Training Camp Will Turn Into a Search For Impact Players

By Miguel Rodriguez

 

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- Help wanted.

 

The Buffalo Bills are looking for a few good players to shore up some holes on both sides of the ball. There will be a little pressure on prospective candidates since the club wants to end a nine-year playoff drought.

 

The team is looking to fill the following spots:

 

- - A pass-rushing defensive end or two.

 

- - A ball-hawking free safety.

 

- - A solid quarterback willing to back up a starter with a history of being a little fragile.

 

- - A tight end that can instill fear in opposing defenses.

 

The Bills will conduct an in-depth search during their July training camp at St. John Fisher College in suburban Rochester. It will be during those not-so-lazy-days of summer when the team discovers whether or not they’ve lined up the right candidates for those job openings.

 

Here are the holes the Bills must plug if they have any hope of contending for the postseason:

 

Defensive end: Aaron Schobel, Aaron Maybin, Chris Kelsay, Ryan Denney.

 

Schobel is on the list simply because he’s coming back from a severe foot injury that caused him to miss the final 11 games of 2008. As long as he’s completely healthy, the pass rush should be bolstered by the two-time Pro Bowler’s return. While Schobel has taken heat at times for not piling up elite-end type of sack totals even though he’s paid like one, he’s very good at using his speed to disrupt the quarterback’s rhythm, which was something that didn’t happen in his absence.

 

The Bills ranked 28th in the league with just 24 sacks, most of them on blitzes. They generated little pressure with a four-man rush. Denney and linebacker Kawika Mitchell shared the team lead with four sacks each, the lowest single-season team-leading total in franchise history since the league made sacks an official stat in 1982.

 

The Bills drafted speed rusher Aaron Maybin with their first-round pick in April in hopes of further correcting the problem. If the light-on-his-feet end proves he can play the run, he’ll unseat starter Chris Kelsay (4½ sacks the past two seasons) sooner rather than later since they didn’t waste the 11th overall pick on Maybin just for him to be a backup.

 

Free safety: Jairus Byrd, Bryan Scott, Ko Simpson, George Wilson.

 

No Bills safety (free or strong) has made an interception since Dec. 9, 2007. That’s something that has to change.

 

Incumbent starter Simpson was on the trading block before the draft – with no takers, of course, and the Bills drafted cornerback Byrd out of Oregon in the second round with the idea of converting him into a safety so that they can take advantage of his big-play ability (17 career interceptions including five in 2008).

 

How’s that for job security?

 

Simpson hasn’t been the same missing almost all of 2007 with a broken ankle after he made two interceptions as a rookie in 2006. Scott and Wilson also did a better job in pass coverage than Simpson last season.

 

Scott is a versatile pro that can play both safety positions. Wilson – a converted wide receiver and fan favorite – made two interceptions in 2007, returning his first career pick for a score under the bright lights of Monday Night Football in a loss to the Dallas Cowboys. Scott or Wilson could easily hold down the starting job until the coaches feel Byrd’s ready to move into the starting role.

 

Backup quarterback: Ryan Fitzpatrick and Gibran Hamden.

 

Trent Edwards’ history as Bills starter suggests his backup will see time. Edwards was KO’d three plays into a loss at Arizona last season and also missed two late-season games as the Bills squandered a 4-0 start with a 3-9 finish.

 

With the Bills trading away All-Pro left tackle Jason Peters and ridding themselves of two other starters, both backups might need to be on call.

 

Hamden knows the offense but Fitzpatrick has more regular-season playing experience – filling in for a dozen games last year for injured Cincinnati starter Carson Palmer. The Bills wouldn’t have signed him if they were totally convinced in Hamden’s abilities to be a solid No. 2.

 

Offensive line: Another year, another round of shuffling for a unit that's been the model of instability for most of this decade. This will be the fifth time in six years that the Bills open the season with at least two new faces on the line that didn't start in the previous year's opener.

 

While it would seem the Bills need a left tackle after dealing All-Pro Jason Peters in a money dispute to Philadelphia, they will let former right tackle Langston Walker have the job until he proves he can't do it. While Kirk Chambers was a solid reserve tackle last year, the Bills opted to move right guard Brad Butler to tackle -- the position he played in college. Former Carolina Panther Geoff Hangartmer replaces the combo of Melvin Fowler and Duke Preston at center, while rookies Eric Wood and Andy Levitre will likely start at guard since they're listed on the first team on the team's depth chart.

 

The only ways this fivesome doesn't start the Monday night opener at New England: injury or sub-par play.

 

Tight end: Derek Fine, Derek Schouman

 

Since the glory days of the K-Gun offense, the Bills have been in search of the next Pete Metzelaars. The search will continue after this season.

 

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