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The Buffalo Bills signed free agent Rod Streater in late May and at the time he was seen just as a camp body. As he continues to make plays in camp, he finds himself in the spotlight heading into the first preseason game next week.
Streater started his NFL career as an undrafted free agent from Temple in 2012 with the Oakland Raiders. He spent 4 seasons in Oakland and had a productive first 2 seasons with a mixture of quarterbacks, including Terrelle Pryor. In the beginning of the 2014 season, Streater suffered a broken foot and was sidelined for the last 13 games. He was never able to regain his footing with the Raiders and left after the 2015 season.
Seven practices into training camp and Streater has made a name for himself with the Bills. During OTA’s he didn’t have much time to get familiar. Now that he has, he feels better about it:
“I feel comfortable. This is my second go round. Coming into OTAs I was in pretty late and didn’t really have the playbook down pat, but coming into camp I feel like I know the plays and I’m really comfortable. The quarterbacks have been putting the ball on the money. They’ve been doing a great job of getting me the ball and allowing me to make a play.”
He was later asked about building a sense of trust with the quarterbacks and them being able to get him the ball:
"I feel like we have gone pretty well so far... they’ve been giving me shots, the way you build trust is to come down and continue to make plays. That’s my focus. Anytime the ball is in the air I want to come down with it and put confidence in the coaches and put confidence in the quarterbacks.”
Although he is working with the second-team offense for the most part, he has been reliable for T.J Yates. The seventh day of practice even included a touchdown catch from Yates in red zone work.
After Sammy Watkins, Zay Jones and Andre Holmes, the spots are fair game for the remaining receivers. The rest of training camp and preseason games will write the story for each of the guys on the bubble.