Buffalo Bills: Grading their preseason performance in 2021

Coaching

Final Grade: A

The Buffalo Bills have one of the best coaching staffs in the league and the return of Brian Daboll as offensive coordinator is a huge boost. In the first preseason game, Daboll seemed to call a very basic game by leaning on the run but in the final two games with Trubisky and Allen on the field, fans got a chance to see that great passing attack that they watched last season.

On the defensive side of the ball, Leslie Frazier returns as defensive coordinator and will work in tandem with Sean McDermott in formulating a game plan. This group looks like they are going to be returning to being a Top 5 group this season.

The biggest potential misstep was electing to play a majority of their starters in the final preseason game. In my opinion, the risk was too great to suffer an injury to a key player, like Josh Allen, and with a majority of the starters and coaching staff spending multiple years with the team, it didn’t seem like much was to be gained.

Fortunately, there weren’t any significant injuries and because of that, it doesn’t impact the grade here too much.

However, one thing the coaching staff did that helped their grade came in the final preseason game against the Green Bay Packers. The Bills didn’t tell Mitchell Trubisky when he would be coming into the game to try and simulate a situation during the regular season if Josh Allen was to suffer an injury.

The preseason is the perfect time to work through these things and it is surprising that teams don’t do this more often. This was a great move by the Buffalo Bills coaching staff and why they received the grade they did.