Bills GM Brandon Beane gives clues about Tre’Davious White, talks Maxwell Hairston’s future
Plus, where Jordan Phillips and Jordan Poyer fit into the Bills' plans.
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With their roster down to 53 players and the addition of their practice squad to begin the year, the Bills are officially on to the regular season. There is only a week and a half until the Bills take on the Ravens on ‘Sunday Night Football,’ with the eyes of the football world on them as they begin the 2025 campaign.
Before all that, the Bills and general manager Brandon Beane met with the media to discuss the process of getting down to 53 players and other notable pieces of their roster puzzle heading into the regular season.
Here’s what stood out most from the final day at One Bills Drive before Week 1 begins.
Mum’s the word on Tre’Davious White
After the Bills went through all their cuts and roster moves, the first thing brought up in Beane’s news conference had everything to do with starting cornerback Tre’Davious White. In the final practice of training camp, White went down with what the team described as a lower leg injury, and he left the team’s stadium practice prematurely. White did not travel with the team to their preseason game in Tampa Bay, and in their lone practice of the week on Wednesday, White was not visible during the portion of the session the media is permitted to see. White did appear after practice in the fieldhouse and in the locker room. He walked around under his own power. White was asked to speak with reporters on Wednesday, but he declined to comment.White not speaking to the media was a similar strategy to that of Beane. The Bills haven’t offered much about White’s prognosis since the injury occurred last week, and that continued despite it being the first topic of conversation in Beane’s news conference.
“We’re rehabbing him as much as we can. Tre’s got a great attitude, he’s attacking it, and really, other than that, we’re just going to take it day by day, I guess, and kind of see where that goes,” Beane said. “I’m sure as we get into next week, Wednesday, I think, is the first day that an injury report will be due. So we’ll see what it is. Whether he can practice any or not or what that looks like at that time.”
Beane was asked what their plan B was if White couldn’t practice or play next week. The GM said that they have other guys they believe in on both their 53-man roster and practice squad — likely referring to the trio of Ja’Marcus Ingram, Dorian Strong and practice squad player Dane Jackson. Even though the Bills kept information at a minimum, we did at least learn two things from Beane.
The first is that White’s lower leg injury is not a season-ending one. If you were to postulate their internal prognosis on the still unnamed injury, White not starting the year on Injured Reserve could be perceived as a positive that the team doesn’t expect him to be out for the four games he would have to miss. The second is that Beane did not rule White out for Week 1, which also can be interpreted as a positive. That means they are, at the very least, thinking he has a chance to suit up against the Ravens. That would support the notion that keeping White away from IR to begin the year means they think he can be ready within the first four games. Being mostly quiet about the specifics outside of those notes could be a bit of gamesmanship from Beane to keep a difficult Week 1 opponent like the Ravens guessing, that White’s ability to play in Week 1 remains genuinely up in the air, or perhaps a mixture of the two.
The notion that White avoiding IR to begin the year means they are hoping to get him back within the first four games could easily be their plan. Though, for what it’s worth, teams are only allowed to use two designated-to-return IR spots at the time of final cuts to get to the 53-man roster, and the Bills used them on rookie Maxwell Hairston and second-year offensive tackle Tylan Grable. Until the Bills disclose White avoiding IR altogether as their expectation, nothing can be ruled out at this point — even if IR has been ruled out internally, which may very well be the case.
The Bills do not have another full practice until Wednesday of next week, just four short days in advance of the showdown with the Ravens. With so much time on their side, nearly another week before that practice, the Bills have to be keeping their fingers crossed that the rest and rehab will be able to get White on the field to begin the year.
Maxwell Hairston hasn’t practiced since July 29 because of an LCL sprain. (Gregory Fisher / Imagn Images)
The Bills’ hope for Maxwell Hairston?
