After months of personnel changes and a total reconstruction of the Bills front office, it’s finally time to play some football.
I know, I know, it’s only the preseason, and if the rest of the preseason plays out like the Hall of Fame game last weekend, don’t bother waking me up. But I guess the one good thing about rooting for a team like the Bills, who are still trying to find their identity, is that many of their starters are bound to play for a good portion of the game.
Coach Gailey already has told his team about his plan: “I told our team to anticipate if you’re a starter that you would play maybe a little bit longer than you would have in a normal situation because we’re learning new schemes” Gailey continues,”We have a new defense, new offense, new special teams. You might have to go a little bit longer so we can get a feel for each other.”
Let’s hope the Bills offense does a little more than just gets a feel for each other, coming off a preseason where the starters scored only three points in 15 series, leading to a disappointing 6-10 season.
Unfortunately for the Bills, they will have to go into this game without all five starters of their offensive line. Left tackle Demetrius Bell and right guard Eric will not suit up tonight along with right tackle Cornell Green. The offensive line has been a major problem for the Bills, so let’s hope that we can get this unit together with enough time to keep Trent Edwards on his feet.
The Redskins come into tonight’s game with not only a new head coach in Mike Shanahan, but also with a new veteran QB under center in Donovan McNabb. Although he’s been in the league a long time, learning a whole new offense with a new set of teammates will definitely take some TLC to smooth out all the kinks.
The other major storyline in Redskins camp this year is Albert Haynesworth . Haynesworth missed the first nine days of camp after failing the team’s conditioning test, which in my opinion is a joke. This two-time All-Pro with a $100 million contract should be fined for not showing up in tip-top shape. Tonight you will mostly likely find Haynesworth lining up with the second-string as a nose tackle as he tries to grasp their new 3-4 defense.
One note about me is that I don’t like to predict preseason games, nor give my expert fantasy opinion about the potential studs and duds of the game. For these games, I enjoy targeting one player from each team that I will be watching under a microscope. And in tonight’s game that is the Bills C.J Spiller and the Redskins #4 overall draft pick Trent Williams (left tackle). It’s always exciting to see how rookies play in their first game at the professional level, and I for one hope to see Spiller put some razzle dazzle into the Bills offense.
Kickoff is tonight at 7:30pm and can be seen on the NFL Network.
Make sure you check back tomorrow after the game when Brennan will have his summary and thoughts on the game.
Let’s Go Buffalo!