Astro Notes – Tues. July 29, 2025

Three centers, plus Khalil Shakir, Codrington, and Keontae Jenkins, are the first players out at practice today. These players are taking turns receiving punts. Codrington juggles one, but eventually finds the handle. The DJ is playing “Might As Well Jump”, with the apt line, “you gotta roll with the punches”. With 13 injuries, it’s a song you can dance to. Or jump, if you’re already on the ledge. With 41 days still left until real football, I’m staying on the ledge for now.

The sun is beating down without cloud cover today. The thermometer (it’s a glass tube with mercury in it, not an app) reads 79° but the “Feels Like’ temp is 91*. Fedora Joe and I are up by the press box sweating like frankfurters on a roller grill at 7-11. Use your imagination:

A grateful shout-out to Mike McDonough for giving us special Friends and Family tickets today. Joe is bringing me up a Gatorade and a chicken sausage and cheese sandwich. Just a suggestion to the Bills: Give out 3 or 4 tickets to the Season Ticket Holders and make more available to the rest of us. We shouldn’t have to beg tickets to write this blog.

Dorian Strong is going to make this team. He has a distinctive large-torso CB body type that I associate with players that don’t get hurt. “Cybo” Torrence makes his way down the asphalt path. He’s got the color-coordinated red-blue-black fashion statement workin’. He has his jersey over a red shirt underneath. He’s wearing black compression leggings, and he’s wearing Red Sox with black Air Jordans with the red swoosh. Torrence pauses to sign a football and a cap, adjusts the face guard on his helmet, and heads through the tunnel.

Now off the PUP list, Laviska Shenault (6-1 227 4.58) is over at the JUGS machine, catching the ball after spinning around. He is sure-handed against air. Laviska will get extra work today with all of the wide receivers on the “Sick Lame and Lazy” list. The wide receiver presently known as Kelly Akharaiyi (6-1 200 4.52 age 25) , who has replaced the now-retired David White Jr is now snatching passes from the JUGS machine. Both will need plenty of reps to unseat Fedora Joe’s camp darling, Stephen Gosnell (6-2 198 4.56), who went on to make the Catch of the Day today.

Ryan Van Demark heads directly over from the far side of the stadium field, where he’s been warming up with Dawson Knox, Trey White, and Kincaid. It’s never fortunate to have an injury, but Spencer Brown’s back problems are giving Van Demark and Tylan Grable plenty of reps as they alternate days playing with the ones. That OL depth is going to bear fruit in the colder months.

Sean McDermott, dressed in black and white, is doing a perfect rendition of Spy vs Spy from Mad magazine. He comes over to the fence below our bleacher perch and signs an Allen jersey, a “Home of the Bills” Highmark Stadium license plate, and a white football for three lucky youths.

This place runs like clockwork. The horn sounds exactly at 9:45 and the Bills run two 11-on-11 plays before calisthenics. The first is a swing pass out to Ty Johnson, run very casually to the near side of the field. The ones stay out there for a second play. With the sense of humor we’ve come to know and love, Josh backpedals from the snap, back, back, and back, over ten yards, then takes off down the sideline at a blazing 25% speed. He stops at the one-foot line. The crowd urges him on, and finally he daintily toe-taps the end zone.

Calisthenics All-Stars for today include Kristian Wilkerson, Joe Andreessen, Dane Jackson, and James Cook (ha! Take that, you skeptics!), but we’ll give the “All-Star Bright Star” to Jacob Bayer, third-string Center (or second-string if Anderson can’t control himself), who’s putting all of the other offensive linemen to shame with the effort. I’m betting he had Cheerios this morning.

Positional drills begin with kick-return practice occupying the entire right side of the field. They’re letting Codrington work with the DB’s at first, but he comes over after a while. The KR Stars today are Frank Gore Jr., Daequan Hardy, with Deon Cain shuffling back there. Kick Returner would be one way that Cain could crack the lineup…If Cain is able. [Editor groans].

Offensive line is doing paired blocking today, two on two, with Coach Kromer watching carefully. We’re not talking about maximum exertion here; maybe 40% effort, but you know that Kromer’s paying the attention to hand placement, positioning of the elbows, and footwork.

Cook and Kincaid are receiving passes from one of the coaching assistants. Cook makes a great catch, despite having to spin around at the last minute, having Kincaid duck under the pass. That’s better than a 2nd cup of coffee.

They’re doing punt-return practice now, with live kicks from Brad Robbins Our Current Punter. The returners are Laviska Shenault alternating with Brandon Codrington. Codrington goes first, catching the ball at the 25 with the ball having been punted from the 10. All of the punts are going between 65 and 70 yards. The gunner on my side is Landon Jackson and Kelly Akharaiyi, the new arrival.

Kyle Brandt from NFL Network just came up the stairs and headed into the press box. He looks different without makeup.

I am delighted to see a hook-and-lateral (lazily called the “hook and ladder”) play being practiced, a trick play in football where a receiver runs a hook route (catching a short pass and turning back towards the passer) and then quickly throws a lateral pass to a teammate running behind him in the opposite direction. This aims to catch the defense off guard, as they focus on the initial receiver and the potential tackle, while the trailing player can exploit open space for a big gain or even a touchdown. I love seeing these new twists being installed by Brady, which gives Defensive Coordinators more of a headache in their planning for the Bills. I’ll bet you’ll see the ones and twos do this during 11-on-11s.

