Buffalo Bills' Chan Gailey Declares Open Competitions At QB, WR, LT

Buffalo Bills head coach Chan Gailey nixed the bulk of lineup-related questions on Wednesday, the day before his team hit the practice field to open training camp. The only admission he made prior to entering coach speak mode: Donald Jones will begin camp with the starters (to the surprise of no one), but even his job is still up in the air.

"Donald will start there," Gailey told reporters, "but still, we're looking at everybody. We've not ruled anybody out at this point at that spot. You've got to have somebody that walks out there the first day, and y'all will all write about it and talk about it."

Gailey went on to mention two more specific jobs (beyond the aforementioned starting receiver role) that are up for grabs, and will feature a lot of rep-sharing this summer: left tackle and backup quarterback.

"We're going to move people around at different times during camp, try to get equal reps at left tackle, try to get equal reps at quarterback," Gailey explained. "Just because a guy starts the first day doesn't mean anything. There are some spots that we understand there is competition, and we're going to try to make sure that we make it as equal as possible going into the season."

That means that though Jones will start camp with the ones, you can expect to see Derek Hagan, T.J. Graham and Marcus Easley take reps up top, as well. Vince Young and Tyler Thigpen will alternate days with the second unit, and the same will likely be true for Cordy Glenn and Chris Hairston with the first unit.

It's interesting to note that the even rep-sharing is the exact opposite approach that Gailey took to purported open competitions during training camp in 2010. Back then, Gailey famously declared an open competition at quarterback, but Trent Edwards took all of the first-team reps and got the job with ease (even if he didn't hold the job for long). The lack of even reps was odd and confusing, so it's nice to see that the coaches are comfortable enough with their personnel that they're willing to split up reps and hold legitimate competitions for a change.