With the six-week dead portion of the NFL offseason now upon us, the eyes of all football fans are set firmly on training camp. The multi-week events commence around the league late next month, with the Buffalo Bills' training camp set to kick off on July 24 at Rochester’s St. John Fisher University.
Next month’s camp will serve as the culmination of a turnover-filled offseason that saw Buffalo part ways with stalwart starters like Stefon Diggs, Micah Hyde, Jordan Poyer, Tre’Davious White, Mitch Morse, and Gabriel Davis. The Bills made a concerted effort to get younger throughout the locker room and free up future financial flexibility this spring, moves that, on paper, leave the team less robust than it has been in past years.
Training camp will serve as the Buffalo faithful’s first opportunity to watch the retooled team with their own eyes. With that, here are seven storylines you should keep an eye on as the Bills commence their summer practices:
The aforementioned departures of Diggs and Davis leave the Bills with a new-look receiving corps that lacks its two leading contributors from a season ago. The pass-catchers combined for 152 receptions, 1,929 yards, and 15 touchdowns in 2023, leading the way in a Buffalo aerial attack that ranked as the league’s 10th most productive.
Buffalo supplemented their departures with free agent signee Curtis Samuel—who reunites with offensive coordinator Joe Brady after a breakout 2020 season with the play-caller in Carolina—and rookie Keon Coleman, a big-bodied pass-catcher who immediately projects as the team’s X receiver. The Bills also plan to replace the departed production internally, with 2023 first-round pick Dalton Kincaid and third-year contributor Khalil Shakir projected to ascend into more prominent roles in the passing game.
How each individual player is deployed in a Brady scheme—and how often quarterback Josh Allen looks their way—will be storylines to track throughout camp. It will be particularly interesting to watch if this is something that shifts throughout late July and August—does a player carve out a greater role as he earns Allen’s trust? Will the signal-caller develop a preferred target, or will the team truly take an egalitarian approach to aerial production?
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How does the bottom of the WR depth chart shake out?
Perhaps just as interesting as Buffalo’s marquee pass-catchers is the situation unfolding at the bottom of its depth chart at wide receiver. The Bills added a lot of bodies to the receiving room amid their offseason changes, and though Coleman, Samuel, Shakir, Mack Hollins, and (likely) Marquez Valdes-Scantling are roster locks, there’s a spot or two to be earned at the bottom of the unit.
There’s a bevy of players currently competing for these spots, among them Chase Claypool, a former second-round pick who has struggled in recent seasons but reportedly flashed at the team’s OTAs and minicamp. K.J. Hamler—who was selected three picks ahead of Claypool in the 2020 NFL Draft—is too fighting to elongate his professional career after an injury-riddled stint in Denver. Justin Shorter, Tyrell Shavers, and Bryan Thompson are interesting second-year players who could make some noise with a solid camp.
Who emerges from the crowd and secures the remaining roster spots at receiver will be a story to watch throughout the entirety of camp. Will Claypool continue his strong offseason and earn not only a spot, but an offensive role? Will Shorter, a former five-star recruit, overcome his spring struggles to earn a place on the roster? Can Thompson build on his strong spring to make an unexpected run at the 53-man unit? These are all possibilities that could become reality in Rochester next month.
Buffalo (prior to the 2024 offseason) has maintained recent continuity across much of its roster, with the offensive line largely being no exception to this. It’s been anchored by center Mitch Morse since the former Kansas City Chief inked a deal with the Bills in the 2019 offseason; the stalwart started 77 games throughout his five seasons in Buffalo, earning a Pro Bowl nod in 2022 as he led a line that protected one of the best quarterbacks in football.
The Bills moved on from Morse, now 32, in the spring, their succession plan manifesting in the form of a player already on their roster. Connor McGovern, who started 17 games for the team at left guard last season, is sliding over to center for the 2024 campaign, a role he recently told reporters is his “natural position.” The 26-year-old—who has significant collegiate and professional experience at center under his belt—worked on perfecting his exchange with Allen throughout the offseason, an element that will be crucial as the quarterback transitions to his first new center since his sophom*ore campaign.
There are no immediate reasons to be concerned about McGovern’s transition, but it’s a storyline worth watching. It will also be interesting to see if former Georiga center Sedrick Van Pran-Granger, whom the Bills selected in the fifth round of the 2024 NFL Draft, pushes McGovern for the starting spot or if he'll function solely in a depth role immediately.
