camp started. Now, it's a possibility that he could start at either guard position, and he's a virtual lock to make the team.

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Of all of the various personnel decisions that the Buffalo Bills have made this year in training camp, none have been as curious as the decision to play the 6'5", 304-pound Alex Carrington at outside linebacker. Drafted in the third round last year to be a defensive end in the team's 3-4 defense, Carrington is now being used as a stand-up pass rusher and run stuffer in George Edwards' hybrid defense.

Bills head coach Chan Gailey seems very pleased with the results to this point.

"He's doing a really nice job of rush outside," Gailey said of Carrington on Wednesday night. "You're only going to show him every now and then dropping - that's not what he does - but you do it just enough to create indecision sometimes. He's a big load on the edge, and he's got good speed for a man his size. He's been an interesting project during the course of camp thus far."

It's still not clear if the team will be using Carrington more on the line or at his new position once the games start to count. Either way, "interesting project" doesn't do it justice; Carrington may very well be the heaviest outside linebacker in the NFL.

Buffalo Bills head coach Chan Gailey made it clear following his team's pre-season loss to the Chicago Bears that he wasn't pleased with the play of his depth players, particularly along the offensive line. Now, he's made a switch at left guard, promoting Chad Rinehart over Andy Levitre (if only for a day), and GM Buddy Nix has joined Gailey in commenting on the team's glaring lack of depth up front.

Given that things are being re-assessed up front by the team, I figured it was high time to do so here. There's a lot of confusion in the fan base regarding the Levitre demotion, and I figured I'd offer my own take as a starting point for hashing this thing out.

Gailey has also made it very clear that he was satisfied with the play of his first unit offensive line - including Levitre's play - in Chicago. That said, we're still going to lump the starters into this re-assessment to try to get a fuller understanding of the team's depth chart. Again, this is all guesswork, so bear that in mind.

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On Tuesday, Buffalo Bills head coach Chan Gailey shook things up along his starting offensive line when he inserted Chad Rinehart into the left guard slot ahead of two-year starter Andy Levitre, a former second-round draft pick. Asked after practice to explain the decision, Gailey cited Rinehart's strong camp as rationale.

"Chad has played pretty well during camp and he's earned the right to compete for the job on a little bit more equal basis," Gailey explained. "We gave him a shot. We're going to see how that plays out. Now's the time to give a guy a chance if he's earned it."

Many have openly wondered why the team would move Rinehart ahead of Levitre and not Kraig Urbik, who struggled mightily at right guard in the team's pre-season opener. Gailey did not discount that possibility, but for now, Rinehart will remain at left guard.

This also may be a motivational tactic, as Gailey was vocally displeased with his depth players after the Bears game. Rinehart may be getting this shot simply to fire up the rest of the team's depth linemen.

"We've got to have some of those guys set up," Gailey said yesterday. "As I said previously, I thought our first group didn't play bad. Chad's the one guy right now that's fought his way to deserve a shot to at least split some time there."

The only player this doesn't look good for is Levitre, who may not fit the physical prototype that Gailey and Joe D'Alessandris seem to favor up front. When asked if he was not satisfied with Levitre's play, however, Gailey responded in the negative.

A lot has changed for the Buffalo Bills since I made my first 53-man roster projection of the season last week. Lee Evans was traded, Aaron Maybin was waived, at least two players (Alex Carrington and Josh Nesbitt) have (sort of) switched positions, and a pre-season game is in the bag.

After the jump, I'll highlight the notable changes (there aren't many) and unveil the second iteration of the projection. You're free to offer your own projections, or merely your objections, in the comments section.

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Back on August 1, as I was sitting in the bleachers at St. John Fisher watching one of the first few Buffalo Bills training camp practices of the 2011 season, MRW commented on the strong performance of Kraig Urbik in a one-on-one drill. Seconds later, he was staring at me, eyebrows raised in surprise, after I'd informed him that I thought Urbik was bad on tape in 2010, and that I'd rather the team handed the starting right guard job to Chad Rinehart.

After watching the first half of the Bills' pre-season loss Saturday night to the Chicago Bears, it could not be plainer that Urbik - the first-team right guard throughout camp after the team moved Eric Wood to center - is currently the weakest link in the starting offensive line. He was sufficient in pass protection, but struggled with athleticism in-line and in making blocks at the second level - exactly as he did last season before succumbing to injury.

It's time for Chan Gailey and Joe D'Alessandris (who has been on Urbik's case for much of camp) to open up the right guard competition to more competitors. They don't lack for options: Rinehart (the second-team left guard on Saturday), Geoff Hangartner (second-team center) and Mansfield Wrotto (second-team right guard, who also struggled mightily) are all capable. If Urbik is going to be this team's right guard, he needs to have earned it.

Every Buffalo Bills fan, it seems, will be paying attention to some specific player or positional group when the Bills open their pre-season schedule against the Chicago Bears on Saturday. I, myself, have seven different players or groups that I'll be paying attention to during (and after) the game, and I'll take you through those one by one leading up to the return of Bills football.

One interesting angle of the Lee Evans trade rumors is that it could open up a roster spot for another receiving tight end on the team, particularly since the team's receiving talent behind Stevie Johnson is largely unproven. It's unclear how many tight ends the Bills will be keeping on the team, but there is a clear delineation between the blockers and receivers at the position. We're focusing on the receivers - namely Shawn Nelson, Mike Caussin and Zach Pianalto.

Now, clearly, if the Bills are going to prioritize a secondary receiving threat in their offense, the depth receivers - and even C.J. Spiller - will rank higher on the list than these guys. The odds are still good that three tight ends will be retained, and at least one of those three players will be on the team come September 11.

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