Rochester, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - We’re finally here.
Football season officially starts Wednesday when Buffalo Bills players hit the practice field for training camp at St. John Fisher University in Rochester.
For the first time in several years, the Bills have quite a different looking roster at several positions, and with that comes plenty of questions.
Here are six of the bigger questions that need to be answered:
1.) Do they have enough at wide receiver?
Gone are Stefon Diggs and Gabriel Davis, taking 241 targets with them. Diggs was traded to the Houston Texans this offseason, while Davis signed as a free agent with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Bills selected Keon Coleman with their first pick of the 2024 NFL Draft, while also signing Curtis Samuel, Marquez Valdez-Scandling and Chase Claypool in free agency.
Only one wideout on the club has ever caught a pass from Josh Allen in a regular season game: Khalil Shakir.
While the Bills certainly have an elite signal-caller in Allen, the weapons he’s throwing to have their biggest question marks since his rookie season in 2018.
2.) What does Joe Brady’s offense look like?
On top of the question about the wide receivers group, it’s also how Brady will deploy them.
Brady was named the full-time offensive coordinator after getting the interim job the last eight weeks of the 2023 season. At that point, it’s difficult to implement your own system, and Brady was still working with what Ken Dorsey had installed.
While he, no doubt, integrated some of his own thoughts and ideas, Brady’s now had a full offseason to figure out what he wants to do, and who he wants to do it with.
We’re all going to find out what that looks like very soon.
3.) What can Von Miller give?
Last year, essentially, amounted to a lost season for Miller.
After tearing his ACL the previous Thanksgiving and missing the remainder of the 2022 season, he returned in Week 5 last year, but was nowhere near his dominant self. In fact, Miller finished last season with only three total tackles and no sacks at all, playing in a total of 12 games.
Miller was even a healthy scratch in the team’s Week 17 win over the New England Patriots.
When this year‘s regular season begins, it will be over 21 months since Miller’s injury. But he’s also now 35-years-old.
If he can get back to any semblance of what he was prior to the injury, it would be an incredible boost to the Bills' pass rush.
But if 2024 looks anything like 2023, the Bills will still be searching for much more at the position.
4.) Can Elam finally step into a regular role?
Cornerback Kaiir Elam, drafted in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft, has struggled to see the field through his first two years in the league. He’s played in only 16 games, starting just eight of them.
Elam has made some big plays when he’s had the opportunity, including interceptions in each of the last two postseasons. But time is running out to show he can be a regular and reliable boundary corner.
Elam had a strong spring at OTAs and minicamp. Now it’s time to see if that carries over into training camp, and even the regular season. If it can, it would be massive for the Bills' secondary.
If not, an already thin cornerback depth chart will get even thinner.
5.) What will life be like after Poyer and Hyde?
For the first time since 2016, the Bills are entering a training camp without safeties Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde.
Poyer and Hyde have been a staple of head coach Sean McDermott’s defense since each signed as free agents over seven years ago. Poyer was released and has since signed with Miami Dolphins. Hyde has yet to officially decide on his future, leaving the door open for a possible return at some point.
Taylor Rapp and Mike Edwards will take over as the new veterans on the back-end, with second-round pick Cole Bishop fighting for a starting spot.
It’s all going to look a lot different.
6.) What will the new kickoff and kick returns look like?
Every NFL team is grappling with this question heading into training camp.
If you haven’t paid much attention this offseason and you just start watching games again this preseason, you’re in for a major shock when you see the new kickoff rules and what that play looks like.
With it will come a lot of interesting decisions not only with strategy, but even roster composition. Every team will have their own ideas.
There will be more focus on watching kickoffs and kick returns from media and fans this training camp than ever before.
