Day two of Bills rookie minicamp was forced indoors for the morning session. High winds with gusts up to 50 miles per hour would not have lent itself to a very productive practice when it came to 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 team work so head coach Chan Gailey moved his team into the Bills Fieldhouse.
Being the offensive coordinator in addition to being the head coach, Gailey has spent the majority of his time on the offensive end of the practice field.
"In general, I will spend a little bit more time on the offensive end and in particular with the receivers and the quarterbacks," said Gailey. "But I try to keep my eye on the quarterbacks at all times. That's one of the things that I think is important that we make sure that we evaluate correctly."
Being the only two quarterbacks in the camp Brian Brohm and seventh-round pick Levi Brown have taken all the reps. Knowing it's not often that rookie seventh-round draft choices are given a chance to compete for the starting job, Brown is grateful that the staff has him in the mix.
"It's exciting just knowing that I have an opportunity to compete here in Buffalo at the NFL level," said Brown. "It's what I've always dreamed about and so I'll just come out here and compete and let the coaches make those decisions."
PerformersDuring 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 work the tight ends were busy as both Brohm and Brown were looking for them on several plays during the team portion of practice.
Jonathan Stupar and Joe Klopfenstein combined for eight receptions in the morning workout with Klopfenstein's 15-yard gainer inside the numbers among the best of the bunch. Stupar had a nice catch down the seam, but encountered some accidental contact from free safety Brett Johnson and could not hold on.
Shawn Nelson, who practiced on day one, was not in attendance for day two of the workouts. First and second-year players are participating on a voluntary basis this weekend.
Fourth-round pick Marcus Easley made some plays in the passing game making four receptions in the morning session with his best coming on a play where he demonstrated great ball concentration pulling in the pass from Brown despite being surrounded by a pair of defenders.
Felton Huggins had three catches in the morning practice while Steve Johnson had a pair. Johnson had very good separation from defenders during practice, but the timing was a off between he and the quarterbacks at times leading to some near miss plays.
"It's good to get a feel with Brian because we didn't have too many reps together last year, but we'll have a lot this year I know that," said Johnson. "We're out here just trying to get a feel for each other. It might not look all good now, but it will in the end."
Defensively, LB Ryan Manalac had a pass breakup on a throw intended for Klopfenstein
Afternoon playmakers
Brian Brohm dialed up a deep ball down the far sideline early in 7-on-7 hitting Felton Huggins in stride for a 40-yard pass play.
Huggins also made a reception in stride on a well-timed play with Brohm later in that same series.
Joe Klopfenstein and Jonathan Stupar were again frequent targets of Brohm in the afternoon session. The best of their receptions was when Klopfenstein split the safeties down the middle of the field for a big gain.
Marcus Easley continues to make plays. The fourth-round pick had a few more catches in the afternoon including a nice hands catch late on a pass from Brohm that was outside his body frame.
During one-on-ones earlier in practice, Easley gave a shoulder fake inside and got outside of his cover man Leodis McKelvin down the sideline for what would've been a long touchdown under normal game conditions.
C.J. Spiller made the most of a dump off from Brohm. With the blitz bearing down on him, Brohm dumped it off and Spiller got through a closing hole quickly to gain positive yardage up field.
Late in practice Brohm had a well-executed bootleg pass to Steve Johnson right along the sideline for first down yardage, that drew praise from head coach Chan Gailey.
The Bills wrap up their rookie minicamp on Sunday with a single practice set for 10:15 am.
