The Bills had their first minicamp under new head coach Doug Marrone this week and the holdovers from the Chan Gailey era liked the changes that the new coaching staff have implemented.
Marrone told his players not to walk from one drill to another during workouts this week and jumped into drills to snap the ball to quarterbacks. Offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett was spotted giving hip bumps to players after successful plays, something that wasn’t going on under the previous regime. Running back Fred Jackson said he loved the way practices were being conducted, noting that coaches wanted players to be excited in particular.
“There’s a huge difference,” Jackson said, via Tim Graham of the Buffalo News. “You don’t want to take anything away from that coaching staff last year, but these coaches want us to be excited. You sometimes get coaches who don’t want that. They want you to act like you’ve been there before. This coaching staff is about loving to play this game and want our guys to have fun. We only get to play this game for so long in our lives. You should enjoy it.”
Defensive end Mario Williams also enjoyed the different methods Marrone and company brought to the field with them, saying that the Bills needed the kind of changes that the new staff have brought with them. Enthusiasm doesn’t guarantee anything — there are signs on the practice field reminding players not to confuse effort with results — but it certainly doesn’t hurt for a team that looked like they needed a jolt of energy as they lost seven of their final 10 games in 2012.