Buffalo Bills: Rookie Report after Week 4 against Raiders

The Buffalo Bills continue to get key contributions from their rookies this season that has helped them remain undefeated.

The Buffalo Bills traveled to Las Vegas for the first time in franchise history and were able to come away with a win. While it was the veterans that led the way, the rookies on the team helped this team come away with a 30-23 victory over the Raiders.

The Bills had four rookies active for this game while Zack Moss missed his second straight game due to a toe injury. In addition to Moss, the Bills had a few other rookies not part of the active roster like Jake Fromm, Isaiah Hodgins (who is on injured reserve) and Dane Jackson (practice squad).

This is a recap of how the rookies looked in Week 4 against the Las Vegas Raiders.

Reggie Gilliam

Reggie Gilliam continues to play a small role on this offense as he was on the field for only three offensive snaps. However, considering he is listed as a tight end but is more of a fullback/h-back this is not surprising as this position is not utilized frequently in this offense.

One positive and this is where Gilliam likely can have the most impact this season, is he saw his snaps increase on special teams. He played a career-high 15 snaps and was on the field for 58% of the special teams’ snaps. This is a trend that will likely continue.

Gabriel Davis

For the second straight week, Gabriel Davis played over 50% of the offensive snaps and while he didn’t get the same number of targets he did in the game against the Rams, he made the most of what he got.

He finished with one target, which he ended up catching for 26 yards and a touchdown. The reason Davis may be seeing an increase in snaps is due to injuries to players further up the depth chart. In Week 3 against the Rams, it was John Brown and this past week against the Raiders it was Cole Beasley.

The playing time may be sporadic for Davis this year but when he is on the field he produces and this has to give the coaching staff that he can be a key part of this offense in the coming years.

A.J. Epenesa

This was a rather quiet week for the Buffalo Bills second round pick as he finished with no stats and played only 20% of the defensive snaps. This is a bit concerning considering A.J. Epenesa was seeing his snap total actually increase from Week 2 to Week 3.

Epenesa entered this season with high expectations but if the coaching staff continues to lean heavily on a rotation of Jerry Hughes, Mario Addison, and Trent Murphy, the impact Epenesa can have will be limited.

Tyler Bass

After two weeks of being perfect, Tyler Bass once again missed a field goal attempt however this time it was of the extra point variety. He would finish Week 4 making three of four extra point attempts and the one field goal attempt he had.

The timing of the missed extra point was not ideal as if he made it the Buffalo Bills would have pushed their lead to eight at the start of the fourth quarter instead of just being ahead seven points.

This is not enough to cause too much alarm but as the season goes on hopefully Bass is able to correct some of these misses.