Marcell Dareus, Alan Branch pass Buffalo Bills conditioning test

When the Buffalo Bills return to the field at St. John Fisher on Friday evening for their fifth training camp practice of the season, defensive tackles Marcell Dareus and Alan Branch will be suited up and ready to participate.

That's because both Dareus and Branch passed their conditioning tests on Thursday. In all, the two defensive tackles will have missed four practices each, and will still find themselves on the field before many NFL teams even begin training camp. Dareus should be expected to slide into his first-unit role, and Branch should be right behind him on the second team.

With those two players now on the active roster, the Bills have just three employees sidelined by injury: linebacker Kiko Alonso, left tackle Cordy Glenn and rookie linebacker Randell Johnson.

The Bills also made a back-end roster move on Thursday, releasing cornerback Brandon Smith and replacing him on the team with undrafted free agent center Jared Wheeler out of Miami. Our training camp depth chart has been updated to reflect the move.