It was the first practice back at One Bills Drive Thursday and the transition from training camp is never easy.
"The structure of practice changes and it's a struggle because they're used to training camp mode and all of a sudden you're starting to card things in the practice," said Dick Jauron. "It lasts a little longer and you have to focus. It's hard on them, but I thought they did a real nice job today."
Not participating for a second straight day was Trent Edwards whose still has swelling in his thigh after colliding with Marshawn Lynch on a running play two days ago.
"He's better today than he was yesterday," said Jauron. "Obviously he's not good enough to practice yet. He's obviously sore and has some limits to his range of motion. So we'll just play that one day by day."
"There's still some nagging discomfort in there that needs to calm down and I need to be able to ice it as much as I can and stay off of it and do whatever the trainers tell me to do," said Edwards. "Hopefully I'll be ready here pretty soon."
Jauron said there is no drop dead date when Edwards has to be back practicing that would rule him out for Sunday's preseason game at Indianapolis.
J.P. Losman took all the starter reps in Edwards' absence and performed pretty well despite not having the full complement of receivers. Not participating were James Hardy and Roscoe Parrish.
Also watching from the sidelines were John DiGiorgio, Jon Banks and Derek Schouman.
Developments
The Bills offense had a couple of no huddle segments at the start of practice, something they didn't do a whole lot of at training camp.
There were also some run game work for both sides of the ball in addition to a healthy amount of series against future opponent looks schematically.
New guy
Rookie free agent offensive lineman Dustin Dickinson was signed Thursday and practiced with his new teammates.
Dickinson saw work at both left guard and right tackle, two positions he played in college. However, with limited depth at tackle that's where he's expected to spend most of his time.
He's expected to play in Sunday night's game at Indianapolis at right tackle presumably with the third unit opposite Demetrius Bell, who plays on both the second and third units at left tackle.
Whitner back
Donte Whitner was back in the fold at practice after an excused absence for family reasons.
Whitner was playing his familiar starting strong safety role and almost made a big play during team work. On the first play in an 11-on-11 segment Whitner punched the ball loose from Marshawn Lynch's arms forcing a fumble on a run play headed left. Lynch however, was able to pounce on the loose ball and recover it.
The Bills safety was so frustrated he didn't complete the play he simply yelled, 'Ahhhhh!"
Whitner also had a pass breakup on a throw intended for C.J. Hawthorne in 7-on-7.
Highlights
The offensive line looked good today in terms of opening holes in the run game. More than a handful of times they opened good sized holes for the running backs to shoot through for good yardage.
Marcus Stroud got great penetration during team work and blew up a run play in the offensive backfield.
Jabari Greer had an interception at the goal line off Matt Baker that he initially bobbled, but he pulled it in and headed the other way.
Justin Jenkins was the best receiver of the day as he made a few highlight reel receptions. His first was a high reaching grab on the far sideline from J.P. Losman for a 30-yard gain.
He also had another big gainer on another sideline reception from Gibran Hamdan.
Courtney Anderson had a good hands catch below his waist from Hamdan during 11-on-11 work.
Scott Mayle made a reception deep over the middle from Hamdan.
Dwayne Wright looked quick through the hole on a toss sweep play during 11-on-11.
The defense was also credited with a pair of sacks.
Buffalo has a single practice Friday.
