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Bills welcome new faces, prep for Carolina trip

Three new faces joined the team for practice Sunday morning in Orchard Park as a journey south to practice and play the Panthers looms.

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The Bills took the field for practice Sunday morning in Orchard Park with a few notable changes.

Mitch Morse and Connor McDermott remained in concussion protocol, while five other players missed with various ailments, but the team did welcome back tight end Jason Croom in a limited capacity, as well as new additions Ryan Bates, Sam Acho, and Captain Munnerlyn, wearing E.J. Gaines' No. 26 after Gaines was placed on IR.

“The competitiveness, the toughness, he’s obviously played in this system before, so he has some familiarity with our system both inside the slot and out at corner," Bills coach Sean McDermott said of the now 11-year veteran with whom he has an extensive familiarity. "So we’ll see how he does and how he progresses here. He’s been out of it for a little bit so he’s got to play himself back into shape.”

Munnerlyn agreed: “I think the plan is to ease me in, but I think on Tuesday and Wednesday there’s no easing me in. I’m a competitor. I want to go down there and compete, and I just want to go out there and make plays. Show the guys, my new teammates, that I’m capable of making plays.”

On offense, the continued to shuffle with Jon Feliciano and Spencer Long exchanging reps at center. Despite the return of Croom, Tommy Sweeney saw most of the snaps at tight end with the first team and caught a pair of touchdowns from Josh Allen during the red zone portion of practice.

A large part of the offensive focus was on working jet action, jet action fakes, and wideout screens.

“We do a little bit of everything," wide receiver Cole Beasley said. "We mix it in here and there. Some days we’ll have a ton, some days we won’t have any. That’s just part of the work we get done and Dave wanting to try different things and see what all we can do, and see what we can handle, just to see how much we can do with this offense.”

The team has Monday off to travel to Spartanburg, South Carolina, for a pair of joint practices with the Carolina Panthers on Tuesday and Wednesday at Wofford College.

The next preseason game will be Friday night at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.

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