Bill Wippert/AP
The Sammy Show
It might be a smidge too early to hand him the rookie of the year hardware, but wide receiver Sammy Watkins is generating buzz with the Bills. Plus, a reader mailbag with questions about the NFL in L.A. and another team name change
By Peter King
PITTSFORD, N.Y. — Over coffee Monday morning, Buffalo general manager Doug Whaley told me a story about first-round receiver Sammy Watkins reporting, alone, for an offseason practice at the Bills training center at 6:45 a.m. “He wanted to get his footwork that he’d been taught right,’’ Whaley said. “He was out there, alone, before anyone else got there. This is one dedicated player.”
You always want to be careful about rookies in training camp, particularly when it’s not even August, and particularly when they’re playing without full pads and thus not in full contact. So I reminded myself Monday afternoon, midway through Watkins’ second NFL training-camp practice, that this all meant nothing.
But Watkins owned this practice.
He showed why Whaley surrendered first- and fourth-round picks in the 2015 draft to move up five spots in the first round last May so the Bills could pick him. Smart? We’ll see. The price was beyond exhorbitant, particularly for a team that still plans to key its offense around the running game. Watkins’ talent is tantalizing. And for a team languishing in sub-mediocrity for the past 14 seasons, his arrival’s been like a B-12 shot: energizing.
Four plays, all in a span of about five minutes. I’ll tell you about four plays in an 11-on-11 scrimmageMonday afternoon, in Clemson-style summer heat and humidity here in central New York.
One: At the snap of the ball, the 6-1, 205-pound Watkins charged off the line at starting left corner Leodis McKelvin. He steamrolled McKelvin. Flattened him. As McKelvin fell, he dragged Watkins with him. Had this been a game, McKelvin would have been called for holding. Watkins was in the right, blasting McKelvin in the five-yard bump zone. And McKelvin did all he could, holding on for dear life and taking Watkins down with him.
Two: On the next snap, Watkins charged off the line and McKelvin gave him his space, and Watkins pivoted left, alone across the middle. McKelvin was six yards behind Watkins when E.J. Manuel found him, wide open, running free on a crossing route.
Watkins rose above everyone else in the first two days of Bills practice. (Bill Wippert/AP)
Three: Jittering off the line, Watkins got free of the corner (I didn’t see who it was) and Manuel lofted a perfect ball 35 yards down the right sideline into Watkins’ hands.
Four: In traffic over the middle, four players jumped for a high ball. Watkins, a good three feet off the ground, came down with it.
Watkins got poked in the eye late in practice and was down for a few moments. Good for the Bills he got up and seemed fine.
I don’t know if Manuel and Watkins are going to be able to keep up the playmaking pace. Manuel has to have faith in Watkins and second-year receiver Robert Woods to make plays down the field, even when they’re covered. We’ll see if he can do it. But on a broiling July Monday, Watkins was the goods. He has surprising power for a player his size, and he’s not afraid to use it, and he’s not intimidated by good veteran corners. I left here liking what I saw out of a player the Bills need desperately to catch the Patriots.
