By Chris Brown - Posted
July 29, 2010 – 8:57 pm
Free agent OL Chester Pitts finally ended his free agent tour signing with the Seattle Seahawks.
Pitts confirmed it on his twitter account Thursday after making his free agent visit to Seattle. The Seahawks announced Pitts had agreed to terms a short time later.
Chester_Pitts I have a JOB!!!!!!! Felt like longest road ever at times, but just continued to grind…..hard work is good for you-it makes you STRONG!
The advantage that the Seahawks had in recruiting Pitts was his former offensive line coach in Houston, Alex Gibbs is on Pete Carroll’s staff in Seattle and will be implementing the same zone blocking scheme that Pitts is familiar with, so the learning curve despite joining the team late won’t be steep for him.
Pitts made a free agent visit to One Bills Drive on Monday.
By Chris Brown - Posted
July 29, 2010 – 8:04 pm
One small particular that stood out at training camp Thursday was the presence of knee braces on both the legs of every offensive lineman on the roster.
Talking to Demetrius Bell following his first practice back from a long knee rehab, Bell said they don’t have a choice.
“It’s mandatory,” he said. “We’ve got to wear them at practice on both legs.”
Bell did say he understood the reasoning behind it and coming off of knee surgery he doesn’t mind the extra protection. Knowing camp is likely to be more physical in the past, the knee braces are worth mandating to keep players healthy and on the field.
By Chris Brown - Posted
July 29, 2010 – 7:38 pm
A couple of Bills will be on the local Rochester radio airwaves Friday afternoon. Here’s the rundown.
Fred Jackson @ 3 PM on the John DiTullio show on 1280AM WHTK
Marcus Easley @ 4 PM on with DiTullio as well on 1280AM
By Chris Brown - Posted
July 29, 2010 – 7:30 pm
Bills OLB Chris Kelsay left practice early with a shoulder injury and head coach Chan Gailey confirmed the injury will keep him sidelined for a period of time leaving Buffalo shorthanded in the early going.
“He banged up his shoulder a little bit and it looks like he’ll be out a little while,” said Gailey. ”I don’t know how long.”
Buffalo is down linebackers in the early going. They have a total of 14 on the roster, but with Aaron Schobel not reporting, Paul Posluszny and Keith Ellison sidelined, Nic Harris on PUP and now Chris Kelsay sidelined by injury they’re down to nine with four healthy inside linebackers and five healthy outside linebackers after one day of camp.
By Chris Brown - Posted
July 29, 2010 – 5:29 pm
Trent Edwards was named the top guy on the depth chart at QB Thursday, and though Edwards has always maintained an optimistic outlook, he shed some light on some of the tough times that ate away at him last season.
“I think probably got overwhelmed or stressed over too many little things that I shouldn’t be paying attention to,” Edwards said. ”I feel now that it was almost good for me. I’ve grown from that. I’m a year older, a year stronger and hopefully a year better and I’m going to use that to my advantage. Just like I’m using this competition to my advantage I need to be able to not get too stressed out, not sweat the small stuff and take it one step at a time.”
Edwards sounds more confident than previous years, especially when asked if he thought it was his job from the start. This was his response.
“That was just my outlook,” said Edwards. ”I was pretty confident that I would be the guy and I’m hoping to be the guy at the end of this camp, but I think if you asked Ryan, Brian or Levi they’d say the same thing that they want to be out there with the ones. I know it’s a competitive situation and I need to use that to my benefit. I feel like I feed off of that.”
By Chris Brown - Posted
July 29, 2010 – 3:49 pm
OLB Chris Kelsay has been pulled out of practice early.
Kelsay has his jersey off with an ice pack on his shoulder. We hope to have an update after practice.
By Chris Brown - Posted
July 29, 2010 – 2:17 pm
Paul Posluszny is not the only LB not participating in the first practice.
Keith Ellison is also a spectator. Ellison missed portions of the spring workouts with an undisclosed injury.
