PITTSFORD, N.Y. (WIVB) – It’s normal for tempers to flare especially at this point in training camp and that’s what we’ve seen a few times during Bills practices over the past couple days.
Over the weekend, Jordan Phillips bumped Josh Allen while rushing to the end zone and after the play, Allen shoved Phillips that caused a brief scrum between the offense and defense.
On Thursday, another scuffle broke out after the first play of team drills. Greg Rousseau tried to swat the ball out of Stefon Diggs’ hands. Diggs obviously didn’t like that and it caused a fight between sides. Sean McDermott was in the middle trying to break it up and even Ed Oliver looked pretty heated during it as well.
But after practice, guys downplayed these types of situations, chalking it up to the competitive nature.
“Camp’s long, sometimes it’s a drag sometimes guys want to be anywhere but the football field and that’s just the nature of the business. It’s long days, short years and knowing that this goes by so quick we gotta find ways to put our focus back into what we’re doing and focus on the here and now and sometimes it’s necessary,” Allen said after practice on Thursday.
“Good teams sometimes fight, guys want it so bad, guys are very competitive, guys push each other so you saw a little tempers again today and that’s all because we want to win. We want to work really hard, we want to beat the guys across from us and that doesn’t matter who it is. But it’s good to see the intensity right now coming out from both sides of the football.”
Allen also addressed what happened with Phillips saying he was “probably in the wrong” for shoving Phillips and even bought him a box of Pro V1 golf balls to say sorry.
“Tempers fly, it was the first day of pads, camp’s long you know I was probably in the wrong there but just trying to get some guys juiced up, ready to go, it’s football so that’s all it was. It was nothing,” Allen explained.
As for a guy like Von Miller, he joked he’s too old for practice fighting.
“I don’t like saying the ‘O’ word, I don’t like saying ‘O’ but when it comes to fighting out there on the field, that is past my time, man. It really is,” Miller laughed.
“It’s just part of camp, it’s just part of the brotherhood when it comes to football. There’s gonna be some high temper times and you see that with all the teams that I’ve been on.”
Other notes from Thursday’s practice:
Jordan Poyer did not practice as he continues to recover from an elbow injury and was seen at practice with a brace on his left arm.
Marquez Stevenson is expected to miss weeks as he recovers from a foot injury.
Micah Hyde did participate in team drills after suffering a hip/glute injury in practice last week.
Josh Allen connected with Gabe Davis and rookie Khalil Shakir on a couple deep balls. Davis beat Dane Jackson downfield while it was rookie versus rookie as Shakir made a nice grab 1-on-1 with Christian Benford.
Speaking of rookies, linebacker Baylon Spector flashed a few times on Thursday as he helped force a fumble and recover a fumble by Jamison Crowder. Later Spector intercepted Matt Barkley.
The offensive line continues to be in flux as that unit is still dealing with injuries. Spencer Brown still has not participated in team drills while Ryan Bates did return but only went through individual drills as well. Rodger Saffold is still out as well as Greg Mantz who is dealing with soreness.
