Bills training camp will feature position battles involving potent offense, 1st-round pick
ORCHARD PARK - Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane has said on numerous occasions that he’ll never stop trying to augment the weaponry in Josh Allen’s arsenal, and this offseason he was a man of his word.
“Just adding depth and competition, that’s all it is,” Beane said. “We’re constantly looking. It’s not that anyone wasn’t doing anything; we needed to make it stronger.”
Whether he did remains to be seen, because he moved on from highly productive wide receiver Cole Beasley and running back Matt Breida, and did not try to coax wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders back from his presumed retirement.
Beane pivoted quickly and re-signed free agent Swiss Army knife Isaiah McKenzie, brought in outside free agents Jamison Crowder and Tavon Austin, and he drafted Khalil Shakir in the fourth round.
At running back, he used his second-round pick on James Cook and replaced Breida with veteran free agent Duke Johnson. And at tight end, he signed O.J. Howard in free agency to team up with Dawson Knox in more two tight end sets.
As the Bills gear up for training camp next month now that the offseason is complete - Sean McDermott cut short the mandatory minicamp and wrapped it up Wednesday - Allen seems pretty happy with what he’s been given to work with from the team architect.
“We’ve got guys all over the field that can make some plays now,” Allen said Tuesday. “And if you look at the depth from the running backs to the tight ends to the receivers, the guys have shown they’ve made plays in the league before. And we’ve got some rookies that are coming along and continuing to improve and impress these coaches.”
Allen did offer this qualifier: “All this is fine and dandy, but until we put on the pads and play some real football you never really know.”
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He’s right, and McDermott added, “I’m excited about it … but it’s names on paper and we’ve got to bring those names to life and the team has to come together.”
When the Bills get to St. John Fisher College, watching the battle to procure wide receiver roster spots will likely occupy much of the fans’ viewing time.
Stefon Diggs and Gabriel Davis already seemed locked in as the outside starters on opening night in Los Angeles, but everything else seems pretty wide open and nothing should be taken for granted.
Crowder, Shakir, Austin and McKenzie all do their best work from the slot, and the Bills probably aren’t keeping four slot receivers. On the outside, what will speedy second-year man Marquez Stevenson do? Is this finally the year 2020 sixth-round pick Isaiah Hodgins gets on the field? What about Jake Kumerow who has become a mainstay on special teams? Even Tanner Gentry is making plays in minicamp.
There are some tough calls that need to be made, perhaps the toughest of any position on the roster.
Here are a few other observations I had from One Bills Drive:
First-round pick Kaiir Elam looks like he belongs
One of the biggest storylines heading into camp will be the progress cornerback Tre’Davious White is making in his recuperation from knee surgery.
“I know I will put every single penny I have on Tre’Davious coming back, being a better player, just because I’m that confident in him,” safety Micah Hyde said.
The question is, when will that be? If White can get on the field at some point in training camp, perhaps he’ll be ready to start in Los Angeles on Sept. 8. That would mean Elam and Dane Jackson are battling to be the other starter. But if White isn’t ready, Elam and Jackson may end up being the opening night starters.
This is why it was so important for Beane to use his first-round pick at cornerback, and while it’s early, Elam has fit in nicely.
“What stands out about him first is his professionalism for a young man, a young player,” McDermott said of Elam. “Probably a lot of that comes from who he is and how he was supported at home because of his family and the way that they’ve been around the NFL.
“He’s been going through the normal rookie growing pains. You have a good play, how do you follow it up with another good play? You have a bad play, how do you reset and come back and have a good play? A lot of it’s mental as much as anything.”
Jackson, of course, has two partial seasons of NFL experience and as McDermott has said ever since the Bills picked Elam in the first round, no one should discount the possibility that Jackson - a 2020 seventh-round pick - can beat out Elam.
“He played a lot of snaps for us and played very well,” defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier said. “He really held his own and the moments never seem too big for him. That experience is showing up this offseason in our OTAs, the confidence that he’s playing with, his grasp of the system and understanding what we’re trying to get accomplished. And you can see how he’s interacting with Kaiir, just encouraging him and helping him to grow as we go.”
Von Miller sharing his vast knowledge
Two weeks ago, the majority of the NFL’s premier edge rushers gathered in Las Vegas - invited there by Miller - to participate in his annual Pass Rush Summit, and Buffalo’s three young defensive ends all made the trip.
“Yeah, that’s a cool deal, right, invitation-only and they can get out there and be around not only Von in a setting like that, but also the other pass-rushing specialists that were out there,” McDermott said of Greg Rousseau, A.J. Epenesa and Boogie Basham. “How couldn’t you come back with a little more confidence just by being around that environment.”
When the Bills signed Miller to a big-money free agent deal in March, they knew they were getting one of the greatest pass rushers in league history, but they also hoped that he would mentor the young pass rushers already on the team.
“You do feel his presence,” Beane said of Miller’s influence on the practice field. “You feel a guy that’s confident, knows what he’s done, knows what he still can do and what he plans to do. And I love that he’s really taking the young guys under his wing. He said he would do that.
“I was really appreciative that he wanted to invite these young guys out to his camp. I mean, what a cool experience. I talked to a couple of them and they just talked about how many notes they took out there and how awesome it was.”
This was the sixth summit Miller has hosted, and he believes there’s tremendous value in great players helping other great players.
“It’s just the space that I created that we all make go,” Miller said. “I’ve always been a fan of just being around great players, being around great talent because success leaves clues. And we have a lot of successful pass rushers there … Chandler Jones, Maxx Crosby, Justin Houston, all these guys came.
“I feel like being around the young guys, they refresh me, being around the guys that have been doing it a long time. I can kind of sharpen the knife around those guys and it’s just a great space where we can all get better.”
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Extra points
► Cook showed exactly what the Bills’ scouts saw of him at Georgia with his ability to seamlessly transition into the passing game and catch the ball. That might very well cut into Devin Singletary’s playing time after recent seasons where T.J. Yeldon and Breida did not push their way onto the field.
► The addition of veteran interior offensive linemen Greg Van Roten and David Quessenberry, plus the expected return of injured Ike Boettger, could make disappointing 2019 second-round pick Cody Ford expendable.
► Case Keenum looks like a backup quarterback who will be capable of stepping in and guiding the offense if, God forbid, Allen were to get hurt. That looks like a very nice pickup by Beane.
► It will be interesting to see how undersized third-round pick Terrel Bernard responds at linebacker once the pads go on and the preseason games begin. Playing in shorts with no pads in the spring, he looked fine, but at 220 pounds, he’ll have to prove he can overcome his size disadvantage.
► Shakir could be an interesting addition if he can crack the weekly game-day roster because he showed so much versatility in college, and that was on display in the offseason workouts.
Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills training camp will include position battles on potent offense
