I wrote an article after the Buffalo Bills played the New York Giants in the first week of the preseason. In it, I said the following:
“The biggest takeaways from preseason games usually revolves around how a specific player plays. It’s a qualitative conversation. The focus is on the quality of the passes they threw, the quality of the routes they ran, the quality of the reads they made, or the quality of the reps they took. And that’s awesome. It’s great to have actual (kind of) football to analyze again.
But the most predictive observations from preseason games doesn’t lie in the quality of the play on the field. Instead, it lies in where, when, and with whom the individual players play. The ‘official’ depth charts released by the team are largely PR items and essentially serve no purpose in helping us get a better idea of where a player falls on a depth chart or what the coaching staff thinks of them.
If a player is playing in the fourth quarter of the final preseason game alongside players that nobody assumed from the beginning of camp would actually make the team, that tells us something. Whether an offensive lineman gets all his preseason reps at left tackle instead of right tackle tells us something. If a receiver gets 100% of his reps alongside the starting quarterback, that tells us something. Put simply, ‘where, when, and with whom’ > ‘how’ when it comes to predictiveness and determining what the coaching staff thinks of a specific player.“
Even though the Bills got shellacked thoroughly by the Chicago Bears in one of the worst shutout losses in NFL preseason history just a few nights ago, there are still lessons to be learned about the 53-man roster decisions the coaching staff has looming and where their heads may be at during this time. Let’s dive into some observations from Buffalo vs. Chicago and the impacts those may have…
Mike White played (poorly) with the first team
One of the main items on my watch list for Bills-Bears was the QB2 battle and, specifically, the chronology of appearance for Mike White and Mitchell Trubisky. After Trubisky got 100% of the snaps with the first group against the Giants, I opined that if that phenomenon repeated itself, it signified that Trubisky was pretty much in the driver’s sheet for the backup quarterback job.
The former second-overall pick by (ironically) the Bears still looks to be in the driver’s seat, but not for the reason we may have thought. Mike White came in and played with the first group against Chicago, raising the flag that the QB2 battle was alive and well. He completed only four passes in 11 attempts, totaling 54 passing yards and taking two sacks.
Since the beginning of the offseason, my mantra has been “tie goes to the cheaper guy” — referring to the $1.5 million the team can save by cutting Trubisky, but right now it doesn’t appear to be a tie. There’s still another game to go and the team has seen a lot more reps than we have, but it’s trending toward another year of Trubisky as the backup.
Joshua Palmer played, Keon Coleman didn’t
The fact that a second-year player who was challenged by the team to improve didn’t get any reps in the second preseason game and was rested alongside the reigning NFL MVP is notable. The fact that he rested while the team’s top offensive free-agent signing played is even more noteworthy.
Joshua Palmer, Keon Coleman, and Khalil Shakir are locked in as the top three wide receivers for this team in 2025, but one of them is hurt, one of them rested, and the other one played. With both Palmer and Coleman seen as primarily outside receivers by the team, the fact that Keon didn’t play any snaps could mean the wheels are up for expectations of the former second-round pick and his projected role with the team may be bigger than anticipated.
Tyrell Shavers played with Elijah Moore; both played special teams
Tyrell Shavers was one of the story lines of the Bills’ first preseason game against the Giants, notably for his deep reception that brought the crowd to its feet. The question was whether or not his standing would elevate due to it, and whether he could be considered legitimate competition to post-draft free-agent addition Elijah Moore.
Shavers played simultaneously to Moore and didn’t linger in the game after Moore exited, showing them to be on equal footing in this game and perhaps in the coaching staff’s eyes for direct competition. In addition, their play on the field separated them, with Moore dropping passes that Shavers did not. Both Moore and Shavers played special teams snaps (an incredibly important item for receivers at the bottom of the depth chart), with Shavers covering punts and Moore taking a kickoff return.
Last week, the talk was about Shavers because of how he played. This week, the talk about Shavers making the team should be about when he played.
Jordan Hancock played safety in the first half, started second half at nickel before injury
One of the non-Shavers bright spots for the Bills coming out of the first preseason game was the play of rookie fifth-round pick Jordan Hancock, a utility defensive back playing safety. Hancock once again flashed on the field against the Bears prior to his shoulder injury, but again he played safety entirely in the first half.
When the second half started, Hancock was playing nickel for only two snaps prior to his injury. On the defensive backfield depth chart, many had Hancock in direct competition to backup Taron Johnson at nickel, but there’s a chance he’s the fourth or even third safety on the depth chart for this team behind starters Cole Bishop and Taylor Rapp, and that’s because…
Darrick Forrest isn’t likely coming to save safety woes, played only in second half
Considered by some to be slotted in at fourth the safety spot on the depth chart, the formerly ascending player hasn’t popped at all — be it in training camp reports or on the field during preseason. He’s essentially been a forgotten man in the defensive back room since signing with the Bills in free agency, and he didn’t see the field until the second half in a game where the list of playable individuals was short.
When it comes to prediction, if the player is playing alongside people who aren’t going to make the team, and they’re not flashing alongside those players who aren’t going to make the team, the chances of that player making the team are essentially zero. Even with the consternation surrounding Buffalo’s safety play, it doesn’t look like Forrest has the confidence of the coaching staff that he can be an answer.
…and that’s the way the cookie crumbles. I’m Bruce Nolan with Buffalo Rumblings. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @BruceExclusive and look for new episodes of “The Bruce Exclusive” every Thursday on the Rumblings Cast Network — see more in my LinkTree!
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