Inside The Bills

Jets try out 2 recently release Bills

The Jets tried out a pair of former Bills players that were released in the cut down to 53 last Friday.

According to ESPNNewYork.com’s Rich Cimini, New York tried out P Shawn Powell and WR Derek Hagan. Though conspiracy theorists will claim it’s an effort to get a feel for the Bills’ plans for Sunday’s game, this looks pretty legit.

Powell has talent and the Jets have punter issues after clipping T.J. Conley earlier Tuesday. Their receivers coach Sanjay Lal also has familiarity with Hagan, having coached him in Oakland.

Hagan staying

WR Derek Hagan who was shaken up on a pass play earlier is staying at practice.

He jogged back to the offensive sideline. We’ll see if he sees action again

Hagan shaken up

Bills WR Derek Hagan was shaken up on a deep passing play down the middle of the field.

Hagan was having his right leg examined after it appeared that his leg got tangled up with those of the defensive back on the play.

We’ll keep you posted.

WR rundown as expected

With the team’s first official depth coming out in advance of the team’s first preseason game there weren’t any real surprises with respect to the team’s order at receiver.

The two WR positions on either side of the formation listed the receivers as follows.

WR – S. Johnson, Hagan, Martin, Roosevelt, Aiken, Session
WR - D. Jones, Nelson, Graham, Easley, Clowney

Putting those two listings together the order would shake out as follows based on the reps we’ve witnessed in practice.

Johnson, Jones, Nelson, Hagan, Graham, Martin, Easley, Roosevelt, Clowney, Aiken, Session.

WRs still tightly bunched

Buffalo’s wide receivers are all jockeying for defined roles in the group for the 2012 season. Through the first week of camp things are still packed pretty tight from one wideout to the next.

“We’ve got some good players,” said head coach Chan Gailey. ”Nobody has distanced themselves from the other group greatly. It’s close in a lot of places. We’ve got some receivers, every time I look up somebody else is making a play which is good. It makes the decision tougher, but at the same time it’s good to have people making plays. It’s better to make a decision from people making plays than having to decide who to keep and nobody makes a play.”

Stevie Johnson and Donald Jones were most noticeable the first couple of days of camp. Then David Nelson and Derek Hagan turned in some plays, followed by Kamar Aiken and Naaman Roosevelt. Then Marcus Easley and T.J. Graham on Sunday, so Gailey’s assessment is very accurate.

Bills WR count

The Bills now have nine wide receivers on the roster and that’s not counting versatile swingman Brad Smith. Here’s the rundown.

Stevie Johnson
Donald Jones
Derek Hagan
Marcus Easley
David Nelson
Naaman Roosevelt
Ruvell Martin
David Clowney
Kamar Aiken

Typically for offseason rosters NFL clubs carry up to 11 or 12, due in part to the fact that receivers run arguably as much as anyone on the roster during practices. So there still could be a couple of more additions. For the Bills that figures to be via the draft or undrafted rookies.

Bills free agents now on market

Here’s the list of Bills players that are now on the free agent market after not being re-signed by Buffalo prior to the deadline.

OT Demetrius Bell
RB Tashard Choice
CB Reggie Corner
LB Andra Davis
WR Derek Hagan
WR Roscoe Parrish
K Dave Rayner
S Bryan Scott
LB Reggie Torbor

Bills GM Buddy Nix told Buffalobills.com earlier today that the team made contract offers to Bell and Scott, but did not get a counter offer back, so he expected them to hit the market. Keep in mind that both players could still re-sign with Buffalo, but they’ll be competing with other NFL teams now.

With the emergence and more consistent availability of David Nelson week to week over the past two seasons in the slot, it’s not expected that Roscoe Parrish will be actively pursued by Buffalo.

Restricted free agent RB Bruce Hall was not tendered a qualifying offer by the Bills making him an unrestricted free agent as well.

Hagan will be consideration

He was signed late in the season, but WR Derek Hagan will merit some consideration from the Bills after performing pretty well down the stretch.

Hagan, who is an unrestricted free agent this offseason appeared in four games for Buffalo at the end of the season with 13 catches for 138 yards and a touchdown, and he finished the season well with 7 catches for 89 yards in the season finale at New England.

“Yeah, Derek played well at the end of the year and he merits a strong look going into training camp next year. He does,” said head coach Chan Gailey.

WR Hagan active

As we told you on Saturday, WR Derek Hagan will see his first action in a Bills uniform today against the Chargers.

Hagan is expected to see some action on offense today.

“I feel a lot more comfortable with the offense now that I’ve been here three weeks,” Hagan told Buffalobills.com. “I’m ready to get back on the field.”

Bills inactives

Here are the Bills inactives for today’s game against the Chargers.

CB A.Williams
DB J.Nesbitt
LB A.Coleman
RT S.Young
TE S.Chandler
WR K.Aiken
TE F. Onobun

So that means WR Derek Hagan will see his first action for the Bills today. From what I’ve been told he will have a role in Buffalo’s passing game.

WR Hagan to have role this week

WR Derek Hagan, who was picked up off waivers a couple of weeks back is ready to have a role in Buffalo’s offense down the stretch and is expected to be active today against the Chargers.

“I’m ready to go and I should be going this week against San Diego,” Hagan told Buffalobills.com.

Just how extensive Hagan’s role is remains to be seen, especially in light of how effective Brad Smith has been in the number two wideout spot the past two weeks. Still Hagan has gone out of his way to establish a rapport with Ryan Fitzpatrick.

“It’s been great,” said Hagan. “We’ve spent extra time to get the timing down between one another, me getting used to how his ball comes out when he throws it. So it’s been good and I feel a lot more comfortable now than the first week I was here.”

Hagan has several tickets for Sunday’s game as his immediate family including his parents will be in attendance as they drive the two hours from Palmdale to San Diego. The Northride, CA native actually bought tickets for a San Diego game earlier this season for his family, while he was still with the Raiders for their Nov. 10th game, but that didn’t go so well.

“I got cut just a few days prior to that game,” he said. “This time things should pan out a lot better.”