What makes the cornerback situation such a focal point is that, in addition to the still somewhat mysterious White injury, the Bills haven’t had their first-round pick, Hairston, on the practice field since late July due to an LCL sprain in his knee. The Bills knew they had a decision on their hands at the time of final cuts about whether Hairston would begin the season on IR, which means that he must miss the first four weeks of the season. Perhaps there was some thinking that he could return by Week 4, though, ultimately, the Bills veered on the side of caution with their most significant draft investment of the offseason. Beane’s reasoning makes a great deal of sense for a player who barely practiced in full pads with the team this summer.“I would love for the docs in the medical team to say, yes, he is ready full go, but he’s not. And now you’re talking about, even if you’re ready to ramp him up soon, he hasn’t played football in over a month,” Beane said. “So you’re just trying to be smart… Let’s give him every chance. Let’s give him another, basically a month to get that much further healed, and we’ll rehab the heck out of it.”
Before final cuts, Hairston was spotted working out with the strength and conditioning staff along the sidelines during practices, so there has been some progress for the young cornerback. Although it was a difficult decision to take at least another four weeks of practice time away from Hairston, the Bills are clearly playing the long game with him. While there are no expectations of a return, the Bills did offer up some optimism that it won’t extend much further.
“We can start practicing him as soon as Week 5 begins. Obviously, no promises at this point, we’ll see where he’s at, but hopefully he’s ready to go at that point to at least start practicing is our goal,” Beane said.
The Bills can open up Hairston’s 21-day practice window that week, which would give them until the Oct. 22 range to activate him to the 53-man roster if their goal timeline is achieved. If Hairston takes the full practice window under that proposed plan, it would take his activation into Week 7 — the Bills’ bye week, which would be yet another week to ramp up without missing a game.
It is fair to wonder how much the Bills can really expect of Hairston upon his return to the 53-man roster. By that point, he’ll have a maximum of a few weeks of practices as his ramp-up, and after missing about two months of extremely formative practices to the roster, pushing him into the starting lineup too early could do more harm than good. The situation has been likened in the past to Cole Bishop’s injury that cost him most of his training camp practices as a rookie — though Bishop avoided IR and will have a four-week head start at least on Hairston’s potential return — and Bishop never cracked the starting lineup outside of some spot starts for injuries. Hairston also showed during his handful of camp practices that he likely needs some more polish before hitting the starting lineup. A lot will depend on the state of their cornerback room at the time and certainly how Hairston progresses during practice.
Jordan Poyer, Jordan Phillips here to help young players, but aren’t ruling out more
The Bills brought back two longtime members of the Sean McDermott and Beane years, when they signed the duo of defensive tackle Jordan Phillips and safety Jordan Poyer to the practice squad. Phillips will turn 33 during the season, while Poyer is 34, but the Bills felt strongly enough about their impact on the locker room and organization to bring them in for the full season. The Bills pulled a similar move late last year, when they brought back longtime starting safety Micah Hyde in early December to join their practice squad. Back then, McDermott made it very clear after the signing that Hyde would be in a mentor-only role, with no expectations to play — and they held true to those words through the playoffs, even as the Bills battled injuries at safety.Though Beane made it clear that the timing of the Phillips and Poyer signings coming so much earlier than Hyde in 2024 certainly changes the number of outcomes for the season.
“These are different. When you put them on now, you’ve got to prepare to play,” Beane said. “They’re selfless. Of course, they’re competitive. If their number’s called, they’re going to go out there and do their best. But they also understand, it’s do whatever it takes. Help a guy on practice squad. Help a guy on active. Help a guy prepare for an upcoming opponent.”
So while the Bills are putting the duo in more of a mentorship role to begin the process, there is an acknowledgment that it’s a long season, where injuries can quickly change the equation. Beyond that, with so many younger players making contributions to their individual positions, it can always yield some volatility throughout the year from a performance perspective.
However, that’s a long way from ever coming to fruition, because the Bills have the challenge of getting the two veterans in regular season shape without the benefits of continuous padded practices during training camp that irons a lot of that out for their roster. Phillips and Poyer did stay in shape while doing their own workout regimens, but in shape and football shape are two different animals. For now, Poyer and Phillips seem content to play the role of providing wisdom, but should the situation at their positions change drastically, the Bills made it known that, unlike the Hyde situation in 2024, they are not opposed to playing them in the regular season.