Buffalo Bills training camp rolls on and their preseason schedule is officially underway after a 33-6 loss to the Chicago Bears. Wins and losses in the preseason don’t matter in Buffalo, as the team is more focused on January than August. Still, this period of the 2024 season is crucial for the team as the Bills coaching staff tries to find a starter at each position, and the first-stringers are starting to emerge.
However, despite the Bills looking to solidify their roster heading into Week 1 against the Arizona Cardinals, most of the training camp battles ahead of the 2024 season are on the back end of the depth chart. There are precious few Bills first-stringers in danger of losing their jobs before September comes unless an injury hits.
That said, there are two veterans now penciled in as starters who could find themselves on the bench after the opening kickoff in Week 1. And what’s interesting about these positional battles is that one isn’t in direct competition with a player who could ultimately cost him his job and the other is up against two or maybe even more players gunning for his starting spot.
OG David Edwards
David Edwards is a good guard. Nothing less, nothing more. He’s played in 70 NFL games in the last five seasons and started 45, a little more than half. He’s good enough to win a Super Bowl win under the right conditions. He proved that by starting on the Los Angeles Rams Lombardi Trophy-winning squad in 2021. Edwards will never make a Pro Bowl or an All-Pro team, though.
Edwards is solid and versatile, as he can play both guard spots, and is currently the starting left guard for the Bills. That said, he is not the second-best guard on the team. That honor goes to Connor McGovern, who is the starting center for the Bills right now.
That could all change based on how the battle between McGovern and fifth-round pick out of Georgia, Sedrick Van Pran-Granger shakes out.
The rookie may have slipped to Round 5, but don’t let that fool you. He was a three-year starter for the Georgia Bulldogs and won two national championships as the center of a rock-solid offensive line. And what’s even more impressive is that he spent three seasons going against first-round picks like Jordan Davis, Jalen Carter, Devonte Wyatt, and others.
Van Pran-Granger is as smart as he is strong and technically solid. He will be the Bills’ first-string center of the future. The only question is, how far away is that future?
An NFL center has a lot of responsibility, and it is hard to put it all on a rookie. But if anyone should be able to pick it up quickly, it’s the former Bulldog. And if Van Pran-Granger does with the job, that won’t put Connor McGovern on the bench. He started all 17 games at guard for the Bills last season, so Edwards is the one who would take a seat if the rookie becomes the team’s first-stringer at center.
WR Curtis Samuel
This position battle in Bills training camp has a lot more moving parts, as the team’s wide receiver group is anything but solidified. The team had 14 wideouts in Rochester and when the front office put Chase Claypool on IR with a toe injury they also signed two more WRs to bring the total to 15.
After the Bills’ first preseason game against the Bears, it seems clear that Curtis Samuel, Khalil Shakir, and rookie second-round pick Keon Coleman are the starting WRs. Coleman is the great young WR1 hope and Shakir established himself at the end of last season as a starting-caliber slot player. That leaves Samuel as the bubble starter.
That’s not necessarily a knock on Samuel. He is a player who Buffalo general manager Brandon Beane had a hand in drafting when he was with the Carolina Panthers. The NFC South squad took Samuel in the second round of the 2017 NFL Draft out of Ohio State, and it seems like Beane has kept tabs on him ever since.
Over the last seven seasons, Curtis has been a borderline starter, starting 50 of 91 games in his career. If he ends up the Bills starter with Shakir and Coleman, that will be OK for Buffalo. However, the team also has Mack Hollins, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, and Tyrell Shavers on the roster, among others, who are competing for that spot.
That last name is intriguing because Shavers is just 24 and the 2023 undrafted rookie out of San Diego State (and Mississippi State and Alabama before that) is drawing rave reviews out of Bills training camp. At 6-foot-4, 211 pounds, Shavers would be an ideal third starter with Shakir and Coleman and give Josh Allen a diverse wide receiver corps that every team wants.
If Shaver can take the first team job, that would be ideal for the Bills not just because of his youth and potential, but because of Samuel's skill set as well. The versatile WR can play any spot on the offense, including in tight end-type spots and in the backfield. He would be an ideal WR4 who could spell any receiver or replace anyone on the offense outside of the QB and the line.
And with all this, the good news for Samuel is that even if he doesn't become the “starter” by name, he probably wouldn't lose much playing time at all. A WR who can do what he can do will be on the field regardless, so this positional battle could be a win-win if Shaver can become a first-stringer.
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