More work in posiitonals first, though, as two quarterbacks at a time are passing to two pass catchers at a time. I was least impressed with Gilliam and most impressed with Zach Davidson and Matt Sokol, both of whom would be a good practice squad tight end. We’ll keep one, I think. Depth Chart

Glacier Cherry Gatorade Zero is saving my life right now. It is hot and the slight breeze is keeping us alive just enough to see Rob Boras working down in front with the tight ends. They’re working on blocking off of motion, which is very appropriate with the increased motion we’re seeing in camp. You see the athleticism of Kaleki Latu, practically invisible the last practice I attended. Kincaid and Gilliam have the right idea, transferring forward motion into quick turns and fierce blocks. This is Gilliam’s forte; Gillam is explosive off his blocks. Jackson Hawes has a compression sleeve on his left leg. Kincaid and Gilliam are wearing the black leggings, just a poor fashion statement in this heat. As is a Billy Buffalo mascot costume.

The defense comes back over from the Secret Third Field at about a 60% trot. On the way to their spots, Shakir jukes Trubisky and then they laugh and give each other a high five. Love the spirit.

In the center ring now is the pass rushers versus the pass defenders. Some observations: Ray Davis lunges too much and Ulofoshio would’ve gotten to the QB as a result. Darrynton Evans was bullrushed and never set his feet. Ray Davis’s second attempt to keep his quarterback clean was much more effective. I should note that most Twitter comments were made about the QB-WR connections to my right, but that this is where Sean McDermott is, and he’s watching intently. Keleki Latu claps his hands in disgust, not happy with his block. Frank Gore Jr. did a good job. Zach Davidson went all out to block his man.

Time for 11 on 11 and Van Demark is taking the alternating reps today at RT. Jackson Hawes is in at Tight End. Dane Jackson broke up a pass, almost running into the pavilion. Josh runs a fake toss to his right combined with a bootleg left, and Epenesa was just one step too slow. On the next play, they ran one running back right and went the other way to a second running back. Ray Davis is showing some nice running behind some effective blocking on that play. Keleki Latu, on a sideline route, gets a nice run and a handclap from Rob Boras on a pass from Trubisky.

I like that Sean McDermott is doing more hands-on coaching than ever before, and I’ve been to all of his camps at Fisher. He moves in to say things to various players and coaches between plays.

Josh gifts a pick to yesterday’s Birthday Boy Milano, who runs it down to the end zone to our left. Truth be told, he would’ve been immediately tackled, as he was surrounded right away.

I love all the motion before the plays. You hear about Josh Allen wanting to improve pre-snap, and this motion is designed to diagnose coverage before the play gets underway. They have James Cook in motion now, but it’s eye candy. The throw is a screen out to Shakir on the edge. We like the sidearm motion on Josh’s swing pass. Varying throws by a quarterback can reduce batted passes.

Cam Lewis wasn’t on primary coverage, but he was the one that would’ve made the tackle. An enthusiastic Joe Andreessen puts an overzealous pop on Ray Davis, but Davis didn’t even bat an eye; he popped right up, and returned to the huddle. We see the hook and lateral executed well by both the ones and the twos. Kelly Akharaiyi executes a screen pass to peak perfection and the horn sounds, ending the 11 on 11.

Two thick mats have been set up next to each other, so it looks like diving practice to me. The TEs are protecting the ball as they dive through Rob Boras’s mitt and onto the mat.

The offensive line is doing more standing around this year than last year, but it’s sweltering, and they return their top 10 players, so I guess we’ll forgive them. I have done this for several summers and the heat has definitely taken a toll on how fast the players move and how often and intensely they exert. We can hope for some cooler days ahead. That said, it is just nice to hear the crack of the pads again.

Shaq Thompson has added an interesting dynamic to the trio of linebackers. He’s 31, but still has some gas in the tank.

The biggest cheers today weren’t for a player. They were for the staff throwing T-shirts up into the crowd. The throwers needed Gatorade, as 95% of their passes didn’t make it up to our spots.

Cam Lewis makes a nice play on Jalen Virgil, showing athleticism despite size, an excellent break up. Now Keon is on our side opposite Benford. Damar Hamlin comes up at the last minute and blitzes from Josh’s blind size, and would’ve had Allen dead to rights.

As I was leaving, Stephen Gosnell made the Catch of the Day today. The roar was admittedly louder than the Poorly-Thrown T-shirt Fiasco.

The kids in front of us took a chance on the Mystery Box and nabbed some excellent shirts –a Bruce Smith a Steve Tasker autographed jersey. I took a chance on a new flavor of Glacier Cherry Gatorade. Everyone was very satisfied.

Sure hope Billy Buffalo is pumping fluids right now.

Editor’s babble: Oh my goodness. Dean’s reports are like liquid gold for those of us who can’t be at camp. And it’s definitely frustrating our writers don’t have access to camp tickets. You can also find Dean’s great work on Xwitter @TCBILLS_Astro.