Buffalo Rumblings
At St. John Fisher University, there will be underrated Buffalo Bills players who string together multiple strong training camp practices en route to a buzz-generating summer.
This phenomenon happens every year at training camps across the NFL.
These are the underrated, bottom-half-of-the-roster Bills I expect to have quality camps which will be parlayed into larger roles during the 2026 season.
It’s now or never for Solomon who enters Year 3 after being selected by the Bills in the fifth round of the 2024 draft. Remember his collegiate campaign culminated with a 16-sack season Troy in 2023.
Solomon was always a strange fit as a defensive end in Sean McDermott’s defense, a scheme that prioritized size and length at the position, two clearly lacking aspects of Solomon’s physical profile — he’s listed at 6’1’ and 246 pounds.
But that frame is much closer to what Jim Leonhard presumably wants for the rush linebacker role in his scheme. He coached the 6’2”, 240-pound Nick Herbig at Wisconsin and was on the sidelines in Denver during the emergence of the 6’3, 248-pound Nik Bonitto.
Solomon has appeared on 12.1% and 19.8% of Buffalo’s defensive snaps in his first two seasons, and by now, he’s likely amassed NFL-caliber strength so he’s not as easily overwhelmed in the run game.
Then again, I believe Solomon’s splash plays in camp will come as one of the few designated pass rushers (on the outside) on Buffalo’s roster. Despite being on the small / short side for the position, Solomon’s arm length is in the 65th percentile for the EDGE position.
Do I expect Solomon to earn a starting rush linebacker gig after St. John Fisher University this summer? No. But this is when he makes enough of an impact there to earn spot duty as a pass-rush specialist in the regular season.
Going out on a limb here, as I don’t know a ridiculous amount about Wheeler, and he was just added to the Bills roster in mid June.
I don’t adore the RB3 options currently on the Bills roster — and wrote a column about why I believe Ty Johnson should be Buffalo’s RB2 ahead of Ray Davis in 2026.
Frank Gore Jr. did catch a pass in the wild-card win over the Jaguars. I’m not quite ready to predict a giant leap forward for him as a runner.
I’m not completely done with Ray Davis, either. But close. I think his best path to contributing on the Bills is as a returner. Without a veteran signing or even a late-round draft selection at running back, Wheeler has as good of an opportunity to earn an eventual spot on a gameday roster as any mid-June acquisition.
Here’s the type of athlete the Bills got in Wheeler, who won the UFL United Bowl MVP just a few months ago:
Dude can scoot and has NFL-caliber juice once he touches the football.
I expect Wheeler to be a training camp...
