Edwards takes long view

Buffalo Bills quarterback Trent Edwards had his mind on December and January when he was working out in June and July. Like most NFL players, Edwards sought out extra conditioning work during the team's six-week break before the start of training camp. Edwards worked out with a trainer south of San Francisco with an eye toward having better endurance in 2009. "I feel the good guys who play this position -- the Peyton Mannings, the Drew Breeses, the Tom Bradys -- are guys who can play for 17 straight weeks and are ready to go when Week 13 or 14 comes. "It's not so much about right now. You're not necessarily going to notice I'm throwing the ball harder. It's more so when you hit that wall in Week 11, 12 or 13, when I still need to be moving around and throwing the ball with timing and with some velocity on it. That was kind of my focus this offseason. I tried to make sure my workouts would allow me to do that." Edwards showed up at the St. John Fisher training camp at the same weight as last year. He's listed at 231 pounds. But he adopted a workout regimen advocated by Brees, the Saints' star quarterback, that he thinks will benefit him. "I spent a long time with a gentleman that I was training with about four to five times a week up in Menlo Park [Calif.]," Edwards said. "His name is Ross Headley. He's at Fitness 101, and we were doing a lot of TRX, which is a system that I learned about through Drew Brees. It's sort of a strap system that incorporates all body weight and motion. It's really focused on flexibility and muscle strength. I really spent a long time working with him on those sorts of drills and exercises." The TRX system uses nylon straps, not weights, and it was devised by Navy SEAL Randy Hetrick. The straps use one's own body weight against gravity to strengthen muscles and correct imbalances between muscle groups. Brees began using it to recover from a shoulder injury in the 2007 offseason. Edwards had shoulder soreness at the end of last season. He had it checked out, and it was determined that minor swelling he experienced was part of normal wear and tear from the season. Edwards also spent a lot of time in the offseason on core training, something virtually all NFL players emphasize. Core training is the development of muscles that stabilize and move the trunk of the body. He worked on his lower body to help take strain off his passing arm. "I think the smaller muscles in my core and my quads and all over my body are stronger," he said. The Bills know they need a healthy Edwards. "We know when he was on the field last year we were 7-5, and when he wasn't we were 0-4, so we've got to keep him out on the field," coach Dick Jauron said. "He's a highly conditioned athlete. He takes it very seriously." Of course, part of injury prevention is luck. Edwards was KO'd from the Arizona game last year with a concussion on a hit from Cardinals safety Adrian Wilson that would have taken out any player in the league. Edwards missed 21/2 games late in the season with a groin injury. "I've never questioned his conditioning," Jauron said. "He's bigger and he's stronger. Again, one of the things that you need in our business, probably in any business, is a little luck and we need to be a little bit lucky there. "He's part of that. He's got to recognize things a little fast and he will. He's a year older and he works hard at it, he's got to get the ball out of his hands and we've got to take hits off of him. If we can do all of those things and get a little lucky then we've got a chance." e-mail: mgaughan@buffnews.com