James Cook's ball security needs cleaning up, and more from Bills camp
Plus, offensive line depth continues to be a question, and Josh Allen's offense sputters after strong start.
www.nytimes.com
Bills training camp is officially winding down. The team conducted its penultimate practice in its current form of public practices at St. John Fisher University before returning to Orchard Park for the remainder of the 2024 campaign.
Wednesday’s practice, which will likely be the last of the intense sessions in their time in Pittsford, was filled with a lot of 11-on-11 work as the team prepares for the regular season. But even before Week 1, the team has only a few days to go before their first preseason matchup of the year.
The home game against the visiting Chicago Bears will take place Saturday afternoon. But with the growing leaguewide trend of starting quarterbacks not playing at all in the preseason, the big question centers around Bills franchise quarterback Josh Allen and whether he’ll get those three game nights off, too.
Allen was non-committal as to whether he would or would not play, but did at least offer one interesting thought about exhibition games now in his seventh NFL season.
“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.”
Last year, Allen did not play in the team’s preseason opener. He did get three offensive series in the team’s second preseason game, complete with 18 snaps and ten dropbacks, before exiting the contest. Allen then played one series in the preseason finale, conducting a touchdown drive with seven dropbacks on 13 plays total.
If that 2023 plan holds, Allen might not touch the field Saturday. But the big question will be whether he will play in any games this 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 Wednesday was Allen’s last fully padded session before practice next week, the coaches certainly put them through a lot of game-simulated reps and situations. Here are several observations from Day 11 of camp.
A strong start for Josh Allen, followed by frustrating drives
Once the Bills began practicing in full pads, they’ve slowly but surely been rolling out 11-on-11 work that features full offensive series for Allen and the first-team offense. Monday’s practice had their closest thing to scrimmage work since camp began with two drives for Allen, but on Wednesday, they gave Allen five before heading to specific red zone drills.Without question, Allen was on fire on his first offensive series. The offense began at their 35-yard-line and was usually a step ahead of the defense. They collected four first downs and faced only one third down the entire drive, a 3rd-and-1 from the two-yard-line, which yielded an Allen touchdown pass to Mack Hollins. The pass-heavy drive had Allen nailing seven of his eight passes for 61 yards and the touchdown throw to Hollins. Allen’s only incompletion was deemed a throwaway, which was probably a sack. Regardless, it was easily Allen’s and the first-team offense’s best drive of camp.
They were on a high note, but it came crashing down over the next four opportunities with the defense dominating the rest of the practice. On Allen’s first throw, he stared down Curtis Samuel ahead of the receiver’s break, which triggered cornerback Rasul Douglas to jump the route. Douglas guessed right and picked off the pass as Samuel fell down to try and get back to contest the catch. If the team allowed it to go down the field, it likely would have been a pick-six.
Rather than ending Allen’s time on the field there, they left the first unit out to restart another drive. The defense began it with a run stuff for a loss, and then a would-be sack on third down that the coaches didn’t count to keep the offense on the field. Then on fourth down, Allen was sacked again by A.J. Epenesa and Greg Rousseau. Again, rather than ending it there, they kept the first-team offense on with a start at the defense’s 20. Allen completed two short passes for five yards on those three plays before heading off the field.
During Allen’s final full drive opportunity, in a two-minute drill situation, the defense slammed the door shut by forcing four straight incompletions. The offense didn’t gain a yard. The Bills ended the practice for the first unit by giving them seven red-zone chances within eight yards of the end zone. Allen threw a pair of touchdown passes of six and four yards and ran another in from seven yards out. Running back James Cook also had a four-yard touchdown run, but the defense forced three missed attempts as well. Nickel corner Taron Johnson broke up two of them, to Khalil Shakir and Keon Coleman, with outstanding efforts to break up the pass. Over the five drives plus red zone work and early situational team drills, here is who Allen targeted throughout the day.
