The Bills’ quest to reach Super Bowl LX begins in earnest.
Josh Allen will probably play pretty well at Buffalo Bills 2025 training camp. Now that the hot takes are out of the way, get prepared for a metric ton of information to descend upon you as the Buffalo Bills open training camp in the lead up to the 2025 NFL regular season.
Daily camp observation articles rival mock drafts as the most-clicked pieces of content produced by NFL media in large part because we as fans very much want to drink from a fire hose after months of slow drips of our football fix. But knowing that our attention is not all-encompassing, what items are the most important to pay attention to during camp? Which ones actually move the needle for the team’s direction and which ones are just fun camp stories (turkey burgers) or anecdotes?
Here are a few of the items I am personally keeping my eye on as the Bills go through summer training camp…
Tie goes to the cheaper guy
Mitchell Trubisky and Mike White are the candidates to be QB2 behind reigning NFL MVP Josh Allen in 2025. Their competition isn’t weighted equally though; the Bills can save $2.5 million on the 2025 cap by releasing Trubisky while incurring $750,000 in dead cap. Mike White is the cheaper option, which means Trubisky may have to outplay him by a good margin to be able to maintain another season as the Bills backup quarterback.
Line change on the DL
The Bills have welcomed new additions in waves on the defensive line — and that trend could continue all the way through Week 7 of the regular season. They already got one addition when rookie third-round pick Landon Jackson was removed from the Physically Unable to Perform list after a brief stint.
Fellow rookie Deone Walker is a defensive tackle the Bills could ease into camp as he recovers from a back injury. Joey Bosa, a free-agent signing, appears to be a full participant from the outset of camp. And then you have defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi and hybrid edge defender Michael Hoecht, both of whom are going to miss the first six games of the regular season with suspensions.
So the Bills get multiple shift changes on the defensive line by players coming back from injury, leaving on suspension, and then coming back again. There’s a chance that we see the team’s preferred depth chart on the defensive line late in camp, and then not again until after Week 7 of the regular season. Seeing what that looks like in the distant future compared to what it looks like in the not-so-distant future can help us take stock into what may have changed in the interim.
Does the return of Larry Ogunjobi post-Week 6 take a chunk out of the snaps for T.J. Sanders? The Bills aren’t likely to keep 11 defensive linemen at full capacity; who’s in danger of getting released (or traded, given the return of Hoecht and Ogunjobi happens prior to the trade deadline on November 4)?
In order for anything to surprise or not surprise in late October, there needs to be a standard set in training camp.
Where does Keon Coleman fit into the receiving corps?
The Bills made two name additions to the wide receiver group this offseason: Joshua Palmer early in free agency and Elijah Moore immediately post-draft. Both carry potential to have impact for the Bills this season, though it’s reasonable to expect Palmer to walk in as a starting outside receiver for a team that had an abundance of “better from the slot”-type players in 2024.
With Palmer profiling as that outside receiver in 11 and 12 personnel sets, and Khalil Shakir being a mostly-slot player, who becomes the third receiver target? Curtis Samuel was the forgotten man last year after struggling with turf toe.
Keon Coleman is assumed to fill that second outside spot, but with Dalton Kincaid hoping for a bounce back third season, does that put the former second round pick as the fourth option in the passing game? James Cook will get some catches and veteran Moore is playing with his best quarterback ever while representing the type of separation skill set that Allen has historically gelled well with.
So when and with whom is Keon Coleman playing this summer? Is he the second receiver in 12 personnel sets more often than not or does that role fall to Shakir? Is he splitting time on the outside with Moore (not exclusively a slot player at all)? Eyes are firmly on the talented Florida State product as he heads into his second season.
What kind of rookie is Maxwell Hairston?
Not all rookies are created equal in the eyes of the Bills. Some, like former first rounders Tre’Davious White and Tremaine Edmunds, walk off the bus and onto the field the first snap in training camp as starting players. Others, like former Bill and current Dallas Cowboys cornerback Kaiir Elam, find themselves in timeshares and competitions right out of the gate.
Which one is Maxwell Hairston? When and with whom he plays on the first few days of training camp may give us insight into the way the coaches see his progression. So far, the staff’s insights have largely panned out: Edmunds and White became long-term starters for the team and Elam was traded away after his third season. What they think of Hairston early, while not a lock, may give us our first data point on how his time with the team might play out.
…and that’s the way the cookie crumbles. I’m Bruce Nolan with Buffalo Rumblings. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @BruceExclusive and look for new episodes of “The Bruce Exclusive” every Thursday on the Rumblings Cast Network — see more in my LinkTree!