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Four weeks from this evening, the Buffalo Bills will open 2014 training camp at St. John Fisher College. Over those four weeks, we will slowly build up our excitement levels for the 2014 season as the Bills, amidst a franchise sale, follow through on an aggressive offseason aimed at ending a 14-year playoff drought.
Much of our focus in training camp is on position battles, and what the 53-man, opening day roster will look like come Week 1, when the Bills travel west to take on the Chicago Bears. In order to appreciate the shape of the newest iteration of the team, let's take a trip down memory lane to recall what the 2013 Bills opening day roster looked like.
Below, you'll see the opening-day roster for the Bills a year ago. That team dropped its home opener, 23-21, to the New England Patriots, kick-starting a 6-10 campaign. (Of note: Jairus Byrd, Stephon Gilmore, Doug Legursky and Dustin Hopkins all missed that game due to injury.) Any name in bold below is the name of a player that is already no longer with the organization; you'll count a whopping 15 of those. Add in the idea that as many as another eight or nine may not make the 2014 opening day roster, and one starts to appreciate just how much turnover a NFL roster can see in one calendar year - especially when a team is as desperate for a quick turnaround as the Bills are.
Pos. | Starter | Backup | Reserve |
WR | Stevie Johnson | Robert Woods | Chris Hogan |
LT | Cordy Glenn | Thomas Welch | |
LG | Colin Brown | ||
C | Eric Wood | Doug Legursky | |
RG | Kraig Urbik | ||
RT | Erik Pears | Sam Young | |
TE | Scott Chandler | Lee Smith | Chris Gragg |
WR | T.J. Graham | Marquise Goodwin | Marcus Easley |
QB | EJ Manuel | Jeff Tuel | |
FB | Frank Summers | ||
RB | C.J. Spiller | Fred Jackson | Tashard Choice |
RE | Mario Williams | Jerry Hughes | |
DT | Kyle Williams | Jay Ross | |
NT | Marcell Dareus | Alan Branch | |
DE | Alex Carrington | Corbin Bryant | |
WLB | Nigel Bradham | Marcus Dowtin | |
MLB | Kiko Alonso | Arthur Moats | |
SLB | Manny Lawson | Jamaal Westerman | |
RCB | Stephon Gilmore | Justin Rogers | Brandon Burton |
SS | Aaron Williams | Da'Norris Searcy | Jonathan Meeks |
FS | Jairus Byrd | Jim Leonhard | Duke Williams |
LCB | Leodis McKelvin | Ron Brooks | Nickell Robey |
K | Dan Carpenter | Dustin Hopkins | |
P | Shawn Powell | ||
LS | Garrison Sanborn |