Practice Roundup: Bills Defense Dominates Final Practices at St. John Fisher

The Bills completed the St. John Fisher portion of their training camp Thursday afternoon. The Bills’ final practices at Fisher were not happy ones for Buffalo’s offense, as the defense dominated this week in training camp. In particular, the passing game has had a difficult time getting in sync.

“We’ve got a long way to go in the timing of our passing game right now. We’re putting in new stuff to get a look at it,” head coach Chan Gailey told BuffaloBills.com. “It leaves something to be desired right now when we walked off the field in the passing game.”

Uh…that’s not so good. Well, Coach, have anything positive to say?

“One thing I’m pleased about is we walked out of here with no major injuries. No guys headed to I-R, things like that, which is good. That’s a positive,” said Gailey.

The Buffalo Bills: where no players getting crippled = successful practice!

In other news:

– The defensive line combination of Kyle Williams and rookie Marcell Dareus is apparently looking fantastic so far. “I think when me and Marcell are inside I think if we’re getting after it and we’re running pretty hot we’re going to be hard to deal with,” said Williams. “I think that he does some things better than I can, I do some things better than he does. I think we play well off each other. I don’t know if you watch practice very much, but I’m always talking to him. I’m always pointing things out to him. I think we’ve really got a chance to be good. I really do. I think we can do some things up front.” I freaking hope so, Kyle. It’d be a lot of fun to watch a dominant (or even just good) Bills defensive line.

– G Andy Levitre obviously isn’t too pleased that he’s now splitting time with Chad Rinehart at guard this week, but he seems to have the right attitude about it. “It was my job so I’m going to make sure that I can do all that I can so that I still have that spot,” Levitre said Wednesday. He added, “I’ve just got some things to work on. I should hopefully be able to get those things cleaned up by the end of the preseason, if not sooner.”

– The current injury list: LB Shawne Merriman, WR Roscoe Parrish, CB Justin Rogers, LB Kelvin Sheppard, DT Kellen Heard, OT Chris Hairston, WR Craig Davis, TE Shawn Nelson and LB Chris White. None are likely to play Saturday, and Merriman and Parrish have already been ruled out. You’ll notice a lot of rookies on that list, including Rogers and Sheppard, who have barely practiced thus far.

“Shep and Rogers have really missed a lot of time and it’s going to be an uphill battle for them,” said Gailey. “It really is. You just can’t afford to sit out. That’s the way it is. We’re a production business and if you’re not on the field you can’t produce.”

Interesting. Now, there’s no way the Bills cut their third-round pick (Sheppard), but Rogers is likely a goner and a practice squad hopeful. Too bad, as the Bills seemed to be pretty high on him. You hate to see him not really get a chance to show what he can do.

– After almost exclusively working as a quarterback for most camp, Brad Smith has been seeing some action at wide receiver. He hauled in a touchdown from Tyler Thigpen in Wednesday’s practice.

– The Bills have a walkthrough tomorrow before heading to Denver for Saturday’s night’s preseason tilt with the Broncos. Game time is 8:30 EST.