- 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
Marquez Valdes-Scantling seems to be finding his footing at camp after a rough start. (Bryan Bennett / Getty Images)
Marquez Valdes-Scantling settling in
It was a bit of a shaky start to camp for veteran receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling, who the Bills signed late during spring workouts in mid-May. But lacking a certain size-speed element from the boundary receiver group, the Bills issued a fully guaranteed $2.25 million deal to the receiver, hoping he could round out their room. Things were not going to plan early, as Valdes-Scantling was losing out on reps with Allen, and at one point, worked almost exclusively with the second-team offense. After that pair of early practices, Valdes-Scantling has responded well over the last two weeks and has seen his time with Allen during team drills steadily grow.It likely isn’t a coincidence that Valdes-Scantling’s opportunities have grown as the receiver battle has thinned out a bit. Tyrell Shavers is still in a good position to push for a spot. Outside of him, though, Chase Claypool hasn’t practiced in over a week with a toe injury, and with each passing day of non-participation, he likely sees his chances of making the team slightly decrease. Justin Shorter has missed the last two days with a knee injury, while KJ Hamler mostly works with the second unit. Given the guaranteed money and without anyone else pushing Valdes-Scantling for a top-six receiver job, his odds of making the team seem quite good as of now. With the top four of Shakir, Coleman, Samuel and Hollins well established, that doesn’t necessarily signal a strong game day role for Valdes-Scantling for the regular season at this point, but there is still a month to go.
James Cook needs to clean up one feature of his camp
With camp practices, you have to be careful not to amplify a one-play issue as a problem. Rather, you take note of it, and should it continue, then it becomes a trend worthy of mentioning. A slight trend that has taken shape for starting running back James Cook has been some ball security issues near the end of his plays. It’s pretty standard practice for the defense to attempt to rip the ball out from the offensive player near the end of the rep. Usually, the attempts are futile, but on a handful of occasions this summer, it’s gotten the better of Cook, and the ball has hit the ground.That hit a high point Wednesday when it happened twice. The first was during seven-on-seven, with cornerback Christian Benford raking the ball out of Cook’s hands after a successful catch. Then during team drills, Cook again lost the ball just after the catch. The defense argued for a fumble, and it likely could have been an incompletion, but the Bills seemingly gave Cook credit for a seven-yard gain despite it.
Putting the ball on the ground is obviously not something the Bills want to see out of one of their top offensive players. Even though it’s happened a few times this summer, I wouldn’t expect it to impact Cook’s time on the field at this point. Should it carry into the regular season, these moments from camp could stay in the back of the coaches’ heads and eventually impact playing time. But we’re far away from that happening. He is still their top running back by a good margin and will remain that way until further notice.
Dion Dawkins’ exit yields Ryan Van Demark some first-team time to mixed results
Around the halfway point through practice, starting left tackle Dion Dawkins left the session and did not return. The team later revealed Dawkins was excused from the rest of practice for personal reasons. With Dawkins away, it yielded the most extended opportunity for a backup offensive lineman to work with the top unit during this training camp. Dawkins’ reps all went to third-year player Ryan Van Demark, who had up and down moments. Even on their most successful team drill drive, Van Demark suffered a clean pass-blocking loss to defensive end Dawuane Smoot which yielded an immediate pressure on Allen. It likely would have been a sack in a real game, though the Bills ruled it a throwaway for Allen. From there, Van Demark settled in a bit more, but the overall usage of him and his performance yields a couple of things to ponder.The first is that Van Demark is still seemingly ahead of veteran offensive tackle La’El Collins, whom the Bills signed in the offseason. The second is that the drop-off from the starting five to the relative inexperience of the second unit could be an issue this season. The Bills had unbelievable, and also unsustainable health to their starting offensive linemen in 2023. The top five did not miss a start due to injury and the lowest snap percentage of the five was Dawkins, who played 96.6 percent of the team’s offensive snaps last year. The progress of the offensive line depth is one of the sneakiest storylines of the 2024 season.
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.
