Tyler Bass has been in a process, but about to join practice

Pittsford, N.Y. (WGR 550) - Tyler Bass has spent a lot of time on the Growney Stadium field during training camp while the Buffalo Bills have been on the practice fields. On Tuesday Special Teams Coordinator Jeff Rodgers spoke with the media. Rodgers spent the last eight seasons as Special Teams Coordinator of the Arizona Cardinals. Bass missed last season with a sports hernia. Rodgers said with Bass,

"We just go step-by-step with it and try to put him environments that he's going to be in, we build from there. We've done some individual and team stuff, but it hasn't worked out for us to be on the field quite yet, but that will happen later on this week and then again at the stadium.

"I don't think you skip steps, it starts from ground zero and he's working with two new holders right now (Mitch Wishnowsky and Tommy Doman) and that's a part of that comfort, so it's going to be a rep thing, but he looks like he did on tape and everything is going well so far."

Bass said, "The body's feeling good, we're excited to get back and the process has been really kind of recovering, strengthening."

Everything for Bass in camp has been by design, but it may not be for the reason you're thinking,

"It has been by design," Rodgers said. "It's not 'Don't let him kick just yet,' there's a finite number of things that we can get done on the field and field goal protection is not going to be as competitive in practice as it is in a game, so we take advantage of the walk through time because of the tempo that it requires, but at some point guys have got to start working on that stuff."

Bass said he's worked really hard and is ready to go. The problem for Bass was he tried to kick through it, but his symptoms just wouldn't go away. He said,

"I finally had an answer to the problem and I knew it was going to be a hard recovery, it was hard to get out of bed for a couple of weeks, but once I got through that I showed myself and my body that I can do anything."

Bass has never been injured so this was all new territory. He said,

"This is a situation I've never been in being injured, but I'm grateful for how they handled it and I'm grateful for (Matt) Prater too coming in and I learned a lot from him."

To start Bass won't have a huge home field advantage because of the new stadium. His coach said for kickers it's not that big a deal,

"NFL kickers are used to going to a stadium that they're not really familiar with when they play on the road. There's going to be things that guys acquire knowledge over time and there will be times once we get back to Orchard Park where the specialists can go over there at certain times of the day and work on their craft."

Rodgers admitted that of course, Ray Davis will be one of there kick returners, but the punt returning job is wide open. He said,

"We do have to figure it out and it doesn't always come down to who has the best skillset with the return job. You hope it does, but your roster has to be able to accommodate that. Sometimes it's is this roster spot worth it if it's the only thing that he does, but you also have to have people back there that you trust."

Bass gave his No. 2 to D.J. Moore, but he declined to say if there was anything hr got from Moore to give up his number. Bass said he is now No. 2 because he wore it in college at Georgia Southern.