The Bills set the tone for the week early. Injuries to several of their key pieces set to make the 53-man roster forced their hand to abandon using any starters in the preseason finale against the Panthers on Saturday.
Instead, the Bills were focused on getting all their starters all the reps they needed for the week in practice. And with Tuesday and Wednesday being the two fully padded practices of the week, that led to a lot of 11-on-11 work — a lot more than the Bills had done in previous training camp practices. But those two high-intensity practices yielded a lot to chew on as roster cuts are due in under a week.
Here’s what we learned from their final full week of practice as a 90-man roster.
Cole Bishop, Mike Edwards trending in the right direction
Since the first few days of training camp, the Bills have remained in wait-and-see mode at the safety position. Locked-in starting strong safety Taylor Rapp has remained healthy enough to practice throughout the summer. However, two of their top options to start at free safety, rookie Cole Bishop and veteran Mike Edwards, have been out since late July. Their other option, Damar Hamlin, suffered a hamstring injury during the joint practice with the Steelers last week and hasn’t practiced since. But for the first time in some time, the Bills got good news at safety. Bishop and Edwards returned to practice this week.Bishop (shoulder) was in a red non-contact jersey during practice on Tuesday and Wednesday, while Edwards (hamstring) sat out Tuesday before making his return on Wednesday. Neither player did anything other than positional drills, and they both watched from the sideline during 11-on-11 work. Regardless, it is a massive step in the right direction for a team searching for their answer to be the starter next to Rapp. With just over two weeks until the regular season begins, Bishop and Edwards now have to prove that they are healthy enough, get the time on task necessary in practice, and have a grasp on the defense despite an overall lack of practice time and no in-game action. If they aren’t, it might be Hamlin, if healthy, or defensive back Cam Lewis starting next to Rapp to open up the year.
The Tyler Bass struggles continue
The Bills might have a brewing problem with kicker Tyler Bass. Against the Steelers, Bass nailed all three of his attempts, which was a much-needed confidence boost, even if the attempts were only from 27, 26 and 31. The internal hope had to be that it was the start of Bass turning it around as they near the regular season. Things have not gone according to plan. Over the last two practices, Bass has made 8 of his 14 attempts in team drills, which is not ideal but doesn’t sound as bad as when you dig deeper into those numbers.Bass went a perfect 3-for-3 from under 35 yards, with hits from 33, 28 and 33 yards out. But when Bass tried from 40 yards or longer, he was only 5-of-11. He went 3-of-6 on those kicks on Tuesday and 2-of-5 on Wednesday. The makes were from 43, 47, 44, 40 and 48 yards. The misses were from 47, 47, 44, 42, 42 and 40 yards. Bass did not attempt a single field goal that was at least 50 yards long. On both days, general manager Brandon Beane went on the field around 30-40 yards directly behind Bass to get a good view of each kick. The struggles have not been new, having persisted most of training camp. And now only two weeks out of the regular season, the Bills have the dilemma of what to do with a struggling kicker who has a dead cap hit of $4.32 million this year if they cut him, with an extra $3 plus million in dead cap added to 2025 if that’s the route they take. The Bills will likely have to keep Bass because of his contract. But with all these struggles, unless things change, don’t be surprised if they prioritize signing a kicker to the practice squad in a week.
Injuries to Damar Hamlin (left) and Quintin Morris (right) are just two of the multiple injuries that complicate cutdown day. (Tina MacIntyre-Yee / USA Today)
IR moves and strategy
The rash of injuries that could keep a handful of players out weeks has put the Bills in a difficult position. In-season management of injuries is always a challenge and a necessary component of life in the NFL, but teams don’t usually have to deal with it to this scale heading into cutdown day. Another complicating factor is the cutdown day timeline. In 2021, the NFL removed cutdown day from Labor Day weekend and placed it on the Tuesday before that holiday weekend. While it’s good for players and staff to recharge before their first game week begins that Monday, that means five fewer days of injury rehabilitation information, forcing teams to project forward more with big decisions. This is especially true for the Bills in 2024.Several players are dealing with injuries described as either “week-to-week” or expected to miss “multiple weeks.” The “week-to-week” group includes wide receiver Curtis Samuel (turf toe), linebacker Baylon Spector (calf) and safety Damar Hamlin (hamstring). The “multiple weeks” group consists of wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling (neck), quarterback Mitchell Trubisky (knee) and tight end Quintin Morris (shoulder). Throw in linebacker Matt Milano, and you have more than an entire inactive list for a single game week. The challenge here is which of these players will need to go to injured reserve on or after cutdown day, putting them out at least four weeks in the regular season.
This year, a new rule for cutdown day allows teams to place two players on in-season injured reserve as part of their moves to get to 53. In past years, they would have had to bring those players to the initial 53-man roster and then put them on injured reserve. The new rule allows teams to skip a step and not force them to release a vested veteran, only to re-sign those veterans two days later. That will help most teams, but it may not help the Bills in 2024 because they can only do that with two players. That brings further cutdown day strategy into the equation.
Milano will clearly be one of those two, as he’ll be out for months, but there are at least three others that the Bills could consider putting on IR. The out “multiple week” trio of Valdes-Scantling, Trubisky and Morris would be the likeliest options. With Valdes-Scantling, a neck injury is always a scary thing to navigate for players and teams. Trubisky appeared to be moving very gingerly at practice this week, and sported a sizable brace on his knee on Wednesday. Plus, Morris getting “further evaluation” on his injury could be an ominous clue to his immediate future. It would not be a surprise if all four landed on IR to begin the year, which puts the Bills in a bind around final cuts if they want to keep all with the eligibility to return later in the year. It would force them to do two vested veteran cuts, only to bring them back for the 53-man roster later in the week.
Depending on who is a part of their short-term IR plan, there aren’t a ton of options of vested veterans with a small amount of dead cap in 2024 on their current deals. The most obvious one is long snapper Reid Ferguson, who they’ve used for that move in the past. Fullback Reggie Gilliam is possible, though his dead cap is over $400,000. The rest of the group would include players squarely on the bubble — defensive end Casey Toohill, linebacker Deion Jones, defensive tackle DeShawn Williams and wide receiver Andy Isabella. Linebacker Nicholas Morrow is also a bubble candidate, but his dead cap is substantially higher at $750,000. The Bills may need to have plans and sub-plans for cutdown day depending on what their medical team is telling them.
