Buffalo Bills: 3 former players playing in Super Bowl LV

The Buffalo Bills came within one game of the Super Bowl this season and it wouldn’t be surprising if some fans want to skip watching the game entirely. However, for those that do want to watch and are looking for a reason to root for one team or the other, they could pick based on former Buffalo Bills playing this weekend.

These are three players that Bills’ fans could see on the field in Super Bowl LV.

Sammy Watkins

The Kansas City Chiefs have one player who used to play for the Bills and that is wide receiver Sammy Watkins. The Bills drafted Watkins with the fourth overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft after trading up to that spot with the Cleveland Browns.

Watkins had a promising start to his career with over 2,000 receiving yards and 15 receiving touchdowns over his first two seasons. However, his third season started with him on injured reserve and he played only eight games.

In 2017, the Bills were going through an organizational change with Sean McDermott and Brandon Beane. The leadership elected to trade Watkins instead of trying to reach a new deal and the former first round pick was sent to the Los Angeles Rams.

He has spent the past three seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs but hasn’t reached the level of performance he did his first two seasons with the Bills. This will actually be Watkins’ second Super Bowl and had a good game last year with five receptions for 98 receiving yards.

There was some question about whether Watkins would be able to play after dealing with a calf injury recently. However, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network is reporting he is heading in the right direction to be available Sunday.

If he is active, he is the one player likely to see the most in this game between the Chiefs and Bucs.

LeSean McCoy

This will also be the second straight Super Bowl for running back LeSean McCoy. Last season, McCoy was part of the Kansas City Chiefs but this season will be on the other sideline as a member of the Tampa Bay Bucs.

However, McCoy is likely to not see much playing time if the past few weeks are any indication. This season he hasn’t seen much work with only 10 rushing attempts and 15 receptions on the season. During these playoffs, McCoy has only played one snap for the Bucs.

This is certainly a big difference from his time with the Buffalo Bills. He joined the Bills prior to the 2016 season in a rare player for player trade that saw Kiko Alonso going to the Eagles and McCoy heading to the Bills.

In the four seasons with the Bills, McCoy had over 150 carries every year with 3,814 rushing yards and 25 rushing touchdowns. He was the focal point for an offense that relied heavily on the run due in large part to below-average production from the quarterback.

Ross Cockrell

The last former Buffalo Bills player is cornerback Ross Cockrell. He was a fourth round pick by the Bills in 2014 and spent only one season with the team. He was released prior to the 2015 season and had stops with the Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Giants and Carolina Panthers before joining the Bucs.

Cockrell started the year on the practice squad for the Bucs and was promoted to the active roster in mid-October. He would finish the regular season playing in 12 games and had 11 total tackles and one pass defended.

Cockrell hasn’t played much in the playoffs with only six defensive snaps against the Washington Football team but no defensive snaps since then. However, was a key part of their special teams unit in the NFC Championship Game and played 54% of the special teams snaps against the Green Bay Packers.