How Would You Grade Doug Marrone On His First Training Camp?

Jul 28, 2013; Pittsford, NY, USA; Buffalo Bills head coach Doug Marrone (pointing) addresses the team at the end of the first day of training camp at St. John Fisher College. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Hoffman-USA TODAY Sports

As the 2013 training camp has come to an end it had the Bills racing to Buffalo to be back at home and with their families. Basically calling this team a new organization with all the changes I wanted to take a look at the new head coach’s first camp and see what you thought. Although the camp portion is done there’s still a lot of work to be done.

Back when Doug Marrone was hired you could tell this guy would be the type that would be straight with you or at least I did. The way he talked about different areas showed me that he definitely was going to put in the work in all areas to see exactly what he had on this roster and do everything that he could do to make this team better. Leaving his coordinators to do their jobs and him conversing with them on what they thought about position battles, problem areas and hopeful players that were a possibility to make this team. We have all heard about the major battles in camp and I think Marrone has done a pretty good job relaying the progressions to the media and fans. Battles for sure everyone has heard about during camp were: the QB position, punter, kicker, 2nd cornerback, left guard and wide receiver to name the big ones.

Not all of Marrone’s time at St John Fisher was good though as he had some days going back and forth with the media. Mario Williams’s foot injury was something that everyone wanted to know about and Marrone claimed that he had no information on it when it first happened. Not enough facts and details on the situation caused Marrone to kind of take a step back but when he was pushed he came out and told everyone what he thought. He explained that he didn’t know much yet but told the media he knows they have a job to do and can appreciate that(later on the information was released). I kind of gave him credit for that as he didn’t do much but I’ve seen others simply say no comment and leave it at that. Another thing I questioned was the scrimmages they had this year. I know a lot of fans like these and I don’t mind them myself but you always have to think injuries. This team was pretty lucky when it came to that category but going forward you can’t always escape like that and may want to think how many times those type of practices are done.

All in all I think Marrone had a very good camp and although had to deal with some injuries it doesn’t seem any will change the mindset of these coaches going into the season. The EJ injury from reports could possibly be the only worry but many have said he could be back for week 1. I would have to say I give coach a B+ and would think we’re in for an exciting season to say the least. Where we end up in the standings is something we’ll definitely be watching but before we get to that point training camp was a success in my eyes.