Analysis: Safety is now the Bills' primary concern
Bills safeties Taylor Rapp, left, and Cole Bishop have not been able to practice much together during training camp because of respective injuries.
The Buffalo Bills were spoiled for seven years.
From 2017-23, Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer patrolled the team’s secondary, becoming the best safety tandem in franchise history.
The pair knew the defense so well, they could teach it to the coaches if necessary.
Bills safeties Taylor Rapp, left, and Cole Bishop have not been able to practice much together during training camp because of respective injuries.
Joshua Bessex, Buffalo News
“To be a good defense, you’ve got to have that component of good safety play,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said this week.
As the Bills prepare for the 2025 season, safety is one of their primary concerns. The stability Poyer and Hyde provided has been replaced with uncertainty as injuries to projected starters Taylor Rapp (knee) and Cole Bishop (quad) have caused both to miss time during training camp.
That’s doubly problematic. Individually, each player is missing out on valuable reps, but collectively, they are missing time on task together at a position that demands chemistry and communication.
“The continuity between the two of them and pairing up – kind of like the Batman and Robin piece – it’s just experiencing things together,” McDermott said. “How did you see it? How did I see it? Being in the film room together, it’s huge, and we’re getting short on time.”
Bishop and Rapp returned to team work during Wednesday’s practice, which was a good first step. In their place while they were out, Damar Hamlin and Cam Lewis started Saturday’s first preseason game against the New York Giants at Highmark Stadium. Hamlin started 14 games last season and Lewis is a trusted veteran who knows the scheme. McDermott was quick to point out that they have been playing well when called upon and that the team has full confidence in them.
Rapp and Bishop, however, are listed as the starters on the team’s depth chart for a reason. Rapp has 66 career NFL starts in six seasons, including 18 over the past two years with the Bills.
Bishop, on the other hand, has started just five times in the NFL – four games in the regular season and once as a rookie in the playoffs. He missed valuable time during training camp last season because of a shoulder injury, and recently missed two weeks because of the quad injury.
As a second-round draft pick, there is more than just a hope that Bishop develops into a quality starter. It’s an expectation.
Will he become that?
It’s hard to say with any certainty at this point. Is he an elite athlete or merely a good one? Does he have the mental capacity to play safety in McDermott’s defense?
Nobody knows – including the coaching staff.
“It remains to be seen what he’s truly able to do and do for us,” McDermott said Tuesday. “There is some level of frustration, but it’s not the first time, right? You always deal with things this time of year, or through the course of a season, and you adjust.”
At the start of last season, McDermott named quarterback, middle linebacker and safety as the three hardest positions to learn at the NFL level, in his mind. The Bills are set at the first two with Josh Allen and Terrel Bernard, respectively. The third remains a work in progress.
“It’s not like Cole’s not wanting to be out there or not trying to be out there or he wants to be injured, that’s not it at all. He’s the exact opposite of that,” McDermott said. “That said, there is a piece of this that, hey, we don’t know because we haven’t seen enough at this point so it’s a little bit of a question mark right now in terms of the position overall, but it is an important position for a defense.”
A lot is put on the shoulders of the Bills’ safeties. In addition to the middle linebacker, they are responsible for communicating the defensive calls to the rest of the secondary.
McDermott expects a lot from his safeties, because it’s in his DNA. It’s the position he played in college, and it’s the position group he cut his teeth at the NFL level with the Philadelphia Eagles. While there, he coached an all-time great in Brian Dawkins, and learned what great safety play can mean for a defense.
That’s why he’s not lowering his standards even with Poyer and Hyde gone.
“That pairing up is critical, probably more than any position on the field, offensively, defensively,” he said. “If we want to be a good defense, you’ve got to have two safeties that can play football for you.”
Bishop declined an interview with The Buffalo News after Tuesday’s practice, saying he needed to lift and that he would be available Wednesday. When Wednesday came, however, he walked into the weight room with a trainer and a team public relations staffer said he was in the sauna and thus unavailable.
In a brief interview, Rapp’s frustration seemed evident.
“Obviously, you guys see us not out there on the field,” he said. “I've been banged up last week, he's been banged up the last two weeks, but you guys have no idea what's going on behind the scenes, how much time we're spending together, how many film sessions we’re doing, how many walk-throughs we're doing, so I feel great about our chemistry.”
Reviewing film and participating in walk-throughs comes with the job description of an NFL player, so it’s natural that Rapp and Bishop would do that. If Rapp believes anyone outside the team – either in the media or fan base – thinks he and Bishop aren’t working hard, he’s misguided. The sense of urgency is coming from the coaching staff.
“We obviously feel the urgency,” Rapp said. “We don't like to be out. We don't like to be injured. We don't like to not be getting reps, but like I said, we're doing everything we can.”