By Chris Brown - Posted
July 29, 2010 – 2:15 pm
Keep in mind its still walk thru at start of practice, but Ryan Fitzpatrick is second QB in after Edwards.
By Chris Brown - Posted
July 29, 2010 – 2:01 pm
Trent Edwards took the first reps with the starting unit in walk thru to start practice.
By Chris Brown - Posted
July 29, 2010 – 1:56 pm
Bills are starting camp practice full bore.
Players are trotting out on the field in full pads. Looks like the tone is going to be set early.
By Chris Brown - Posted
July 29, 2010 – 1:46 pm
Bills rookie WR David Nelson is dropping hints as to who the top QB in the pecking order will be when practice gets underway shortly.
DNelson83 Yea here’s your hint. His colleges mascot is the same as the mascot of the place holding our training camp.
Knowing St. John Fisher’s mascot is the Cardinals, Nelson’s hint is a bit misleading. Louisville has a mascot that is identical in name and species, which is where Brian Brohm went. Stanford however, where Trent Edwards went has a mascot that’s a tree, but they’re athletic teams are referred to as the Cardinal, which references one of their team colors.
So if you’re going for exactly identical in name and mascot, it’s Brohm, but we’ll confirm at practice when the players begin team work.
By Chris Brown - Posted
July 29, 2010 – 11:50 am
The order in which the Bills QB depth chart will lay out has been communicated to the players in meetings this morning. Now it’s a matter of seeing it in action at practice at 3 pm for the rest of us.
Bills rookie WR David Nelson confirmed that the players were informed of how things will shake out at QB at least at the outset of camp on his twitter account.
DNelson83 Yes, for all you asking ?s, they have announced the starting QB (for right now at least) Quick lunch break & then off to the first practice!
We’ll have full coverage of how the QB depth chart lays out later this afternoon here on Buffalobills.com.
By Chris Brown - Posted
July 29, 2010 – 7:01 am
With the Oakland Raiders signing first-round pick Rolando McClain to an undisclosed contract, the figures should help the Bills in making further progress with C.J. Spiller.
That’s because McClain was taken 8th overall, right in front of Spiller who was ninth. McClain’s contract will set a good baseline for where Spiller’s deal should come in. Granted, Spiller and McClain (a LB) do not play the same position, and Spiller is the first running back taken in the draft, which could make things more complicated, but this is a positive development in terms of getting a deal done with the speedy back.
By Chris Brown - Posted
July 28, 2010 – 7:38 pm
Here’s the rundown of player radio appearances for day one of training camp on Thursday.
Chris Kelsay – Norton in the Morning – 97 Rock @ 8:00 AM (listen online)
Geoff Hangartner – Morning Bull – 103.3 The Edge @ 8:30 AM (listen online)
As an added note I’ll be on with Bull at 8:10 am every morning on the Edge during training camp.
By Chris Brown - Posted
July 28, 2010 – 7:33 pm
Bills DE Aaron Schobel expressed the hope that the organization would give him a little more time to sort things out as his leanings now favor a return to football in 2010. It appears the team stance is unchanged in that regard as GM Buddy Nix again indicated the ball is in Schobel’s court.
When asked if the door is still open for Schobel even if he does not report to camp on time Nix had the following response.
“Always, sure,” said Nix. “What we’ll do is react according to what he does. If he comes, fine, if he doesn’t, fine. It’s up to him.
Nix also answered in the affirmative when asked if he’d still like to have Schobel on the team.
“Absolutely,” said Nix. ”He’s a good football player. I’d like to have him. I’m not sure he knows what he wants to do, I really haven’t talked to him.”
By Chris Brown - Posted
July 28, 2010 – 7:28 pm
Brian Brohm, Trent Edwards and Ryan Fitzpatrick will find out what the all important pecking order will be at the quarterback position in meetings Thursday morning. But Brohm, who was the only one of the three QBs that arrived during the allotted time for media access, is not having any anxiety about what that decision might be.
