Bills have glaring need as trade deadline nears and an idea for James Cook: Bye week thoughts
Plus, the Bills are in a precarious situation at cornerback.
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After a loss in Atlanta — their second straight — the Buffalo Bills enter their week away from football with a 4-2 record. With how the season began, it certainly feels like a lost opportunity to take a stronghold of the AFC.
Instead, the Bills head to their Week 7 bye in second place in the AFC East, though they’re still in a playoff position at No. 5 — the top Wild Card spot. And with a chance to re-center, they’ve got plenty of things to work through before their return.
We’ve got a lot to get to, so let’s dive in. Here are seven Bills bye week thoughts.
1. Several cases for positional deadline targets, but one stands out most
The Bills have a relatively early bye compared to the rest of the NFL, and with it, they’ll get their week of self-reflection well ahead of the trade deadline on Nov. 4. Although an early bye is less than ideal from a player rest standpoint — the Bills will have 11 straight weeks of football without break — it does help with the team’s evaluation. Whether it’s due to player performance or injury, the Bills have several areas they could consider improving at the trade deadline. Taking the week to think through problems enables them to troubleshoot their roster, see how it performs with those changes over two games against the Panthers in Week 8 and the Chiefs in Week 9, then decide on a trade by Tuesday of Week 10.The Bills have several positions to work through. Injuries have impacted three positions: defensive tackle, cornerback and safety. Most of those issues stem from the depth, although an argument could be made for the Bills to target a cornerback or safety to help bolster their starting lineup. Regardless, the Bills have remained relatively loyal to their starting secondary over the years. Even when they could have made a change at safety late last year, the Bills stuck with their all-year starting duo for the postseason. Plus, the Bills have been ardent supporters of cornerback Tre’Davious White throughout this season, and there’s also the potential for rookie first-round pick Maxwell Hairston to join the 53-man roster at some point from Injured Reserve.
You can poke holes in all three of those positions, but the one spot on the roster I keep coming back to is a bona fide starting wide receiver. Over the last two weeks, the Bills have faced two different defensive coverage approaches, but they share a common thread. The Patriots played a heavy amount of man coverage while blitzing most of the time. The Falcons blitzed frequently and played mostly zone coverage. The commonality between the two, whether that’s the Patriots believing their one-on-one coverage was superior to the talent across from them, or the Falcons taking a coverage piece off the chessboard without fear of repercussions of getting beaten, all comes back to the Bills’ receivers.
The Bills aren’t winning in the intermediate range, and they aren’t challenging defenses consistently enough deep down the field. Without another piece that defenses have to account for, it allows opponents to creep into the box against the run and play the matchup with little concern that the Bills’ receivers will burn the weak spot of their defense. The same thing happened to the Bills in 2024, and they sent a third-round pick to get Amari Cooper. It was an imperfect fit, given he was best suited at Keon Coleman’s position and the Bills had plenty of depth there, and it worsened as Cooper suffered an injury and never became more than a bit player in the offense. Just because it went poorly last time shouldn’t persuade the Bills to stay away from a receiver again in a trade. If anything, the Bills should be more willing to put a more worthwhile draft pick into a deal to get an impact player with term on their deal and youth.
2. Why I can’t seem to get Chris Olave out of my head
There will be other names that will come to the surface as the trade deadline gets closer because, naturally, teams will have three more games to determine if they’re going to be sellers in 2025. There are a handful of surefire sellers this season already, and the Saints are one of them. And if the Bills want to put a serious asset in a trade to acquire an impactful, young receiver, Chris Olave should be at or near the top of their list if he’s available.Here’s what we know about the Bills receiver room right now. Khalil Shakir, their slot receiver, isn’t going anywhere. They won’t give up on Keon Coleman’s development anytime soon, and he plays their X-receiver role more often than not. With the inconsistency and injuries to Joshua Palmer and Curtis Samuel, finding an impact Z receiver who can separate, win the ball in the air, run crisp routes and uncover in short, intermediate and deep parts of the field should be the top priority. That pretty much sums up Olave’s skill set, who earns targets at an immensely high rate. Among wide receivers this season, only Puka Nacua, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Drake London have earned targets more often than Olave, who has a target rate of 29.8 percent this season.
He also fits into what the Bills usually look for in a trade target, given that he doesn’t turn 26 until June. That piece is important, and so is having roster control past 2025, especially if they’re giving up a premium draft resource, and Olave offers that. The Saints already picked up Olave’s fifth-year option for 2026, so he’s under contract for a manageable $15.5 million next year. The Bills would then get a full year-and-a-half to decide if they’d like to invest in a long-term deal with him around the same time as deciding on a second deal for Coleman, giving them multiple outs.
If there’s one thing that might drive his cost down a bit, it’s Olave’s injury history, but he’s been healthy all season and playing at an extremely high level. Although there is some risk involved, Olave would provide the Bills with the precise talent profile the receiver room is lacking, a high ceiling for room to grow in this offense, and the youth and term the Bills would crave in a medium-sized swing like Olave. Most importantly, it would give Josh Allen his most legitimate receiving target since Stefon Diggs, and as we’ve seen this season, that’s mightily important to the health of their offense.
