Von Miller is not only great, he's 'springy' and 'slithery,' says Dion Dawkins

As a left tackle playing in the NFL, Dion Dawkins’ job description is one of the toughest in the sport.

Nearly every week since he joined the Bills as a second-round draft pick in 2017 - the second man then new coach Sean McDermott selected behind Tre’Davious White - it has been Dawkins’ duty to deal with the opposing teams’ best pass rusher.

He’s seen quite a parade of stars through the years, but the man he’s been going against in practice this week at St. John Fisher University is the best he’s ever seen, and he hasn’t even blocked Von Miller in a padded practice since Miller joined the team as a free agent back in March.

“I was telling McDermott earlier,” Dawkins said on Wednesday, “like right before one of our team periods, I was, ‘Yo, McDermott, picking up Von was a great, great add. It was really a great add, man.’ Not to say that I’m comfortable out there.”

Miller has 115 career sacks, he’s going to be a first ballot Hall of Famer, and at the age of 33 he doesn’t seem to have lost a step. All Dawkins knows is that it’s much better to be on Miller’s team, than playing against him.

“Von is just one of those guys that shuts down your natural abilities,” Dawkins said. “And he’s the one with the natural abilities. Playing against Von every play, evey rep, it’s a hate, love thing. Because I’m like, ‘dang.’ You know what I’m saying?”

Dawkins is already an accomplished player as he has been a rock on the Bills’ line from the moment he came to the team and he made his first Pro Bowl last year. But going against Miller every day in practice, he said, is definitely going to sharpen his skills for those days this year when he has to play against guys like T.J. Watt of the Steelers, Myles Garrett of the Browns, Emmanuel Ogbah of the Dolphins, and Matthew Judon of the Patriots.

“I know over the course of this season, like of the duration, I’m gonna get better,” Dawkins said. “I’m blessed to be able to be a tackle playing against him because I can’t imagine if Von was like here for six years. Imagine how good all of us would be.”

Throughout his time with Buffalo, Dawkins has practiced against the now departed Jerry Hughes, and making sure that it was clear that he wasn’t throwing shade at his former teammate, he said there’s almost no comparison.

“Von is like Jerry times four, and Jerry is already great,” Dawkins said. “How can I say it in a way that everyone can understand, right? He’s more like elastic, almost like a rubber band where you’d think if you pull it a certain distance it would pop, but he just doesn’t pop. He’s just real springy and real slithery.”

Dion Dawkins is a riot to interview, this I can tell you. He always has something interesting to say, and he enjoys the back and forth with reporters, unlike some players who studied at Cliche University and rarely say anything beyond, “I’m just trying to get better every day” or “I’m just taking it one day a time.”

New QB coach Joe Brady learned a valuable lesson

Brady, who joined the Bills as quarterback coach in the offseason, is trying to rebuild his career and given that he’s working with Allen on a Super Bowl contender, this is probably a pretty good place to do that.

Brady was a hotshot on the coaching market heading into 2020 because in 2019, he was the passing game coordinator for LSU. You remember that team, right? Joe Burrow was the quarterback, Justin Jefferson and Ja’Marr Chase were the top receivers, and Clyde Edwards-Helaire was the running back.

That team was one of the greatest in college football history as it went 15-0 and blew out Clemson 42-25 in the national championship game. NFL teams saw what Brady did in helping Burrow throw for 5,671 yards and 60 TDs on his way to being the Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 overall pick by the Bengals in 2020, and everyone wanted the whiz kid.

The Carolina Panthers won the sweepstakes as he joined new coach Matt Rhule’s staff as offensive coordinator. But it turned out working with Teddy Bridgewater in 2020 and then Sam Darnold in 2021 wasn’t very prosperous for the 32-year-old Brady and halfway through last season, he was fired. Was it a quick pulling of the plug? Probably, but McDermott said the other day it may end up being one of the best things that happens to him.

“You take me back in my mind, walking through the complex in Philadelphia years ago, I was walking beside two veteran coordinators in Jim Johnson and Rod Dowhower and I was a young guy,” McDermott recalled.

“Every year my career had trended up … so we’re walking upstairs back to the office and the two of them said, ‘You’ll see, you’re not a coach until you get fired.’ I just shook my head and said I agree but in my mind I was saying, ‘I’ll be different.’ And two years, whatever amount of years later, I officially became a coach (when he was fired by Andy Reid in 2016). You learn a lot through that. In this case I think Joe has done a great job of reflecting and growing and I think he’s a fantastic coach.”

What they’re saying at camp

Here’s a sampling of some of the interesting things I’ve heard the past few days:

➤ WR Gabe Davis on why he took almost no time off in the offseason: “When it came to the work, no vacations, nothing like that. Just straight work. It’s a big season this year. I know how important it is to everybody in the room and I want to be able to have those guys be able to trust me. So I know I have to be confident and to get my confidence up is being able to train at the best that I can and as many times as I can.”

➤ S Micah Hyde on his impressions so far of first-round pick Kaiir Elam: “I don’t think I’ve learned anything more, necessarily. I think the first day I met him you could tell he’s just a young guy that’s listening and wants to get better. That’s how he’s been these first couple days. He’s all ears and he wants to learn from the older guys about how to get better and what to do. I think with K, he’s been fortunate enough to be put in a position, whether it’s the coaches we have in the secondary on defense or even the players, he’s able to step in right now with some guys that have been together for a long time.”

