PITTSFORD, New York — The official end of Bill’s training camp is approaching. Before going back to Orchard Park to finish the 2024 campaign, the team held its penultimate session in its current format of public practices at St. John Fisher University.
A lot of 11-on-11 work was done at Wednesday’s practice, which will probably be the final of the team’s demanding workouts during their stay in Pittsford as they get ready for the regular season. The team’s first preseason game of the year is just a few days away, even before Week 1.
Saturday afternoon will see the home game versus the Chicago Bears, who are in town. The main concern, though, is if Josh Allen, the quarterback for the Bills, will receive those three game nights off as well, given the increasing league-wide tendency of starting quarterbacks not participating at all in the preseason.
Although Allen, who is in his ninth NFL season, did not commit to playing, he did provide one insightful observation regarding exhibition games.
“It doesn’t really, I don’t feel, make a difference for me at this point in my career,” Allen said Wednesday of playing in the preseason. “To get things rolling would be nice. But I understand not getting out there and making sure that we’re being healthy and being protective.”
Allen was not involved in the team’s preseason debut in the previous year. In the team’s second preseason game, he did get three offensive series, with ten dropbacks and eighteen snaps, before leaving the game. In the season finale, Allen played one series and led the team to a touchdown with seven dropbacks on 13 plays.
Should the 2023 plan come to pass, Allen might not play on Saturday. The key question, though, will be whether or not he participates in any games in August.
“It’s a double-edged sword anyway you look at it,” Allen said. “If I’m asked to play, I’ll play. And if I’m told not to play, I won’t play. The competitive juices in me want to play. But I understand that, you know, Week 1, we’ve got some time.”
If Allen’s practice on Wednesday was his final fully padded session before practice the following week, the coaches undoubtedly pushed them through a great deal of game-simulated drills and scenarios. These are a few notes made on the eleventh day of camp.
A strong start for Josh Allen, followed by frustrating drives
The Bills have been gradually implementing 11-on-11 drills with complete offensive series for Allen and the starting offense since they started practicing in full pads. Allen received two drives on Monday, the closest thing to scrimmage action since camp started; however, on Wednesday, Allen received five drives before moving on to specialized red zone drills.
Allen was undoubtedly firing on all cylinders on his opening offensive series. Starting from their 35-yard line, the offense was consistently one step ahead of the opposition. Throughout the drive, they only encountered one third down—a third-and-1 from the two-yard line—which resulted in an Allen touchdown pass to Mack Hollins. Instead, they gathered four first downs. Allen completed seven of his eight passes for 61 yards and the touchdown pass to Hollins during the drive, which was mostly pass-heavy. The lone thing Allen failed to complete was considered a throwaway, most likely a sack. In any case, it was by far the best drive of camp for Allen and the starting offense.
They were in a great place, but over the next four opportunities, the defense took control and won the session. Rasul Douglas, the cornerback, jumped the route after Allen stared down Curtis Samuel before the receiver broke. This was Allen’s first throw. As Samuel stumbled to try to recover and challenge the catch, Douglas made the correct assumption and intercepted the pass. It was probably a pick-six if the defense had let it travel down the field.
There, they did not take Allen off the field; instead, they sent the first unit out to begin a new drive. In order to keep the offense on the field, the coaches decided not to count a would-be sack on third down, so the defense started the game with a run stuff for a loss. Then, A.J. Epenesa and Greg Rousseau sacked Allen once more on the fourth down. Once more, they started the first-team offense at the defense’s 20 rather than stopping it there. In those three plays, Allen completed two short passes for five yards before leaving the field.
In a two-minute drill, Allen had one more complete drive opportunity, but the defense slammed the door on him by forcing four straight incompletions. There was no yard gain for the offensive. With seven red-zone opportunities all within eight yards of the end zone, the Bills put an end to first unit practice. Allen rushed one touchdown pass in from seven yards out and completed two more passes for touchdowns of six and four yards. James Cook, the running back, also scored on a four-yard touchdown run, but the defense also forced three incomplete passes. With remarkable efforts to break up the pass, nickel corner Taron Johnson broke up two of them, to Khalil Shakir and Keon Coleman. In addition to the five drives, red zone practice, and preliminary situational team drills,
- WR Keon Coleman — 5 targets, 2 catches, 17 yards
- TE Dawson Knox — 4 targets, 2 catches, 25 yards, 1 TD (designated red zone drill)
- TE Dalton Kincaid — 3 targets, 2 catches, 27 yards
- WR Khalil Shakir — 3 targets, 2 catches, 13 yards, 1 TD (designated red zone drill)
- RB James Cook — 3 targets, 3 catches, 10 yards
- WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling — 2 targets, 2 catches, 10 yards
- WR Curtis Samuel — 2 targets, 0 catches
- RB Ray Davis — 1 target, 1 catch, 12 yards
- WR Mack Hollins — 1 target, 1 catch, 2 yards, TD
Early in camp, the Bills offense was ahead, but during the last two days of practice, the defense has started to catch up. In any case, it indicates that there are still some issues that Allen and the offense need to work out before the regular season begins, which would put coach Sean McDermott under pressure to play his starters more in summer.
