NFL Notes: Bills, Broncos, Packers

Bills

Chris Brown of BuffaloBills.com writes that there are realistically just two candidates for the team’s starting middle linebacker job — Preston Brown and Reggie Ragland.

According to Brown, Preston appeared to have a leg up for the job right away, given that he’s played in a 4-3 system before at the ‘mike’ linebacker position, and was productive in doing so while Ragland hasn’t.

Even so, Ragland doesn’t sound like he’s rushing the learning process.

“There’s some that I still have to get used to,” said Ragland. “I never played in a 4-3 before, but I’m getting there and taking my time with it. I’m just asking all the questions that I can. It’s different from being out there and then just being in the classroom, learning. I’m just taking my time.”

Bills defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier floated the possibility of moving Ragland outside to get him on the field.

“We think he could potentially play outside,” Frazier said. “We have a limited sample size based on his rookie season and that was just training camp so you have to look at his college tape and project. Based on our projections we think he could play the middle linebacker position and one of the outside positions.”

Ragland added that a move outside won’t change much in terms of his approach to the game and his work ethic.

“If I do (move outside), that just means that I have to learn it,” said Ragland. “Just be a competitor. Just like I told the coaches, I will do whatever they need me to do to get on the field. If I have to do that, I will. I’m a competitor and I love this game. I love to play. If I’ve got to slide over, it’s not going to stop me from working my tail off every day.”

Broncos

Broncos WR Demaryius Thomas said he would like the team to make a decision regarding who will be their starting quarterback “about a week and a half into camp” and before their preseason game against the 49ers, per Mike Klis.

Thomas added that Paxton Lynch was “lighting it up” in the final weeks of offseason workouts.

“Trevor’s been speaking up more than Paxton,” Thomas said, per Klis. “You know, Paxton’s still young, and Trevor played a lot more last year. They both had their up and down days. I remember, Trevor’s been pretty cool the whole time, everybody has their days. Then the first couple weeks, you see Paxton — people were talking about it — but then the last couple of weeks where he was just out there lighting it up. It was like ‘Whoa, where did that come from?’”

Packers

The Packers signed WR Max McCaffrey to their practice squad during the latter portion of the 2016 season. McCaffrey is excited to now get an opportunity to compete for a roster spot during training camp and the preseason.

“That’s what I’ve been dreaming about since I was a little kid – playing in the NFL,” McCaffrey said, via Packers.com. “It was definitely an awesome experience and hopefully I can build off that. Really, what everyone is waiting for is to just get a chance.”

McCaffrey explained that having an opportunity to show the team what he can do during a full offseason is much different than joining a team’s taxi squad midseason.

“It’s a huge difference,” McCaffrey said. “I was on the practice squad, so it’s kind of weird. You just have to try to help the organization as much as possible. I tried to learn every play, learn everything and actually going through it and getting real reps with it (this offseason) has been very beneficial.”