ROCHESTER, N.Y. — It's football season again.
The Bills opened training camp Wednesday morning with their first practice at St. John Fisher University.
"I love camp," quarterback Josh Allen said. "I think we all know that. It's my favorite time of the year. Get to hang with the boys in the dorm rooms. Play cards. I won the inaugural Catan game last night against Dawson, Dalton, and Spencer. Make sure you let them know that."
Taking training camp on the road has become a bit of a variety across the NFL, with just about 2/3 of the league choosing to stay at their home facilities.
The Bills continue to come to Pittsford for more than two decades and counting.
"We believe in going away for camp," head coach Sean McDermott said. We've talked about that before. Mainly for a couple reasons. One is for our team to continue to come together and bond and develop that chemistry that you're going to need, that we're going to need."
"We can work on any practice field, but we can bond here and I think that's Sean and I really value about going away and sitting in the cafeteria."
This camp with a different feel to it than those recently.
First, the roster is missing a lot of familiar faces from the past, with no Micah Hyde, Jordan Poyer, Tre'Davious White, Mitch Morse, Stefon Diggs, and Gabe Davis, to name a few.
The new faces replacing those prominent players are now tasked with getting up to speed with their new team as quick as possible as camp rolls along.
All the roster turnover has also led some on the outside to feel this team won't continue their winning ways.
General Manager Brandon Beane is not concerned about the naysayers.
"This is a new team that will have to define itself," Beane said. "Whether people predict us to be 6-11 or 11-6 or whatever it is, it really won't matter. Once games start, that's what you guys are going to be writing and reporting about."
Bills training camp continues at St. John Fisher through August 8th.