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Does Von Miller look like Von Miller?
Buffalo’s decision to ink star pass-rusher Von Miller to a six-year, $120 million contract in the 2022 NFL offseason was not inherently flawed at the time, but it’s one that hasn’t aged particularly well. The NFL’s active-all-time sack leader came as advertised to start his tenure in Western New York, notching eight sacks through his first 10 games before tearing his ACL in a Week 11 contest with the Detroit Lions. He would return in Week 5 of the 2023 season as a shell of his former self, tallying just three total tackles and zero sacks in what was objectively the worst season of his historic career.
He took a significant pay cut to remain with the Bills in the 2024 season, where he projects as a 35-year-old rotational pass-rusher who, while likely a roster lock, could see himself further supplanted on the depth chart if players like Dawuane Smoot, Casey Toohill, or rookie Javon Solomon have particularly strong camps. Whether Miller looks more like the player of old now more than a year removed from his ACL tear will be a story worth tracking throughout camp; new Buffalo defensive coordinator Bobby Babich has some faith in the pass-rusher, telling reporters at minicamp that there “were flashes of some Von Miller [of old]” at the end of the 2023 season.
Former All-Pro linebacker Matt Milano missed the vast majority of the 2023 campaign after fracturing his tibia in a Week 5 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. The defender, who is one of the best in the league at his position when healthy, was said to be “on schedule” in his recovery at OTAs, and he even participated in individual drills at the team’s mandatory minicamp in mid-June.
Milano’s availability at the start of and throughout camp will be something to monitor. If he’s available from day one (which appears the likely scenario at this juncture), he’ll be able to log valuable snaps alongside Terrel Bernard, Buffalo’s breakout middle linebacker who shined last season but, again, was only able to play parts of five games next to his All-Pro teammate.
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Is there enough cornerback depth?
Buffalo’s brass seems comfortable with its depth at cornerback despite the unit, on paper, looking quite shallow. It’s led by third-year defender Christian Benford and 2023 trade deadline acquisition Rasul Douglas, who both shined down the stretch of the 2023 campaign. Buffalo’s depth chart on the boundary is rounded out by Kaiir Elam, Ja’Marcus Ingram, Kyron Brown, and undrafted free agents Keni-H Lovely and Te’Cory Couch—if you hear a faint ringing, it may be an alarm going off in your head, as this unit isn’t the most inspiring.
Elam is the most promising player of the bunch, though he hasn’t been able to consistently translate this promise to the field as a professional. He’s been limited to just 16 regular season games since the Bills traded up to select him with the 23rd overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, showing flashes of brilliance but largely struggling to earn the consistent trust of Buffalo’s coaching staff given his aggression and penchant for taking untimely penalties. Ingram is a former University at Buffalo player who has been in the system for several seasons but hasn’t necessarily impressed in live-game action. Brown is a 28-year-old journeyman who has appeared in just four regular season games throughout his career while Lovely and Couch are intriguing prospects, but roster longshots (Couch may not even factor into the conversation, as the vast majority of his recent collegiate experience has some in the slot).
If Elam can build on his strong minicamp, Buffalo may be confident entering the regular season with the third-year defender as its next man up at cornerback. If Elam and those below him on the depth chart struggle, the Bills could be forced to bring a depth option in from outside the organization.
Tyler Bass has been one of the best kickers in the NFL in recent years, but he’s coming off what was objectively his worst season as a professional, making just 82.8% of his kicks. He also made just 40% of his field goals in the postseason, a concerning trend that’s seemingly continued into minicamp, missing several routine kicks throughout.
An ugly session for Tyler Bass at #Bills Wednesday minicamp, as he missed his first 3 kicks from 45, 35, 35. Then made from 50, missed from 45 and made from 50. Later on, he went 1-for-2 on kicks from 50. Bass finished with a disappointing 83% field goal percentage last season
— alex brasky (@alexbrasky) June 12, 2024
Buffalo isn’t in the financial position to release Bass—it would lose money by doing so—so this is more of a “situation to monitor” than a storyline. It will be interesting to see if the Bills consider signing a kicker off the street if his struggles persist in Rochester.
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