Undrafted free agent Reggie Gilliam has made an early impression on the Buffalo Bills and could challenge Patrick DiMarco this year.
This year due to the pandemic the Buffalo Bills have lost a lot of opportunities to evaluate their younger guys, especially undrafted free agents, with no OTAs and no preseason games this year. However, one undrafted free agent has been impressive and is pushing a veteran for the starting job.
Over the weekend, Heath Farwell met with the media and was asked about Reggie Gilliam, who the Bills signed this offseason. Gilliam played both tight end and fullback at the University of Toledo but in the NFL his primary focus will be as fullback. The Bills have an established veteran in Patrick DiMarco at the position and it seemed like if the team was going to keep a fullback on the roster, that it would be DiMarco.
However, Farwell was asked about Reggie Gilliam and said he has been very impressed by what he has done to this point. Farwell discussed how well Gilliam has done in all phases of the kicking game, both in punt protection and kickoff returns.
He went on to say that he is in a “great battle” with Patrick DiMarco.
This is certainly newsworthy coming from the special teams coordinator because the fullback position is not utilized much in the offense. The player that wins this job will likely win it on special teams. The past two seasons, DiMarco has played only 16% of the offensive snaps but played 53% of the special teams snaps in 2018 and 37% last year.
As for Gilliam, he made his presence known at the collegiate level with his special teams play. He set the single-season record as a junior at Toledo with four blocked kicks.
While Patrick DiMarco may still have the edge, this is one training camp battle that may not be so easily written off at this point.