By CHUCK POLLOCK, Wellsville Sun Senior Sports Columnist
By their nature, National Football League training camps are a drag.
That’s why 24 of 32 franchises no longer leave their team’s facilities but rather stay at home.
One of the eight exceptions, though, is the Bills who have made a summer home of Pittsford’s St. John Fisher University for 24 of the past 26 years, excluding the camps during Covid.
THIS YEAR is dramatically different as Buffalo will be the host team for HBO’s “Hard Knocks” which begins a five-week run in August as a prelude to the regular season.
Quarterback Josh Allen admittedly doesn’t like to be mic’d up, even though this is not the first time the MVP’s voice will be heard. NFL Films’ cameras were positioned around the field during practice as camp opened Wednesday. This will be the norm for the Bills during the production of “Hard Knocks,” the docuseries that will follow them throughout training camp. Nobody seemed bothered by the cameras or microphones.
“We’ve got nothing to hide,” general manager Brandon Beane said. “We want to make this a very positive experience. Will there be an intrusive thing here or there? Of course, but it’s all in the preseason, and I don’t expect any issue. We’ll all work together and make sure it’s a good product for our fans.
Beane admitted that competition in practice may be even better because no one wants their mistake to make the final cut.
Camp opened with the obligatory minor injuries as four players missed practice.
Bills tight end Dawson Knox was put on the non-football injury list after he tweaked a hamstring last week, and right tackle Spencer Brown was placed on the physically-unable-to-perform list because his back “flared up,” coach Sean McDermott said.
Backup center Sedrick Van Pan-Granger (calf) and wide receiver Laviska Shenault (lower leg) also were unable to practice Thursday.
BUT THE best news was that elite running back James Cook, in the midst of a contract extension disagreement, not only showed up, but also participated in opening workouts.
He went public this offseason with his desire to become one of the highest-paid running backs in the NFL. His $5 million cap hit for 2025 ranks 18th at the position, well below the market rate for someone so productive. The 2022 second-round draft pick led the league last season with 16 rushing touchdowns, and ran for 1,009 yards. Cook became the first Bills player with 20-plus rushing touchdowns, regular season and playoffs, since O.J. Simpson in 1975.
No one expected Cook to skip training camp as he’d be fined $50,000 per day, and holding out could prevent him from accruing a year toward free agency. Most veterans show up for camp but skip much of the heavy work – Cook opted to participate in every drill.
“James is a competitive dude,” Beane said. “He’s a stud; he’s a great teammate; he wants to be here; he loves ball – so many of the things we learned about James through the scouting process. … Of course, who doesn’t want to get paid?
“That’s the hard part of this job is, I do want to pay them all. I really do – especially the ones who are working hard, they’re producing on the field, their teammates love them, the fans love them. James fits Buffalo, but sometimes you can’t get on the same page, or sometimes you’re trying to fit it in.”
To which McDermott added, “I couldn’t be more pleased with James and him being here on time and ready to go,”.
Beane added, “I can tell you I’m hopeful when we’re sitting here at next year’s training camp that James Cook (will be) out there practicing and still representing the red, white and blue.”
OF COURSE, Allen, the defending NFL MVP, is the player charged with getting the Bills’ their first-ever Lombardi Trophy.
“Ultimately, we probably know it runs through (the Chiefs) in the playoffs like it has for the last 6-7 years,” said Allen, 0-4 against Kansas City in the playoffs.”
Of training camp he added, “I’ve always loved it. It’s just being away and coming here … every moment you’re awake you’re around your teammates, around your friends, around the strength staff, getting worked on and there’s no better way to get better at football than here. If you love football, you should love camp, just hanging out and being around the guys.”
“Just put your head down and work,” Allen said. “It’s two-and-a-half weeks in camp. They go quick, but you can really show who you are as a person, as a player, over these next two and a half weeks. Everything that we do is centered around the team and building this team
“It’s different than college, everybody knows that, but just hearing that from some of the guys, just like, hey, like, there’s no distractions here. Like, let’s tune everything out. Give me two-and-a-half weeks of everything that you got, and we’ll go from there,” Allen added.
Beane added “We have a group of competitive dudes … you go down the list of players who’ve been here through some of these painful moments. I’m a firm believer you keep swinging the sword. You don’t get in? You work harder and you use that frustration. I can tell you, of course, Josh Allen was happy to win the MVP, who wouldn’t be? But he’d would trade that all day, every day to hoist that Lombardi. He’s the tip of the spear for us and we believe in that, his teammates believe in that, and we believe in this coaching staff and we believe in our organization and the plan.”
Beane added of Allen, “You see a calm, confident dude, he knows what he has to do in the offseason. He’s always prepared when he shows up. He’s not coming here unprepared, and I think his teammates, when he’s in the huddle, they’re as calm as ever just having Josh Allen in there.”
(Chuck Pollock, a Wellsville Sun and Olean Star senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@wnynet.net.)
