As the voluntary OTA practices came to a close for the Bills Tuesday, wide receiver Lee Evans provided his take on the number two receiver role, knowing whoever win the job will directly impact how he's covered by opponents in the regular season.
Evans, who believes he's got a good grasp of Chan Gailey's offensive scheme himself is now making sure his fellows wideouts are giving it their best as the spring practices wind down.
"You've just got to push them a little bit and make sure they have high expectations of themselves because we have high expectations for them," said Evans of the young receivers behind him on the depth chart. "It's not necessarily criticizing them all the time, but doing things on the practice field to help them get better and if they can show improvement day by day then they'll be fine."
With all the receivers new to the system Evans' advice is simple.
"Know what to do. That's the bottom line. If you know what to do and you can earn the trust of the coaches and the coaches can count on you to know what you're doing then that will get you a long way," Evans said. "It's when you forget your plays and things like that where you really, really have issues. If you know what to do that's more than half the battle."
Through the course of the open spring practices Steve Johnson, James Hardy and rookie Marcus Easley appear to be the primary candidates for the number two role.
Schouman optimisticSince returning from a lengthy knee rehabilitation a couple of weeks ago, Derek Schouman has been pleased with how he's operated in Buffalo's new offensive scheme. He's also encouraged by the level of involvement he feels the tight ends have had in the passing game through the spring practice sessions.
"I'm optimistic," Schouman said. "I know we've had OTAs in the past where we were significantly involved in the passing game, but I think we'll have a chance to make positive contributions this year."
With four quarterbacks rolling through the lineup during team work in 7-on-7 and 11-on-11, it can be difficult to develop chemistry with all of the signal callers, but Schouman believes he has a good working relationship with each one.
"Obviously you've had more reps with some than others, but at this point in the spring I feel like I have had a good number of reps with each of the quarterbacks and because of that I think I have a good rapport with all four of them," said Schouman.
According to Schouman, in an effort to help their fellow offensive players, the quarterbacks have tried to keep their pre-snap cadence relatively the same so as to avoid having their teammates jump offsides.
"The good thing is they sound pretty similar and they're trying to keep things as consistent as possible from one to the next," said Schouman.
Wood updateEvans confirmed after Tuesday's practice that Eric Wood did participate in team work with the rest of the starting offensive line, and knowing how essential stability is up front the number one receiver was glad to see the former first-round pick back in the fold, even if it wasn't full time.
"Those two young guys Eric and (Andy) Levitre played really, really well last year with Geoff (Hangartner) up front," said Evans. "They have a real good chemistry with Geoff so right now that's about that's as solid as we've got right now. So it's good to see Eric back in there with the unit and getting some reps and getting comfortable with what we've got going in."
HighlightsTo watch exclusive highlights of Tuesday's final voluntary OTA practice you can go to the media lounge of Buffalobills.com.
ScheduleThe Bills will begin their final set of spring practices Wednesday as the club's mandatory minicamp begins. The team has a pair of practices scheduled for 10:55 am and 3:45 pm.
