First Day of Buffalo Bills Training Camp - A Fan's Perspective

Veronica R. Chiesi Brown
Aug 1, 2015
3 min read

The first day of Buffalo Bills training camp gave fans the first chance to see the rookies and veterans in action. You could literally see and feel the excitement from fans as the players emerged from the little tunnel onto the grass field at St. John Fisher College. Fans cheered after months that seemed to stand still, the NFL season is really upon us.

As predicted the "red shirts" AKA the quarterbacks drew the most attention. From the sound effects from the crowd to the line of still and video cameras constantly in position to get shots of the foursome, Matt Cassel, EJ Manuel, Matt Simms and Tyrod Taylor seemed to be the hot tickets. It was hard to tell by the end of practice who could be considered "first team" (some may argue with me it was Cassel as he was the "first") because there were many combination of assumed starters with various quarterbacks. I read some reviews of practice and many said EJ was off the mark and Cassel performed better. I won't act like an expert but I think they all had their moments.

From my vantage point it was hard to get a good look at the running backs. Lesean was hard to miss in his sweatpants and long sleeved shirt (I was sweating just looking at him and not because I got a party invite, which I didn't. Sorry had to.) One thing I did see was Freddie's great cut and fake but most of the other running back action was hard to see.

I sat right near the wide receivers and got to see a lot of Sammy Watkins, Chris Hogan, Percy Harvin. Marquis Goodwin, Roberts Wood to name a few. Sammy was impressive. The others were too but it is obvious the big "risk" the Buffalo Bills took with Sammy was a great decision. Also something cool to watch that probably most wouldn't pay too much attention to was the way Andre Reed interacted with the wide receivers. You could see the respect these young players had from the Hall of Famer. It was kind of surreal for a longtime fan to witness and also exciting.

The defense, let me say, is just huge. Huge. Larger than life is an understatement. There is no doubt the defense will be dominant again. The cornerback position intrigues me especially after the performance of Ronald Darby who got first team reps because of Leodis McKelvin's injury. Cornerback, in my opinion, has not always been consistently strong. Maybe Darby and strong performances from other like Stephon Gilmore can create more of a trust in that position.

Here are some other "fun" observations from the first day of Buffalo Bills Training Camp:

Eric Wood's hair deserves its own twitter feed.
Massive calves - Freddie still has them.
There will always be those "expert fans" - the ones who think they know football better than the players.
My alma mater has access to the players locked up tighter than Alcatraz.
Fisher and the Bills have a "Disney-esque" set up with having to enter and exit camp through the store - cha ching!
There are some praise worthy homemade Bills paraphernalia out there - including a hat complete with the bills logo on top and bills logos hanging off it - you go girl!
I am proud to be an alum - even if all of this was there AFTER I graduated. You are welcome.