By Justin DiLoro / billswire.com
For several players on the Bills current 90-man roster, Thursday’s first preseason game was their initial experience to game conditions in the NFL.
The Bills have 17 undrafted free agents who were added to the roster over the past two years, in addition to several late round draft picks, who are making a push for permanent residency in the league.
With such inexperienced players taking the field for the first time, there are bound to be jitters.
And mistakes.
During Friday’s press conference, head coach Sean McDermott addressed the issue. The second-year coach was asked about advice about players taking pre-snap penalties.
“Well, you never want that to happen, but it is part of the learning curve. That’s their first action, NFL live game action, and that’s part of the reason why we travel down here a week ago to get our first practice in. We played last night at home and it’s good to get in front of our fans. They’re eager; it’s not from a lack of want, I can promise that,” McDermott said.
Running back Keith Ford was flagged for false starts multiple times, while offensive tackle Connor McDermott was flagged once. In fact, the team took penalties on three consecutive plays during their eight drive of the night.
“We can’t do that, and they understand that. Those are great learning, teaching opportunities for us as a team to learn from and coach off of as we move forward,” McDermott said.
The second half of a preseason game is often muddied with misreads and errors. McDermott foreshadowed what he is looking for out of these players. In regards to Ray-Ray McCloud III, whom the coach shared has “a bit of gamer in him,” McDermott highlighted, “the most important thing is that he continues to develop some consistency in there.”
McDermott notices the small details. For example, he shared a play from the second half praising his receivers.
“I liked how they blocked in the run game, I liked their effort down the field, even [like] Brandon Reilly’s catch and run before half, I believe it was Kaelin Clay [who gave] the effort to get a key block down the field for us. That says a lot about the unselfishness of our football team,” McDermott said.
If some of these long shots are to make a major step forward in depth chart, young players need to take their coach’s advice. In particular, they must develop a level of consistency, which is viewed as more important by the staff than flashy plays.
It’ll start by doing everything correctly on a routine basis in practice and following it up with a strong game Friday night in Cleveland.