Monday marked the 13th public training camp practice for the Buffalo Bills, and it seems like team has reached the point now where they’re are beginning to get on one another’s nerves. Several skirmishes and heated exchanges took place at practice Monday.
Our Matt Warren was there tweeting from the Buffalo Rumblings account and gave details from the goal line session.
Shaq Lawson just threw a punch. Damn.
— Buffalo Rumblings (@BuffRumblings) August 14, 2017
Shaq Lawson was pulled from practice by head coach Sean McDermott and sat out the final first-team session. He spoke after practice to a scrum of reporters and explained it away after telling any teammates that would listen that it wasn’t his fault.
A few minutes later, Jerry Hughes and Tyrod Taylor needed to be separated by Richie Incognito after a play and some shoving. defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier broke up this one.
Hughes pushes after whistle. Frazier yanks him off the field and 55 was not happy.
— Buffalo Rumblings (@BuffRumblings) August 14, 2017
Frazier pulled Hughes from practice, as well, and as the player was running off the field he was jawing with his coach. Frazier shut him down with a “that’s why you’re not on the field now.”
Hughes talked with McDermott after practice for a while but told the assembled media that he wasn’t discussing the incident from the field. The way he was moving his hands, we doubt that.
On the other side of the field, there was another skirmish away from Matt.
Zay Jones and Leonard Johnson were going at it after the whistle. Ramon Humber and Jordan Mills the snap before. It's fiery.
— Tom Martin (@4TomMartin) August 14, 2017
Veterans Richie Incognito, Eric Wood, and Lorenzo Alexander didn’t seem concerned about it following practice, saying all would be forgotten by the time the team was in the locker room.
“I mean, I love their energy and passion, because you have to play this game with an edge to you,” Alexander told reporters after practice. “I just let them know, ‘I don’t want to take that away from you, but it gets to a certain point when it becomes a liability.’ Especially when either myself or Kyle or Micah, somebody on your same team comes up and is trying to calm you down. Just respond to me. Start responding to me and don’t worry about the other dude because we’re trying to pull you back so we can finish this game. One so you don’t get ejected and get your fine, but probably more importantly, we need you so we can win this game.”
Incognito and Wood both mentioned fights with brothers.
“We are a group of 90 alpha males, fighting for jobs,” said Wood after practice.
Incognito added, he was going to be the first one to poke fun at all the guys who lost their cool when he gets in the locker room saying he’s at the point in his career where he is the “peacemaker”.
“You fight with your brothers,” said Incognito. “When you're out here competing and trying to get better it does get chippy."
The fights followed a rather intense lecture from McDermott after sloppiness and dropped passes marred the team portion of practice. The intensity definitely dialed up a notch after that and was exacerbated by the goal-line work.