The Bills began their second week of OTAs this morning with a full 90-man roster after adding a player the coaching staff has some familiarity with.
The team announced the signing of free agent C Macky MacPherson, who played for Syracuse University from 2010-2013, starting 38 games in his career. MacPherson, a Syracuse native, played for current Bills head coach Doug Marrone at Syracuse from 2010-2012, and garnered second-team All-ACC honors in 2013.
MacPherson, the grandson of former Syracuse head coach Dick MacPherson, said he was “very excited” when Marrone called him last Thursday during an interview on The John Murphy Show.
“I jumped at the opportunity, especially to work with my former coaches here at the Bills organization,” said MacPherson.
MacPherson thinks the move shows the Bills know what to find in football players above just their measurables.
“I’m not the biggest guy on the field, and some teams don’t take that intangible factor of whether the person is smart or whether they have good leadership skills,” said MacPherson. “There are some teams out there that just want a guy who they think is a big enough player.”
“Luckily, I latched onto a team here with the Bills that cares more about not just your size but care about the kind of football player you are. I’m very fortunate to have a coach like coach Marrone call me up and tell me that he wanted to have me here.”
MacPherson said that Marrone wants him to play at center and work at guard. MacPherson came to Syracuse university as a 238 pound long-snapper from Christian Brothers Academy.
“I did track my last semester of my senior year of high school, and I ended up losing about 20 pounds,” said MacPherson. “I was about 260 pounds when i was playing football in my senior year of high school, and ended up the year 238 pounds, and I almost gave the strength coach at Syracuse (Will Hicks) a heart attack because not only was I going to be a long-snapper, but I also was supposed to be working in at center a little bit, too. Luckily, I bulked up to about 255 when the season started and I was able to be in that second-string spot.”
MacPherson apparently won’t have the same weight issues he had in transitioning to college, as he said he has gotten up to 303 pounds but still moves as well as he did at 290. While he is the last addition to the roster, MacPherson’s story will be interesting, as he is the only pure center outside of starter Eric Wood, and has familiarity with the coaching staff.
Manuel opens up about offseason work
Entering his first full offseason as the starter, quarterback E.J. Manuel worked with one of the league’s best young signal-callers who was in the same position as Manuel last season.
“I worked out with Colin Kaepernick this off-season and just tried to follow his lead,” said Manuel on Sirius XM NFL radio this morning (via NFL.com’s Kevin Patra).
Kaepernick has developed a reputation around the league of being a workout warrior, and was the full-time starter for the first time in his career last season. It could be argued that Manuel, who said that he “feels 100%” and “ready to go” after offseason knee surgery, could not have picked another young player at his position to work with.
“The biggest thing for me was improving on situational football and being smarter, ” said Manuel.
If Manuel could make the leaps Kaepernick has made the past two seasons, it’s pretty safe to say the Bills would be very happy.
Former Jim Kelly Rival Visits Quarterback in Hospital
Hall-of-Fame quarterback Dan Marino visited and embraced Jim Kelly in the hospital Sunday, an encounter captured on video by Jim’s wife Jill in an Instagram post.
Marino talked about seeing Kelly yesterday morning before playing in the 28th annual Jim Kelly Celebrity Classic golf tournament at Terry Hills Golf Club (via The Buffalo News’ Tim Graham):
“It’s hard to even understand what he’s going through,” Marino said this morning at Terry Hills Golf Club before playing in the 28th annual Jim Kelly Celebrity Classic. “Jim is a dear friend. You just wish the best for him.
“He’s a tough guy, you know? He’s at a point in his life that — he’s won a lot of football games and whatever — he’s in the fight for his life. He’ll win.”
Kelly has finished radiation and chemotherapy treatments for cancerous tumors in his head, but Kelly was too weak to attend his celebrity classic, with his brother Dan taking over as emcee, according to The Buffalo News.