Veteran receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling, whom the Bills signed late during spring workouts in mid-May, had a bit of a rough start to camp. However, in the hopes that he could complete their roster, the Bills offered the receiver a fully guaranteed $2.25 million contract, despite the boundary receiver group lacking a crucial size-speed component. Early on, things were not going according to plan; Valdes-Scantling was not getting enough reps with Allen and, at one point, was mostly involved with the second-team offense. In the past two weeks, following those two early sessions, Valdes-Scantling has performed admirably and witnessed an increase in the amount of time he spends with Allen during team drills.
It is probably no surprise that Valdes-Scantling’s opportunities have increased as the competition for receivers has somewhat cooled off. Tyrell Shavers remains a viable contender for a berth. Beyond him, though, Chase Claypool has been sidelined by a toe injury for more than a week; the longer he is out of the game, the less probable it is that he will make the squad. Due to a knee injury, Justin Shorter has missed the last two days of play; KJ Hamler primarily uses the second unit. Now that he has the guaranteed money and no one else is challenging Valdes-Scantling for a top-six receiver position, his chances of making the team appear quite high. Shakir, Coleman, Samuel, and Hollins rounding out the top four
James Cook needs to clean up one feature of his camp
You have to be careful not to make a one-play issue into a bigger problem when it comes to camp sessions. Instead, you observe it, and if it persists, it becomes a trend worth bringing up. James Cook, the starting running back, has seen a minor tendency of ball security problems at the conclusion of his plays. Near the end of the rep, it is pretty usual procedure for the defense to try to pull the ball away from the offensive player. The attempts are usually in vain, but this summer, on a few times, it has overcome Cook and the ball has touched down.
When it occurred twice on Wednesday, it reached a peak. In the first, after Cook made a good catch, cornerback Christian Benford raked the ball out of his hands on a seven-on-seven play. Cook then dropped the ball shortly after making another grab during team exercises. The Bills appeared to have given Cook credit for a seven-yard gain even though the defense called for a fumble and it was probably an incompletion.
It goes without saying that the Bills do not want one of their best offensive players to drop the ball. I would not anticipate it to affect Cook’s playing time at this stage, despite the fact that it has occurred a few times this summer. These camp memories may linger in the coaches’ minds and ultimately affect playing time if they persist throughout the regular season. However, that is a long way off. He is still, and will continue to be, their best running back by a wide margin.
Dion Dawkins’ exit yields Ryan Van Demark some first-team time to mixed results
Dion Dawkins, the starting left tackle, departed the practice around halfway through and did not come back. Dawkins was excused from the remainder of practice for personal reasons, the team subsequently disclosed. During this training camp, Dawkins’ absence provided the longest chance for a backup offensive tackle to practice with the starting squad. Ryan Van Demark, a third-year player with some ups and downs, received all of Dawkins’ reps. Van Demark lost handily to defensive end Dawuane Smoot in a pass-blocking contest, even on their best team drill drive. This put pressure on Allen right away. Although the Bills determined that Allen’s play was a throwaway, it probably would have been a sack in a real game. After that, Van Demark made his home
First, despite the Bills signing veteran offensive lineman La’El Collins in the summer, Van Demark still seems to be ahead of him. The second is that there may be a problem this season due to the second unit has relative inexperience after the starting five. In terms of their starting offensive linemen’s health, the Bills enjoyed incredible and unsustainable health in 2023. With Dawkins playing 96.6 percent of the team’s offensive snaps last year, he had the lowest snap percentage of the five players who did not miss a start because to injury. One of the most subtly revealed plots of the 2024 season is the development of the offensive line depth.
Day 11 injury report
S Mike Edwards (hamstring) — Week-to-week, has not practiced since July 28.
WR Chase Claypool (toe) — Day-to-day, has not practiced since July 28.
RB Ty Johnson (hamstring) — Day-to-day, has not practiced since July 29.
OL Travis Clayton (shoulder) — Day-to-day, has not practiced since July 29.
S Cole Bishop (shoulder) — Week-to-week, has not practiced since July 30.
LB Edefuan Ulofoshio (ribs) — Has not practiced since Aug. 4.
LB Nicholas Morrow (core/groin) — Day-to-day, has not practiced since Aug. 4.
WR Justin Shorter (knee) — Day-to-day, has not practiced since Aug. 5.
LT Dion Dawkins (personal) — Excused from Wednesday’s practice during the session due to personal reasons.
DT DaQuan Jones (groin) — Day-to-day and did not practice Wednesday. They also gave Jones a vet rest day on Aug. 5.
DE Casey Toohill (groin) — Day-to-day, left Wednesday’s practice and did not return.
WR Andy Isabella (leg) — Practiced in full Wednesday after suffering an injury during the team’s previous practice.
(Top photo of James Cook: Bryan M. Bennett / Getty Images)
