Buffalo Rumblings
The Buffalo Bills had one of the best games in the history of Highmark Stadium for its farewell season opener. That’s 52 years of existence and history. This game certainly can make the case as one of the best.
There were some young guys forced into action early for the Bills with plenty of mixed results over the course of the ball game. Obviously, the entirety of the defense had a rough outing outside of some takeover moments from veteran defensive tackle Ed Oliver that changed Buffalo’s fortune.
Rookies aren’t regularly part of a Super Bowl hopeful’s team success as early as Week 1 — especially when the opponent is the preseason Super Bowl favorite with a buzzsaw offense and a potential top-five defense in the league. Let’s talk about how the rookies performed and where we’re at with others who may not have participated.
The Bills made the decision at cutdown time to place Maxwell Hairston, the team’s first-round draft choice, on Injured Reserve (IR) with designation to return. Hairston should hit the ground running come Week 5 when he’s eligible to return. When he actually returns to the lineup to receive run with the defense remains to be seen. The Bills’ starting cornerbacks played 100% of snaps on Sunday night. But there’s no doubting the team is lacking back-end speed that could be much needed for a squad that looked slow against the Ravens.
Sanders played 16 total snaps on Sunday. He logged a pressure that forced Lamar Jackson out of the pocket once. As was the case for most of the defense, he was sealed or washed too many times Sunday night. There’s no doubting that Sanders has very good pass-rushing upside, but the Bills will need more from him down-to-down in terms of holding his ground in run support. If that fails, his snaps won’t increase throughout the season. Let’s give him some time to improve as his NFL reps steady.
2024 6th-round selection Javon Solomon got the nod for a jersey over Jackson on Sunday. Jackson had struggles in the preseason as a pass rusher while Solomon certainly supplies some juice as a situational pass rusher. Solomon didn’t perform at a high level and clearly struggled against Baltimore’s run game. That makes the decision to keep Solomon over Jackson a bit puzzling with Jackson’s size, length, and ability to lock out and hold up against a dynamic rushing attack.
We’ll see if Jackson works his way into the lineup at any point, but keep in mind that the Bills are without Michael Hoecht and Larry Ogunjobi for six games due to suspension. It’s a very early marker, but it’s certainly not encouraging to see Jackson a healthy inactive with multiple players shelved.
Walker earned himself a jersey on game day logging 13 snaps out of a possible 51 for the defense. Walker was relatively quiet in this game and...
