Buffalo Bills 53-Man Roster Prediction 1.0

Training camp is officially underway! The Buffalo Bills just wrapped up their first official week of practice, and fans and media alike got a good look at how this team stacks up against previous years. Let’s take a look at the first version of the Bills’ 53-man roster prediction.

This one is pretty obvious, the Bills provide no competition for Trubisky.

The Bills will likely keep four backs this year with one less receiver. Evans is on the team only as a kick returner, and Gore Jr. is placed on the practice squad for the year.

Of course.

Unless they introduce more competition, those five will be the ones to keep. If they feel like six receivers are a must-have at the end of the preseason, Chase Claypool will likely earn that spot.

It’s clear and obvious, barring injury, there will be no surprises. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the two McKitty/Davidson were integrated into the practice squad.

I really like the depth of the offensive attack in Buffalo this year. Another year with Van Demark, and the addition of a veteran presence like La’el Collins is great.

The versatility of La’el Collins, who can play both inside and tackle, gives the Bills more room to keep an extra player elsewhere. Not to mention Pran-Granger’s ability to move to guard if the opportunity presents itself.

No surprise here, we’ve heard throughout the offseason how McGovern will be the starting center with Pran-Granger waiting in the wings.

Coach McDermott’s fondness for rotating his edge rushers means they’ll keep five on the roster. New addition Dawuane Smoot, who played edge and defensive tackle with the starters this week, means he’s likely guaranteed to be on the active roster.

The Bills can play with a lot of variations on their defensive line. As mentioned earlier, Smoot can play inside and outside, as well as Rousseau if needed. Buffalo has a lot of depth on the defensive line, and I think that’s one of the positions where they play depth.

The addition of Nicholas Morrow and rookie Edefuan Ulofoshio means Baylon Spector loses his roster spot. They added Deion Jones in the spring to cover Matt Milano, but it appears he won’t be needed since Milano has been practicing in team drills this summer.

The Bills have a good spot at cornerback, but especially at nickel cornerback. Taron Johnson isn’t going anywhere, and Cam Lewis’ versatility at both corner and safety means he’ll likely stick around. However, they’ve also had rookie Daequan Hardy as a returner for most of training camp. If he excels at that position, it’ll be hard not to keep him.

The Bills have completely overhauled their safety room. The only two returning players are Taylor Rapp and Damar Hamlin. However, Hamlin may not stay on the field. The additions of Bishop, Edwards and Delaney (who can play anywhere on defense) mean Hamlin’s best chance with the Bills is probably the practice squad.

It’s pretty obvious the Bills don’t have another kicker to compete with Bass.

Buffalo added another kicker from San Diego State in Jack Browning. However, until we see him on the field, it’s hard to say for sure if he’ll make the roster. With the special teams unit headed to another field, fans and media alike won’t get a good look at this battle of kickers.

The most that could happen to Ferguson is a position reduction. We could see him as a “reduction” on the transaction log, but he will be the team’s most valuable player for the foreseeable future.