➤ DE Von Miller, who has won Super Bowls with the Broncos and Rams, on what championship teams need the most: “You’ve got to have a great quarterback, you’ve got to have a great defense, and you’ve got to have a great locker room.”

Getting to know … TE O.J. Howard

Whatever career trajectory the 6-foot-6, 251-pound tight end was on at the start of his NFL career with Tampa Bay, it came to a virtual stop in 2020 and never really regained any traction.

That was the season when Tom Brady finally, mercifully, did Bills fans a favor and left New England to sign with the Buccaneers, and then he coaxed his old pal, Rob Gronkowski, out of retirement to join him.

After three reasonably productive seasons, Howard was still Tampa Bay’s No. 1 tight end, but four games into the season he suffered an Achilles injury that knocked him out for the year. Gronk stepped into the void and the Bucs went on to win the Super Bowl.

Going into 2021, Howard, who had been the team’s first-round draft pick out of Alabama in 2017, became an afterthought with Gronk still holding onto the starting job. He saw action in all 17 games, but he caught only 14 passes for 135 yards and one TD.

When Howard hit the free agent market in the spring, the Bills remembered the player he was during his college days, saw a potential red zone weapon given his height, plus the opportunity to pair him with Dawson Knox in some two-tight end formations, and they signed him to a one-year, $3.5 million contract.

Now he’s trying to revive his career in Buffalo, one that looked so promising back on the night of Jan. 11, 2016 when he caught five passes for 208 yards and two TDs to help Alabama defeat Clemson 45-40 for the national championship.

“O.J., quite honestly, should have been more involved all year long,” Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban said after that game. “I would say it’s bad coaching on my part that he didn’t have the opportunity to do that all year long because he is really a good athlete, and he’s improved tremendously as a player this year.”

That’s the Howard the Bills are hoping they’re getting this season.

“He’s a freak athlete, first of all,” said Knox. “He makes me feel small. The dude’s like 6-6, his arms are massive. Just having another weapon like that is going to make us that much harder to stop. I think he’s just going to push me to be better, too.”

Here are a few things to know about Howard:

• Favorite movie: Glory Road.

• Favorite actor: Denzel Washington.

• Hobby: Turkey hunting.

• Pre-game ritual: Eating his mother's cooking.

• Favorite player growing up: Tony Gonzalez.

• Dream vacation spot: Ibiza.

• Favorite TV show: Ozark.

• Skill he’d like to learn: Speak fluently in Spanish.

Buffalo Bills birthday bio: Gary Marangi

You’ve probably heard of the two most prominent quarterback controversies the Bills have endured - in the 1960s it was Jack Kemp vs. Daryle Lamonica, and in the late 1990s it was Doug Flutie vs. Rob Johnson.

But back in 1974, Bills fans, desperate for a winning team, tried to create one between Joe Ferguson and Marangi, who turns 69 years old today. You had to be there to have believed it, and I can tell you, the whole thing was pretty silly.

To set the stage, Ferguson was Buffalo’s third-round draft pick out of Arkansas in 1973 and as a rookie he won the starting job in training camp over Dennis Shaw - who had been the consensus offensive rookie of the year in 1970, but had faded terribly in 1971 and 1972 and was out of the NFL by 1976.

Now, it wasn’t like Fergy lit the world on fire his first season. His primary job was to hand the ball to O.J. Simpson which he did 332 times, and the Juice turned all those carries into an NFL record 2,003 yards. Ferguson threw only 164 passes and completed a mere 73 for 939 yards. In other words, about three Josh Allen games.

The Bills needed a backup quarterback in 1974 so they drafted Marangi in the third round out of Boston College, No. 70 overall, pretty close to where Ferguson had been picked (No. 59) the year before.

Buffalo won seven of its first nine games, and Ferguson played more of a role in the offense because Simpson had hurt his knee in the season-opener and while he continued to play, he wasn’t as effective against defenses that were geared to stopping him at all cost.

And then on Nov. 17, in a showdown for first place in the AFC East at the Orange Bowl, Ferguson got hurt in the third quarter and Marangi came in to make his NFL debut. He completed 6 of 9 passes for 98 yards and threw TDs to J.D. Hill and Bobby Chandler, the last one tying the game at 28-28 with 56 seconds to go.

Of course, this being Bills vs. Dolphins in the 1970s, Miami came right back and won the game on a Don Nottingham 23-yard TD run with 19 seconds remaining.

Afterward, the clamoring for Marangi to be the new starter - even though Ferguson was going to be fine for the next game - was incessant. Lou Saban wisely ignored it, and Marangi appeared in only two more games that season in mop-up duty, throwing two interceptions, and the Bills went on to make the playoffs for the first time since 1966.

Marangi finally got his chance to start in the dreadful 1976 season, his third and last in the NFL, when Ferguson got hurt. Marangi saw action in 11 games, started seven, and the Bills were 0-7 in those games as he completed just 35.3% of his passes for 998 yards with 7 TDs and 16 interceptions.

Ferguson, meanwhile, went on to set Bills career records in every major passing category in his 12 years with the team, though all of them were eventually broken by Jim Kelly.

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This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Von Miller is not only great, he's 'springy' and 'slithery,' says Dion Dawkins