Buffalo Rumblings
The Buffalo Bills are doing their best to prevent the next few weeks from being “the dog days of summer”
The ribbon cutting on New Highmark Stadium is next week, and the buzz surrounding the team’s first new stadium since 1972 will help to make the time between mandatory minicamp and training camp a little less boring than it might be in a “normal” (read as: non-stadium opening) year. In order to gain alignment with the ebb and flow of seasonal content, what better time is there to go through a 53-man roster prediction?
Here’s the truth: these types of exercises have been less exciting for the Buffalo Bills (and for me as an author) recently, because there’s less mystery. My wife doesn’t really like reading thriller books or murder mysteries as much as she used to because she can usually guess the ending. That’s not to say I’m going to get all of it right (in fact, I likely won’t), but the spots that are “up for grabs” with a team that’s been a playoff team and conference championship contender for the better part of a decade are fewer than they were during the drought years. These open roster spots are also notably lower on the depth chart. The Bills have a open and public left guard competition, an injury at linebacker that seemingly opens the door for a rookie, and a highly-drafted scheme fit at cornerback who might make noise against a previous first-rounder. To be honest, though, some of what I just mentioned might just be me (or us) attempting to fill a vacuum with more intrigue than is warranted.
Whatever the case, the Bills still have to make roster decisions, and evaluating when these roster bubble players are on the field during the preseason and with whom they play alongside will help us gain further accuracy into our roster prediction. Let’s start with mine:
Quarterback – 2
Josh Allen
Kyle Allen
Along with tight end, this room might be the easiest to predict.
Running Back – 4
James Cook
Ray Davis
Ty Johnson
Ben VanSumeran
The “tailback” part of this room seems highly likely to be run back with the same cast of characters as 2025. The question is twofold: 1. do they keep a full back and 2. who will it be? Given undrafted free agent Jackson Acker’s missed practice time and the Bills’ history of fullback usage under Joe Brady, I’m going with an affirmative answer alongside VanSumeran for this projection.
Wide Receiver – 6
DJ Moore
Khalil Shakir
Keon Coleman
Joshua Palmer
Skyler Bell
Trent Sherfield
Moore, Shakir, Coleman, Palmer, and Bell seem to be the clear top five on the roster, though some rumblings (pun intended) of a Palmer release have started to percolate. Given the criticisms lobbied at the wide receiver room over the last few years, I’m going to leave him on this roster and assign the sixth spot to a proven special teams player (a necessary component of any...
