Astro Notes – Thurs. July 31, 2025

It’s Fedora Joe’s birthday today, and I’m gifting him my 8 1/2″ x 11″ autographed Darrell Talley picture, one I have kept since 1990, the last glory days. Darryl came to our school for a motivaitonal speech and question-answer session, and he signed my photo of him afterwards. One of the questions the students asked was, “Where will you go during your Bye Week?” The 1990 All-Pro replied, “My basement. It’s a mess down there.”

At 9:07, somewhat later than past practices, backup Center Jacob Bayer is the first player down the parade route from the training room to the field. He’s doing side- to-side hammy stretches down in the OL corner near the left end zone as you face the field. Michael Hoecht is next, followed by Matt Sokol…almost. Sokol stops midway down the parade route, and turns around and runs back into the training room. In the comments, tell me what the reason was!

First cheer is for Shakir. Khalil did some side-to-side movements with exercise bands around his upper thighs before coming out to the field. Rounding out the early arrivals today are Reid Ferguson, David Edwards, Edefuan Ulofoshio, Keaton Bills, and Rush Reimer.

This won’t end well: a Channel 8 camera guy and a Channel 10 female newscaster are fraternizing in plain sight. Will this budding romance end with an 18 in the family? Tune in next May.

Spending a lot of time by the JUGS machine is Stephen Gosnell, Fedora Joe’s pet cat. When he’s finally done, Zach Davidson takes over. While both look like excellent Practice Squad candidates, they’re in a logjam for the 53-man roster. Tylan Grable waddles down the parade route, and Joe Andreessen trots over across the unused stadium field to enter the tunnel.

The D.J.’s song is “California Dreaming”. They can keep the fires, they can keep the earthquakes, they can keep the mudslides, they can keep the freeways, but I’ll take a nice day sandcastling at the beach. If you haven’t been watering, All the leaves are brown. And the sky is gray. No rain for the entire practice today feels like I stole a nice 68* day at practice. Thank you, Mike McDonough and Brian Veronica from California’s Santa Monica Bills Backers for the spare tickets!

Dawson Knox, with great fanfare, comes out of the tunnel for the first time in full armor and does some wide side stretches to our left on the edge of the field. Fortunately, there was no gender reveal.

For the plays the team always runs before calisthenics, DeWayne Carter is in for DaQuan as the 1-tech next to Ed Oliver, with Epenesa and Bosa the EDGEs. Josh layers it over the D-Line neatly to Josh Palmer. On the second play, it’s a fake handoff, then a pass to Kincaid on the far side of the field.

The Calisthenic Stars today are Shakir, Shaq Thompson, Frank Gore Jr., Tre White, Jackson Hawes, Ja’Marcus Ingram, and today’s Star of Stars, Keon Coleman.

James Cook is working with the tight ends again today during positionals. Cook’s receiving chops need the kind of reps that the tight ends are doing. It’s the little things that make a champion.

Shenault, Codrington, Ray Davis, Hardy, and Ty Johnson are all taking kick-return turns. The gunners are Te’Cory Couch, Deon Cain, and Dane Jackson. Zach Davison picks up a fumble on a bumbled return by Codrington. Oops. Kick return is why Shenault has a sneaking chance of being on the roster as a 6th WR.

It’s funny to see the “Hard Knocks” cameraman and the boom mike man running after their assigned player of the day. I hope it pays well.

The defense heads to the third field. Brad Robbins, the punter, who just droppped two successive punts at the 5-yard line, high-fives Reid Ferguson the long snapper on the sideline. It assuages my worries about not having a second punter in camp. A little.

Josh’s positional-drill handoffs have gone to James Cook, Ty Johnson, Darrenton Evans, and Ray Davis on Josh’s side. Trubisky is throwing to the tight ends on the opposite side.

Tyrell Shavers is back in full uniform. He adds a size dynamic, and, while he’s slower than most of the pass-catchers on the Bills, at least he’s big. Shavers is slightly faster than Keon, although Coleman lends a scrappy red-zone advantage (Neither would be faster than South Carolina WR Nyck Harbor, the Bills’ #32 pick. Harbor was invited to the 2024 USA track & field Olympic trials with his world class speed, and is the only player to be ranked No. 1 on Bruce Feldman’s annual “Freaks List” two years in a row. Remember the name).

The cool 68* temp makes this the first day that Sean McDermott doesn’t have to wear his bucket hat. He’s sporting a blue Bills cap, and he’s standing on the 30-yard line making some notes. Then he strides over to the defense on the third field. The offense is doing red zone work down at the right end of the field. There are lots of receptions along the back line of the end zone on dig routes, mainly by the tight ends. The WRs are working on fade routes. The execution of the fade route and the ball placement down here in the tight corridors of the red zone is a great way to pick your number two quarterback. Mine is Trubisky. The best dig route was run by Shakir. The best catch on a fade route was by Ray Davis, but it was only because the ball placement was awkward.

