After having Wednesday off, the Buffalo Bills 2016 training camp rolled along with a typical 10am morning practice at St. John Fisher College. Sabres head coach Dan Bylsma was in attendance. As usual, for your convenience, we did some meta-analysis and distilled all the camp reports into one, easy-to-read post.
- Charles Clay returns, makes impact: Buffalo’s No. 1 tight end was not on the field on Tuesday evening and was limited at times before that. He was a full participant on Thursday and climbed the ladder to secure a touchdown on a pass from Tyrod Taylor, according to Sal Capaccio.
- Sammy sighting: Chris Brown of BuffaloBills.com posted a video of Sammy Watkins running routes on air during practice and tweeted that the WR is “getting closer to top speed.” Carucci has reported the target date for Watkins’ return to the practice field is Monday, August 8.
- IK back with the first-team defense: After a few practices that had Eric Striker taking the place of IK Enemkpali with the first unit at one of the outside linebacker spots, the former New York Jet was back with the ones today.
- Cardale Jones’ best practice: The rookie quarterback has seemed to have many more errant throws than accurate ones early in camp, but Capaccio liked what he saw on Thursday morning from him, tweeting “the best I've seen Cardale Jones look against a defense so far.”
More Powell praise: Jones found Powell for a reception but Capaccio’s praise of Powell was more general, as he tweeted “Powell once again making an impression at WR, either beating his man or fighting hard for every ball.” Responding to a question on Twitter, Capaccio said Powell has been the most surprising player at camp thus far. Matthew Fairburn also noted that Greg Salas caught a deep pass from Taylor and that the pass-catcher has had a nice camp.
- On the injury front: Depth LB Kevin Reddick got hurt, per Rex, but the injury was not disclosed. Per WGR’s Paul Hamilton, Ryan said Marcell Dareus could return to the field by the end of the week. Manny Lawson told Mark Ludwiczak that he has a partially torn pectoral muscle but should be back by Week 1.