ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The Bills may be back in Orchard Park this week, but that doesn’t mean that training camp is over just yet.
“This is an important week for us from a developmental standpoint,” Bills head coach Sean McDermott said. “We’ve got to continue to develop these guys and bring these new pieces along. It's one day at a time, one rep at a time, and then the follow-up to those reps.”
The Bills are coming off a tough 33-6 loss to the Chicago Bears over the weekend and are now heading into week two of the preseason with a clean slate.
“Getting back out here and polishing up the small things,” Bills wide receiver Khalil Shakir said. “Doing the small things the right way. Our fundamentals, our technique. When you get out there, bullets get to flying, so fall back on your fundamentals. That's been the kind of thing we've been stressing when we get out here. Catching, blocking, running to the ball, helping our teammates up. Just those little things that we were kinda missing out on Saturday.”
McDermott added that it was the first taste of NFL action for a lot of players on this young roster, which is why he feels that veteran leadership is key.
“That leadership, that connection from our player-driven leadership is huge,” McDermott said. “They’re connecting with those players and they’re instilling not only by example but by their voice of, ‘hey this is the way things are here and this is either good enough or isn't good enough.’”
“That’s on all of us,” Shakir said. “To make sure that the guys who have been here or just got here are all well aware of what the standard is. That's something that hasn't been spoken about or talked about. So throughout the game, the vets, the guys who have been around, making sure that we’re keeping the energy up on the sidelines and also just telling the guys what's expected. It's something that we have to remind each other throughout the whole game.”
McDermott also said that he is not ready to make a decision yet on whether we will see some of those veterans once again this weekend when the team travels to Pittsburgh.
The Bills will have a joint practice with the Steelers on Thursday before their second preseason game on Saturday at 7 p.m.