Jordan Poyer shows off social distancing 'trackers' Bills players wear

NFL training camp have started, but smartly, the league is walking on eggshells while doing so.

Over the past few days, the Bills and other teams in the NFL have started to trickle back into team facilities for the start of training camp. But nothing is the same for players and team employees now as compared to a year ago. In fact, Bills safety Jordan Poyer called it a “night and day” difference.

Well first things first, the Bills are not doing training camp at St. John Fisher College in Pittsford this year. Due to COVID-19 related concerns, the NFL mandated that all teams hold camp at their home facility. The league and players union also agreed upon implementing safety precautions throughout camps to keep players safe as well.

Many of those are ones that are expected. In many cases, the safety steps the Bills are taking are ones that everyone else uses each and every day. Some of those include getting tested for coronavirus, wearing masks and social distancing. But in terms of the Bills and their social distancing, the team is taking it to the next level.

During his press conference on Monday, speaking of which, it was done over video chat with the media in an effort to proceed with caution, Poyer showed off a shiny new… wrist thing.

Let’s start here: Poyer showing it off on video:

So the next question… what on earth are these watch-looking things?

According to Poyer, players enter the team facility and have a drive-up COVID-19 test they conduct. From there, upon walking in, everyone in the building puts one of these on their wrist. It helps everyone at One Bills Drive take social distancing to the next level. Whenever one of these watches come within six feet of another, it lets you know to be sure everyone in the Bills’ facility is keeping the recommended six feet away from each other.

“It is a lot different,” Poyer said. “Just taking those precautions to be healthy when the season starts.”

In addition to trackers and testing, Poyer mentioned other efforts the team is raking, including an empty locker in between ones in use, meals are eaten outside, meetings are no longer held in smaller classes, rather much larger areas like the team’s field house, and even when players are running sprints, they’re required to be five yards apart from one another.