Defensive tackle Deone Walker #96 has had a big impact in his rookie season.Elsa / Getty Images
3. Deone Walker is well ahead of schedule
I can certainly admit when I’m wrong, and I was wrong about fourth-round rookie defensive tackle Deone Walker. Back at the draft, I wasn’t sure of the pick, or the fit of the one-technique position they were trying to have him play. And while he still has room to improve and had some regrettable moments against the Falcons, he still made some impactful plays and he has been on a consistent upward trajectory, taking to the one-technique role well enough and making more and more plays every week. Without question, he has been one of the Bills’ top two most impactful rookies, with only fifth-round rookie tight end Jackson Hawes having near Walker’s impact.Walker has had to play the starter role over the last five weeks due to injury, and it might wind up going for longer than that after DaQuan Jones popped his calf in warmups on Monday. The timetable for Jones is unknown outside of “week-to-week,” but hearing the descriptor as “popped” for a muscle injury is never a good thing, and Jones could miss some time. Walker may be the future and present at one-technique, but the Bills will have to figure out who his primary backup will be. Larry Ogunjobi is more of a three-technique than a one, and the same goes for Jordan Phillips. They could promote Zion Logue — a one-technique — to the 53-man roster if Jones is out long enough, too.
4. Fans want a safety, but what will the team do?
As Bijan Robinson was running all over the Bills on Monday night, the poor tackling issues crept up once again, and the starting safety duo of Taylor Rapp and Cole Bishop were the key characters. Between that and some of the coverage hangups they’ve had this season, it’s been a constant source of questioning through six games as to whether or not the Bills will make a change. Though if we can learn anything from the past, it’s that the Bills have not been eager to have a newcomer immediately take snaps at safety, so if a change happens, it’s best to look within.It’s fair to bring up 2024, because the Bills had similar criticisms throughout the year, but did not move to replace Rapp or then starter Damar Hamlin during the season unless one of them was injured. Hamlin was worse last year than either Rapp or Bishop has been this year, which is an important distinction. However, at the same time, 2025 is different because the primary backup last year was Bishop, who had little experience, and this year, it may well be Jordan Poyer before long, who has seven years of starting experience in this defensive scheme.
Despite his age and that he isn’t the same player he once was, Sean McDermott showed a lot of fire when talking about how Poyer had been practicing. A spot on the 53-man roster might not be too far away with Hamlin on IR and potentially out long term. And if Poyer is on the main roster, I certainly couldn’t rule out him finding his way back to starter’s snaps, given the history. While I don’t think it would be for Bishop, who they believe in long-term, it wouldn’t be a shock if Rapp were susceptible to replacement.
5. An idea to switch up the RB work and keep Cook on the field
In the midst of a game in which the Bills struggled to move the ball and score, going back to a heavy role for backup running back Ty Johnson left many wondering why. It’s a fair critique. Cook has been outstanding this year, and Johnson hasn’t been as effective or explosive as he was over the last two years. The Bills have been choosing to take Cook off the field in many third-down situations, though it doesn’t make a great deal of sense given the talent disparity.The Bills could try to switch things up as they return from the bye. Rather than taking Cook off the field on critical third-down opportunities, perhaps they can spell him a bit more on first or second downs here and there, which would get a bit more time to Ray Davis rather than Johnson. That way, Cook is still playing a heavy amount of snaps that includes third downs, Davis is more involved and Johnson can shift more into a special teams-centric role. It became clear against the Falcons that each time Cook was off the field, they weren’t nearly as effective, so this could help solve some of the team’s problems.
6. Playing with fire at cornerback
The Bills have mostly gotten away with it, but over the last four games, they’ve only gone in on game day, by choice, with three boundary cornerbacks available to them. Though, as they’ve suffered two significant injuries to Hairston and Dorian Strong, we saw how flimsy that is. When Ja’Marcus Ingram had to enter the game, big plays happened for the Falcons. First, he was blocked out of the way on Robinson’s 81-yard touchdown dash, and then he fell in coverage in the near-disaster-almost-touchdown play at the end of the first half with the Falcons playing for a field goal.Had something happened to Benford and White, the Bills would have had to use Ingram and a player out of position — likely Cam Lewis — just to get by in the game. The Bills could use a depth improvement for Ingram, and consider having four on game days. Hairston, should his health progress soon, could wind up being that depth player if all goes well. This would be a humongous boost. McDermott mentioned that opening Hairston’s 21-day practice window is a possibility.
7. The Bills finally snapped a ridiculous punting streak
It’s only right to end my bye week thoughts before some time off with a pretty unbelievable punting statistic. The Bills, as most know, have had three punters in six games. But between Brad Robbins, Cameron Johnston and now Mitch Wishnowsky, the Bills failed to hit a relatively common feat until their final punt against the Falcons. On the Bills’ 19th punt that counted in 2025, a Bills punter hit 50 yards on one attempt in the air for the first time this season. Wishnowsky’s final attempt hit exactly 50. The only other non-Bills punters in 2025 who do not have a long of more than 50 yards is Arizona’s Pat O’Donnell, who has only played one game and has a long of 49. Not seeing a punt go for 50 yards in the air in their first 18 tries is really something. All three Bills punters have been around a net average of 38 yards, which isn’t great. Johnston is on injured reserve, and the Bills could make yet another move at punter this season.Programming note: With the bye week and a lost day due to the Bills’ last game happening on Monday, there will not be any written All-22 Bills grades this week. The film will still be graded and tallied into season-long GPAs, and will return following the Panthers game in Week 8.