It’s 10:22, and the MVP quarterback has Coleman and Shakir, and Tyrell Shavers the wideouts. Oh my gosh, Josh’s coffin-corner connection to Keon Coleman was well-defended by Dane Jackson, but he was powerless against the BuffaloFAMBase Catch of the Day . The next pass was a too-fast bullet to Gilliam, but Gilliam snares it at the goal line. Gilliam raises his hands and dances, acting like a giddy schoolgirl, raising his hands and getting a double high-five from Josh.

Josh throws to a tackle-eligible offensive lineman, threading it neatly between two defenders.

Carter is still in for DaQuan at 1-tech as they begin 11 on 11’s. Bosa is the defensive end on the far side, with Epenesa on the near side. It’s a pass on an out route to Gilliam. There’s a little bit more pop and energy in the tackling today, or maybe I noticed it just because it was Matt Freaking Milano on the hit.

False start on the first play. Then a flag on the second play. I worry about slow starts. I worried about slow starts in games last season, and now here’s the same thing at camp.

Today it’s VanDemark’s day today to be the stand-in for Dion Dawkins (vet rest, I hope), with Tylan Grable in for Spencer Brown. With Spencer down in the corner doing exercises, I can only count this as great practice for the OT depth. With deft eye manipulation, Josh throws to a wide-open Keon Coleman for a touchdown, and Keon almost punts it into the stands (Well, I spoke too soon — guess we have our new backup punter).

The second team gets its chance (you’ll see them soon in preseason games). Chase Lundt is in there. Bayer, having a good camp, is the Center. Kelly Akharaiyi in motion, and there’s lots of chatter from the defense. The defense makes a quick, last-minute switch when Akharaiyi doubles back the other way, and that late communication and execution by the defense completely foils the run play to the shifted side.

The next pass to Jalen Virgil was on the money. We will see a lot of Trubisky, White, and Buechele (I think in that order) during preseason, and there is a lot of enthusiasm for Shane, but I think he’s the odd man out with White on the practice squad, pending amazing preseason performances.

The threat of Josh Allen running with the ball does create that split-second moment of hesitation by the defense. For example, right now, Josh runs to the left after his handoff off tackle right side, and that mini-hesi seemed to create the seam.

The offense is blocking things up much better today for the run game, and Josh runs down to congratulate Ray Davis on what would’ve been a a big gain.

We have a Travis Clayton sighting at right tackle opposite Lundt. Clayton pulls quickly and by God, it does spring Darrenton Evans for a long run. The second set of 11 on 11 begins at the right side of the field from the 20. It looks like Christian Wilkerson is out there with the ones. Shakir motions, but the play is up the middle to James Cook, who runs it out to the end zone. Tylan Grable and Ryan Van Demark are your offensive tackles. Looks like a run left was thwarted by Taylor Rapp. We have three TEs, so it’s “13 personnel” in there right now, with Ray Davis the running back. The run is up the middle for not much gain and a flag. The next pass is poorly thrown in Kincaid’s direction by Josh Allen. Josh walks over and gives him five, likely apologizing.

The third team has Trubisky in, with Travis Clayton, Keleki Latu, Gilliam, Ray Davis, Stephen Gosnell, and Rush Reimer’s jerseys visible. We see pistol formation with both Davis and Gilliam in. Bayer, the Center, held his own against man-mountain Deone Walker. Blocking schemes seem to be a major emphasis today. In the 13 personnel groupings, Gilliam is sometimes counts as the third tight end.

TJ Sanders gums things up in the middle so well that it didn’t give Trubisky an opportunity to pass. The next play has Josh Allen in, and TJ Sanders does the exact same thing; he is going to be a major headache. It’s clear that to manufacture snaps for Sanders, they’re going to have to rotate Sanders right from the get-go.

A few more penalty flags today that we have seen before. Pass to Khalil Shakir. Ty Johnson blocked out in front of Shakir for another touchdown. Shane Buechele gets the second team today on this 11 and 11 with Travis Clayton and Chase Lundt in there. Kelly Akhayari and Deon Cain are out wide left. The coaching staff is doing a fine job of mixing and matching players for better evaluation. Buechele looks left, pumps left, then throws back right to Gosnell on a well-conceived screen. After catching the ball, Gosnell took an inside route to pay dirt.

Chase Lundt is impressing. He is moving his player back, and McDermott always talks about displacing the line of scrimmage. He’s doing it.