Inside The Bills

McGee, Wood update

Terrence McGee and Eric Wood did not participate at all in the spring practices, but both are on track to be ready for training camp.

Head coach Chan Gailey however, indicated that while both should be cleared they may not have a full workload right from the start.

“Yes they’ll be ready,” Gailey said. ”Now whether they can practice every day, it might be every other day to start with and then work them slowly in, but I expect them to be ready to go at camp.”

Other players expected to return to the practice setting in training camp that are coming off offseason surgeries include RT Erik Pears and DT Torell Troup.

Talk with Fisher continue

Bills CEO Russ Brandon continued discussions about a contract extension with St. John Fisher as the training camp home of the Bills for the foreseeable future on Saturday night.

“We’re continuing discussions,” said Brandon. ”I met with (SJF President) Dr. Bain tonight and we’re going to meet with him again on Wednesday, but we’re thinking within the next month we’ll have an extension done to be there long term.”

The reconfigured grass fields are what posed a big problem for the team and coaching staff this summer. Brandon is confident that issued has been resolved based on his discussions with the college.

“We’ve come to a pretty good consensus on what we need to get done there, and I don’t think the field will be an issue anymore,” he said. ”I think we’re pretty pleased with what they’ve done.”

Roster numbers by position

We thought it would be a good time to assess where the Bills current roster numbers are at by position to see where additions might be made come training camp time.

Below is a breakdown of the number of players at each position right now, along with a listing of how many players were brought into camp at that position in 2010.

We chose to include the team’s nine draft choices even though they are not signed at this point. We also counted Scott Chandler and Garrison Sanborn. That would make the current roster total 65.

The Bills would need to add 15 players to get to last year’s roster limit of 80. As you’ll see below the positions that need the most additions based on last year’s camp totals are inside linebacker and cornerback.

QB (2)
Brown
Fitzpatrick
2010 camp (4)

RB (5)
Caulcrick
Jackson
McIntyre
Spiller
White
2010 camp (7)

WR (9)
Easley
Evans
Hubbard
Huggins
Johnson
Jones
D. Nelson
Parrish
Roosevelt
2010 camp (10)

TE (4)
Caussin
Chandler
Martin
S. Nelson
2010 camp (5)

OL (13)
Bell
C. Brown
Hairston
Hangartner
Howard
Levitre
Pears
Rinehart
Urbik
Wang
Watkins
Wood
Wrotto
2010 Camp (15)

DL (8)
Carrington
Dareus
Edwards
Heard
Jasper
Johnson
Troup
Williams
2010 Camp (9)

ILB (4)
Davis
Sheppard
Torbor
White
2010 Camp (7)

OLB (7)
Batten
Coleman
Kelsay
Kirlew
Maybin
Merriman
Moats
2010 Camp (7)

CB (5)
Corner
McGee
McKelvin
Rogers
Williams
2010 Camp (9)

S (5)
Byrd
Corto
Scott
Searcy
Wilson
2010 Camp (6)

Specialists (3)
Lindell
Moorman
Sanborn
2010 Camp (3)

No deadline yet for camp

Bills GM Buddy Nix and other members of Buffalo’s staff went out to the site of the team’s training camp at St. John Fisher to go over the myriad of contingency plans that now exist in light of the league’s labor situation. Among the details discussed were how late they could start training camp in Pittsford if the lockout drags into the summer.

Appearing on WHTK radio in Rochester Thursday after his visit, Nix stated that a deadline has not been determined at this point.

“We haven’t established that yet and neither has the league office,” said Nix. ”We’ve been assured that they’ll be ready on short notice for us to come (to St. John Fisher) and we’ll be ready to move on short notice. It’ll be a while before we establish a date that we couldn’t come any later.”

Bills forced indoors

With a steady rain at Bills training camp since the early morning hours the Bills have been forced indoors due to insecure footing on the wet fields.

The team is practicing in the gym. At this point the intention is for the team to practice outside tonight. Check Buffalobills.com later today for updates.

Night practice pushed back

Tonight’s Bills night practice has been pushed back a half hour to 7:30 pm.

No word on if the practice will also run later.

Gailey calls QB race “close”

Bills head coach Chan Gailey was asked at the close of the team’s spring practices whether or not he knew what his QB pecking order would be. He provided the answer to that question along with his assessment of the QB race.

“Yes,” said Gailey as to whether he had a QB pecking order in his head. 

Then he made it clear that when that order is revealed in training camp not to get carried away with the order.

“It’s still open,” he said. ”Don’t read too much into who takes the first snap, who takes the second snap and who takes the third snap. Don’t read too much into that. It’s close.”

Saying it’s close is Gailey’s first assessment of the quarterback competition. Through the spring no signal caller has definitively separated themselves from the other two as the clear number one.

There’s little doubt Gailey and his offensive staff are hoping one of the three performs at a noticeably higher level and with more consistency than the other two candidates for the job so the decision is a clear one.

QBs won’t know pecking order

Ryan Fitzpatrick commented on Thursday that he hoped he and his fellow QBs might get some idea as to where they stood in the quarterback pecking order before they left Friday for their five week break before training camp. But that won’t be the case.

Head coach Chan Gailey when asked when he will tell his quarterbacks what the pecking order will be responded with the following.

“When they come back,” said Gailey.

That means the QBs won’t know until they report for training camp at St. John Fisher on July 28th.

Gailey also reiterated that the quarterback depth chart once its laid out at the start of training camp is not set “in concrete.” So even though there will be a 1, 2 and 3 rotating through in the early stages of camp, it will still be subject to change and the competition will still be open.

Training camp start date

The date that training camp opens has been set.

Bills Verizon Wireless training camp will open on Thursday, July 29th. Camp is scheduled to close on Tues. Aug. 24th.

More details to come on the home page of Buffalobills.com at 4pm.

Friday practice closed to public

Just a note for Bills fans concerning Friday’s morning practice this week. It’s NOT open to the public. So tonight’s Thursday evening practice is the last one for fans this week before Saturday’s preseason game (Kid’s Day) against Chicago.

Tonight’s practice by the way is sold out.  Friday’s practice is going to be little more than a walk thru as most NFL coaching staffs keep hitting to a minimum the closer they get to a game (preseason or regular season).

The ‘Kids Day’ preseason game kicks off on Saturday night vs. the Bears at The Ralph at 7pm.  Kids Day activities run from 3:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. and gates open for the game at 5:30 p.m. 

The Bills are back in training camp on Monday for their last night practice on August 17th.