“I’m ready to go, no matter what happens in this meeting tomorrow (Thursday), wherever we are at in the pecking order, I’m ready to go,” Brohm said. ”I’m just glad that the season is finally here.“It’s a competition, they have to put one guy in there first, one guy in there second, one guy in there third, but at the end of the day it’s going to be who plays best when they are out there on the field. That’s the way I am going to look at it. Whatever reps I get and the opportunities I have, I need to take advantage of to the fullest, and put my best foot forward.”Bills head coach Chan Gailey has been adamant that whatever the pecking order is that it is not set in concrete and is subject to change.
By Chris Brown - Posted
July 28, 2010 – 4:49 pm
The goal was for Bills LT Demetrius Bell to be good to go come training camp. It appears as though that will be the case, but pounding out two-a-days coming off a long knee rehabilitation is not on the docket to start.
“He’s really doing good,” said Bills GM Buddy Nix. “We’re going to try to be smart with him and not take him out there and grind him twice a day. But he’s really further along than we had hoped at this time.”
That’s certainly good news for Buffalo’s left tackle position where Bell is expected to compete primarily with second-year man Jamon Meredith with fifth-round pick Ed Wang also a candidate. Nix was asked if he considered adding a more veteran offensive tackle to the mix. Here was his response.
“You’d like maybe to add a guy to the mix,” said Nix. “We’ve been down this road before, if it’s a clear improvement at the position then you do it, but if it’s not then I don’t think you retard the process and you hope these young guys go through. They’ve got great ability. They’ve got everything except time on the job.”
By Chris Brown - Posted
July 28, 2010 – 4:03 pm
Bills GM Buddy Nix just announced that the Bills and second round pick Torell Troup have agreed to terms.
“We’ve agreed to terms with Torell and that should be done in time for him to be here in the morning,” said Nix.
Nix also said talks with top pick C.J. Spiller are ongoing.
By Chris Brown - Posted
July 28, 2010 – 2:44 pm
Kyle Williams and Chris Kelsay just arrived at camp and they’re two of Schobel’s closest friends on the roster. They weighed in on Schobel’s recent change in thinking about his playing career.
“I just spoke to Schobel on my way up here and we hope he comes back,” said Williams. “I think he wants to (play). He’ll miss parts of it. He’s quite an individual. We hope he comes back because he could help us out a lot. Him being able to play in this defense could help him, not just our team. I know he said he’s leaning toward it, but I’m sure he’ll take his time. He’s going to make up his own mind.”
“He’s weighed both sides and I’m not completely sold that he’s made a decision one way or another yet,” said Kelsay. “Time is running out and he realizes that, but when he makes up his mind 100 percent he’ll let everybody know and he’ll be here. I talked to Aaron a lot throughout the week and the offseason, but very seldom do we talk football. He’s going to do what’s best for him and his family and the organization. He’s definitely not being selfish about it despite what some people might think. It is a very tough decision for him. So coach Gailey and his staff are doing what they feel they need to do, giving him time and space to allow him to make a decision he won’t regret.”
It’s interesting that while Williams thinks Schobel wants to play, Kelsay, who has known him longer isn’t convinced. There is a strong family dynamic here that is at the heart of this decision. Granted his own self-motivation to play is part of it too, but as Kelsay said, once the guy is committed, he’s always been an ‘all the way’ player.
By Chris Brown - Posted
July 28, 2010 – 1:17 pm
Bills safety Jon Corto will not be on the field when practices begin Thursday.
Corto told reporters upon his arrival at training camp that a pre-existing wrist condition required surgery after spring practices.
“The injury will keep me out for a few weeks, said Corto. “The 22nd or 23rd is what’s projected, but maybe faster than that. It’s healing very fast and I’m looking forward to the season.”
Corto is expected to be placed on Active PUP Thursday.
