Head coach Doug Marrone is looking for three things in his team’s organized team activities (OTAs): trust, communication, and competition.
]”The objective in OTA’s is trust, making sure that we can rely on one another to do what we ask,” said Marrone. “To be there for us and for me to put them in the right position to do the right thing. The second thing we’re looking for in this camp is communication. We need to be frank with each other. If it’s not getting done the right way it’s not the way we want it done. If it’s not right, someone needs to call me out on it.”
“The third thing we talked about is creating a climate of competition which I think is important. We say competition, we don’t mean combative, we mean competition as far as being the best you can be. Right now there are 32 teams working. Is our walkthrough better than the other 31 teams? Is our seven on seven better than the other 31 teams?”
Marrone said that all the team’s quarterbacks “have a better sense of what we’re doing and where we’re going” with a year of experience with the Bills under their belt. As for second-year quarterback E.J. Manuel, Marrone needs to see Manuel “continue to progress”.
“That’s going to be the whole thing,” said Marrone. “It’s going to be everything, not really just one things. From the footwork to shorten the stroke, to the consistency, to the leadership. He’s going to be the spotlight and people are going to be watching him.”
Manuel said that there were “specific things” he wanted to get better at, such as “coverage recognition,” and “getting trust with his receivers”, especially with a lot of the offense involving timing routes. Manuel has already worked to gain trust with one receiver, as he revealed today that it wasn’t the first day he has worked with Sammy Watkins.
“We pretty much starting working as soon as he got here with the other rookies, so we’ve developed some good timing,” said Manuel. “Sammy is going to be a great player for us. I think all the other receivers are going to help him become an even better receiver. “Teach him some of the things they went through, like Robert Woods and Marquise (Goodwin) and T.J. (Graham) being young guys. They can definitely help Sammy going in to his rookie year now.”
Though there has been a lot of work done between Manuel and Watkins, the rookie receiver says there is still “a lot to work on.”
“A lot of different routes and schemes we have to clean up a little bit,” said Watkins. “It’s a process with this offense with me and other guys learning, we’re not running at full speed so the timing is not there. It’s going to be a time where everything is clicking and EJ is making the right passes and I’m running the right routes.”
Other rookies present at the opening day of OTAs were offensive linemen Cyrus Kouandjio (second-round pick) and Cyril Richardson (fifth-round pick). Kouandjio received first-team reps today, and Marrone indicated that Richardson could also see time with the first team. Marrone believes in letting young players getting involved right away, a philosophy that will be evident this offseason.
“I’m always big on it,” said Marrone. “I tell this to the coaches, when you feel that someone is ready to go from a standpoint of knowledge and they’re not going to get anyone hurt, throw them in there. The thing I always hate about this profession is you get a kid and you want to bring him along.
“All of the sudden you kind of bring him along and then year one goes by and you like him. Year two goes by and then all of a sudden you’re sitting here year three and you don’t know what you have.
“I’ve had a lot of success taking young guys and once they know what they’re doing throw them in with the first group and a see what they can do. I think you’ll see a lot of that as we go forward in camp and go forward with our installation. We have an opportunity with resting some guys that we know can go out there and do it.”
Establishing trust and communication will also be very important on the other side of the football, where coordinator Jim Schwartz takes over for current Browns head coach Mike Pettine. Three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kyle Williams believes the new defense fits his skill set well, and the defense has a lot of potential.
“I think knowing (Schwartz’s) defenses over the years and watching them on film and from what we’ve talked about in meetings, I think it’s going to fit what I do well,” said Williams. “Attack, get after guys and I think we have some other guys that could be tailor made for this type of defense too.
“Potentially we could be the best defense in the league, but like I said this is our first day of OTA’s and we have to continue to build through OTA’s, through training camp and even into the season to be the type of defense that you can rely on late in the year to win a division championship, to win a playoff game and to win a championship.”
