3 things to know about the Buffalo Bills ahead of Week 1 vs. Cardinals

The Arizona Cardinals will play their first game of the 2024 season against the Buffalo Bills at Highmark Stadium on Sunday.

Katherine Fitzgerald, the Bills beat reporter for the Buffalo News, gave us three things to know about the Bills when she joined Bickley & Marotta on Thursday.

“This fan base is so hungry for a Super Bowl,” Fitzgerald said on what the Bills Mafia expects of head coach Sean McDermott this year. 

In the meantime, the Cardinals will head to Buffalo to kick off their Week 1 season opener.

No more Stefon Diggs, Gabe Davis for the Bills

With wide receivers Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis no longer on the Bills roster, the team must work with a new group of WRs. 

“There’s only one wide receiver (Khalil Shakir) on this roster who has caught a pass in a game from Josh Allen,” Fitzgerald said on concerns for the team. 

In August, the Bills had 15 players dealing with injuries, including offensive players like WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling (neck) and backup QB Mitch Trubisky (knee). Brandon Beane, the Bills’ general manager, wished the team had more time to practice together during the offseason.

However, it’s not all bad for the Bills offense. Rookie WR Keon Coleman, who was selected 33rd overall by Buffalo in the 2024 NFL Draft, is anticipated to replace Diggs. The Florida State alum caught 50 passes for 658 yards and 11 touchdowns last year during his final college season.

Defensive concerns for the Bills

For the first time in eight years, the Bills are without Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer, the team’s top safety duo. Instead, Buffalo will rely on Taylor Rapp and Damar Hamlin, the starting safeties for Sunday’s game.

Hamlin will start his first game since suffering cardiac arrest during the Bills’ matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals on Jan. 2, 2023. During the 2022 season, Hamlin was a starter for the team, replacing Hyde, who was out with a neck injury. Last season, Hamlin had a backup and special teams role on the Bills roster and appeared in five games.

Rapp and Hamlin had limited time to practice together due to Hamlin’s hamstring injury, which he struggled with during the offseason.

Josh Allen’s offense

Don’t expect too many changes to the Bills’ offensive style of play this year, as Fitzgerald noted you’d “lose some of the magnificent plays [Allen’s] able to do” if the Bills were to make changes to their offensive strategy. 

Instead, Fitzgerald is most interested in how Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady will perform during his first full season as the team’s OC. Brady was named Buffalo’s interim OC in November 2023 before being promoted to full-time in January 2024. 

Sal Maiorana, a reporter for the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, explained how Brady worked to assemble the offense during the Bills training camp in July.

When Brady took over in mid-November, he was essentially married to Dorsey’s offense and was only able to tweak a few things here and there. Now, with an entire offseason under his belt, Brady is crafting his own scheme – with major input from Allen regarding what he thinks will and won’t work – and it is being implemented during training camp at St. John Fisher University.

According to Brady, “everybody eats” on his offense. The OC has been working to get each player involved in different ways on the field, like wideout Curtis Samuel, who Brady cites as an adaptable player able to take on various roles.

In 2020, when Samuel played for the Carolina Panthers, Brady was the team’s OC. That season, under Brady’s guidance, Samuel had 77 receptions, 851 receiving yards, 41 carries and 200 rushing yards— a career-best for the 29- year-old.